Cataclysm Rogue Guide

Contents:

Introduction

See the following Rogue guides for more detailed (and current) info.

• Rogue Leveling guide - Get leveled asap
• Rogue class guide - An overview of the Rogue
• Assassination spec - Specific to the assassination spec
• Combat spec - Specific to the combat spec
• Subtlety spec - Specific to the subtlety spec
• PvP Builds - just the builds

With the 4.0 patch and Cataclysm expansion everything has changed for all classes, regardless of whether you buy the expansion. Therefore this page will not be updated.

As of 9/22/2010, Rogues in Cataclysm (beta) have:

No major changes, such as the Hunter going from mana to focus. All the Rogue mechancis are pretty much unchanged, other than the talent overhaul that all classes will experience. Various abilities, such as Shadowstep, will now become level 10 abilities, others may well be tweaked to some degree. The order in which you pick up abilities will change, too. It's no longer every two levels.

In fact, there are no Rogue changes listed in the pre-cataclysm 4.0 patch notes.

Races

Racial abilities are largely unchanged. Both new races (Goblin and Worgen) can be Rogues. The racials for the new races will probably change.

Alliance:

• Human
• Gnome
• Dwarf
• Night Elf
• Worgen
  • Can occasionally move quickly
  • Increased crit chance
  • Reduced duration of curses and diseases
  • Skinning skill and speed increased
• Draenei - Nope, still can't be rogues

Horde

• Orc
• Troll
• Blood Elf
• Undead
• Goblin
  • Can rocket jump forward. Goblins love their explosives, so this could be fun.
  • Can launch rockets at enemies. I think this will be more of a "bottle rocket" than an ICBM. Probably good for pulling mobs.
  • Receives vendor discounts.
  • Can periodically summon a personal bank
  • Haste increase
  • Alchemy skill (alchemy?) and potion healing increased.
• Tauren - What? You think a 9' tall man-cow thing can be sneaky? Though War Stomp out of stealth would be fun, it's not happening at this time.

Talents

All classes have pretty much the same specializations as before, though talents and abilities have changed to some degree. For Rogues, the three specializations are the familiar:

• Assassination
• Combat
• Subtlety

Here's a shot of the new Rogue talent summaries, this is on a premade 80, leveled to 82 (click pic to enlarge.)

There is no more hybridizing, you pick your specialization at level 10 and stay in that tree until you get the top talent, then you can branch into the other trees. It'll certainly make building a decent character easier, though some won't care for the more "cookie cutter" look. It gives each specialization a more distinct feel, as well.

There's a max of 41 talent points, which buys every talent in the tree. 31 points hits the top talent and then you get (from your trainer) the Mastery bonus. Mastery adds to your prime abilities and Mastery rating will appear on much of the new gear.

So you're locked into a tree, but you get rewarded for it. Now the difference between characters will be skill and gear, and a bit less of the talent tweaking that went on before. It'll certainly be harder to "screw up" your biuld, and while there are obvious rewards for going with the plan, we won't see any more of the strange builds (a few points here, a few there...)

Note that there are no more weapons specializations. Daggers will get the most out of Assassination, by far, but you don't have to use them. With Combat you use whatever you have skill in. Mix and match to your evil little heart's content. Ambush no longer requires daggers, or any particular weapon, so feel free to Shadowstep with axe and sword.

Mastery is a trainable ability (at 80) and grants special bonuses depending on your class and specialization. It's different for each spec. Cataclysm gear will frequently have Mastery Rating and extra rating will improves your Mastery bonuses.

The talent question becomes this:

• Which will be the best order to pick up talents while leveling, and
• Is it worth it to branch out into the other trees, at all?

The talents and abilities presented here are definitely subject to change, so no numbers are presented at this time.

Abilities

Rogues get a couple of new abilities, and some tweaked abilities, but most are pretty similar to what they are before Cataclysm. remember that the details are subject to change at this time.

• Expose armor reduces less armor, but lasts longer. Currently 12%, down from the original 20. A talent refunds the combo points used.
• Feint is now a straight up 5% threat reduction (currently)
• Recuperate - this is a finishing move that uses your combo points to provide a small self-heal over time effect . Combo points left over on dead creatures can also be used.
• Redirect, Subtlety, Level 83 - things that die frequently have left over combo points attached. This transferes them to a new target.
• Smoke Bomb, Subtlety, Level 85 - Point blank area of effect, 8m radius, negates enemy targeting.

