Credits to Azeroth CookBook One of the unique features of the World of Warcraft Rogue is in the use of poisons. Rogues are the only WoW class that can apply them. The poisons have a variety of effects, ranging from crippling (slows movement) to mind numbing (slows casting speed) to lethal (adds damage.) The poisons don’t apply with every strike, and they’re aren’t devestating to the opponent, but they do have an effect and are pretty useful to have, especially in PvP. So do the quest and be toxic. The general overview of the quest for both sides is the same.

1. Get the quest from the head Rogue dude
2. go to a tower
3. pickpocket a key
4. climb the tower
5. open a chest, get the item, get poisoned
6. return to the head Rogue dude to hand in the quest
7. get unpoisoned (if you haven’t already.)

You can grab the poison quest at level 20. Naturally, the Alliance quest is pretty easy and the Horde quest can’t be done by a 20 Rogue, not solo anyway, unless she’s very good. Here are the details, Alliance first, Horde further down.  

Alliance Rogue Poison Quest

Once you hit level 20 get yourself to the SI:7 building in Southwest Stormwind, climb to the top floor, and talk to Mathias, the leader of SI:7. He’ll give you the quest Mathias and the Defias. By the way, you can do this entire quest without killing anything, for the pacifists among you. You might want to bring some anti-venom. The stuff you make with the first aid skill is fine or you can (usually) buy it off the auction house.

1. head to Sentinel Hill, in Westfall, then head Southeast to 68,70.
2. You’ll see a tower with some 24s patrolling. A bit NorthWest of the tower is the person you want to talk to, Agent Kearnen. She’s hard to see, so look for the “?”
3. She’s a trusting sort, like Mathias, and won’t even ask for a password. She’ll give you the quest to get a key and then open a chest in the tower.
4. DO NOT enter the tower yet.
5. Pickpocket the Malformed Defias Drone first and get the key from him.
6. After you have the key stealth up the tower. Avoid or kill the patrols (lev 24) at your pleasure.
7. Klaven is at the top, guarding the chest. Kill or sap him, he’s only level 23 and is not an elite.
8. Then open the chest, get the journal, get poisoned with The Touch of Zanzil.
9. use the anti-venom to get rid of the Zanzil
10. Go back to SI:7 and hand it in. You’ll get the thistle tea recipe (Thistle Tea is very nice) and you’ll learn the poisons skill.
11. If you need the cure for the poison then he’ll send you downstairs (get Touch of Zanzil quest) for the cure. No xp for this quest though.
12. You’re done. Check out the trainer to see if he has some more poison recipes for you, there should be at leat one, and then talk to the shady dealer or the poison vendor and make some poisons!

Just for fun, if you want to work up your poison skill the Instant poison goes yellow at 125. So I capped my skill at 140 just from making instant poison. Yes, that means I was 28 when I did the quest. The chest in the tower, unlike the Horde chest, can only be picked once. So you can’t use it to level your lockpicking. I tried. Sigh.

Horde Rogue Poison Quest

Horde has this one a bit tougher than the Alliance, but since the Horde ARE tougher… Any level 20 Alliance Rogue should be able to solo their quest, no sweat. A level 20 Horde Rogue won’t be able to solo this one without help or some serious twinkage. So grab a pal or two. It’s not the level 22 guards that you have to think so much about, it’s the level 23 Elite you have to kill. Also, you should bring an anti-venom with you. The one from your 1st aid training will work just fine. To start:

1. Speak with the troll Shenthul in Orgrimmar, in the Cleft of Shadow, at 43,53. He’ll have you do a salute. Just type /salute to complete it.
2. Next you’ll do the Deep Cover quest and travel to the Venture Co. Tower, north of the Sludge Fen (Northern Barrens) and contact the Shattered Hand’s covert operative, Taskmaster Fizzule. Be warned that Fizzule is extremely cautious.
3. Note that Shenthul gave you a flare gun. You will have to use it to let Fizzulke know you’re coming. He’s at 55,05.
4. Use the flare gun twice, as per your instructions, then approach Fizzule and use the salute, or else he’ll kill you as the Ally spy you obviously are. (use /salute) Guess he’s a little more careful, or a little more paranoid, than Alliance Agent Kearnen, who’ll talk to any Rogue at all.
5. Fizzule will give you the quest: Mission: Possible But Not Probable
6. DO NOT enter the tower yet.
7. Pickpocket Foreman Silixiz at the base of the tower, to get his key. Do not kill him until you have the key. He won’t drop it, you have to pickpocket him to get the key. Then kill him if you like.
8. Then kill two of each type of wandering mob - patrollers, drones, and lookouts.
9. The Alliance didn’t have to kill anyone. Wimps.
10. Get to the top of the tower and kill the 23 Elite Grand Foreman Gallywix who’s guarding the chest. Since you need his head, and he won’t just hand it to you willingly, sapping him just isn’t enough.
11. this is no longer true. The box can now only be opened once. I guess Bliz thought it was too easy on Rogues to let it be picked many times.
12.  this no longer applies since the box can’t be multi-picked.
13. Open the chest (with the key,) get the goods, get poisoned, cure the poison with your anti-venom, head back to Shenthul to complete the quest and get the next one, Hinott’s Assistance.
14. Head to Tarren Mills in the Hillsbrad foothills, and deliver the Sample of Zanzil’s Mixture to Serge Hinott. Serge is the Alchemy Trainer in the first building on the left when you come into TM. Serge will give you your poison skill and cure your Touch of Zanzil (if you haven’t cured it already.) Alliance just have to go downstairs from their trainer to get the cure. Lazy so and sos…
15. Then return to any rogue trainer and get any new poison recipes that are available. Talk to the the poison dealer, and make your poisons.

And you’re done. Woot. Now go kill something. The Azeroth Cookbook is a WoW blog with World Of Warcraft tips, guides, PvP and general info, but very little cooking.

Credits to: Azerath Cookbook

As we all know the Rogue lockpicking skill is the path to riches, glory, rep… Well, ok. Maybe not. Still, it does have it’s uses, such as opening doors, chests, and boxes in raids. It might result in some nice tips if you want to park in a major city and advertise that you’re opening lockboxes.

Lockpicking is one of the skills, like your weapon skill, which is locked to your level. So if you start your lockpicking career at level 16 then your max possble skill will be 80. If you start at 70 (why wait?) than you’ll max out at 350. Of course, when the Lich King expansion comes out and the level cap is raised to 80 you’ll get a max of 400 skill.   If you’re a lower level Rogue then your path to lockpicking will be a bit different from that of someone building it when they’re already 70.

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In a nutshell, for the lower level rogue: Do the lockpicking quest and pick the practice locks until your skill is capped. Then you’ll pickpocket all the rest of the boxes you’ll need for the rest of your career. That’s about it. Sap and/or your Distraction ability (picked up at level 22) will be invaluable for this. All humanoid mobs in the game, at least after level 18, have some chance of dropping a lockbox when you pick their pockets. This includes Undead, Nagas, Birdmen, Orcs, Demons, Ogres (and just what is in those pockets?) and so on. Make it a routine to always pick their pockets, then kill them. You’ll generally find it easy to keep your skill capped this way. These lockboxes usually contain herbs used for the Vanish ability and for the poisons, some vender junk, and on rare occasions something valuable. For example, I’ve found Living Rubies a couple of time in these boxes. On my server they sell for 60g a pop. If you’re high level and trying to powerlevel your lockpicking then the drill goes something like this:

• Head to the area with the lockpicking quest and pick locks until the chests turn grey or you can’t take the tedium anymore.
• Then either find some mobs of the appropriate level (mobs that drop the right boxes for your skill level) and pick their pockets or find a location with footlockers lying around and pick those.

The Horde has a poison quest which involves a lockbox at the final location. The Alliance side has the poison quest, but the box can only be opened once. edit - Things have changed and now the Horde box can only be picked once. I guess Bliz thought that picking the one box many times was just too easy. Darn. By the way, you don’t actually have to do the quests. You can buy your thieves tools off a trade goods vendor, you get the skill from your trainer, and you can go and pick the boxes at any time. Do the quests for the XP and any items that may appear as rewards. All of these quests are part of a chain. See your Rogue trainer for details. Naturally, any Horde or Alliance who like to live a little more dangerously can get the lockpicking practice in at the other side’s area. Rogue Lockpicking Quest for Alliance

1. Find Lucius in Lakeshore, in Redridge. He’s on the warf.
2. Get the quest from him. Your reward will be the certificate of thievery and some snide remarks.
3. Run up to Alther’s Mill. Watch for Orcs behind the rocks and trees on the road. Click the image for a larger view. Alther’s Mill is in the center of the map.
4. At the mill you’ll see several small dark chests in addition to your target. In the screenshot the practice chests are on the right and the quest chest is on the left.
5. Work the practice chests until your skill is at least 80. The easiest way to do this is to stand where you can target three boxes at once. Each box will disappear when picked, then reappear a moment later. With three in range you’ll never lack for something to pick. Also, you won’t care about the frost traps hitting you since you won’t have to move.
6. Next, go and open the target chest and grab the item. Unlike the Horde side there’s nothing in the chest waiting to eat you, such as level 50 parrots…
7. Return to Lucius to complete the quest and get your certificate and more snide remarks.

Rogue Lockpicking Quest for the Horde

1. The Horde quest is a it different in that the mobs that will kill you consist of low level (12-13) pirates before you get to the ship, and one giant parrot near the target box. Alliance Rogues just have to get by some big spiders and level 22 Orcs on the way to their mill.
2. Go find Wrentex the Wretched in Ratchett (the Barrens) and get the quest Plundering the Plunderers from him. He’s just a little north of the flight master. In the screenshot (click for a bigger pic) the flypoint is right behind me, so he’s just north of it.
3. Get your E.C.A.C. and Thieves’ Tools from Wrenix’s Gizmotronic Apparatus.
4. You should also have a cracker in your inventory. Put this into an open slot on your action bar. You’ll need it later.
5. Head south from Ratchett, along the coast, and you’ll see the ship.   Note the spike off the bow of the ship, you’ll run along that to board her.
6. Run the the back of the ship, enter the room, and pick boxes until  your skill is at least 30, I’d stay until it was 80 or 85. If you’re 20+ you can pick these until your skill hits 100, but it will take some time. Stand where you can target two or thee boxes at the same time. That way you can ignore the traps. By the way, the rat (that you will turn into) can pick the locks, too. The screenie shows the chests. The quest chest is downstairs.
7. Go to the lowest level of the ship and head to the back of the room  where you’ll see your target chest. It’s hard to see in this shot, but it’s just under the lamp in the back of the room.
8. Be prepared to fight a level 18 parrot, but first…
9. Pick the lock, then stealth, then right click the cracker. The level 50 parrot (which spawns in the next room) will dwindle to level 18 and then you can kill it. Click the cracker before you attack the parrot.
10. Kill Polly, head back to Wrentex, and hand it in.

Blood Elf Lockpicking

1. Assuming you’re leveling in the Ghostlands, you’re going to go see Eralan in Tranquillien, who wants you to retrieve the Pitted Gold Band from the Amani Catacombs. He’ll provide the tools, you provide the anti-troll capability.
2. Unlike the other quests you’re going to do a lot of fighting here. Prepare appropriately.
3. You’ll head to the Armani Catacombs, just west of Farstrider Enclave in the Ghostlands. Kill trolls and pick locks until your lockpicking is 100 (assuming you’re 20+,) the chests turn grey, or you just can’t take it anymore. There’s also an escort quest in here and one or two others that you might do at the same time, such as Troll JuJu.
4. Unlike the other quests, these chests occasionally drop something interesting.

Raising Your Lockpicking Past 80 Talk to your friendly neighborhood Rogue Trainer to get the next location to raise your lockpicking skills. Otherwise, if you’re Horde, the Rogue’s Poison Quest is the next best opportunity to level your lockpicking skill. The chest in the tower at the end of that quest requires 70+ skill and can be picked repeatedly until you hit 170+ (though going past 165 is tedious.) The only thing in your way here is dealing with the 24 Elite guarding the chest. Edit - The Horde box for the poison quest can no longer be repeatedly picked. The Alliance chest can’t be repeatedly picked. Or you can Swim for it - First, get an elixer of water breathing off the auction house. Lake Everstill, in Redridge, has scattered footlockers under the calm surface. 70+ skill to pick, they’ll get you up to 160+ if you can hang with it long enough. Just keep an eye on the 25 Elite swimmers wandering about. Off the Zoram Strand, in Ashenvale, you’ll find similar submerged lockers. Both of the above areas are contested zones, for those of you on PvP servers. The wetland area, North East on Menethil Harbor, around the Bluegill Murloc camps, has quite a few footlockers. They’re mixed, some requiring 75 skill, others 110. Kill Murlocs, get cooking supplies (from the drops) and pick locks. What could be better? 110+ lockpicking Durnholde Keep in Hillsbrad Foothills. There are footlockers scattered around the grounds (mostly on the lowest level) requiring a 110 skill to pick. Kill off the level 20 something mobs in the area and work these until you get bored (or hit 170 or so.) You can also pick lockboxes off the mobs here, but they require skill 1 to open, so are probably worthless to you. You can also try the Murloc camps in the Wetlands (see above,) or the Windshear mine in the Stonetalon Mountains, for more footlockers. Lockpicking past 150 The sunken Footlockers off the Sar’theris Strand, in Desolace, west of the Thunderaxe Fortress, has submerged footlockers needing your 150+ skill. Swim a little deeper and you’ll find lockers requiring 175+ skill. That Water Breathing elixer is highly recommended here. If your Rogue is averse to swimming, then Angor Fortress, in the Badlands, (around 43,31) has footlockers (upstairs) requiring 150 skill, and the lowest floor has footlockers requiring 175 skill. You’ll also get the chance to kill dwarves and the occasional player. Pickpocketing level 32+ mobs will result in boxes requiring 75+ skill to pick. You’ll be level 30+ to be able to get that 150+ skill anyway, so that’s a good way to go. Going up to 225 Lockpicking Pickpocket 42+ mobs for boxes requiring a 175 skill to pick. Swim the deeper waters of Sar’theris Strand for the suken footlockers with the 175″ skill requirement. Open the boxes in the lower level of Angor Fortress. Open the doors in and around The Scarlet Monastary. The Sunken Temple, in the swamp of sorrows, has submerged footlockers that are calling out for your 175+ lockpicking skill. The Long Slog from 225 to 300 Lockpicking. You need to get to 300 skill before you’ll be able to open anything in Outlands, so here we go: The Bay of Storms in Azshara is supposed to have a a few mossy footlockers (skill 225) but I only found a couple. One on land, one under water. The Slag Pit in Searing Gorge has dented footlockers with a 200 requirement in the lower areas, and the lockers in the upper areas require 225 skill. Keep working the 175 skill boxes you’re picking out of those pockets. The mobs 52+ drop boxes requiring a 250+ skill. The Lost Rigger Cove in Tanaris has a fair numbre of boxes wanting your 250+ skill. The Blackrock Depths dungeon has a couple of doors needing a 250+ skill to pick. For your final few points try Tyr’s Hand in the Eastern Plaguelands. Youi’ll find scarlet footlockers and pick strongboxes out of wandering pockets. Don’t worry about killing anything that’s too tough, just work the lockers (if it’s safe) and pick the boxes. Assuming that you’re at least 60 you should be able to hit 300+ skill soon enough. 300 to 350  lockpicking If youi’re over 60 you can hang out in Tyr’s Hand and keep working those boxes, or you can head over to the Outlands and start picking those pockets. A great location for leveling lockpicking between 300 and 350 is in Feralfen Village in Zangarmarsh. This is located south of Coilfang Reservoir and Twin Spire Ruins, west of the Lagoon and east of Quagg Ridge. There are three areas of buildings clumped together with a handful of wicker chests in each. The tower in the western section of the village has wicker chests on the first floor and on the top floor. You can also pickpocket the mobs (levels 61-63) with an 11% chance of getting a Strong Junkbox (requires Lockpicking 300.) Another place at 70 is outside of Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley (very east side, hunk of land sticking out). Stay near the Blood Elves that are not the demon hunters. Pickpocket these and kill them to have them respawn. Continue this from 300-350 for the most efficient skilling up. The Azeroth Cookbook is a WoW blog with World Of Warcraft tips, guides, PvP and general info, but very little cooking.

