Rogue Class Guide WoW, World of Warcraft Rogue Class Information

Rogue Class Guide

Posted by Kaets - February 8th, 2008

In this guide I will go through the various aspects of the Rogue Class, from talents, leveling build, raid builds, raid preparation, gear advice all the way into actual class mechanics and further theory crafting. If you are a rogue, or thinking about a rogue, it is well worth giving this guide a read as you will undoubtedly find information which will be very valuable to you during your career as a Rogue!

Abbreviations used in this Guide:

imp - Improved
spec - specialization
CP - combo point
IP - Instant Poison
DP - Deadly Poison
DPE - damage per energy
SnD - Slice and Dice
RED - [Relentless Earthstorm Diamond]
TSD - [Thundering Skyfire Diamond]
SSD - [Swift Skyfire Diamond]
T4 2pc - 2-piece tier 4 (Netherblade) set bonus
xa/yb - general combo point cycle format. x and y are numbers, indicating the number of combo points used, a and b are finishers. EG eviscerate is e, rupture is r, kidney shot is k, envenom is v, s is Slice and Dice. EG: 1s/5r - 1 CP, Slice and Dice, 5 CP, Rupture. CP can be attained in any way (mutilate, sinister strike, backstab, hemo.)

Rogue Talents

The two most important talents are Relentless Strikes and Dual Wield Specialization. For the combat combat build used here Improved Slice and Dice, Blade Flurry, Weapon Expertise, Aggression, Adrenaline Rush, Combat Potency, and Surprise Attacks, and an appropriate weapon specialization are mandatory. Sinister Strike builds must have Improved Sinister Strike.

Hemo builds have a large number of optional talents, with mandatory talents being Serrated Blades and Hemorrhage. All PvE-focused builds should have the same 11 initial points in Assassination: Malice, Ruthlessness, Murder, and Relentless Strikes. Remaining points are spent in Lethality, then Vile Poisons.

Example Leveling talent build:

10-11: Improved Sinister Strike 2/2
12-16: Malice 5/5
17-19: Ruthlessness 3/3
20-21: Murder 2/2
22: Relentless Strikes 1/1
Relentless strikes + Ruthlessness provides nearly as much energy as
Combat potency.
23-25: Lightning Reflexes 3/5
26-28: Improved Slice and Dice 3/3
You want to keep SnD up as much as possible. SnD is your greatest damage increase. 1cp SnD can provide more damage than a 5 cp eviscerate.
29-33: Precision 5/5
34-35: Improved sprint 2/2 (Or Endurance 2/2)
36-40: Dual Wield Specialization 5/5
41: Blade Flurry 1/1
42-46: Weapon Specialization 5/5. Sword spec has the highest PVE dps.
47-48: Weapon Expertise 2/2
49-50: Aggression 2/3
51: Adrenaline rush 1/1
52: Aggression 3/3
53-54: Vitality 2/2
55: Anything in combat. I tend to like Improved Kick or Endurance.
56-60: Combat Potency 5/5
61: Surprise Attacks
62-66: Lethality 5/5
4 points remain. I recommend Vile Poisons, but Opportunity works as well.

While leveling and grinding mobs you will obviously have a slightly odd cp-cycle. I tend to open from stealth, cheapshot, sinister strike, then rupture or SnD, dependant if Ruthlessness procs. (Open with Rupture if it does, else SnD immediately.) Avoid eviscerate and envenom, Kidney shot slows the kill down, but does let you kill some harder mobs. Expose armor can be good vs hard-to-solo mobs which don’t hit very hard.

Many times in Joana’s leveling guide there are sections where the use of a pet to distract a mob/tank is useful. Rogues have a few tricks to do the same thing:

Sap. This one is obvious, don’t forget it.
Blind. 10 seconds of excellent crowd control. Use a mouseover blind macro, such as:
/cast [target=mouseover] Blind
Distract. Many mobs that seem to be in groups can be separated by carefully placing the distract to only hit one of the mobs. If the group is patrolling the rest will continue on and you can kill the distracted mob once they get far enough away. Even if they are in fact linked the extra second or so for them to run up is often enough to get a quick kill with above build.

