Warlocks were vital in Molten Core for Banish. But this only guaranteed that a guild would bring 2-3. They would not bring extra warlocks even though the class had a purpose. Mages have a real purpose in groups/guilds. They make food and water, and in some instances they are able to polymorph. Again, this only guaranteed that you'd bring some mages. Not that every mage who wanted to join would be given a spot. One or two mages can supply an entire raid with water. The same is true for every class that has utility in pve. If warlocks had been as popular as rogues, and there had been thousands competing for spots in raids and 5 mans, they would not have done any better than rogues, regardless of banish, health stones, and soul stones. Every guild has had problems with recruitment. It is very difficult to fill 40 or even 25 spots. Rogues were easy to find, and provided solid dps. For this reason, every guild had rogues, regardless of their lack of unique utilities. But rogues have been vital to many encounters. BWL would be impossible without them.

I've heard it claimed that guilds were replacing their rogues with hunters. If we could have taken 30 hunters to Onyxia, we probably would have. Just as we would have taken 30 mages to Ragnaros. Or 30 rogues to Vael. But you don't have that option. There would be issues with people fighting over loot, not being able to find enough of desired classes, and difficulty finding players who are well geared, skilled, and dependable. Selecting recruits is so much more complicated than "oh he's a rogue, I'd rather have a 9th hunter, rejected".

World PvP: Rogues had many advantages. There is little question that these advantages put them ahead of other classes.
Battlegrounds: Battlegrounds and class reviews did not break rogues but brought balance. Rogues have never been underpowered in Battlegrounds.

Shortly before the expansion, Blizzard decided to implement level 70 talents and formulas. TBC gear was balanced differently than the items of the first two years. There was much more stamina. Melee weapons were far more powerful. Casters had more spell damage, but it was not as great an increase as for attack power and weapons. Instead caster formulas were reworked to take greater advantage of their spell damage. Spells over 3 seconds now received over 100% benefit. This meant dots and long cast spells were much more powerful. Melee primarily kept the same formulas and would have to wait for new gear to increase their dps, while casters had their dps increased immediately with the same items. This resulted in screams for caster nerfs. Had it not been a temporary problem of new formulas without new gear, it would have been needed. Unfortunately this renewed the rogue feelings of being broken. They weren't, it was a gear issue. Once TBC was released, and melee were able to get their new weapons they caught up with casters.

Rogues have had issues like all classes. But they have never been broken. They can not understand what underpowered means. Warriors for the first half a year or so were truly lacking. I felt bad for the poor players who had made warriors, and was very happy when buffs and new gear made them a strong class. When people called them overpowered, I was glad, and thought to myself "yeah, they deserve it for sticking with the class". Druids had truly lacked, and I was glad when they were fixed. I was happy to see fixes for hunters, warlocks, paladins, mages, and even shamans, although they had never really lacked. Rogues have never been underpowered in the same way as a druid, or warlock, or even a warrior. When their review came, I was only glad because I played a rogue. It was difficult to have sympathy for a group that had always been so strong, and yet had always been so annoying with their screams of "we're broken!" (even while they were still overpowered). Our movies took a look at the strengths that were ignored by these players. And they have hated us for it. They blame us for their own lack of success and skill and the negative reactions to their own arrogant attitudes.

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