Credits to James Wood Rogues: Quiet, sneaky, and painful when it counts. Even with the numerous patches that have been released that have reduced the Rogues’ combat abilities, this class is still not to be underestimated. Even if Blizzard constantly nerfs Rogues, doesn’t that mean that they were overpowered to begin with?   Rogues are all about stealth and thought. They plan their motions ahead of the target, wait for the right opportunity, then strike. Their fights are meant to be quick, with strikes that immobilize their opponent. Rogues are like spiders, immobilizing their prey until they’re ready to devour them. Rogue Races: Because Roguery Isn’t for Everyone   World of Warcraft offers ten races, but only eight of them support Rogues. Draenei would be Rogues but being sneaky just doesn’t work when they hang around living light bulbs. Tauren Rogues? Yes, they can sneak. You will just never find out about them. Just ignore that loud clop-clopping. It’s just the wind about to put a hoofprint in your rear.   Some of the Rogue-compatible races are actually compatible, but there are some that only look good until you start fighting people.   Alliance   Dwarves   Dwarves seem more likely to drink themselves under the table and fool everyone by being drunk. But being slightly larger than gnomes, Dwarves are still fairly formidable at sneaking around as compared to the taller races.   Their racial trait, Stoneform, clears out Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects and increases their armor by 10%. 8 seconds means a lot in PvP, and with Cloak of Shadows, that means two chances to remove three of the effects Stoneform handles. That’s two chances to escape or two cleansing effects to reduce damage-over-time effects.   Gnomes   Gnomes have two things going for them as Rogues: They’re tiny and they can resist speed-altering effects. Gnomes are perfect for hiding in tiny places while they’re stealthed, reducing their chances of detection, but once the fighting starts, that gnome had better be well-equipped to survive the fight. At least gnomes are tough to track, but in WoW, hitting a midget is the same as hitting a dragon once you’re in melee or casting range.   Using a Gnome Rogue isn’t an effective way to use the race. They have slight resistance to Arcane damage and a boost to their Engineering skill, but Gnomes are more effective in spellcasting, where their intelligence boosts are really put to the test.   Humans   Human Rogues benefit from all their races’ traits. They have a higher skill with swords and maces, giving Rogues that specialize in those two weapons a higher chance to hit and crit. And with Perception, a Human Rogue properly specialized in their trees can detect other stealthed classes before they’re revealed. For Rogues, information is important, but a first strike is vital.   Night Elves   Passively, Night Elves make for some of the better Rogues. Their dodge rate is increased and Shadowmeld becomes more effective for them than any other Night Elf class. While Shadowmeld for a Night Elf that isn’t a Rogue forces them to remain still during the skill’s use, that skill boosts the stealth level of the Night Elf Rogue. Like the Humans’ Perception, that means information and a better chance at getting your first strike. Horde   Blood Elves   Mana Tap? Don’t think that’s just mana that it can steal. After 3 charges, activate Arcane Torrent and not only get 10 energy per charge, but silence every enemy near you for 2 seconds.   The downside? Mana Tap takes 30 seconds to cool down. And you have to cast it two more times before getting Arcane Torrent’s full effect. Sure, the counters last for 10 minutes, but this needs a fair amount of preparation. Pre-PvP, you’ll have to Mana Tap every mob you meet to keep it fresh. In battlegrounds, you don’t have the luxury of extended preparation and if you die, those counters are gone. Realistically, that’s 10 energy and 2 seconds of silence. It’s a life-saver, but don’t count on it for every fight. Learn the stunlock.   Orcs   To Rogues, getting stunned or disabled for longer than 3 seconds is death. To Rogues, hitting hard is just as important as hitting fast and precisely. Orcs have stun resistance, and while you can simply drink a potion to give yourself immunity to stuns for 30 seconds, any stun resistance after that period until you can drink another one of those potions is welcome. Blood Fury gives Orc Rogues more attack power in their hits. Combined with a stunlock, that’s tons of damage with little effort.   Trolls   Offensively, like the Orcs, Trolls offer a supreme racial trait that boosts their attack speed reversely proportional to how much health you have remaining. Berserking. That’s 10-30% increase in attack speed and again, like Blood Fury, putting your opponent in a stunlock before using it leads to considerable damage. Any Rogue geared for speed will learn to appreciate even a 10% raise in attack speed. Geared properly, a Troll Rogue could reach speeds of one hit every half-second, depending on their selected weapon.   Undead   Undead are the only race with two active racial skills: Will of the Forsaken and Cannibalize.   The first skill grants immunity to Charm, Fear, and Sleep even while the Undead Rogue is under those effects. Though Dwarves have Stoneform to deal with damage effects, their racial skill is useless if they’re disabled by a spell. For Undead Rogues, the earlier Will of the Forsaken is used after they’ve been hit by those statuses, the less distance they have to run to the target and the less time that target has to do anything.   And what are zombies without the ability to eat flesh? Cannibalize gives back 35% of the Undead Rogue’s health if there’s another undead or humanoid nearby that’s ripe for eating. Solo or in group combat, that’s a fast way to recover lost HP, though the second situation will need someone to cover you, of course.   Rogue Skills: Countdown to the Big One   For those new to Roguery, remember this: Your most powerful skills come from skills that use the combo points generated. I’ll detail more on these skills later, but if Rogues want to win, they’ve got to remember that complete usage should come in at least 6-button presses per combo. That’s five to generate the maximum combo points and one to use all those combo points. Use less than 5 combo points in EMERGENCY SITUATIONS ONLY. Rogues shouldn’t have to finish until they’re ready. Rogues are also the only class to have no cast time on all their skills. Is that mage casting Pyroblast? Gouge, Kick, or any of your many stuns will put a stop to that. Healers? Same deal: Kick to the face or any available stun. Non-Stealth Skills with Combo Points   Backstab   Energy Required: 60 Combo Points Provided: 1 Cooldown Duration: .5 seconds (Global Cooldown) Skill Effect: 150% weapon damage + (15/30/48/69/90/135/165/210/225/255). Skill Duration: None. Requirement(s): You must be behind the target. Daggers-only. Gouge   Energy Required: 45 Combo Points Provided: 1 Cooldown Duration: 10 seconds Skill Effect: Damage-breakable stun on target Skill Duration: 4.0 seconds, 5.5 seconds with talents Requirement(s): You must be in front of target. Hemorrhage   Energy Required: 10 Combo Points Provided: 1 Cooldown Duration: .5 seconds (Global Cooldown) Skill Effect: 110% weapon damage and increases physical damage against the target by (13/21/29/42) Skill Duration: Debuff – 10 hits or 15 seconds per use of Hemorrhage. Requirement(s): None Mutilate   Energy Required: 60 Combo Points Provided: 2 Cooldown Duration: .5 seconds (Global Cooldown) Skill Effect: Both weapons attack + (44/63/88/101). Damage is +50% against poisoned targets. Skill Duration: None. Requirements: 1 point in Vigor, 40 points in Assassination talents, 1 point in Mutilate. You must be behind the target. Shiv   Energy Required: 35+ Combo Points Provided: 1 Cooldown Duration: .5 seconds (Global Cooldown) Skill Effect: Uses poison on off-hand weapon. Skill Duration: None Requirement(s): None Sinister Strike   Energy Required: 45 / 40 with full Improved Sinister Strike Combo Points Provided: 1 Cooldown Duration: .5 seconds (Global Cooldown) Skill Effect: +(3/6/10/15/22/33/52/68/80/98) damage Skill Duration: None Requirement(s): None

