Subtlety Rogue Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic

Your first talent point unlocks at Level 10. From here on out, this guide will give you an overview on recommended talent point spending for leveling, as well as some alternatives depending on gameplay preference.

• Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in Master of Deception
• Levels 15 to 16 — 2 points in Dirty Tricks
• Levels 17 to 19 — 3 points in Camouflage

Your first set of talents introduce nothing too gamebreaking. Master of Deception is a wonderful talent for stealthing past mobs safely and Dirty Tricks is incredible for securing safe saps on targets from a range. From here, you put in a few points to Camouflage, in order to get you to the next tier of talents.

• Level 20 — 1 point in Ghostly Strike
• Levels 21 to 23 — 3 points in Initiative
• Level 24 — 1 point in Camouflage (This brings this to 4/5)
• Levels 25 to 26 — 2 points in Setup
• Levels 27 to 29 — 3 points in Serrated Blades

Ghostly Strike becomes an option instead of Sinister Strike in this level range. It is a wonderful ability to use as it does heavy damage to the target, as well as grants you 15% bonus dodge for 7 seconds after. Next, we go into Initiative for that extra strong opening burst. Setup is another powerful leveling talent, as you will be able to get a lot of extra combo points from simply dodging attacks. From there, we go into Serrated Blades in order to get Hemorrhage later.

• Level 30 — 1 point in Hemorrhage
• Level 31 — 1 point in Preparation
• Level 32-33 — 2 points in Dirty Deeds
• Level 34 — 1 point in Setup (This brings this to 3/3)
• Level 35-39 — 5 points in Deadliness

Here is where you get two of your core abilities as a Subtlety Rogue. Hemorrhage is a replacement for Sinister Strike as your combo point builder. It is a cheap and powerful instant weapon strike that deals 110% of your weapon damage and increases Physical damage done to the target. Next, you also get Preparation, which is a powerful cooldown that resets the cooldowns of your Evasion, Sprint, Vanish, Cold Blood, Shadowstep, and Premeditation abilities.

• Level 40 — 1 point in Premeditation
• Levels 41-43 — 3 points in Cheat Death
• Level 44 — 1 point in Elusiveness
• Level 45-49 — 5 points in Sinister Calling

Here, you will get Premeditation, which is a powerful ability you can use to add 2 combo points to your current target (must be stealthed). You also get quite possibly one of the most annoying talents for opposing classes mdash; Cheat Death. This will give you a 100% chance when a lethal blow is dealt to you to reduce your HP to 10% of your maximum health and give you a buff that reduces damage taken by 90% for up to 3 seconds. This effect can occur once a minute. This buffer can give you plenty of time to escape from a fatal encounter.

• Level 50 — 1 point in Shadowstep
• Levels 51-55 — 3 points in Malice
• Level 56-58 — 3 points in Ruthlessness
• Level 59-60 — 2 points in Murder

In this level range, you get one of the most fun abilities as a Rogue mdash; Shadowstep. This is a wonderful gap closer that provides you with movement speed, as well as increasing the damage done by your next ability. From here on out, you will put points into the Assasination tree for Malice, Ruthlessness, and Murder.

• Level 61 — 1 point in Relentless Strikes
• Levels 62-66 — 5 points in Lethality
• Level 67-70 — 4 points in Vile Poisons

Your most notable talents here are Relentless Strikes and Lethality. Relentless Strikes is very useful for every time you use a finishing move. Lethality is just a nice overall damage increase.

1. Cheap Shot
2. 2 combo point Slice and Dice
3. Hemorrhage or Ghostly Strike to build combo points.
4. Kidney Shot if you do not want the mob to run away or if it deals high damage. Eviscerate if the mob is expected to die quickly. Rupture should only be used leveling on high HP mobs that are expected to live for a long time.
5. Feel free to use Shadowstep before a 5 combo point Eviscerate to increase its damage by 20%, but only if you expect to not need Shadowstep for anything else.
6. If mobs are dying fast or if you are going for a more sustained build, feel free to drop Slice and Dice from your rotation and instead rely on a stunlock into Eviscerate for a quick kill.

1. Cheap Shot
2. Hemorrhage to stack combo points
3. 5 combo point Kidney Shot
4. After Kidney Shot ends activate Evasion. During this time, continue to stack combo points with Hemorrhage and use Eviscerate or Rupture as your finishers. Use Rupture if you will not need to Gouge or Blind the target.
5. Kidney Shot again after Evasion runs out. Activate Preparation at any point before this.
6. Once your second Kidney Shot finishes, activate Evasion.
7. After this, if your target still is not dead, you can Kidney Shot again, followed by Blind and Gouge to buy time for your next Kidney Shot. When the mob is blinded, you can bandage yourself.

• Level 61 — Garrote - At Level 61, Garrote finally gains more utility. It silences the target for 3 seconds, making it a very powerful opener against Mages in PvP so they cannot Blink or against spellcasting mobs.
• Level 62 — Envenom - This ability hits much harder than Eviscerate, but should only be used with heavy stacks of Deadly Poison and if the mob you are fighting is near death.
• Level 66 — Cloak of Shadows - Cloak of Shadows is one of your strongest defensive abilities. It clears all magic debuffs from you and provides a 90% chance to resist all spells for 5 seconds.
• Level 70 — Shiv - This ability instantly strikes, applying a poison with your off-hand. It is useful for keeping up Deadly stacks to 5 if it is about to fall off or in PvP, when you need to stack Wound or apply Crippling Poison to a target quickly.

You might also want to check out our full class guides, which teach you how to play your class at the new Level 70 cap!

• Combat Rogue Guide