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Combat Rogue Guide for WoW Forever

Combat Rogue for WoW Forever: a level 30 build, level 60 builds for swords, axes, maces, fists or daggers, and how Hack and Slash works.

RogueCombatLevelingPvERaidsDungeonsAoEDPS

By stillsixty staffUpdated

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Variants

Overview

Combat is the steady, sustained-damage Rogue spec in WoW Forever. You build Combo Points, keep Slice and Dice up, and spend the rest on Eviscerate, while Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush turn two-minute and five-minute windows into huge damage. It levels smoothly from 10 to 60 with the fewest moving parts, and its raid builds need only one buff and one damage finisher.

The big change is weapons. Classic Combat forced you into swords. Forever replaces the old weapon specializations with one talent, Hack and Slash, which reads the weapon in your hands: swords and axes get extra attacks, daggers and fist weapons get critical strike chance, and maces ignore armor. The new Puncturing Wounds makes a Backstab build at home in the Combat tree. Play the best weapon you have.

Strengths

  • Fast, steady leveling with low downtime: Evasion and Sprint every 2 minutes, +5% dodge from Lightning Reflexes, and a cleave cooldown for two-mob pulls.
  • Real cleave for a Rogue: Blade Flurry hits a second target with every swing for 15 seconds.
  • Adrenaline Rush doubles your Energy regeneration for 15 seconds. Paired with Blade Flurry, it's a 15-second burst window every 5 minutes.
  • Weapon freedom. One build covers swords, axes, maces and fist weapons, and another covers two daggers.
  • The simplest rotation of the three specs. You have one buff to maintain and one damage finisher.

Weaknesses

  • Less burst from Stealth than Subtlety or Assassination. Your damage comes from time on target.
  • No Seal Fate. Crits never add Combo Points: yours come from Sinister Strike, Ruthlessness after finishers, and in the dagger build Puncturing Wounds' 45% chance on Backstab.
  • Dual Wield Specialization is weaker than in Classic (+25% off-hand damage at 5/5, not 50%), so your off hand matters less than it used to.
  • Blade Flurry breaks crowd control on the mob next to your target. Watch your Saps and Gouges.
  • A melee spec that loses damage to every parry and dodge: frontal positioning costs you.

What's new in Forever

New in Forever
  • Hack and Slash (tier 5, 5 ranks) replaces Sword, Mace, Dagger and Fist Weapon Specialization. At 5/5: swords and axes get a 5% chance on hit for an extra attack, daggers and fist weapons get +5% critical strike chance, and maces ignore 15% of the target's armor.
  • Puncturing Wounds (tier 2): Backstab gets +30% crit chance and a 45% chance to award an extra Combo Point, and Mutilate gets +15% crit chance.
  • Flawless Execution (tier 4): Eviscerate costs 10 less Energy.
  • Weapon Expertise (tier 6, requires Blade Flurry): your attacks are dodged or parried 2% less.
  • Aggression now covers Backstab too: +6% to Sinister Strike, Backstab and Eviscerate.
  • Improved Eviscerate is +20% at 3/3. Precision is +3% Hit. Deflection is +6% parry.
  • Endurance cuts the cooldown of Sprint and Evasion by 60%, down to 2 minutes.
  • Dual Wield Specialization is 5% per rank, 25% at 5/5.

Talents

The leveling build to 30. Cheaper Sinister Strikes and bigger Eviscerates first, then Hit and your defensive cooldowns, then off-hand damage, and Blade Flurry at 30.

Split 0/21/0 · 21 points at level 30 · Open in calculator

Assassination

0 points

Combat

21 points

Subtlety

0 points

Talent order

  1. Levels 10–11: 2/2 Improved Sinister Strike. Sinister Strike costs 40 Energy instead of 45. That's one extra Sinister Strike every eight.
  2. Levels 12–14: 3/3 Improved Eviscerate. +20% Eviscerate damage, your finisher on every mob.
  3. Levels 15–17: 3/3 Precision. +3% Hit. Fewer missed Sinister Strikes means fewer wasted 40 Energy chunks.
  4. Levels 18–19: 2/5 Lightning Reflexes. +2% dodge, and the points to unlock tier 3.
  5. Levels 20–21: 2/2 Endurance. Sprint and Evasion come back every 2 minutes instead of 5. Evasion on every hard pull is the reason Combat levels so safely.
  6. Levels 22–24: 5/5 Lightning Reflexes. +5% dodge, and it stacks with Evasion.
  7. Level 25: 1/1 Flawless Execution. Eviscerate costs 25 Energy instead of 35.
  8. Levels 26–29: 4/5 Dual Wield Specialization. +20% off-hand damage.
  9. Level 30: 1/1 Blade Flurry. +20% attack speed for 15 seconds, and every swing hits a second target. Two-mob pulls die at the same time.

Flexible points

  • Grouping more than questing? Take 2/2 Improved Kick at 25–26 in place of Flawless Execution and one point of Dual Wield Specialization. Every Kick then silences for 2 seconds.
  • Fighting a lot of melee mobs head-on? Replace the last three Lightning Reflexes points with 3/3 Deflection for +6% parry.

Races

Best races

Alliance: Human. Sword Specialization gives +2% critical strike chance with all attacks while you hold a sword, and it counts on top of Hack and Slash's extra attacks. Will to Survive breaks a stun every 3 minutes, and Perception helps you spot other Rogues.

Alliance daggers: Night Elf. Elune's Light gives +10% crit for 15 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown, which lines up with Adrenaline Rush. Quickness adds 1% dodge and 2% movement speed.

Horde: Orc. Blood Fury raises your Attack Power by 10% for 15 seconds every 2 minutes, so it lines up with every Blade Flurry. Axe Specialization adds +1% crit while you hold an axe, and axes share the sword bonus from Hack and Slash. Hardiness shortens stuns on you by 20%.

