Combat Rogue Guide — Class Guides · WoW Classic

Sustained weapon damage: weapon specializations, Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush. The usual leveling tree.

A leather-wearing melee fighter who builds combo points with Energy and spends them on finishing moves. Rogues open from stealth, stun and blind enemies, and poison their weapons. More about the rogue

Class: Rogue
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Leveling
Top talent: Adrenaline Rush
Popular builds: 3
Version: WoW Classic

How to play

Combat is the raid tree: Adrenaline Rush doubles Energy regeneration, Blade Flurry adds attack speed and hits a second enemy, and Weapon Expertise raises your weapon skill. Swords with Sword Specialization are the usual raid choice; daggers with Dagger Specialization and Backstab work too.

Combat is the simplest rogue in a raid: keep Slice and Dice up, Sinister Strike to five points, Eviscerate, repeat. Use Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry together with trinkets, and use Expose Armor only if your raid has no warrior keeping Sunder Armor up.

Riposte, Lightning Reflexes and Deflection also make Combat the toughest rogue tree for leveling and for fighting other melee.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Classic.

Rotation and priorities

1Slice and Dice first, and keep it up.
2Sinister Strike to build combo points.
3Eviscerate at five combo points while Slice and Dice has time left.
4Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry together, with trinkets.
5Kick casters; Feint to stay below the tank's threat.
6Riposte after you parry, in fights where you take hits.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

The highest sustained rogue damage in Classic raids.
A simple, forgiving priority.
Blade Flurry gives the rogue its best two-target damage.
Sturdier leveling with Riposte and the defensive talents.

Weaknesses

Less burst and control than Assassination or Subtlety against players.
Depends on a good main-hand weapon.
Damage is capped by Energy.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Hitto 9% for special attacks; Precision gives 5%
2
Agility
3
Weapon skillWeapon Expertise, Human racial or Edgemaster's Handguards
4
Critical strike
5
Attack power
6
Strength

What to look for

A slow main-hand sword (2.6 speed or more) for big Sinister Strikes, and a fast off-hand (1.5 or less) for more poison procs.
Weapon skill is worth chasing: the Human racial with swords and maces, or Edgemaster's Handguards.
Leather with Agility and hit.

Items worth chasing

Chromatically Tempered SwordA top raid sword for Combat.
Edgemaster's Handguards+7 weapon skill with axes, daggers and swords.
Devilsaur GauntletsCrafted leather gloves with attack power and hit.
Hand of JusticeExtra attacks and attack power in a trinket slot.
Blackhand's BreadthA trinket of critical strike chance.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Assassination
Combat
Subtlety

Combat Swordmaster
DamagePvE
1932
19/32/0
The top raid rogue: extra attacks from Sword Specialization, Weapon Expertise and Aggression for Sinister Strike, with Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush for burst.
- Blade Flurry 1/1
- Sword Specialization 5/5
- Weapon Expertise 2/2
- Aggression 3/3
- Adrenaline Rush 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Dagger Backstabber
DamagePvE
15315
15/31/5
Combat daggers built around Backstab: Dagger Specialization, Improved Backstab and Opportunity push its crits, and Adrenaline Rush is still in reach.
- Relentless Strikes 1/1
- Dagger Specialization 5/5
- Blade Flurry 1/1
- Weapon Expertise 2/2
- Adrenaline Rush 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Riposte Skirmisher
DamageLeveling
1635
16/35/0
A 1–60 Combat path: Riposte, Deflection and Lightning Reflexes keep you alive, Blade Flurry handles two mobs and Adrenaline Rush ends emergencies.
- Relentless Strikes 1/1
- Blade Flurry 1/1
- Weapon Expertise 2/2
- Aggression 3/3
- Adrenaline Rush 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Adrenaline Rush · top talent, up to 1
Increases your Energy regeneration rate by 100% for 15 sec.
Deflection · tier 2, up to 5
Increases your Parry chance by 5%.
Precision · tier 2, up to 5
Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 5%.
Endurance · tier 3, up to 2
Reduces the cooldown of your Sprint and Evasion abilities by 1.5 min.
Improved Sprint · tier 3, up to 2
Gives a 100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects when you activate your Sprint ability.
Dagger Specialization · tier 4, up to 5
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Daggers by 5%.
Dual Wield Specialization · tier 4, up to 5
Increases the damage done by your offhand weapon by 50%.
Blade Flurry · tier 5, up to 1
Increases your attack speed by 20%. In addition, attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. Lasts 15 sec.
Weapon Expertise · tier 6, up to 2
Increases your skill with Sword, Fist and Dagger weapons by 5.
Aggression · tier 6, up to 3
Increases the damage of your Sinister Strike and Eviscerate abilities by 6%.

Combat abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.