• Executioner (Assassination Rogue):

An absolutely deadly build with the right player, and the right gear, this rogue is all about burst damage. Although the recent change to instant attacks have somewhat reduced the effectiveness of this build (when 75%+ of rogues go for the same weapons [cough]shanker[cough] you knew there was going to be a nerf), it is still an extremely effective setup with the right gear (see the dagger guide above). Some rogues opt to move points around in the assassination tree from the different poison talents, while other opt to take up improved slice-and-dice or improved expose armor.

• Myrmidon (Combat Rogue):

If grinding mobs, questing/leveling, and/or ranking high on the DPS meter is what matters to your rogue, you'll want to go down the combat tree. Your weapon type will determine your specialization talent, but almost all combat rogues I know of go swords (maces stuns were nice until they added diminishing returns and fist weapons might be nice if there were more choices) or daggers. An example of a dagger combat build can be seen here.

• Shadow Walker (Subtlety Rogue):

This dagger-oriented rogue excels in its versatility, but relies pretty heavily on cooldowns. While not as much up front damage as the assassinations build, this rogue has many more option to bring to a fight. A subtlety rogue can pump out good end-game damage, is a great stunlock PvP build, and is a fantastic group player in any 5-10 man instance. One very interesting alternative is focused around using hemorrhage since, unlike the new 1.8 sinister strike, it is not effected by the change to instant attacks. Combo point generation is wickedly fast and I personally find this talent build to be my personal favorite build as seen here.

This loot list is dedicated for helping you gear up your rogue as best as possible. This list includes all loot up to, but not including, patch 1.6 items(1.7 coming soon, 1.8 later) end-game content (Molten Core, Onxyia, ect...). The list is split into the following parts:

• Instance Loot & Notable Instance Quest Rewards
• Rogue Quests
• BoE World Drop Loot
• Crafted Loot
• The Shadowcraft Set Compilation
• Sample Dagger PvP Build
• Sample Sword PvE DPS Build
• Fire Resist Gear
• NEW: Rogue Talent Guide

Some abbreviations used:

• BoE: Bind on Equip
• BoP: Bind on Pickup
• 1h: One-Hand (Can be used in either main or Off-Hand)
• MH: Main-Hand Only
• OH: Off-Hand Only
• 2h: Two-Hands
• (B): Boss NPC - Level Hidden

Rogues are a class that starts strong, plays strong, but since 1.8 has had increasing end-game issues. End-game AoE, the 1.8 change to instant attacks, and the static DPS of finishing moves have turned a once (IMHO) overpowered class to a mid-range PvE class. Many rogues feel that they are no longer the primary melee damage dealers they once were, directly comparing themselves to end-game warriors. Rogues will be getting a review and hopefully will be able to re solidify their role, especially in end-game. All in all though, when it comes to PvP, grinding, and leveling/questing, the rogue reigns supreme.

Since there is a wide variety of rogue play styles and builds there is a lot of gear to choose from. Armor choices between builds basically come down to Agility vs. Crit. vs. Stamina. However, weapon selection is vastly different between combat, ambush, and stunlock rogues to name just a few builds. You will see two sample builds in this guide, the cookie-cutter 31/8/12 ambush/backstab spec and a sword combat build. Patch 1.8 has somewhat changed what rogues used to look for in weapons due to the new instant attacks calculations. A slow, high damage main hand and fast off-hand are still, for the most part, the top choice for min/maxers but fast main-hand weapons are definitely no longer an option that you should completely dismiss.

Please note: This list is by no means a "rogue's have exclusive rights to this" equip list. Please be considerate of your group members and respect loot rules. Most of the higher-end items are useful to multiple classes and there may be items listed here that, although useful on a rogue, are possibly more effective in another classes hands.

Here is the typical ambush/backstab build used frequently in PvP. It also deals a respectable amount of damage in PvE. What this build looks for is a slow main-hand dagger and a fast off-hand dagger for posion procs. Armor with critical and stamina are most preferable in this build.

The sword combat rogue is more of a max DPS PvE build and, like the dagger ambush PvP rogue, we're looking for a slow high damage main-hand sword with a fast off-hand blade. However, the combat rogue gears for large sustainable damage through the course of the battle and wants to max their agility/attack power. Most likely this rogue will be at the top of DPS meters.

Although some people debate the need for globs of fire resists for Molten Core/Onxyia, it seems foolish to not try to at least get some fire resist especially since you're not going to be on the top of any healers priority list being a rogue. There are modifiers to any type of uncommon (green) items that can give you fire resists, but you should try to shoot for leather that has more then just +FR on it.