WoW Classic Sword Rogue Leveling Talent Build from 1 to 60

Last updated on Nov 16, 2024 at 06:56 by Sellin 44 comments

On this page, you will find our Level by Level Sword Combat Rogue leveling guide for WoW Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Rogue leveling guide. We also have a Dagger Rogue leveling guide.

If you were looking for TBC Classic advice, please refer to our TBC Classic Combat Rogue leveling guide.

1.

Sword Rogue Level by Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 60
1.1.

Talent Tree

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Combat Rogue Talents Level 10 to 19
Sword Rogue Talents Level 10 to 19
Combat Rogue Talents Level 20 to 29
Sword Rogue Talents Level 20 to 29
Combat Rogue Talents Level 30 to 39
Sword Rogue Talents Level 30 to 39
Combat Rogue Talents Level 40 to 49
Sword Rogue Talents Level 40 to 49
Combat Rogue Talents Level 50 to 60
Sword Rogue Talents Level 50 to 60
  1. Levels 10 & 11 — 2 points in Improved Sinister Strike Icon Improved Sinister Strike
  2. Levels 12 to 14 — 3 points in Improved Gouge Icon Improved Gouge
  3. Levels 15 to 19 — 5 points in Deflection Icon Deflection

Improved Sinister Strike Icon Improved Sinister Strike is a very powerful talent that also helps reduce the cost of Sinister Strike from 45 energy to 40 when you have 2 points in the talent. Improved Gouge Icon Improved Gouge increases your Gouge Icon Gouge duration from 4 seconds to 5.5, which is fantastic when you want to stun the target and bandage yourself or pool energy while maintaining a healthy life amount. Deflection Icon Deflection is a means to get Riposte Icon Riposte but also helps you proc Riposte, it is a powerful defensive talent that later turns a bit more offensive.

  1. Level 20 — 1 point in Riposte Icon Riposte
  2. Levels 21 & 22 — 2 points in Endurance Icon Endurance
  3. Levels 23 & 24 — 2 points in Improved Sprint Icon Improved Sprint
  4. Levels 25 to 29 — 5 points in Precision Icon Precision

Riposte Icon Riposte is fantastic when you are questing or when you pull aggro in dungeons. It not only deals a significant amount of damage but also disarms the target. Endurance Icon Endurance significantly decreases the cooldown of Sprint Icon Sprint and Evasion Icon Evasion, which increases your survivability and decreases your travel time. The reduced cooldown on Sprint is also desirable to make travel less time consuming in WoW Classic. Improved Sprint Icon Improved Sprint is good for escapes and to counter movement impairing effects. Precision Icon Precision is a required talent for nearly all builds since your chance to hit is such an important stat.

  1. Level 30 — 1 point in Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry
  2. Levels 31 to 35 — 5 points in Dual Wield Specialization Icon Dual Wield Specialization
  3. Levels 36 to 38 — 3 points in Aggression Icon Aggression
  4. Level 39 — 1 point in Weapon Expertise Icon Weapon Expertise

Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry allows you to not only DPS more than 1 target at once, but it also increases your attack speed making it a strong single-target cooldown as well. Dual Wield Specialization Icon Dual Wield Specialization is a major DPS increase and is a staple in nearly all Rogue builds. Aggression Icon Aggression is very powerful for the sword leveling build since Sinister Strike Icon Sinister Strike is your main combo point generator as a sword Rogue. Weapon Expertise Icon Weapon Expertise is not only a means to get to Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush but also provides more weapon skills, which is one of your strongest stats.

  1. Level 40 — 1 point in Weapon Expertise Icon Weapon Expertise
  2. Level 41 — 1 point in Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush
  3. Levels 42 to 46 — 5 points in Malice Icon Malice
  4. Levels 47 to 49 — 3 points in Improved Slice and Dice Icon Improved Slice and Dice

Adrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush increases your energy generation rate from 20 to 40 energy every 2 seconds. This is your strongest DPS cooldown and something that you want to utilize with Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry and multiple mobs for maximum damage. Malice Icon Malice is one of the stronger early talents in the Assassination tree, making it a strong choice to access the rest of the tree. Improved Slice and Dice Icon Improved Slice and Dice significantly increases the uptime of Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice, which is a very powerful buff that you will be trying to keep up as much as possible (the talent allows you to keep a high uptime while spending less combo points on refreshing the buff). You can choose to talent into Improved Eviscerate Icon Improved Eviscerate instead of Murder Icon Murder, as the choice between the 2 is fairly close; Murder is, however, slightly more niche of a choice. Improved Slice and Dice Icon Improved Slice and Dice is also something that can be swapped out and you can use both Murder and Improved Eviscerate together in the place of Improved Slice and Dice, if you do not plan on doing dungeons and instead plan on world leveling.

