World of Warcraft: Forever Combat Rogue Guide

The not so subtle of the Rogue specializations, Combat still offers a unique and exciting way to play one of World of Warcrafts most iconic damage dealers. Combat focuses heavily on dealing as much damage as possible with combo point generating abilities like Sinister Strike and combo point spending abilities like Eviscerate.

The focus of this guide is to cover your gameplay experience through Level 30. This is written primarily with leveling and PvE in mind, so if your goal is to PvP it is likely to be useful but not optimized specifically for that experience.

Listed below are some rough scores as to how Combat Rogue will perform in some specific categories with the Level 30 cap in mind. Please remember that Combats strengths and weaknesses will change significantly in later levels.

Overall Performance Leveling Dungeon Utility Mobility

Relatively Simple With Considerable Damage Output

At this very early stage of the leveling process Combat rogue is an incredibly simple class to play and to optimize damage. Your rotation will consist primarily of two buttons, Sinister Strike and Eviscerate with a handful of utility abilities to help you out should you find yourself in danger, but despite the fact this rotation is incredibly simple you will also deal considerable damage making it quite easy to deal with most enemies, especially if you find yourself with a hard hitting sword.

Solid Leveling Experience

As highlighted above, you will be dealing a lot of damage compared to most classes especially at this leveling bracket. While as a Rogue of any specialization you lack the ability truly self heal it is rare outside of fighting a group of mobs or an elite that you will need it as you will be able to quickly dispatch of most enemies. You are also equipped with many utility spells like Evasion or Gouge that add another trick up your sleeve should you need to disengage.

Struggles to Offer Anything Unique

Outside of being one of the few early game classes with a true interrupt in the form of Kick, Rogue struggles at this level to offer anything unique in a group setting. You are likely to offer competitive DPS and the ability to apply short form crowd control, but do not provide the same kind of buffs and utility as some other melee DPS at this level.

Lacks Many Late Game Tools

While abilities like Gouge and Kick are incredibly useful, your personal utility at this level struggles. Later levels see highly impactful abilities like Sap and Blind but in the early level ranges you will not offer much outside of your ability to do considerable damage.

Powerful Cooldowns, Lack of Consistent Boost

Sprint is one of the very few mobility cool downs available to any class at this early stage of the game and is incredibly powerful at not only traversing the map but quickly allowing you to disengage from unfavorable encounters. Rogue does however lack a consistent mobility boost like travel form from Druids but it is hard to discount how powerful of a tool Sprint is especially at these early levels.

Starter Information

Beginner Guides

New to the game? Get started with our Leveling guide!

Leveling

The goal of the talent build listed above is to maximize your ability to deal damage. At Level 30 the options are quite limited. The goal of this build is to focus on maximizing both personal survivability and your ability to deal damage. If you find yourself with a powerful main-hand dagger you can consider putting points into Puncturing Wounds, but it may be difficult especially while leveling to be able to consistently get behind your target to receive its full benefit.

Improved Sinister Strike is our first choice, reducing the cost of our most used ability Sinister Strike allowing us to more quickly generate combo points to spend on a finishing ability like Eviscerate.

Next is Improved Eviscerate which increases the damage dealt by our Eviscerate ability. Eviscerate will be the primary spender of combo points so increasing its damage dealt means we can more quickly dispatch of our target.

Precision increases your chance to hit the target, missed attacks, and abilities deal zero damage. Minimizing our chance to miss is the single largest way you can ever increase your damage output. We will put two points into this for now but come back soon to max it out.

Our next 3 points will be spent into Deflection, the parry chance is a nice bonus for leveling but our primary focus with this choice is to unlock the ability Riposte. Riposte is a massive increase to our damage and should be used any time it becomes active from parrying an enemies attack. We then circle back and finish maxing out Precision.

Our next two points should be spent in Endurance to greatly reduce the cooldowns of Sprint and Evasion abilities, making it much easier to both get around in and out of combat and mitigate incoming damage. Follow this up with a point in Lightning Reflexes for a bit more Dodge, but mostly to unlock the next tier of talents.

Flawless Execution is our next choice, reducing the energy cost of our Eviscerate ability. This will result in saving tons of energy throughout any extended encounter, allowing us to spend our energy on generating more combo points.

Our next four points can be spent in Dual Wield Specialization increasing the damage done by our off-hand weapon.

Last, we will take Blade Flurry. This gives us an incredible tool to deal damage to an extra target and also increases your melee attack speed. Rogue struggles with AoE, so any chance to hit more than one target is incredibly valuable.

WoW Forever introduces a new system to gain player power, the Legacy System. While there are a few direct benefits to combat found in this tree, it is much more focused on increasing your quality of life while playing the game. These points come from completing specific objectives rather than each time you gain a level, things like reaching a specific trade skill level, or reaching a specific level on each of the games classes. These points are account wide.