Raiding Builds

There are quite a few possible raiding builds for rogues, but I would strongly urge any *serious* rogue to spec Combat Swords. This is currently the highest dps build available at any stage of progress.

Here’s a rough ranking of PvE builds in terms of the personal DPS possible by each build at each tier of raid gear:

Tier 4:

1. Combat swords (–) / Combat fist+sword (-0.12%) / Combat daggers (-0.51%)
2. Combat fists (-1.10%) / Combat mace+sword (-1.80%)
3. Combat maces (-3.27%)
4. Hemo+swords (-5.06%) / Hemo+Combat Potency (swords) (-5.62%)
5. Hemo+fists (-6.63%)
6. Hemo+Deadliness (-7.65%)
7. Hemo+maces (-8.49%)
8. Shadowstep (-14.45%)

Tier 5:

1. Combat swords (–) / Combat fist+sword (-0.22%)
2. Combat mace+sword (-1.15%) / Combat fists (-1.45%) / Combat daggers (-1.49%)
3. Combat maces (-2.64%)
4. Hemo+swords (-4.95%)
5. Hemo+Combat Potency (swords) (-5.52%)
6. Hemo+fists (-6.85%)
7. Hemo+Deadliness (-7.17%) / Hemo+maces (-7.85%)
8. Shadowstep (-13.91%)

Tier 6:

1. Combat swords (–) / Combat fist+sword (-0.29%) / Combat mace+sword (-0.93%)
2. Combat fists (-1.71%)
3. Combat maces (-2.52%)
4. Combat daggers (-3.16%)
5. Hemo+swords (-5.93%)
6. Hemo+Combat Potency (swords) (-6.09%)
7. Hemo+fists (-8.05%) / Hemo+Deadliness (-8.33%) / Hemo+maces (-8.73%)
8. Shadowstep (-15.79%)

Sample Builds:
Here are sample builds for each typical rogue raid spec. Keep in mind when looking at these which talents are required and which ones are up to taste / optional.

Combat swords (or any Sinister Strike-based weapon spec) - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Combat fist+sword (or any dual weapon spec) - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Combat daggers - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Hemo+swords (or any single weapon spec) - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Hemo+Deadliness - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Hemo+Combat Potency - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Combat Mutilate - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Shadowstep - Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft OR Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Hit and Expertise Caps

In the context of stats, the term “cap” refers to the point at which equipping more of a particular stat will have no additional value. For hit rating and expertise rating in particular, the cap usually discussed is for the effect of these stats on raid bosses. For example, once you reach or surpass the hit cap, you will never miss an attack against a raid boss unless you are under the effect of some debuff that reduces your hit chance (for example, Attumen the Huntsman’s curse). There is no “minimum” chance to miss melee attacks, nor to be dodged or parried.

Your base chance to miss a raid boss while dual wielding is 28% with auto-attack on both hands. Your base chance to miss a special attack is 9%. For each 15.77 hit rating you equip, you reduce your chance to miss by 1%. Thus we can calculate hit caps for auto-attack and special attacks:

Auto-attack, 0/5 Precision: 442
Auto-attack, 5/5 Precision: 363
Special, 0/5 Precision: 142
Special, 5/5 Precision: 64

Your base chance to be dodged by a raid boss with any attack is thought to be 6.5%. For each 3.94 expertise rating you equip, you gain 1 expertise, reducing your chance to be dodged by 0.25% (thus it takes exactly 15.77 expertise rating to reduce your chance to be dodged by 1%). Thus, we can calculate expertise caps for various combinations of talents and racial abilities:

0/2 Weapon Expertise, non-Human: 103
1/2 Weapon Expertise, non-Human: 83
2/2 Weapon Expertise, non-Human: 64
0/2 Weapon Expertise, Human (wielding swords or maces): 83
1/2 Weapon Expertise, Human: 64
2/2 Weapon Expertise, Human: 44

The hit and expertise caps are NOT magic numbers that every rogue [or any rogue] must reach. There is no special benefit to being capped with either stat. The purpose of listing the caps here is so that you do not accidentally overshoot either cap by equipping too much hit rating or expertise rating. Always remember that any hit rating or expertise rating beyond the cap will have zero positive effect on your DPS.

