Rogue Class Overview
Rogue is a master of the shadow and a cunning Assassin. In Mists of Pandaria Rogue
remains one of the strongest DPS classes in the game and with some changes made to each
of the three specializations there are countless new ways to play one of World of Warcraft's
most iconic classes. Rogue now offers incredible raid buffs in the form of Swiftblade's Cunning
and
Master Poisoner regardless of what specialization you find yourself playing.
Introduction to Rogue
Rogue a pure melee DPS class with three Specializations that all offer different ways to deal damage.
While you are limited to only the DPS role as a Rogue it is important to understand how each of these specializations
differs so you can better determine which you would like to play, or which will be the best for the specific content you
find yourself currently participating in. Rogue operates off of two resource systems, Energy
and Combo Points. Energy is a passively regenerating resource
that allows you to cast abilities to generate Combo Points. The more Haste rating you have the
quicker your Energy regenerates, there are also many tools like
Adrenaline Rush that can
impact how quickly you are able to generate Energy.Combo Points
can be used to cast powerful finishing abilities like
Slice and Dice or
Envenom. In Mists of Pandaria there are a ton of tools
that will allow you to store and transfer your Combo Points like
Anticipation and
Redirect
which make managing your Combo Points even easier.
Rogue Specializations
Rogue has three different specializations:
Assassination, Combat,
and Subtlety.
Assassination — Assassination is a master of deception and focuses primarily on doing as much of its damage as possible by increasing the potency of your Poison and Bleed effects. Abilities like
Envenom will greatly impact the amount of damage you are dealing with your Poisons while
Venomous Wounds makes our bleeds like
Rupture even more deadly. Assassination also has the unique cooldown
Vendetta which greatly increases your damage done to a single target for its duration, allowing you to deal a ton of damage to bosses and other enemies.
Combat — Combat offers a unique play style focused entirely around maximizing the amount of Combo Points you spend to benefit from
Restless Blades. Restless Blades allows us to use our
Killing Spree,
Adrenaline Rush and
Shadow Blades abilities more often allowing for near constant cooldown usage and consistent damage throughout an encounter of any length.
Subtlety — Subtlety is often regarded as the highest damage output of the DPS specializations for Rogue in Mists of Pandaria. Subtlety focused on casting as many
Ambushs as possible to maximize the amount of time we spend in
Find Weakness. This is accomplished by taking advantage of our
Shadow Dance and
Vanish abilities which allow us to continue to cast
Stealth abilities even in the heat of combat.
What Specialization Should I Play?
All three specialization for Rogue are viable in Mists of Pandaria though Subtlety will often be the strongest choice
for personal damage done. The most important thing to consider is what you will enjoy the most. Each of the three Specializations
has a unique play style and forcing yourself to play a spec because it results in slightly more damage is rarely worth it. It is important
to note that regardless of the specialization you choose you will still provide the important Swiftblade's Cunning and
Master Poisoner
buffs to your group.
Assassination
Assassination has gone through some changes in Mists of Pandaria but for the most part remains the same. Your primary
focus as an Assassination Rogue is to maximize your up time of
Slice and Dice and
Rupture while spending any excess
Combo Points on
Envenom. You will primarily generate Combo Points
by using
Mutilate/
Dispatch. The single largest factor on maximizing your damage as an Assassination rogue is timing your
Vendetta, pairing this with powerful raid cooldowns like
Bloodlust or an increased damage phase on the boss you are fighting
can be a major factor in how much or how little damage you are able to deal.
Combat
Combat similar to previous expansions Combat scales incredibly with gear. Combat focuses primarily on
cycling through your Combo Points as quickly as possible to benefit from
Restless Blades.
Your rotation as a Combat rogue is quite simple, the focus is on keeping
Slice and Dice and
Revealing Strike active
while using
Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points and cycle through
Bandit's Guile
to reach
Deep Insight as quickly as possible while spending any excess Combo Points on
Eviscerate.
Subtlety
Subtlety is often regarded the most consistently high performing specialization of the three Rogue specializations
in Mists of Pandaria. Subtlety offers a unique play style centered around maximizing your
Find Weakness buff uptime by utilizing
cooldowns like
Shadow Dance to cast as many
Ambushs as possible. Like the other two specs you will have a relatively
standard rotation that involves keeping
Slice and Dice,
Hemorrhage, and
Rupture active but this spec will
also task you with planning ahead and pooling Energy in order to take full advantage of your
Find Weakness windows.
How Viable is Rogue in Mists of Pandaria?
Rogue remains one of the best melee DPS in the game not only because of their ability to deal damage but the incredible
amount of utility and crowd control they bring to the table.
Smoke Bomb is an incredible tool with many unique interactions
that can help mitigate incoming damage and in some cases completely ignore mechanics. Rogue is also one of if not the tankiest
melee DPS in the game with abilities like
Cloak of Shadows which can completely nullify entire boss mechanics and
Feint
which when paired with
Elusiveness results in nearly unmatched levels of damage reduction. Rogue also provides on demand crowd control
with abilities like
Blind or
Kidney Shot.
