A lot of the questions being asked are people who have just started playing Rogue, are thinking about it, or just don't know what to do with their first talent points. These people don't want to make a bad decision and regret it later, and frequently ask for definitive answers to very subjective questions.
WoW is about choice, and there isn't a "wrong" way to play. There is, however, a "best" way to level up quickly, and enjoy the game at the same time. This guide will try to ease you into the class, provide you with answers to very common beginner questions, and go into the most detail I possibly can.
This guide will assume you have already created your Rogue, so race will not be a factor. It will also not cover quests or starting areas, mainly general Rogue topics.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Your energy regenerates twenty points every two seconds. This cannot be increased except through the talent "Adrenaline Rush" (100% increase for 15 seconds, 5 minute cooldown).
Your maximum energy is 100. This can be increased through the Vigor talent (+10), the four piece bonus on the Merciless Gladiator set (+10) and the five piece bonus on the Nightslayer set (+10).
You get Dual Wield at level 10. You should always be dual wielding from that point onward.
You have a 5% chance to miss any special attack (anything that's not a normal swing of your weapon). You have a 24% chance to miss a normal swings while dual wielding (5% otherwise).
The Global Cooldown is the time you must wait between any two actions that are associated with the Global Cooldown (all Rogue skills that are not Finishers). For most classes, this is 1.5 seconds. It is only one second for Rogues. Lucky us.
When dual wielding, your offhand weapon only does 50% damage.
Weapon Choice
WoW is about choice, but this guide is about efficiency. You're going to be using a sword. They're the best weapon type to solo with. If you don't want to use a sword, that's fine, but this guide assumes that you will indeed be using a sword.
Professions
Again, this guide is about efficiency. The best professions to get for early levels are either Mining and Skinning or Herbalism and Skinning. Mining and Herbalism can be done together, but you won't be able to locate both minerals and herbs on the minimap simultaneously.
As for why, you will spend virtually no money leveling them, and will have a steady stream of income from mining, skinning and picking all the resources you come across. It's perfectly acceptable to drop your professions to pick a true crafting profession later, but having two gathering professions will make your journey to 70 much easier.
Funding your Rogue
The perpetual new player problem. How to make money. Here are a few general tips.
1. Sell any item you find which has a gray name to a vendor. These items are of "poor" quality, and have no use in the game except to be sold to vendors.
2. Learn to use the Auction House. If you don't know where it is, ask a guard in whatever city you're in. Only major cities have Auction Houses, no small outposts. Sell your green items that you don't use here. If you're unsure of the price, look for similar items of the same level range.
3. Sell all your cloth on the Auction House. Linen cloth sells for about 20-30 silver per stack, and drops very commonly from low level Humanoid mobs. This is a good way to get the money you need to keep your skills up to date and to upgrade your gear.
4. Invest in bags early. You can buy basic six slot bags from vendors for a few silver each. Having a bigger inventory means loading up on more stuff before having to sell it, which means more experience when grinding, along with more money.
Talent Progression
Here is a level by level talent progression guide that you can follow. It's not necessarily the best way to level, but it is a good one.
Level 10: Improved Sinister Strike 1/2
Level 11: Improved Sinister Strike 2/2
The reason for these is pretty simple. Sinister Strike is your bread and butter attack. You use it, and you use it a lot. -5 energy might not seem like much, but consider this. After two seconds in combat, you will have regenerated 20 energy, for 120 total energy. That's enough for 3 Sinister Strikes at 40 energy each. If they were 45, you'd need to wait another two seconds to perform the third.
Level 12: Remorseless Attacks 1/2
Level 13: Remorseless Attacks 2/2
This increases the crit chance of your next Sinister Strike by 20% at level 1, and 40% at level 2. Very nice grinding talent. Start the battle off right, with a swift SS crit to the face.
Level 14: Malice 1/5
Level 15: Malice 2/5
Level 16: Malice 3/5
Level 17: Malice 4/5
Level 18: Malice 5/5
A lot of low level players might scoff at a measly 5% crit chance, but this is one of the best talents Rogues get. It is maxed out in every level 70 build, and for very good reason. +5% crit chance is equivalent to +5% damage. That means you'll kill mobs about 5% faster, get about 5% more experience in a given time, make about 5% more money, and have a better sex life.
Level 19: Improved Eviscerate 1/3
Level 20: Improved Eviscerate 2/3
Level 21: Improved Eviscerate 3/3
Eviscerate is the only finisher you'll be using for a long time. 15% bonus damage is very nice. At low levels, this bonus is fairly small, but Eviscerate can do some major damage later on.
Level 22: Relentless Strikes 1/1
Regenerates a lot of energy over a period of time. If you've got 5 combo points, it's a 100% chance for 25 energy. That means Eviscerate effectively cost 10 energy. Very nice talent, in pretty much every build there is.
Level 23: Lethality 1/5
Level 24: Lethality 2/5
Level 25: Lethality 3/5
Level 26: Lethality 4/5
Level 27: Lethality 5/5
This is where Rogues really start to come into their own. We're all about stacking damage multipliers. With this talent, your crits will do 230% of normal damage, instead of just 200%.
