Season of Discovery Combat Rogue DPS Talents and Runes

Last updated on Aug 24, 2024 at 10:00 by Sellin 4 comments

On this page, you will find out the best PvE talents for your DPS Combat Rogue in WoW Classic — Season of Discovery, as well as advised runes.

1.

Combat DPS Rogue Talent Build

Your talent build as an Combat rogue is almost completely set in stone as the strength of talents such as Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry are incredibly strong but as we level the additional points available can be spent outside of the Combat tree. As we have reached cap level we are able to branch out into other trees specifically the Assassination tree allowing us to reach Relentless Strikes Icon Relentless Strikes and Ruthlessness Icon Ruthlessness. If your group is without a source of Improved Expose Armor Icon Improved Expose Armor or you are assigned to it, you can shift the points found in Opportunity Icon Opportunity into it to get the full benefit from Sebacious Poison Icon Sebacious Poison.

2.

Gloves — Mutilate Icon Mutilate

Pants — Envenom Icon Envenom

Chest — Deadly Brew Icon Deadly Brew

Waist — Poisoned Knife Icon Poisoned Knife

Feet — Master of Subtlety Icon Master of Subtlety

Helm — Focused Attacks Icon Focused Attacks

Wrist — Carnage Icon Carnage

Back — Blunderbuss Icon Blunderbuss

Ring — Dagger Specialization Icon Dagger Specialization

Ring — Nature Specialization Icon Nature Specialization

Mutilate Icon Mutilate is the default choice due to recent changes reducing its energy cost down to 40. While Saber Slash Icon Saber Slash is still quite strong it is just much worse and does not synergize quite as well with other runs we have chosen to run. Mutilate Icon Mutilate synergizes incredibly with Envenom Icon Envenom and Deadly Brew Icon Deadly Brew by taking advantage of their constant applications of poison to allow Mutilate Icon Mutilate to always benefit from the increased damage against poisoned targets.

Envenom Icon Envenom benefits from the quick attack speed associated with using two daggers to use Mutilate Icon Mutilate as it will deal more damage to targets with higher stacks of Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison. Between the Eyes Icon Between the Eyes is a great tool if you find yourself needing a ranged stun but deals considerably less damage and will not benefit from the other Runes we have chosen the same way Envenom Icon Envenom does.

Deadly Brew Icon Deadly Brew applies a stack of Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison anytime your target is inflicted with any kind of poison, allowing us to use Instant Poison Icon Instant Poison while still getting all of the benefits of Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison. Deadly Brew Icon Deadly Brew also synergizes incredibly well with Envenom Icon Envenom and Mutilate Icon Mutilate as they both deal additional damage to poisoned targets.

Poisoned Knife Icon Poisoned Knife acts as a nearly free source of damage and should be used on cool down. This ability refunds 5 energy per stack of Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison/Occult Poison I Icon Occult Poison I present on the target making it an incredibly cheap way to deal damage and generate a combo point. Even as Combat where we will have a considerable amount of Energy due to talents like Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush this is still an incredibly efficient way to deal damage.

Master of Subtlety Icon Master of Subtlety increases your damage by 10% for 6 second when attacking from stealth, this is especially potent as Combat when paired with Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry. It also allows you to consider using Vanish Icon Vanish as a DPS cooldown, especially for your second usage of Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush.

Focused Attacks Icon Focused Attacks is our default choice with how much Critical Strike rating is available both on gear and World buffs giving us a near constant stream of incoming Energy. This also synergizes well with talents like Malice Icon Malice and Improved Backstab Icon Improved Backstab that greatly increase the likelihood of critically striking with our attacks and abilities.

Carnage Icon Carnage increases damage dealt to targets with a bleed effect active on them by 20% and causes your Rupture Icon Rupture ability to heal you for 40% of the damage it deals. The damage bonus here is massive and with the addition of Sebacious Poison Icon Sebacious Poison we can focus on maintaining Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice and Rupture Icon Rupture as we only have two combo point finishers to focus on maintaining as opposed to three.

Blunderbuss Icon Blunderbuss allows us to deal some AoE damage to up to 4 enemies in a frontal cone. While this is rather limited other options tend to perform worse compared to Blunderbuss and the focus should be on dealing as much damage as possible with what are rather limited options when it comes to dealing AoE damage. In a situation where you are required to deal consistent AoE damage consider swapping to Shuriken Toss Icon Shuriken Toss on your waist.

Dagger Specialization Icon Dagger Specialization and Nature Specialization Icon Nature Specialization greatly increases our chance to hit with Daggers and our Poisons. Dagger Specialization gives us 5 extra weapon skill which is a massive boost towards the 9% melee Hit cap required to hit bosses and allows us to itemize towards other stats. Nature Specialization increases the hit chance of our Poisons by 6% and while we are unlikely to reach the Spell Hit cap of 16% this is still a basically free increase to our DPS.

More engravings are likely to come out as we reach later phases so make sure to checkout our general Runes guide to get a better understanding of what all tools you have available to your Rogue.

3.

Notable Combat Rogue Talents

Precision Icon Precision increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 1% per rank, up to 5%. This talent is incredible as Hit rating is often hard to find on gear.

Improved Backstab Icon Improved Backstab increases your critical strike of your Backstab Icon Backstab ability by 10% per rank, up to 30%. Mutilate Icon Mutilate benefits from all talents that improve Backstab Icon Backstab unless stated otherwise, so maxing this talent increases the Critical Strike chance of your Mutilate Icon Mutilate by 30%.

Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry increases your attack speed by 20% and attacks strike additional nearby enemies. One of Rogues greatest limitations is their lack of AoE but this 2 minute cooldown allows you to deal massive cleave damage while it is active, especially when paired with Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush.

Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush Increases the rate your Energy regenerates by 100% for 15 seconds. The greatest limiting factor on damage output on a Rogue is your energy, increasing the rate your energy regenerates allows you to deal massive damage while this buff is active, it also synergizes incredibly well with other Runes/talents we have chosen such as Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry and Master of Subtlety Icon Master of Subtlety.

Relentless Strikes Icon Relentless Strikes causes your finishing moves to have a 20% chance per combo point spent to restore 25 energy. As Combat especially with Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush active you will be casting finishing abilities constantly so this talent will quickly return a ton of energy.

4.

Changelog

  • 24 Aug. 2024: Updated for Saber Slash change.
  • 21 Jul. 2024: Updated for Blunderbuss change.
  • 07 Jul. 2024: Updated for Phase 4.
  • 01 Apr. 2024: Updated for Phase 3.
  • 11 Feb. 2024: Updated for Phase 2.
  • 15 Dec. 2023: Guide updated.
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