The value of hit rating tends to depend on the extent of your reliance on chance-on-hit procs, including Sword Specialization, Combat Potency, Mongoose, Windfury, and [Dragonspine Trophy]. The more of these types of effects you have, the more hit rating will be worth for you. The stat weights given above assume Mongoose, Windfury, DST, and any other proc effects appropriate for the specific build. If you are lacking some or any of these proc effects, then you should check a spreadsheet for more personalized stat weights.

Rogue Gear

On Weapons:
Main Hand - In general, any considerations about weapon stats are subordinate to the fact of limited itemization. The selection of weapons provided supports a strategy of picking the highest DPS weapon of “slow” speed (1.7-1.9 for daggers, 2.6-2.8 for fists/maces/swords). Note: there are exceptions (e.g. [Talon of Azshara] > [Merciless Gladiator's Slicer]).

Offhand - For rogues with Combat Potency, a fast offhand is extremely important to increase the frequency of Combat Potency procs. For these builds, you can compare offhands by equating each 0.1 increment of speed to roughly 10 extra weapon DPS in favor of the faster weapon. For example, [Latro's Shifting Sword] is effectively 91.8 DPS when compared against [Fireguard]. Note that the stats on a weapon are still very important; for example, [Tracker's Blade] is superior to [Searing Sunblade] due to its stat allocation.

For non-Combat Potency rogues, offhand weapon speed is less important, but can still impact DPS via poison procs and sword spec procs. For any rogue with sword spec, each 0.1 increment of speed can be equated to roughly 5 extra weapon DPS in favor of the faster weapon. For rogues without sword spec, you can convert each 0.1 increment to 2 extra weapon DPS for the faster weapon. For combat Mutilate builds, offhand speed is nearly immaterial. This article points out that fast offhands suffer a very slight decrease in Mutilate damage relative to slow ones, most likely offsetting the increase in poison DPS.

On set bonuses: in general, take advantage of set bonuses when you can, but don’t marry yourself so tightly to a set bonus that you never upgrade your gear. Set bonuses worth pursuing are Wastewalker 2pc, T4 2pc, T5 4pc, T6 2pc and 4pc. A good rule of thumb for any of these set bonuses is to preserve it until you are able to get the next set bonus on the list (e.g. keep using T4 2pc until you have 4 pieces of T5 to equip).

On trinkets: [Dragonspine Trophy] is the best trinket in the game for combat rogues, currently. [Ashtongue Talisman of Lethality] and [Madness of the Betrayer] are on the next tier down, then [Tsunami Talisman], [Warp-Spring Coil], and [Berserker's Call]. [Romulo's Poison Vial] is good if you have plenty of room under the hit cap. [Bloodlust Brooch], [Darkmoon Card: Crusade], [Abacus of Violent Odds], [Hourglass of the Unraveller], and [Icon of Unyielding Courage] are good pre-raiding options. As with main hand weapons, because of scarcity it’s often safe to choose trinkets on a policy of “whatever drops first.”

On meta gems: you want a headpiece with a meta gem socket. Use [Relentless Earthstorm Diamond] in that socket. [Thundering Skyfire Diamond] is inferior due to a ~40 second cooldown, 6 second duration, and low proc rate, but it is the second-best option for the socket. [Swift Skyfire Diamond] is nowhere near as good as either of these, although it may be sufficient if you don’t want to put a good gem in a cheap helmet like [Helm of the Claw].

On combat gem selection: only gem for socket bonuses that provide offensive stats (hit rating, crit rating, AP), and only if they are achievable using solely red and yellow gems. If you are socketing for a bonus, always use [Rigid Dawnstone] in yellow sockets and [Glinting Noble Topaz] in red sockets, unless you are nearing the hit cap, in which case use [Glinting Noble Topaz] in yellow sockets and [Delicate Living Ruby] in red sockets.

