What drives a poor reputation for the Rogue class?

[Psyren]

Monk is probably my runner-up, but I put it ahead of rogue because 1) mercy and shadow are legit subclasses, and 2) monks actually scale, oddly enough. It takes them awhile but somewhere around level 7 or 8 monks actually get enough ki they can start to function. Rogue only gets worse as the levels advance.

Rogues scale better than Monks imo, particularly 11+ where monks usually plateau. And if we're comparing specific subclasses, well, I'll take an Arcane Trickster or Soulknife over a Shadow or Mercy any day - though I suppose your DM's willingness to let PWT be an on-demand Surprise Button can change the power math on that.

For me, whenever it comes time to make a character and select a class... I can't really ever get over the fact that their second subclass feature comes online at level nine. Other classes are 1 level away from their THIRD feature, as opposed to just getting their second feature. It's just way too late in the lifespan of a campaign (generally).

I definitely hate this too, and it's the thing I'm saddest about from standardadized subclass progression not making it through the playtest. (Well, that, and the fact that now we can't have universal subclasses as a result.

But if there was any consolation prize that would make me feel better about what happened - WM, CS, and level 1 feat would do the trick.