As a new lvl 100 rogue. What spec should i start off with?

[Palmo]

I have no idea when to use each spec. I see rogues in the warcraft logs using different specs. Anyone able to describe what each spec is for and what the best is for someone who will be doing heroic 5mans and LFR?

Cheers

[Deleted]

For heroic 5mans and LFR I suggest combat. I use the combat specc in all dungeon runs, be it mythic, hc or timewalking dungeons, doesnt matter. AoE for trash is superb and the single-target on the bosses is okay. I dont bother switching speccs for boss fights unless we are pulling to fresh-100-chars from the guild through mythic dungeons or something like that.

You can say: Combat: AoE specc (great on the first "boss" in hfc and e.g. Iskar). Assassination is great on fights with two or three consistent adds (council could be an example). Sub is best for single target fights (2nd boss comes to my mind).

[Bullerick]

I use Assassination, I think it's immensely fun and the fantasy behind the class with poisons is just badass assassination like. My bigass sword sized daggers swing at 50 fucking miles per hour per minute per second, think of it like fisting but with daggers, you'd know. I like assassination because I like DoT specs. You develop combo points pretty quick but you don't need to waste that shit on slice n dice because the draenor perk makes it permanent.

[Deleted]

Dungeons and anything that has trash/multiple adds means that combat will be king. Sub/Assa simply don't have the AoE to compete with combat, if you pick either one in a dungeon(especially at early ilvl's) you will do close to 0 damage(except on ST bosses). Unfortunately, the same can be said about Combat single target damage, it is really weak compared to the other two. This is why most rogues dual spec Combat + Sub/Assa. The main difference between Sub/Assa is the level of complexity, Sub is considerably more difficult than any of the other two specs and has a lot of depth. Another big difference is how well the specs scale, Assa is a really good spec at lower item leves, but once you start getting HFC gear like Soul Capacitor, Legendary ring, Class trinket and Tier 18 bonus, Sub will start to scale ridiculously well(making it the highest single target damage spec in the game).

So my recommendation would be to definitely start out with Combat or Assa, learn one of them, then the other. If you still want more after that and are starting to actually raid, then I would definitely recommend picking up Sub. In current gear(700+, with ring/trinkets/set bonus) Sub is far superior to the other two specs on almost all fights in HFC. Furthermore, although this is my personal opinion, Sub is much, much more fun than the other specs(due to it's difficulty/complexity) so I would definitely try and play it before Legion ruins it.

[maddnesskhaz]

If I had to pick one single spec for someone to use, it would be Combat.

Very strong AE damage, and 'OK' single target at the 5man / LFR level where you're not up against highly geared people that min:max the crap out of their class.

Combat has a relatively simple rotation, is great for CMs due to the AE potential, and is fairly forgiving of mistakes.

Sub is pretty much the complete opposite, but that is also what makes it such a fun spec to play when you are geared and know the spec very well. Sub is also heavily reliant on gear to really deliver to performance you see from the Mythic level raiders.

Assn is somewhere in the middle; fairly forgiving rotation and is OK at single target through to 3ish target fights, but you don't have the AE ability of Combat on tap nor the headroom that Sub gains with gear.

tl:dr - if you can only pick one, go Combat.