Rouge: Talent Builds

[oninuva]

The four most typical rogue builds that ppl have come to use and abuse. They all have their ups and downs and frankly - there is no point in discussing which is better and what could be changed around as the only serious way to know what fits your own style of play is to test it for yourself. This is greatly influnced by how much you pvp and pve, as well as the often neglected "who do you usually play with?", which impacts what kind of build you might prefer too much to be ignored.

Furthermore, I would strongly suggest to play your char all the way to 60 (or at least close to - say around 55 or so) before you even start to experiment with different builds. They all really come together at that point only, and the cost of respeccing isn't bad once you are a high-level char even after you have done it a few times. I've tried all these speccs myself, and found the one I prefer, but I do believe that you should try them all for a week each before you make up your mind on which archetype and what small tweeks you want to add to them.

Finally, as these archetypes are intended to provide some guidance for those just settling into playing a rogue, I have kept the explaining text for each talent.


************** Premediation Rogue **************


Assassination Talents (19 points)
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# 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, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage ability by 30%.


Combat Talents (0 points)
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# None


Subtlety Talents (32 points)
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# 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)

# Camouflage - 3/5 points
Increases your speed while stealthed by 9%.

# Opportunity - 5/5 points
Increases the damage dealt when striking from behind with your Backstab, Garrote, or Ambush abilities by 20%.

# Improved Ambush - 3/3 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your Ambush ability by 40%.

# 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.

# 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.

# Improved Sap - 3/3 points
Adds a 90% chance to return to stealth mode after using your Sap ability.

# Preparation - 1/1 point
When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities.

# Improved Cheap Shot - 2/2 points
Reduces the Energy cost of your Cheap Shot ability by 20.

# Setup - 3/3 points
Gives you a 45% chance to add a combo point to your target after dodging their attack.

# Hemorrhage - 1/1 point
An instant strike that damages the opponent and causes the target to hermorrhage, increasing any Physical damage dealt to the target by up to 3. Lasts 30 charges or 15 seconds. Awards 1 combo point.

# Premeditation - 1/1 point
When used, adds 2 combo points to your target. The target must become engaged in combat within 5 seconds or the combo points are lost.


Key components: Improved Sap, Premeditation, Ambush, Hemorrhage, Ghostly Strike, Setup (and Evade vs big mobs and melee classes in pvp), Preparation

This build may well be used by those who like to have a sword/mace mainhand as there are addons that automatically swaps a dagger into your mainhand once you are in Stealth and swaps back to sword/mace once you come out of stealth. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the Stance Sets addon on this website, but it is available at for instance www.curse-gaming.com/m...?addid=151

In this build, you are in general looking for an opener of Premeditation (use Improved Sap if they move around, as in pvp), Ambush, Hemorrhage, Eviscerate for blazingly fast, front-loaded damage. You can also use Premeditation, Cheap Shot, Eviscerate. After each one of these two alternatives, you can either continue the fight as usual or maximize your combo point building by <drink Thistle Tea to restore 100 energy>, Vanish, Cheap Shot, ... which also keeps your target is stunned. Overall, this build is all about using as little energy as possible to build combo points and thus tends to use Hemorrhage over Sinister Strike. Note that Hemorrhage can be learnt up to Rank 3 at level 60 from your rogue trainer and at that time adds 7 damage to any hit (significant in longer fights - especially instances and elite mobs where many are hitting the same mob). Many drop either both points in Murder for Improved Sinister Strike, or one point in Murder and the point in Hemorrhage and simply always just use Sinister Strike (which deals more damage than Hemorrhage, but uses more energy to build combo points).

IMPORTANT: Yes, you can do changes to this build, but the purpose of posting this here is not to start a "can I use this instead?" thread. The purpose is only to provide a reference point for those who may not already be aware of the four archetypical rogue builds.

If you want to tweek your talent builds, use the Talent Calculator at wowvault.ign.com/View....elect_id=7

[blueorange]

or just make a private and use .setcp and max out all three trees, it's alot simpler, lol, but good ideas, +rep

[bait]

or just make a private and use .setcp and max out all three trees, it's alot simpler, lol, but good ideas, +rep

Newb

[warping11]

You might want to add in additional combos , premed opens up so much even more so in 1v1.