QUICK START
Combat offers a direct solo starting route. Keep your main-hand weapon current, bind a control ability and avoid waiting for maximum combo points when the enemy is about to die.
ROLE
Melee damage · Stealth · Control
RESOURCE
Energy · Combo points
01
Spend Energy with a purpose
Energy comes back while you fight. Use that time to position, decide on the next finisher and watch for an extra enemy. Pressing a button that cannot yet fire is less useful than recognising the next decision.
Combo points build towards finishers. In Forever, changing targets no longer deletes the points left on the original enemy; those points still belong to that enemy.
Read more: Rogue combo-point changes.
For named training milestones, quest upgrades and your first dungeon checklist, read the Rogue levelling guide.
02
Three talent paths
You create a Rogue first, then develop a talent path as you level. Read the choices below as playstyles: early points and a fully developed build are different stages of the same character.
Assassination
Develop critical strikes, finishers and poison-related damage. Talents such as Malice and Improved Slice and Dice support the attacks and buffs you build your fights around.
Combat
A direct weapon-combat route, with Sinister Strike support, accuracy and tools such as Riposte. It is a practical starting choice when you want predictable solo fights.
Subtlety
Emphasise stealth, openers and control. Positioning and choosing when to engage are central to the playstyle; you still need a plan for the fight after the opener.
Use the planner to read the current talents and check row requirements. Legacy’s Talented bonus adds points separately; leave its rank at zero unless your character has earned the bonus.
＋ Plan your talent points
Read talents and plan a route for your Rogue. Open the full Rogue calculator for more space.
Loading talent trees…
03
Open, build and finish
Choose
Use stealth to reach a useful position or avoid an unnecessary fight.
Build
Use a builder suited to your weapon and position. Sinister Strike is the straightforward option for an enemy facing you.
Spend
Use Eviscerate to finish a short fight, or Slice and Dice when its attack-speed benefit has time to pay off.
Control
Use Gouge or a learned escape tool to buy time when the pull becomes unsafe.
Do not hold every finisher for five points. Ask how much health the enemy has left and what you gain by waiting.
Read more: DonTheCrown’s combat explanation.
Match the rotation to the weapon requirement. A guide built around Ambush and Backstab assumes a dagger; a non-dagger Sinister Strike route does not gain that rotation merely by copying its talents.
Use a finisher before its value disappears. A short Eviscerate that ends the fight is better than pooling to five points while the enemy dies to auto-attacks. Slice and Dice needs enough remaining combat time to repay the Energy and points.
Bind Kick, Gouge and an escape separately from the builder. Gouge can create a bandage window if no damage-over-time effect immediately breaks it. Carry bandages and Vanish reagents rather than treating recovery as something the next quest reward will solve.
Blade Flurry arrives when you have enough Combat points. Spending early points in another tree delays that milestone; a respec can bring it forward but consumes gold. Decide which benefit you want before paying to copy a different route.
04
Match the weapon and the talent
Attributes, in numbers
Rogue stat conversions
Ordinary main-hand swings only. Offhand damage, poisons and ability-specific scaling require separate calculations.
Level 30: class baseline, before buffs and talents.
The AP contribution is added to the weapon's base DPS. It is not total combat DPS. Listed weapon speed is used; haste, misses, crits, armor, procs and special attacks are excluded.
Agility
+0.769 ppWeapon crit contribution at this level
- Baseline melee AP
- +10
- Baseline ranged AP
- +20
- Tooltip armor contribution
- +20
“pp” means percentage points: +1 pp takes 5% to 6%, before other modifiers. Crit contributions are not total crit chances.
- Stamina
- The first 20 effective points add 1 health each. Above 20, the client uses your character’s current health-per-point rate; health buffs and talents can change the gain.
How crit changes as you level +10 attribute examples
| Level | Agility → weapon crit |
|---|---|
| 1 | +4.348 pp |
| 10 | +2.857 pp |
| 20 | +1.235 pp |
| 30 | +0.769 pp |
| 60Future/reference | +0.345 pp |
“pp” means percentage points: +1 pp turns 5% into 6%, before other modifiers. These are contributions, not total crit chances.