Pay attention to your meta gem socket requirements, particularly for [Relentless Earthstorm Diamond] and [Thundering Skyfire Diamond] (which each require 2 blue gems). Only use [Shifting Nightseye] (or [Shifting Tanzanite], which drops in heroic Steamvault) to fulfill the requirement, and only as many as necessary. If you are not socketing for a bonus, always use [Rigid Dawnstone] or [Glinting Noble Topaz], switching to [Delicate Living Ruby] when your hit is capped.

The following gems are inferior and should be avoided: [Bright Living Ruby], [Wicked Noble Topaz], [Smooth Dawnstone], [Balanced Nightseye], [Jagged Talasite].

On Hyjal/BT gemming: [Crimson Spinel] will be in heavy demand by just about every caster class, leaving [Rigid Lionseye] and [Glinting Pyrestone] as your primary options. Continue following the above guidelines for gemming using these gems. Note that [Rigid Lionseye] will require your jewelcrafter to be revered with Hyjal.

On unique gems: several unique-equip gems are available from heroics, jewelcrafting, and PvP which may be used in place of any of the gems mentioned above. The following gems may be obtained and used in any socket where a rare (”blue” quality) gem of the same color would normally be placed. Any gem not listed below is inferior and should be avoided. Note that any of the gems listed as Heroic drops will no longer be unique-equip in patch 2.4, and therefore will be able to be farmed for all available sockets.

[Bold Ornate Ruby] (red) - PvP honor reward
[Crimson Sun] (red) - Jewelcrafting BoP
[Smooth Ornate Dawnstone] (yellow) - PvP honor reward
[Stone of Blades] (yellow) - Jewelcrafting BoP
[Brutal Tanzanite] (purple) - Heroic Botanica
[Pulsing Amethyst] (purple) - Nightbane quest
[Shifting Tanzanite] (purple) - Heroic Steamvault
[Glinting Fire Opal] (orange) - Heroic Black Morass
[Inscribed Ornate Topaz] (orange) - PvP honor reward
[Pristine Fire Opal] (orange) - Heroic Sethekk Halls

Reference: Rogue Gear Spreadsheet.

Buffs and Enchants

On raid buffs: the ideal party for a rogue would be something resembling feral druid + fury warrior + enhance shaman + rogue + rogue. The biggest DPS buffs for a combat build are Battle Shout (5/5 improved), Unleashed Rage, Blessing of Might (5/5 improved), Grace of Air/Windfury (see further below), Leader of the Pack, in that order. If your raid is short on paladins, Salvation > Might > Kings. If your raid doesn’t have an enhancement shaman, a resto shaman in the group dropping totems will do just fine (Unleashed Rage is a big difference, but Enhancing Totems and Improved Weapon Totems have very little impact).

On self-buffs: [Flask of Relentless Assault] is the best DPS option for your elixir slots; however, [Elixir of Major Agility] is very close behind. In general, choose the flask for progression and the elixir for farm content. Your best food option is [Spicy Hot Talbuk] if you’re combat or Hemo+swords, [Warp Burger] otherwise. [Haste Potion] are extremely powerful if used on cooldown, but save your potion timer if you know you’ll be taking a lot of damage. If you’re a leatherworker, [Drums of Battle] > [Drums of War].

On poisons and Windfury: for PvE, always choose DP on the offhand. If you are in a group with a shaman and you’re combat, you’ll generally get more DPS from Windfury as opposed to Grace of Air + IP. However, the difference is not as dramatic as it is for, say, a DPS warrior. If your group contains a DPS warrior, Windfury Totem will usually be dropped. Otherwise, if less than half the group is rogues, Grace of Air Totem will probably be dropped and you should use IP on the MH. Always check with your shaman if you’re unsure what will be dropped. For Mutilate, Grace of Air Totem is probably preferable, but Windfury Totem is still quite powerful. Note that dual DP is a waste for all builds except Mutilate, and only if you use Envenom. For all builds, sharpening stones are inferior unless the target is immune to poisons.

