This page contains information on World of Warcraft Classic's Best Talent Builds for the Rogue class, for leveling, raiding and PvE, and PvP. This includes information on each of the talent abilities, their strengths and weaknesses, and offering tips on how best to make use of these builds.
For more information on leveling, be sure to check out our WoW Classic Horde Leveling Guide and Alliance Leveling Guide to figure out the best places to quest and travel to - and the best places to avoid.
| Jump to a Section | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rogue Talents Overview | ||
| Assassination Talents | Combat Talents | Subtlety Talents |
| Best Leveling Builds | Best Raiding Builds | Best PvP Builds |
This section will give you more information on each of the talents in each of the three trees, and which builds in particular they help promote.
Classic WoW Assassination Talents
| Assassination | ||
|---|---|---|
| Talent | Good For | Notes |
| Improved Eviscerate | Leveling, PvP | Putting points into this talent will give you more of a damage burst with your main finisher attack. When critting, this can make Eviscerate absolutely deadly in PvP, and it will help speed up kills in leveling. However, at level 60, you'll find little use in this finisher when your main objective should be using Slice and Dice to keep up your attack speed. |
| Remorseless Attacks | Leveling* | This talent is fairly situational, as it will only really shine when encountering multiple opponents, giving you a bigger crit chance on the next target when defeating an opponent. In solo leveling or PvP, the odds of this talent helping are extremely low. |
| Malice | Leveling, Raiding, PvP | No matter the build, having a flat increase to your crit chance is always welcome, as Rogues benefit the most from critical striking finisher attacks. |
| Ruthlessness | Raiding, PvP | While not as important against easy single targets when leveling, Ruthlessness' ability to retain combo points after finishers makes it incredibly important both against tougher enemies and dungeon bosses - as well as tough opponents in PvP. |
| Murder | PvP | While this talent increases all damage output to any giants, beasts, dragonkin and humanoids - this also means enemy players are susceptible as well, making it a worthwhile PvP pick. It's value in PvE on the other hand is highly subjective - and may depend heavily on what type of enemies you're struggling with. |
| Improved Silce and Dice | Raiding | Most fights against other players or single targets while leveling will end too quickly to make any use of Slice and Dice, so having a talent to increase the duration of your speed boost isn't as important as it will be when raiding against powerful monsters where you'll be fighting for a very long time. |
| Relentless Strikes | Leveling, Raiding, PvP | Arguably one of the most important talents you can get, a full combo finisher with this talent will always give 25 Energy back at not cost. When raiding, this makes your 5-point Slice and Dice effectively free, and in PvP, you'll only lose 10 Energy from an Eviscerate, making it incredibly useful in all aspects. |
| Improved Expose Armor | N/A | The sad fact is that Expose Armor is generally useless when compared to other moves, and improving it with this talent will do little to change that. This holds especially true in groups, as a Warrior's Sunder Armor will always take priority. |
| Lethality | Leveling, PvP | Depending on your build, the ability to increase your critical damage by 30% with combo-generating moves. It goes without saying, but the more your build focuses on building up critical chance, the more of a payoff you'll get with this talent. |
| Vile Poisons | N/A | When it comes to dealing more poison damage vs applying poison more often, this talent loses in priority to Improved Poisons. Still, those focused on harassing enemy players in places like Warsong Gulch can make use of its improved dispel resists to force Druids to waste more time curing the poisons. |
| Improved Poisons | Raiding*, PvP | At high levels, getting more chances to apply damaging poisons can help a ton - but its only at its most useful when a Rogue isn't already enjoying the effects of a Windfury Totem. As such, it's more important that Alliance Rogues use this talent than Horde Rogues. |
| Cold Blood | PvP | A single chance to crit with a long cooldown isn't the most incredible thing to have in PvE situations, but in PvP, its ability to deal high damage at the drop of a hat can be wonderful - especially when paired with Preparation. It's worth noting that the better geared your opponent is, the less likely it'll wipe them out. |