With the Talented Legacy talent maximized you should have 5 additional talent points, these should just be spent in filling out Hack and Slash.

If you decide to play Alliance for your Combat Rogue, Gnome is likely to be the default choice. Eureka! offers a massive boost of damage for your next three abilities allowing you to quickly deal with enemies. Escape Artist is also an incredibly powerful tool especially at lower levels when we are lacking abilities like Vanish. Being able to remove and gain a brief immunity to slowing/snaring effects will make a massive difference in sticking to your target in both PvE and PvP.

If Horde is more your preference, then Orc is likely the best choice for your Combat Rogue. Nearly every racial ability for Orc does something to make your experience smoother as a Rogue, and especially as a Combat Rogue. Savage offers a bit of passive crit increasing your damage passively. Blood Fury provides an on demand increase to our Attack Power, making it even easier to quickly deal with enemies. Shatter Curse grants a brief immunity to Curses and Banes while also reducing our incoming Magic damage taken allowing for even more up time. Hardiness reduces the duration of Stun effects allowing us to remain active on our target.

You can have two Primary Professions in WoW Forever, with the two ideal picks, especially at this point, being be Skinning and Leatherworking.

Skinning is a relatively simple profession; pick up a skinning knife and use it to harvest leathers and materials from all types of beasts and monsters you find throughout Azeroth. These materials you gather are a key component to many of your crafts with Leather Working so being able to find your own supplies will greatly reduce the cost to make many of the new and exciting recipes added in World of Warcraft Forever.

Leatherworking is a bit more in-depth. Leatherworking allows you to make leather gear that can help strengthen your character for your journey through this new version of Azeroth. One of the largest differences we have learned about World of Warcraft Forever is the inclusion of hundreds of new crafting recipes so there are undoubtedly going to be many great items you can craft throughout your leveling journey that will not only bolster your characters performance but likely be able to add utility to your groups.

Pairing these two primary professions will also allow you to craft the Camp Chair and Camp Tent to be used at a Camp Fire, providing an extra 2% critical strike chance and some rested experience to any participants in your Camp Fire.

It is also critically important to pick up First Aid, which is a secondary profession. As a Rogue of any specialization you lack the ability to heal yourself so being able to bandage can sometimes be the difference of surviving an encounter or not.

The Rogue DPS rotation at this level is incredibly simple, begin each encounter in Stealth and open with Ambush, then your primary focus is casting Backstab if you are able to position yourself behind the enemy. If not, cast Sinister Strike to generate combo points to eventually spend on Eviscerate or Slice and Dice once we have reached 5-combo points. Listed below is a rough order of priorities to take into consideration for each encounter.

Energy is your primary resource as a Rogue to use abilities, you have a set amount of energy that is constantly regenerating. In World of Warcraft Forever your energy bar is constantly refilling, so your goal is to never allow yourself to remain at a full Energy bar, thus wasting the opportunity to be gaining more Energy.

Combo Points are the resource that allows you to use several skills. You have abilities that generate combo points like Sinister Strike and abilities that spend combo points like Eviscerate. Abilities that spend combo points become stronger based on the amount of combo points that are spent on them. In World of Warcraft: Forever your combo points will persist on a target even if you swap to another, but you cannot at this point transfer your combo points from an existing target to a new one.

1. Make sure Instant Poison is active on both of your weapons before entering combat.
2. Enter Stealth, use Ambush to exit stealth and begin the encounter if you are using a dagger, if not cast Garrote.
3. Use Blade Flurry early and often for both the bonus attack speed and the ability to cleave onto a nearby enemy.
4. Any time the ability is active and able to be used, cast Riposte.
5. Cast Backstab to generate combo points if you are using a dagger and able to get behind your target, if not cast Sinister Strike
6. If your target is able to survive its full duration, at 5 combo points cast Slice and Dice.
7. If Slice and Dice is active, or your target will not live long enough for the duration of Slice and Dice and you have 5 combo points cast Eviscerate

And while the focus is typically to deal as much damage as possible it is also important to consider your options to mitigate incoming damage, especially while leveling. Abilities like Cheap Shot will allow you to gain an early advantage on your enemy and will often times lead to a better result especially while leveling than your other damage focused options. Gouge and Kick are also key to maximizing your up time by allowing you to interrupt or incapacitate your target leading to less incoming damage.

One of the most key aspects of your leveling experience as a Rogue is Stealth. Stealth allows you to sink into the shadows, greatly reducing your aggro radius. In some situations you can entirely hide from both enemy NPCs and players. While Stealth will reduce your movement speed, it also allows you to completely avoid certain encounters and enables the ability of some of the classes most powerful abilities like Ambush.

How close you are able to get to another mob or player depends almost entirely on the level difference. The lower level you are compared to an enemy, the greater their ability to see through your stealth The higher level you are, the more room you have to navigate around undetected.