On enchants: Mongoose is the enchant of choice for weapons, both main hand and offhand. 20 agility is not as good even on an offhand. Executioner’s proc rate still has not been accurately determined, so we do not yet know for certain whether it is a worthwhile enchant to use. [Greater Inscription of Vengeance] (Aldor) is very slightly better than [Greater Inscription of the Blade] (Scryer). 15 agility to gloves is superior to 26 attack power. If you aren’t using SSD in your helmet, then a solid case can be made for getting Cat’s Swiftness to boots instead of Dexterity (you lose 6 agility, but gain 8% run speed. If you are an enchanter, Stats should be your ring enchant of choice, unless you are daggers, in which case Striking will come out very slightly ahead.

Mechanics

On haste: haste effects provide extra attacks per time unit equal to their magnitude; so Slice and Dice provides 30% extra attacks over its duration compared to without it. Percentage-based haste effects are multiplicative; however, rating-based haste effects (e.g. [Dragonspine Trophy]) are all added together into a total haste rating before being converted (at a rate of 15.77 rating to 1%) into a single percentage-based haste. Thus, separate percentage-based hastes increase one another’s effects, while separate rating-based hastes do not do the same. As a result, coordinating rating-based hastes (e.g. trying to time a Haste Potion and Abacus of Violent Odds simultaneously with a Dragonspine Trophy proc and Dragonstrike proc) will not have any special effects. However, coordinating percentage-based hastes (e.g. hitting Slice and Dice and Troll Berserking together) will increase your benefits.

On cooldown usage: because of the way different stats scale with one another, and the multiplicative nature of percentage-based hastes like Blade Flurry and Troll Berserking, it is generally preferable to use DPS-increasing cooldowns simultaneously rather than one at a time. In general, you should use cooldowns as they become available. However, in some cases of cooldowns with staggered timers (e.g. Blade Flurry and Troll Berserking), it may be best, when the longer cooldown becomes available, to delay it slightly until the shorter one also becomes available.

On Eviscerate: at nearly all reachable levels of gear, Rupture will be superior to Eviscerate on any target that isn’t immune to bleeds. At 5 CP, Rupture deals 1000 damage plus 24% of your AP for 25 energy, or 40 damage plus 0.96% of your AP per energy. At 5 CP and with T5 2pc, Eviscerate deals 1245 damage plus 15% of your AP for 35 energy, or roughly 35.57 damage plus 0.43% of your AP per energy. Applying 3/3 Improved Eviscerate and 3/3 Aggression (121% modifier), 40% crit and RED (142.4% modifier), and 30% armor reduction (assuming a typical debuffed raid boss), Eviscerate comes to 42.90 damage plus 0.52% of your AP per energy. Thus, Eviscerate holds an advantage of 2.90 base damage per energy, but Rupture gains an additional 0.44% of your AP. At this rate, it takes only 656 AP for Rupture to overcome Eviscerate’s base advantage. Simply, in any situation where you can Rupture, you should Rupture.

On Shiv: Shiv cannot be dodged or parried, and like other offhand attacks, it can proc Combat Potency. Even so, its damage per energy will be inferior to Sinister Strike or Backstab almost regardless of stats, largely due to the offhand damage penalty and the lack of any static damage boost built into the ability. Shiv spam with DP offhand and Envenom is inferior to Rupture-based cycles in most raid/group situations.

On Envenom: Envenom damage is not mitigated by armor, and can be boosted by Stormstrike, Misery (shadow priest debuff), and Vile Poisons. However, in all but the most favorable circumstances (for example, extremely high crit, T5 2pc, RED, 5/5 Vile, Stormstrike and Misery both up), Envenom’s DPE will be inferior to Rupture. The more apt comparison to make is Envenom versus Eviscerate. At 5 CP and untalented (talents can boost both abilities by roughly the same: Envenom by 20%, Eviscerate by 21%), Envenom 2 deals 900 base damage plus 15% of AP, while Eviscerate deals 1045 damage plus 15% of AP. However, Eviscerate damage is mitigated by armor, which is typically roughly 30% damage reduction by a raid boss. Thus, Envenom is, at base, slightly better straight-up DPE than Eviscerate. However, Envenom results in the loss of your entire DP stack, resulting in a drop of roughly 45 DPS (before Vile Poisons) for as long as it takes to get the full stack up again. A Mutilate build running dual DP can get enough DPS out of Envenom and DP to make it worthwhile to use. However, for other builds, if you must choose between Eviscerate and Envenom, choose Eviscerate.

