Rogue
Overview
At home in the shadows and skilled at disappearing from sight, the Rogues of Azeroth are most comfortable when acting in the background. Twisting events to their favor, striking only when advantage is greatest: this is where a Rogue excels. With their cunning tricks, physical abilities, and mastery of concealment and disguise, Rogues have no trouble finding employment as thieves, cutthroats, spies, and assassins.
The Rogue is a very involved and fun class to play. Your effectiveness depends on how well you learn to use the Rogue. There is a lot to take in, but players can master the Rogue with knowledge and experience. Rogue's abilties fall into two major categories, damaging attacks and utility. These are described in the following sections.
Quests
Poisons : Quest walkthrough and general info.
Poisons
Talents
No guide would be complete without a discussion of the class' talents. This is such a large topic it has a section of its own.
Rogue Talents
Rogue Talent Templates:
Ass/Combat Builds
Ass/Sub Builds
Balanced Rogue Build
DoT Rogue Build
Group Rogue template
Leveling guide
Level 1-9
In this level range your role is pretty much as a light tank. Stealth works very poorly with mobs even one level above you. You will do large amounts of damage in short periods of time however and will be fine. If you manage to get adds you should quickly consider running.
At these levels, Sinister Strike is a Rogues bread and butter skill. Evisceration is the only 'finishing' attack that is available in this level range. Backstab is another useful skill while grouping when another player has the mobs attention. Gouge and Evasion become available in this level range.
The key to success as a low level Rogue will be your weapon. Rogues start out with training in Daggers. In order to train more weapons you must visit a major city and spend 10 silver to learn the new weapon skill. It is suggested that you just stick with daggers for the first 10 levels. Following is a list of low level easily obtainable daggers:
Thottbot lists 22 daggers between the levels of 1 and 9. 3 are available from vendors, 1 craftable, 6 are quest rewards, 11 are random drops and 3 have no documented source. Of the 22, 9 are listed as green items, 2 are grey items and the rest are all yellow items. 8 Daggers are discussed below.
The Copper Dagger is a craftable dagger that can be used at level 6. It has a 5DPS capability.
For the Horde the Jagged Dagger is a very good quest reward for a level 8 quest. +1 Str and 6 DPS.
The Ceremonial Knife is another Horde quest reward that could prove to be useful, if not as good as the jagged dagger. 5.4 DPS with no stat bonuses. This is the reward from a level 12 quest that is the 4th in a quest line.
The Pruning Knife is the first questable dagger available to Night Elves on Teldrassil. It is a 4.1DPS weapon from a quest that is first available at level 6.
The Long Bayonet is available through a quest in Elwynn Forest at level 7. It provides 4.4 DPS to its user.
For random drops the Carving Knife is fairly common and nice for a level 6 item. It provides +1 Str and 5.9 DPS for level 6. The Curved Dagger is a nice drop for a level 9 dagger. It provides +1 Agi and 7.2 DPS. It should be fairly easy to obtain in Ragefire Chasm.
The Stonesplinter Dagger is a random drop from Troggs in Loch Modan. It provides +1 Agi and 7DPS at level 8 or higher.
In summary go with whatever drops until level 6. At this point try to get a crafted Copper Dagger. Try to get a Carving Knife or a Curved Dagger as you level. If you are Horde, getting the Jagged Dagger is a very good idea. If starting as a Gnome/Dwarf a Stonesplinter Dagger makes a nice alternative if it can be found.
Level 10-19
At level 10 the Rogue gains Dual Wield, Sap, Sprint, and a second 'finishing move' Slice and Dice. Damage is increased by about 10-15% through the use of Dual Wield. Sap provides the Rogues major form of CC throughout his career. Sprint in combination with Evasion provide the basis for a Rogues escape abilities.
The Rogue is still pretty much a light tank in this level range as he was in the first level range. At level 18, when gaining Ambush, the Rogue can start to effectively experiment with some stealth to gain an upper hand on his foes.
Later in this level range Rogues gain Kick, Garrote, Expose Armor, Feint, Pick Locks, Ambush, and Parry. Kick provides spell interruption. Garrotte is a from stealth DoT opener. Expose Armor is a widely disparaged 'finishing. move that reduces the targets armor. Feint is an aggro reducing ability that has limited utility. Pick locks is useful for getting items/money, your guildmates will request help in this area quite often. Ambush is a from stealth opening move that does a large amount of damage all at once. Parry provides a melee defensive ability.
Level 10 is the level where all classes start to earn Talent Points and the Rogue is included. One common build is the Group Rogue template. To start with, Improved Sinister Strike is perhaps the biggest bang for the buck at low level. Obtaining mastery of deception at a low level could be good for pickpocketing to gain cash faster. This path also leads to obtaining Improved Sap earlier in your career. This is one of the most important group skills for instances.
Again the rogues weapons are the key to his success as his main role in a group is to do damage. Thottbot lists 30 daggers in the 10-15 level range
Level 20-29
At level 20 the Rogue gains a 10% increase to his Stealth speed through the second rank of Stealth. The Rogue's poison quest becomes available at this level as well. Backstab improves in damage and the Rupture finishing move becomes available.
Later in this level range Rogues gain:
Vanish, an ability to go into stealth mode at any time with a 5 minute cooldown.
Distract, an ability that causes mobs to turn to face the distraction.
Detect Traps, should be self evident.
Cheap Shot, a stun stealth opener.
Instant Poison, instant poison damage.
Crippling Poison, a snare poison.
Mind-numbing Poison, a poison that increases a caster's cast times.
And an upgrade to all of his other abilities.
Only 6 new abilities will be gained by the Rogue past level 29. At this time the Rogue transforms into more of a Stealth fighter. Choices need to be made as to which Talent path the Rogue wishes to follow. ((Note add list of major talent builds here))
In this level range it is possible to take part in many instance groups. One key instance is the Deadmines. The Defias Brotherhood quest is a key to a Rogue's career. The reward is the Tunic of Westfall. This chest piece can easily last a Rogue until his late 30s. This quest is at the end of a long chain starting at Gryan Stoutmantle on Sentinal Hill in Westfall.
Again the Rogue's weapons are the key to his success as his main role in a group is to do damage. Thottbot lists 24 daggers in the 20-24 level range.
Level 30-39
Level 30 is when the Rogue gains their final skills, short of Safe Fall. During the 30s the Rogue gains the last of his poison skills. At level 30 the Rogue gains Kidney Shot, a finishing attack that stuns the target for one second per combo point.
At this level the Rogue will start playing more and more as their Talent spec favors. Dagger builds will rely more on stealth and big Ambushes to take a mob's health down quickly at the beginning of a fight. Sword builds still rely on stealth much less.
Another major consideration in this level range becomes saving cash to buy a mount at level 40. Mounts cost 80g and 20g for the riding skill. These costs are reduced to 72g and 18g with the requisite faction. The cash during these levels can be accumulated through a variety of strategies. Killing humanoid mobs allows you to pick pockets for extra cash and gather plenty of cloth to make bandages and sell. Collection trade skills can be used to collect raw materials for later sale in the Auction House. You may choose to avoid buying all but the most critical of skills to match the talents you select. This last approach may delay the expenditure of 10s of gold until after you acquire a mount.