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Combat as a Rogue

Rogue combat is a very complicated thing, because it differs wildly based on specs and specs differ from patch to patch. There is little that remains the same with Rogues, other than Sinister Strike gets pressed a lot while leveling up. This page will go over the basics of Rogue combat so that you know how to get out there and kill the enemy, but will not touch on the high level Rogue combat which deserves its own article.

Basics

As you’ve read in our basics section (if you haven’t, go back and read it), Rogues use Energy for their resource. It’s always refilling and provides a fast paced combat experience because Rogues rarely run out of Energy for more than 4 seconds. Managing that Energy is important, because you’ll ALWAYS want to have Slice and Dice up.

Slice and Dice (SnD) increases your melee attack speed by 40% and also increases energy regeneration if you have Combat Potency and does a lot of other things, like making any proc not normalized to weapon speed fire off a lot more. So it’s important that Slice and Dice is always up.

Cut to the Chase will refresh Slice and Dice to its 5 combo point length when you use Envenom or Eviscerate. This is important, because it will mean you’ll get a fresh Slice and Dice when you Envenom or Eviscerate. That makes it as if Slice and Dice was attached to those finishers. Combat Rogues won’t have Cut to the Chase, so they’ll have to refresh it themselves.

Then it comes down to two things: what’s your main ability for combo point generation? Mutilate Rogues will need to use Mutilate, which requires you to use Daggers. Combat Rogues will use Sinister Strike to generate combo points. So next it comes down to use your main skill to 5 combo points (or less if Slice and Dice is not up) and then using a finisher.

Finishers all depend on your build. Some people use Rupture in their cycle, in which case you’ll want to keep it up. If you don’t use Rupture or if Rupture is up and not going down anytime soon you’ll want to Envenom if you’re Mutilate spec’d (Envenom at 4 or 5, 4 if you’re at exactly 4 Deadly Poison stacks) or Eviscerate if you’re Combat spec’d.

If you’re Mutilate and level 60, you’ll want to start a bleed effect first (Rupture/Deep Wounds/Rend/etc.) and use Hunger for Blood. Keep it up all the time.

Always use as many cooldowns as possible to keep your DPS up. Killing Spree is a big DPS boost if you use it every time it's up.

Again, this is for non-raiding Rogues or lower level Rogues. If you are raiding it becomes much more complicated, especially when you need to interrupts, do AoE with Fans of Knives, etc. If you're a raiding Rogue you'll find a lot of the basics remain the same, but you'll need to get a lot better at utilizing them and doing other tasks (especially interupts).

What poisons should you use? That’s a can of worms, but the basic advice is main-hand Instant Poison and off-hand Deadly Poison while Combat should use main-hand Wound Poison off-hand Deadly Poison.

Poisons

Speaking of poisons, here is what each poison does:

• Crippling Poison: Snares the enemy, mostly for PvP.
• Mind-Numbing Poison: Increases casting time, useful for duels or PvP against casters. Some events in the game benefit from that, some.
• Instant Poison: One of the main DPS poisons. Instantly deals damage, but procs less than Wound Poison. Only use Instant Poison if you have at least 4 points in Improved Poison. One Attack Power grants .1 damage with Instant Poison. 10 AP = 1 Instant Poison Damage.
• Deadly Poison: An alright poison for your off-hand. Puts a DoT up that can stack up to five times. Don’t double it.
• Wound Poison: Deals direct damage and reduces healing by 50%. Great for Combat Rogues or anyone without Improved Poison since it procs way more than Instant Poison does. Gains .04 damage X your Attack Power. So 25 AP = 1 Wound Poison Damage.
• Anesthetic Poison: Deals no threat, does low damage, and can dispel an Enrage effect. Doesn’t scale with AP. Situational, bosses like Gluth in Naxxramas (WotLK) can have their soft-enrage dispelled. Very, very, situational. You can make a macro to use this with Shiv to get an instant effect (and even equip a secondary weapon so you’re not using this all the time).

All in all, you should only care about three poisons. Instant (if you have Improved Poisons), Deadly, and Wound (if you don’t have Improved Poisons). You may want to double up Wound if your spec calls for it, but a lot of Rogues find that a personal choice based on gear.

Solo Play

Soloing as a Rogue is fun, so much fun we have a 1-80 Rogue leveling guide available for you. It goes over all of the aspects of soloing as a Rogue.

As a note, it's best to stay combat UNLESS you have access to heirlooms.

Group Play

In a group there is only one important thing you need to know, “Tricks of the Trade”. As soon as you get it you’ll want to make a macro for using it on the tank. It increases the tanks damage and moves all of your threat from you for the first attack and all actions six seconds afterwards, including the Sap if you’re Sapping or any other attack. This keeps you from getting immediate threat, throws threat at the tank, and increases the tanks damage so you get even more benefit.  Remember, the threat movement/dmg buff doesn’t start until you hit something. TotT is also important for using it and then snagging aggro on a caster who is stuck out of the tank’s AoE.

You may also need to Sap. In the modern WoW world it’s not necessary, but you could be in a group where Sap is needed to progress. You simply stealth, distract, and then sap. It’s that easy. Run back real quick. Having TotT (Tricks of the Trade) up will transfer Sap aggro to the tank which, if you fail, will cause everything running his way. That could be good or bad.

You’ll often /focus a tank, so this macro is great for Tricks of the Trade “/cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade”.

PvP

Ahh, PvP with a Rogue. It’s such a complicated manner that we have an entire guide devoted to PvP as a Rogue. Click here to view this guide.