Content:

Key Takeaways

Short on time? The points below sum up how Combat plays in WoW Forever. Every build, table and macro is covered in full in the sections after this list.

  • Playstyle: two weapons, steady auto-attacks, Sinister Strike and Slice and Dice carry the spec, and Blade Flurry gives it the only cleave in the Rogue class.
  • Burst: for 25 Energy on a 2 min cooldown, Blade Flurry grants 20% attack speed and copies each attack onto a second enemy for 15 sec. The level 60 build adds Adrenaline Rush, a 30-point talent with 100% Energy regeneration for 15 sec.
  • Weapons: Hack and Slash takes the place of the old weapon specializations (extra attacks on swords and axes, crit on daggers and fists, armor ignored on maces), and axes are now open to Rogues, starting at weapon skill 1.
  • Stats: look for a slow main-hand sword or axe first; Agility comes next, and Hit ranks above crit.
  • Immunities: your damage comes from weapons rather than poisons or bleeds, so bosses immune to those effects hurt Combat less than the other Rogue specs.
  • Best level 30 weapon: the top main-hand sword at the cap is the reward from The Eye of Bhossca, a Rogue class quest.

Note: Characters top out at level 30 before launch, so the level 30 advice here follows the latest build. The level 60 talents and gear come from the complete Patch 1.60.1 data and may still change.

Best Combat Rogue Builds

At level 30 everything revolves around Blade Flurry, and at level 60 around Adrenaline Rush. The level 20 build has 11 points, which is what you get without the Legacy perk Talented. For level 30, the build counts 26 points and assumes Talented at 5/5; without the perk you have 21 points at that level.

Level 20 Combat Rogue Build

Eleven points buy you a cheaper Sinister Strike, a stronger Eviscerate, Hit and a bit of crit.

Talent Ranks Reason
Improved Sinister Strike 2/2 5 Energy off every Sinister Strike
Improved Eviscerate 3/3 +20% Eviscerate damage
Precision 3/3 +3% Hit
Malice 3/5 Crit, taken from the Assassination tree

Your core is Improved Sinister Strike, Improved Eviscerate and Precision. Solo leveling favors 2 points in Remorseless Attacks plus 1 in Malice, while group play favors Malice 3/5, which is the version shown in the table. Owners of Talented can keep going down the Combat tree toward Dual Wield Specialization with the extra points.

Level 30 Combat Rogue Build

Here all 26 points stay in Combat, and the gear list later in this guide is built around this exact choice.

Combat Talents Ranks
Improved Eviscerate 3/3
Improved Sinister Strike 2/2
Deflection 3/3
Precision 3/3
Endurance 2/2
Riposte 1/1
Improved Sprint 1/2
Flawless Execution 1/1
Dual Wield Specialization 5/5
Blade Flurry 1/1
Hack and Slash 4/5

Two other 26-point versions keep the same overall shape:

Without Talented, the 21-point build ends at Blade Flurry and never gets Hack and Slash. The other option for those 21 points pulls Relentless Strikes, Malice, Improved Slice and Dice and Ruthlessness out of Assassination.

Combat Rogue Endgame Build

The level 60 spread is 18/32/0: it goes deep enough for Adrenaline Rush and borrows Lethality and Cold Blood from Assassination. Each talent and its rank is listed below, grouped by tree.

Talent Tree Ranks
Malice Assassination 5/5
Ruthlessness Assassination 3/3
Improved Slice and Dice Assassination 3/3
Relentless Strikes Assassination 1/1
Lethality Assassination 5/5
Cold Blood Assassination 1/1
Improved Eviscerate Combat 3/3
Improved Sinister Strike Combat 2/2
Lightning Reflexes Combat 3/5
Precision Combat 3/3
Endurance Combat 2/2
Improved Sprint Combat 2/2
Dual Wield Specialization Combat 5/5
Blade Flurry Combat 1/1
Hack and Slash Combat 5/5
Weapon Expertise Combat 2/2
Aggression Combat 3/3
Adrenaline Rush Combat 1/1

A few of these picks deserve a closer look. Lethality raises the crit damage of Sinister Strike and your other builders by 20%, while Ruthlessness gives each finisher a 60% chance to put a Combo Point on the target. Weapon Expertise trims 2% off the chance that your attacks get dodged or parried.

