Started a rogue and have a question

[stryngz 0]

Hi everyone,

Been playing a hunter since vanilla and just rolled a horde rogue because my roommate is playing a hunter and we want some diversity in our raid for once.

My question is about spec choice. I've been reading for hours and looking everywhere and I can't figure out what I want to do. Any recommendations for this current content ? I read subtlety and combat are the best .... I really want to start learning while leveling . I'm currently combat.

Any advice would be awesome! Thanks !

[stryngz 0]

Ok, so I think I'm going to keep combat as my trash slash multiple mob encounter spec, but for single target I'm having a hard time...

[Damien 1,514]

All 3 Rogue specs are very pleasant to play while leveling up.

I leveled up as Subtlety and never regretted it. Have a look at our Rogue leveling. Obviously, you won't be able to perform the rotation we advise, since our guide only covers level 85-90, but you will know how to add new abilities into your rotation. For the first few levels, it will be a bit boring, because you will make use of abilities that are not normally part of your rotation (like Sinister Strike), but it soon gets better.

[stryngz 0]

I'm sorry for not being more specific with my question. This is about end-game for me. I'm quite interested in the PVE content but I have no idea what I want to use (Subtlety or Assassination). All of the guides were amazingly helpful but I guess what I should be asking is, What are you guys using in MOP raiding?

Seems obvious that Combat is a great choice for multiple mobs, my question is more about single target.

[Damien 1,514]

You can forget about Subtlety for raiding, it is not on par with the Assassination and Combat. I would advise Assassination for single-target and, as you already said, Combat when you can benefit from Blade Flurry.

[stryngz 0]

Thank you so much !

[SkuulzonVelen 2]

I leveled up as Combat and went to Subtlety upon reaching end game levels for both Cata and Panda.

[Defiantsoul 0]

I'm quite curious why you suggest he forget subtlety. It was to my knowledge (which may admittedly be a bit outdated) that subtlety was very good theoretical single target dps. If I remember correctly, it came out ahead in Cataclysm as well. The only downside was a massive increase in rotation complexity. Understandable that you wouldn't advise a new rogue to play it whilst he's still learning, but I wouldn't suggest he ignore it completely. That being said, as expected everything else stated was excellent advice, and I'd merely like to add that combat generally comes out behind assassination as the number of targets in AoE situations increases.

[Tiitch 4]

Sublety just isn't pulling the numbers at the moment and has no real use in a raid enviroment over the other specs (Just check WoL and rogues using Sublety in high level raiding, there just isn't such thing).

As others have said, if you're looking for single target or large number AoE (Wind Lord Mel'Jarak for example), you'll want to go Assassination but you're not forced too. I have done 15/16hc as Combat and can still pull the numbers that the Assassination rogues are doing. Once you get to fights that benefit Blade Flurry, your guild will love you for it (Garalon).

[Defiantsoul 0]

Interesting. That's a shame. Guess sub just doesn't pan out anymore. The more you (I) know.

[Tuckerpaul 0]

Hey! Welcome to being a rogue. Some of us still find it fun.

I would agree that sub is out, for now... and with the changes coming to 5.2 the 2 target blade fury concept is also kind of out. From my last looks blade fury is going to hit up to 4 extra targets at 20% damage per target... So in theory you can do the same dps with blade fury you do now but need 4 extra targets instead of just 1. (I could be wrong on this one).

I prefer assassination with my rogue, and have been a big fan of mutilate since they released it way back when.

I worked on cultivating a combat spec for a while and it just felt more clunky to me. In terms of streamlining your DPS I would say the Assassination spec is stronger, if you really want to get down and dirty and pay attention to raid mechanics keeping rupture, SnD, and your cooldowns down pat by all means go combat, a lot of people do it well. ( try to keep track of everyone else messing up in my raid with the streamlined rotation).

-TP