Rogue Guide for TBC Anniversary

TBC Anniversary Rogue Guide Quick Summary:

• Rogue pros & cons so you know what this class is like to play
• How to play a Warlock in TBC Anniversary
• Best race, Stat priority for this class
• Best Warlock builds
• Leveling, BiS gear, rotations, and more!

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Rogue Changes in TBC Classic Anniversary

If you know anything about the game’s meta and have seen any class tier lists, then you know that Rogues aren’t exactly on top of the charts. It’s a class  that people pick for the playstyle and unique things like going invisible, being able to steal stuff. It’s also for those kinds of players who love PvP, because Rogues are a menace when it comes to killing unsuspecting players. 

So, what’s new for TBC Classic Anniversary Rogue? Is this version any different from the regular TBC Rogue? Here’s what’s important:

• New and reworked talents like Combat Potency and Sword Specialization make Combat Rogues a bit more bearable in PvE, thanks to an extra attack you now get.
• Surprise Attack is another new talent that makes some of your attacks non-dodgable.
• For other specs, you get Mutilate that deals bonus damage on Poisoned enemies
• Some talents have moved from one spec to another, namely Puncturing Wounds and Improved Slice & Dice

Rogues do get better with these changes going into TBC, so if you’ve been putting off playing as this class in Classic for obvious reasons, now is your chance. This class deals way more damage thanks to the new talents and other changes.

Rogue Pros & Cons

It feels like Rogues are often underrated because they deal a lot less DPS when leveling compared to other DPS classes. But they do improve a lot as you get to the max level. Here’s my list of pros and cons for Rogues that should help you decide whether or not you should play this class if you’re still on the fence.

Pros

• Lots of burst DPS - rogues have some of the most insane abilities that deal damage without any ramping up
• Explose Armor - the biggest armor-reduction debuff among all classes in the game, and it's also the selling feature of Rogues. Every raid party always needs that.
• Rogues are hard to kill - it ain’t no secret, all thanks to Cloak of Shadows, Evasion, and all the other things that make this class so elusive.

Cons

• Very Gear Dependent - Rogues don’t have the luxury of high base damage; they have to increase it with gear, because without it, they’re just weak.
• Squishy - if you blow your defensive and utility skills, your health pool will evaporate faster than your brain can register what happened.
• Difficult Rotation - if you really want to deal a lot of damage, you’re going to need to optimize your rotation and use different skills based on the situation. That’s not something everyone can do right off the bat.

And there you have it - Rogue is definitely a cool class, but often times you gotta work a lot to make it work. Of course, if all you care about is the playstyle and seanking up on enemy faction players, you’re going to have a lot of fans. But if you want to be at the top of damage meters in raids and not the reason the entire party wipes, it's going to take some skill.

How to Play Rogue in TBC Classic Anniversary

Most of your damage comes from auto attacks and collecting combo points, which you then spend on all sorts of cool abilities. The trick is using a faster off-hand weapon. When you dual-wield, you can use any weapon you want in the main hand, but the off-hand should always have something with higher attack speed.

About poisons: put the Deadly Poison on the main hand and the Crippling Poison on the off-hand weapon to snare the mob. When the mob is at about 10% health left, just switch to the next target and let the DoTs finish the work.

You also need to get an addon called Weapon Swing Timer so that you can use the Sinister Strikes perfectly, right in between auto attacks. It kind of works the same way as the Hunter attacks. As you may know, on a hunt, you want to use your abilities in between shots, right? Well, Rogues are the same. Check out more tips in my leveling section.

Rogue Best Race in TBC Classic Anniversary

Good news - unlike some other classes, a lot of races on both sides can be Rogues. Even better news - none of the races actually increase or diminish your DPS on this class. However, there are some differences. To know more, check out this table here:

Alliance Rogue races:

Horde Rogue races:

So, the best PvE Rogue picks are Human for Alliance and Orc for Horde. If you care more about PvP, pick Undead for Horde, or Human and Gnome for Alliance .

Rogue Stat Priority

Your stat Priority is as follows:

1. Expertise
2. Hit Rating >64
3. Haste
4. Agility
5. Critical Strike Rating
6. Strength / Attack power
7. Armor Penetration
8. Stamina

As with all DPS classes, getting the hit cap is going to be your main priority. If you add talents, this will give you about 64 Hit Rating, so you never have to miss your attacks. After that, you can get more haste, expertise, and agility.

Best Rogue Builds TBC Classic Anniversary

It’s not that Assassination and Subtlety specs are useless; it’s just that you will see a lot more Combat Rogue builds anywhere you look. Since you came here to see the best builds, I’ll give you one for PvE and one for PvP, and they’ll be more than enough. But just know that you should pick the Combat spec if you want to get into raids.

Combat Sword Raid Build

So, this build mainly focuses on the Combat talent tree with a few points invested into Assassination. You want to go there for a few key passives like the Improved Expose Armor, which is super important.