| Improved Kidney Shot | N/A | The usefulness of increasing damage on a stunned enemy is fairly limited, as raid bosses won't be stunned, and you'd need a lot of focus fire to make it worthwhile, which is why it's only ever really used attacking flag carriers in Warsong Gulch. |
| Seal Fate | Raiding*, PvP | The cornerstone of a major dagger build, Seal Fate allows you to further benefit from increasing your critical chances by gaining extra combo points, allowing you to use finishers that much quicker, and is perfect when used with Vanish to enable double Ambushes. |
| Vigor | N/A | There's honestly no upside to Vigor - which increases your Energy by 10 - and is only ever considered at the start of a fight, and in those situations, using Preparation will give a Rogue for more opportunity than Vigor. |
Classic WoW Combat Talents
| Combat | ||
|---|---|---|
| Talent | Good For | Notes |
| Improved Gouge | Leveling, Raiding, PvP | Every Rogue should have this talent, as its uses are incredibly numerous. Dagger Rogues can use Gouge to get around for a free Backstab. Even besides that, it gives you time to heal up with bandages, stealth against other players, and even shut down extra monsters you don't want to deal with. |
| Improved Sinister Strike | Leveling, Raiding | Any Rogue using swords is going to want Improved Sinister Strike, as it will give you more energy to work with when using your most standard attack. In longer raid fights, the extra energy will go a long way to increase your damage output, and only Dagger Rogues who spend all day backstabbing should consider passing. |
| Lightning Reflexes | N/A | A small increase to dodging makes Lightning Reflexes pretty poor as a talent choice. Rogues rely on ending fights before they begin in PvP (and set themselves up to get destroyed when dodging Warriors), and shouldn't be getting hit in the first place when in groups. While it can help a bit when leveling in conjunction with Ghostly Strike, there are better places to spend your points - like Improved Gouge. |
| Improved Backstab | Raiding, PvP | While opportunities to backstab targets when leveling solo is slim, the extra crit chance should not be overlooked for Dagger Rogues, who can make huge use of this both in groups and in PvP, and will dramatically improve your damage output. |
| Deflection | Leveling | Much like Lightning Reflexes, the added chance to parry incoming attacks is something you only really need when leveling with swords, as you should otherwise be avoiding getting hit at all, and is best used with Riposte for up and coming Sword Rogues before hitting 60. |
| Precision | Leveling, Raiding | Every Rogue should have this talent when leveling or going into dungeons, as increasing your base hit will drastically lower how much extra +hit gear you need to be landing every hit against monsters, and frees up choosing other gear besides just having extra hit. |
| Endurance | Leveling, PvP | This talent is highly situational, as having more chances to use Evasion and Sprint only really matter for leveling all that much faster. However, having more chances to sprint with the Improved Sprint talent is also highly desirable for PvP when trying to get out of being snared. |
| Riposte | Leveling | You'll need 5 points in Deflection to reach this talent, which lets you follow up a parry with your own attack. Given how often you'll be fighting head-on, you should only really consider this if leveling with swords, and even then there are other talents worth picking over Deflection/Riposte. |
| Improved Sprint | PvP | Rogues looking to get the edge in PvP will need to be careful investing in this talent. It allows you to break all slowing and roots when activated - but it does not make you immune. You'll need to have expert timing to plan ahead and avoid getting rooted or slowed the moment you use Improved Sprint, or you'll have wasted it all. |
| Improved Kick | PvP | While it has limited uses leveling or facing tough casters in certain dungeons, this talent is only really big for PvP. By throwing in an Improved Kick, you can effectively silence an enemy player form all types of magic for 2 whole seconds, and even prevent instant casts from being performed. |
| Dagger Specialization | Leveling | Sadly this talent isn't as much of a hot button as its sword counterpart, but it can still have appeal for those wishing to get more combat talents out of a build with daggers. As for raiding, most Rogues favoring daggers would get a better boost from investing in Seal Fate instead. |
| Dual Wield Specialization | Leveling, Raiding | While its not flashy, a flat damage increase for off-hand weapons shouldn't be overlooked by Rogues looking to improve their damage output, and is always valuable for PvE. |
| Mace Specialzation | N/A | Rogues and maces generally don't get along, considering the vast majority of talents are more geared to swords and daggers, making this talent more unique and experimental when used with other stunning attacks. |
