Rogue Class Overview

Rogue utilizes a unique resource system called Energy, allowing them to dictate the pace at which you deal damage. Energy regenerates passively whether you are in combat or not, regenerating at a rate of 20 Energy every 1.3 seconds. Your max Energy can be changed by factors such as talents or gear sets, but you will start with a cap of 100. Nearly every Rogue ability will use some of your Energy. In our guides listed below, we will go over the optimal ways to spend this limited resource to maximize your damage or how you can best crowd control your enemies using one of Rogues countless utility tools.

Rogue utilizes a Combo Point system, which allows them to deal devastating finishing attacks after you have built up enough Combo Points. Combo Points are generated by using generating abilities, such as Sinister Strike, and are removed from your target when spent on a finishing ability, like Eviscerate.

Rogue is considered the master of stealth, capable of going invisible, and having access to abilities only able to be accessed from stealth, such as Cheap Shot or Garrote.

Rogue is able to choose one of three specializations: Assassination, Combat, and Subtlety.

• Assassination Rogue — This specialization puts a much larger emphasis on consistent damage and maximizing the damage dealt by your poisons. Assassination is the go-to spec for many, as it is often viewed as the most reliable of each Rogue spec.
• Combat Rogue — Combat Rogue puts an emphasis on dealing massive damage in short periods of time by increasing the damage dealt by your finishing abilities and granting you buffs, such as Adrenaline Rush, that will greatly increase your Energy generation for a short period of time.
• Subtlety Rogue — Subtlety is a mix of both Assassination and Combat, with an emphasis on control and disruption. Subtlety is the tankiest of the two other specs and will allow for a more creative approach to situations with the ability to use your stealth abilities while visible, thanks to Shadow Dance, and the ability to survive attacks that would otherwise kill you by utilizing Cheat Death.

Both Combat Rogue and Assassination Rogue are viable and very strong specializations. Which one you play will largely depend on the availability of weapons and your raids needs.

Combat Rogue has access to the Savage Combat debuff, which increases all physical damage dealt to any enemy afflicted by your poisons, providing a massive increase to your raids overall DPS. Keep in mind, if you do not have a strong set of swords, maces, fist weapons or axes, it is not recommended to play Combat unless you are your raids sole source of this debuff.

Assassination Rogue will be your go to choice if you end up with a great set of Daggers, as it makes much better use of their Attack Speed due to the emphasis Assassination puts on applying and maximizing the damage of your poisons.

Subtlety Rogue can be played in raids, though it will almost always under-perform the other two specs in damage dealt, but thanks to abilities such as Cheat Death, there are times when playing Subtlety will be necessary to survive mechanics for your raid.

Rogue can be played by nearly every race in Wrath Classic, with the exception of Draenei and Tauren.

The best race for Rogue depends on your faction, as well as your chosen specialization. In short, the answer is Troll if you play Horde, while any race works fine for Alliance.

For Alliance players, the choice of race barely matters, as it does not impact your damage output like the Horde choices do. In certain situations, Human and Gnome can be better for their racial abilities, but for the most part, you can choose any race as an Alliance Rogue player in PvE.

For the Horde, Troll is the best choice for all specializations, with Orc coming in as a close second. Troll's Berserking and Orc's Blood Fury are both solid damage increases, with the potential for Orc to even become better in some situations at higher gear levels.

Rogue is only able to wear Cloth and Leather, but will realistically only wear Leather, as Agility is the primary stat they use and Cloth gear rarely, if ever, has any Agility on it. Rogues are able to use one-handed swords, maces, axes, daggers, and fist weapons, but are unable to use any two-handed weapons. Instead, they will always be dual-wielding some combination of the weapons. Combat Rogue will utilize whatever the strongest weapons available to them typically being a Sword, Fist Weapon, Mace or Axe, with a preference towards Swords or Axes due to the incredible strength of the Hack and Slash Talent. Assassination Rogue will only ever use Daggers due to the way abilities such as Mutilate function.

Addons and Macros are a solid way to help improve your gameplay and experience throughout Wrath Classic, whether it be while leveling, doing dailies, dungeons, or raiding. Both of the pages below provide information and recommendations on some of the best addons you can use.

For those of you wishing to level a Rogue to Level 80, you can check out our spec-specific leveling guides below. Rogue is an above average leveler and thanks to their Stealth ability they can navigate many areas in a much safer fashion than other classes. Combat Rogue will give you the most consistently quick experience while leveling but all three Rogue specializations are powerful for leveling.