Rogue Leveling

Good weapons are vital as a rogue. You must always upgrade your daggers, swords, or maces as you progress through the levels to keep your opponents on their toes.

Weapons.
Now I consider, (as do many other leveling monsters)
that the fastest spec for leveling a rogue is Dual Wielding Swords/Maces and speccing Combat.

So lets get to my list of good weapons throughout the levels and when to upgrade...also what gear to get that I may not have listed here.

ALLIANCE:
(I will start the alliance weapons guide at level 14).

These are not the ABSOLUTE OMG BEST weapons but rather, free/affordable and good to pickup while leveling.

Level 14: BLACKWATER CUTLASS (x2)
http://thottbot.com/i1951
Acquired: Deadmines, random mobs.

Level 19: CRUEL BARB (x2)
http://thottbot.com/i5191
Aqcuired: Deadmines, Boss: Van Cleef

Level 30: Jade Serpent Blade (x2)
http://thottbot.com/i3850
Acquired: Blacksmithing (still easy to come by...always on the Auction House on my server and a higher level guild-mate can easily craft these for you.)**

Level 38: Protector's Sword (x1)
Not Recommended for those who want to level quickly
BECAUSE it is a PvP reward, but it is a very, very nice Blue Sword.

Level 45: Jang'thraze the Protector (x1)
http://thottbot.com/i11086
Acquired: Zul'Farrak (Chief Ukorz Sandscalp)

Level 57: Telaari Longblade
http://thottbot.com/i25142
Acquired: Auction House, it is a random drop from mobs around the level.
*NOTE: This sword has insanely high attack levels and dps for its level that is why I recommend it and it also has random enchant, preferably pickup one of the monkey or bandit, but any enchant is fine.

The rest of your weapon upgrades should come from the Outlands' quests. The Outlands has Green gear/weapons that will outdo your old shabby equipment by leaps and bounds.

HORDE WEAPONS GUIDE:

This weapons guide is nearly identical to the Alliance one so I will only list the few that I would change;
this guide starts with the level 15 weapon:

Level 15 Sinister Scimtar
http://thottbot.com/i25142
Acquired: Vendor in Ghostlands

Level 18 Butcher's Slicer
http://thottbot.com/i6633
Shadowfang Keep (SFK)

Gearing your rogue.

For PvE you are mainly looking for DPS and the goal of your gear is Agility and Attack Power. Agility adds to your defense and offense.
1 Agility = 1 armor = 1 ATK POWER = X Dodge Percentage. The dodge percentage of 1 agility changes per level. Agility should be the focus of your gear.

Stamina is nice and you want to have a good amount of this too.
1 Stamina = 10 health
You want a big health pool so that you can kill more mobs without having to bandage/eat etc.

Names to look for when gearing your rogue are:

"Of the Monkey" +Stamina +Agility gear
or
"Of the Bandit" +Stamina +Agility +Attack Power Gear

If gear has intellect, no matter what it is, you probably shouldn't get it and there is something better.

The same basic restrictions apply for PvP gearing as do PvE gearing so this section is more for 70 Rogues trying to gear up for the arenas and get the right equipment to really lay waste to their opponent.

Gladiator, Merciless Gladiator, Vengeful Gladiator
versus
Tier 6 (Slayer's Armor)/Sunwell pieces etc. etc.

Resilience provides a new idea to the PvP world. Resilience makes opponents less effective against you and is perhaps one of your most valuable tools in PvP...But is Vengeful Gladiator worth that extra 200 resilience?

Tier 6 armor should beat Vengeful Gladiator. This is because the differences are mainly:

Vengeful Set
+200 resilience
+extra stamina
-600 attack power
-agility

T6
+600 attack power
+ X amount of agility
- X amount of stamina
-200 resilience

Tier 6 will deal more overall damage than Vengeful but S3 seemingly has more survivability. If you gem with +10 agility stones and +attack power stones Tier 6 will be better but perhaps that extra hit rating will be wasted.

You have to ask yourself if you want more survivability or more damage out-put.

New! -Version 1.1
Since fights vary so, so much resilience isn't always useful, but at other times it is the only thing that can save your skin.

Resilience is always, always your best option against non-spell casting PvP opponents. -Especially other rogues, 2h warriors or against Hunters. I would go for optimum damage against a ret pally because, honestly, their dps is a joke.
So for optimum pvp play and, hours of time to get t6 it is best to keep a hotkey on hand for switching between Resilience and damage gear.
-hopefully that provided some insight for those of your who can't make up your mind ;).

For more information read discussions on the official WoW Boards.

*S4 Section coming soon (when I get the full thing).

