Rogue Guide  Rogue Spells  Rogue Races  Rogue Abilities  Rogue Leveling Guide  Rogue Items  Rogue Builds  Rogue Profession  Rogue PVP  Rogue PVE
Rogue Race Choices
Class Overview
The Rogue is a character defined by his lack of presence. By the time you see the Rogue it's usually too late. The Rogue specializes in very fast, very powerful attacks, though there is a variety of Rogue that prefers a more consistent pounding damage. While a Rogue may be somewhat fragile and easy to take down, the strength of a Rogue comes from its ability to choose its battles, and to start them at its leisure. The Rogue is a versatile fighter with many stuns, bleeds, high damaging and stealth openers in its array of skills. The best way to fight a Rogue is to find it before it kills you.

Playable Races
Alliance:
Humans:
Humans are a typical jack of all trades race, very well suited to most roles and tasks. As a Rogue the human typically can make good use of its racial abilities against other Rogues and in specific roles.

Racial abilities:
The human racial abilities that a Rogue makes specific use of are Perception and Sword specialization. Nothing is more valuable than to be able to see another Rogue before he sees you, as between Rogues that is often enough to decide the fight. Since most Rogues will offhand a sword weapon, Rogues benefit from the additional +5 to sword skill, which translates to better chance to hit with the weapon.

Night Elves:
The night elves, above all other races, are characterized by their agility and grace. To be a Rogue, one has to be stealthy and quiet, manipulative and cunning, all an outstanding quality of the average night elf.

Racial Abilities:
The two abilities that may stand out for a Rogue are Shadowmeld and Quickness. At first shadowmeld seems somewhat useless for a Rogue, but having a second stealth on a second cooldown may be enough to save you when a Horde gank squad comes around your grinding or farming area. Though having to remain stationary limits the usefulness of the ability it is just another type of precaution in the Rogues’ sneaky defense. Quickness adds 1% dodge, which is a primary form of damage mitigation for a Rogue. In other words, the Rogue’s armor being leather, better to not get hit at all than get hit for less.

Dwarves:
The Dwarves are a hardy race, and make use of their diminished size to remain hidden and perform their role. Though not very well suited to be Rogues, and their racial abilities do not lend themselves readily to the Rogue’s repertoire but can still add that pinch of flavor that a player needs to enjoy the game.

Racial Abilities:
The primary skill for a dwarf Rogue to be concerned with is Stoneform. The Stoneform effect will increase your armor by 5% as well as make you immune to bleed, disease and poison effects, which is very useful for a Rogue that needs to vanish and stay vanished. However, some would consider the reduction to 70% movement speed a hindrance to the Rogue with other places to be than in involuntary combat. The gun specialization for a Rogue is arguable, though from time to time having a decent ranged weapon is invaluable when someone is trying to run away from you, which with a Rogue does occasionally happen.

Gnomes:
The gnomes are one of the ideal Rogue races. Their considerably small size and stature lends themselves to staying hidden. You might stand right on top of one and miss it for lack of looking down. Another interesting mechanic of World of Warcraft that a gnome makes use of is the ability to squeeze through small areas, which as a Rogue that kind of mobility and freedom is invaluable.

Racial Abilities:
Escape Artist is likely the first ability to catch anyone’s eye. Since the Rogue relies on proximity to target snare breaking effects are invaluable, especially against a class such as the druid or mage. Being able to break a snare without using the vanish ability allows you to save it for when you really need it. Another ability that a Rogue can benefit greatly from is the racial +15 to engineering skill. Most players would do well to pick a crafting profession their first time through, but many engineering items can be a great supplement to Rogue abilities. Being able to net a running player, toss bombs on them, damage and debuff them in unorthodox ways allows engineering to lend itself to the Rogue play style.

Horde
Orcs:
The orc race is a race of politics, betrayals, assassination and brute strength. The orc Rogue is a brutal enemy, a foe who strikes without mercy at the weakest target to take it down.

Racial Abilities:
Hardiness stands out as being invaluable to the orc Rogue, as this passive ability will give them the upper hand in fights against other Rogues and sometimes hunters as well. Between Rogues, careful timing of stuns is often the difference between win and lose so being able to break up that timing is an incredible advantage. The other Rogue ability of use to an orc is Blood Fury. When you want to hit hard, you can activate Blood Fury for a 25% bonus to your attack power and get that extra damage you need. However, with blood fury it comes with a considerable price. For the duration of Blood Fury heals on the Rogue will be less effective, meaning he may not survive long enough to effectively use his ability. After the buff wears off, the Rogue is debuffed with -25% attack power for 15 seconds. An orc Rogue needs to be able to kill his target quickly to be effective with his abilities.

Undead:
The undead Rogue is merciless and cruel, and attacks without remorse. The forsaken are jaded to life and as such are quick to end it without pity. The undead is possibly the strongest Rogue race for the Horde, considering their racial abilities.

Racial Abilities:
The undead Rogue’s most useful ability is Will of the Forsaken. This ability grants immunity to, or breaks the effect of sleep, fear, and charm effects. This ability is almost overwhelmingly useful as many classes primary forms of defense are the ability to fear or charm the enemy. This ability is often used as a debuff breaker, but with proper timing and anticipation can be used to prevent the debuff from even taking place, however with a 5 minute duration for the effect it can be very difficult to use it that way. Another useful Rogue racial ability is the ability to cannibalize, or regenerate health by feeding off of corpses. In PVP combat you don’t know where your next heal is going to come from, so the ability to regenerate some health from the corpse of your latest victim may save you in your next encounter. It’s also useful to minimize downtime during grinding or farming periods.

Troll:
The trolls are an outcast race of Azeroth. Though they claim an affiliation with the horde based on honor, they take great pride in their own tradition of combat. With barely even a home to call their own they cling strongly to what is still theirs. The hilt of a dagger or sword is not unfamiliar to a troll and many will use them as Rogues, with great precision and deadly force.

Racial Abilities:
The showcase troll ability is berserking, a scaling increase in attack or casting speed dependant on the health of the user. Depending on your health level you can expect between a 10% and 30% increase in attack speed. Here’s where it gets tricky. A dagger Rogue that relies on single hit massive damage does not benefit very much from this ability, while a combat Rogue that prefers a flurry of attacks over pinpoint stabbing precision may appreciate the increased attack speed. Another racial trait to be aware of the +5% damage bonus to beasts. If the Rogue picks up a skinning profession this talent may have noticeable benefit to productivity and leveling. Finally, like the dwarf the usefulness of the +5 to bows skill is arguable, but may come in handy in a pinch.