Credits to  Relle getrelle@yahoo.com Table of Contents 1.  Introduction 2.  Updates 3.  Why a Rogue? 4.  Which Race? 5.  What about Weapons?   5a. Damage vs. DPS 6.  Skills   6a. Finish Them in Style! 7.  The Art of Combat 8.  Sample Talent Builds 9.  Where to Quest   9a. Alliance   9b. Horde 10.  Professions 11.  Lockpicking 12.  Poison 13.  Frequently Asked Questions 14.  Acknowledgements 15.  Copyright Info =============================================================================== 1.  Introduction =============================================================================== Eh...while waiting for auctions to run out and various other inactive activities in Ironforge, I have thus created this FAQ to help along aspiring rogues in their journey to make something of themselves.  Let me start off by saying that I'm far too addicted to World of Warcraft right now, so even though this FAQ is about said evil MMORPG, updates will likely be sporadic at best.  With that said, read on, and enjoy. Two notes: One, a lot of what's written in this guide is my opinion about rogues.  Bear in mind not all rogues should be the same, and since it's an RPG, you're certainly free to play yours however you like.  That said, don't bug me if you disagree with anything that's an opinion.  And secondly... If there is any information that is fraudulent, incorrect or slightly off, or if I've forgotten to credit anyone for their work, please send me an e-mail and I'll make the proper corrections where applicable. =============================================================================== 2.  Updates =============================================================================== 1.00 - Just started.  This guide is complete in terms of the content I wanted to put out when I started, but odds are I'll be adding to it over time.  I'm hoping to find some ASCII art I can use. 1.02 - Added a section on poisons, fixed up some stuff.  What I'd like to do is put in PVP strategies to use against each particular class, but I'll need to get in more duels for that. 1.03 - Some quick updates.  Still working on PVP data. 1.04 - More quick updates.  Added a proper FAQ.  I want to go through the talents and write up some data on them, but that's for later. 1.06 - Corrections, changes, all manner of things.  Still want to do the talents, but later. 1.07 - More manner of changes and corrections. 1.08 - Slight correction.  I'm working on Baten Kaitos, so this FAQ will have to wait for the talent data. 1.10 - Updated some stuff in light of the recent 1.4 patch. 1.12 - Wrote up a Seal Fate build and modified my assassination/subtlety build. 1.15 - Redid the 'where to level' section. =============================================================================== 3.  Why a Rogue? =============================================================================== Many reasons.  I chose my rogue because I don't like straight-up melee fighters (warriors and paladins), hunters remind me too much of the D&D-style rangers, whom I hate, and spellcaster classes have always been more complicated than I care to deal with.  Besides, I'm a sneaky guy by nature.  Ask anyone.  They'll say they never saw me.  ;) Let me just say up front that if your typical playing style is to rush up and beat on the enemy until he/she/it is dead, a rogue is not for you.  Sorry, but it'll be more trouble than it's worth.  You want a warrior or paladin, but not a stealthy rogue.  A rogue is more subtle, more diverse.  A rogue can sneak up to an enemy, stun him/her/it for several seconds, deal lots of damage, then fade into the shadows as if he/she/it were never there. A rogue is the shadows.  Keep that in mind. Anyway, there are many different types of rogues, but they all have similar traits. Advantages ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ * Can sneak into areas others can't. * Has the highest DPS of any melee class, rivaling only the mage class. * High dodge and critical strike chances. * Can handle melee much better than spellcasting classes. * Exemplory 1v1 capabilities. * Uses Energy instead of Mana, which powers combo points. * Open your own lockboxes! * Mage killers.  You show a rogue a mage in PVP, that mage is an example of   impending death. * They are l33t ninja.  'nuff said. Disadvantages ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ * Fragile.  Rogues wear leather armor throughout the game.  Hunters get mail   armor at level 40, warriors and paladins receive plate, but you're stuck with   leather. * Somewhat limited weapon selection.  Two-handed weapons are out of your range. * Can't handle groups very well.  A rogue is meant for 1v1 combat, not tanking   a bunch of monsters.  Leave that to the warrior or paladin. * You'll deal less damage per strike than other classes.  However, a high DPS   makes up for this. * Too many rogues.  Hard to get in end-game instance groups because of this. =============================================================================== 4.  Which Race? =============================================================================== This is something of a silly question.  It really doesn't matter which race you choose for any class (unless you want to be a paladin or shaman...) The only race that cannot be a rogue are the Taurens, and if you've heard what they say when you try looting a corpse that isn't yours ("That would be stealing!") you'll understand why.  Lousy do-gooders. While it doesn't matter which race in particular, there are two with some advantages.  Night Elves get a 1% dodge bonus (greater than you think) along with the Shadowmeld racial trait.  Undead have a racial trait that makes warlocks crap their robes: Will of the Forsaken.  More on that later. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Human ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Perception (Active) - Activate to increase stealth detection radius by 10 yards.                       Lasts 20 seconds.  3 minute cooldown. The Human Spirit (Passive) - Increase Spirit by 5%. Diplomacy (Passive) - 10% bonus to faction point gain. Sword Specialization (Passive - Humans get +5 to Sword skill. Mace Specialization (Passive) - Humans get +5 to Mace skill. Night Elf ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Shadowmeld (Active) - Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth                       mode.  Lasts until canceled.  No cooldown. Quickness (Passive) - Dodge chance increased by 1% Wisp Spirit (Passive) - Become a wisp when dead with movement speed increase of                         50% (25% faster than a normal ghost). Nature Resistance (Passive) - All Night Elves get +10 Nature Resistance Dwarf ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Stoneform (Active) - Activate to gain immunity to poison, disease, and bleed                      plus 5% AC bonus.  Lasts 20 seconds.  3 minute cooldown. Gun Specialization (Passive) - Dwarves get +5 to Gun Skill  Frost Resistance (Passive) - All Dwarves get +10 Cold Resistance  Treasure Finding (Passive) - Activate to see treasure chests on mini map.  Lasts                              until canceled.  No cooldown. Gnome ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Escape Artist (Active) - Activate to break out of a Root or Snare effect.                          1.5 second cast.  1 minute cooldown. Expansive Mind (Passive) - Increase Intelligence by 5%. Arcane Resistance (Passive) - All Gnomes get +10 Arcane Resistance. Technologist (Passive) - 15 skill bonus to Engineering. Orc ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Blood Fury (Active) - Activate to increase Strength by 25% but take 5% health                       loss every 3 seconds.  Lasts 20 seconds.  2 min cooldown. Hardiness (Passive) - 25% resistance to stun and knockout effects. Command (Passive) - Pet melee damage increased by 5%. Axe Specialization (Passive) - Orcs get +5 to Axe skill. Undead ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Will of the Forsaken (Active) - Activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and                                 charm effects.  Lasts 20 sec.  3 min cooldown. Cannibalize (Active) - Increase health regeneration by 200% while consuming a                        corpse.  Lasts 15 seconds.  3 minute cooldown. Underwater Breathing (Passive) - Underwater breath increased by 4x. Shadow Resistance (Passive) - All Undead get +10 Shadow Resistance. Troll ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Berserking (Active) - Activate when "Wounded" to increase melee and spellcasting                       speed by 25%.  Lasts 20 seconds.  2 minute cooldown. Regeneration (Passive) - 10% health regen bonus, 10% active in combat. Beast Slaying (Passive) - 5% damage bonus to Beasts. Throwing Weapon Specialization (Passive) - +5 to Throwing Weapon skill. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now then, this is why you should ignore racial traits and just pick the race you like best.  I know I spent a lot of time sorting out those traits just to tell you that, but it's true.  Most of the racial traits in general don't compliment a rogue.  About the only truly useful traits are the undead's Will of the Forsaken, which will make you immune to Fear (a warlock's best defense against a rogue) and their increased underwater breathing, especially for some quests. Gnomes are more suited to being mages, but they do have one advantage: their size.  Their small stature makes them difficult for other players to target manually, giving you an advantage in PVP.  Of course, if you just plan on doing PVE (player versus enemy, or in other words, just killing normal monsters) then this won't matter one bit. In short, pick the race you like the most, and don't let anyone tell you it was a bad choice. =============================================================================== 5.  What About Weapons? =============================================================================== For a rogue, your dagger is your friend.  There are other options, but for the first ten (or twenty) levels, daggers will help you along more than you know. Throwing knives give you an edge over paladins, who have to rush in to attack an enemy, and spellcasters, who have to exhaust mana to pull enemies.  You can later train in bows, but don't bother till level 36, when bows start giving off stat bonuses.  Before then, throwing knives are cheaper to maintain and produce the same effect. However, once you hit 36 you should start shopping for a bow.  Throwing knives are cheap, yes, but your ranged attack with a bow is increased depending on your agility.  Since any good rogue will have lots of agility by level 36, your ranged attack will likely be somewhere in the neighborhood of 125+ depending on your bow and agility.  Much better than throwing knives, which tend to top out at around 30-40 damage per shot. At level 10, rogues can buy a skill called Dual Wield.  This lets them equip a melee weapon in each hand, increasing the damage they deal.  There are certain and significant disadvantages to this.  For one, the damage you deal with your off-hand weapon will be reduced by 50%.  For another, you will take a knock to your to-hit percentage for your weapons, meaning you'll miss more often. However, these are greatly outweighed by the long-term advantages.  No matter what kind of rogue you plan on becoming, you will want and need Dual Wield. Simple as that. As for melee weapons, you can later train in one-handed swords and maces which, depending on your preference, can open up certain possibilities.  Some people like to use dual swords or maces (or a mix of the two) but they're only hurting themselves.  As I said before, the point of the rogue is not to rush up and beat on people, but to be a little more subtle, have a little more style. Having anything but a dagger equipped in your main hand disables a number of rogue skills that would otherwise be useful. Now, there are macros out there that let you keep a dagger equipped in the main hand while in stealth, then switch to a sword/mace after using ambush, but I'm a fan of dual daggers myself.  Personal preference.  Matter of opinion.  Stop bugging me about this. There is a significant advantage to dual-wielding daggers, and that is poisons. Instant Poison, for example, has a 20% base chance of being inflicted on an enemy, and when it's inflicted, it deals a certain amount of damage in addition to your weapon damage.  Now imagine a rogue with twin daggers, both coated with Instant Poison, swinging away at you with the speed of a dervish.  Now imagine you're the rogue.  Fun, huh? If you're wondering on what to equip yourself with, the real answer is to just use what you like.  If you're looking for the best setup, a dagger and sword early in the game will help.  Later on, you'll be able to find rare (blue) daggers that deal nearly as much (or in some cases, more) damage than swords of the same level, and that's when you should focus on either finding or buying those daggers so you can more effectively deal out poisons. If you're intent on doing both PVP and PVE, simply keep a pair of daggers in your inventory along with whatever other weapon(s) you use.  Equip the daggers for PVP and equip whatever else for normal monsters.  Simple, effective. A quick word on poisons.  There are many different types, for certain situations.  Crippling poison reduces an enemy's movement speed and is killer in duels.  Stop that ugly shaman or hunter from running and pelting you with arrows/spells from afar, and let your blades do the talking.  Fighting a spellcaster?  Use Mind-numbing poison and wait just before his spell activates, then use Kick and watch him cry.  Remember, you're a rogue, and that means never having to say you're sorry. Now then, you can train in bows in Darnassus, and swords, maces and crossbows in Stormwind City if you're on the side of the Alliance.  If you're of the Horde, you'll want to hit Orgrimmar or the Undercity for your training needs.  The quest for poisons first begins at level 20, but I would recommend not doing it for a few levels due to what's involved with it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5a. Damage vs. DPS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Decided to stick this section in after receiving an e-mail with a rather detailed (and long) bit on weapon choices. Quite often throughout the game you'll be presented with weapon choices.  Some are strong, some are fast, and some are just plain weird.  One question I'm asked with some frequency is whether base damage or DPS (damage per second) is a better route to take, and which type of weapon should go in which hand.  Well, here's the answer. Before going into specifics, if you're trying to determine which weapon goes in your main hand and which goes in the off-hand, the weapon with the highest base damage always goes in the main hand.  This weapon is the one that will be used for Sinister Strike, Ambush, and all your other damage-dealing moves.  The weapon in your off-hand should have either high damage to make up for the 50% hit, or high speed and DPS. High-damage weapons are often slower.  If you're using daggers, they can have speeds up to and greater than 2.00, and if you're using swords, expect the speed to be much higher.  Why would you use such a cumbersome weapon, you may ask? Higher damage on Sinister Strike, Ambush and other moves.  If you're not going to be using poisons, sacrificing a little speed for damage will help. For ranged weapons like bows, the higher the damage, the better.  Forget DPS, ranged weapons are pulling tools, not your main armament.  You want to bring the enemy out of the pack and give him a reason to not like you rather than pelt him with arrows and/or bullets. Other than that, just make sure your main hand is equipped with a high damage- dealer and the off-hand has something nice as well. =============================================================================== 6.  Skills =============================================================================== A word on skills.  Certain skills are essential.  Some can be replaced for others.  Some are just plain worthless.  For example, Sinister Strike is essential for any and every rogue.  It will be your main damage-dealer all throughout your rogue career.  Backstab is later replaced by Ambush in PVE, then replaces Ambush for PVP purposes.  Expose Armor is worthless.  Don't bother with it.  I'll try to give an accurate assessment of each skill's usefulness, though I've since developed certain feelings for particular skills and I'm loathe to change my mind on them. Skill               Type              Requirement(s)           Usefulness ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Sinister Strike      Combat            N/A                      Essential! Eviscerate           Assassination     N/A                      Essential! Backstab             Combat            Level 4                  Varies Pick Pocket          Subtlety          Level 4                  Limited Gouge                Combat            Level 6                  Varies Evasion              Combat            Level 8                  Essential! Sap                  Subtlety          Level 10                 Limited Dual Wield           Dual Wield        Level 10                 Essential! Sprint               Combat            Level 10                 Escape method Slice and Dice       Assassination     Level 10                 Limited Kick                 Combat            Level 12                 Piss off mages! Expose Armor         Assassination     Level 14                 Useless Garrote              Assassination     Level 14                 Limited Pick Lock            Lockpicking       Level 16                 Essential! Feint                Combat            Level 16                 Limited Ambush               Assassination     Level 18                 Stealthy damage Parry                Defense           Level 18                 Just take it. Poisons              Poison            Level 20                 Varies Rupture              Assassination     Level 20                 Limited Distract             Subtlety          Level 22                 Limited Vanish               Subtlety          Level 22                 Essential! Detect Traps         Subtlety          Level 24                 Varies Cheap Shot           Assassination     Level 26                 Essential! Kidney Shot          Assassination     Level 30                 Limited Disarm Trap          Subtlety          Level 30                 Varies Blind                Subtlety          Level 34                 PVP Safe Fall            Subtlety          Level 40                 Very useful And now, into the details of the abilities.  Not all, but most. Backstab - As I said, this is replaced by Ambush later as an opening move, and usable in PVP in higher levels.  You have to be behind your opponent, so it doesn't work on regular monsters unless you gouge first.  In PVP, you can actually circle-strafe another person and be presented with their backside several times if you're good.  If you're using swords, Sinister Strike is your bread and butter, but if you've got daggers, Backstab will provide the most damage. Blind - This is a funny ability.  Try it in PVP and watch your opponent stumble around trying to find you in the dark.  Also a good escape move, it will make the enemy wander and give you time to get away.  Can also help with crowd control in both PVP and PVE, but against monsters, they tend to wander into another group and pull even more aggro, so don't get used to it. Cheap Shot - The replacement for Ambush and Backstab.  It does no damage, but it stuns the target for four seconds, giving you time to beat on them freely. Not only that, but it gives you two combo points instead of the usual one, which can be increased to three points with talents.  A very useful ability. However, if you're in a group with another rogue, keep in mind that the effects of Cheap Shot DO NOT STACK!  Meaning, if your buddy rogue has used Cheap Shot and you're moving in, you'll have to use Ambush.  Even if you wait till his Cheap Shot wears off, yours will only momentarily stun the enemy rather than for the full four seconds.  If you're in a group with another rogue, determine early on who will use Cheap Shot and who uses Ambush. Detect/Disarm Traps - Very, very situational, but the group will thank you for it later on.  This is primarily applicable later in the game when some chests are trapped and you'll have to remove them in order to get the treasure without being killed.  Also useful for disarming traps set by Hunters. Distract - This is a very situational move, but it can help.  This will turn an enemy's attention elsewhere, thereby presenting to you their welcoming backs for pickpocketing, ambushing, or whatever else you'd like to do to them.  It freezes them in place momentarily as well, giving you an opportunity to rob or attack any wandering enemies. Evasion - This thing adds 50% to your dodge rating.  Even a low-level rogue can suddenly have a 60-70% dodge rating with this.  Higher-level rogues can hit 80%.  That's an 80% chance of dodging hits for fifteen seconds, which should be plenty of time to lay in some hits of your own. Feint - Only useful in groups.  No real point if you're fighting by your lonesome, and has zero use in PVP.  It's mostly only effective at higher levels, and it can still be ineffective depending on how much damage the rest of your group is laying down.  Still, it's the best way to take yourself out of the enemy's sights. Garrote - This is an alternative to Backstab or Ambush, but not always the best option.  It deals greater damage than either of the two, but it does so over time.  In mid- to end-game instances you'll come across bosses that can't be stunned by Cheap Shot and other moves, in which case Garrote will do its job nicely. Gouge - Used for a variety of purposes, both as an escape move and to allow you to get in a quick backstab after you've engaged the enemy.  In the end-game, its primary use is in duels.  In group PVP, very few people actually stop and check to see whether or not someone is stunned (those who do get creamed anyway) so it's pointless to gouge someone when there's half a dozen mages running around nuking the crap out of everything.  