Which one should you run? Use the level 20 build early on, switch to the sword or dagger take on the level 30 build at the cap, and move to 18/32/0 once the level 60 tree opens. Keep in mind that the level 20 build borrows Malice from Assassination while the level 30 build is pure Combat, so expect to move a few points between those two stages.

The dagger version is the more specialized option. You need a dagger and a spot behind the target, and in exchange Backstab gains the bonus Combo Point chance from Puncturing Wounds. The sword version is simpler to play, works from any angle and keeps Hack and Slash at 5/5.

Combat Rogue Rotation

Three jobs make up the rotation: Sinister Strike for Combo Points, Slice and Dice for attack speed, and Eviscerate or Rupture to cash the points in. Every pack and every boss gets a Blade Flurry. On the dagger build, Backstab takes over the builder role from Sinister Strike, which means you need a dagger and have to stand behind the target.

Single-Target Rotation

Use this priority list at level 30:

  1. Sinister Strike builds your points; with a dagger, use Backstab instead.
  2. Never let Slice and Dice drop, and renew it just before it ends.
  3. On a boss, press Blade Flurry while your Energy is high.
  4. If your group’s damage is mostly physical and the boss lives long enough, put Expose Armor on it.
  5. Pour leftover Combo Points into Eviscerate for low-armor targets or Rupture for high-armor targets.

Once you are level 60, stack Adrenaline Rush, Blade Flurry and your racial for a longer burst window.

AoE Rotation

Multi-target play hinges on Blade Flurry. Go through these steps on each pull:

  1. Pull with plenty of Energy, so neither Blade Flurry nor your first finishers have to wait.
  2. Hit Blade Flurry the moment two or more enemies are grouped up.
  3. Keep Slice and Dice active, because each swing now lands on two targets.
  4. Aim your finishers at whichever target will survive the longest.

Energy Management

Smooth regeneration and partial refunds on misses take some pressure off your Energy. Improved Sinister Strike and Flawless Execution reduce the two costs you pay most often, and Thistle Tea gives back 100 Energy when you need it for a burst window.

Tip: If your current target is nearly dead and another mob still has plenty of health, dump the spare Combo Points into Slice and Dice. The buff will already be up when you turn to the next mob.

Everything you press costs Energy, so the cleanest rotations are the ones that never run dry. Before a pull, make sure you have enough for Blade Flurry plus a finisher, and if you do not, wait a second instead of starting the fight on an empty bar.

Combat Rogue Stat Priority

First comes a slow sword or axe for the main hand, next Agility, and after that Hit before crit. The gear section that follows sticks to the same order.

  1. Slow main-hand weapon: its weapon damage feeds both Sinister Strike and Riposte.
  2. Agility: you get Attack Power and crit chance from a single stat.
  3. Hit: two weapons miss a lot, so you need Hit, and Precision already covers 3%.
  4. Crit: it gets better at level 60, where Lethality adds 20% crit damage.
  5. Attack Power and Strength: extra damage on every single swing.

The logic is easy to remember. The weapon powers your two best attacks, Agility counts twice, and Hit makes sure both blades actually connect.

When you compare two items, go down the list above in order: the main-hand weapon first, then Agility, then Hit, then crit, and only after that raw Attack Power and Strength.

Best Combat Rogue Gear

Below is the best gear at the level 30 cap for the Combat build covered earlier. It also works as the default Rogue PvE gear list.