Glyphs

Glyphs are being heavily redone (Currently, in beta, there are Prime, Major, and Minor glyphs.) Since they will likely be kicked around for a bit (changed significantly) we will not include recommended glyphs at this time.

Murder... er, ah... Assassination Tree

Does being the "poison using assassin" appeal to you? Then this is your specialization.

1. Mutilate becomes the "bread and butter" strike at level 10 and the tree definitely awards using daggers throughout.
2. Assassin's Resolve looks like a sweet talent, combining a higher energy cap and extra damage when using daggers.
3. Improved Poisons increases the chance of successfully applying Instant and Deadly poisons.
4. Mastery: Potent Poisons increases poison damage, Each point of Mastery from your gear and buffs will add to the bonus poison damage of this ability.

• Tier 1:
1. Deadly Momentum - Increases crit change Vs your next opponent for 10 sec, also refreshes Slice and Dace and Recuperate.
2. Coup de Grace - Increases damage by Eviscerate and Envenom
3. Lethality - Increases crit damage bonus of Sinister strike, backstab, Mutilate, and Hemorrhage\
   
   
• Tier 2:
1. Ruthlessness - Mellee finishers can add combo points to target
2. Quickening - Healing effects on you are increased, as is movement speed.
3. Puncturing Wounds - Increases crit chance of Backstab and Mutilate
4. Blackjack - After your Sap wears off the opponent suffers a slowdown in attack speed.
   
   
• Tier 3:
1. Deadly Brew - Chance to apply Crippling Poison when other poisons are successfully applied.
2. Cold Blood - Energy boost and your next attack is a crit.
3. Vile Poisons - Increases poison damage and adds poisons to your Fan of Knives
   
   
• Tier 4:
1. Deadened Nerves - reduces damage
2. Seal Fate- Adds combo points from your crits
   
   
• Tier 5:
1. Murderous Intent - Get some energy refunded from backstabbing low health opponents
2. Overkill - regen energy faster while stealthed and for a short time after exiting stealth
3. Master Poisoner - Increases spell damage taken by poisoned targets (looks like a nice raid debuff,) Envenom no longer consumes Deadly Poison, and you take less duration from poison attacks.
4. Improved Expose Armor - Refunds all combo points when using Expose Armor
   
   
• Tier 6:
1. Cut to the Chase - Envenom and Eviscerate refresh your Slice and Dice duration
2. Venomours Wounds- Makes your Rupture and Garrotea lot more interesting with added damage and a chance to refund energy.
   
   
• Tier 7:
  1. Vendetta - Marks an opponent for death and ncreases damage to that opponent, and tracks their location. They can run, but they can't hide.

Cataclysm Assassination Leveling Build:

Here's a build that I will be trying with my 82 Rogue in the Beta. Take it with a grain of salt, since things are very likely to change between this writing and the release. If I was leveling an Assassination Cat. Rogue, which I might, then this is the order that I would take these talents. Keep in mind that this tree rewards dagger usage. If you have the hot swords/axes/etc., then look at Combat.

1. 2/2 in Deadly Momentum - You'll be pretty much going bang, bang, nag, while leveling. A lot of the time, anyway, especially with good or heirloom gear. This makes it faster.
2. 3/3 in Coup de Grace - for the bigger crunch.
3. 3/3 in Puncturing Wounds - +15% chance to crit for your main strike (mutilate?) Sign me up!
4. 2/2 in Blackjack - I tend to use Sap a lot (Sap, mob stays still, Ambush) and this will help alot. If you're not in the Sir Sapalot clan, then 2/2 Quickening is a good choice for the extra speed if if you're in groups often.
5. Cold Blood - this is a must have. Stick it in a macro with your Eviscerate/Envenom to guarantee a big hit.
6. 2/2 in Deadly Brew - Too many mobs (and players) run away, this helps since it applies Crippling Poison automatically
7. 2/3 in Vile Poisons gives us more poison damage and opens up the next tier.
8. 2/2 in Seal Fate - by this time you probably have a decent crit rating, so this will be adding plenty of combo points.
9. 3/3 in Deadened Nerves - You take less damage. Sounds good to me.
10. Overkill for faster energy regen.
11. 3/3 in Murderous Intent - which gives back some energy when backstabbing low health opponents.
12. 3/3 in Vile Poisons- Finishing this out, which opens up...
13. Master Poisoner - More useful in groups or PvP, than leveling, though it has some utility.
14. Note: You could exchange the last two for two points in Expose Armor, which reduces the Plate wearing Player's (opponent's) armor and refunds the combo points used.
15. 3/3 in Cut to the Chase - Great for longer fights, everytime you Eviscerate/Envenom you refresh your Slice and Dice duration.
16. 2/2 in Venomous Wounds - Makes Garrote and Rupture much more brutal and some energy is refunded.
17. Vendetta - looks like a nice raid and PvP talent, and useful for leveling, too.
18. 3/3 in Precision - Better chance to hit, which is very important and if you're raiding it's essential.
19. 3/3 in Relentless Strikes - more energy back from finishing strikes.
20. 2/2 in Camauflage - Improves stealthed speed and cooldown
21. 2/3 in Opportunity - More damage from strikes.

