If you’ve ever leveled a rogue (or really any class) to 80 before, you know that there’s certain spots in the leveling curve that can get downright boring. We play like a “dual wielding warrior” far too often, preferring to simply walk up to enemies and Slice and Dice our way to a kill. Rogues have a variety of skills, but it seems like Sinister Strike is really the only one worth pushing. Where’s the fun in spamming one ability mindlessly until the enemy falls over from boredom?
Luckily for us, all of that ends at level 50 and above. We receive some of our core abilities via our 41-point talents, and each spec becomes a completely different playstyle from what you’ve been using for the past 50 levels. In addition, we pick up some of the clutch PvP abilities that were added in TBC that allowed rogues to compete in the arena environment. To summarize: leveling a rogue just got real.
New abilities:
While you’ve been picking up all of the new ranks of our rogue abilities, they’ve largely been simple “now does more damage”-type upgrades. We get to see a truly new feature added to an ability once we hit level 61 and receive Garrote (Rank 7). This version of Garrote includes an incredibly useful 3 second silence on top of the normal bleed effect. Try it on the next caster mob you attack, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see them try to melee you with their feeble weapons. Laugh as you then smash their cloth-wearing faces in.
Immediately after receiving our revived opener, you’ll pick up Envenom at level 62. It’s a Mutilate raider’s finisher of choice, but only if you’re using Instant and Deadly Poisons, which not every rogue will have due to more attractive talents while leveling. It also requires you to get a 5 stack of Deadly Poison to deal maximum damage, and so you likely won’t have time to use it while leveling on regular mobs. It does Nature damage and therefore pieces through armor, so don’t knock its usefulness on highly armored targets. I just didn’t use it much at all while leveling, and unless you’re looking for a cool new finisher, stick to Eviscerate.
Deadly Throw is our next new finisher, received at level 64. It gives rogues their only ranged presence, and can be useful for taking out fleeing targets. DT used to be far more potent when it had the ability to interrupt via a pair of PvP gloves, but is now fairly limp outside of very specific situations (usually PvP). There are a lot of great macros that can combine Throw and Deadly Throw into one easy-to-push button. Be sure to keep rolling on guns and bows and stealing them from those dirty hunters, because DT is hardly useful enough to warrant restricting yourself to a Thrown weapon. The other PvP ability added, Cloak of Shadows, is far more useful.
Conclusion:
With several available playstyles to experiment with, levels 51-70 are truly the golden years for rogues. We’re only really missing our true AoE with Fan of Knives and our pseudo-Misdirection via Tricks of the Trade, but you won’t typically be using those while soloing anyway. Try out each of the talent trees and figure out which one suits you the best. If you’re not enjoying one, simply swap to another. Weapons are typically easy to find via quests or the auction house, and so there’s no reason not to experiment with a spec that tickles your fancy. Leveling is one of the only times where you can truly spread your wings, as by the time you reach 80, everything seems to take a seat unless it maximizes your DPS.
