Rogue Class Overview

Rogues are a great class to bring to any form of content PvE or PvP. With nearly unmatched crowd control and a considerable amount of utility Rogue will be a valuable addition to any group. With the use of abilities like Cloak of Shadows, Evasion, Vanish, extremely hard to kill and widely considered to be the tankiest of any melee DPS. Rogue also brings incredible utility to a raid in the form of Improved Expose Armor making them much more than just extra damage on the DPS meter.

• Combat Spec: Combat remains the default choice for your Rogue in PvE content in The Burning Crusade. While Combat plays quite similarly to the Classic version of the spec you will find yourself much more competitive with other physical damage dealers.
• Assassination Spec: Assassination unfortunately struggles in The Burning Cruasade dealing considerably less damage than Combat and offering less control/mobility than Subtlety. It is not often you will find yourself playing Assassination if your intent is to min/max your character.
• Subtlety Spec: Subtlety is primarily a PvP specialization as it will struggle to compete in DPS output with Combat, but talents like Shadowstep and Preparation allow you to stick to enemy targets like never before. On top of this, the new talent Cheat Death greatly reduces the incoming damage of an ability that likely would have otherwise killed you.

While there are three Rogue specializations as highlighted above, there is almost no PvE situation where you will find yourself playing anything other than Combat if your intention is to maximize your damage output. There are several different Combat builds highlighted below depending on your responsibility of applying Improved Expose Armor for your group and your current weapons. If you are more interested in a PvP focused build check out our Subtlety PvP guide also highlighted below.

Combat is a specialization that focuses entirely around dealing as much damage as possible with a slow main-hand weapon and generating as much energy as possible with a fast off-hand weapon thanks to your Combat Potency ability. The other goal of Combat is maximizing the uptime of powerful buffs and debuffs like Slice and Dice and Rupture while also being able to provide unique utility to the group in the form of Improved Expose Armor. Initially gearing your Combat Rogue will take some time they scale incredibly with gear and you will have no problem dealing competitive damage in any type of content.

As highlighted above Subtlety will struggle to compete with Combat in any PvE scenario but in PvP Subtlety is the king of escaping tricky situations with abilities like Shadowstep and Preparation. Your uptime on a target as a Subtlety Rogue is also unmatched compared to any other melee and in a PvP scenario the ability to stick to a target can often be the difference between landing a kill or them escaping. Subtlety definitely shines in an Arena setting but any format of PvP will benefit from having a Subtlety Rogue on your team.

Yes! Rogue is more than just viable in The Burning Crusade. Similar to Vanilla Rogue is an incredibly gear dependent class and you will share a considerable number of your best-in-slot pieces with other classes like Warriors, Hunters and Enhancement Shaman so the gearing process can at times be difficult but in similar gear Rogue will often be one of the top melee damage dealers.

Every build should aim to use a slow main-hand weapon with a fast off-hand weapon. Fast off-hand weapon speed plays a large role in your DPS and energy generation due to Combat Potency. A slower main-hand weapon will result in higher weapon damage overall per hit, giving extra benefit to Sword Specialization, Windfury attacks, and your main Combo Point building abilities like Sinister Strike which scales based off of your weapon damage.

Ideally, your off-hand speed should be a 1.4 or 1.5 speed weapon, while your main-hand should be a 2.6-2.8 speed weapon for Combat. If you are playing daggers, then aim for a 1.8-2.0 speed main-hand and a 1.3-1.4 speed off-hand.

If you are still deciding if the Rogue class is the proper choice for you, feel free to check out the video below from WillE, an avid player and long time content creator for World of Warcraft! This video will give you a solid overview of what Rogue is like to play in The Burning Crusade.

Rogues can use most one-handed weapons, specifically Swords, Maces, Fists weapons, and Daggers. You can also use ranged weapons like Bows, Guns, and Thrown Weapons though they will exist mostly for passive stats.

Your stat priority as a Rogue remains the same regardless of what specialization you choose (Expertise/Hit to Cap>Agility>Haste>Critical Strike>Armor Penetration) but make sure to check out our best-in-slot guide to get a better understanding of what gear you should be aiming for in each phase of The Burning Crusade classic.

Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life in Azeroth and Outland. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.