Slot Combat Rogue BiS Source
Head Infiltrator Cap of Power World drop
Neck Ghostshard Talisman Azshir the Sleepless, Scarlet Monastery Graveyard
Shoulder Forest Tracker Epaulets World drop
Back Twilight Cape of Power World drop
Chest Infiltrator Armor of Power / Brawler’s Leather Tunic World drop / Leatherworking (110)
Wrist Unearthed Bands of Power / Hawkeye’s Bracers Uldaman trash / world drop
Hands Tiger Hunter Gloves / Alterac Assassin’s Gloves (Alliance) Tiger Mastery quest / Crushridge Warmongers, an Alliance quest that is hard at level 30
Waist Skulker’s Leather Belt Leatherworking (150), only for the crafter
Legs Triprunner Dungarees Quests Rig Wars / The Grand Betrayal
Feet Ghostwalker Boots of Power / Shapeshifting Sentinel’s Strides (Horde) World drop / Horde source
Finger Wyvern Heart Band / Swamp Ring Heartrazor in Thousand Needles, 0.63% drop / Jarl Needs a Blade quest, which requires a Moonsteel Broadsword
Trinket Cursed Murloc Eye / Minor Recombobulator Gelihast in Blackfathom Deeps / Engineering (140)
Main Hand Ruby-Adorned Blade Rogue quest The Eye of Bhossca
Off Hand Bloody Brass Knuckles Interrogator Vishas, Scarlet Monastery Graveyard
Ranged Gravespike Repeater / Glass Shooter City of Dalaran / Gnomeregan

Scarlet Monastery supplies several of these pieces, and the City of Dalaran is where the Gravespike Repeater drops. If you want help filling that ranged slot, our City of Dalaran runs take you through Forever’s new dungeon.

Level 60 Raid Set

At level 60, the raid set for Combat is Grimstitch Armor, made of six leather pieces:

Each piece needs level 60 and sits at item level 65. The set bonuses work like this:

  • 2 pieces: +1% Hit.
  • 3 pieces: the cooldown of Kidney Shot is 3 sec shorter.
  • 4 pieces: +36 Attack Power against Humanoids.
  • 5 pieces: Eviscerate costs 5 Energy less. The bonus text also refers to Envenom, an ability the Forever spellbook did not contain when this data was gathered, so treat that part of the bonus as unclear.

Best Combat Rogue Weapons

For level 30, pair a slow main hand with a fast off hand. Your best choices:

  • Ruby-Adorned Blade: Rogue-only sword with 2.30 speed and 23.91 DPS, plus +3 Agility and +8 Stamina.
  • Pronged Reaver: axe with 2.40 speed that Charlga Razorflank drops in Razorfen Kraul; axes are a new option for Rogues.
  • Outlaw Sabre: sword with 2.70 speed and +16 Attack Power, the reward of the Horde quest Baron Aquanis.
  • Bloody Brass Knuckles: off-hand fist weapon with 1.60 speed and +12 Attack Power.

Hack and Slash keeps your options open: swords and axes earn extra attacks, fists earn crit and maces ignore armor.

You do not need the full list on day one. Plenty of entries are world drops and a few are crafted, so fill whatever slots you can reach first, weapons above all, and upgrade the rest over time. Weapons deserve the most effort because your attacks and your Combat talents both depend on them.

Combat Rogue Abilities

If you have played any Rogue spec, you already know most of this kit, since Combat shares nearly all of it with the other two. It splits into four groups: damage, cooldowns, defensive tools and crowd control.

Damage Abilities

These are your main damage sources, and Slice and Dice keeps your swing speed up throughout the fight.

Ability Cost and Cooldown Role
Sinister Strike 45 Energy, or 40 with Improved Sinister Strike Main builder for swords, axes, maces and fists
Backstab 60 Energy; needs a dagger and a position behind Builder in the dagger version
Slice and Dice 25 Energy Your key buff: 20% attack speed
Eviscerate 35 Energy, or 25 with Flawless Execution Finisher against low-armor targets
Rupture 25 Energy Bleed finisher against high-armor targets
Riposte Usable after a parry Hits for 150% weapon damage, then disarms for 6 sec

Combo Points come from Sinister Strike or Backstab and go into Slice and Dice, Eviscerate or Rupture. Together these six buttons form the core of your damage rotation.

Cooldowns

Burst comes from your cooldowns. These are the ones that matter most:

  • Blade Flurry: costs 25 Energy and has a 2 min cooldown; for 15 sec you get 20% attack speed and your attacks hit one extra target.
  • Adrenaline Rush: your Energy regeneration is doubled for 15 sec, on a 5 min cooldown.
  • Cold Blood (endgame build): your next Sinister Strike or Eviscerate is a guaranteed crit; 3 min cooldown.