In group PVE, there are better stunning methods than this, and better ways to get away from aggro. Kick - Against any and all spellcasters, this is a godsend.  This nifty ability lets you disrupt any spell being cast for several seconds, and it deals a little bit of damage to boot.  You don't really need to buy higher levels of this skill right away, since the damage it does is negligible. Parry - The only thing this does is give you a better chance at blocking an enemy's attacks.  However, it's a one-time cost, so it's worth the relatively small amount of money. Pick Lock - Essential.  Not only can you pick the locks on doors in the Scarlet Monestary (thereby negating the need to find the proper key) you'll always be in demand to open other people's lockboxes.  A rogue with 300 lockpicking can also open the doors to Stratholme, Scholomance, Dire Maul and the doors in Blackrock Depths (however, some parts in that instance require the key), not to mention being able to open any given chest. Pickpocket - You can't pick the pockets of other players, but this skill is needed for some rogue quests, and you can make a lot of money by picking the pockets of humanoid NPCs, not to mention pick up lockboxes of various sizes. Plus if you're in a group, the money and items you snatch from pickpocketing is yours to keep.  It isn't shared with the rest of the group. Poisons - You have to buy ranks in the various poisons as your skill increases, but I'm lumping the whole thing together here.  Poisons can be a great help in PVE and PVP, but the chance of them activating is low, so keep that in mind. The cost of ingredients is actually very low, though you have to buy a ton of them early on to get your skill up to respectable levels.  You can survive without poisons, but for the rogue who likes to take chances, they're quite handy. Safe Fall - As the description says, this reduces the damage taken by falling. Useful, yes, but don't expect to survive a skydive off Teldrassil. Sap - This move's usefulness is limited, yes, but very effective in the right situation.  This is a stealth version of Gouge and works for a lot longer. It can only be used on humanoids, limiting its effectiveness, but it's very helpful in places where said humanoids like to walk around in gangs.  Remember that a rogue is a 1v1 fighter, not a class that can tank groups.  Sap one, then pull the other away.  By the time the sap (ha) regains consciousness, his buddy is already dead, and you've put a knife in his back. Sprint - This is a rogue's primary method of escaping a bad situation.  Also nice for catching up to fleeing enemies, or reducing chilling or slowing effects. Vanish - This is another essential skill, and it's multi-talented as well.  It works as an escape skill, letting you go straight into stealth mode while in combat.  Once the Vanish runs down, you remain in regular stealth, so you can just sneak away safely.  Not only that, but this skill breaks movement-impairing effects like Frost Nova, which means those mages in PVP need to think of another way of dealing with you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6a. Finish Them in Style! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I decided to put this section in after playing around with a few of the finishing moves and imagining a few situations in PVP where they might be useful.  So, here's a rundown of why Blizzard put anything besides Eviscerate in the game. Expose Armor - Not worth it.  If you're fighting a warrior or other high-armor opponent, Rupture will simply deal damage rather than lowering their 5000+ armor rating by what they would consider a paltry amount.  Not useful in groups either, warriors should be the ones reducing armor so they hold the aggro, not you.  In other words, NEVER use Expose Armor in groups, you will hurt the warrior's ability to hold aggro and get your damn self killed. Kidney Punch - Quite simply, a stun move.  There are certain advantages to this move, the first and foremost being that it lets you beat on monsters while they have to sit there and take it for 5-6 seconds.  It has a rather high cooldown rate compared to other finishing moves, but that can be reduced with talents. More effective in groups than Gouge, since the stun from Kidney Punch isn't broken by damage.  Also exceedingly useful against spellcasters.  Takes the magic right out of them. Rupture - This particular move can't compare to a Cold Blood/Eviscerate combo in terms of damage, but it's rather handy outside of PVP against instance bosses and other tough elites.  It tends to hold its own in damage with Eviscerate, but once you get Cold Blood, it's not as useful.  In PVP, it can be used against warriors or anyone else to disrupt the use of bandages if they get away from you for a moment.  For end-game raids, most bosses will take more damage over time from a full combo-ed Rupture than Eviscerate due to their armor value.  If they don't bleed, then use something else. Slice and Dice - Put simply, this finishing move is meant for the rogue who uses poisons.  If you don't use poisons, an increase in your attack speed means nothing compared to the damage you could do with other moves.  However, in PVP, more attacks means more chances to apply poison to your victims, and thus Slice and Dice helps quite a bit in that aspect.  Otherwise, it's a waste of your combo points. =============================================================================== 7.  The Art of Combat =============================================================================== This section is here to give you a general idea of how combat should work as a rogue.  Bear in mind this is not a section for PVP strategies, but rather PVE. In other words, it's here for the beginner rogue who's wondering why he keeps dying.  This bit's for you, little buddy. First of all, throwing daggers will help you a lot early in the game.  As I said earlier, bows aren't worth the training price (and subsequent costs) until level 36, when they start giving agility bonuses simply by being equipped. Early on, your low level will draw aggro (make monsters aggressive) more easily, thereby forcing you into combat in unintended situations.  Throwing daggers brings the monster to you, with the distinct exception of any and all spellcasters.  These are the ones you should watch out for early on, because Blizzard gave them seemingly infinite range, and their spells hurt.  The blue mana bar that appears under their health when you click on them (or lack thereof) will tell you who's a spellcaster and who's a plodhopper. Before you go all gung-ho on a monster, take a moment and look around.  Check and see if there are any wandering critters nearby who might join in on your little rumble before drawing the initial aggro.  Because of stealth, you have more time and opportunity than other classes to assess the situation and determine whether or not you're about to be ambushed. Early on stealth will likely be your only method of getting through some situations and quests without a group, but don't get overconfident.  Whether or not you're found out is determined by several factors: first and foremost, your level versus the level of the monster.  Secondly, how close you are to them. Third, whether or not you're behind them.  Regardless of your level, you won't be found out if you sneak up behind an enemy, but circle around to the front and you take your life in your hands. Be very aware of what drops you out of stealth.  Searching a corpse, examining an item, opening a chest and more will all drop you out of stealth and give any nearby monsters an opportunity to attack you.  Knowing when you are and are not vulnerable will keep you alive. Remember that you are a rogue.  Keep that first and foremost in your mind.  To that effect, never charge into a group of enemies, or have some grandiose notion that you can win should two or three other monsters suddenly decide to join your current battle.  The warrior or paladin can do such things, but you have stealth and Sprint for a reason.  He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day, and whatnot. Good luck. =============================================================================== 8.  Sample Talent Builds =============================================================================== First and foremost, you should go here: http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Talents.View This is IGN's talent builder.  There are others out there, but I like this one. It will let you customize your rogue talents and basically plan for the future. Believe me when I say you want to be sure what you want early on, because it's very, very expensive to reset your talents.  If you make a mistake or decide you don't like your current build, it costs 1g to reset everything the first time, 5g the next, then an additional 5g (10g, 15g, 20g, etc.) up to 50g, where the price sits...stealing your money. Anyway, I have a couple sample talent builds you can try, and they're mostly based off of other people's builds.  This first one, the standard 23/2/26, was originally constructed by someone else, but I don't remember his/her name (so if anyone knows, tell me so I can give credit!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assassination Talents (23 points) Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15%. Malice - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Ruthlessness - 3/3 points Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target. Murder - 1/2 point Increases your chance to hit while using your Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot abilities by 3%. Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. Lethality - 5/5 points Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage ability by 30%. Improved Instant Poison - 4/5 points Increases the chance to apply Instant Poison to your target by 8%. Cold Blood - 1/1 point When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Eviscerate by 100%. Combat Talents (2 points) Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike ability by 5 Energy. Subtlety Talents (26 points) Camouflage - 5/5 points Increases your speed while stealthed by 15%. Master of Deception - 4/5 points Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while in Stealth mode. More effective than Master of Deception (Rank 3) Elusiveness - 5/5 points Reduces the cooldown of your Evasion, Vanish, and Blind abilities by 1.3 minutes. Ghostly Strike - 1/1 point A strike that deals 125% weapon damage and increases your chance to dodge by 15% for 7 seconds. Awards 1 combo point. Initiative - 5/5 points Gives you a 75% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot ability. Improved Sap - 3/3 points Adds a 90% chance to return to stealth mode after using your Sap ability. Improved Cheap Shot - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Cheap Shot ability by 20. Preparation - 1/1 point When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This next build is my own modification of the above, and it trims away certain talents such as Murder and Ghostly Strike, though Ghostly Strike may make a comeback depending on how many people e-mail me telling me I'm missing out on something spectacular.  Or it might not. Anyway, this build is meant as a sort of hybrid.  It's quite good in PVE, and works very well in PVP, even without the points in Seal Fate everyone seems to love.  To be frank, I can see the appeal, but I don't like losing so many points from the Subtlety tree.  Too many rogues underestimate the talents in that tree. My opinion entirely. For PVP purposes this can be used in group PVP, but it excels mostly in duels thanks to Preparation.  It helps immensely to be able to vanish twice in quick succession, especially against mages and other casters. Assassination Talents (23 points) Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15%. Malice - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Ruthlessness - 3/3 points Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target. Murder - 1/2 point Increases your chance to hit while using your Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot abilities by 3%. Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. Lethality - 5/5 points Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage ability by 30%. Improved Instant Poison - 2/5 points Increases the chance to apply Instant Poison to your target by 4%. Cold Blood - 1/1 point When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Eviscerate by 100%. Combat Talents (5 points) Improved Gouge - 3/3 points Increases the effect duration of your Gouge ability by 1.5 seconds. Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike ability by 5 Energy. Subtlety Talents (25 points) Camouflage - 5/5 points Increases your speed while stealthed by 15%. Elusiveness - 4/5 points Reduces the cooldown of your Evasion, Vanish, and Blind abilities by 1 minute. Opportunity - 5/5 points Increases the damage dealt when striking from behind with your Backstab, Garrote, or Ambush abilities by 20%. Initiative - 5/5 points Gives you a 75% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot ability. Improved Sap - 3/3 points Adds a 90% chance to return to stealth mode after using your Sap ability. Improved Cheap Shot - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Cheap Shot ability by 20. Preparation - 1/1 point When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a Seal Fate build with my preferred Subtlety talents.  Adjust as needed for what you like in the Assassination tree.  It's more of a PVP build due to the lack of Improved Sap for the end-game instances, but also useable in PVE, just less crowd control.  The lack of Preparation is offset somewhat by the extra point in Elusiveness.  Not as good in duels since Preparation is sacrificed, but useful in group PVP thanks to the extra combo points provided by Seal Fate.  Requires a high critical chance to be fully effective. To be frank, I don't like this build.  I'm of the opinion that Seal Fate is an overrated talent that isn't worth the points it takes to get it, and was made popular initially by the fact that it was bugged in earlier versions of the game, causing it to give two extra combo points instead of one.  But, that's just my opinion. Assassination Talents (31 points) Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15%. Malice - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Ruthlessness - 3/3 points Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target. Murder - 2/2 points Increases your chance to hit while using your Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot abilities by 5%. Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. Lethality - 5/5 points Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage abilities by 30%. Improved Instant Poison - 2/5 points Increases the chance to apply Instant Poison to your target by 4%. Cold Blood - 1/1 point When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Eviscerate by 100%. Improved Kidney Shot - 3/3 points Reduces the cooldown of your Kidney Shot ability by 5 seconds. Seal Fate - 5/5 points Your critical strikes from abilities that add combo points have a 100% chance to add an additional combo point. Vigor - 1/1 point Increases your maximum Energy by 10. Combat Talents (5 points) Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike ability by 5 Energy. Improved Gouge - 3/3 points Increases the effect duration of your Gouge ability by 1.5 seconds. Subtlety Talents (15 points) Camouflage - 5/5 points Increases your speed while stealthed by 15%. Elusiveness - 5/5 points Reduces the cooldown of your Evasion, Vanish, and Blind abilities by 1.3 minutes. Initiative - 5/5 points Gives you a 75% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot ability. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, there are builds for the combat rogue.  Some people prefer a rogue that's more 'in-your-face,' even though it basically flies in the face of what a rogue is.  But if that's your preferred method of playing, more power to you.  It's not that the combat tree is filled with bad talents, it's just that there are much more useful ones in the other two trees.  My opinion entirely, naturally. I can't really list any combat builds, since they're dependent on your preferred weapon.  A rogue specializing in daggers will have a different build than one who likes swords or maces.  However, all builds should include Dual Wield Specialization, which improves the damage output of your offhand weapon.  Blade Flurry is another talent you'll want to have, as it'll actually make you useful when fighting groups.  As for Assassination and Subtlety talents, you'll want to have Camouflage maxed out, even if all you do is rush in and attack the enemy, along with Improved Eviscerate and Malice.  The more criticals, the better. =============================================================================== 9.  Where to Quest =============================================================================== This is asked a lot.  Too damn much, actually.  Blizzard should make signposts or something.  Anyway, this is primarily drawn from my own experience at getting various characters up to 60.  It's divided into level range, then by which side you're on, and later simply by zone.  I'll give warnings for zones that are ganking hotbeds on PVP servers, but if you're not, just ignore them.  Let me know if I missed a zone (unless I did it intentionally). Levels 1-20 - This is the same for all races.  Go through the starting area, quest till you're ready for the zone next door, quest there for a while, etc. The Alliance has a few choices, namely Westfall, Loch Modan and Darkshore. Hands down, the best place to level from 11-20 is Darkshore.  It has the best difficulty scale with its quests and they all involve quite a bit of killing. You should definitely quest in Westfall until you've finished the VanCleef line, though.  The Horde's only two areas are the Barrens and Silverpine Forest. The Barrens has more quests, but Silverpine has a nice selection if you're undead. In terms of instances, for Alliance, do Deadmines starting when you're level 18. If you can get a group sooner, more power to you, but you'll have trouble hitting enemies in the latter half of the instance.  For Horde, go to Ragefire Chasm starting at 14-16, then Wailing Caverns at 18-22. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 21-30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alliance - A combination of Redridge Mountains and Wetlands provides some good quests that'll keep you busy for a while.  Wait till level 25 to go to Duskwood. At that point you can handle the earlier quests with ease, and be ready to take on the later ones immediately after.  Duskwood and the latter few Wetlands quests should hold you till 30.  Stockades is a good instance to run through at 25 or so.  There's no great loot to be had, just a lot of quests, XP and cloth. Horde - Hillsbrad.  If you're on a PVP server, I sincerely apologize, but Hillsbrad does indeed have some of the better quests available.  Other areas include Ashenvale, which isn't a bad place to go, but you do run the risk of being ganked by a whole lot of 60's waiting for their turn in Warsong Gulch. At 25 you can start questing in Thousand Needles, and on the servers I've been to it's mostly populated by Horde, except in the Shimmering Flats area, which isn't till later.  Probably the best place is the Stonetalon Mountains.  It usually isn't populated by the Alliance, and has some good quests to get up to 30. For both sides, Blackfathom Deeps can be done around 25 (that is, you will be effective against most of the enemies there at that level or higher) and provides some good loot and XP, plus quests. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 31-40 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alliance - Stranglethorn Vale.  Bar none, it has the absolute best quests for this level range, and even up to level 45.  It's a great place to level up, but on a PVP server, be prepared to spend the majority of your time running back to your corpse and praying some level 60 isn't camping it.  Alternate places include a combination of Arathi and Hillsbrad quests, though both those zones combined don't give the XP of Stranglethorn.  Desolace is a nice, if dreary, place to level.  The centaur quests give you a lot to do, especially when you're trying to build up your reputation with one side or the other.  Go through Gnomeregan as soon as possible and get those quests out of the way.  Gnomeregan sucks.  At level 34, you can start going to Scarlet Monestary, but only to the library.  At 36, head to the armory.  At 38, the cathedral.  All three are great for loot and XP. Horde - Stranglethorn Vale.  See above.  Depending on your server population, there may be gankage.  What am I saying, there WILL be gankage.  Anyway, Arathi contains some good quests, though you can't do the big ones (Stromgarde) till you're about 37 or so.  The best place to level in your early 30's is Shimmering Flats.  It has a bunch of general 'kill this, collect that' quests for you to do.  Desolace is also nice, but I didn't find it as plentiful in XP as on Alliance.  Like Alliance, do Scarlet Monestary for loot and XP starting at the mid-30's. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 41-50 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At this point, the quests for both sides will be largely the same.  Therefore, I'll be separating this level range by zone rather than side.  Bear in mind that levels 41-45 are the biggest pain in the ass, since there are relatively few quests available for you then.  It gets much easier in the latter 40's. Azshara - Don't bother going here until level 45 at a minimum.  Immediately upon entering the zone and to your right you'll pick up a couple quests to grind the ghosts and satyrs.  These are fun to kill, they provide good XP and cloth.  Besides those, though, there's not much to do till after 50. Badlands - This is one of those zones I hate on principle.  The wildlife is densely packed and have fairly wild pathing, so you can often end up fighting several wolves and vultures in a row by standing in one place.  However, there are good quests for both sides, and Uldaman is the only instance to bridge the gap between Scarlet Monestary and Zul'farrak.  