Horde alternative: Troll. Berserking is a haste cooldown every 3 minutes, and Beast Slaying adds 5% damage against Beasts while leveling.

All playable races

Rotation

Single pull

  1. Walk up in Stealth and open with Cheap Shot (from 26) for 2 Combo Points and a 4-second stun. Before 26, open with Sinister Strike from Stealth.
  2. Slice and Dice at 1 or 2 points. You'll kill most mobs inside its duration.
  3. Sinister Strike to 5 points, then Eviscerate.
  4. Finish a low mob with an Eviscerate at whatever points you have instead of another Sinister Strike.

Two mobs

From 30, pull both, pop Blade Flurry, and Sinister Strike the one you want dead first. Every swing hits both. Without Blade Flurry, Gouge the second mob and kill the first.

When it goes wrong

  • Evasion every hard pull. With Endurance, it's back in 2 minutes.
  • Vanish (from 22) resets a lost fight. Stop attacking first, or your swing pulls you out of it.
  • Sprint escapes anything that isn't faster than you.

Downtime

Eat between pulls. Sprint to the next quest area. Every 2 minutes of Sprint is minutes saved per hour.

Stat priority

Leveling

  1. Weapon damage
  2. Agility
  3. Attack Power
  4. Stamina
  5. Critical Strike

Your main-hand weapon drives most of your damage at this level. Sinister Strike adds a flat bonus on top of it, so upgrade it every time a quest offers a better one. Agility gives Attack Power, crit and dodge together.

Gear

Weapons

Take the slowest, highest-damage one-hand weapon you can get for your main hand. Sinister Strike adds a flat bonus to your weapon's damage, so a slow main hand hits harder with every Sinister Strike. Your off hand is a faster weapon that carries poison procs.

Any weapon type works in Forever. Hack and Slash sits in tier 5, so it comes after 30 (the leveling guide takes it at 32–36). Until then, pick on damage per second.

Poisons

From 20, put Instant Poison on both weapons: its damage lands the moment it procs, which is what a leveling Rogue wants. At 30, train Deadly Poison and move it to your off hand. Every Rogue learns Coup de Grace at 30, which makes Eviscerate deal 2% more damage per Deadly Poison stack on the target, and the faster off-hand weapon builds those stacks quickly. On mobs that die in a few seconds, Instant Poison on both hands is still fine.

Armor and ranged

Leather with Agility, then Stamina and Strength. Carry a thrown weapon such as a Heavy Throwing Dagger to pull single mobs out of groups.

Professions

Leatherworking and Skinning carries you from 1 to 60. Skinning funds the leveling and supplies your Leatherworking, which makes your armor, and at the end the Devilsaur set.

At 60, Alchemy replaces Skinning if you raid: Elixirs of the Mongoose, Free Action Potions and Flasks of the Titans pay for themselves in the first week.

For gold, level with Skinning and Mining. Lockpicking opens lockboxes other players pay for, and Pick Pocket on every Humanoid you pass in Stealth adds up.

Group play and dungeons

Combat is the group Rogue: sustained damage, cleave and interrupts.

  • Blade Flurry on packs of two or more. Tank first, then Flurry on the target the tank is focusing. Never use it next to a Sapped or Polymorphed mob.
  • Kick casters. Kick locks a school for 5 seconds. With Improved Kick it also silences for 2 seconds.
  • Sap before the pull. From Stealth, Sap lasts up to 45 seconds at max rank on a Humanoid that isn't in combat, and it doesn't break Stealth.
  • Evasion tanking. With Endurance, Evasion is back every 2 minutes. When the tank dies or an add breaks loose, Evasion holds it for 15 seconds.
  • Feint after cooldowns. Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry spike your threat. Feint lowers it.
  • Riposte for tanking adds. If you run 3/3 Deflection and Riposte, a parried add gets hit for 150% weapon damage and disarmed.

Tips

Match your weapon to your build

Hack and Slash reads your weapon type: swords and axes get extra attacks, daggers and fist weapons get crit, and maces ignore armor. The sword build uses Sinister Strike and the dagger build uses Backstab, so pick one weapon type and the build that goes with it.

Blade Flurry breaks crowd control

Blade Flurry hits the nearest second target, and that includes a Sapped, Gouged or Polymorphed one. Turn it on only when every mob nearby is meant to die.

Slice and Dice at 1 point is fine on leveling mobs. A 1-point Slice and Dice lasts 9 seconds and covers most of a fight at 30.

Use Evasion the moment a pull turns bad, not when your health is already low. With Endurance it's back in 2 minutes, so it's ready for most hard pulls.

Train at every even level. Sinister Strike, Eviscerate and Backstab ranks come almost every level, and Slice and Dice rank 2 at 42 is +30% attack speed instead of 20%.

Stack Adrenaline Rush with Blade Flurry on packs. 15 seconds of double Energy while every swing hits two targets clears trash fast.

Macros

Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush with your racial, on one key. Replace Blood Fury with Berserking for a Troll.

Burst
#showtooltip Adrenaline Rush
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Blade Flurry
/cast Adrenaline Rush

Cheap Shot from Stealth, Sinister Strike otherwise.

Opener
#showtooltip
/cast [stealth] Cheap Shot; Sinister Strike

Kick your focus target, or your current target if you have no focus.

Focus Kick
#showtooltip Kick
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Kick

Gouge your focus target so you can kill your current one.

Focus Gouge
#showtooltip Gouge
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Gouge

Stops your auto attack and vanishes.

Clean Vanish
#showtooltip Vanish
/stopattack
/cast Vanish

Changelog

  • Guide published with Level 30, Level 60 Swords, Axes, Maces and Fists, and Level 60 Daggers builds.

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