If you are unsure, just use Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush whenever they are ready. Both raise your burst, and they are strongest when pressed together.

Defensive Abilities

Talents make your defensive tools better, which is part of why Combat holds up well in melee. The main ones:

  • Evasion: 15 sec of +50% Dodge; Endurance cuts its 5 min cooldown by 60%.
  • Sprint: 15 sec of +50% speed; with Improved Sprint it also clears slows when you press it.
  • Vanish: takes you out of combat and into Stealth for 10 sec.
  • Feint: reduces your threat, with a 10 sec cooldown.

Crowd Control

Your control tools are the standard Rogue set, and a few talents make them stronger.

Ability Effect
Kick Interrupt with a 5 sec school lockout; Improved Kick adds a 2 sec silence
Gouge Incapacitates for 4 sec; combine it with Kick against casters
Sap Lasts up to 25 sec and no longer breaks your Stealth
Kidney Shot Finishing stun that lasts up to 5 sec
Cheap Shot Opens from Stealth with a 4 sec stun
Blind Disorients for up to 10 sec, available from level 34

Casters get handled with Kick and Gouge, and Sap, Cheap Shot, Kidney Shot and Blind let you lock down other targets before a pull or in the middle of it.

Put all of these on keys you can hit without looking. Combat speeds up a lot once Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry are running, and your finishers plus Slice and Dice should never sit on a hard-to-reach bar.

Combat Rogue Leveling

Leveling a Combat Rogue looks the way it always has: you lean on Sinister Strike, Slice and Dice and a slow weapon in the main hand. Early on, pick up a slow sword, fist weapon, mace or axe and pay to train its weapon skill, since your main hand sets how hard Sinister Strike hits.

Leveling Build

These are the milestones to reach with Talented:

Level Combat Milestone
10–20 Talents: Improved Sinister Strike, Improved Eviscerate, Precision. Spells: Slice and Dice (10), Rupture and Poisons (20)
22–26 Spells: Vanish (22), Cheap Shot (26). Talents: Endurance, Riposte
30 Dual Wield Specialization, Blade Flurry and Hack and Slash with 26 points, plus Kidney Shot
31–35 25-point row: Weapon Expertise, Aggression; Adrenaline Rush once 30 points are spent
36–60 Complete Combat at 32 points, then add 18 in Assassination (18/32/0)

So the Combat tree ends at 32 points, and your final 18 points go to Assassination for the 18/32/0 spread.

Leveling Rotation

Open each fight with Cheap Shot from Stealth, or with any normal opener. Use Sinister Strike until you have 2 or 3 Combo Points, put up Slice and Dice, and then go from Sinister Strike into Eviscerate. If two mobs are on you at the same time, Evasion and its +50% Dodge are worth the button press.

Tip: Early on, Skinning and Leatherworking give you handy crafted gear, while First Aid covers bandages and healing potions. All three fit a Rogue on the way to the cap.

Leather and hides from Skinning can also be sold as you level. Not keen on doing all that skinning yourself? Our WoW Forever Skinning service can raise the profession to 300 for you.

Class Quests

The best level 30 weapon comes from a class quest. The Eye of Bhossca starts in Silverpine Forest, and from level 25 you can finish it alone inside Scarlet Monastery thanks to Stealth. Your reward is Ruby-Adorned Blade, the strongest weapon a level 30 Rogue can use.

All in all, leveling needs a slow main hand, a short list of talents in a set order and a rotation that barely changes from level to level. Each main-hand upgrade and each point in a core talent shows up right away in your Sinister Strike damage.

Best Combat Rogue Consumables

Consumables for Combat boost your Agility and weapon damage and top up your Energy.

Consumable Type Combat Rogue Item Main Use
Poisons Instant Poison / Deadly Poison Bonus Nature damage, and both scale with Attack Power
Agility Elixir Elixir of Agility +15 Agility, lasts 1 hour
Energy Thistle Tea Restores 100 Energy inside Blade Flurry
Weapon Stones Solid Sharpening Stone / Solid Weightstone Flat weapon damage; in Forever, Sharpening Stones stack with poisons
Burst Potion Frenzy Potion +28 Attack Power, 30 sec
Scroll Scroll of Agility II +9 Agility, 30 min
Level 60 Elixirs Elixir of the Mongoose / Elixir of Ferocity Mongoose: +25 Agility and 2% crit; Ferocity: +18 Strength and Agility
Level 60 Food and Stones Grilled Squid / Dense Sharpening Stone +1% crit / +8 weapon damage

Two weapons mean twice the poisons and twice the stones. A stock of WoW Forever Gold helps you keep both blades coated and sharpened.