I still don't like the place. Feralas - My personal favorite area, this place has some decent quests for Alliance, but better ones for the Horde.  If you're into grinding, you can have fun with the gnolls, then the ogres when you're a little higher.  Otherwise, kill naga for the Alliance and everything else for the Horde.  Once you're in your high 40's, go to the northwest end for more quests. Hinterlands - For the Alliance, a lot of quests will take place, if not originate here.  For the Horde, there are loads of quests in the new troll village.  The downside?  You'll need to be 45-46 in order to do most of them, plus the troll village is on the opposite side of the zone as Aerie Peak. However, these quests are to the Horde what the new Searing Gorge quests are to both sides.  Lots of killing, lots to do.  Much fun and loot to be had, including a great trinket, a fantastic necklace, and an awesome fishing pole. Searing Gorge - Don't go here before level 46.  There are maybe two or three quests you can do before then, but the majority (meaning those given at Thorium Point) will require a range of 46-47 do to effectively.  This place is similar to Badlands in terms of wildlife, but the difference is the critters here are more spaced out and it's easier to go through them.  There is an issue with the patrol paths of the dwarves in the Cauldron.  It can take a while to get used to them, and you'll be killed quite a bit until you do.  There are an absolute TON of quests, though, and this place will more than likely carry you from 46 to 50. Swamp of Sorrows - Technically you can start going here in your high 30's, but quite frankly, you'll need a level edge on the local wildlife so you don't spend the majority of your time trying not to be eaten.  This is a good place for the Horde to level on a PVP server, since the Stonard scouts can help you out if needed.  There aren't a lot of quests here, but if you're an alchemist, you won't find a better source of blindweed. Tanaris - If you're into PVP, this is the place.  Like Booty Bay, you won't be able to go two steps in Gadgetzan on a PVP server without picking a fight. Otherwise, the wastewander bandits are quite possibly the single best thing to grind.  They drop more cloth than the Bloodsail pirates (based on personal experience, I may just be unlucky in Stranglethorn Vale) and provide a nice XP bonus with their water pouches. Instances - Beginning at 40, you can go to Uldaman and generally do well until you hit the latter half and the level 45 troggs.  You can start going to Zul'farrak (and be effective) at 45, although there isn't a whole lot of loot to be had there for a rogue.  Well, aside from Mason's Fraternity Ring, a reward for the Divin-o Rod quest.  You can technically go to Maraudon at 45, but only the orange side.  At 47, start going to the purple side and kill Vyletongue for a Satyr's lash, and Celebras for the Rod of Celebras.  At 48, you can start going on Princess runs and still hit most of the monsters.  Make sure to kill Rotgrip after Princess.  The big croc drops a pair of boots that are perfect for the rogue on the go. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 51-55 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azshara - With new levels opens new opportunities in this zone.  You're given the opportunity to kill a few snooty high elves, along with naga and maybe a few giants along the way.  You'll be coming back here later, so don't get too sick of it. Blasted Lands - To be honest, this place sucks for quests.  There are a bunch you can take on for either side, but they consist of collection quests with a drop rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.0001% or less.  Still, if you want to grind wildlife (or sneak a peek at the Dark Portal) there's no place better. Burning Steppes - Good for both sides.  Morgan's Vigil holds the start of the Onyxia key quest for the Alliance, and you can still kill stuff on the Horde side.  This is where PVP really gets fun, since you're closing the level gap on the 60's. Felwood - This place is so depressing.  The first thing you should do, whether you're Alliance or Horde, is start killing the enemies of the Timbermaw to raise your reputation to Unfriendly.  Once it's up that high, you can safely pass through their stronghold to Moonglade and Winterspring.  Afterwards, there are quests to be done at the Emerald Sanctuary, which mostly involve killing satyrs.  Fun stuff. Un'goro Crater - Like Badlands and the rest, this place is dominated by its rather primitive and lethal wildlife.  However, Marshal's Refuge also contains probably the best collection of quests this side of Searing Gorge.  The sheer amount of reward XP you'll get will net you half a level, not including all the XP from the staggering number of critters you'll slaughter. Western Plaguelands - For the Alliance, kill stuff in the Writhing Haunt.  The skellies there drop runecloth and scourgestones.  Fun.  There are quests for the Horde, but you won't be able to get them from Chillwind.  Head to the Bulwark for their version of the good ol' Scourge-stomping quests.  Andorhal remains an undead stronghold, but good luck doing anything in there till your mid 50's.  Otherwise, do the cauldron quests for relatively easy XP, though you may need a group for them.  You can't sap the undead and the cauldron lords will often have a couple lackeys with him. Instances - Sunken Temple can be done in the low 50's, but good luck getting a group for it.  It may just be the servers I play on, though.  From the dragons, you can get a ring and dagger (both have random enchantments, hope for a 'ring/dagger of the monkey') Also in the low 50's, you can start doing BRD quests, although going down to the emperor's lair will require you to be 56-57 or so.  Still, you can have fun in the upper reaches of BRD till then. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 56-60 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now the fun stuff.  Most of the areas mentioned previously make a return, but there are some new ones worth a look. Azshara - As far as I know there's no new quests here, however, this zone will feature prominently in a quest line that starts from an NPC along the border of the Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands. Blasted Lands - There's just one quest here worth your time.  Talk to the ghost NPC sitting at the border of the Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands.  He'll start you on a long, involved quest line that'll take you through the Blasted Lands and introduce you to several areas of Azshara.  The whole quest line can be done in a few hours, somewhat shorter if you don't fight everything in your way and have help for the elites you'll have to kill.  The final part of the line WILL require a party, and a good one that knows what they're doing, but the final rewards are a ton of XP, a 16-slot bag and a nice trinket (and I think something else, I forget). Burning Steppes - Once again return for more ogres, dragons and nutty orcs trying to ruin Azeroth's good times.  More quests await when you're in this particular level range, so have at it. Deadwind Pass - There are zero, I repeat, zero quests here as of the 1.7 patch. However, you can grind the ogres here right up to 60, and very, very few people go there if you're concerned about PVP (or competition). Eastern Plaguelands - If you're Horde, get your quests from the Blightcaller. If you're Alliance, get them from the guy along the east end of the Thondoril River.  They're good grinding quests, and give lots of XP.  After finishing all three you'll be sent on a long quest line that'll let you tour a lot of EPL, and will require a five-man Scarlet Stratholme run.  However, I highly recommend going through it, since there's a lot of XP to be had, and the very last part of the quest line is very, very fun. Silithus - A new area, this place is populated by a wide variety of victims. Ghosts, bugs and elementals.  But mostly bugs.  There are some quests, but not very many.  There'll be more as of the 1.8 patch, according to Blizzard. Hopefully they'll have good item rewards, since most people who come here are either level 60 or close to it. Western Plaguelands - Most of Andorhal's quests can be done earlier than this, but you'll kick more undead ass with greater levels.  Either way, you likely won't finish the cauldrons till 56, unless you get a higher-level group to take you through. Winterspring - Probably has the best set of quests among the zones.  From killing furbolgs and yetis to assaulting a furbolg courier, you'll stain the snow red with the blood of your enemies.  Once again, beware of Freelook and its open-arms attitude toward PVP on like-minded servers. Instances - Dire Maul's east side is open starting at 56 (though you might have to convince the group you're trying to get into).  Starting at 57, start trying to get into Stratholme and Lower Blackrock Spire raids (or groups).  Also finish up any remaining BRD quests and especially the quest to kill the emperor, as it nets a nice ring.  At 58, all the raiding instances are more or less open, but be prepared to be rejected in favor of a 60 rogue.  Bear in mind raids are the absolute worst way to gain XP, but they do pay off over time with great loot. =============================================================================== 10.  Professions =============================================================================== Many professions are open to you, but you can only take on two at a time.  Which ones to take is a very important decision, and can shape the entire game for you.  However, you can always take on the three secondary professions: Cooking, Fishing and First Aid and still be able to accept your two primary professions with no penalty.  With that said, let's run through them real quick. Alchemy - Sister profession to Herbalism.  Never take this without it, unless you like paying exorbitant rates for reagents at the auction house.  Useful if you want to transmute your own arcanite, or charge others for the privilege. Blacksmithing - Unless you're planning on crafting armor and weapons and then selling them to people, you'd be better off with another profession. Enchanting - Only take this if you enjoy slowly building up a skill, then spending hours (or tons of gold) to get the necessary reagents, then screaming at people in capital cities and hoping someone buys something.  I'm not a big fan of this profession, as you can probably tell.  You can take enchanting and simply sell the reagents you get from disenchanting greens, which is easier and still makes money. Engineering - This is an interesting profession, but don't expect to make any money off of it until much later in the game.  Lots of engineering equipment can't be used by anyone but other engineers, but you can create stuff that you can then install on other people's equipment (and charge them for it!) Herbalism - This is a decent profession, but doesn't bring in quite as much money as leatherworking and mining until later in the game.  Best when paired with Alchemy, obviously. Leatherworking - Best when paired with Skinning so you have materials to work with.  It's much less expensive than other crafting professions, although later in the game you'll run across recipes that call for some fairly rare items. Mining - Only take this if you intend on using it for money, or if you really want to be a Blacksmith.  Mining is rather competitive, so be prepared to fight for an ore deposit on higher-populated servers. Skinning - Best when paired with Leatherworking, obviously.  You can take it up and just sell all the leather you get for money, but as a rogue I prefer to craft my own armor. Tailoring - Obviously you won't be wearing anything you make, seeing as it's all cloth and has very few agility bonuses.  However, when paired with enchanting, it gives you a good source of green and blue items to disenchant. Plus, later on you'll be able to purify mooncloth, which is a terrific source of money. Now then, which is the best?  Well, Alchemy/Herbalism lets you create your own potions, a very handy ability since you have no other methods of healing yourself.  Skinning/Leatherworking lets you create your own armor, and while it may seem bad at first, at about level 35 you can create and equip Nightshade equipment, which gives amazing agility and stamina bonuses.  Engineering and Enchanting shouldn't be taken unless you have a gathering skill to support the amount of money you'll have to invest.  Mining and Blacksmithing just seem pointless to me, since with the time you spend making equipment for other people, you could be making items for yourself. That's my two cents, anyway.  You're certainly free to choose whatever profession combination you wish. =============================================================================== 11.  Lockpicking =============================================================================== Lockpicking can be a difficult skill to maintain.  Rather than professions, which have periodic boosts in the maximum skill number that you can buy from trainers, the maximum skill value for lockpicking increases by 5 for every level.  So, when you first buy the skill at level 16, the max skill you'll be able to attain will be 80.  At level 35, it'll be 175.  At 60, it'll top out at 300. Lockpicking can also be a difficult skill to improve.  Both the Alliance and Horde side have a quest that sends you to several practice locks you can pick which will raise your skill up to 100, at which point the boxes become gray and you no longer gain skill.  At this point you can pick up to iron lockboxes, which people will undoubtedly have and will ask for a rogue (like you) to open for them. Currently rogues can gain lockpicking skill from picking boxes in the do not trade window (finally) and Blizzard has added footlockers to the various areas in the game to practice skill.  Basically, these footlockers coorespond to the level of the region in terms of the lockpicking skill needed to open them.  So footlockers in a level 20 area would take around 100 or so lockpicking skill to open. With that said, the first place you can go as Alliance is the lumber mill where the lockpicking quest takes place.  You can use the above-mentioned and all-in-caps technique to open the strongbox over and over again for skill points.  You can also open the chest in the tower where the poison quest takes place, but unless you're of a very high level, you'll end up aggro-ing the elite that wanders around there.  Also, bear in mind the chest in Redridge is set on a timer.  You cannot (I repeat, CANNOT) just pick it over and over and gain skill points.  You have to wait a few minutes after picking it at first, then try again to get another skill point. To raise your skill to 175, your options are limited primarily to footlockers. You'll find the appropriate ones in the waters of Hillsbrad, Arathi, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, all the level 25-35+ areas. After this, you'll want to go to the Scarlet Monestary.  There are two doors outside the instance you can pick, and two doors inside (in the Armory and Cathedral).  Don't bother going inside the instance if you're not in a group. The doors outside will reset eventually, allowing you to gain skill points over and over again.  You can use these up until level 45 when your skill maxes out at 225.  From there, you can open literally anything.  Congrats, you're now a well-sought-after rogue. But first, a word on lockpicking for profit.  On many servers, you'll see rogues offering their lockbox picking services for money.  There will also be non-rogues offering to pay rogues to open their lockboxes.  However, there will also be the nuts, like me, who open other people's lockboxes for free, simply because we can. In short, don't expect to make money from opening other people's lockboxes. Work for free.  Work for tips if you want, but never insist on being paid, and always be courteous to the nice little non-rogues.  While you may be offering a service unavailable to others, there will always be those like me who will do it for nothing.  Do it because you can, not because you want money. There are instances for that sort of thing. =============================================================================== 12.  Poisons =============================================================================== I decided to slap in this section since I've recently started playing around with poisons and determined their proper value to a rogue on the go.  For the most part what you'll want to use is Instant Poison.  It's fast, simple, effective.  Deals damage instantly, as opposed to damage over time, and the 20% application rate is higher than you may think.  In a 30-minute period of grinding, I've run out of charges far sooner than the time limit would have ended. For PVP, Instant Poison is also a help, but Crippling Poison is your bread and butter.  Crippling Poison has the rather helpful effect of cutting your opponent's movement speed when it's activated.  At rank 2, it will slice your poor victim's speed by a full 70%.  This ensures an opponent who likes to keep his/her distance will fight on your level and on your terms.  This is the power of a rogue. Against any and all spellcasters, you'll want to toss out Mind-Numbing Poison. This will increase their casting time and give you more time to stop them with a well-placed Kick or Gouge.  Have Mind-Numbing Poison on one dagger and Crippling Poison on the other and you'll make sport of those magic-tossers. Wounding and Deadly Poisons aren't that useful except against high-armor enemies, though if you're dueling a paladin, don't bother, they can cure the poison if they're at all intelligent.  Wounding Poison isn't worth the trouble. In the time you took lowering their healing ability, you could be using Mind- Numbing Poison and Kick to simply eliminate that healing spell entirely. Poisons can first be acquired at level 20, and it takes quite a bit of poison- brewing to get your skill up enough to be able to use the good stuff.  I would recommend holding off on mixing poisons till perhaps level 30-40, since the sheer volume of materials can cost you a gold or two that would be otherwise better spent.  Plus you don't have access to the good poisons till your late 30's anyway. One thing to bear in mind: poisons are not like your other rogue skills.  New recipes aren't dependent on previous ones.  Put simply, if you get your poison skill high enough to buy Instant Poison III and you have yet to buy Instant Poison II, you can buy rank 3 without ever having purchased rank 2.  Very useful, since you won't generally have need of Mind-Numbing Poison till later in the game when you're in PVP against spellcasters. =============================================================================== 13.  Frequently Asked Questions =============================================================================== While I ordinarily put this section near the top of the guide, that would involve me renumbering the entire thing a third time, and I simply don't want to do that. Q.  Monsters keep detecting me while stealthed!  Why? A.  Remember that monsters have a better chance of detecting you based on your level and whether or not you're behind them, as well as your proximity to them.  If you can't stay behind them, keep your distance.  If you're still being detected, either invest in the Master of Deception talent or level up. Q.  What talents should I invest in? A.  It's really up to you.  If you don't particularly care about PVP and just want to enjoy yourself fighting monsters, literally any build will suffice. However, if you're going into PVP, I recommend either of the two builds I've listed here.  They're mostly the same except for a few points here and there. Q.  Why should I use poisons?  I've done fine without them so far! A.  I once thought this way, primarily because I never did the poison quest until level 30 (kept putting it off) and never started using poisons till level 38 (also procrastinated, go me!)  However, poisons give you that special edge no one else has.  It lets you deal extra damage, gives you an ability to slow people's movements and spellcasting.  Plus it's fairly cheap to do.  Once you start seeing how fast enemies die with just a few applications of Instant Poison, you won't want to fight without it. Q.  Is there a permanent poison?  I don't like running out of time/charges! A.  No.  Just invest in a bigger bag and keep a few stacks of your favorite poison on hand. Q.  Where do I get reagents for poisons/Vanish/Blind? A.  A particular vendor called the Shady Dealer has all that you need.  You can usually find one in capital cities near the rogue trainer, and there are a few in other cities like Booty Bay. Q.  How do I beat [insert class here] in PVP? A.  Sorry, but I haven't written up PVP strategies yet, and I might not be able to get to them for a while since I have a Tauren shaman I need to level up. =============================================================================== 14.  Acknowledgements =============================================================================== Thanks to you, the reader and gamer, for taking the time to read my faq. Thanks to HoodedMonk07 for the Gouge/Backstab thing.  Totally forgot about it. Also thanks to Ayndin for...well, a lot of information I have yet to sort out. And some thanks to Turbo 164 for pointing out a few errors and such.  Thanks to Syrick for telling me I missed tailoring in the professions list. Thanks to Blizzard for letting me swipe the racial traits from their site, and not getting uppity about it. Thanks to Blizzard and the development team responsible for creating this masterpiece. Thanks to CJayC and Gamefaqs for hosting it. =============================================================================== 15.  Copyright Info =============================================================================== This file is Copyright (c)2002-2005 to its respective author, namely myself. All rights reserved. This file may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission.  Use of this guide on any web site other than those listed below, or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