Races For Rogue
Rogue is able to be played as any race but Tauren and Draenei, listed below is a breakdown
of each race and how it will benefit you as a Rogue.
Horde Races
- Pandaren is a great choice and can in some situations be the highest DPS increase
of the Horde Races.
Epicurean doubles your stats gained by food buffs resulting in a considerable increase.
Bouncy also halves your falling damage taken but this can be a bit of a redundant benefit.
Quaking Palm can also act as an impromptu crowd controlling ability, but especially as a Rogue can only be used in very specific situations.
Goblin continues to be a great choice but
Time is Money will often times fall short of other Horde racials.
Rocket Jump is a great way to close the gap in a situation where you do not have
Sprint or
Shadowstep available.
Blood Elf can be a useful pick for PvP but does not offer much as far as increases to our damage.
Arcane Torrent silences all enemies in melee range for 2 seconds and restores a small amount of Energy.
Orc is still considered to be one of your best choices for a Rogue in Mists of Pandaria thanks to
Blood Fury, but will struggle to compete with Troll due to reworks to
Berserking.
Troll is the default choice in Mists of Pandaria due to how well
Berserking synergizes with every specializations DPS cooldowns.
Beast Slaying will also be quite relevant as there are a number of Beast bosses throughout the expansion.
Undead is similar to Blood Elf and does not have a ton of in-combat benefits as a Rogue.
Will of the Forsaken is a great tool if you are focused primarily on PvPing.
Alliance Races
- Pandaren now becomes the default choice for Rogue as Alliance due to the bonus stats gained from
Epicurean. The goal while gearing a Rogue is to maximize your Agility and Epicurean does exactly that.
Worgen is still one of the best races you can choose as Alliance due to
Viciousness which increases our Critical Strike chance.
Darkflight can also help quickly close the gap to your target in a situation where you do not have
Sprint or
Shadowstep ready.
Human is another solid option as you will receive bonus expertise rating with a Sword or Mace equipped thanks to
Mace Specialization and
Sword Specialization. This benefit will not help us much if you find yourself playing one of the specializations that uses only Daggers so Pandaren or Worgen are both likely to be better choices.
Will to Survive has great uses both in PvE and PvP.
Dwarf comes with
Stoneform which instantly removes any Poison, Disease, and Bleed effects allowing us to
Vanish without risk of being taken out of
Stealth.
Mace Specialization also increases our Expertise with Maces which can make gearing at lower item levels much easier.
Night Elf is another race to consider but can be a bit more difficult to receive its full benefit from compared to Pandaren or Worgen. Their primary racial
Shadowmeld will allow for us to use another
Stealth ability during combat making it a great choice if you are playing primarily Subtlety.
Gnome also does little to increase your damage done compared to other Alliance races but
Shortblade Specialization can help you reach your Expertise caps especially at lower gear levels.
Escape Artist is another great tool to remove any movement impairing abilities but will see limited uses in PvE.
Gearing and Stats
Rogue can only wear Cloth and Leather, but you should only be wearing
Leather.
Leather Specialization greatly outweighs any possible benefit
you may find by wearing a differing piece due to the emphasis put on Primary stats
in Mists of Pandaria.
Rogue is able to equip one-handed Swords, fist weapons, one-handed Maces, One-handed Axes, Daggers.
In Mists of Pandaria Rogues will no longer use Ranged Weapons. The Weapon you use will depend on the specialization
you are playing and plays a large part in what abilities you are able to use.
Assassination will use two Daggers. in Mists of Pandaria Daggers have been normalized in a way that
weapon speed will not be a factor and you should almost always opt for the highest item level option.
Your stat priority as a Assassination Rogue should be as follows: Agility, > Hit Rating (to 7.5%) >
Expertise (to 7.5%) > Mastery > Haste > Critical Strike Rating.
Combat will be using a 2.6 speed weapon in your Main-hand
and either another 2.6 speed weapon or a Dagger in your off-hand. Your stat priority as a Combat Rogue should be as follows:
Agility > Hit Rating (to 7.5%) > Expertise Rating (to 7.5%) > Haste Rating > Mastery Rating > Critical Strike Rating.
Subtlety will use two Daggers. in Mists of Pandaria Daggers have been normalized in a way that weapon speed
will not be a factor and you should almost always opt for the highest item level option. Your stat priority as
an Subtlety Rogue should be as follows: Agility > Hit Rating (to 7.5%) > Expertise Rating (to 7.5%) > Haste Rating >
Critical Strike Rating > Mastery Rating.
Rogue Addons and Macros
Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life in Azeroth and Pandaria. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.
Changelog
- 15 Jun. 2025: Page added.