Anyway, this build lets you use a mace or a fist weapon for the main hand, which fits the idea of using a slower weapon in that slot. Just don’t forget to pick the specific talent for specializing in either of those weapon types. You can go with Improved Spirit, which is a very situational talent, or go for a more common choice - Evasion, which will keep you safe if you aggro something you don’t want to.

Subtlety PvP Build

As the name suggests, this build is designed for PvP specifically. The most important talent here is located at the very bottom of the tree - Shadowstep. With it, you’ll have enough mobility and utility to keep yourself alive as long as you need. The other 20 points will go into the Assassination talent tree, where you’ll get rank 5 for Vile Poisons, so you get more damage out of them. Other than that, take note of the Master of Subtlety talent that gives you increased damage when jumping out of stealth.

Rogue Leveling Guide TBC Classic Anniversary

One of the biggest myths about Rogues is that they’re terrible at leveling. But this is not the whole truth. Sure, you will be outleveled by something like mages and warlocks with their insane AoE spells. It’s just not what Rogues specialize in. They’re good at burst damage like I’ve said in pros and cons. But that’s not all. They also have cleave damage, which lets them farm without any downtime.

Anyway, there are a few more things that will help you in leveling besides those I covered in the “How to Play” section. One of those things is using Stealth as much as you can to get around the world, getting to quest objectives without the risk of dying. You know those quests where you have to get through a pack of mobs to pick up a quest item? Yeah, there are a lot of those, and while other classes have to clear out the path worrying about the respawn timers, you can save yourself hours by just being sneaky.

At some point, you’ll need to kill some elites to get more XP or for quests, and the best way to do it is with Gouge kiting. Here’s how you do it:

1. Use Gouge
2. Get away to the max range
3. Use some ranged attacks
4. Reuse Gouge
5. Repeat

Gouge stuns the target until you attack it. You have to be away from the target so you can safely deal damage, use Kidney Shot when you have enough Combo points. When it gets close, stun it again. It’s slow, but safe.

Last but not least, you should use Distract with a macro to save time on aiming with your mouse. To do it, create a macro like this:

With it, you’ll cast the spell at your current mouse cursor location, skipping the green targeting circle and an extra click.

Rogue Best in Slot Gear in TBC Classic Anniversary

For phase 1, your BiS gear comes from the same sources as for all the other classes - Karazhan, Gruul’s Lair, and Magtheridon. Some pieces will come from heroic dungeons, professions, and reputations. The good news is that all 3 specs share the same BiS, so you don’t have to worry about gear when switching between them.

You have options in rings between the Ring slot of a Thousand Marks and the Ring of Reciprocit,y as both are pretty meta, and neither reduces your overall DPS. The most important slots are chest and weapons, so focus on getting those first.

Best Rogue Rotation

The complexity of rotations for Rogues comes from your sense of timing and rhythm. You gotta keep the Slice and Dice and other buffs online and time the finishers. Here are 3 types of rotations you’ll need.

Rogue Single-Target Rotation

1. Stealth Opener (Cheap Shot or Ambush)
2. Sinister Strike to build combo points
3. Slice and Dice
4. Sinister Strike spam
5. Rupture or Eviscerate to finish

The main goal here is to keep Slice and Dice active at all times. Your combo point count for Slice and Dice depends on how fast the target dies. Ideally, the buff expires right as the enemy goes down. Use Riposte whenever it becomes available, and try to weave Sinister Strike between weapon swings so you don’t delay auto attacks.

Rogue AoE Rotation

1. Pull mobs together (Mount or Sprint)
2. Blade Flurry
3. Evasion (if needed)
4. Sinister Strike spam
5. Slice and Dice
6. Eviscerate finisher

Rogue AoE in TBC is mostly controlled cleave rather than true AoE. Blade Flurry turns your single-target rotation into strong multi-target damage. When fighting two enemies, use Kidney Shot or Gouge to control one target while finishing the other.

Rogue Leveling Rotation

1. Cheap Shot opener
2. Sinister Strike
3. Slice and Dice
4. Ghostly Strike (optional talent build)
5. Rupture at low health
6. Move to the next target

While leveling, efficiency matters more than perfect execution. When a target reaches about 10 to 15 percent health, you can apply Rupture and move on, letting poisons finish the kill while you start the next pull. Keeping Crippling Poison active helps maintain control and reduces incoming damage.

Best Rogue Professions in TBC Classic Anniversary

Unlike ranged casters, as a Rogue, you got a few interesting choices for professions. Let me explain:

• Leatherworking - the ol’ good Drums of Battle and the Tinnitus debuff is one of those things you need in a raid, so that’s a good enough reason to pick this profession.
• Engineering - trinkets like Deathblow X11 Goggles and Super Sapper Charge are those items that will be useful for all classes with no exceptions.
• Jewelcrafting - lets you make some good gems to increase stats. Also, the trinket called Figurine - Nightseye Panther is the best one for PvP-lovers as it improves the stealths
• Blacksmithing - lets you make Dragonmaw and Dragonstrike in a later phase. These epic maces are no worse than some of the best swords.

Of course, you go with the profession that seems best to you, but as you spend your time leveling it up, know that you’re going to have to buy the items from other professions with gold.

F.A.Q.