1. What Build To Use - Usually a combat build is best for PVE. Usually the sword or fist/sword is the best build for end game raiding for sustained DPS. 2. Rogue Gear - Rogue gear is a part of how much damage you can do. I recomend using Shadow Panther as this is a very good site for ranking rogue gear and lists stats and a link of where the gear comes from. There is a big difference on the gear you want for PVP or for PVE. The weapons you use is pretty standard. You want to use a very slow weapon for your main hand weapon, a mistake a lot of rogues make is using high speed weapons in the main hand. The off hand weapon should be a high speed weapon unless you are using a mutilate spec. 3. Combat Rotations - What rotations means is how many combo points to put into slice and then how many points to put into rupture/eviserate. A rotation is continuously repeated and is set so combo points are not wasted to keep slice and dice up without wasting points that can be used for damage. 4. Skills - Rupture is the best finishing move that can be used on most bosses or mobs that take a long time to die. Exceptions are if the boss/mob is imune to rupture or if the mob will die before a rupture can go through its full set of ticks. Rotations on bosses should always use rupture unless they are imune to this. On mobs/bosses where you have to interupt spells/abilities make sure you save enough energy to kick/kidney shot/gouge. Make sure you use your cool downs when they are up but try to use them when they will be of most use though. Using a cool down when it is up for no reason is a wasted cool down. Most of our cool downs do not take long to come back so do not be afraid to use them. 5. Poisons - In PVE usualy Deadly poison should always be on the off hand weapon. In most combat situations you should try to shiv with the offhand to keep the poison to stack 5 times and then shiv as needed to keep the poisons effect from falling off.

