Classic Rogue DPS Guide

Last updated on Oct 30, 2024 at 10:55 by Sellin 43 comments

Welcome to our Rogue DPS guide for WoW Classic, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play the Rogue class as DPS. Click the links #below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.

If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Rogue DPS guide.

1.

Introduction

Rogue has access to a lot of CC abilities such as Gouge Icon Gouge, Sap Icon Sap, Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot, and Blind Icon Blind, as well as Crippling Poison Icon Crippling Poison and Mind-numbing Poison Icon Mind-numbing Poison, which makes them incredibly useful in groups, especially dungeons. Rogues also have an ability called Expose Armor Icon Expose Armor, which is very useful in a group where either your Warrior tank is not using Sunder Armor Icon Sunder Armor or your group does not have a Warrior tank at all. If you are talented into Improved Expose Armor Icon Improved Expose Armor, then Expose Armor will reduce more armor than Sunder Armor.

1.1.

Season of Discovery

Find our new guides for Rogue in WoW Classic Season of Discovery below! The new game mode will have players find and utilize Runes that can then be engraved onto their gear to provide them special bonuses that augment already existing abilities or allow the class to use entirely new spells.

With the introduction of new Runes in Season of Discovery, not only will old builds be increased in power, but Rogue now has the option of being played as a Tank.

Strengths icon Strengths
  • +Has Lockpicking, which is a fantastic way to make gold without worrying about combat or survivability.
  • +Very powerful burst in PvP thanks to Stealth, allowing you to open on a target at your own discretion.
  • +Amazing crowd control abilities (Blind Icon Blind, Sap Icon Sap, Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot).
  • +High base damage on moves such as Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate makes them strong even when undergeared.
  • +Stealth allows safer exploration of areas.
Weaknesses icon Weaknesses
  • -Can be very difficult to level due to lack of self healing.
  • -Rogue is not able to do much AoE damage beyond Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry's cleave effect.
  • -Rogue abilities have long cooldowns that are very impactful, such as Vanish Icon Vanish, Evasion Icon Evasion, and Sprint Icon Sprint.
  • -Some abilities require reagents, which also take up inventory slots, such as Blind Icon Blind, Vanish Icon Vanish and poisons.
2.

How Do Poisons Work and Where To Get Them?

Poisons are incredibly powerful and one of the biggest class-specific things Rogue has available. You will get access to poisons at Level 20, after you complete the quest Mathias and the Defias (for Alliance) or Mission: Possible But Not Probable (for Horde). This quest will also give you access to the consumable recipe Recipe: Thistle Tea Icon Recipe: Thistle Tea. Poison has its own skill rating that starts at Level 100 and increases by 5 for each level, up to a maximum of 300. You can purchase all the reagents for poisons from the Poison Supplies vendor in any capital city, normally near the Rogue trainer. For more information about Rogue quests, please refer to our dedicated guide.

2.1.

List of Poisons

  • Instant Poison Icon Instant Poison is the main raiding and PvE poison. As Alliance, you will use this on both your weapons, and as Horde, you will only use it on your Off-Hand to benefit from Windfury Totem Icon Windfury Totem, granted by Shamans.
  • Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison provides more DPS than Instant Poison, but takes up a debuff slot, meaning you need to coordinate this with your Raid leader.
  • Wound Poison Icon Wound Poison is very effective when you are dealing with a Healer.
  • Mind-numbing Poison Icon Mind-numbing Poison is a fantastic poison for combat against Mages, Warlocks, and Priests.
  • Crippling Poison Icon Crippling Poison should be on both your Main Hand and Off-Hand, which will help you slow your target, thereby preventing an escape.
3.

Best Races for Rogue in Classic

Alliance Horde

The following is a list of best to worst race choices for Rogue when engaging in PvE content.

  1. Human
  2. Night Elf
  3. Gnome
  4. Dwarf

The following is a list of best to worst race choices for Rogue when engaging in PvP content.

  1. Gnome
  2. Dwarf
  3. Night Elf
  4. Human
3.1.

Human

Humans are the best race for Alliance PvE and raiding, mainly because of the racial passive Sword Specialization Icon Sword Specialization with the Combat Swords build. This will allow you to go over the 300 Weapon Skill cap at Level 60, which will further reduce your chance to miss an attack or get blocked, dodged, or parried. You will also gain the Racial cooldown Perception Icon Perception, which is great against other Rogues that are Stealth Icon Stealthed, or Druids that are stealthed with Prowl Icon Prowl.