At this point you have close to the standard Assassination talents, with the exception of Ruthlessness. It's not the best grinding talent (an extra CP every other fight is nothing earth shattering), so it will be skipped for now. We'll also start picking up some PvP things, since the upper 20s is where most people really start getting into PvP.
Level 28: Improved Gouge 1/3
Level 29: Improved Gouge 2/3
The infamous combat restealth. Gouge lasts 4 seconds without talents, 5.5 with. If you take no hostile action against another player for 5 seconds, you are considered out of combat. If you are out of combat, you can get back into stealth. If you are in stealth, you can re-open the battle and throw out all your best attacks again, while your opponent is already wounded. A Rogue successfully re-opening a battle very often spells doom for his opponent, so this is a trick you should learn to do early.
*Only works against other players, you cannot do this against monsters*
Now, here you have a choice. You have a solid base in Assassination. Damage increase, crit chance increase, and some energy regeneration. You can slowly progress through Combat until 40 (at which point a respec is pretty much mandatory), or you can respec now, and lose your Assassination goodies to pick up the ones in Combat. I'll go down the respec route, as it's what I'd recommend.
This is what your new Combat build will be (at level 30). I'm sure I could find a dozen people to tell me how it should be done better, but this is how I'd do it.
Deflection - Taken to get Riposte
Riposte - Very powerful tool for grinding. 10 energy for another attack that disarms is very nice. Grinding on disarmable mobs will really let this shine, as you'll take very little damage from a mob with no weapon.
Precision - You have a 5% chance to miss any instant attack (anything that's not a normal swing). With this, you'll never miss a mob of equal or lower level again. *Can still dodge, block, parry etc*
Dual Wield Specialization - Your offhand weapon hits for 50% damage. With this, that will go up to 75%.
Blade Flurry - One of the best grinding talents in the combat tree. Hitting two mobs and a 20% increase to attack speed is very, very nice. Intentionally overpulling when it's up is a good way to get some extra experience, or get extra experience corpse running. Don't overdo it, but do take advantage of it.
Level 31: Sword Specialization 1/5
Level 32: Sword Specialization 2/5
Level 33: Sword Specialization 3/5
Level 34: Sword Specialization 4/5
Level 35: Sword Specialization 5/5
And sword specific finally comes into play. 5% seems small, especially considering how slow Swords are compared to daggers, but this talent does indeed add a significant amount of damage. It can also proc off itself, providing the occasional frenzy of attacks, leaving a mob dead in a matter of only a few seconds.
Level 36: Aggression 1/3
Level 37: Aggression 2/3
Level 38: Aggression 3/3
Sinister Strike is our bread and butter attack, so we'd like to increase its damage all we can.
Level 39: Weapon Expertise 1/2
Not the strongest talent in the tree, but more weapon skill means fewer misses and more crits, and that's definitely a good thing.
level 40: Adrenaline Rush
The mother of all Rogue burst talents. This doubles your energy regeneration rate for 15 seconds, causing you to regenerate 40 energy every 2 seconds instead of 20. This means that you can perform Sinister Strike twice as often. Stack this with Evasion and Blade Flurry to mow down a pack of mobs quickly.
There you have it. Level 10-40 talent progression. These talent choices prioritize efficiency in grinding over all else. Damage increases, energy regeneration, even disarming your opponent, it's all there.
Gear
A question asked frequently, and pondered upon by all. Where can I get better gear? This will be a list of good gear from instances that you should try to get as you level. Emphasis on cheap or free.
Cruel Barb. Very good level 19 sword.
Leggings of the Fang. These will last you until you get the Triprunner Dungarees in the upper 20s.
Triprunner Dungarees. These will last you a LONG time. I don't even know how long I used these.
Deviate Scale Belt. Very good belt. Can be expensive on the auction house, but getting the materials isn't too hard if you run Wailing Caverns for your pants.
Blackened Defias Armor. Very good chest armor.
...of the Monkey. Any item "of the monkey" will have agility and stamina on it. These are the two most important stats to you as you level, so spending a few silver here and there to replace your gear with updated versions isn't a bad idea. Don't break the bank, though. I wouldn't update anything unless the item is very cheap, or it's very out of date. Spending 50s to upgrade an item to something one level higher will quickly eat through your gold reserves.
Community Contributed Gear Choices
Tunic of Westfall (Alliance-only Deadmines quest) - Dotorion
Cape of The Brotherhood (Van Cleef) - Dotorion
Wingblade (Horde-only Wailing Caverns quest) - Dotorion
Outlaw Sabre (Horde-only Blackfathom Depths quest) - Dotorion
I'll update this with more gear for lower levels as I remember it. It's been a bit too long for me to call up every cool item I found off the top of my head.
Thanks to Slyyth for reminding me that Mining + Herbalism doesn't work so well.
Edited, Jun 26th 2007 2:16pm by Nooblestick