Class Guide
ROGUE
 Rogue Lore
Rogues are the "assassins" of World of Warcraft. Rogues are
available to all races except for the Tauren and the Draenei.
Rogues rely on Energy for their abilities instead of Rage or Mana.
Rogues (and Druids, who also use Energy in cat form) can only hold
100 energy before Talents/Items, but Energy regenerates very quickly
(about 20 energy every 2 seconds.) Most abilities either give or
spend "combo points." Abilities that "spend" combo points
("finishing moves") become stronger as more points are spent. When
the rogue performs a combo move on a target, that target gains a
combo point, up to a maximum of 5 on one target. If the rogue begins
to add combo points on another target, the first target's points are
lost. Rogues can also go into a stealth mode, which makes them
effectively invisible to enemy Players and enemy NPCs unless
detected. Stealth becomes more or less effective depending on the
Rogue's level and the level of the potential detector. Stealth can
only be used out of combat, with the exception of the ability
"Vanish," which forces the Rogue into stealth in exchange for a
relatively inexpensive reagent.
Several attacks ("opening moves" or "openers") require the Rogue to
be in stealth.
They can wield daggers, one-handed maces, one-handed swords, and
fist weapons. They can also employ ranged weapons such as crossbows,
bows, guns, and thrown weapons. Rogues also learn to dual-wield,
allowing one-handed weapons to be equipped in each hand. Rogues can
create and apply poisons to their weapons. Depending on the applied
poison, it allows the rogue to deal additional damage (either
instantly or over time), slow their enemy's movement, increase their
spell casting time, reduce the effects of healing, or make the enemy
NPC less likely to attack the rogue.
Rogues also have the ability to unlock locked doors, chests, and
boxes using "thieves tools" and the "lockpicking" skill.
The Rogue talent trees are: Assassination (poisons, critical
strikes, and finishing moves), Combat (melee combat abilities,
normal attack damage increases) and Subtlety (stealth and opening
abilities).
Rogues can wear cloth and leather armor. Their primary attributes
are Agility, stamina, and strength. Agility increases dodge,
critical strike percentage and attack power, stamina increases
health, and strength increases attack power.
Gameplay
Rogue gameplay is based around dealing as much damage as possible to
a target that is incapacitated. A number of abilities causing damage
while incapacitating enemies allow the rogue to accumulate combo
points, resulting in finishing moves that further weaken or damage
the target. The use of poisons complements these abilities.
Overall, the style of fighting can be divided into two broad
categories. There are Swashbuckler like rogues, using swords and
dealing constant damage, and there are rogues that deal damage in a
way closer to Assassination.
Swashbuckling rogues mostly come from two talent distribution built
around either Hemorrage (an ability from the Subtlety tree) or
around the use of the Combat talent tree. Combat rogues will try to
keep their target stunned while dealing damage from any side. While
these rogues are compared to swashbucklers, they can use swords,
daggers, fist weapons and maces. It is rare to see rogues use fist
weapons with this style of combat due to fist weapons being
uncommon. It is also uncommon for rogues to use daggers in this
style of combat, as they would instead use an assassin like style of
combat.
An assassin style rogue will use high burst damage moves, such as
ambush and backstab, while trying to keep their target immobilized.
Their position in relation to their target during the fight is
crucial, as backstab and mutilate are only usable from behind.
Assassin style rogues almost invariably use daggers, as they are the
only weapons to support Ambush, Backstab and Mutilate (an attack
from the Assassination tree).
Two rogues built around the same general idea can be very different
depending on which weapons, which poisons and which talents they
have. In fact, many rogues attempt to find the one build that will
give them the edge over others. This gives birth to various "hybrid"
rogues, using abilities from the various trees to try and use the
advantages of each build.
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