  1. Levels 50 & 51 — 2 points in Murder Icon Murder
  2. Level 52 — 1 point in Relentless Strikes Icon Relentless Strikes
  3. Levels 53 to 57 — 5 points in Lethality Icon Lethality
  4. Levels 58 to 60 — 3 points in Ruthlessness Icon Ruthlessness

Murder Icon Murder is a niche option. However if you are consistently fighting against Humanoid, Giant, Beast, or Dragonkin targets then this is a good option. If not, then you can put the points into Improved Eviscerate Icon Improved Eviscerate instead. Relentless Strikes Icon Relentless Strikes is something that you want to use your finishing moves at 5 combo points only in order to fully take advantage of. Lethality Icon Lethality is a strong talent that really shines the more critical chance you get and is great when paired with Malice Icon Malice. Ruthlessness Icon Ruthlessness is what you can finish off your talent tree with. However, you can also choose to take 1 point from Weapon Expertise Icon Weapon Expertise and the 3 points from Ruthlessness Icon Ruthlessness and put those 4 points into Sword Specialization Icon Sword Specialization instead.

2.

Leveling Rotation

You start with Sinister Strike Icon Sinister Strike, Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate, and Throw Icon Throw, with the ability to buy Stealth Icon Stealth from your class trainer when you get 10 copper (which you can choose to wait with until Level 4).

  1. Maintain the Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice buff.
  2. Use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate at 5 combo points.
  3. Use Backstab Icon Backstab with a dagger until you get level 10 and can buy your Sword Weapon Mastery from a trainer.
  4. Use Gouge Icon Gouge whenever you can in order to minimize the damage that you will take. You can pool Energy, use Gouge, then go behind your target to Backstab Icon Backstab them until you start using Swords, in which case you will pool to use Sinister Strike Icon Sinister Strike instead.
  5. Use Vanish Icon Vanish if your threat is too high and you are in danger of pulling aggro.
  6. Use Sinister Strike Icon Sinister Strike to build combo points.
2.1.

Multi-Target Rotation

As a Rogue, you have limited AoE. Your 2 ways to do AoE are either the talent Blade Flurry Icon Blade Flurry or the explosives from the Engineering skill.

2.2.

Summary of Trainer Skills for Sword Rogue

At level 16 your class trainer will offer you a quest to unlock the Pick Lock Icon Pick Lock skill.

3.

Rogue Quest Guide

While leveling, Rogue gains a huge power spike when they complete their level 20 class quest and get access to Poisons and Thistle Tea. Below are links to our guide Class Quests for Rogues.

4.

How to Advance as a Rogue at Level 60

Well done on hitting maximum level in WoW Classic! Now that leveling is over, you can learn more about level 60 gameplay by reading our DPS Rogue Guide, which covers every facet of gameplay at 60 in detail.

The best individual pages to read through are as follows.

  • The DPS Rogue Talent builds guide has the best builds for Level 60 covered. We propose builds for all specializations, with a focus on Combat for raiding.
  • Our PvP Rogue guide is where you can find the best PvP builds for Rogue.
  • Goldmaking Guide for Rogues is a page with details on where / how to farm gold quickly as a Rogue when you are Level 60.
  • The DPS Rogue Rotation guide is where you can read on how to optimize your PvE damage and how to prioritize your abilities.
  • DPS Rogue Stats guide contains detailed information on all Rogue stats, including a list of their priority for damage dealing.
  • Our Gear guide for DPS Rogues lists all the optimal pieces of gear that you will want to farm at Level 60, in order to optimize your damage with a pre-BiS list for those trying to gear up for raiding.
5.

Changelog

  • 16 Nov. 2024: Updated for Classic re-release.
  • 08 Apr. 2021: Added a small note about lock picking.
  • 28 Feb. 2021: Set the level slider to start at level 60.
  • 23 Oct. 2019: Added note about only buying Rank 2 Backstab if you do not have Sword Specialization.
  • 02 Oct. 2019: Page added.
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