Home WotLK Classic Classes WotLK Classic Rogue Guide

Welcome to the Overgear WoW WotLK Rogue Guide. Here you can get acquainted with the class, its cons, and pros, and find a lot of useful information to bring your WotLK Rogue gameplay to the next level. Grab your coffee and some cookies as it is time to start!

WotLK Rogues Overview

Rogues are a deadly light-armored class who specializes in stealthiness, various WotLK Rogue poisons, and landing fast mortal attacks. Playing this class during the fight you should build combo points to spend them for the most powerful Rogue abilities like Envenom, Eviscerate, or Rupture, chopping enemies in a ninja style. One of the reasons to play this class is their iconic ability Stealth which helps Rogues to sneak around in the most dangerous parts of the world.

Rogue Spec choice

In this part, you can find some information about class specializations and choose the one that fits your Wrath Classic gameplay.

Assassination

WotLK Classic Rogue Guide

Assassination Rogue WotLK are dagger-wielding killers that utilize bleeds and poisons to disable even the strongest enemies. Don’t be fooled by the view of their weapons as the size is compensated by lightning-like attack speed. WotLK Assassination Rogue PvE specialization can give you a lot of fun if you try it.

StrengthsWeaknesses
  • Incredible single target damage;
  • Easy to gear up as it is the only class that uses two daggers;
  • Simple rotation that is friendly to new players.
  • No decent cleave damage;
  • Poor scaling in later phases.

Utility: Master Poisoner applies a 3% crit chance debuff on a target. Absolutely must-have for every raid and party.

Combat

WotLK Classic Rogue Guide

WoW WotLK Combat Rogue use stealth to sneak into the battle and then start their death dance cleaving and wounding enemies. The weapon arsenal is pretty wide as you can choose between swords, axes, maces, and fist weapons. Still, Combat Rogues are shrouded with a veil of secrets because dead bodies don’t tell stories.

StrengthsWeaknesses
  • Awesome single target damage;
  • Decent AOE and cleave damage;
  • Simple rotation that has barely changed since TBC.
  • Hard to gear up;
  • Gear-dependent specialization.

Utility: Savage Combat increases physical damage taken by poisoned enemies by 4%.

Subtlety

WotLK Classic Rogue Guide

Classically it is considered to be a PvP specialization. Subtlety Rogues stalk their victims in shadows waiting for an appropriate moment to strike. Once Subtlety Rogue chooses a target it can be considered already dead as these brutal murderers know no mercy. Enemies pray to gods begging to cover them from the eyes of infamous Horde assassination guilds or Alliance SI:7 organization.

StrengthsWeaknesses
  • Unbelievable amount of CC;
  • Great burst damage;
  • Fun to play specialization as it helps you to feel a real Rogue.
  • Squishy and easy to die;
  • Hard to master.

WotLK Classic Rogue Changes

Wrath of the Lich King Classic expansion brings in some class changes to the game. Rogues get some new abilities like:

  • Fan of knives – that will help Rogues to compete with AOE classes and not fall behind during huge pulls;
  • Dismantle – disarm mechanic is now available for Rogues. There is nothing much to say here;
  • Tricks of the trade – transfer your generated threat to the tank or any other target you want;
  • Hunger for blood – Assassination Rogue ability. Can be improved with Glyph. Requires a bleed effect on a target to be activated;
  • Killing Spree – Combat Rogue ability. Using it with Blade Fury and trinket procs might cause insane damage;
  • Shadow Dance – Subtlety Rogue ability. Makes it possible to use stealth-requiring abilities without actually being stealthed;
  • Feint – rank 8 now reduces the damage Rogues take from AOE damage.

WotLK Rogue Talents

Now it’s time to speak about the most popular WotLK Rogue talents and builds including WotLK Rogue Glyphs. Of course, you can change these builds for yourself, but it will not be superfluous to see the basis of WotLK Rogue talent tree.

Assassination [51/13/7]: this is the choice for the early game. Gear doesn’t affect this build much, allowing Lich King Classic Rogues to feel comfortable at the very beginning of the WotLK Classic expansion.

WotLK Classic Rogue Guide

Combat [20/51/0]: great all-around variant for a sword or axe-wielding Rogues to go. Note that if you are using maces or fist weapons/daggers then Mace specialization or Close Quarters.

Combat should be respectively chosen over Hack and Slash talent.

WotLK Classic Rogue Guide

PvP Subtlety [12/3/56]: standard PvP build. It is all about Eviscerate damage and a lot of CC.

WotLK Classic Rogue Guide

WotLK Classic Rogue Stats

As is common in WoW, depending on your specialization, there are specific options for stats on your gear.

Assassination [51/13/7]Combat [20/51/0]PvP Subtlety [12/3/56]
  1. Hit rating (up to 237)
  2. Expertise rating (up to 214 rating)
  3. Attack power
  4. Haste rating
  5. Agility
  6. Crit rating
  7. Armor penetration rating
  8. Strength
  1. Hit rating (up to 237 rating)
  2. Expertise rating (up to 132 including Race Expertise Bonus like Humans, Dwarves and Orcs have)
  3. Armor penetration rating (up to 1400 rating, or 1190 rating for Mace Specialization)
  4. Attack power
  5. Agility
  6. Haste rating
  7. Crit rating
  8. Strength
  1. Hit Rating (up to 164)
  2. Expertise (up to 60)
  3. Resilience (700-1300)
  4. Armor Penetration
  5. Attack Power
  6. Agility
  7. Critical Strike Chance

WotLK Classic Rogue Best Race

Of course, no one makes you play for imposed combination, but the perfect mix of class and race can take you to the next level. If you want to find best Rogue Race WotLK just check the list.

