Killer Guides 'Rogue Leveling Guide' - perfect those those who playing the Rogue Class

Rogue Leveling

The following Rogue Leveling Guide provides helpful tips, examples and a common sense strategy and overview on how to level your rogue character to level 40.

If you are looking for a detailed rogue leveling guide (and leveling up to level 70), you should check out Killer Guides ‘World of Warcraft Rogue Guide’. This is undoubtedly the comprehensive guide for leveling rogue characters in WoW. If you are serious about leveling a Rogue character in rapid time this is well worth picking up.

Introduction to Rogue Leveling

The Rogue can be considered a relatively painless class to level. This is due to the fact that a Rogue character is really designed to kill mobs very quickly. When I first started playing WoW I played a rogue main character for most of the time, I eventually leveled up my night elf rogue of level 60 - using daggers the whole time!!! What a mistake and ineffective use of time that was!

One of the first decisions you may need to decide is Sword or Dagger. My advice is to really lose the dagger. Your mainhand weapon needs to be a sword (or mace). The benefit of using a sword as your mainhand weapon is that every hit will deal a large damage. Sinister strikes are twice as powerful and particularly in these early level sinister strikes are almost as powerful as a backstab attack – whilst limiting the risk of missing.

Rogue Leveling from 1-10

In levels 1-10, well……..just try not to die! You want to look to commence training for swords or maces in Undercity / Stormwind ASAP.

You get your Gouge ability at level 6. For those that are completely new to WoW, Gouge is a Rogue ability that causes damage whilst also incapacitating the target for a short period. It is this incapacitating effect that we will put to most work throughout the leveling process.

This is useful for those initially using daggers as you can now use Gouge to stun, then and run behind for a sneaky backstab. You do want to make sure you have at least 80% energy before you do this however.

Remember to also use your Garrote ability when attacking instances. Garrote is especially effective when attacking mobs with a lot of armor. This is due to the nature of Damage Over Time (DoT) attacks in WoW - impacting the opponent equally whether the opponent is wearing cloth or plate armor. Very valuable to keep in mind.

It is also worthwhile noting not to use Garrote (or Deadly Poison) in any combination with Gouge - as doing so breaks the Gouge stun effect.

Rogue Leveling from 10-19

So…you think a Rogue is an angry character? Just wait until he gets the spell ‘Slice and Dice’. In levels 10-19, you will get the Slice n Dice spell. Slice and Dice essentially allows you to increase your melee attack speed by 20 - 30%. This is essential for any good combat sword Rogue out there and useful in cases where fights last longer.

Throughout levels 1-19 your routine will generally be to start with a Sinister Strike, hit Slice n Dice, and keep hitting Sinister Strike until your energy almost runs out. Follow this up by hitting Gouge as soon as you can (and energy is running low) then back away carefully. By the time the stun wears off you should have several combo points on him and almost your full energy back. Next hit Eviscerate and continue to just Sinister Strike and Slice n Dice until he's dead.

Rogue Leveling from 20-30

At level 26 you get Cheap Shot. Cheap Shot allows you to stun your target for up to 4 seconds, however Cheap Shot must be used in Stealth mode.

Once you have gained the Cheap Shot ability your routine essentially becomes -

• cheap shot
• sinister strike
• gouge
• back away
• sinister strike
• eviscerate

Then you can either: vanish and totally start over, or just do the sinister strike, slice n dice, gouge cycle again.

Rouge Leveling from 30-40

Perhaps the most enjoyable rouge leveling range in the game, levels 30-40 are really all about the Scarlet Monastery. You can pretty much level this entire range inside of it.

Level 30 also will give you one of (what I consider the better) rogue abilities - Kidney Shot. What makes Kidney Shot such a powerful ability? Well Kidney Shot will essentially allow you to stun Monsters preventing them from escaping or damaging you any further.

In terms of pure survival, the ability to stun for a combat sword rogue while solo fighting is a rogues greatest asset. Hunters and Locks have pets, Warriors and Paladins have plate armor, Rogues have stuns. If you can get good at stuns, you can and will go days without dying.

Here is a basic routine to use as a sword rogue. This routine really focuses on limiting your damage, therefore it does take longer to kill an opponent.

• Cheap shot
• sinister strike
• gouge
• back away (to regenerate energy)
• sinister strike
• kidney shot

Using the above routine the mob is stunned for almost all of the fight thus this really does limit the damage you receive.

This is really an overview of some of the basic principles involved in leveling a rogue. Whilst these principles serve as a foundation, a comprehensive WoW Leveling Guides is certainly a valuable edition for those putting the time into leveling a World of Warcraft character.

For leveling a Rogue in WoW you really can’t go past the Warcraft Rogue Guide from Killer Guides.

For a review of the best leveling guides in WoW (not necessarily focused on a Rogue character), check out our WoW Leveling Guides review page.