Level 82 build, steps 20 and 21 finish it. Click to enlarge

The Combat Build

In your face swashbuckling using whichever weapons you pick. If you like fast sword play then this is your build. Less reliant on burst or poisons, your initial attack will be less but it will be easier to keep up consistent damage when fighitng multiple opponents.

1. Blade Flurry is your level 10 special ability. This tree gets a Dual Weild set of bonuses.
2. Dual Weild Specialization - gives extra damage to your off-hand weapon
3. Vitality increases your Energy regeneration rate by 25%
4. Mastery: Main Gauche - (A main guache is the off-hand weapon used by fencers, usually a form of dagger) This gives your offhand weapon a chance for extra strikes, based off your main-hand weapon attacks. It willbe instersting to see if a fast or slow main-hand weapon is more efficient. Slow will hit harder, fast will get more off-hand strikes. A faster off-hand will generate more energy, a slower off-hand will hit harder.

Combat Talents:

• Tier 1:
1. Improved Recuperate - Get a little more back from your Recuperate ability. Take less damge, too.
2. Improved Sinister Strike
3. Precision - Pretty much essential to any Rogue build
   
   
• Tier 2:
1. Improved Slice and Dice - S&D is great for longer fights. If you kill everything in one or two hits then skip this.
2. Improved Sprint - Removes movement impariing effects. Essential for PvP.
3. Aggression - More damage
4. Improved Kick - Interrupts spellcasts and silences the caster for a short time.
   
   
• Tier 3:
1. Lightning Reflexes - You attack faster and you're harder to hit
2. Revealing Strike - Doesn't reveal anything, but improves your finishing strike by 20%
3. Reinforced Leather - Adds to the armor value of your Leather and Cloth (and you'd be wearing Cloth, because...?)
4. Improved Gouge - Learn to love the Gouge. Gouge/hop/backstab.
   
   
• Tier 4:
1. Combat Potency - Your off-hand attacks recover energy
2. Blade Twisting - Great for things that run or hop about, such as other players.
   
   
• Tier 5:
1. Throwing Specialization - Adds range to all throws and an interrupt to casting
2. Adrenaline Rush - Faster attacks and faster Energy regen for a few seconds
3. Savage Combat - More damage
   
• Tier 6:
1. Bandit's Guile - More damage
2. Restless Blades - reduces cooldowns of certain abilities.
   
   
• Tier 7:
  1. Killing Spree - More damage: 5 attacks against the same or spread out amoung multiple opponents, and 20% increased damage

Cataclysm Combat Leveling Build

This build is going for Killing Spree ASAP.