Credits to Relle getrelle@yahoo.com Table of Contents 1.  Introduction 2.  Updates 3.  Why a Rogue? 4.  Which Race? 5.  What about Weapons?   5a. Damage vs. DPS 6.  Skills   6a. Finish Them in Style! 7.  The Art of Combat 8.  Sample Talent Builds 9.  Where to Quest   9a. Alliance   9b. Horde 10.  Professions 11.  Lockpicking 12.  Poison 13.  Frequently Asked Questions 14.  Acknowledgements 15.  Copyright Info =============================================================================== 1.  Introduction =============================================================================== Eh...while waiting for auctions to run out and various other inactive activities in Ironforge, I have thus created this FAQ to help along aspiring rogues in their journey to make something of themselves.  Let me start off by saying that I'm far too addicted to World of Warcraft right now, so even though this FAQ is about said evil MMORPG, updates will likely be sporadic at best.  With that said, read on, and enjoy. Two notes: One, a lot of what's written in this guide is my opinion about rogues.  Bear in mind not all rogues should be the same, and since it's an RPG, you're certainly free to play yours however you like.  That said, don't bug me if you disagree with anything that's an opinion.  And secondly... If there is any information that is fraudulent, incorrect or slightly off, or if I've forgotten to credit anyone for their work, please send me an e-mail and I'll make the proper corrections where applicable. =============================================================================== 2.  Updates =============================================================================== 1.00 - Just started.  This guide is complete in terms of the content I wanted to put out when I started, but odds are I'll be adding to it over time.  I'm hoping to find some ASCII art I can use. 1.02 - Added a section on poisons, fixed up some stuff.  What I'd like to do is put in PVP strategies to use against each particular class, but I'll need to get in more duels for that. 1.03 - Some quick updates.  Still working on PVP data. 1.04 - More quick updates.  Added a proper FAQ.  I want to go through the talents and write up some data on them, but that's for later. 1.06 - Corrections, changes, all manner of things.  Still want to do the talents, but later. 1.07 - More manner of changes and corrections. 1.08 - Slight correction.  I'm working on Baten Kaitos, so this FAQ will have to wait for the talent data. 1.10 - Updated some stuff in light of the recent 1.4 patch. 1.12 - Wrote up a Seal Fate build and modified my assassination/subtlety build. 1.15 - Redid the 'where to level' section. =============================================================================== 3.  Why a Rogue? =============================================================================== Many reasons.  I chose my rogue because I don't like straight-up melee fighters (warriors and paladins), hunters remind me too much of the D&D-style rangers, whom I hate, and spellcaster classes have always been more complicated than I care to deal with.  Besides, I'm a sneaky guy by nature.  Ask anyone.  They'll say they never saw me.  ;) Let me just say up front that if your typical playing style is to rush up and beat on the enemy until he/she/it is dead, a rogue is not for you.  Sorry, but it'll be more trouble than it's worth.  You want a warrior or paladin, but not a stealthy rogue.  A rogue is more subtle, more diverse.  A rogue can sneak up to an enemy, stun him/her/it for several seconds, deal lots of damage, then fade into the shadows as if he/she/it were never there. A rogue is the shadows.  Keep that in mind. Anyway, there are many different types of rogues, but they all have similar traits. Advantages ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ * Can sneak into areas others can't. * Has the highest DPS of any melee class, rivaling only the mage class. * High dodge and critical strike chances. * Can handle melee much better than spellcasting classes. * Exemplory 1v1 capabilities. * Uses Energy instead of Mana, which powers combo points. * Open your own lockboxes! * Mage killers.  You show a rogue a mage in PVP, that mage is an example of   impending death. * They are l33t ninja.  'nuff said. Disadvantages ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ * Fragile.  Rogues wear leather armor throughout the game.  Hunters get mail   armor at level 40, warriors and paladins receive plate, but you're stuck with   leather. * Somewhat limited weapon selection.  Two-handed weapons are out of your range. * Can't handle groups very well.  A rogue is meant for 1v1 combat, not tanking   a bunch of monsters.  Leave that to the warrior or paladin. * You'll deal less damage per strike than other classes.  However, a high DPS   makes up for this. * Too many rogues.  Hard to get in end-game instance groups because of this. =============================================================================== 4.  Which Race? =============================================================================== This is something of a silly question.  It really doesn't matter which race you choose for any class (unless you want to be a paladin or shaman...) The only race that cannot be a rogue are the Taurens, and if you've heard what they say when you try looting a corpse that isn't yours ("That would be stealing!") you'll understand why.  Lousy do-gooders. While it doesn't matter which race in particular, there are two with some advantages.  Night Elves get a 1% dodge bonus (greater than you think) along with the Shadowmeld racial trait.  Undead have a racial trait that makes warlocks crap their robes: Will of the Forsaken.  More on that later. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Human ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Perception (Active) - Activate to increase stealth detection radius by 10 yards.                       Lasts 20 seconds.  3 minute cooldown. The Human Spirit (Passive) - Increase Spirit by 5%. Diplomacy (Passive) - 10% bonus to faction point gain. Sword Specialization (Passive - Humans get +5 to Sword skill. Mace Specialization (Passive) - Humans get +5 to Mace skill. Night Elf ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Shadowmeld (Active) - Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth                       mode.  Lasts until canceled.  No cooldown. Quickness (Passive) - Dodge chance increased by 1% Wisp Spirit (Passive) - Become a wisp when dead with movement speed increase of                         50% (25% faster than a normal ghost). Nature Resistance (Passive) - All Night Elves get +10 Nature Resistance Dwarf ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Stoneform (Active) - Activate to gain immunity to poison, disease, and bleed                      plus 5% AC bonus.  Lasts 20 seconds.  3 minute cooldown. Gun Specialization (Passive) - Dwarves get +5 to Gun Skill  Frost Resistance (Passive) - All Dwarves get +10 Cold Resistance  Treasure Finding (Passive) - Activate to see treasure chests on mini map.  Lasts                              until canceled.  No cooldown. Gnome ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Escape Artist (Active) - Activate to break out of a Root or Snare effect.                          1.5 second cast.  1 minute cooldown. Expansive Mind (Passive) - Increase Intelligence by 5%. Arcane Resistance (Passive) - All Gnomes get +10 Arcane Resistance. Technologist (Passive) - 15 skill bonus to Engineering. Orc ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Blood Fury (Active) - Activate to increase Strength by 25% but take 5% health                       loss every 3 seconds.  Lasts 20 seconds.  2 min cooldown. Hardiness (Passive) - 25% resistance to stun and knockout effects. Command (Passive) - Pet melee damage increased by 5%. Axe Specialization (Passive) - Orcs get +5 to Axe skill. Undead ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Will of the Forsaken (Active) - Activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and                                 charm effects.  Lasts 20 sec.  3 min cooldown. Cannibalize (Active) - Increase health regeneration by 200% while consuming a                        corpse.  Lasts 15 seconds.  3 minute cooldown. Underwater Breathing (Passive) - Underwater breath increased by 4x. Shadow Resistance (Passive) - All Undead get +10 Shadow Resistance. Troll ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Berserking (Active) - Activate when "Wounded" to increase melee and spellcasting                       speed by 25%.  Lasts 20 seconds.  2 minute cooldown. Regeneration (Passive) - 10% health regen bonus, 10% active in combat. Beast Slaying (Passive) - 5% damage bonus to Beasts. Throwing Weapon Specialization (Passive) - +5 to Throwing Weapon skill. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now then, this is why you should ignore racial traits and just pick the race you like best.  I know I spent a lot of time sorting out those traits just to tell you that, but it's true.  Most of the racial traits in general don't compliment a rogue.  About the only truly useful traits are the undead's Will of the Forsaken, which will make you immune to Fear (a warlock's best defense against a rogue) and their increased underwater breathing, especially for some quests. Gnomes are more suited to being mages, but they do have one advantage: their size.  Their small stature makes them difficult for other players to target manually, giving you an advantage in PVP.  Of course, if you just plan on doing PVE (player versus enemy, or in other words, just killing normal monsters) then this won't matter one bit. In short, pick the race you like the most, and don't let anyone tell you it was a bad choice. =============================================================================== 5.  What About Weapons? =============================================================================== For a rogue, your dagger is your friend.  There are other options, but for the first ten (or twenty) levels, daggers will help you along more than you know. Throwing knives give you an edge over paladins, who have to rush in to attack an enemy, and spellcasters, who have to exhaust mana to pull enemies.  You can later train in bows, but don't bother till level 36, when bows start giving off stat bonuses.  Before then, throwing knives are cheaper to maintain and produce the same effect. However, once you hit 36 you should start shopping for a bow.  Throwing knives are cheap, yes, but your ranged attack with a bow is increased depending on your agility.  Since any good rogue will have lots of agility by level 36, your ranged attack will likely be somewhere in the neighborhood of 125+ depending on your bow and agility.  Much better than throwing knives, which tend to top out at around 30-40 damage per shot. At level 10, rogues can buy a skill called Dual Wield.  This lets them equip a melee weapon in each hand, increasing the damage they deal.  There are certain and significant disadvantages to this.  For one, the damage you deal with your off-hand weapon will be reduced by 50%.  For another, you will take a knock to your to-hit percentage for your weapons, meaning you'll miss more often. However, these are greatly outweighed by the long-term advantages.  No matter what kind of rogue you plan on becoming, you will want and need Dual Wield. Simple as that. As for melee weapons, you can later train in one-handed swords and maces which, depending on your preference, can open up certain possibilities.  Some people like to use dual swords or maces (or a mix of the two) but they're only hurting themselves.  As I said before, the point of the rogue is not to rush up and beat on people, but to be a little more subtle, have a little more style. Having anything but a dagger equipped in your main hand disables a number of rogue skills that would otherwise be useful. Now, there are macros out there that let you keep a dagger equipped in the main hand while in stealth, then switch to a sword/mace after using ambush, but I'm a fan of dual daggers myself.  Personal preference.  Matter of opinion.  Stop bugging me about this. There is a significant advantage to dual-wielding daggers, and that is poisons. Instant Poison, for example, has a 20% base chance of being inflicted on an enemy, and when it's inflicted, it deals a certain amount of damage in addition to your weapon damage.  Now imagine a rogue with twin daggers, both coated with Instant Poison, swinging away at you with the speed of a dervish.  Now imagine you're the rogue.  Fun, huh? If you're wondering on what to equip yourself with, the real answer is to just use what you like.  If you're looking for the best setup, a dagger and sword early in the game will help.  Later on, you'll be able to find rare (blue) daggers that deal nearly as much (or in some cases, more) damage than swords of the same level, and that's when you should focus on either finding or buying those daggers so you can more effectively deal out poisons. If you're intent on doing both PVP and PVE, simply keep a pair of daggers in your inventory along with whatever other weapon(s) you use.  Equip the daggers for PVP and equip whatever else for normal monsters.  Simple, effective. A quick word on poisons.  There are many different types, for certain situations.  Crippling poison reduces an enemy's movement speed and is killer in duels.  Stop that ugly shaman or hunter from running and pelting you with arrows/spells from afar, and let your blades do the talking.  Fighting a spellcaster?  Use Mind-numbing poison and wait just before his spell activates, then use Kick and watch him cry.  Remember, you're a rogue, and that means never having to say you're sorry. Now then, you can train in bows in Darnassus, and swords, maces and crossbows in Stormwind City if you're on the side of the Alliance.  If you're of the Horde, you'll want to hit Orgrimmar or the Undercity for your training needs.  The quest for poisons first begins at level 20, but I would recommend not doing it for a few levels due to what's involved with it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5a. Damage vs. DPS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Decided to stick this section in after receiving an e-mail with a rather detailed (and long) bit on weapon choices. Quite often throughout the game you'll be presented with weapon choices.  Some are strong, some are fast, and some are just plain weird.  One question I'm asked with some frequency is whether base damage or DPS (damage per second) is a better route to take, and which type of weapon should go in which hand.  Well, here's the answer. Before going into specifics, if you're trying to determine which weapon goes in your main hand and which goes in the off-hand, the weapon with the highest base damage always goes in the main hand.  This weapon is the one that will be used for Sinister Strike, Ambush, and all your other damage-dealing moves.  The weapon in your off-hand should have either high damage to make up for the 50% hit, or high speed and DPS. High-damage weapons are often slower.  If you're using daggers, they can have speeds up to and greater than 2.00, and if you're using swords, expect the speed to be much higher.  Why would you use such a cumbersome weapon, you may ask? Higher damage on Sinister Strike, Ambush and other moves.  If you're not going to be using poisons, sacrificing a little speed for damage will help. For ranged weapons like bows, the higher the damage, the better.  Forget DPS, ranged weapons are pulling tools, not your main armament.  You want to bring the enemy out of the pack and give him a reason to not like you rather than pelt him with arrows and/or bullets. Other than that, just make sure your main hand is equipped with a high damage- dealer and the off-hand has something nice as well. =============================================================================== 6.  Skills =============================================================================== A word on skills.  Certain skills are essential.  Some can be replaced for others.  Some are just plain worthless.  For example, Sinister Strike is essential for any and every rogue.  It will be your main damage-dealer all throughout your rogue career.  Backstab is later replaced by Ambush in PVE, then replaces Ambush for PVP purposes.  Expose Armor is worthless.  Don't bother with it.  I'll try to give an accurate assessment of each skill's usefulness, though I've since developed certain feelings for particular skills and I'm loathe to change my mind on them. Skill               Type              Requirement(s)           Usefulness ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Sinister Strike      Combat            N/A                      Essential! Eviscerate           Assassination     N/A                      Essential! Backstab             Combat            Level 4                  Varies Pick Pocket          Subtlety          Level 4                  Limited Gouge                Combat            Level 6                  Varies Evasion              Combat            Level 8                  Essential! Sap                  Subtlety          Level 10                 Limited Dual Wield           Dual Wield        Level 10                 Essential! Sprint               Combat            Level 10                 Escape method Slice and Dice       Assassination     Level 10                 Limited Kick                 Combat            Level 12                 Piss off mages! Expose Armor         Assassination     Level 14                 Useless Garrote              Assassination     Level 14                 Limited Pick Lock            Lockpicking       Level 16                 Essential! Feint                Combat            Level 16                 Limited Ambush               Assassination     Level 18                 Stealthy damage Parry                Defense           Level 18                 Just take it. Poisons              Poison            Level 20                 Varies Rupture              Assassination     Level 20                 Limited Distract             Subtlety          Level 22                 Limited Vanish               Subtlety          Level 22                 Essential! Detect Traps         Subtlety          Level 24                 Varies Cheap Shot           Assassination     Level 26                 Essential! Kidney Shot          Assassination     Level 30                 Limited Disarm Trap          Subtlety          Level 30                 Varies Blind                Subtlety          Level 34                 PVP Safe Fall            Subtlety          Level 40                 Very useful And now, into the details of the abilities.  Not all, but most. Backstab - As I said, this is replaced by Ambush later as an opening move, and usable in PVP in higher levels.  You have to be behind your opponent, so it doesn't work on regular monsters unless you gouge first.  In PVP, you can actually circle-strafe another person and be presented with their backside several times if you're good.  If you're using swords, Sinister Strike is your bread and butter, but if you've got daggers, Backstab will provide the most damage. Blind - This is a funny ability.  Try it in PVP and watch your opponent stumble around trying to find you in the dark.  Also a good escape move, it will make the enemy wander and give you time to get away.  Can also help with crowd control in both PVP and PVE, but against monsters, they tend to wander into another group and pull even more aggro, so don't get used to it. Cheap Shot - The replacement for Ambush and Backstab.  It does no damage, but it stuns the target for four seconds, giving you time to beat on them freely. Not only that, but it gives you two combo points instead of the usual one, which can be increased to three points with talents.  A very useful ability. However, if you're in a group with another rogue, keep in mind that the effects of Cheap Shot DO NOT STACK!  Meaning, if your buddy rogue has used Cheap Shot and you're moving in, you'll have to use Ambush.  Even if you wait till his Cheap Shot wears off, yours will only momentarily stun the enemy rather than for the full four seconds.  If you're in a group with another rogue, determine early on who will use Cheap Shot and who uses Ambush. Detect/Disarm Traps - Very, very situational, but the group will thank you for it later on.  This is primarily applicable later in the game when some chests are trapped and you'll have to remove them in order to get the treasure without being killed.  Also useful for disarming traps set by Hunters. Distract - This is a very situational move, but it can help.  This will turn an enemy's attention elsewhere, thereby presenting to you their welcoming backs for pickpocketing, ambushing, or whatever else you'd like to do to them.  It freezes them in place momentarily as well, giving you an opportunity to rob or attack any wandering enemies. Evasion - This thing adds 50% to your dodge rating.  Even a low-level rogue can suddenly have a 60-70% dodge rating with this.  Higher-level rogues can hit 80%.  That's an 80% chance of dodging hits for fifteen seconds, which should be plenty of time to lay in some hits of your own. Feint - Only useful in groups.  No real point if you're fighting by your lonesome, and has zero use in PVP.  It's mostly only effective at higher levels, and it can still be ineffective depending on how much damage the rest of your group is laying down.  Still, it's the best way to take yourself out of the enemy's sights. Garrote - This is an alternative to Backstab or Ambush, but not always the best option.  It deals greater damage than either of the two, but it does so over time.  In mid- to end-game instances you'll come across bosses that can't be stunned by Cheap Shot and other moves, in which case Garrote will do its job nicely. Gouge - Used for a variety of purposes, both as an escape move and to allow you to get in a quick backstab after you've engaged the enemy.  In the end-game, its primary use is in duels.  In group PVP, very few people actually stop and check to see whether or not someone is stunned (those who do get creamed anyway) so it's pointless to gouge someone when there's half a dozen mages running around nuking the crap out of everything.  In group PVE, there are better stunning methods than this, and better ways to get away from aggro. Kick - Against any and all spellcasters, this is a godsend.  This nifty ability lets you disrupt any spell being cast for several seconds, and it deals a little bit of damage to boot.  You don't really need to buy higher levels of this skill right away, since the damage it does is negligible. Parry - The only thing this does is give you a better chance at blocking an enemy's attacks.  However, it's a one-time cost, so it's worth the relatively small amount of money. Pick Lock - Essential.  Not only can you pick the locks on doors in the Scarlet Monestary (thereby negating the need to find the proper key) you'll always be in demand to open other people's lockboxes.  A rogue with 300 lockpicking can also open the doors to Stratholme, Scholomance, Dire Maul and the doors in Blackrock Depths (however, some parts in that instance require the key), not to mention being able to open any given chest. Pickpocket - You can't pick the pockets of other players, but this skill is needed for some rogue quests, and you can make a lot of money by picking the pockets of humanoid NPCs, not to mention pick up lockboxes of various sizes. Plus if you're in a group, the money and items you snatch from pickpocketing is yours to keep.  It isn't shared with the rest of the group. Poisons - You have to buy ranks in the various poisons as your skill increases, but I'm lumping the whole thing together here.  Poisons can be a great help in PVE and PVP, but the chance of them activating is low, so keep that in mind. The cost of ingredients is actually very low, though you have to buy a ton of them early on to get your skill up to respectable levels.  You can survive without poisons, but for the rogue who likes to take chances, they're quite handy. Safe Fall - As the description says, this reduces the damage taken by falling. Useful, yes, but don't expect to survive a skydive off Teldrassil. Sap - This move's usefulness is limited, yes, but very effective in the right situation.  This is a stealth version of Gouge and works for a lot longer. It can only be used on humanoids, limiting its effectiveness, but it's very helpful in places where said humanoids like to walk around in gangs.  Remember that a rogue is a 1v1 fighter, not a class that can tank groups.  Sap one, then pull the other away.  By the time the sap (ha) regains consciousness, his buddy is already dead, and you've put a knife in his back. Sprint - This is a rogue's primary method of escaping a bad situation.  Also nice for catching up to fleeing enemies, or reducing chilling or slowing effects. Vanish - This is another essential skill, and it's multi-talented as well.  It works as an escape skill, letting you go straight into stealth mode while in combat.  Once the Vanish runs down, you remain in regular stealth, so you can just sneak away safely.  Not only that, but this skill breaks movement-impairing effects like Frost Nova, which means those mages in PVP need to think of another way of dealing with you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6a. Finish Them in Style! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I decided to put this section in after playing around with a few of the finishing moves and imagining a few situations in PVP where they might be useful.  So, here's a rundown of why Blizzard put anything besides Eviscerate in the game. Expose Armor - Not worth it.  If you're fighting a warrior or other high-armor opponent, Rupture will simply deal damage rather than lowering their 5000+ armor rating by what they would consider a paltry amount.  Not useful in groups either, warriors should be the ones reducing armor so they hold the aggro, not you.  In other words, NEVER use Expose Armor in groups, you will hurt the warrior's ability to hold aggro and get your damn self killed. Kidney Punch - Quite simply, a stun move.  There are certain advantages to this move, the first and foremost being that it lets you beat on monsters while they have to sit there and take it for 5-6 seconds.  It has a rather high cooldown rate compared to other finishing moves, but that can be reduced with talents. More effective in groups than Gouge, since the stun from Kidney Punch isn't broken by damage.  Also exceedingly useful against spellcasters.  Takes the magic right out of them. Rupture - This particular move can't compare to a Cold Blood/Eviscerate combo in terms of damage, but it's rather handy outside of PVP against instance bosses and other tough elites.  It tends to hold its own in damage with Eviscerate, but once you get Cold Blood, it's not as useful.  In PVP, it can be used against warriors or anyone else to disrupt the use of bandages if they get away from you for a moment.  For end-game raids, most bosses will take more damage over time from a full combo-ed Rupture than Eviscerate due to their armor value.  If they don't bleed, then use something else. Slice and Dice - Put simply, this finishing move is meant for the rogue who uses poisons.  If you don't use poisons, an increase in your attack speed means nothing compared to the damage you could do with other moves.  However, in PVP, more attacks means more chances to apply poison to your victims, and thus Slice and Dice helps quite a bit in that aspect.  Otherwise, it's a waste of your combo points. =============================================================================== 7.  The Art of Combat =============================================================================== This section is here to give you a general idea of how combat should work as a rogue.  Bear in mind this is not a section for PVP strategies, but rather PVE. In other words, it's here for the beginner rogue who's wondering why he keeps dying.  This bit's for you, little buddy. First of all, throwing daggers will help you a lot early in the game.  As I said earlier, bows aren't worth the training price (and subsequent costs) until level 36, when they start giving agility bonuses simply by being equipped. Early on, your low level will draw aggro (make monsters aggressive) more easily, thereby forcing you into combat in unintended situations.  Throwing daggers brings the monster to you, with the distinct exception of any and all spellcasters.  These are the ones you should watch out for early on, because Blizzard gave them seemingly infinite range, and their spells hurt.  The blue mana bar that appears under their health when you click on them (or lack thereof) will tell you who's a spellcaster and who's a plodhopper. Before you go all gung-ho on a monster, take a moment and look around.  Check and see if there are any wandering critters nearby who might join in on your little rumble before drawing the initial aggro.  Because of stealth, you have more time and opportunity than other classes to assess the situation and determine whether or not you're about to be ambushed. Early on stealth will likely be your only method of getting through some situations and quests without a group, but don't get overconfident.  Whether or not you're found out is determined by several factors: first and foremost, your level versus the level of the monster.  Secondly, how close you are to them. Third, whether or not you're behind them.  Regardless of your level, you won't be found out if you sneak up behind an enemy, but circle around to the front and you take your life in your hands. Be very aware of what drops you out of stealth.  Searching a corpse, examining an item, opening a chest and more will all drop you out of stealth and give any nearby monsters an opportunity to attack you.  Knowing when you are and are not vulnerable will keep you alive. Remember that you are a rogue.  Keep that first and foremost in your mind.  To that effect, never charge into a group of enemies, or have some grandiose notion that you can win should two or three other monsters suddenly decide to join your current battle.  The warrior or paladin can do such things, but you have stealth and Sprint for a reason.  He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day, and whatnot. Good luck. =============================================================================== 8.  Sample Talent Builds =============================================================================== First and foremost, you should go here: http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Talents.View This is IGN's talent builder.  There are others out there, but I like this one. It will let you customize your rogue talents and basically plan for the future. Believe me when I say you want to be sure what you want early on, because it's very, very expensive to reset your talents.  If you make a mistake or decide you don't like your current build, it costs 1g to reset everything the first time, 5g the next, then an additional 5g (10g, 15g, 20g, etc.) up to 50g, where the price sits...stealing your money. Anyway, I have a couple sample talent builds you can try, and they're mostly based off of other people's builds.  This first one, the standard 23/2/26, was originally constructed by someone else, but I don't remember his/her name (so if anyone knows, tell me so I can give credit!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assassination Talents (23 points) Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15%. Malice - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Ruthlessness - 3/3 points Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target. Murder - 1/2 point Increases your chance to hit while using your Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot abilities by 3%. Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. Lethality - 5/5 points Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage ability by 30%. Improved Instant Poison - 4/5 points Increases the chance to apply Instant Poison to your target by 8%. Cold Blood - 1/1 point When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Eviscerate by 100%. Combat Talents (2 points) Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike ability by 5 Energy. Subtlety Talents (26 points) Camouflage - 5/5 points Increases your speed while stealthed by 15%. Master of Deception - 4/5 points Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while in Stealth mode. More effective than Master of Deception (Rank 3) Elusiveness - 5/5 points Reduces the cooldown of your Evasion, Vanish, and Blind abilities by 1.3 minutes. Ghostly Strike - 1/1 point A strike that deals 125% weapon damage and increases your chance to dodge by 15% for 7 seconds. Awards 1 combo point. Initiative - 5/5 points Gives you a 75% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot ability. Improved Sap - 3/3 points Adds a 90% chance to return to stealth mode after using your Sap ability. Improved Cheap Shot - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Cheap Shot ability by 20. Preparation - 1/1 point When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This next build is my own modification of the above, and it trims away certain talents such as Murder and Ghostly Strike, though Ghostly Strike may make a comeback depending on how many people e-mail me telling me I'm missing out on something spectacular.  