Assassination Rogue Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.0.5)

Unfortunately, Rogue has often been cited as the single worst class to level in World of Warcraft. Fret not, however, as it is still more than capable of dealing with the leveling journey just fine, even if it will take you a little longer than your friends who may have chosen a different class than you. Once you hit max-level, you'll surpass them in no time and be thankful you spent the time to pick a Rogue!

One of the biggest strengths of Rogue during leveling is its ability to simply sneak past many nuisances. With clever use of Blind, Vanish, Sap and other CC abilities, you can often loot important quest items and then simply Vanish to disappear without having to kill a single enemy.

Whenever your Evasion is off cooldown, it is worth pulling many mobs simultaneously and simply avoiding all damage they deal. Crimson Vial has a low cooldown, so make sure to use it frequently to heal between pulls. Playing Crippling Poison will allow you to kite many enemies while they slowly but surely die from your Damage over Time Effects while you already move on to the next enemy.

When leveling up, always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

When using Heirloom items, we recommend using those with Critical Strike and Haste, as they will slightly improve the gameplay flow while leveling.

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Talents are passives or abilities that you can choose from to optimize your character or change how some of your regular abilities work. Many of these are only passive abilities that do not alter the way you play the game or the order in which you use your abilities. Some, however, are big milestones on your way to max level, and you should aim for these talents as soon as possible.

At Level 10, you can allocate your first Talent Point into your Class Talent tree.

At Level 11, you can allocate your first Talent Point into your Assassination Talent tree.

At Level 12, you can allocate a second Talent Point into your Class Talent tree. This process alternates every level, and you will be able to spend 31 Talent Points in your Class tree and 30 Talent Points in your Assassination Talent tree by the time you reach Level 70.

At Level 71, you will be able to pick from a Hero Talent tree. Both trees will simply provide additional damage to your build, but we recommend picking Deathstalker in order to get used to the Deathstalker's Mark gameplay.

If you play with War Mode on, we recommend Creeping Venom, System Shock and Veil of Midnight as your War Mode talents.

As you level up, some of your abilities will be replaced with spec-specific ones, i.e., at Level 22, Eviscerate will be replaced with Envenom. At other times, new abilities will join your rotational priority list. Some of these you will learn automatically as you level, others you will talent into. If you follow the Point-by-Level path of our Talent Calculator, this guide will immediately tell you how to use these new abilities efficiently.

Cast Stealth if you want to get to a quest objective without fighting all enemies or before engaging enemies.

Starting at Level 1, you only have one main attack ability: Sinister Strike.

1. Cast Eviscerate once you have 4+ Combo Points to spend them.
2. Use Sinister Strike to build up Combo Points.

1. Make sure you always have Instant Poison and Crippling Poison applied. Sometimes, it can be beneficial to not use Crippling Poison if you do not want to slow the enemies you are fighting. Simply right-click on the buff icon, and it will be removed.
2. Make sure you always have Deadly Poison and Crippling Poison applied. Sometimes, it can be beneficial to not use Crippling Poison if you do not want to slow the enemies you are fighting. Simply right-click on the buff icon, and it will be removed.
3. Make sure you always have Deadly Poison and Numbing Poison applied.
4. Use Deathmark on bosses or elite enemies.
5. Once talented into Indiscriminate Carnage, make sure to open from stealth when fighting multiple enemies, and apply Garrote and Rupture to all your enemies. The buff lasts 6 seconds.
6. Use Kingsbane on single or high-priority targets.
7. Use 4+ Combo Points to keep up Slice and Dice at all times. You can use this ability while stealthed.
8. Cast Garrote from stealth. If there are multiple enemies, use Garrote on 3 different targets (if possible).
9. Cast Ambush once from Stealth if there is only one target, or after unlocking the Deathstalker Hero Talent Tree, in order to apply Deathstalker's Mark.
10. Use and maintain Crimson Tempest if there are 3 or more targets.
11. Spend your Combo Points to maintain Rupture on multiple targets.
12. Cast Eviscerate to spend excess Combo Points.
13. Use Kidney Shot to spend excess Combo Points against enemies you want to stun. Watch out for enemies that are immune to stuns.
14. Use Shiv on bosses and enemies with very high Health.
15. Use Shiv on bosses and enemies with very high Health or when fighting multiple enemies.
16. Use Envenom to spend excess Combo Points on single-target.
17. Use Sinister Strike unless you have 4+ Combo Points.
18. Use Mutilate unless you have 4+ Combo Points.
19. Use Fan of Knives instead of Mutilate when fighting 4 or more targets, or when Clear the Witnesses is available.

Assassination Rogues have a few tools at their disposal that make fighting multiple enemies easier or that allow you to avoid debilitating effects.

• Kick allows you to interrupt an enemy that is casting a spell. Use this frequently to avoid the damage you would otherwise be taking if the spell cast finishes.
• Crimson Vial lets you heal 20% of your max Health over 4 seconds. Use this whenever you need the healing or when you are between pulls.
• Sap lets you control any Humanoid, Beast, Demon, or Dragon for up to 60 seconds. Use this to keep a single enemy from joining the fight before you open on a group of enemies from stealth. This crowd control breaks when the enemy takes damage. Try to avoid hitting it with any of your abilities that hit multiple targets, or it will join the fight.
• Kidney Shot can be used to stun a single opponent for up to 6 seconds. Use this to interrupt a dangerous cast or simply not take damage from an enemy. Some NPCs might be immune to stuns.
• Evasion increases your chance to dodge incoming melee and ranged attacks by 100% for 10 seconds. Use this whenever it is available to you while you are fighting multiple enemies. You can only dodge enemy attacks when facing them.
• Vanish removes you from sight. This essentially resets all enemies you are in combat with. If you happen to be close to death and you do not feel that using any other defensive or offensive ability might let you finish off all the enemies you are engaged with, use Vanish to survive.
• Blind allows you to control an enemy for up to 60 seconds. This can be used from stealth or outside of it. The crowd-control effect breaks when the target takes damage, so make sure not to hit it with any of your AoE abilities or use Blind when the enemy is afflicted with one of your damage over time effects.
• Cloak of Shadows removes and makes you immune to magical effects for 5 seconds. This allows you to potentially remove damage over time effects that could break your Stealth, allow you to take less damage, or simply avoid certain crowd control or damaging effects.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Assassination Rogue-specific PvE talents.

1. System Shock - Casting Envenom with at least 5 Combo Points on a target afflicted by your Garrote, Rupture, and lethal poison deals Nature damage and reduces their movement speed by 90% for 2 sec. While not incredibly useful, it is extra damage and can help with the enemies that are coded to run away. It is not worth casting Envenom with 5 CP at all times despite this talent requiring 5 CP to be triggered. Continue finishing at 4+ while leveling.
2. Creeping Venom - Your Envenom applies Creeping Venom, dealing Nature damage over 4 sec. The duration is refreshed when the target moves. This is another passive damage increase, which can also be easily maintained by side stepping, causing the enemies to move with you.
3. Control is King - Cheap Shot will grant 15 seconds of Slice and Dice and Kidney Shot will restore Energy when used. Both of these allow you to use these abilities instead of Ambush or Envenom if need be, while still providing DPS benefits.

Congratulations on reaching Level 80! Now that you have hit Level 80, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.