Encrypted Text: Leveling a new rogue, character creation
by Chase Christian 
Oct 14th 2009 at 5:00PM
I've heard a lot of statistics from various sources stating that the rogue population has been dwindling since Wrath of the Lich King was released. Whether our decline is due to former assassins deciding to try out the new death knights, or rogues simply moving on to greener pastures, we may never know. I do, however, know that there's also a lot of newly minted rogues, working their way up through the levels and lowbie zones. And if there's not, there should be!
There's a lot of fights that are absolutely amazing for rogues, with Yogg-Saron hard mode (no keeper) and Anub'Arak hard mode being two of the most prevalent and important encounters currently in the game. I have seen guilds beg their inactivate rogues to resubscribe with promises of gold, crafted epics, and endless heroic runs to gear them out. I know of a rogue on my server who went from newly 80 to better geared than myself in about a month with a ton of help from his guild and friends. Many of the world's top guilds are looking for solid rogues to fill the shoes of those who have given up the mantle of shadows in the past year.
We've also got a lot of new rerolls who are working on getting a new class to 80 for Cataclysm's upcoming release. I have been working on a guide for those rogues who are new to the class (and possibly the game) who are looking for tips and tricks for getting the most out of their roguish experience. I would also ask that any veterans or novice rogues alike add their own tips in the comments, if you've got a personal anecdote or bit of info that made your time leveling easier.
What does it mean to play a rogue?
You are DPS. That may sound fairly uncomplicated, but it actually goes far deeper. We are so focused at DPS that we are completely helpless in every role besides pure damage. A rogue cannot off tank an add in a pinch, we can't add support healing, and our raid buffs / debuffs are all purely damage boosts. All other DPS classes have traditionally been balanced (intentionally or unintentionally) around the rogue's DPS capabilities. The more utility or buffs another class brings over the rogue, the further they fall behind on the damage parses.
With Fan of Knives giving us a true AoE and one of the most robust toolkits for dealing damage in every environment, if a raid wants to maximize their DPS, they will always have several rogues on their roster. The downside to being so focused on damage is that you will never be capable of accomplishing anything else. You can't tank for a heroic or heal your raid when your priest is sick. You have no other options than DPS, and for many players this is a deal-breaker. You have to love doing DPS to the point that you can live without being able to even taste any of the other roles. Our 'purity' of DPS is both a blessing and a curse: what you make of it will decide if the rogue is the right class for you.
What's more important than damage?
Rogues in both PvE and PvP environments will always focus on damage output above all other statistics and values. We're not interested in stacking Stamina for more survivability or Dodge gems to give us the edge against random AoE attacks. Our goal is to output as much damage as possible and to annihilate our opponents before they get a chance to return the favor. We're not the type to string our enemies along, to kite them around, or to attempt to outlast them. We're short, dirty, and quick killers with one goal: the destruction of our opponents.
As you level up, this should be one of the key points to remember. If you've got the choice between bracers with Stamina and bracers with Agility, you should take the Agility bracers every time. Your goal is to do as much damage as possible, as quickly as possible, and to win the fight so quickly that the extra Stamina you sacrificed wouldn't have even come into play. While being survivable enough to stay alive can be an issue if you're soloing higher level mobs or group quests, rogues are typically able to simply increase their damage (instead of their life) to compensate for the added difficulty.
Starting a new rogue:
With these thoughts in mind, if the rogue sounds like the class for you, then I suggest you go start one immediately. Patch 3.3 is bringing a very welcome change, in that all rogues will be able to dual wield weapons from level 1. This will make the 1-10 experience much quicker and more painless, though it's already pretty easy and can be handled in one sitting. You'll save more time by starting your rogue now (without all the commotion surrounding Icecrown happening) rather than waiting. But before we even can get to level 1, we have to create our rogue.
On the topic of races, all races are having their starting stats balanced soon. This means that no particular race holds an advantage over another in terms of starting statistics (such as life, agility, etc). The only differentiator becomes the racial abilities and aesthetics. I would suggest focusing on which race you believe you would enjoy playing the most. With the upcoming "Race Change" feature, if you find out down the road that you're not happy with your choice, you'll be able to easily swap to another race at will. This really prevents the issue of choosing the "wrong" race. Whether your focus is PvE or PvP, there will always be the "best" racial based on the situation that you're in. Think about what you plan to use your rogue for, and pick the race that aligns best with your goals.
