Season of Discovery Combat Rogue DPS Leveling

The build highlighted above focuses killing single mobs as quickly as possible. Rogue has one of if not the highest single target kill speeds in the game. And with the addition of Back Runes we now have options as to how to best deal AoE Damage making Rogues one of the most efficient leveling classes in the game.

• Chest — Deadly Brew
• Hands — Mutilate
• Legs — Envenom
• Waist — Shadowstep
• Feet — Master of Subtlety
• Helm — Focused Attacks
• Wrist — Unfair Advantage
• Back — Fan of Knives
• Ring — Nature Specialization
• Ring — Dagger Specialization

Deadly Brew deals a ton of damage by applying Deadly Poison every time another poison is applied to the target, greatly increasing your kill speed and synergizing incredibly with Mutilate and Envenom which both deal additional damage to poisoned targets.

Mutilate benefits massively from the talent Improved Backstab which increases its critical strike chance by 30% at max rank as well as dealing extra damage to poisoned targets.

Envenom is the ideal finisher when using Deadly Brew as it deals considerably more damage against a target with multiple stacks of Deadly Poison which would otherwise be difficult to maintain especially while leveling.

Shadowstep is an incredible mobility cooldown that allows you to instantly close the gap between you and your target.

Master of Subtlety increases your damage by 10% every time you exit Stealth, due to the nature of leveling you will be constantly exiting and entering Stealth so this will be a consistent damage buff every time you begin a fight.

Focused Attacks increases the amount of energy you will have available as you will generate 3 energy every time you critically strike. While we will lose a bit of Critical Strike chance each time we level up the amount of Agility present on gear will keep this number high enough that we will continue to generate a considerable amount of Energy outweighing the other options.

Unfair Advantage will trigger each time you dodge returning 100% of your main-hand weapon's damage to the target whose attack you dodged. The high amount of Agility present on gear will cause this to proc quite often while leveling.

Fan of Knives is our default choice for our Back slot as it allows us the ability to do consistent AoE damage and synergizes with the rest of the build as we focus on using Daggers causing it to scale from 75% of our eapon damage compared to 50% if we were using another type of weapon.

Dagger Specialization and Nature Specialization increases our Dagger skill by 5 and our chance to hit with Nature damage by 6%. This allows us, especially while leveling to hit much more often allowing us to deal much more damage while leveling.

If you are unsure where to find these Runes or are just curious what other options may be available, feel free to check out our Rogue Rune guide listed included below to get a better idea of how to plan this all out in your leveling journey.

Leveling as a rogue acts much more as a list of priorities as opposed to a definitive rotation, listed below is what your ideal encounter while leveling should look like.

The weapon you are using can also play a major factor in what abilities you will be using, following the build we have highlighted above you will need to be using two Daggers to fully benefit from Mutilate.

1. If level 20, ensure you have Instant Poison applied to your weapons before entering combat.
2. Approach the mob in Stealth to ensure Master of Subtlety procs and open with Ambush if possible.
3. Use Adrenaline Rush early and often to generate combo points quicker, pair with Blade Flurry if possible to maximize the added cleave damage. It is better to have this ability on cooldown than to save it for the perfect time and slow your leveling time by saving it for too long.
4. Use Mutilate to build combo points.
5. Maintain the Slice and Dice buff as often as possible, auto attacks will be your primary source of damage while leveling.
6. Use Envenom at 5 combo points if Slice and Dice is already active.
7. Use Kick if the mob is casting an ability that is able to be interrupted.
8. Do not hesitate to use Kidney Shot to stun your target if they are dealing large amounts of damage or an important spell cast cannot be interrupted.
9. Use Gouge on cool down to minimize incoming damage and interrupt any spell casts.
10. If you find yourself out of melee range of the mob, do not hesitate to use Shadowstep to close the gap to your target.

In situations where you are fighting 3 or more mobs you should be casting Fan of Knives and ignore the recommended list of priorities above. If you expect these mobs to survive more than a few casts of Fan of Knives do not hesitate to pair this with Adrenaline Rush.

Stats while leveling your rogue as any specialization will grant you an identical increase to DPS and survivability so do not hesitate to switch specializations based off of the gear you currently have equipped. Agility is by far your best stat while leveling as it not only makes you deal more damage but increases the likelihood you'll be able to avoid incoming damage, listed below we have highlighted some of the other benefits that stats can provide while leveling your rogue.

1. Agility;
2. Spirit;
3. Strength;
4. Stamina.

Agility increases not only your Attack Power but your critical strike chance and dodge rating, Agility is the single largest damage increase per point of any stat and should be your primary focus as it greatly increases your damage output and even slightly helps your survivability thanks to the dodge chance.

Spirit is a powerful tool while leveling as it increases the amount of health you generate out of combat helping to limit the amount of time you spend out of combat regenerating.

Stamina increases your total health by 10 per point, while solo leveling you are consistently taking damage so this will allow you to pull more mobs before having to break to regenerate health, it also helps in group scenarios where unavoidable damage or threat issues may happen.

Strength is pure DPS stat, per point it provides less benefit than Agility as it does not provide the other benefits of increasing your critical strike chance or dodge rating. While this stat is certainly a DPS increase it should never be prioritized over Agility.

At level 16 your class trainer will offer you a quest to unlock the Pick Lock skill. In Season of Discovery this skill is required to unlock some Runes so it is important to get this as soon as you can.

Weapons are a massive part of your leveling journey as a Rogue, while playing the build we have recommended above you will need to use two Daggers so always be on the lookout for higher DPS weapons.

Leveling Professions while leveling can slow down your time if you are in a rush to max level however, working towards leveling them while you are out in the level appropriate zone will generally save you more time in the long run if you level as you go, this is especially true with Gathering professions such as Herbalism, Skinning and Mining. These can be used both to create supplies for the crafting profession of your choosing or simply to supplement your income by selling the material on the Auction House to help pay for things like new abilities and even a mount at level 40.

First Aid is crucial as a class that has no other self healing you can easily Vanish or disengage in some other way and heal yourself up using bandages while leveling, this will greatly reduce the downtime you may have otherwise spent eating or possibly even running back to your body after dying.