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Rogue Guide: Basics - Extended Rogue Guide - Talent Builds, Abilities - Quests - Equipment - Weapons and Armor - Abilities and Poisons - Trainers - Appendix: Where to Adventure

Every single Rogue ability requires Energy, which is your main resource. While everyone has Mana or Rage or even Runic Power, you have a limitless amount of energy that readily regenerates as you wait a few moments. Your main attacks will consume anywhere from 40 to 60 Energy, so you may only be allowed to hit enemies once or twice before taking a small rest.

Your abilities are pretty straightforward - killing moves, and stealthing moves. Stealth is what makes Rogues so deadly - you can begin to pile up your combo points quickly as you uncloak and attack, causing a brief spike in damage or a stun against an unprepared enemy, and following it with some other attacks like Sinister Strike or Mutilate!

It is worthy of mentioning that while leveling, you should focus on the Combat Talent Tree, and with this comes the Sinister Strike usage. Once you procure two great daggers, it is recommended that, for the time being, you use them instead along with Mutilate instead of Sinister Strike for optimal damage at this point in time.

If in a rush, don't forget you have abilities like Blind, Vanish, Gouge and Sprint in order to get away and prepare your next move!

Talents are what differentiates you from other Rogues - these will determine which abilities you may use continuously and how your damage will be dealt. Will you go for damage in high bursts with Assassination, or go for sustained damage with Combat? Subtlety remains a great utility tree for Rogues, as it gives you better Stealth movement and some other perks which we will analyze further on.

Keep in mind that Talents are in no way permanent, and will always be open for new specs if you can pay your trainer's fee. It starts out at 1 gold, then it goes to 5, then multiples of 5. If you have the gold, and you should if you can complete a handful of Quests, then you have unlimited tries to find the build YOU like for yourself!

Make sure to discuss the Talent Builds you see here or add your own by visiting our Forums!

A complete talent calculator can be found on the official World of Warcraft Site. Here you can try out your different builds and find the best one for your needs, then take it to practice in-game and see if it's truly as great as you think it is! Keep in mind that this calculator assumes you have level 80 and gives you the points a level 80 has, so if you're starting out, remember that your first Talent Point is given at level 10, and you will gain an extra one per level you obtain.

Ready for some of the best and latest Rogue builds for both PvE and PvP? Well, wait no more, we have compiled a few builds to get you on your way to 80 and have you be the most awesome Rogue you can be!*

As always, feel free to share your best Talents with the Community should you find new ones worth mentioning, and we will add them here and credit you!

Assassination (PvE)

Currently, with Blizzard's overhaul of the Dagger weapons, Mutilate based builds are dominant in the level 80 bracket. If you want to be competitive in DPS or damage in PvP, you should really consider using Daggers as your main source of damage. Unless Blizzard buffs the other weapon types back up, Daggers will be the most sought after weapons by Rogues past level 70.

Assassination (PvE) - Gathered from several of the top-tier Rogues in PvE endgame guilds, this build gives you every goodie from the Assassination Tree such as Cold Blood, Seal Fate, Mutilate, and Hunger for Blood, while giving you talents to increase your Weapon Damage from Combat, as well as Critical Strike chances from both Trees. Finally, we use the Subtlety Tree to give us increased damage with Mutilate (our core attack) and chances to recover 25 Energy every time you execute a finishing move. Decent build for the monster killing!

Assassination (PvP)

Mutilate / Subtlety Noticing a pattern here? Mutilate's buffs have made it quite deadly in the PvP section, too! This time, we won't bother grabbing all the extra damage abilities such as Hunger for Blood or Turn the Tables which are less likely to happen in a PvP setting, and go straight for lower Subtlety talents such as Dirty Deeds, Heightened Senses, and most importantly, the gem of this build: Preparation.

As we know, Preparation lets us not be caught with our pants down on a PvP encounter, so if you get spotted and need to re-vanish, re-shadowstep, evasion, or simply use cold blood again to defeat an enemy, you may use it and deal a good amount of damage, or be extra pesky to those who attack you. This is a build that's been modified by some, so some customization from you is in order to make it work best.

Other choice talents on the way include Dirty Tricks, a must for those in the Arena, Camouflage, and Serrated Blades for extra armor ignoring. A solid PvP build overall.

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? I would love to hear from you! Please post in our Rogue Class guide forum, or email us at wow-admin@tentonhammer.com