Rogue gameplay is difficult to describe to someone who has never rolled a Rogue. It’s not difficult because of the complexity but rather playing the class is so fun that it can be difficult to find a starting point.
The Rogue class is very diverse and can be very good at both PvE and PvP depending on the player. They are not by any means simply another DPS class and their stealth can make them a great addition to both raiding and battlegrounds.
While Rogues used to be pretty well known for causing chaos and mass death in battlegrounds, Blizzard has worked towards balancing the classes out a bit. Still, you only need a good strategy and you can recapture the (little) glory lost.
A lot of players seem to choose Rogues because they hear the class is easy to level, but it takes a skilled player to play correctly. There is a huge difference between experienced players and players who chose rogues for speed leveling in the arena.
Picking a Profession
While you are still leveling, it is generally better to skip crafting professions altogether as they take a lot of time and money to perfect. If you need some extra gold, the best professions are definitely mining, skinning, and herbalism.
For a Rogue, the most useful crafting professions will be Engineering, Alchemy, and Leatherworking if you have the gold and time.
Leveling a Rogue
At least in my own experience, Rogues are one of the most interesting and fun classes to level. They are amazingly fun on PvP servers as you have a strategic advantage over most other classes (unless your whole server is Rogues, which I have seen happen).
Energy management is one of the difficult parts of playing a Rogue. Without energy, you won’t get a chance to use your specials during combat which will make you a very slow and useless Rogue.
Rogues are also infamously known throughout the PVP world as a superior ganking class. They posess both the ability to escape from ganking situations with limited damage and are also highly adept at revenge ganking as well.
Assassination Rogue Leveling
For players that want to PvP and raid, this is the best spec choice available. For all of you sword hoarders, you’ll have to hang the swords up and pull out the daggers for this spec.
While Assassination is slightly slower than other leveling specs, it is also much more fun and less standard button mashing. If you want to watch the television while leveling, this may not be the leveling spec for you as it requires much more attention.
A good Assassination Rogue depends on the setup of a battle and poisons are their best friend. If you set up a battle well, it should be a very short affair.
The goal of this build is to kill most mobs before they are able to break away from stun and have the chance to hit you. At latter levels, you will be able to end the battle before stealth has even finished its cooldown.
