Leveling a Rogue 85-90. Am I doing something wrong?

[Rhy]

Hey all. It's my first time leveling a Rogue, so I'm still trying to understand the inner workings of the class, so bear with me.

I've been leveling as Combat, and it just feels like I'm doing something wrong. For one, it seems like it takes much longer for me to kill mobs than usual, because I open up from stealth with an Ambush, and apply Revealing Strike and Slice and Dice, and just Sinister Strike spam till around 4-5CP where I finish off with an Eviscerate, but it just seems like it trakes FOREVER due to the fact that it takes a while for my energy to pop up to 50 so I can SS again.

Is there anything different I can do? Or would another spec like Assassination or Sub be better off for leveling?

Again, I'm new to Rogues, and i'm slowly learning, so if there's anything I can improve upon, please fill me in. I'm really interested in this class, and I want to put a lot of time into it.

TL;DR: I'm following the rotation I see via guides, but I end up energy starved/waiting quite a bit for SS so I can build CP, which results in feeling like I'm playing at a snail's pace.

Thanks in advance.

[Statix]

Don't level as Combat, it's horrible. You don't have the haste required to be effective at it. Even with 515 gear level, it takes ages to kill mobs as Combat. Assassination was the way to go for me. Rupture also gives you Energy back based on how much time the DoT has left when the mob dies. There's a glyph (forgot it's name), but it refreshes the duration on your Recuperate and Slice and Dice whenever you deal a killing blow to a mob that grants Experience or Honor.

Also, Dispatch is awesome for leveling, because it hits as hard as Ambush but costs less.

Make use of the talent Cloak and Dagger (allows you to 'teleport' to any target within 30 yards with a few abilities). It greatly speeds up leveling.

What tier 1 talent do you use? You should use the one that lowers Energy cost while in Stealth.

Opener depends, Mutilate does grant you a chance at an extra Combo Point, having Cloak and Dagger means you have to use Ambush:

Stealth > Ambush/Mutilate > Rupture > Mutilate > Envenom > (if mobs health allows)Dispatch/Mutilate > Dispatch (repeat and spend Combo Points on Rupture instead of another Envenom to get Energy back) > Rupture. If you do it right, you'll end up with (near) full Energy after each kill.

[Lixo]

What's your gear like? There really isnt' anything more to the rotation...

I had no problems as Assassination though so maybe you should give it a go.

[Rhy]

Yeah, the glyph is Glyph of Deadly Momentum. Works wonders when you have a bunch of kill quests and you can kill in fast enough succession to keep your recup/SnD up. But I'll try Assassination out. That's daggers only I'm assuming, so I would have to grab some daggers from a vendor (Since I was using non-daggers for Combat).

- - - Updated - - -

What's your gear like? There really isnt' anything more to the rotation...

I had no problems as Assassination though so maybe you should give it a go.

I just hit 86, so my gear is a mix of Jade Forest stuff, and some Valley quest gear. Still using 2 trinkets from Cata (Gear Detector/Grace of the Herald).

[xixixviixiiii]

The advice Statix posted is really solid. The glyph is called Glyph of Deadly Momentum. Grab that and spec Assassination. Venomous Wounds from Rupture will refund a portion of your Energy depending on how long the Rupture duration had left remaining when the enemy dies, so it can be really good for chain pulling and killing.

Combat simply isn't the go-to leveling spec anymore. It's certainly doable of course, and Adrenaline Rush can feel awesome but the Blade Flurry change and broken haste scaling make it kind of mediocre for leveling.

[Coldkil]

Also sub is worth trying. Both Assa and SUb have no cleave - Sub has a very good burst opening from stealth so it can be a viable option too.

I leveled as Assa at MoP release, pretty solid and had no issues apart later levels and mobs were hitting me pretty hard.

[kommodus]

Absolutely go assa for leveling, mutilation is a real killer, and any finishing envenom will get slice and dice to the max duration, even if you only have a one combo point one up. That and the aforementioned glyphs and talents will send you on murderous killing sprees that will have you wishing for "go and kill 1000 guys" quests

[Terahertz]

Lvling as rogue is pure dogshit. I had the ilvl 450 BoA dagger as sub and it still took a decent amount of time and effort to simply kill 1 mob. The cleave was also really really bad.

Until you get Mark for Death at level 90, killing mobs will take relatively long, especially 85-90.

[PunisherV20]

I agree with Statix. Only thing is that you could possibly feel a bit energy starved with Mutilate as well, so you'll spend some time auto attacking. Personally, I like playing Sub, and it's a much better spec than it used to be. Get the deadly Momentum glyph to refresh SnD and Recoup, then you can either open with Ambush then 5cp to Evis, using Hemo as your main attack. Or you can open with Cheap Shot to 5cp Kidney Shot then use Backstab as your main attack and again use Evis to finish them off.