If you've got a main on the same server, you can send yourself some starting gold and a few bags to make inventory management a breeze. You probably won't reach a mailbox on the rogue until around level 6-10, so if you want it earlier, see if you can find a way to get the gear to your alt such as a portable engineering mailbox or walking to town extra early. If you have some Stone Keeper's Shards or Emblems of Heroism/Valor/Conquest to spend, feel free to send yourself a few heirloom items to make your leveling process even easier than normal. Here's a list of heirloom items for your upcoming rogue:
- Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders or Exceptional Stormshroud Shoulders (10% EXP, stacks with Chest)
- Stained Shadowcraft Tunic (10% EXP, stacks with Shoulders)
- Swift Hand of Justice
- Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge / Venerable Mass of McGowan or Battleworn Thrash Blade for your main hand. I'd recommend taking Swords as this is a common leveling weapon specialzation.
- Sharpened Scarlet Kris for your off hand
- Charmed Ancient Bone Bow for your ranged weapon
Conclusion:
If you've read all of the pros and cons of playing a rogue (you can only do damage, but you do it the best) and you're still interested, go start your rogue today. Plan out any heirloom or starter gear that you can afford, with bags and a few gold for skills being the top priorities. Next week, I'll be going over the type of gear you'll want to acquire, and what to expect for you first few levels of roguish goodness!
Are you a Rogue looking to up your game? Check back every Wednesday for the latest strategies in Encrypted Text! And for the raiding Rogue, get ready for Trial of the Crusader with Ready Check and our Trial of the Crusader guide for Rogues, part 1, part 2, and part 3. Heard about the Rogue Q&A? Get the highlights from Encrypted Text!Filed under: Rogue, Leveling, Classes, (Rogue) Encrypted Text
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Heartagram Oct 14th 2009 5:12PM
Interesting stuff i have actually been thinking about leveling a rogue soon
gryzemuis Oct 15th 2009 10:52AM
If you want to level a rogue just for the fun of leveling, go ahead. Rogues are a great class to solo and to level up. I really enjoyed the leveling, although that was 4.5 years ago.
But if you want to level a rogue to have a character to play end-game with, I strongly suggest you should not pick the rogue class. I know, I have played this rogue for 4.5 years.
Pure dps classes are the stepchildren of WoW. The whole game is about hybrids now. As a pure dps class, you will always be considered "just a scrub" who should be happy that he is allowed to come to raids. If you don't believe me, check out the top-10 guilds on your server. I bet that most of those guilds have 1-2, maybe 3 of each pure dps class. But they'll have 4+ druids, shaman, paladins and priests. I bet they even have more warriors and DKs than rogues. Sometimes they run with 6+ paladins and 6+ priests, but only 2 rogues.
Rogues were doing fine dps in Ulduar. Thanks to the buff to our combat talent tree. But in 3.1 something terrible happened. 1) T9.25 gear is hardly an upgrade from T8.25. In fact, getting 3 or less pieces of T8.25 is a downgrade. So any social rogue will let other classes get their T9.25 first. And our dps will fall behind. In Ulduar we had swords, maces, fist and offhand dagger. So after a few weeks, most rogues in a guild would have two new weapons. In ToC there are only 2 axes dropping for us. That means that if you are unlucky, all or most of your rogues will run with Ulduar weapons. Then there is the issue of expertise (too much of it) which makes certain items useless to us.
As a result: rogue dps is not going up as fast as other classes. And when ICC comes, rogues will be doing sub-average dps. And RaidLeaders will not bring more than 1 or 2 rogues to ICC until the whole instance is on farm.
As a rogue, you are a one-trick pony. We can't switch roles when we are bored with dps. And we also can't enjoy the game more by getting offspec sets. Since 3.2 I have gotten 2 upgrades (bracers which are worse than crafted ones) and a BoE cloak. I bought 2 items with BoTriumph. I got all these EoT and EoC in my bag, and nothing I can buy. If I had been a druid, I could have bought healing gear, or boomkin gear. For a rogue, the game is a lot smaller.