You will also gain Diplomacy Icon Diplomacy, which helps with reputation grinds by increasing your reputation gain substantially. The Human Spirit Icon The Human Spirit grants you increased Spirit, which does not increase your damage directly, but instead increases your Health regeneration rate, which will help improve the leveling experience by decreasing the amount of time you have to wait in between pulling mobs. Lastly, you will get the Racial passive Mace Specialization Icon Mace Specialization, which does not benefit Rogues, since you will be using either Swords or Daggers.

3.2.

Dwarf

Dwarf is not as strong of a choice for Rogue as Human is for PvE content. For PvP, Dwarf has access to Stoneform Icon Stoneform, which removes all Poison, Bleed, and Disease effects, while also increasing your armor for the duration. This is incredibly powerful, letting you remove Rend Icon Rend from a Warrior, a poison effect from another Rogue, such as Crippling Poison Icon Crippling Poison, or removing other DoT effects in order to safely Stealth with Vanish Icon Vanish without it getting broken shortly after.

You will also gain the other Racials Find Treasure Icon Find Treasure, Frost Resistance Icon Frost Resistance (which will be useful in Naxxramas in later phases), and Gun Specialization Icon Gun Specialization.

3.3.

Night Elf

Night Elves have the Racial cooldown Shadowmeld Icon Shadowmeld, which passively increases your Stealth level. This does not make Night Elves better than the other available Alliance classes.

Nature Resistance Icon Nature Resistance is a slight Nature Resistance buff, which is great for the Night Elf starting areas, since there are a lot of Nature magic-based creatures. Wisp Spirit Icon Wisp Spirit allows for faster leveling, since it is very easy to die as a Rogue when you accidently pull too much, due to Rogue's lack of self-healing. Quickness Icon Quickness is a slight Dodge chance increase.

3.4.

Gnome

Gnome is the best choice for Alliance PvP, due to their Racial Ability Escape Artist Icon Escape Artist, which helps you get out of any movement impairing effects, such as Entangling Roots Icon Entangling Roots or Engineering Net Traps. Rogues also will usually have access to the talent Improved Sprint Icon Improved Sprint, which means, as a Gnome, you can run something other than that talent for something that adds more DPS. When it comes to PvE, Gnomes are not nearly as strong of a choice as Humans. Gnomes also have access to Arcane Resistance Icon Arcane Resistance, Expansive Mind Icon Expansive Mind, and Engineering Specialization Icon Engineering Specialization. Engineering Specialization will allow you to use higher tier Engineering bombs and other items than your level bracket will allow.

The following is a list of best to worst race choices for Rogue when engaging in PvE content.

  1. Orc
  2. Troll
  3. Undead

The following is a list of best to worst race choices for Rogue when engaging in PvE content.

  1. Orc
  2. Undead
  3. Troll
3.5.

Orc

Orcs have access to the Racial passive Hardiness Icon Hardiness, which is unbelievably powerful in PvP, meaning Orcs have a 30% total chance to resist stun effects. This is very strong in mirror matchups against other Rogues, since you will have an increased chance to resist Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot, as well as Engineering bombs. Orcs also have the cooldown Blood Fury Icon Blood Fury, which is an extremely powerful cooldown and one of the best Racials for PvE in general. When using this Racial in PvP, make sure to be mindful of the reduction in your healing effects, which lasts 10 seconds longer than the Attack Power buff. You also get the Racials Command Icon Command and Axe Specialization Icon Axe Specialization, which do not affect Rogues.

3.6.

Undead

Undead is another very strong choice for PvP, due to the Racial cooldown Will of the Forsaken Icon Will of the Forsaken, which can not only be used to get out of these status effects, but also to provide an immunity to them. This is not a useful cooldown for PvE.

Undead also have access to Shadow Resistance Icon Shadow Resistance, which is useful against Warlocks, Underwater Breathing Icon Underwater Breathing, and Cannibalize Icon Cannibalize.

3.7.

Troll

Trolls have access to the Racial cooldown Berserking Icon Berserking, which has a niche of being most effective at low health. Getting the full 30% requires you to be fairly low health, which is not something you actively want to do.