1. 3/3 in Improved Sinister Strike for more damage and less energy
2. 2/3 in Precision - we'll get point #3 later.
3. 3/3 in Aggression - more damage from your main attacks
4. 2/2 in Improved Slice and Dice - Great for longer fights.
5. Revealing Strike gives a 20% improvement to your finisher and adds a combo point.
6. 2/2 in Reinforced Leather - gives a 50% armor bonus from leather and cloth items. Cloth???
7. 2/3 in Lightning Reflexes - Faster attacks and more dodges. If you use Gouge alot, then consider 2/2 in Improved Gouge
8. 3/3 in Combat Potency
9. 3/3 in Precision
10. 3/3 in Lightning Reflexes (Blade Twisting is a nice PvP talent, so if you're a PvPer, go for that.)
11. Adrenaline Rush
12. 2/2 in Savage Combat - do more damage with attacks and poisons
13. 2/2 in Throwing Specialization - increases Throw range and adds an interupt.
14. 3/3 in Bandit's Guile - More damage
15. 2/2 in Restless Blades- reduced cooldowns of important abilities
16. Killing Spree
17. 3/3 in Lethality - More damage from Sinister Strike and Backstab crits
18. 3/3 in Coup de Grace - Bigger crunch with Eviscerate and Envenom
19. 3/3 in Relentless Strikes - Finishers have a chance to restore energy
20. 2 points to spend somewhere. Maybe 2/2 Improved Recuperate

Subtlety in Cataclysm

Like the shadows? Feel that a Rogue should be sneaky, attack from stealth with a brutal Ambush, and then disappear back into the shadows? Then Subtlety is your specialization.

1. Shadowstep is your level 10 ability. Appear behind your opponents in position for a brutal Ambush.
2. Master of Subtlety - attacks from Stealth, and shortly after, do more damage.
3. Sinister Calling - 25% more Agility and more damage from Backstab and Hemorrhage.
4. Master: Executioner - Increases damage from finishing strikes by 20%. Additional Mastery Rating increases this.

• Tier 1:
1. Camoulage - Increases speed while stealthed and reduced Stealth cooldown time.
2. Improved Ambush - More brutal Ambush strikes.
3. Relentless Strikes - Finishers have a chance to restore some energy
   
   
• Tier 2:
1. Elusiveness - Reduces cooldowns for Blind, Vanish, and Cloak of Shadows
2. Waylay - Slows opponent's attack and movement speed
3. Opportunity - increases damage
4. Initiative - Adds a combo point with opening strikes
   
   
• Tier 3:
1. Energetic Recovery - Your Recuperate ability now restores some energy
2. Opportunity - Your openers bypass 25/50% of youir opponents armor for 10 seconds = more damage
3. Hemorrhage - Youir basic strike, hits hard and adds to the effectiveness of whatever bleeds are on the target. Works better with daggers.
   
   
• Tier 4:
1. Homor Among Thieves - Increases the ranged and melee crit chance of all party and raid members by 5%. Raid member crits can give you combo points.
2. Premeditation - Adds two combo points to target. Put this in a macro with your openers.
3. Enveloping Shadows- take less damage from Area Effect attacks and increases the duration of youir Feint ability by a small
   
   
• Tier 5:
1. Cheat Death - Escape killing strikes with 10% health and get 90% damage reduction for a short time.
2. Preparation - Finishes the cooldowns on Sprint, Vanish, Evasion, and Shadowstep
3. Sanguinary Vein Targets with a bleed on them take more damage from your attacks
   
   
• Tier 6:
1. Slaughter from the Shadows - Redces the energy cost of Ambush, Backstab, and Hemo.
2. Serrated Blades - Eviscerate attacks have a chance to refresh your Rupture duration. Nice for boss fights or some PvP fights, maybe not so much for leveling.
   
   
• Tier 7:
  1. Shadowdance- tough to master, brutal when you do. Allows use of "stealth only" abilities while unstealthed. Gouge/hop/Shadowdance/Ambush/Cheap Shot/hop/Ambush... Proably want to get some Thistle Tea in there. Shadowdance opens a new bar. Put the appropriate abilities there, linked to your hot keys.

Cataclysm Subtlety Leveling

This specialization is great for popping in and laying down the big crunch, it's not quite so hot for the long fight or against multiple opponents. It definitely has nore of a Ninja feel than the other builds.

See our Rogue leveling guide for the Subtlety leveling build and info

Stats, Gear, Etc.

Macros

General use opening macro. Substitute the name of your opening strike (eg: Ambush) for "Opener."

• #showtooltip Opener
• /cast Premeditation (if you have it)
• /cast Pick Pocket
• /cast Opener

stats

Rogues need Agility and enough Stamina to stay alive. Int and Spirit are useless to you.