Rogues used to be great solo players. Not anymore. In TBC days, I had fun soloing Strat and Scholo in my blue gear (and purple later). I got all T0 sets, just for fun. I soloed recipes. At lvl60 I solo farmed a libram in Dire Maul for an enchant. I soloed GRRP-recipe in LBRS at lvl60. All great fun. But in WLK, there is nothing to solo. The lvl80 instances drop nothing, everything is reputation based. And the lvl70 heroic dungeons are not soloable by a rogue. You will see druids and paladins solo ZG bosses. Warriors were soloing MC bosses at lvl70. DKs can solo well too. But rogues can't solo anything anymore. We can do well for 20-30 seconds, thanks to evasion and maybe stuns. But if a fight lasts longer (and all 70-80 boss fights do), we can't solo anything because we can't heal.
Really, play a hybrid class. The game will be a lot more versatile for you. You can set more goals. You can acquire more loot. You can solo more. You will get a lot more respect.
Rogues might be needed for YS and Anub hardmodes. But how many guilds do that ? 100 in the world maybe ? In a regular guild, rogues are a dime a dozen. And if you don't believe that, you should wonder why so many veteran rogues are leaving this game. More so than any other class.
dawneb Oct 15th 2009 1:49PM
@gryzemuis - I feel that pain, I think I've had the worse luck of all in Wrath. If it weren't for the expanded badge loot I'd probably still be running in 5man blues/epics & craftables.
I went from my fav fist/sword to having to choose one or the other, and all I've ever won are a couple of OH items. The few times a MH weapon has dropped either our Hunters rolled on it, "Because like, I want the achievement dude", (including all 3 webbed deaths I've seen in 6+ months), or our second rogue won it. I'm down to maces, a BOE drop from Ulduar and that cute mug from Direbrew. The few pieces of leather I've seen drop are usually scooped up by the kitties. Heck, I can't even make use of the spreadsheets anymore, since my level of gear has dropped off the lists.
Despite this horrifying handicap I still manage to be in the top 1-3 dps slots in our 10mans, and in the top 10 in 25mans. It's damn depressing though, to have been raiding for so long, doing Ulduar & ToC with the crap I'm stuck with, and complete lack of rogue-ish drops in these raids. =/
Jafari Oct 14th 2009 5:08PM
Thanks for the list of recommended heirloom items! Seriously, last night I was just trying to figure out what would be best, since I am not yet familiar with the slow/fast main/off hand rules for rogues. Glad I didn't already do something less than ideal by getting two daggers (which i was considering at first)
Worcester Oct 14th 2009 6:00PM
It's been a while... but I don't think you start with Swords as a weapon skill. I think you have to train that, and I'm pretty sure it requires level 10. Also, Backstab requires a MH dagger, so even if you can use swords before level 10, you're still missing one of your best damage dealers early on.
Just my 2 copper.
Evelinda Oct 15th 2009 7:55AM
is it just me, or do all those weapons have spellpower on them? the links i mean, i know they dont ingame. Is that weird?
thebitterfig Oct 15th 2009 10:44AM
RE Spellpower: there is bug in how wowhead displays heirloom items (after obtaining the data from the wow-armory, i think) and it always shows massive amounts of spellpower. pretend it isn't there because it isn't.
///
RE Daggers: I like daggers. I started out my rogue in Subtlety (with two points in remorseless attacks) because the stealth bonuses are handy, plus autocrit ambushes to start every fight are just sick. somewhere in the middle i switched over to combat, and it was fine (always having Slice and Dice for speed is great). At fifty, I switched to mutilate, and i don't regret it. I just like it more, that's all.
Whatever the "best" or "most recommended" spec is, you have to remember that you, the player, have to play it, and particularly for leveling you have to enjoy it. It doesn't matter if combat does more damage at level 50 if you don't enjoy it. If we're talking raids, then you ought to go with the best spec your weapons can support if you can play it well enough, but leveling is about doing what you enjoy most. That said, most folks prefer combat for leveling.
Same goes for hunters. Unless you're 70+, the best pet is the one you like to look at most.
Tremelizzer Oct 14th 2009 5:13PM
I rolled a rogue and after playing hunter, paladin, mage, warlock and shaman, I can say that rogue has been the funniest class. I recommend making one :D
I don't know but this may even be my main (definition for main is pendulous but definitely I've been playing this more than any other of my characters).
