Are you looking to get into World of Warcraft's latest Classic expansion, Wrath of the Lich King Classic? Do you desire to operate from the shadows? Well, our WotLK Rogue leveling guide should help you quite a bit to make that dream come true.
Leveling in World of Warcraft is a pretty lengthy process. Regardless of what class you play, knowing what the best spec, talents and even professions that you roll with can make that process much smoother. Our guide will cover all those details and more as you venture into Northrend.
While you're here, if you're interested in other Wrath of the Lich King Classic content, then check out our DPS Tier list, our Healer Tier list and our Tank tier list. You might also be interested in our dungeon guides, such as our guide for Utgarde Keep.
Best Rogue leveling spec for Wrath Classic
First thing's first, we need to look at each of the three Rogue specs, determine which is the best to level with. We'll break down the pros and cons and make a recommendation.
Assassination
- Pros
- High single target damage
- not as gear dependent as other melee DPS
- Cons
- Longer ramp up time for damage
- No effective high brust
- Doesn't deal with multiple targets well
Combat
- Pros
- Very high burst damage
- Good against multiple targets
- Cons
- Not as high single target damage as Assassination
- Most gear dependent spec
Subtlety
- Pros
- Strong burst damage
- High mobility
- Strong defensive cooldowns
- Least weapon dependent
- Cons
- Weakest overall DPS
Based around these three, we're going to recommend Combat as the go to leveling spec. It's high damage and ability to deal with multiple targets, it's perfect for solo leveling and dungeon leveling.
WotLK Combat Rogue talent tree
Next we'll look at the Combat Rogue leveling tree. With this tree, there's a few roads that you could take. Option one is to take your points as you see them in the Combat tree, and when you get Blade Flurry, take the two points in Remorseless attacks on the Assassination tree. After that continue through the rest of the combat tree.
Option two is to go straight through the combat tree, and pick up the Assassination talents in the later levels. Either option is fine. Regardless of which option you go with, only take the require amount of points in Aggression to get to Blade Flurry (alongside Lightning Reflexes), and come back for the remaining points of Aggression later on.
Best Rogue leveling professions for WotLK Classic
As far as professions go, we'd recommend picking up only gathering professions while leveling. Crafting professions are expensive and so you can level those up when you hit level 80. We'd recommend Skinning because it provides a great critical strike buff. Additionally, you can bank resources to level up Leatherworking, which is a great crafting profession for Rogues.
The other gathering profession you want is up to you, but we'd recommend either Herbalism for a free healing spell, or Mining for a passive stamina boost. The other crafting profession also is up to you. Jewelcrafting is always a great choice due to jewels being very needed across the expansion, and you can make some extra gold through selling jewels.
Best Rogue glyphs for WotLK Classic
As for our Glyphs, we have three major and three minor glyphs to pick. Our major glyphs provide larger benefits to either damage or survivability, while minor glyphs are for more quality of life or smaller buffs. Here's our recommendations for those.
Majors
- Glyph of Evasion
- Glyph of Adrenaline Rush
- Glyph of Blade Flurry
Minors
- Glyph of Blurred Speed
- Glyph of Vanish
- Glyph of Safe Fall
And that's all that we have for you! The Rogue is a very tricky class to play, but ends up being one of the top DPS of the expansion. The class also is a great pick for PVP if that's your thing. While you're here, definitely check out our Wrath Classic PVP tier list, as well as some other dungeon guides, for the Nexus, and the Culling of Stratholme.