1. Agility - Adds to Attack Power, crit chance, dodge chance, and armor. It's the #1 stat for leveling Rogues, though at low levels Stam is the choice.
2. Stamina - #1 choice at low levels
3. Strength - Only get this if that nice item you just picked up doesn't have Agility/Stamina
4. Intelligence - Rogues don't need no stinkin' brains!
5. Spirit - Other than the kind one might drink, Rogues have no use for the stuff.

Low levels: stack Stamina. You won't easily be able to get enough Agility to be interesting (how much gold ya got?) Each point of Stam will keep you fighting a lot longer than each point of Agility. Mid to high levels your Agility gear will usually have stam on it anyway and that will be enough.

Food: Food heals you while you sit and the buffing foods add Stamina, at lower levels, and other stats as you get higher. For the buffing foods either learn to cook (or have a friend/guildie who does) or keep an eye on the AH. Sometimes foods are dirt cheap, though the buffing foods tend to be higher.

Scrolls: Scrolls of Agility and Stamina are usually cheap and will keep you fighting that much longer.

Buffs: Various classes can buff your stats, such as the Priest's Prayer of Fortitude which adds to your stam. So if a priest or Druid or Pally is in the area and you're up to asking, see if they'll buff you.

Buy some Sharpening Stones off the AH, or from the nearest Blacksmith, for added weapon damage.

Gems and enchants: How much money you got? At low level you won't see any gem slots, though at higher levels you occasionally will. Gem for Agility.

Enchants can be picked up from an enchanter or the AH. (Item enhancement > scrolls) Pick up what you can afford, but realize that you are probably leveling fast enough that the gear with the new enchant will be obsolete soon. Consider only sticking the enchants on gear that you'll keep awhile.

Glyphs

Just like before you aquire glyph slots as you level, but now you have nine total slots at level 85 and you'll get three each of Prime, Major, and Minor glyphs.

Another change is that you will actually learn the glyphs, rather than just slot them like a gem. Buy them all and swap them in and out as needed. So for PvP you might have one set, then want to swap out a few for that dungeon. Just apply a little Vanishing Dust (vendor item) and swap them out. Once you have the glyphs you will never need to buy them again.

Note that many of the glyphs are unchanged. Brand new glyphs are in bold, but several have been changed to some degree.

Leveling

While the expansion will change the exact quests your grab or the location of the mobs you grind, the mechanics of how to level quickly won't change.

1. Grab all the quests in any area that you're interested in doing.
2. Skip or wait on the ones that take you to other areas
3. Use the quest helper (or leveling guide) to knock them off in a logical order (just as if you were running errands in the real world.)
4. Try to knock off as many tasts/errands/quests as possible before heading back in to turn them in.
5. Save the quests that take you to another area, such as the big city, until you have to train and/or have several taking you to the same place.

Stay well stocked with food and buffing items (foods, scrolls, whatever.) Have the biggest bags you can afford so that you don't constantly have to toss stuff.

Skip the crafting professions for now, since they're expensive to level and will just slow you down.

Try to set up your time so that you're knocking off mobs and quests as quickly as possible and save the chat sessions in town until another time. Likewise, time shopping or dueling is not time spent leveling, though both can be great fun.

The Instances can be great if you get into decent groups, or aren't too picky if they're a little weak. As a Rogue you're a "Damage Dealer" and there are lots of those, so getting into a group via the Dungeon Finder might take a it longer than if you were a tank.

Keep your weapons updated as best you can, but it's ok to let your other gear lag a bit, depending on your cash flow.

Poisons - The Poison Quest is optional - For the shorter fights (which willbe most of them) keep Instant Poison on both weapons. After level 30 you can put Deadly Poison on the off-hand weapon for those long fights or boss fights.

Lockpicking is far from essential, but is occasionally useful. Your trainer will point you to the qest at level 16. The quest is optional, but the boxes will level your lockpicking. A Glyph of Pick Lock will make it go alot faster.

1 - 85 Leveling Guide

Are you ready for Cataclysm? The world is remade, many (or most) of the old quests are gone, and then there are the remade starting areas and the new high level zones. Lots of great stuff to explore, but if you want to get through it quickly, to get into that new high level stuff, a guide will be a huge help.

Zygor's is our guide of choice. It takes the in-game quest helper several steps further, pointing the right way to go to knock off the quests as quickly as possible and rack up the XP and levels. It also comes with a host of other goodies, including a talent advisor. Grab it now and beat all your friends to 85.

What could be better?

Learn more here