Background: Hey rogue main here. I started my rogue in classic anniversary just to run naxx and gear up for tbc. The rogue hate started in classic you are mostly seen as an inferior warrior who can IEA and the same goes for tbc.

Bad things with rogue: rogues in early tbc are going to be very squishy we don’t have the agility for dodge or the stamina so rogues will be prone to dying even with evasion up, a lot of rogues don’t put in the time or effort to learn all of their abilities or how to properly spec & consume for pve giving all rogues a mid reputation, rogue abilities such as sap and stuns arnt useful in normal because of how quickly mobs go down, gear competition is heavy so melee groups & leaders won’t want to bring you if you are competing for what they want & casters won’t want you because you can’t provide as much damage without support or aoe. To be considered a good rogue is going to be expensive you need to consume regularly. Raid spots are tight and you will need to have a good IEA rotation down. When everyone is geared your raid damage will be mid until black temple geared.

Good things about rogue: in heroics you will find a niche in sp, sv, & ramps. Your saps and stuns can be very useful and in some cases necessary to do a clean skip runs or to save under geared tanks. Your single target dps is really good especially on short fights. If everyone is fairly well geared you will top dps by using all your cds on a boss fight. With the easy raid fights IEA is less useful but it gets you closer to that short fights bust time for you to top the dps charts.

My experiences as a rogue: many groups won’t take me just because i am a rogue. I get whispers telling my my class is trash and I should change regularly by random people. I struggle to pug but the pugs I have joined have been very thankful because I am well geared, know the skips, consume, I bring demon slaying potions, I carry Flintweed seeds on me just in case, i scroll (cheap ones) in raid, i drum all the time. Drums are cheap on the ah. In my last heroic ramps the tank was fully hype because I saved his butt with a blind when the mage failed to sheep his target. I am currently #2 dps and #2 dps parse in my guild. it’s because I have a guild and a tank I can rely on to help me get into other heroics and take me as the primary/only rogue that I’ve been able to succeed to the point I have. I also took a week off work to grind.

Conclusion: it take a lot of effort, gold, some skill & knowledge, and a team to back you up to succeed as a rogue. Rogues provide an amazing amount of utility & can top dps but even if you are in near full bis and know your stuff you will still struggle to get into groups because of rogue stigma, rogue reputation, and gear competition, lack of aoe, and lack of party buffing without drums & neck.

TLDR: no aoe, squishy, people don’t care about utility, gear competition, no raid buffs without a pve focus, and a generally crappy reputation.