Rogue Guide

come up with would be: CS, vanish, cold blood, ambush, gouge, preparation, cold blood, eviscerate, blind, vanish, ambush, gouge, BS, SS, eviscerate. That’s a sweet stunlock combo but it has some holes in it. The big one is gouging after you ambush the first time. A mage that knows what they are doing will not turn around and backpedal. They will get the nova in, blink away and here comes little bo peep. You know, the one that lost her sheep? Also, using that combo will not be that devastating to a warrior, paladin or shaman. You might take a shaman out, but don’t hold your breath. I agree that it is a nice combo against rogues, warlocks and maybe priests. The problem with priest is that they will get that shield off before you get that gouge in. I’ll get back to that later. Energy is the biggest problem here. Everything you do costs 60 energy. It’s a lot of hit and wait. Timing must be exceptional. Get ready to down some thistle tea to pull that combo off.

I like this build for PvE. Big aggressive hits are nice. The downside is the big sudden slowdown you get in doing the whole gouge, run back, backstab thing. Heavily armored mobs will drop very slowly because of all of this waiting. On the bright side, a few crits in a row and you are set. Your ambush will crit a lot and backstab crits almost as much.

In group PvE you will run into the problem of pulling aggro off of a warrior. The best tank in my guild has a vice grip on him. I couldn’t pull aggro off of him with a crowbar and a stick of dynamite. I can’t say that about 99.9% of the tanks I’ve grouped with. When you open with ambush, be damn sure the warrior has had time to taunt and get a couple of sunders in. After that nothing you do should be too detrimental to aggro management. But I promise you, even the best tank in the world won’t keep a mob from turning around, smacking you 5 times and taking you out. I sometimes have that problem with just eviscerate. I sometimes will use rupture or kidney shot just to keep my aggro down. Every time I tested daggers I had an aggro management problem.

I used this build as an example of a dagger build. I think it helps open rogues to other paths that can be taken when making an ambush/backstab build. Also consider making sacrifices somewhere so you can max remorseless attacks. It pains me how much that talent got nerfed, but it is a guaranteed crit.

Combat Build

Assassination Talents (21 points)

Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points
Malice - 5/5 points
Remorseless Attacks - 1/5 point
Ruthlessness - 3/3 points
Murder - 2/2 points
Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point
Lethality - 5/5 points
Cold Blood - 1/1 point

Combat Talents (30 points)

Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points
Improved Gouge - 3/3 points
Deflection - 5/5 points
Precision - 5/5 points
Riposte - 1/1 point
Dual Wield Specialization - 5/5 points
Blade Flurry - 1/1 point
Sword Specialization - 5/5 points
Aggression - 3/3 points

Subtlety Talents (0 points)

This is a pretty classic combat build that a lot of people call a 30/21. In a nutshell, the DPS is fantastic, but the utility is lacking. No preparation, no seal fate, absolutely nothing in the subtlety tree, etc. I’m just not a fan. I’ve tested it like crazy. I’ve tested it with daggers, subbing sword spec for dagger spec and improved SS for improved BS. Preparation to me is a gigantic amount of damage and a gigantic amount of control that I have at the push of a button every ten minutes.

What I can do is very precisely predict how much damage I will do. This build is outstanding in how consistent the damage is. What I cannot do is consistently defeat level 59 elite mobs. You run into energy problems trying to stunlock in PvP without improved CS or hemorrhage. Your DPS will go up, but your control will go down. That’s not ok with me.

Be on top of blade flurry, riposte and adrenaline rush. You need to use those often

When I grind mobs for cash with this build I feel like the terminator. Nothing big or grandiose, I’m just a solid killing machine. The problem is it doesn’t outdamage my PvP build nor does it outdamage most BS/Ambush builds.

Grinding Build

Assassination Talents (24 points)

Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points 30-32
Remorseless Attacks - 5/5 points 25-29
Malice - 5/5 points 33-37
Murder - 2/2 points 43-44
Ruthlessness - 3/3 points 45-47
Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point 48
Lethality - 5/5 points 38-42

Combat Talents (10 points)

Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points 10-11
Improved Gouge - 3/3 points 49-51
Precision - 5/5 points 52-56

Subtlety Talents (17 points)

Master of Deception - 5/5 points 12-16
Opportunity - 5/5 points 17-21
Improved Ambush - 3/3 points 22-24
Initiative - 4/5 points 57-60

Many people ask me what is the best build to grind with. I did it the first and second time with a dagger build. In retail I just used my PvP build. While it served me well, in retrospect I feel that a good remorseless