Rogue

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. There are 7 types of abilities that Rogues can use. The Categories with brief descriptions follow.

Stealthed Attacks - These are attacks that only work when the rogue is stealthed.
Garrote (behind, DoT 18 secs, 1 combo)
Ambush (behind, 2.5*weapon+x, 1 combo)
Cheap Shot (stun, 2 combo points)

Normal Attacks - These are anytime attacks.
Sinister Strike (weapon+x)
Backstab (dagger, behind, 1.5*weapon+x, 1 combo)
Gouge (facing Rogue, minor dmg, mezz target 4 seconds, 10 sec cooldown, 1 combo)
Hemmorrhage (increased dmg taken by target, 1 combo)

Finishers - These are attacks that use combo points that a Rogue has built up on a target. The more combo points the larger the effect from using this type of attack.
Evis (Damage)
Slice and Dice (inc atk spd)
Expose Armor (reduced target armor)
Rupture (DoT)
Kidney Shot (stun)

Other Damage - These are attack types that add damage passively to a Rogue's normal attacks.
Dual Wield
Crippling poison
Mind numbing poison
Deadly Poison

CC - These are abilities that affect a mob's AI or a players control of his toon.
Sap - 30 second mezz effect.
Kick - Interrupts a spell.
Blind -

Defense - These are abilites that improve a Rogues survivability.
Evasion - Vastly increased dodge rate.
Sprint - Extra speed to escape from a fight.
Feint - Reduced aggro for one target.
Parry - Stops a percentage of incoming attacks from dealing any damage.
Vanish - Instant stealth.
Dodge - Stops a percentage of incoming attacks from dealing any damage.

Other Abilities - Miscellaneous stuff that didn't fit anywhere else.
Stealth - Allows a Rogue to move with a chance of being unseen.
Pick Pocket - Allows a rogue to get an extra loot roll on a mob.
Pick Lock - Allows a Rogue to open a locked item.
Distract - Causes a mob to turn to face a direction of the Rogue's choice.
Detect Traps - Useless
Disarm Trap - Useless

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 Bayonette 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

The Blade of Cunning is widely available from a variety of quests at level 10 for the Alliance and level 13 for the Horde. This dagger improves your Subtlety skill by one and does 6.7 DPS. The appropriate quest can be obtained from the Rogue Trainer in the race specific level 1-10 areas. At level 10 this is a good dagger to obtain.

There are many green dropped daggers in this level range. They will not all be described here in an attempt to lessen confusion. Top DPS numbers for each level are as follows:
lvl DPS
10 6.7 The above mentioned Blade of Cunning
12 8.7 The rare Slicer Blade from Westfall.
13 8.9 Scrimshaw dagger as shown below
14 9.7+1 This is the Venom Web Fang that drops in Duskwood.
15 10 Big Bronze Knife as shown below
17 11.1 See below
18 15.3 See below
19 15.5 See below

Questable daggers include Scrimshaw Dagger at level 13 with 8.9DPS, Harpy Skinner at level 15 for the Horde with 9.6 DPS amd 3 Agi, Relic Blade at level 15 for the Alliance in Darkshore with 10DPS and 3 Sta.

The crafted Big Bronze Knife, aka BBK, is a viable alternative to dropped weapons. This weapon provides 3 Sta and 10DPS at level 15.

There are an additional 11 daggers listed for levels 16-19. In this range we start to see the first blue items.

Assassin's Blade, a rare drop off of Archmage Arugal in Shadowfang keep. This weapon provides 15.5 DPS, +3 Str and +4 Agi.

Thottbot lists the Bramble Blade as having 13.6 DPS but provides no known source.

The Evocator's Blade is a caster weapon with 15.3 DPS and provides 4 Int and 2 Spi. It will be tough to pry this one from the Mage/Warlock in your party.

The Boss Sneed in The Deadmines drops the Buzzer Blade. This weapon is slightly inferior to the level 15 crafted dagger.

The Spikelash and Tail Spike daggers are identical daggers with 11.1 DPS, +2 Str and +2 Agi.

The crafted Pearl-handled Dagger is good to obtain at level 18 if you have not already obtained a better dropped item. This dagger provides 11.5 DPS along with 2 each of Agi and Sta.