Poisons are a unique mechanic for Rogue that allows you to coat your weapons with a wide range of different poisons that have varying effects on your target, from applying status effecting debuffs like a slow with Crippling Poison to dealing additional damage with each hit with Instant Poison. What poison you end up deciding to use will depend largely on the type of content you are doing and if you are able to focus entirely on dealing damage or, if some extra type of utility is required. Keep in mind you will need to apply your Poisons to both of your weapons. Poisons have both a duration and a set amount of charges that will be displayed on your buff bar. Keep an eye on them and do not hesitate to refresh if you are running low on either duration or charges available.

At this stage of the World of Warcraft Forever Beta, it is best to just apply Instant Poison to both of your weapons. As more content becomes available and we learn more about what is next for Rogue this may change, but the added damage at this point is likely to be the largest benefit to your game play experience.

Below you will find a list of high-value items we recommend going after once you've reached Level 30. This is not an exhaustive list, as there are a lot of new and exciting items to be found in WoW Forever, but the listed items are largely guaranteed rewards from quests, drops, and crafts that can help you equip your character very efficiently.

A rough idea of how you should prioritize the stats on an item to determine what is an upgrade is as follows for your Combat Rogue.

1. Weapon Damage
   • Weapon damage is king as a Rogue. Many of your abilities have multipliers directly based off of your weapons damage so your primary focus when deciding on if an item is an upgrade or not should be the weapons damage. A massive part of your damage is also your auto attacks so having a harder hitting weapon will also amplify each auto.
2. Hit and Expertise
   • Hit Chance and Expertise are both crucial to dealing damage at all levels, but especially during the leveling process. Hit chance increases how likely your attack is to land on the target and Expertise reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried. While neither of these directly increase he damage of your abilities, your attacks will deal zero damage if they are not able to land on the target. The exact amount of hit rating you need depends on your level difference between you and your target.
3. Agility
   • Agility is your primary source of Attack Power which increases all of your damage dealt by not just abilities but also auto attacks. Agility also gives a slight increase to your Critical Strike chance.
4. Critical Strike
   • Critical Strike greatly increases your damage, dealing 200% of a normal attack, which makes this an incredibly valuable stat.
5. Strength
   • Strength increases your Attack Power, but unlike Agility does not improve your Critical Strike chance. This makes it a great stat, but not something we will prioritize.
6. Stamina
   • Stamina increases your health. While being able to survive is very important, it is not a focus in gearing as your primary role in most content will be dealing as much damage as possible. We only need as much health as it takes to survive, so we will not focus on maximizing our stamina.

It is extremely important to note that in World of Warcraft Forever as a Rogue you can both have a Poison and a Sharpening stone active on their weapons allowing you to increase your damage considerably without being forced to choose, so consider adding a Rough Sharpening Stone to your shopping list next time you stock up for an adventure.

While there are constantly new recipe finds as people explore more of the World of Warcraft Forever Beta there are a few key consumables verified to be available that will greatly help you in your adventures through Azeroth. Elixir of Agility is a great way to increase your damage providing you a flat increase to your Agility stat which boosts your damage and critical strike chance. You can also try to stock up on Greater Healing Potions should you find yourself in an emergency and need a quick boost of healing, Rogue can struggle to self sustain so a health potion can be the deciding factor in an encounter.

There are however a few key things that we know you will need in your adventures through Azeroth. As a Rogue you lack the ability to self-heal so it is important to have at least a couple of stacks of food in your inventory to regain your health between encounters. Bandages from First Aid will also help to both mitigate downtime between fights or even save you mid encounter.

One of the largest additions to make the leveling process even smoother in World of Warcraft Forever is the addition of Campfire buffs. This is an extremely simple system that requires you to quite literally rest at a Campfire set up by other players throughout the world, all that is required is Cooking to set up a basic campfire. Each profession offers unique items like the Lodestone which is provided by Mining that will provide you with a buff that increases your Attack Power. Highlighted below are some of the strongest buffs to try and look out for at any campfire you encounter throughout Azeroth. Please remember new things are constantly being found an added to WoW Forever so this is far from a complete list.

• Camp Tent is likely the most beneficial during the leveling experience as it will grant you additional rested Experience. The Tent is made by Leatherworking.
• Fish Bowl is another great addition to a campfire that will increase all of our stats by 8%. As a Rogue we gain additional damage from both Strength and Agility so this allows us to double dip in our two primary damage increasing stats but also grants more Stamina allowing us to take a bit more damage in combat. This is made by Fishing.
• Lodestone grants a buff that increases your Attack Power, providing a flat increase to our damage dealt. This is made by Mining.

Sellin

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Sellin, a former top 10 US raider and current season and several time Gladiator, long time WoW Player and passionate about all things Warcraft and Theorycrafting. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him on Twitch.

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