Updated for 4.3
Note: Some aspects of this guide may not apply to your Rogue until higher level. If you need to get your character to max level quickly, take a look at this leveling guide, now.
Glyphs come in three varieties, Prime, Major and Minor. Prime glyphs enhance core aspects of your class and generally provide the greatest benefit of the three types.
Major Glyphs, while not quite as powerful as Prime Glyphs, are still useful and continue to provide a myriad of benefits.
Minor Glyphs often times provide small quality of life improvements or visual changes, such as the Glyph of Shadow Form for priests which makes the character more visible through Shadow Form. However, a few are known to provide more significant benefits such as the warrior glyph of Berserker Rage.
Prime Glyphs:
Major Glyphs:
Here are your highest priority abilities.
At all times throughout a fight you’ll want to both keep Slice and Dice active on yourself and continue to re-apply rupture to your target with 4 or 5 combo points. Mutilate is your primary attack ability until the target reaches 35% health or lower, at which point you’ll begin using Backstab instead because of Murderous Intent.
AoE Rotation
Fan of Knives will apply your poisons to all targets, making it your primary source of AoE damage in a multi-target encounter.
Cooldowns
Vanish can be used to boost energy regeneration due to Overkill.
The most important aspect of managing your cooldowns as a damage dealer is making certain to use them whenever they’re avaliable. Don’t be afraid to use them during any fight, even against trash mobs, as the higher the uptime you have with them, the greater your overall damage will be so long as you aren’t using them when a fight is about to end.
The only time to hold off on using your cooldowns is when you’ll be unable to attack the boss due to fight mechanics, such as during Morchok’s Black Blood of the Earth ability or when Hagara is about to cast Water Shield and become immune to all damage.
Melee DPS will have to watch out for this more than ranged, as they are far more vulnerable to situations where an encounter requires constant movement or the boss is utilizing some form of AoE attack that makes fighting in melee range impossible.
Agility > 8% Melee Hit > 17% Spell Hit > Mastery > Haste > Expertise
Agility:
Agility increases attack power and critical chance. This is your primary damage increasing stat.
(8%) Melee Hit:
Hit rating reduces you chance to miss with attacks. A hit rating of 8% makes it so that your special abilities will no longer miss on bosses, thereby avoiding loss of DPS.
(17%) Spell Hit:
Spell Hit reduces the chance for your poisons to miss on a boss.
Mastery – Potent Poisons:
For an Assassination Rogue, Mastery increases the damage dealt by poisons.
Haste:
Haste increases attack speed and energy regeneration.
Expertise:
Expertise reduces the chance for an enemy to dodge or parry your attacks.
Reforging
When reforging gear, it’s important that you look to reforge from your least effective stat into the most effective for whatever gear goal you are currently aiming for. See our stat priority list for more information.
8% Melee Hit > 17% Spell Hit > Mastery
Your reforging priorities are to reach first the 8% melee hit cap, followed by achieving a spell hit of 17%. Once you’ve reached both these goals begin reforging the weakest stat on your gear into mastery.
Gems
- Yellow – Adept Ember Topaz – Deft Ember Topaz
- Blue – Glinting Demonseye
- Red – Delicate Inferno Ruby
- Meta – Agile Shadowspirit Diamond
Unless a socket bonus offers agility, it’s more effective to gem for pure agility and ignore the bonus.
Enchantments
- Helm: Arcanum of Ramkahen
- Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal
- Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Major Agility – Enchant Cloak – Greater Critical Strike
- Chest: Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
- Bracers: Enchant Bracer – Agility
- Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery
- Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
- Leggings: Dragonscale Leg Armor
- Boots: Enchant Boots – Major Agility
- Main Hand: Enchant Weapon – Landslide
- Off-Hand: Enchant Weapon – Landslide
Our class guides for whichever class you’re playing:
Death Knights – Druid – Hunter – Mage – Paladin
Priest – Rogue – Shaman – Warlock – Warrior
The GotWarcraft Gold Guide
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