World of Warcraft Rogue Guide

The Rogue is one of my favorite classes in WoW. In this World of Warcraft Rogue Guide, I will be going over basic and advanced techniques for playing the Rogue class.

If you are not sure what to play or are thinking about leveling an alt, I would definitely recommend leveling up a rogue, as they are great at leveling and PvP at all levels. Additionally, there are a lot of fun to play!

Rogue Basics

There are a couple things to know about Rogue combat. Rogues have two sources of damage: special abilities and auto-attacking. The damage of any special ability (including poisons, weapon procs, and rogue abilities that cost energy) is displayed as yellow damage. Auto-attacking is displayed as white damage.

Rogues have special global cooldown of only 1 second. This means that a rogue can use an ability every second, whereas other classes have to wait 1.5 seconds in between abilities. This gives the Rogue class a much "faster" feel to them since you can use your abilities more rapidly.

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Rogues use energy for their offensive special attacks (buffs and other abilities which do not do damage do not always cost energy). Without any gear or talents, Rogues have 100 energy. Energy regenerates at a rate of 10 energy per second. By applying basic math, you can see that allows you to use a 40 energy move (like Sinister Strike) every 2 seconds.

As you perform special abilities, you generate combo points. Combo points can be spent on finishers (like Eviscerate).

Before moving onto the next part of this World of Warcraft Rogue guide, I should mention that most players ignore the fact that auto-attacking (white damage) makes up a large portion (nearly 50%) of a Rogue's damage. The other key point is that Rogue's auto attacks miss all the time! As a result, + Hit Rating is a great stat for Rogues, even at a low level.

I am not going to go over a basic ability list. You can find this information in game at the class trainer! Instead, the rest of this World of Warcraft Rogue guide will focus on some key points that will allow you utterly dominant newbies and other bad PvPers in online play.

Killer Rogue Tips

Most players, from the level they get Kidney Shot all the way to end-game simply do not understand how stuns work. Stuns are not just a time your opponent is unable to attack, but rather are much more than that.

When an enemy is stunned, he or she cannot dodge attacks. This means that all of your auto-attacks will hit during a stun. In other words, stuns actually deal some damage, so you cannot say "Eviscerate/Envenom/Whatever deals 2000 damage, therefore Eviscerate does 3000 more damage than Kidney Shot". Due to 100% hit rate during stuns, the damage gap is much less.

Since players cannot dodge while stunned, you not only lose your off-hand hit penalty (something like 24% miss rate), you also make up for any % Dodge/Block/Parry the enemy may have. This adds up to huge amounts of damage.

A key way to implement this strategy in Player vs Player to build up a full 5 combo points, then regenerate to full energy. Once you hit full energy, use your Kidney Shot on the opponent, then spend all your energy while he is stunned (Sinister Strike, Backstab, etc), then drop your second set of combo points on a finisher like Eviscerate or Envenom.

That huge energy dump in addition to the white damage you deal plus the fact the enemy cannot respond during stuns gives you a massive advantage over your opponent. It is so easy to execute, but 90% of Rogues do not do it - just a bigger advantage for you in the end!

More on Dodge

Monsters and other players alike cannot dodge attacks from behind. Literally, if you are behind your enemy, their % dodge drops to the default 5%. If you are attacking a Rogue with 30% dodge, all your attacks will land from behind (this is why Backstab almost never misses!).

Right away, I know who a bad player is by seeing who is attacking from the front. Not only do you have to deal with evasion, but enemies can parry you from the front (blocking your attack and dealing more damage to the tank!) and block your attacks as well. Use Crippling Poison to help you attack from behind your enemies.

This goes both ways. Never turn your back to a Warrior. If you have good gear, odds are your dodge will be 30%+ and your parry will be at 5%. You have a 1/3 chance to dodge attacks if you are facing your opponent; this drops to zero as soon as you turn away.

I will take getting hit by an Overpower in order to dodge the Mortal Strike! Putting up Evasion and facing the Warrior makes you practically immune. Be sure to stay in range so he cannot intercept you (stuns take your dodge to 0%, as mentioned before earlier).

Using Vanish

Here is the last tip of this World of Warcraft Rogue guide, and it is one of the best! Be sure not to only use Vanish to go back into Stealth or completely escape combat. The best Rogues use Vanish equally as an offensive and defensive tactic.

Vanish breaks roots, and Rogues without Shadowstep are very susceptible to kiting. You need to think of Vanish as another root break in your toolbox! Do not let an Ice Mage crawl away with 20 Health as you are stuck in a Frost Nova; use Vanish and catch up to him (you have Crippling Poison on around the clock).

Additionally, Vanish can be used to get an instant "openers" (attacks that can only be used from Stealth, like Cheap Shot and Ambush). Good players will know when an extra Cheap Shot will win the game and will use Vanish to get it.

Finally, Vanish also makes you immune to any projectile spells in the air. If you time your Vanish just right, any spells in the air will not hit you. If you see a big Pyroblast coming your way, just click Vanish. If you do it right before it hits you, you will not take any damage. When your timing gets really good enough, you can dodge any spell such as Death Coil and even Psychic Scream!

Thus concludes the World of Warcraft Rogue guide. Please apply the strategies in this guide; your allies will appreciate it! If you are looking get the best gear and win the most arenas and battlegrounds with your rogue, I would strongly recommend picking up WoW Crusher:

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