Chatting with Rank 1 Rogues: Reklez
Reklez is a 18 years old player from Poland, who plays in the EU on Gehennas. He achieved his Infernal Gladiator (Season 1 rank 1) playing BM Hunter + Rogue setup, an uncommon setup that requires a fast execution and as few mistakes as possible. Reklez is a good friend of mine because we frequented the same community for years, and we had a convo on the last day of the season. I thought this would turn into a nice and new interview series dedicated to R1 players, so here’s the first one.
Sbkzor: What’s up bro, how was the end of this season ?
Reklez: Well, we got it, finally! The goal was 2886 for the R1 title and we ended up with 2908 rating!
That was a super stressful day for me 😅
As BM hunter rogue, rank1 is something special for me. After 2 sessions, Damil and I were depressed, saying “we can’t push r1 with this comp, it’s impossible”… but we are both tryhards, we did so much theorycrafting and we never gave up 😇
Sbkzor: Yeah season 1 is definitely the best season for BMR (with Season 4 I think, due to armor pen). I was preparing it with my good friend Chs because I was sure it was a gladiator title guaranteed. But I didn’t expect the meta to become what it is currently (belt, skull, detection items, etc.) and I came to a point where I was not sure I would even make it as glad as BMR if I was active, haha.
What are the biggest difference between the BMR comp on private servers and BC Classic?
Reklez: Well, there are multiple things actually:
One of the most impactful (compared to a private server environment) is for sure Sap sharing a diminshing return with Freeze Trap.
Also, Flare works in a very different way. It allows some crazy openings as rogue by entering in the Flare without using step/Sprint and being able to Sap or open an enemy. And if you go out of the Flare, it is still there for a few seconds but you can cloak it out and then Vanish safely.
Sbkzor: Oh yeah that one is actually one of the most impactful aspects that lead me not to regret being inactive, since day 1 of Beta I kept complaining about the mechanics of Flare. Anything else?
Reklez: Also, there are small details like the pet stun not being applied directly on demand against Priest Mage teams for example. It requires a bit of time.
Sbkzor: Do you need to break all the shields to allow the stun to happen?
Reklez: Yes, something like this.
And the last thing is that RNG decides most games. Blind miss, Aimed shot miss, it quickly turns into a loss.
Sbkzor: Have you met some good rogue players that we didn’t have on private servers?
Reklez: Yeah, I definitely noticed two or three rogues, or so:
Inériz and Traxe for example.
I forgot other names, but there are many good players.
I never saw them before (on private servers) and they were actually good and fast.
Sbkzor: What was the hardest thing to adapt to as a BM rogue during that season?
Reklez: Well, I have streamed a lot on the road to 2800, and I kept facing specific players to a point where I thought they were possibly just stream sniping, but who knows.
Otherwise, it was the abundance of alliance RM, and a load of rng misses and resists.
As BMR, you can’t really reset fights as a good RM would.
Sbkzor: Yes, once a hunter is dotted, he has kind of a timer set on his life.
This.
Also, the engineering belt and skull-of-hand are both very impactful against us.
And last but not least, as a BMR player you are probably aware of this, but the more you face the same team, the harder.
Sbkzor: What was the toughest team you met during the season?
Reklez: With no doubts, I’d say Rivah’s Disc Mage (with Hydra), and Retti’s Ret RSham.
Sbkzor: Yeah, ret rsham is definitely tough as BMR. actually, you must push their cooldowns without using BM. At least that’s how we figured we had to play it with Chs against this team. Was it any different from your perspective?
Reklez: Yeah, we did the same thing. I always tried to push both trinkets fast, you know, with CS KS on ret and Blind on shaman.
For us, after trinket, I was sitting on shaman during Paladin’s bubble. And after bubble, full KS on shaman, and swap paladin with another Cheap Shot expose and kill. But it’s a big counter due to the crazy amount of resist on both alongside a bunch of defensive cooldowns.
Sbkzor: And at some point, you can even end in a situation where the hunter comes out of mana, right?
Reklez: Yeah, this too.
Sbkzor: And what about double rogue? I recall seeing two RRs on the first page of the ladder (checktbc).
Reklez: Yeah, we met both teams. It’s definitely counter if alliance team, but doable if horde.
Against alliance double rogue, it took us some energy and theorycraft to handle it, because I can’t trinket Sap, so Damil (my partner) had to kite around the pillar with a freezing trap to snare them both.
Sbkzor: So, what are your plans for season 2? Are you gonna keep playing BM/Rogue?
Reklez: Well, I would like to test a bit of Double Rogue Feral with Petraxs and Spottman in 3v3. I cannot promise this will happen, but that’d be cool!
Sbkzor: Well, I have played it myself, and I cannot discourage you from doing so, it’s one of my most memorable experiences in my TBC times.
Note that the first 3mn are muted due to a late copyright issue.
Sbkzor: And what about the 2v2?
Reklez: Well, of course, we will try BM Rogue in Season 2 because we have not explored this comp fully and reached its full potential. It’s really fun to play and we’re going to do our best to get as high as possible.
Sbkzor: Do you have a second rogue eventually, to play more comps? Do you plan any alt?
Reklez: I can’t promise but maybe I will try this comp on alliance side it feels more stable vs rogue teams and let you start with opener most of the time, it has also some weakness playing without the will of the forsaken. That makes it harder against comps that can use any of fear ability (especially disc. priests)
Sbkzor: For playing both on Endless TR we were more convinced about playing it as Alliance… But once people play around thelack of WotF, you really end up having bad times due to fear spam and such. So we enjoyed alternating between the horde and alliance team depending on our mood. As horde it’s a bit more straight forward i’d say because you don’t want to be sapped.
Reklez: I agree 100%. It mostly depends on the days and which teams are queuing, to be honest. if it has to end up on snipe by alliance rogue/mage I would instantly swap for alliance side I guess 😋
Sbkzor: Well, thanks Reklez for sharing this moment with us, it was very pleasing to talk with you, as usual. Also, congratulations for the R1. You totally deserve it.
Maybe we’ll have some hunter/rogue footage to share from your perspective in the near future?
Reklez: Yeah, I’ll send you a pack of clips so you can pick your favorite ones! Thanks for the talk!
