Resource - Rogue Guide

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Weapons and You: The Five Paths to Glory... and then Some

Daggers

Daggers are fast, naturally, with all their speeds staying below 2 seconds. Swords hit harder, daggers hit faster, but that speed is only useful if the target is within range every second of the conflict. This makes daggers great for PvE, but players new to PvP should compensate for their errors by picking hard-hitting weapons to survive.

With daggers, you can use every skill available to you, though you should pay more attention to Backstab than Ambush. Dagger use requires more skill use and self-placement for success.

Swords

Most swords can deal extreme pain as the main-hand weapon, but one Rogue talent deals insult to injury by giving a chance to deal two hits in one attack. And that's not because of dual-wielding.

There are a lot of options for Rogue swords as with daggers from level 1 to 70, so any Rogue sticking with swords will be fine until they decide to change weapons. Swords are diverse, offering speed or power, though swords that offer power and haste are few and far between.

As nice as having two fast weapons that boost your haste rating sounds, stick with at least one slow but heavy-hitting sword as your main weapon. Like the other weapons, their damage as a main-hand weapon drastically affects your skills.

Maces

Mace Rogues are rare, particularly in the early phases of their 70 life because epic maces for Rogues are just that hard to find beyond the one available only to Master Hammersmiths. Visit auction houses as often as possible for pre-epic maces, but most of the Burning Crusade maces are usually for healers.

Though maces for Rogues are rare, Mace Rogues have a chance to stun their targets per regular melee attack for one second. While one second pales against the other parts of a stunlock, you enemy will hate you for interrupting their spells. One second or nine, anything that needs casting time will be stopped by a stun.

Fists

Early in the game, fist weapons are few and far between, making fist weapons a very poor option for Rogues at that time. Once at 70, however, Burning Crusade dungeons offer a number of fist weapons that boost your haste rating. The choice, at that point, is whether you want two fast fist weapons or one fast fist weapon on the off-hand and a heavy-hitting but slow fist weapon on your main hand. Option 1 gives you a lot of regular attacks but not much else while Option 2 gives your combo-creating attack a lot of punch to go with it.

Guns, Crossbows, Bows vs. Thrown

WoW offers four ranged weapons for Rogues, listed above. Why I've separated Thrown from the other three is because of Deadly Throw.

Having all your skills available is important, but losing one or two is not the end of the world. To newbies, Deadly Throw should not be overlooked. Most of the time, your targets will WANT to distance themselves from you with any stunning skills that they have. Hunters will use Aspect of the Cheetah, Mages will Blink, Warlocks cast Curse of Exhaustion, and Priests will run, run, run. And Deadly Throw can slow them all down long enough to get you close enough to resume damage-dealing.

However, Thrown weapons are not known for gem slots and excellent stats. They will also need to be repaired if they are used frequently. Unlike guns, crossbows and bows, Thrown weapons' ammunition is in their durability. And once durability drops to 0, that item can't be used until it is repaired.

The choice between those two categories depends on your consistency in staying close to your target without Deadly Throw.

Poisons

Poisons are temporary weapon enhancements that are 10% of a Rogue's full damage or a means of inflicting statuses on the target that can affect movement, casting, or healing. In PvP or PvE, any advantage you can get counts. And being a dual-wielding class, Rogues can apply two poisons at once to their target.

Poison creation isn't learned normally from Rogue trainers, but those same Rogue trainers provide starting quests to get that skill.

Rogue Poisons fall under two categories: Damage and Status. In PvP, it's better to stick with the status poisons unless you know exactly who you're fighting. Of course, that information is useless in battlegrounds.

And if you're sneaking and forgot your poisons, applying them to your weapons won't break your stealth.

Damage Poisons

Anesthetic

Effect: 20% chance of poisoning an enemy for 132-174 damage per hit. This damage causes no additional threat.

Deadly

Effect: 30% chance of poisoning the target for (36/52/80/108/136/144/180) Nature damage over 12 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.

Instant

Effect: 20% chance of poisoning an enemy for (19/30/44/67/92/112/146)-(25/38/56/85/118/148/194) damage.

Wound

Effect: 30% chance of poisoning an enemy for 17 Nature and reducing all healing effects on them by 10% for 15 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.

Status Poisons

Crippling

Effect: 30% chance of poisoning an enemy, reducing their movement speed by (50%/70%) for 12 seconds.

Mind-Numbing

Effect: 20% chance of poisoning an enemy, increasing their casting time by (40%/50%/60%) for 10 seconds.

Professions: Because You Shouldn't be a Jobless Bum

Never underestimate professions, even if you're more interested in leveling. While getting to the level cap is a priority, the benefits of taking on professions while you level are worth the time taken to level them. From potions that boost your stats to gear that helps you smash, professions offer numbers of benefits. You're limited to two primary professions, so put some thought into what you want. Choosing the wrong profession isn't the end of the world, though. Blizzard was kind enough to add an option to forget professions.

Most of the production professions have separate branches, with Blacksmithing being the only one that branches twice. The good news is that even though you have specialized in one branch, you can switch to another. Of course, the bad news is that you lose any benefits from your previous specialization. But you can always go back to your old specializations, so don't lose sleep over your specialization decisions.

Gathering Professions

Gathering professions don't have much going for them. You gather materials for the production professions and that's it. You could go for two-gathering professions to make money, but that could leave you waiting for epic gear from bosses for quite a while.

In my opinion, if you have people who can supply you with materials, stick with two production professions as your primary professions.

Herbalism

Herbalism pairs with Alchemy and only that. You gather plants for the potions produced by Alchemy.

There are no Bind-on-Pickup Herbalism items. There are a few Herbalism-required items such as Fel Blossoms but the usefulness of these items is outweighed by the items produced by other production professions.

Mining

Mining does not have much to go for it once you have people who can supply you with bars, but if it's your first time playing on that server and you plan on going Blacksmithing, Engineering, or Jewelcrafting, Mining will be a must.

There are no Bind-on-Pickup Mining items, but there is one BoP recipe for Hardened Khorium that can be attained from Sunwell Plateau. That recipe is not very hard to get once you start raiding, so don't be concerned about it.

Skinning

Like Herbalism and Mining, Skinning should only be an option if you can't find any suppliers for your Leatherworking needs.

However, Skinning does one thing that no other profession can: Cover your tracks. You can reduce your chances of being followed and attacked by other players if the mob you just killed can be skinned. After skinning the monster, its body disappears and you are free to move in any direction you please.

There are no Bind-on-Pickup items with Skinning and there are no Skinning-required items.