[Deleted]

Assassination is the way to go buddy ^.^,Combat is extremely gear dependent (And if you ask me, the most boring spec of the 3) - But if you really wanna level as Combat make sure your blades of flurry buff is deactivated as it lowers your energy regen.

[Rhy]

Thanks for the advice guys. Gonna respec and dual spec into Assassination/Sub so I can play around with both. My only other question really, is what weapon combo do Sub Rogues use? AFAIK, Assassination is Double Dagger. Is Sub Double Dagger, or Can it be a mix of a Fast/Slow like Combat can be?

[PunisherV20]

You'll want double daggers for both Assassination and Sub, and AFAIK you want fast to get your poison stacks on target faster. Also when you play Assassination, Envenom refreshes your slice and dice, i forgot to mention that before.

[jtstormrage]

From 85-87, Assassination is fine. After that, I would go Sub, and destroy adds one at a time from stealth. At that level, you can't pull more than one mob anyway, and Sub is burstier and has better energy regen to kill one at a time quickly.

I would open with Garrote and then Hemo spam. Take Shadow Focus and not Subterfuge - it will feel like you have a lot more energy.

[Deleted]

I leveled as sub with Glyph of Deadly Momentum and it was fast and painless. I took Subterfuge as my tier 1 talent to get a Cheap Shot off, Garote up, and Ambush to kill most things with an Eviscerate after getting 5 combo points with that (and getting SnD and Recuperate up on the first mob you kill of course). I just hoarded mastery gear while leveling. I even took the time to reforge some gear to mastery as I leveled because it makes your SnD and Eviscerate really powerfull.

Assassination works really good as well. You want to use double daggers for both specs.

[Rhy]

Again, thanks for the advice everyone. Completely dropped Combat, Spec'd into Assassination (With Sub as my dual for testing later) and decided to go out into the Valley and kill some mobs, and a rare spawn.

Completely tore everything apart like a hot knife through butter. Mobs died waaay faster, and even though I had to wait a little bit for Mutilates, the Blindside procs really kept a nice flow going in the rotation, instead of just sitting there waiting for energy. And I seriously can't get enough of the fact that Envenom puts your SnD at a 5 point combo duration, and with Deadly Momentum, it's pretty hard for it to fall off.

And it seems from time to time now I have a good amount of CP on a corpse, which I can use to start my Recup chain, or Redirect for a new mob.

Thanks for all your help guys.

[shadowboy]

If you feel energy starved as combat, be prepared to feel that way as assassination, as well.

[Mormolyce]

Combat used to be okay for leveling, yeah its slow with low haste but blade flurry made up for that if you pulled more than one at a time. With the nerf it's probably less effective (you'd have to pull 3+ and might have trouble surviving).

Assass feels better for leveling (subjective ofc) but in general Rogues are not super fast levelers due to the emphasis on single target and our CDs.

Yeah, the glyph is Glyph of Deadly Momentum. Works wonders when you have a bunch of kill quests and you can kill in fast enough succession to keep your recup/SnD up. But I'll try Assassination out. That's daggers only I'm assuming, so I would have to grab some daggers from a vendor (Since I was using non-daggers for Combat).

Yeah these are the NPCs you're after:

http://www.wowhead.com/search?q=Adventuring+Supplies

Pretty sure they sell weapons.

[Warstar]

Combat leveling took a huge hit with the 50 energy SS imo. Combat just doesn't have the energy regen til end game gear to get the feel right.

Assassination is pretty awesome like other's have said with deadly momentum. Venomous wounds also makes it not feel as energy starved like combat does since you get a constant stream of energy coming in during the fight and then a little burst of energy usually refilling your energy bar once the mob dies giving you unending killing potential.

Sub has a strong disadvantage with positional requirements. Backstab is pretty much unusable and hemo is the weakest rogue combat builder by far. Also, sub's main cooldown Shadow Dance gets you stuck once again with a positional requirement because of ambush so if you ever run up against a mob that is unstunable (most are but some end quest mobs aren't) then that CD is 100% useless.

But, rogue leveling sucks. Hardest class out there to do. 0 aoe potential since if you try to aoe as a rogue you die once evasion wears off. Very weak healing and you're just squishy as hell and seem to take more damage than anyone else. Well, mages are probably a bit more squishy but they can just level as frost so nothing ever touches them anyways where as a rogue has to be up front and personal.

That being said. Rogues are still the best class out there and are super fun and amazingly awesome (/biased)but it's totally worth the effort so keep to it and get to 90!

[Demeia]

Eighty-eight through ninety were really awful as a rogue. Ninety through one-hundred should be much better with MfD and for those of us with a Garrosh weapon. I think MfD will make the whole grind so much more pleasant.