Rogue Leveling Talent Builds

The number one question that I get from people has always been and will now even moreso be, “What is the best build…”

It’s a viable question. My biggest advice is for you to pick a good build and stick with it. Don’t try to be an innovator. Let someone else blaze the trail for you. I have spoken to THOUSANDS of rogues (I’m not joking) who have taken a standard tested build and made gigantic changes to them. A sprinkle of this and a sprinkle of that to cater to your gameplay, fine, but don’t put together some wild build and then ask someone later if it’s any good. I’m not saying this because I’m irritated with any factor of this because I simply am not. I’m just trying to save you folks some time and gold. Others have blazed the trail for you. Enjoy the game and benefit from that knowledge.

You’re going to want to test all of the new skills and talents. Try to refrain from doing so. You’re going to get pounded out there and will want to respec to minimize this. Just try to be better at the build you have unless it’s horribly flawed. If you don’t know whether or not your build is horribly flawed, then it probably is.

Before I get into builds, let’s cover talents that are good and bad for leveling.

First off, I don’t like most of the survivability talents. Reduced chance of being stunned, feared, extra HP, chance to resist spells, all have their applications. Grinding isn’t one of them. I might have some of this stuff in my builds but only because there are no better options. I don’t like MoD except for daggers where I kind of have to get it for improved ambush. But even then Camouflage has served me much better in my grind. Improved ambush is an excellent talent to max out. Open with big crits and end it fast. Also, if you are a dagger rogue, remorseless attacks is your best friend. While I don’t really need it to get a lot of ambush crits, it guarantees it and keeps me driven to move from mob to mob.

Also note that these builds might change at the last minute before BC comes out as they are constantly changing things.

Combat Swords
At 60:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fhxboxZGoEd0Vzx0uo

To 70:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=wheboxZGoEd0Vzx0Got

I actually did a Mace version of this because my maces are a lot better than my swords. Claws are fine too; just stay away from combat daggers. It’s great for raids but rough for grinding. Save daggers for SF/Mutilate.

I warn you, you will take a lot of damage with this build. You will open with CS, get 2 SS’s in, will have 4 combo points, the mob will no longer be stunned and you will take a pretty heavy beating for 6 seconds while you wait for enough energy to gouge or continue on doing damage.

Use this build aggressively. Every two minutes you should be fighting two mobs at once with blade flurry. Every 5 minutes you should be fighting 3 mobs at once using blade flurry and adrenaline rush at the same time. Just be careful when pulling multiples, BF and AR are amazing but they don’t make you Superman. The combo should be CS, evasion, AR, BF, SS, SnD, spam SS.

This build feels slow and clunky when you’re not using BF or AR. Those of you who used a heavy subtlety build to grind to 60 will especially feel this way. CS seems to last a split second because of its energy cost. You find yourself waiting and waiting while you just do white damage and wait that seemingly loooooong 4 seconds to do another SS. My advice is to muscle up and just pump it out. You’re going to take damage. Just bandage once every 5-6 fights if you have to and trust the fact that this is probably the best DPS leveling build.

Mutilate
At 60:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=iGxboxxsizVoGZV

To 70:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=iGxboxxsidVoGZV0xc

This build isn’t for everyone but for me it was the hands down best solo grinding build possible. Mutilate is fantastic for grinding if you are comfortable with daggers. I don’t know if I’m killing faster than I did with a combat build but I certainly had more fun with it. It’s very efficient. I take very little damage and the mobs drop fast. Here’s a common combo: Ambush, wait, gouge, wait, KS, mutilate, mutilate, evisc. I know that’s a lot of waiting, but those pauses are also followed up with some monster hits. With improved ambush and remorseless attacks you are pretty much guaranteed a crit opener. When you ambush and gouge you will almost always have 3 combo points. If you put smart pauses in after ambush and after gouge, you will have a full energy bar when dropping that KS.

Note with these mutilate builds that I made some changes to what you probably had in your pre-BC mutilate build. First off, I have instant poisons maxed out. This isn’t absolutely necessary but getting your target poisoned early is important for efficiency.

Yes, I have improved SS in this build. It’s not a must, but it’s nice to have when both your gouge and kidney shot miss/dodge/parry/block. It doesn’t happen often, so there’s no crime in spending your points elsewhere.

Some people like to grind with mutilate by opening with cheap shot. This is perfectly fine. I’m a bigger fan of the big ambush crits. Both are pretty equally effective.

Avoid using fast daggers. Core Hound Tooth is a bad mutilate weapon. It’s better than nothing, but try to use slow daggers with high max damage. Other than that, don’t worry about what gear is best for mutlate.

Most important: ALWAYS have crippling poison on your MH. Mutilate does fantastic damage against poisoned mobs. Against non-poisoned mobs, it’s terrible.

Hemo

At 60:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ihxboxZhZxMeohhRoxo

To 70:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ihxboxZhZxMeohhRsxkt

I don’t like this build. I even less like posting it in my guide. I tested it thoroughly and I know some of you will go with a hemo build no matter what anyone says, so this is what I consider a good hemo grinding build.

The reason I don’t like hemo is that it doesn’t do very good damage. I have a ton of AP and I used Misplaced Servo Arm to test it. Against ogres my level I had to do 3 full combos to finish them in some cases. I felt like I was hitting every mob I fought with a pillow and Servo is a better hemo weapon than anything I saw before 70.

The plus side is control. You can do almost two full combos before you get hit once: CS, hemo, gouge, wait, KS, hemo, hemo, hemo hemo, gouge, evisc. Unfortunately, that won’t finish most mobs your level and you’re still going to take a lot of damage.

If you decide to go this route, load up on the attack power. A lot of gear that you will get from quests will give you a ton, so that will help if you didn’t come in with good gear.

Build that I Didn’t Include

I stayed away from a Shadowstep build. I used this to grind extremely low level mobs from 69 to 70 and did really well with it, but against mobs my level I got crushed. I also stayed away from hybrid builds where you switch from swords to daggers as appropriate. Why torture yourself with weapon swap delays? I also tested and did not like combat Hemo and Seal Fate swords. SF swords seemed interesting but your crit is going to drop as you level, so it just didn’t proc that extra point enough. Combat hemo wasn’t as good as I had expected. Adrenaline Rush is so good for leveling and you don’t get lethality maxed until level 68. Plus you don’t get Deadliness or Sinister Calling.