| Blade Flurry | Leveling | This talent is the only one that enables Rogue to actually hit more than one target, and though limited in its uses - shouldn't be overlooked when used against monsters. The speed increase and ability to hit more targets can vastly improve your damage per second - so long as you don't accidentally pull aggro! |
| Sword Specialization | Leveling, Raiding | Unlike Dagger Specialization, this talent can put rogues on the map with damage output by effectively doubling your damage with a sword swing, and can prepare many rogues for a spot in an endgame raid. |
| Fist Weapon Specialization | N/A | Like Mace Specialization, this talent is fairly short on uses due to the large number of dagger/sword-geared talents. |
| Weapon Expertise | Leveling, Raiding | Similar to Precision, Weapon Expertise is an absolute must for increasing weapon skill and letting you hit more consistently (and easing up concerns on getting +hit gear). |
| Aggression | Leveling, Raiding | An impressive talent to score for sword Rogues, Aggression allows you to deal much more damage with Sinister Strike and even Eviscerate (which can be further bolstered by more uses during Adrenaline Rush), and can increase your overall damage output dramatically against raid bosses. |
| Adrenaline Rush | Leveling, Raiding, PvP | Any way you look at it, this talent is a massive damage boost. The ability to massively increase your energy regeneration means you'll be able to gain and expend combo points at a much quicker rate and use multiple Eviscerates (or Slice and Dices in raids) to make you a killing machine. |
Classic WoW Subtlety Talents
| Subtlety | ||
|---|---|---|
| Talent | Good For | Notes |
| Master of Deception | PvP* | A highly situational talent, as if a Rogue is doing their job well, they likely won't be detected until it's too late anyway. That said, it also has its uses in PvP when going against other Rogues to get the first hit, which is usually the deciding factor. |
| Opportunity | Leveling, Raiding, PvP | If your Rogue is using Daggers, than this talent is a must. Opportunity increases damage from behind with your key abilities by up to 20%, making it an amazing way to dramatically increase your damage - so long as you remain behind your opponent. |
| Sleight of Hand | N/A | There should never be any reason why you should invest in this talent to reduce threat when Vanish can do it for you. |
| Elusiveness | PvP | A highly strategic talent for ambushing Rogues, Elusiveness lets you use Blind and Vanish even more, allowing you to control the fight more often, and stay in stealth until you need them again. |
| Camouflage | PvP | The best talent to pair with Improved Gouge, it effectively allows you to stun and then re-stealth from combat, or even heal and re-stealth, and the extra move speed is a nice touch for latching onto moving targets. |
| Initiative | PvP | The bread and butter of a "stunlock" Rogue, this talent allows you to gain several combo points from a Cheap Shot out of stealth, allowing you to step for an equally stunning Kidney Shot to keep your opponent locked down straight out of the gate. |
| Ghostly Strike | N/A | Given all the other options for combo point generators, Ghostly Strike is rarely made use of - as Dagger Rogues would prefer to be striking from behind, and most Sword Rogues can usually find more worthwhile talents in other trees. |
| Improved Ambush | PvP | A talent that increases the likelihood of a critical opener is too good to pass up for any Dagger Rogue in PvP, and when used with Vanish it can be insanely powerful. |
| Setup | N/A | Unless you plan to be creating a unique build around dodging everything all the time, Setup's ability to gain free points at only a 45% chance of success is pretty lackluster, and shouldn't be considered in most builds. |
| Improved Sap | Leveling, PvP | While not being able to get a 100% chance is a crime, having a near-perfect chance to lock an additional enemy out of a fight is incredibly important both in PvP and even in dungeons for crowd control - but that 10% failure rate can easily put you in hot water. |
| Serrated Blades | PvP | While the main use of this talent is for getting down the tree to Hemorrhage, Serrated Blades are only really used well in Warrior duels where you can try stacking Garrote and Rupture to bleed a Warrior to death while keeping out of range with the slowing Crippling Poison. |
| Heightened Senses | PvP | It may not be a talent worth investing this far into the tree for alone, Heightened Senses is similar to Master of Deception for being a great skill to have against enemy Rogues, and the occasional resistance against magical attacks is pretty great too. |