Tremelizzer Oct 14th 2009 5:14PM
And for clarification, hunter was my first char and the "main".
gboyd Oct 14th 2009 5:18PM
Can I ask what makes Rogues the funniest class? I realize you may have meant funnest, but just in case you didn't, I'm curious.
Rhabella Oct 14th 2009 5:59PM
I am curious if anyone has found their rogue just isn’t fun anymore. My rogue used to be my guildless, solo toon I relaxed with away from any demands on the other toons, and I can’t find a spec I like or even one that doesn’t feel wonky. I tried picking him up the other day only to find I had no idea what in the bejesus I was doing anymore. He is stuck at 67 with an entire level to Northrend and I’d like to play him some more but don’t know how to make him fun again. Any ideas?
Alanid Oct 14th 2009 6:01PM
It's funny because your enemies have a lifespan of about 5 seconds
Skonged Oct 14th 2009 5:16PM
"rogue population has been dwindling since Wrath of the Lich King was released. Whether our decline is due to former assassins deciding to try out the new death knights, or rogues simply moving on to greener pastures, we may never know."
Three words why rogues population number have slipped back into the shadows.
-No leather gear
Two more words that have something to do with the first three words.
-Druid tanks
I play a druid tank and let me tell you leather gear drops are so rare. If some leather gear does drop we have hunters, melee shammys, rogues, cat druids, and tank druids all rolling on it. We can all use it. Good thing it never drops because we may be fighting over who gets it.
Azzarrea Oct 14th 2009 6:42PM
I completely agree, I use to raid a lot, but after seeing everything that *could* go to a Rogue won by a different class too many times I lost interest in playing my Rogue. And while I like my other alts, the experience has caused me to loose interest in raiding and the end game all together. Now I'm just waiting it out until the next expansion before I renew my subscription.
Liquoid Oct 16th 2009 1:33PM
Don't forget ArP-crazed warriors.
gboyd Oct 14th 2009 5:17PM
Keep in mind that if you get the cloth chest/shoulders for the 10% exp boosts they provide (such as the tattered dreadmist mantle) you can use them with ALL your alts, if you use the leather ones listed above, you'll only be able to use them with altsthat can use leather or higher gear. So if you have clothie alts, and don't mind leveling in cloth on your rogue (when gear isn't quite as important) get yourself the cloth set instead. In the long run, they'll prove to be more useful for what you spend on them.
Gothia Oct 15th 2009 3:01AM
While it is an option since any class can use cloth - I think it is a terrible waste of gear - heirloom gear is 40 badges that is pretty much custom made for each armor / class type. One of the things that I do when I decide to make an alt is plan and this quality seems to be lost for many of us. I planned the gear for my alt Rogue by getting the shoulders / chest / both swords and health trinket since I "planned" to level my human rogue sword spec till 80. He is now 63 after very little time since I also "planned" what zones I would be leveling in through Azeroth and Outlands
With a "little" planning you can give your alt a great advantange to leveling and power. It is a shame that many of you guys walk through the game with a 80 main and your alt is all hafl-asses because of piss poor planning on your part. Take a little time and have some pride - do some planning before making an alt. Maybe the guy in above comments would of enjoyed his alt more if he had.
gboyd Oct 15th 2009 8:58AM
Nothing says I didn't enjoy my alt. I have a great time on my rogue, even if I do run in cloth and look rather silly. I merely suggest cloth heirlooms as a means to get to an end. Sure the leveling process is meant to be a time to really explore and learn about the class. But anything that can speed that up is a plus, especially if you don't play your main enough to be able to buy all those items you've mentioned.
If I "planned" everything out to get all that you suggest, with the schedule I have, I still wouldn't have even started playing a Rogue alt. I suggest Cloth Heirlooms simply because you can buy them once, use them everywhere. It saves you time and badges that you can use for other items/weapons. Leveling is a phase that doesn't matter so much once you've gone through it with at least one toon and you can learn plenty about your class as you level regardless of what you wear.
Methuus Oct 15th 2009 11:24AM
If you're only going to ever get one +exp heirloom set, yes, get the cloth. But if you're really into alts, you should try to get two sets: the cloth spellpower stuff, and the leather attack power stuff.
With these two sets you'll have something that is suitable for any class. Not optimal for every class of course, but good enough.
kittytrainer Oct 15th 2009 2:04PM
thats why i have a set for every armor class, just better and the stats work better too