Level 80 Rogue PvE Start Up Guide

[Keithh]

Hey there, since the beginning of my WoW Career (A little after release) I have always been interested in rogues, it was my first 60 in Vanilla, My first 70 in the Burning Crusade, and my first 80 in Lich King.. Over time, i've learned a little :P

But, for today ill be focusing on teaching you the basic things of the class, and how to get started when you reach 80.

Rogues are a pure melee DPS class. They have no other option other than to reroll, rogues have huge potential to have amazing DPS, and most do indeed have amazing DPS, if you know how to do it, such as having a proper spec, good gear, and how to play smart.

First thing i am going to talk about is a proper spec, i recommend my spec, which a lot of people use as well.

http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc...00000000000000
You can edit that around a little, but its what I find the best..

I don't feel like going that much into a talent build, because its best just to read them..

Next, is gear, rogues should aim to have two key attributes, Agility and Stamina.

Stamina - You should have known this from Day 2.. One stamina point is equal to 10 health.
10 Stamina = 100 Health
112 Stamina = 1120 Health
Just multiply the amount of stamina points a piece of gear has by ten to come up with how much health it grants.. You dont necessarily need to stack stamina, and i would say

Now, for a little more complex attribute, Agility..

Agility - Agility is the main attribute of a rogue, it gives quite a few of the other necessary parts of being a rogue.

Hunters, rogues, shamans and druids in Cat Form gain 1 melee attack power per point of agility.

Warriors, hunters and rogues gain 1 ranged attack power for each point of agility.

Increases armor by 2 per point.
Increases chance to score a critical hit with a weapon.
Increases chance to dodge attacks. This is dependent on both class and level.

I got that from http://www.wowwiki.com/Attributes Due to me not wanting to go into attributes that much.. But, i would focus on mostly getting Agility..

Now that you know that, we will get into some good starting gear and how to obtain them... Im sorry if you cant obtain them on way or another, but its how I see its the easiest way...

First off when you hit 80, the main thing to focus on is doing some heroics.. It can get you some good gear to start raiding in, and some good pieces of armor to buy with the emblems you recieve.

Here are some pieces of gear i would consider obtaining, as it would be a good start...

First off, i would like to say, farming Regular Trial of the Champion would probably gear you up pretty nicely, and you can do it 5 times an hour, you can usually farming group for it in your Trade chat.. Now for the individual pieces.

Head - It was a real trouble getting this for me, until I got a lucky drop from Sapphiron in 10 Naxx, but i would not recommend trying to get that.. I would just say use the emblems you get from running heroics to buy http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45640 So you can exchange it in for http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46125 that would be a much easier way..
But, if you do happen to be saving your emblems for something else, there is always the Mask of Distant Memory
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47529 from Heroic Trial of the Champion

Necklace - I personally, being a miner and having quite a bit of money left over from BC, so i went ahead and bought a Titanium Impact Choker, but for those who do not have that ability, i would say getting the Ancient Pendant of Arathor from Heroic Trial of the Champion... It should be moderately easy to get one..

Shoulders - I would just go with a easy drop from Normal Trial of the Champion.. It has some good stats and is moderately easy to obtain...
Shoulderpads of the Infamous Knave http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47221 Which drops off of the Black Knight..

Cape - I just bought the Ice Strikers Cloak. Didnt seem that much of a set back, So, i would recommend going for that.

Chest - This is the other piece of armor you can obtain through emblems of Conquest.. Buy the http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45634 with your emblems, and exchange it for the Conqueror's Terrorblade Breastplate http://www.wowhead.com/?item=46123 to the vendor in Dalaran.

Bracers - A good starting piece drops in the Heroic Halls of Lightning, they are.. Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37853 Not the best, but are worth getting..

Gloves - Again, you can find some good starting gloves from a Heroic, This time it would come off the boss Ymiron in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.. They are Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37409

Waist - This piece of armor you will get from Heroic Utgarde Keep, from the Boss Ingvar the Plunderer he drops a nice little belt, that is better than some others I've come across. It is the Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt..http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37194

Legs - I have a few choices for you here, you can get some VERY nice leggings by exchanging your Emblems of Conquest for them, or you can run a few heroics for some.. Emblem Leggings are MUCH BETTER than Heroic Leggings.. The Emblem leggings you can buy are the Leggings of Wavering Shadow http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45846 And the Heroic leggings are from Heroic Gundrak, and are the Gored Hide Legguards http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37644

Boots - I reccomend the Treads of Dismal Fortune http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47248 from The Trial of the Champion... They're stats look nice, and would be a good starting piece..

Trinkets - The first one would be the Banner of Victory from regular ToC.. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47214 Its a pretty good starting trinket, and good trinkets are hard to get.. Another, if you have the money would be the Agility form of Darkmoon Card: Greatness http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47214, but a lot of people dont, but if you happen to have the money, i would suggest buying it, you can find it on the AH or from someone in trade.. Remember, its hard to find a good trinket..