Assumptions & sources Build 1.60.1.70205
Interactive figures use class baseline: race, buffs, talents, form overrides and server-side changes are not applied. The client data describes configured conversions; it is not a combat-log measurement or a gear ranking.
- Attack Power: added Strength × the class's AP-per-Strength field. Agility's melee and ranged AP fields are kept separate.
- Crit: added attribute × its exact class-and-level coefficient × 100. No interpolation or Classic fallback is used.
- Ordinary swing contribution: added AP ÷ 14 × listed weapon speed. The divisor and +2 armor per Agility come from the matching client tooltip code.
- Configured mana contribution at effective Intellect I: min(I, 20) + 15 × max(I − 20, 0). An increase across the breakpoint is the difference between the old and new totals.
- Stamina's first-20 breakpoint is present in the matching constants file. The exact above-20 Forever rate has not been verified; the UI obtains it from the game's runtime API.
Class conversion data · Level conversion data · Matching client tooltip source · Intellect and Stamina constants · Read the stat mechanics
Game data and icons © Blizzard Entertainment. Public client exports: wago.tools; client UI mirror: Gethe. Values rounded for display.
Compare main-hand damage and the attacks you use. A dagger route and a non-dagger route can favour different talents. Keep the weapon skill current when changing weapon types.
Agility supports a melee damage set, while health and recovery also matter for solo pulls. Keep bandages and the reagents for your learned utility available.
Read more: Weapon-dependent early talent choices.
RFC · dagger
Chanting Blade from Jergosh is a dagger-route comparison. A Sinister Strike non-dagger build should not change its entire rotation just because a dagger drops.
Hall of Thanes · leather
Flamefist Grips from Magmatus and Direhammer Leggings from Durgen are early leather comparisons. Inspect Agility, attack stats and survivability together.
Alliance · quest chain
The Defias Brotherhood ends with a choice including Tunic of Westfall. Prepare the chain before a Deadmines group rather than discovering the missing prerequisite at the entrance.
05
Control is useful damage prevention
Attack the tank’s target and interrupt dangerous casts with Kick once learned. Keep a controlled enemy clear of incidental damage. Position behind an enemy when the tank is holding it safely.
Before a boss, check poisons and other supplies. In a longer fight, a sustained buff can matter more than repeating your short solo-finishing routine.
Read more: Rogue dungeon and supply advice.
06
Ability and build milestones
Level 10
Slice and Dice. Attack speed has time to pay off on a longer fight or a sequence of pulls. A low-health enemy may be better finished directly.
Level 10
Dual Wield. Keep the main hand strong and train your new weapon skill safely before entering a dungeon.
Level 12
Kick. An interrupt worth buying even when you defer damage ranks on unused attacks.
Level 18
Ambush. A dagger opener. A sword-based Sinister Strike route does not need every Ambush or Backstab upgrade.
Level 20
Instant Poison. Follow the poison-skill unlock and keep the weapons you use coated. Carry the ingredients before a long quest circuit.
Level 22
Vanish. A valuable escape that needs its reagent. A trained spell without the required supply is not an escape plan.
Level 30
Blade Flurry. The earliest normal Combat unlock with sufficient points in that tree. Off-tree points delay it unless you respec; include that cost in your plan.
Level 30
Kidney Shot. Spend combo points to stop a dangerous opponent. It is control, rather than a reason to stun every nearly dead target.
These are toolkit changes, not measured percentage-DPS claims. Talent unlocks assume enough points in the required tree; Legacy bonuses and off-tree points can change when a build reaches them.
07
Sources and beta updates
Written for WoW Forever beta. Ability values and talent choices can change with updates; check your current in-game tooltips when a detail differs.
Method — weapon and talent choices · Mobalytics — Combat levelling · DonTheCrown — Rogue combat loop · Mobalytics — Rogue changes · Icy Veins — Ragefire Chasm rewards · Wowhead — Hall of Thanes quests and rewards · TalentsForever — licensed beta spell and talent records · Wowhead — early Rogue equipment
Community tips are linked beside the relevant advice. They describe player experience; they are not measured class rankings.