Combat Rogue Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic

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After reaching Level 10, you will get your first talent point to assign. For Levels 10 to 19, you should assign your talent points as follows:

1. — 2 points in Improved Sinister Strike
2. — 5 points in Dual Wield Specialization
3. — 3 points in Deflection

At Level 20, you will get a very useful defensive spell in the form of Riposte. For Levels 20 to 29, you should assign your talent points as follows:

1. — 1 point in Riposte
2. — 2 points in Precision
3. — 2 points in Endurance
4. — 3 points in Lightning Reflexes
5. — 2 points in Improved Slice and Dice

At Level 30, you gain access to Blade Flurry, a massively important and useful AoE tool and general DPS cooldown. For Levels 30 to 39, you should assign your talent points as follows:

1. — 1 point in Blade Flurry
2. — 5 points in Hack and Slash (swords and axes are easiest to find)
3. — 2 points in Weapon Expertise
4. — 2 points in Blade Twisting

At Level 40, you will get another strong cooldown in the form of Adrenaline Rush. For Levels 40 to 49, you should assign your talent points as follows:

1. — 1 point in Adrenaline Rush
2. — 3 points in Vitality
3. — 1 point in Precision
4. — 5 points in Combat Potency

At Level 50, picking up Surprise Attacks is a nice quality of life boost, no longer allowing your finishers to be dodged. For Levels 50 to 59, you should assign your talent points as follows:

1. — 1 point in Surprise Attacks
2. — 2 points in Unfair Advantage
3. — 2 points in Savage Combat
4. — 5 points in Prey on the Weak

At Level 60, you will get your final damage cooldown, Killing Spree. Beyond Level 60, your talent points can be allocated as you wish. You can either go back and grab talents from the Combat tree that you missed or expand into other trees.

In the Combat tree, Aggression is a good choice, while on the Assassination tree, talents such as Remorseless Attacks, Malice, and Ruthlessness are all good choices.

The rotation while leveling as a Combat Rogue stays fairly static. You will continue to use Sinister Strike and Eviscerate all the way to Level 80 as your generator and spender. The only thing you have to pay attention to is your Slice and Dice buff, which should be maintained at all times.

Blade Flurry should be used whenever possible to take on larger packs of enemies. It will duplicate your damage to another enemy and allows you to cleave down packs, but beware of pulling too much. Keep an eye on its duration and make sure you are not stuck without the buff with multiple enemies still alive. Without Blade Flurry, you will have no real AoE to deal with them.

It is important to buy all abilities as you level as they are cheap and Rogues have quite a few abilities that are extremely powerful in certain situations.

Setting up an user interface and macros early on you will greatly improve the quality of your leveling experience. Check out the Rogue Macros and Addons guides in the links below for the full list.

Once you achieve Level 80, we suggest checking out our Combat Rogue Guide, which goes more in detail of how to play your Level 80 Rogue.