New update coming soon -specs are a bit out dated at the moment.

The best talent spec for rogues while leveling, and raiding.
This spec is for maintaining high DPS and survivability. To be honest, "Shadow-step" builds are horrible for leveling. Stick with a solid Combat/Assassination or Asssassination/Combat spec for leveling.

For wielding swords follow this spec:
Combat Swords

For wielding daggers follow this mutilating spec:

Mutilate Daggers

For optimal DPS in raid groups I would recommend going with the combat swords, or perhaps a slight alteration without Riposte.

New specs coming soon these are a little out dated at the moment.

These builds aren't for leveling your rogue but for facing the hardships that you often will on a Player vs Player server.

The optimal PvP Talent trees go into Sub for the extra mobility provided by ShS (Shadow-step).
An example of such is:
Shadowstep Build (Swords, Fists, Maces)

Sometimes people opt to spend 2 extra talent points in Master of Subtlety rather than in Assassination.

Here is a dagger build:
Shadowstep Build (Daggers)

*People also often put 2 extra points in Master of Subtlety in this build also.

Mutilate Builds are less commonly used due to lack of mobility with the loss of ShS. Although Mutilate is a higher DPS build it is much harder to use.

A good PvP Mutilate build is:
PvP Mutilate

This section is written based on a view that does not take into account Mutilate specs.

Everyone likes daggers. Seeing the high crits off of ambush just sends a warm feeling through every rogues heart...but are you missing out on the ever famous, Stun-locking Sword side of the rogue?

For a long time I thought daggers were better for rogues. Then for a long time I found that swords were better for rogues.
Neither is true.

When it comes to DPS swords almost always win versus Daggers. Why? Not because Swords are superior but because you have to gear entirely different to wield daggers.

Most rogues don't understand that they would have to get a new set of S3, or S4 perhaps and re-gem to get the most out of their ambushes. To be an Ambush/Back-stab rogue you HAVE to gem and enchant offensively. To measure this difference easier(Before Shadowstep) I will use my level 19 twink rogue as an example. He used to use Swords with Nethercleft, and I used to focus on maxing his agility. Recently I came by an Assassin's Blade (best 19 twink dagger) and I changed all this. Un-buffed my twink has 349 attack power. He also has Nethercobra now as well as a mere 650 or so health. Un-buffed, he can critically hit a 764 (record) on a cloth/leather player. fully buffed, (Berserker) (Flag Carrier Weakened) etc. He hit a 1891 on a flag carrier.

To sum up what I am trying to say, or the point I am trying to make, is that Dagger rogues have to sacrifice health to give their ambushes bigger hits. Overall they will out DPS swords if their gear is top notch. If all you are using is greens, then I would go with a green sword versus a green dagger any day. But if you are getting the top of the top gear and perfecting your rogue to the max damage... (and getting a S4 Dagger) then your damage will be better than the swords.

Swords are often easier to get because you don't worry about maximizing damage, your Main Hand already has high end damage and you just stack on the stamina.

Weigh it out and see which you like better.

Neither out does the other.

~All rogues are created equal~
~But some *COUGH, TWINKS, COUGH* are created more equal than others~

Alright, so you have read my leveling guide, know how to gear your rogue and how to spec, now what to do? Here are a couple of guides that helped me get started.

I personally have bought all the guides I list here and find them not only helpful but essential your first time around WoW. If you are an experienced veteran player you too may be surprised at how these guides help your leveling experience. The first time I went to 70 my play time was 13 days. On my second 70 (PaladIn) I did it in 8 days following Joana's Horde Guide

My 3rd time to 70 I leveled an alliance, Draenei hunter, I had never leveled an alliance character before but I found Brian Kopp's Alliance Guide to be extremely helpful.

Now those guides are very nice, and I still recommend them, but... Team iDemise wrote the best guide of them all in my opinion. I leveled my fourth character in just 6 days 23 hours play time! I recommended this guide to my friend and he had never gotten to 70 before but was able to get a horde rogue to 70 in just 8 days his first time around!

Of all the guides I could recommend for leveling, and all the guides I have tested, I definitely would go with
Team iDemise's Leveling Guide
its in-game mapping system tells you exactly where to go, what to do and cuts so much wasted time off of your leveling venture. It shows you exactly what to do, because it was all routed, they actually put an arrow on your head and point out what you need to do. Simple, and efficient. If you are going to spend money on a guide, buy team iDemise's.

If you read my guide, post back in the guest book how it has helped you and what level your rogue is! If you have any questions or comments or simply want advice email me at disarm4@hotmail.com

More is constantly being added to my guide, so stay in touch!