Trolls also have Regeneration Icon Regeneration (which is fantastic for leveling, as you will have to wait less time in between pulling mobs), Bow Specialization Icon Bow Specialization, Throwing Specialization Icon Throwing Specialization, and Beast Slaying Icon Beast Slaying, which do not have much impact on Rogue.

4.

Best Professions for Rogue

Professions can offer many unique and powerful benefits both inside and outside of combat and allow you to further optimize your damage output and survivability as a Rogue. As a Rogue, Engineering is far and away our best profession due to the power of many of the gadgets and gizmos you can create. Other professions offer mostly out of combat benefits.

Engineering allows you to craft all kinds of gadgets, gizmos and bombs to aid you in combat. As a Rogue, your AoE capabilities are incredibly limited so being able to add bombs like Goblin Sapper Charge Icon Goblin Sapper Charge allows you the ability to deal a quick burst of AoE damage which can help kill a group of hostile players or burn through a trash pack inside of a dungeon or raid. There are many other powerful gadgets like the Goblin Rocket Helmet Icon Goblin Rocket Helmet which adds another tool to our already massive arsenal of crowd controlling abilities allowing you to likely be able to re-stealth during a PvP encounter. If you decide to take Engineering consider pairing it with Mining which will allow you to farm your own materials that can otherwise be quite costly.

Gold is incredibly important in WoW Classic for a number of reasons and will be quite hard to come by, especially at the start. Check out the Rogue Goldmaking section for more information on other potential professions for making gold.

5.

Changelog

  • 30 Oct. 2024 (this page): Modernized page, combined several relevant pages together, and added Season of Discovery links.
  • 02 Dec. 2020 (gear page): Updated for Phase 6, added Naxrammas BiS Gear.
  • 02 Dec. 2020 (enchants page): Updated for the release of Phase 6, added new enchants from Naxxramas.
  • 02 Dec. 2020 (stats page): Updated for Phase 6.
  • 02 Dec. 2020 (rotation page): Updated for Phase 6, improved the Rotation section to be more optimized.
  • 02 Dec. 2020 (talents page): Changed notes on Seal Fate build's viability with release of Phase 6.
  • 06 Aug. 2020 (gear page): Guide updated for Phase 5.
  • 21 Jul. 2020 (gear page): Guide added.
  • 15 Apr. 2020 (enchants page): Updated for the release of Phase 4.
  • 27 Feb. 2020 (gear page): Updated recommended gear.
  • 11 Feb. 2020 (gear page): Revamped for Phase 3.
  • 10 Dec. 2019 (gear page): Added link to PvP BiS page.
  • 17 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Fixed drop source for Hand of Justice and location for The Unforgiving.
  • 15 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Updated for Phase 2.
  • 15 Oct. 2019 (gear page): Updated for the release of Dire Maul.
  • 14 Oct. 2019 (gear page): Added a Raid BiS list.
  • 29 Sep. 2019 (talents page): Fixed Ruthlessness' explanation.
  • 28 Sep. 2019 (talents page): Clarified description of Ruthlessness.
  • 14 Sep. 2019 (gear page): Updated Ring recommendations.
  • 09 Sep. 2019 (gear page): Updated some choices.
  • 05 Sep. 2019 (gear page): Updated some choices.
  • 26 Aug. 2019 (enchants page): Added a note about Grilled Squid.
  • 16 Aug. 2019 (rotation page): Improved rotation.
  • 13 Aug. 2019 (enchants page): Added Winterfall Firewater to consumables list.
  • 13 Aug. 2019 (stats page): Added much more detail about the stats.
  • 13 Aug. 2019 (talents page): Added the Seal Fate Dagger build guide.
  • 13 Aug. 2019 (spells page): Added more info about Lockpicking and Pickpocketing.
  • 13 Aug. 2019 (this page): Added more detail to the races and poisons sections.
  • 20 Jun. 2019 (gear page): Page added.
  • 20 Jun. 2019 (enchants page): Page added.
  • 20 Jun. 2019 (stats page): Page added.
  • 20 Jun. 2019 (rotation page): Page added.
  • 20 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Page added.
  • 20 Jun. 2019 (spells page): Page added.
  • 20 Jun. 2019 (this page): Page added.
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