Combo Point Cycles

“Combo point cycle” refers to the algorithm used by a rogue to determine what finishers to use, and in what order, during sustained combat (e.g. against a raid boss). A combo point cycle revolves around keeping Slice and Dice active as close to 100% of the time as possible while also keeping Rupture active as much as possible. Eviscerate should only be used if the target is close to death, if the target is bleed-immune, or if you already have Slice and Dice and Rupture up with plenty of time left. See the Mechanics section for more about Eviscerate.

Combo point cycles are usually expressed in the format “1s/5r” or “3s/5s/5e” (for example). Each number-letter pair indicates a finisher to be used at a certain number of CP. An ’s’ represents Slice and Dice, an ‘r’ represents Rupture, and an ‘e’ represents Eviscerate. Thus, 1s/5r represents a cycle where you gain 1 CP, use Slice and Dice, gain 5 CP, use Rupture, and then repeat; and 3s/5s/5e represents a cycle where you gain 3 CP, use Slice and Dice, gain 5 CP, use Slice and Dice again, gain 5 CP, use Eviscerate, and then repeat. For maximum performance, do not deviate from the cycle unless you are forced to stop attacking the target.

On combat cycles: combat builds using swords, fists, maces, or any combination thereof will generally use a 4s/5r cycle, unless the rogue has T4 2pc, in which case he should use 1s/5r. If the target is immune to bleed effects, use 5s/5e (or 2s/5e, if you have T4 2pc). Combat dagger builds should use a 3s/5s/5r cycle, unless the rogue has T4 2pc, in which case he should use 1s/3r. If the target is immune to bleed effects, use 3s/5s/5e (or 1s/3e, if you have T4 2pc).

On Hemo cycles: Hemo builds should use a 5s/5r cycle, unless the rogue has T4 2pc, in which case he should use 2s/5r. Substitute Eviscerate in place of Rupture if the target is immune to bleed effects.

On Mutilate cycles: Mutilate doesn’t use a fixed cycle because its CP generation can vary widely. Rather, a Mutilate build uses a general policy of “3+” or “4+”, performing finishers after a certain minimum number of CP (either 3 or 4) have been accumulated. Finishers used are SnD, Rupture, and Eviscerate/Envenom, in order of priority (note: see the Mechanics section regarding Envenom). Be sure to balance finisher usage to get the most value out of Find Weakness procs.

On movement and on-the-fly cycles: in many fights, rogues will be required to run in and out of melee range with the boss, or will be prevented at times from entering melee range to continue their cycle. Depending on the length of time you’ll be out of melee range, there are many ways to handle these situations. If the interruption will only be brief (less than 10 seconds between leaving melee range and reentering it), your energy bar should be able to absorb the delay and you can continue your cycle when you get back into melee range as if nothing had happened. Otherwise, you should either burn your CP immediately on a Rupture (or Eviscerate, in the case of a bleed-immune target) or save them for a Slice and Dice when you next enter melee. In some fights, it is impossible to predict how often you will be interrupted or for how long. In these situations, your best bet is to get Slice and Dice up immediately upon starting melee and keep it up at all costs, only Rupturing if you have extra combo points to burn.

Misc Rogue Tips

Make sure to train your cooking skill to at least 60. This allows you to make Thistle Tea once you do the quest to get the recipe. If you accidentally destroy the recipe you can buy it from a vendor in the basement of Ravenholdt manor, but you must complete the quest for it to show up.
I recommend picking the Duskbat Drape as the reward for the level 50 quest. The other two items become obsolete quickly, while the drape stacks with your slow fall. With a method to quickly switch equipment it becomes very useful in many situations, such as dropping off a flying mount or getting from the Lumber Mill to the Blacksmith quickly in Arathi Basin.
Remember, 1%hit > 1% crit when below the hit cap. Hitting where you could have missed can turn a miss into a crit, while more crit chance can only turn a hit into a crit.
Level your Lockpicking Skill. You will love being able to open these locked instance doors, chests during 5-mans or your travel and the chest drops from mobs. There *are* sometimes very valuable items in these!.