| Preparation | Leveling, PvP | Easily one of the Rogues wildest talents, Preparation resets all of your cooldowns, including Blind, Vanish, and even Gouge! It may come at the cost of points into more damage-dealing talents, but the versatility of this ability should not be overlooked. |
| Dirty Deeds | PvP | A great addition for Sword Rogues in PvP, this talent reduces the cost of Cheap Shot by a whole 20 energy, allowing you to follow up with a lot more damage afterwards, or preparing for a longer chain of stuns with Kidney Shot - and even paving the way for a second Cheap Shot from a Vanish mid-combat. |
| Hemorrhage | PvP | On the battlefield, a Rogue's ability to end the fight quickly is king, and Hemorrhage boasts the lowest energy cost of all combo point generators. This means you'll be able to reach your finishers like Eviscerate and Kidney Shot even faster to try and end fights before you're truly in danger. |
| Deadliness | N/A | As far as talents go, moving this far down a tree should give you access to something better than +10% Attack Power, which in the grand scheme of things is not that great considering what other talents in other trees are available. |
| Premeditation | PvP | This Talent isn't as bad as Vigor, but it's no Adrenaline Rush. Premeditation allows you to add combo points before engaging in combat, but it's worth noting that the talent tree means you'll probably already have Initiative and get a full 5 combo points before even starting attack after a Cheap Shot. |
The following sections is dedicated to listing and explaining three of the best builds for Leveling, Raiding in PvE Dungeons, and PvP encounters.
It should be noted that many Rogue talents in each of the three trees have their own strengths, and many players often find their own preferred builds that may not be exactly the same, so feel free to experiment or change these suggested builds to use the talents you feel resonate with you the most.
Sword Specialization Leveling Build
Important: There are two paths you should consider when choosing your talent builds for leveling: Daggers or Swords. This can depend on preference, but can also favor leveling in groups vs solo! The following build is focused on Swords.
Choosing to specialize in swords means you'll be forgoing position-based skills like Backstab to focus on whittling down enemies in rapid succession. This is viewed as the best path for new players or those going solo. Note that you can also swap out swords with any other one-handed weapon so long as the damage output is considered an upgrade (until you get high enough to put points into sword specialization).
- Assassination - 19
- Combat - 32
- Subtlety - 0
This build relies on maximizing damage output with your bread and butter skills - while maintaining a fast speed of attack at all times. Note that there are a few changes you can make depending on personal preference:
- Starting with Improved Sinister Strike and Improved Gouge in Combat is generally a good place to start, as you'll be using Sinister Strike as much as possible. While a longer gouge is more important for daggers, you can still take advantage of the ability to lock down a target before switching to another - or taking the time to heal.
- Precision is the next important talent to max out in Combat as you'll want to ensure you land as many of your hits as possible, and finding ways to increase your hit this early in the game can be tricky.
- With Precision maxed,you have a couple choices making your way down the Combat Tree. You can put everything into Deflection to unlock Riposte to give yourself more defenses - but in a PvP server you may not find this as advantageous against foes like Warriors, and instead save these points for Sword Specialization later down the line. Since you still need points to get farther down the Combat Tree, pick up Endurance and Improved Sprint, and if you aren't getting Deflection, put one point in Lightning Reflexes to open up the path further down the tree.
- At this point, whichever option you've gone with, you should be able to put everything in Dual Wield Specialization to increase your offhand damage immensely, which will then clear the way for Blade Flurry - giving you a higher damage output and the ability to take on multiple foes that much easier.
- With Blade Fury in the bag, you'll need to get Sword Specialization if you didn't get Deflection and Riposte. Otherwise, finish off the tree by getting Weapon Expertise to further increase your hit rate, Aggression for the flat damage boost to your bread and butter skills, and finally Adrenaline to maximize your damage output alongside Blade Fury.
- With Combat completed, you can then begin in the Assassination tree by putting all the points in Malice to raise your crit chance.