HordeAlliance
  1. Orc
  2. Troll
  3. Blood Elf
  4. Undead
  1. Human
  2. Dwarf
  3. Gnome
  4. Night Elf
WotLK Classic Leveling!
Get any level you want!
WotLK Classic Rogue Guide 5.0

WotLK Classic Rogue Consumables, Chants & Gems

One more step to improve your WoW Classic performance that depends on your chosen specialization.

Assassination

GemsChantsConsumables

Combat

GemsChantsConsumables

PvP Subtlety

GemsChantsConsumables

WotLK Classic Rogue Best Professions

Professions are a very important part of the World of Warcraft game as it provides players with some great bonuses. As for Rogues we recommend choosing both Engineering and Jewelcrafting.

Engineering is a very useful all-around profession that helps both in PvP and PvE. For example, Hyperspeed Accelerators will increase your damage. Nitro Boosts will not only give you some crit chance but will also help you to run away from danger, combining with Sprint ability you will be fast and furious.

Talking about Jewelcrafting we should mention those unique gems like Fractured Dragon’s Eye. They provide great bonuses and can only be used by Jewelcrafters. Also, this profession is a great choice for gold making as you can sell a variety of items on the Auction House.

WotLK Classic Rogue Rotation

No one bothers you to create your own Rogue style and use even not-so-popular abilities in PvP and PvE. But at the first time, you can use popular and effective rotations from the list below. You are always welcome If you want to improve them and already understand how.

Assassination

Everything is pretty straightforward here, your main goal is to maintain Slice and Dice, Hunger for Blood, and Envenom at any cost.

Priority:

  1. Slice and Dice if it is not already applied;
  2. Rupture but you can skip this if your target is already bleeding;
  3. Hunger for Blood every minute;
  4. Envenom at 4-5 CP;
  5. Mutilate to generate combo points;
  6. Spam Fan of Knives if there are 6+ enemies around.

Combat

For TBC players rotation might ring a bell as it hasn’t changed much since the previous expansion.

Priority:

  1. Blade Flurry;
  2. Killing Spree;
  3. Adrenaline Rush;
  4. Maintain Slice and Dice buff;
  5. Maintain Rupture on your target;
  6. Eviscerate at 4-5 CP;
  7. Sinister Strike to generate CPs.

Combining Blade Flurry and Killing Spree helps to deal massive AoE damage. As soon as Killing Spree ends use Adrenaline Rush and keep on spamming Fan of Knives.

PvP Subtlety

There is no such thing as PvP rotation because you are playing against real people and in most cases, you have to make fast decisions depending on the situation trying to predict your enemy. But we can imagine an ideal situation and in that case, your rotation will be the following:

  1. Sap;
  2. Premeditation;
  3. Slice and Dice;
  4. Cheap Shot or Garrote against casters;
  5. Hemorrhage to generate CP and if you are not behind your target;
  6. Backstab to generate CP and if you are behind your target;
  7. Kidney Shot;
  8. Shadow Dance;
  9. Spam Ambush and keep spending your CPs using  Eviscerate and Rupture for longer fights.

Use any CC like Blind or Gouge that will help you to restealth and repeat your rotation.

WotLK Classic Rogue Phase 1 BiS Lists

Now let’s talk about WotLK Rogue BiS for every specialization in Phase 1 (Naxxramas loot in most cases), including pre-raid BiS.

WotLK Rogue Pre-raid BiS

AssassinationCombat

WotLK Rogue BiS List

Assassination Rogue Bis WotLKCombat Rogue Bis WotLKPvP Subtlety Rogue Bis WotLK

WotLK Rogue PvP

In this part, we are mainly talking about PvP Subtlety Rogue as this tree offers tonnes of CC and burst damage. Keep in mind that WotLK PvP Rogue also has healing reduction poison, with that being said you have all the needed tools for comfortable PvP. Do not relax because Subtlety Rogue is hard to master but once you do that nobody can stop you. Try out the following Arena compositions that are considered to be the best.

2v2 comps3v3 comps
  • Sub Rogue + Shadow Priest
  • Sub Rogue + Feral Druid
  • Sub Rogue + Disc Priest
  • Sub Rogue + Disc Priest + Feral Druid
  • Sub Rogue + Disc Priest + Frost Mage
  • Sub Rogue + Resto Druid + Affliction Warlock

WotLK Classic Rogue Macros

At last, some basic macros that help you in various situations.

Tricks of the Trade

This macro uses the spell on a DPS that you mention in it. Note that you have to insert your target’s NAME.

#showtooltip
/cast [target=NAME] Tricks of the Trade
/cancelaura Tricks of the Trade

Focus kick

Kicks your focused target… Nuff said.

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus, exists, harm, nodead] Kick


Thanks for reading our guide, we hope you enjoyed it and found something useful here. We would appreciate your feedback and don’t forget to rate our WotLK Rogue Guide.

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