What's Your Poison?

Recently, a guildmate and old friend of mine who recently rolled up a rogue and is now quickly leveling asked me what poisons I prefer on my weapons. He mentioned that sometimes he uses wounding poison to reduce opponent healing. I responded:

Up till recently, I always used instant poison on one weapon and crippling on the other. Actually, I still use that for pve.

Pvp, I now use double crippling. I hate the last second healing saves, too, but moreso I hate it when my target slows ME down and I can't slow my target down because they resist my poison (or my poison doesn't proc quickly enough). In BG, any type, it's vital to slow them down, for your sake and the sake of your comrades. It can also give you another route of escape. (hit them till crip procs, then gouge, then run away!... when gouge ends, they're still crippled, and chances are, you'll be long gone and maybe even get an opportunity to re-stealth before they get to you).

My friend also mentioned deadly poison. What most rogues will tell you is that using deadly poison actually works against most rogues because it will interrupt certain stuns (like gouge). Sure, some rogues use gouge just for the split second break it affords (I've saved teammate lives by gouging, giving that one tick of a second so a heal can finish), but most use it 1v1 and either bandage, re-stealth, escape, or use that few seconds to our great advantage. Deadly poison is a d.o.t. (damage over time) and ruins that. About the best thing it can be used for is against other rogues, since it will interrupt stealth. However, in battlegrounds and most pvp situations, other factors tend to be more important, like slowing your opponent down.

When I'm escorting lower level guildmates through lower level instances, I usually double up on instant poison to max out my dps. Depending on the instance and the level difference, I might coat one weapon with crippling just to keep the runners in check.