Rogue Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic

This page contains all of our leveling guides for Rogues, with links to each specialization's guide.

While it is important to understand your class and specialization while leveling, it can be massively helpful to have a general understanding of how leveling works in Wrath, as well as any tips that you can use to speed up the process. Our General Leveling guide covers all of this and more and you can read through it below.

Rogues have three talent trees to choose from, each focusing on using different weapons and tactics in the battlefield. Those talent trees are Assassination, Combat, and Subtlety.

Assassination is, in comparison to the other 2 specializations, the weakest of the 3 in regards to leveling, especially if you consider the entire 1-80 journey. We would strongly recommend leveling as a different specialization at least until you reach Level 50, at which point you will learn Mutilate. Even with Mutilate, Assassination only becomes competitive with the others once you reach Level 62 and have Master Poisoner and Cut to the Chase.

Combat brings a number of benefits while leveling, most notably in the form of its numerous cooldowns and AoE, which can allow you to burst down packs of enemies or quest bosses. You also have the benefit of Riposte, which can help you to survive against melee enemies.

Subtlety lacks in damage compared to Combat, but it excels massively due to its stealth and CC benefits. It utilizes Cheap Shot and Ambush far more, which can help to deal with single-target fights more rapidly and safely, but has a very different playstyle to Combat and will be noticeably slower due to the lack of Blade Flurry, among other cooldowns.

The fastest specialization for leveling is Combat, due to its excellent burst damage, solid AoE, and "upfront" damage, as opposed to long ramp-up times.

Subtlety can still be a good choice if you prefer its playstyle, but it still will not be as fast as Combat.

There are a number of small tips you should pay attention to when leveling as a Rogue, as they can help you massively to smooth out the process.

• First Aid is always helpful, given that Rogues do not have the ability to heal themselves effectively without it.
• Holding Vanish as an escape will always help to maintain a smooth leveling run. Trying to use it as a DPS-increase will normally reset the mob you are fighting and the damage you would gain if you manage to successfully use it saves far less time than the time you would save from not having to corpse-run.
• Do not forget to grab new ranks of your Poisons while leveling.

While you can take Engineering and Leatherworking for the ultimate leveling speed increase, due to Drums of Battle and the Engineering enchants, such as Nitro Boosts, it is generally not worth it.

You will need a massive amount of gold at max level, especially if you are on a fresh realm, and you will likely be better served taking a double gathering setup, such as Skinning and Mining or Mining and Herbalism (the ideal choice will depend on your realm), allowing you to get a decent base of gold before reaching Level 80.

The most important consumables for Rogues are their Poisons, of which you should ensure to always have a ready supply of in your bags. Instant Poison is going to be the best choice for leveling by far.

Beyond Poisons, you can look to have a supply of healing potions and bandages ready.

To fully optimize, you can also bring damage consumables to help bolster your output and ensure you can defeat mobs as fast as possible, such as Elixir of the Mongoose or Elixir of Major Agility.