- Similar to the other skill tree, there are multiple ways you can attack this tree depending on your tastes. Most will either go for Improved Eviscerate and Murder to output more damage - but you can also put your points into Improved Slice and Dice to raise the speed of your attacks for longer periods of time, letting you get many more hits and crits while using the extra time its active to focus back on getting more Eviscerates. This is especially useful in later game dungeons and raids, and can still help while leveling.
- After picking either option, finish off the Assassination tree with Ruthlessness to keep your combo point gain consistent, as well as Relentless Strikes to restore energy quicker to keep your combos going. Your last points should go into Lethality to increase your crit damage output.
Note that most of this build can also help you well into raiding at level 60, albeit with a few variations, as a fairly competent sword build
Seal Fate Daggers Raiding Build
While a sword build can go far into endgame raiding, Rogues that specialize in Daggers can also maximize their damage to be a worthy addition in any dungeon or raid at level 60. Remember that your weapons are the most important thing when gearing up, so find the best possible when seeking to further your damage output.
- Assassination: 30
- Combat: 16
- Subtlety: 5
This build revolves around Seal Fate in the Assassination Tree. By getting critical attacks from attacks like Backstab, you'll always gain more Combo Points, which can then get you to a full meter to unleash either Slice and Dice (using the improved Slice and Dice Talent to keep it active longer), and then using Eviscerate to deal more damage at a faster rate.
Since you'll be primarily using Backstab in dungeons and raids, having 5 in Opportunity is well worth the detour to increase the damage output, as is getting Improved Backstab in Combat to make sure your crit chance is as high as possible to work with Seal Fate.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of room to deviate with this build - with a few exceptions. This particular build has Improved Eviscerate as well as Remorseless Attacks for clearing out dungeon groups quickly, but you can always sub out RA for Murder to get the flat 2% damage boost on certain enemy types.
Similarly, because 3 points have been spent on Improved Eviscerate, only 2 points are spent on Improved Poisons - which is better suited to Horde Rogues that can take advantage of the Windfury Totem on their main weapon. Alliance Rogues may want to consider increasing points in Improved Poisons instead of Improved Eviscerate to make up for this lack of extra damage.
Cold Blood / Hemorrhage PvP Build
While there are many viable PvP Builds out there - each with their own pros and cons, the Cold Blood and Hemorrhage PvP Build takes advantage of the Subtlety tree unlike the aforementioned Leveling and Raiding builds, which can help display how useful each of the three trees is in their own right. This build focuses on extremely fast attacks by stunlocking out of stealth for a quick guaranteed finisher - and the ability to double it to take out vulnerable level 60 characters you'll find early on in Classic.
It's still worth noting that as content phases begin to rollout for Classic, this build may lose a bit of its viability as enemy Characters start to aquire better gear and survive longer in combat - and begin using PvP Trinkets to get out of being stunlocked.
- Assassination: 23
- Combat: 3
- Subtlety: 25
Instead of relying on Daggers to begin fights with and Ambush or Backstabs, this build relies on ambushing enemies with a Cheap Shot - which will cost less with Dirty Deeds, along with Setup's 45% chance to add yet another combo point.
When stunned, you'll have time to quickly reach a 5 point combo thanks to Hemorrhage's low energy cost, and then activate Cold Blood to guarantee a critical Eviscerate (bolstered by Improved Eviscerate) that will tear apart poorly geared level 60 enemies. Should they survive the initial attack, you'll be able to Vanish and use Preparation to reset all cooldowns, and begin the attack again with another Cold Blood finisher!
Going into Combat for Improved Gouge is important for stalling enemies to either restealth with Camouflage, or bandage up in the fight, and Improved Sap allows you to take a second fighter out of the equation while you assassinate your target.
For this build, we've also put in 1 point in Vile Poisons, and 2 in Improved Kidney Shot. You shouldn't feel bound to these choices if you'd rather put them elsewhere, as both Vile Poisons and Improved Kidney shot only really shine in battlegrounds like Warsong Gulch, where being able to distract and debilitate the flag runner is an important toolset for a Rogue to have. If you'd rather put the points elsewhere, you can always invest points in Heightened Senses and Improved Expose Armor when facing Warriors.