Rings - If you have the money, go ahead and buy a Titanium Impact Ring http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42642, which can also be found in the AH or can be made by a JC... If you dont have the money, the Hemorrhaging Circle http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37642 is a ring dropped in Heroic Gundrak

Now, for Weapons, for weapons, a good choice would be a slow, hard hitting main hand, and a fast, dagger, sword, or mace as an offhand, this idea is to make your DPS as high as possible.. Weaponsmiths can make these ideal weapons, but they are pricy, but incase you do have the money to blow, Titansteel Shanker would be the offhand, and Titansteel Bonecrusher as the mainhand.. but again, for those who dont have the money.. Here are some substitutes. A good mainhand from Heroic ToC would be Aledar's Battlestar http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47508 and a good offhand could be difficult to find, and i personally got lucky on a BOE drop in Naxxaramas.

For a ranged weapon, I would go for True-aim Long Rifle, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47568 You dont really use your ranged weapons for combat, its mostly a stat item.. And that gun certainly does have good stats for a beginner, you can obtain it off the Black Knight in Heroic ToC.

Be sure to gem all your gear appropriately.. Be sure to have Agility, and AP, these do help quite a bit with your DPS... And, if you have the money go ahead and enchant the gear as well, appropriately.
Be sure to get Icescale Leg Armor for your legs, its a nice buff...


Now, how you've got all your gear, now im going to help you dish out some DPS instead of clicking Sinister Strike randomly and occasionaly clicking Eviscerate.. >.<

Here are a few abbreviations so i don't have to type as much..
SS = Sinister Strike
SnD = Slice and Dice
Rup = Rupture
Evisc = Eviscerate
KS = Killing Spree
AD = Adrenaline Rush
BF = Blade Flurry
CB = Combo Points
CD = Cooldown

First off, when I start off a boss fight, i open up with a Garrote, and follow up with SSx2 so i have 3 CB's I use those CB's on a SnD.. I then again use SSx5 and throw down a Rup on him, pretty much i repeat that over and over, your main idea is to always have SnD and Rup on the target, and if you have time inbetween your Rupture and SnD I throw down a 2 or 3 Evisc.. But, to make your DPS even better, you can go ahead and pop your CD's which are KS, AD, and BF... When you go to do it, use your KS and when thats over make sure you have a SnD up and then pop AD and BF near the same time.. SnDx5 and use Rup, then you can get a 3-5 CB Evisc before you have to renew your SnD...

I pretty much do that as a rotation, and its a pretty good starter one as well,


Well, thats all i have to say in this guide, and it took about 4 hours worth of work :P

I hope this helps all of you new rogues out there, and enjoy

Feel free to rant on rant on me.

[Lemonsarenotfun]

I'm going to point out a couple of issues I have with this guide.

My first problem is with the gear choices, if people follow the majority of your suggestions they are going to end up with 33.67 expertise rating which is a good 8.67 over the cap. This is a, bad idea, alternate gear solutions need to be looked up. (This is assuming you take Weapon Expertise, which every Combat Rogue will).

Secondly, weapon choice seems to completely ignore the fact that due to changes to Combat talents (When Ulduar was released) you really want your weapons to be the same type to ensure you benefit from the talents; So Swords/Axes, Maces, basically, if you're a Combat Rogue you should be going for Swords/Axes and very little else.

Thirdly, you seem intent on gemming hit. I can't specify how terrible an idea this is for a combat rogue. Combat rogues should NEVER gem hit, ever, take the hit you get from gear and assuming it's over 80 or so there is no excuse to gem for it, the slots are far better spent on Agility Gems or AP Gems. (Depending on your gear levels)

Finally, due to the fact you SHOULD have glyphed for Sinister Strike as a combat rogue, it is very unlikely you SSx5 in order to get the required combat points.

All in all, good job for trying, but there's a hell of a lot of flawed advice in there.

[TehGoggles]

What the guy above me said.

As combat you gemming hit above the special cap is a bad idea. The only time you should gem for hit is if you're mutlitate, since a big portion of their damage comes from poisons, so they want to hit the spell cap.

Gemming AP at lower gear levels is better than gemming pure agility. Agility doesn't come ahead until 4 piece t8.5.

[Smygelito]

Hello there. A nice guide overall. I agree with the poster above me and the one above him.

The only thing beside that was this line. "i open up with a Garrote, and follow up with SSx3 so i have 3 CB's I use those CB's on a SnD.."
I think you've made a little typo here since a Garrote + 3xSS is 4xCB, not 3 as you stated.

Thank you for contributing. +Rep

[Nade]

You shouldn't even gem hit if you arent yellow capped... it's still worse than crit

[Parkoflinkin]

And you shouldnt use Killing Spree and Andrenalin Rush stacked. You will get full energy in Killing spree, so its pritty much wasting a good cd. What you want is to stack Blade fury and Andrenalin rush(and trinket that isnt proc chance if you have it)

[Keithh]

I never said you should stack KS and AR, I do it in a different order. And thanks everyone ill make the proper adjustments.. Also, im not aiming for them to be perfect, im just showing them where to get a good start up gear, i did not intend for this to gear the perfectly, i will adjust my guide some though.. Thanks for the criticism..

[MabusPwns]

Envenom > eviscerate.

[Keithh]

You could do that if you like, thats just the rotation i use..