Or it might not. Anyway, this build is meant as a sort of hybrid.  It's quite good in PVE, and works very well in PVP, even without the points in Seal Fate everyone seems to love.  To be frank, I can see the appeal, but I don't like losing so many points from the Subtlety tree.  Too many rogues underestimate the talents in that tree. My opinion entirely. For PVP purposes this can be used in group PVP, but it excels mostly in duels thanks to Preparation.  It helps immensely to be able to vanish twice in quick succession, especially against mages and other casters. Assassination Talents (23 points) Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15%. Malice - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Ruthlessness - 3/3 points Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target. Murder - 1/2 point Increases your chance to hit while using your Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot abilities by 3%. Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. Lethality - 5/5 points Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage ability by 30%. Improved Instant Poison - 2/5 points Increases the chance to apply Instant Poison to your target by 4%. Cold Blood - 1/1 point When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Eviscerate by 100%. Combat Talents (5 points) Improved Gouge - 3/3 points Increases the effect duration of your Gouge ability by 1.5 seconds. Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike ability by 5 Energy. Subtlety Talents (25 points) Camouflage - 5/5 points Increases your speed while stealthed by 15%. Elusiveness - 4/5 points Reduces the cooldown of your Evasion, Vanish, and Blind abilities by 1 minute. Opportunity - 5/5 points Increases the damage dealt when striking from behind with your Backstab, Garrote, or Ambush abilities by 20%. Initiative - 5/5 points Gives you a 75% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot ability. Improved Sap - 3/3 points Adds a 90% chance to return to stealth mode after using your Sap ability. Improved Cheap Shot - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Cheap Shot ability by 20. Preparation - 1/1 point When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a Seal Fate build with my preferred Subtlety talents.  Adjust as needed for what you like in the Assassination tree.  It's more of a PVP build due to the lack of Improved Sap for the end-game instances, but also useable in PVE, just less crowd control.  The lack of Preparation is offset somewhat by the extra point in Elusiveness.  Not as good in duels since Preparation is sacrificed, but useful in group PVP thanks to the extra combo points provided by Seal Fate.  Requires a high critical chance to be fully effective. To be frank, I don't like this build.  I'm of the opinion that Seal Fate is an overrated talent that isn't worth the points it takes to get it, and was made popular initially by the fact that it was bugged in earlier versions of the game, causing it to give two extra combo points instead of one.  But, that's just my opinion. Assassination Talents (31 points) Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15%. Malice - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Ruthlessness - 3/3 points Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target. Murder - 2/2 points Increases your chance to hit while using your Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot abilities by 5%. Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. Lethality - 5/5 points Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage abilities by 30%. Improved Instant Poison - 2/5 points Increases the chance to apply Instant Poison to your target by 4%. Cold Blood - 1/1 point When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Eviscerate by 100%. Improved Kidney Shot - 3/3 points Reduces the cooldown of your Kidney Shot ability by 5 seconds. Seal Fate - 5/5 points Your critical strikes from abilities that add combo points have a 100% chance to add an additional combo point. Vigor - 1/1 point Increases your maximum Energy by 10. Combat Talents (5 points) Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike ability by 5 Energy. Improved Gouge - 3/3 points Increases the effect duration of your Gouge ability by 1.5 seconds. Subtlety Talents (15 points) Camouflage - 5/5 points Increases your speed while stealthed by 15%. Elusiveness - 5/5 points Reduces the cooldown of your Evasion, Vanish, and Blind abilities by 1.3 minutes. Initiative - 5/5 points Gives you a 75% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot ability. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, there are builds for the combat rogue.  Some people prefer a rogue that's more 'in-your-face,' even though it basically flies in the face of what a rogue is.  But if that's your preferred method of playing, more power to you.  It's not that the combat tree is filled with bad talents, it's just that there are much more useful ones in the other two trees.  My opinion entirely, naturally. I can't really list any combat builds, since they're dependent on your preferred weapon.  A rogue specializing in daggers will have a different build than one who likes swords or maces.  However, all builds should include Dual Wield Specialization, which improves the damage output of your offhand weapon.  Blade Flurry is another talent you'll want to have, as it'll actually make you useful when fighting groups.  As for Assassination and Subtlety talents, you'll want to have Camouflage maxed out, even if all you do is rush in and attack the enemy, along with Improved Eviscerate and Malice.  The more criticals, the better. =============================================================================== 9.  Where to Quest =============================================================================== This is asked a lot.  Too damn much, actually.  Blizzard should make signposts or something.  Anyway, this is primarily drawn from my own experience at getting various characters up to 60.  It's divided into level range, then by which side you're on, and later simply by zone.  I'll give warnings for zones that are ganking hotbeds on PVP servers, but if you're not, just ignore them.  Let me know if I missed a zone (unless I did it intentionally). Levels 1-20 - This is the same for all races.  Go through the starting area, quest till you're ready for the zone next door, quest there for a while, etc. The Alliance has a few choices, namely Westfall, Loch Modan and Darkshore. Hands down, the best place to level from 11-20 is Darkshore.  It has the best difficulty scale with its quests and they all involve quite a bit of killing. You should definitely quest in Westfall until you've finished the VanCleef line, though.  The Horde's only two areas are the Barrens and Silverpine Forest. The Barrens has more quests, but Silverpine has a nice selection if you're undead. In terms of instances, for Alliance, do Deadmines starting when you're level 18. If you can get a group sooner, more power to you, but you'll have trouble hitting enemies in the latter half of the instance.  For Horde, go to Ragefire Chasm starting at 14-16, then Wailing Caverns at 18-22. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 21-30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alliance - A combination of Redridge Mountains and Wetlands provides some good quests that'll keep you busy for a while.  Wait till level 25 to go to Duskwood. At that point you can handle the earlier quests with ease, and be ready to take on the later ones immediately after.  Duskwood and the latter few Wetlands quests should hold you till 30.  Stockades is a good instance to run through at 25 or so.  There's no great loot to be had, just a lot of quests, XP and cloth. Horde - Hillsbrad.  If you're on a PVP server, I sincerely apologize, but Hillsbrad does indeed have some of the better quests available.  Other areas include Ashenvale, which isn't a bad place to go, but you do run the risk of being ganked by a whole lot of 60's waiting for their turn in Warsong Gulch. At 25 you can start questing in Thousand Needles, and on the servers I've been to it's mostly populated by Horde, except in the Shimmering Flats area, which isn't till later.  Probably the best place is the Stonetalon Mountains.  It usually isn't populated by the Alliance, and has some good quests to get up to 30. For both sides, Blackfathom Deeps can be done around 25 (that is, you will be effective against most of the enemies there at that level or higher) and provides some good loot and XP, plus quests. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 31-40 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alliance - Stranglethorn Vale.  Bar none, it has the absolute best quests for this level range, and even up to level 45.  It's a great place to level up, but on a PVP server, be prepared to spend the majority of your time running back to your corpse and praying some level 60 isn't camping it.  Alternate places include a combination of Arathi and Hillsbrad quests, though both those zones combined don't give the XP of Stranglethorn.  Desolace is a nice, if dreary, place to level.  The centaur quests give you a lot to do, especially when you're trying to build up your reputation with one side or the other.  Go through Gnomeregan as soon as possible and get those quests out of the way.  Gnomeregan sucks.  At level 34, you can start going to Scarlet Monestary, but only to the library.  At 36, head to the armory.  At 38, the cathedral.  All three are great for loot and XP. Horde - Stranglethorn Vale.  See above.  Depending on your server population, there may be gankage.  What am I saying, there WILL be gankage.  Anyway, Arathi contains some good quests, though you can't do the big ones (Stromgarde) till you're about 37 or so.  The best place to level in your early 30's is Shimmering Flats.  It has a bunch of general 'kill this, collect that' quests for you to do.  Desolace is also nice, but I didn't find it as plentiful in XP as on Alliance.  Like Alliance, do Scarlet Monestary for loot and XP starting at the mid-30's. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 41-50 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At this point, the quests for both sides will be largely the same.  Therefore, I'll be separating this level range by zone rather than side.  Bear in mind that levels 41-45 are the biggest pain in the ass, since there are relatively few quests available for you then.  It gets much easier in the latter 40's. Azshara - Don't bother going here until level 45 at a minimum.  Immediately upon entering the zone and to your right you'll pick up a couple quests to grind the ghosts and satyrs.  These are fun to kill, they provide good XP and cloth.  Besides those, though, there's not much to do till after 50. Badlands - This is one of those zones I hate on principle.  The wildlife is densely packed and have fairly wild pathing, so you can often end up fighting several wolves and vultures in a row by standing in one place.  However, there are good quests for both sides, and Uldaman is the only instance to bridge the gap between Scarlet Monestary and Zul'farrak.  I still don't like the place. Feralas - My personal favorite area, this place has some decent quests for Alliance, but better ones for the Horde.  If you're into grinding, you can have fun with the gnolls, then the ogres when you're a little higher.  Otherwise, kill naga for the Alliance and everything else for the Horde.  Once you're in your high 40's, go to the northwest end for more quests. Hinterlands - For the Alliance, a lot of quests will take place, if not originate here.  For the Horde, there are loads of quests in the new troll village.  The downside?  You'll need to be 45-46 in order to do most of them, plus the troll village is on the opposite side of the zone as Aerie Peak. However, these quests are to the Horde what the new Searing Gorge quests are to both sides.  Lots of killing, lots to do.  Much fun and loot to be had, including a great trinket, a fantastic necklace, and an awesome fishing pole. Searing Gorge - Don't go here before level 46.  There are maybe two or three quests you can do before then, but the majority (meaning those given at Thorium Point) will require a range of 46-47 do to effectively.  This place is similar to Badlands in terms of wildlife, but the difference is the critters here are more spaced out and it's easier to go through them.  There is an issue with the patrol paths of the dwarves in the Cauldron.  It can take a while to get used to them, and you'll be killed quite a bit until you do.  There are an absolute TON of quests, though, and this place will more than likely carry you from 46 to 50. Swamp of Sorrows - Technically you can start going here in your high 30's, but quite frankly, you'll need a level edge on the local wildlife so you don't spend the majority of your time trying not to be eaten.  This is a good place for the Horde to level on a PVP server, since the Stonard scouts can help you out if needed.  There aren't a lot of quests here, but if you're an alchemist, you won't find a better source of blindweed. Tanaris - If you're into PVP, this is the place.  Like Booty Bay, you won't be able to go two steps in Gadgetzan on a PVP server without picking a fight. Otherwise, the wastewander bandits are quite possibly the single best thing to grind.  They drop more cloth than the Bloodsail pirates (based on personal experience, I may just be unlucky in Stranglethorn Vale) and provide a nice XP bonus with their water pouches. Instances - Beginning at 40, you can go to Uldaman and generally do well until you hit the latter half and the level 45 troggs.  You can start going to Zul'farrak (and be effective) at 45, although there isn't a whole lot of loot to be had there for a rogue.  Well, aside from Mason's Fraternity Ring, a reward for the Divin-o Rod quest.  You can technically go to Maraudon at 45, but only the orange side.  At 47, start going to the purple side and kill Vyletongue for a Satyr's lash, and Celebras for the Rod of Celebras.  At 48, you can start going on Princess runs and still hit most of the monsters.  Make sure to kill Rotgrip after Princess.  The big croc drops a pair of boots that are perfect for the rogue on the go. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 51-55 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azshara - With new levels opens new opportunities in this zone.  You're given the opportunity to kill a few snooty high elves, along with naga and maybe a few giants along the way.  You'll be coming back here later, so don't get too sick of it. Blasted Lands - To be honest, this place sucks for quests.  There are a bunch you can take on for either side, but they consist of collection quests with a drop rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.0001% or less.  Still, if you want to grind wildlife (or sneak a peek at the Dark Portal) there's no place better. Burning Steppes - Good for both sides.  Morgan's Vigil holds the start of the Onyxia key quest for the Alliance, and you can still kill stuff on the Horde side.  This is where PVP really gets fun, since you're closing the level gap on the 60's. Felwood - This place is so depressing.  The first thing you should do, whether you're Alliance or Horde, is start killing the enemies of the Timbermaw to raise your reputation to Unfriendly.  Once it's up that high, you can safely pass through their stronghold to Moonglade and Winterspring.  Afterwards, there are quests to be done at the Emerald Sanctuary, which mostly involve killing satyrs.  Fun stuff. Un'goro Crater - Like Badlands and the rest, this place is dominated by its rather primitive and lethal wildlife.  However, Marshal's Refuge also contains probably the best collection of quests this side of Searing Gorge.  The sheer amount of reward XP you'll get will net you half a level, not including all the XP from the staggering number of critters you'll slaughter. Western Plaguelands - For the Alliance, kill stuff in the Writhing Haunt.  The skellies there drop runecloth and scourgestones.  Fun.  There are quests for the Horde, but you won't be able to get them from Chillwind.  Head to the Bulwark for their version of the good ol' Scourge-stomping quests.  Andorhal remains an undead stronghold, but good luck doing anything in there till your mid 50's.  Otherwise, do the cauldron quests for relatively easy XP, though you may need a group for them.  You can't sap the undead and the cauldron lords will often have a couple lackeys with him. Instances - Sunken Temple can be done in the low 50's, but good luck getting a group for it.  It may just be the servers I play on, though.  From the dragons, you can get a ring and dagger (both have random enchantments, hope for a 'ring/dagger of the monkey') Also in the low 50's, you can start doing BRD quests, although going down to the emperor's lair will require you to be 56-57 or so.  Still, you can have fun in the upper reaches of BRD till then. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Levels 56-60 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now the fun stuff.  Most of the areas mentioned previously make a return, but there are some new ones worth a look. Azshara - As far as I know there's no new quests here, however, this zone will feature prominently in a quest line that starts from an NPC along the border of the Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands. Blasted Lands - There's just one quest here worth your time.  Talk to the ghost NPC sitting at the border of the Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands.  He'll start you on a long, involved quest line that'll take you through the Blasted Lands and introduce you to several areas of Azshara.  The whole quest line can be done in a few hours, somewhat shorter if you don't fight everything in your way and have help for the elites you'll have to kill.  The final part of the line WILL require a party, and a good one that knows what they're doing, but the final rewards are a ton of XP, a 16-slot bag and a nice trinket (and I think something else, I forget). Burning Steppes - Once again return for more ogres, dragons and nutty orcs trying to ruin Azeroth's good times.  More quests await when you're in this particular level range, so have at it. Deadwind Pass - There are zero, I repeat, zero quests here as of the 1.7 patch. However, you can grind the ogres here right up to 60, and very, very few people go there if you're concerned about PVP (or competition). Eastern Plaguelands - If you're Horde, get your quests from the Blightcaller. If you're Alliance, get them from the guy along the east end of the Thondoril River.  They're good grinding quests, and give lots of XP.  After finishing all three you'll be sent on a long quest line that'll let you tour a lot of EPL, and will require a five-man Scarlet Stratholme run.  However, I highly recommend going through it, since there's a lot of XP to be had, and the very last part of the quest line is very, very fun. Silithus - A new area, this place is populated by a wide variety of victims. Ghosts, bugs and elementals.  But mostly bugs.  There are some quests, but not very many.  There'll be more as of the 1.8 patch, according to Blizzard. Hopefully they'll have good item rewards, since most people who come here are either level 60 or close to it. Western Plaguelands - Most of Andorhal's quests can be done earlier than this, but you'll kick more undead ass with greater levels.  Either way, you likely won't finish the cauldrons till 56, unless you get a higher-level group to take you through. Winterspring - Probably has the best set of quests among the zones.  From killing furbolgs and yetis to assaulting a furbolg courier, you'll stain the snow red with the blood of your enemies.  Once again, beware of Freelook and its open-arms attitude toward PVP on like-minded servers. Instances - Dire Maul's east side is open starting at 56 (though you might have to convince the group you're trying to get into).  Starting at 57, start trying to get into Stratholme and Lower Blackrock Spire raids (or groups).  Also finish up any remaining BRD quests and especially the quest to kill the emperor, as it nets a nice ring.  At 58, all the raiding instances are more or less open, but be prepared to be rejected in favor of a 60 rogue.  Bear in mind raids are the absolute worst way to gain XP, but they do pay off over time with great loot. =============================================================================== 10.  Professions =============================================================================== Many professions are open to you, but you can only take on two at a time.  Which ones to take is a very important decision, and can shape the entire game for you.  However, you can always take on the three secondary professions: Cooking, Fishing and First Aid and still be able to accept your two primary professions with no penalty.  With that said, let's run through them real quick. Alchemy - Sister profession to Herbalism.  Never take this without it, unless you like paying exorbitant rates for reagents at the auction house.  Useful if you want to transmute your own arcanite, or charge others for the privilege. Blacksmithing - Unless you're planning on crafting armor and weapons and then selling them to people, you'd be better off with another profession. Enchanting - Only take this if you enjoy slowly building up a skill, then spending hours (or tons of gold) to get the necessary reagents, then screaming at people in capital cities and hoping someone buys something.  I'm not a big fan of this profession, as you can probably tell.  You can take enchanting and simply sell the reagents you get from disenchanting greens, which is easier and still makes money. Engineering - This is an interesting profession, but don't expect to make any money off of it until much later in the game.  Lots of engineering equipment can't be used by anyone but other engineers, but you can create stuff that you can then install on other people's equipment (and charge them for it!) Herbalism - This is a decent profession, but doesn't bring in quite as much money as leatherworking and mining until later in the game.  Best when paired with Alchemy, obviously. Leatherworking - Best when paired with Skinning so you have materials to work with.  It's much less expensive than other crafting professions, although later in the game you'll run across recipes that call for some fairly rare items. Mining - Only take this if you intend on using it for money, or if you really want to be a Blacksmith.  Mining is rather competitive, so be prepared to fight for an ore deposit on higher-populated servers. Skinning - Best when paired with Leatherworking, obviously.  You can take it up and just sell all the leather you get for money, but as a rogue I prefer to craft my own armor. Tailoring - Obviously you won't be wearing anything you make, seeing as it's all cloth and has very few agility bonuses.  However, when paired with enchanting, it gives you a good source of green and blue items to disenchant. Plus, later on you'll be able to purify mooncloth, which is a terrific source of money. Now then, which is the best?  Well, Alchemy/Herbalism lets you create your own potions, a very handy ability since you have no other methods of healing yourself.  Skinning/Leatherworking lets you create your own armor, and while it may seem bad at first, at about level 35 you can create and equip Nightshade equipment, which gives amazing agility and stamina bonuses.  Engineering and Enchanting shouldn't be taken unless you have a gathering skill to support the amount of money you'll have to invest.  Mining and Blacksmithing just seem pointless to me, since with the time you spend making equipment for other people, you could be making items for yourself. That's my two cents, anyway.  You're certainly free to choose whatever profession combination you wish. =============================================================================== 11.  Lockpicking =============================================================================== Lockpicking can be a difficult skill to maintain.  Rather than professions, which have periodic boosts in the maximum skill number that you can buy from trainers, the maximum skill value for lockpicking increases by 5 for every level.  So, when you first buy the skill at level 16, the max skill you'll be able to attain will be 80.  At level 35, it'll be 175.  At 60, it'll top out at 300. Lockpicking can also be a difficult skill to improve.  Both the Alliance and Horde side have a quest that sends you to several practice locks you can pick which will raise your skill up to 100, at which point the boxes become gray and you no longer gain skill.  At this point you can pick up to iron lockboxes, which people will undoubtedly have and will ask for a rogue (like you) to open for them. Currently rogues can gain lockpicking skill from picking boxes in the do not trade window (finally) and Blizzard has added footlockers to the various areas in the game to practice skill.  Basically, these footlockers coorespond to the level of the region in terms of the lockpicking skill needed to open them.  So footlockers in a level 20 area would take around 100 or so lockpicking skill to open. With that said, the first place you can go as Alliance is the lumber mill where the lockpicking quest takes place.  You can use the above-mentioned and all-in-caps technique to open the strongbox over and over again for skill points.  You can also open the chest in the tower where the poison quest takes place, but unless you're of a very high level, you'll end up aggro-ing the elite that wanders around there.  Also, bear in mind the chest in Redridge is set on a timer.  You cannot (I repeat, CANNOT) just pick it over and over and gain skill points.  You have to wait a few minutes after picking it at first, then try again to get another skill point. To raise your skill to 175, your options are limited primarily to footlockers. You'll find the appropriate ones in the waters of Hillsbrad, Arathi, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, all the level 25-35+ areas. After this, you'll want to go to the Scarlet Monestary.  There are two doors outside the instance you can pick, and two doors inside (in the Armory and Cathedral).  Don't bother going inside the instance if you're not in a group. The doors outside will reset eventually, allowing you to gain skill points over and over again.  You can use these up until level 45 when your skill maxes out at 225.  From there, you can open literally anything.  Congrats, you're now a well-sought-after rogue. But first, a word on lockpicking for profit.  On many servers, you'll see rogues offering their lockbox picking services for money.  There will also be non-rogues offering to pay rogues to open their lockboxes.  However, there will also be the nuts, like me, who open other people's lockboxes for free, simply because we can. In short, don't expect to make money from opening other people's lockboxes. Work for free.  Work for tips if you want, but never insist on being paid, and always be courteous to the nice little non-rogues.  While you may be offering a service unavailable to others, there will always be those like me who will do it for nothing.  Do it because you can, not because you want money. There are instances for that sort of thing. =============================================================================== 12.  Poisons =============================================================================== I decided to slap in this section since I've recently started playing around with poisons and determined their proper value to a rogue on the go.  For the most part what you'll want to use is Instant Poison.  It's fast, simple, effective.  Deals damage instantly, as opposed to damage over time, and the 20% application rate is higher than you may think.  In a 30-minute period of grinding, I've run out of charges far sooner than the time limit would have ended. For PVP, Instant Poison is also a help, but Crippling Poison is your bread and butter.  Crippling Poison has the rather helpful effect of cutting your opponent's movement speed when it's activated.  At rank 2, it will slice your poor victim's speed by a full 70%.  This ensures an opponent who likes to keep his/her distance will fight on your level and on your terms.  This is the power of a rogue. Against any and all spellcasters, you'll want to toss out Mind-Numbing Poison. This will increase their casting time and give you more time to stop them with a well-placed Kick or Gouge.  Have Mind-Numbing Poison on one dagger and Crippling Poison on the other and you'll make sport of those magic-tossers. Wounding and Deadly Poisons aren't that useful except against high-armor enemies, though if you're dueling a paladin, don't bother, they can cure the poison if they're at all intelligent.  Wounding Poison isn't worth the trouble. In the time you took lowering their healing ability, you could be using Mind- Numbing Poison and Kick to simply eliminate that healing spell entirely. Poisons can first be acquired at level 20, and it takes quite a bit of poison- brewing to get your skill up enough to be able to use the good stuff.  I would recommend holding off on mixing poisons till perhaps level 30-40, since the sheer volume of materials can cost you a gold or two that would be otherwise better spent.  Plus you don't have access to the good poisons till your late 30's anyway. One thing to bear in mind: poisons are not like your other rogue skills.  New recipes aren't dependent on previous ones.  Put simply, if you get your poison skill high enough to buy Instant Poison III and you have yet to buy Instant Poison II, you can buy rank 3 without ever having purchased rank 2.  Very useful, since you won't generally have need of Mind-Numbing Poison till later in the game when you're in PVP against spellcasters. =============================================================================== 13.  Frequently Asked Questions =============================================================================== While I ordinarily put this section near the top of the guide, that would involve me renumbering the entire thing a third time, and I simply don't want to do that. Q.  Monsters keep detecting me while stealthed!  Why? A.  Remember that monsters have a better chance of detecting you based on your level and whether or not you're behind them, as well as your proximity to them.  If you can't stay behind them, keep your distance.  If you're still being detected, either invest in the Master of Deception talent or level up. Q.  What talents should I invest in? A.  It's really up to you.  If you don't particularly care about PVP and just want to enjoy yourself fighting monsters, literally any build will suffice. However, if you're going into PVP, I recommend either of the two builds I've listed here.  They're mostly the same except for a few points here and there. Q.  Why should I use poisons?  I've done fine without them so far! A.  I once thought this way, primarily because I never did the poison quest until level 30 (kept putting it off) and never started using poisons till level 38 (also procrastinated, go me!)  However, poisons give you that special edge no one else has.  It lets you deal extra damage, gives you an ability to slow people's movements and spellcasting.  Plus it's fairly cheap to do.  Once you start seeing how fast enemies die with just a few applications of Instant Poison, you won't want to fight without it. Q.  Is there a permanent poison?  I don't like running out of time/charges! A.  No.  Just invest in a bigger bag and keep a few stacks of your favorite poison on hand. Q.  Where do I get reagents for poisons/Vanish/Blind? A.  A particular vendor called the Shady Dealer has all that you need.  You can usually find one in capital cities near the rogue trainer, and there are a few in other cities like Booty Bay. Q.  How do I beat [insert class here] in PVP? A.  Sorry, but I haven't written up PVP strategies yet, and I might not be able to get to them for a while since I have a Tauren shaman I need to level up. =============================================================================== 14.  Acknowledgements =============================================================================== Thanks to you, the reader and gamer, for taking the time to read my faq. Thanks to HoodedMonk07 for the Gouge/Backstab thing.  Totally forgot about it. Also thanks to Ayndin for...well, a lot of information I have yet to sort out. And some thanks to Turbo 164 for pointing out a few errors and such.  Thanks to Syrick for telling me I missed tailoring in the professions list. Thanks to Blizzard for letting me swipe the racial traits from their site, and not getting uppity about it. Thanks to Blizzard and the development team responsible for creating this masterpiece. Thanks to CJayC and Gamefaqs for hosting it. =============================================================================== 15.  Copyright Info =============================================================================== This file is Copyright (c)2002-2005 to its respective author, namely myself. All rights reserved.