Not every fight needs the full set. Run regular dungeons with the Agility elixir and your weapon coatings, and save Thistle Tea and the Frenzy Potion for bosses where you plan to burst.

Best Combat Rogue Enchants

Enchants for Combat put damage on both weapons and Agility on most of the other slots.

Gear Slot Combat Rogue Enchant Main Benefit
Weapons Enchant Weapon – Striking / Crusader +3 damage / at 60, a Strength proc that also heals you
Neck Enchant Necklace – Agility +5 Agility
Gloves Enchant Gloves – Agility / Greater Agility +7 / +10 Agility
Boots Enchant Boots – Agility / Greater Agility +5 / +7 Agility
Chest Enchant Chest – Lesser Stats / Greater Stats All stats
Back and Wrist Enchant Cloak – Lesser Agility / Enchant Bracer – Minor Agility +3 Agility each
Head, Legs, Shoulder (60) Arcanum of Rapidity / Zandalar Signet of Might +1% Haste / +30 Attack Power

Neck, gloves, boots, wrist and back Agility enchants help every build. The biggest damage gains come from the weapon enchants and from the level 60 options for head, legs and shoulders.

Start with Agility enchants on the slots you already have, and wait until your main hand and off hand are final before buying weapon enchants, so you do not pay to enchant a weapon you are about to replace.

Best Combat Rogue Professions

For leveling, Skinning paired with Leatherworking is the top choice, and Engineering is another strong one for Rogues. Leatherworking also brings plenty of new recipes that give you early gear.

Combat Rogue Professions Best Use
Skinning + Leatherworking Brawler’s Leather Tunic, Barbaric Shoulders, Skulker’s Leather Belt
Engineering + Mining Minor Recombobulator, Mechanical Dragonling, and the Lodestone
Mining + Skinning Two damage campfire buffs, plus gold while leveling

If you want more Rogue damage from your camp, the strongest campfire options are the Fish Bowl from Fishing, the Camp Chair from Skinning and the Lodestone from Mining. Prefer to skip the Mining grind? Our WoW Forever Mining service can raise it to 300 so the Lodestone is within reach.

Pick the pairing that suits how you play. Crafting gives you early gear, gathering gives you gold and campfire buffs, and Combat works with either as long as you reach the key recipes in time.

Combat Rogue Macros

Macros make your burst and your interrupts cleaner. Try each one out before a dungeon to confirm that it does what you expect.

Burst Macro

Your trinket, Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush all fire from one button with this macro. If you want your racial to go off at the same moment, add it on an extra line.

  • #showtooltip Blade Flurry
  • /use 13
  • /cast Adrenaline Rush
  • /cast Blade Flurry

Sinister Strike Macro

This one turns on auto-attack before Sinister Strike, so you never end up standing next to a mob without swinging.

  • #showtooltip Sinister Strike
  • /startattack
  • /cast Sinister Strike

Gouge Macro

Your own swing would break Gouge, so this macro stops auto-attack first and casts Gouge right after.

  • #showtooltip Gouge
  • /stopattack
  • /cast Gouge

Kick Macro

With this focus macro, Kick interrupts your focus target and your current target does not change.

  • #showtooltip Kick
  • /cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Kick

Fewer, simpler macros beat a long list: a single burst button and a focus interrupt cover most of what you need in a dungeon.

Combat Rogue PvP

Combat PvP is about constant pressure and strong defensive talents rather than Stealth tricks, which the other Rogue specs have more of. After a parry, Riposte disarms a melee opponent for 6 sec. Improved Sprint at 2/2 breaks slows, and Endurance takes 60% off the cooldowns of both Sprint and Evasion, so you get to use both more often.

Once you land a Kidney Shot, Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush add burst and give you a short window to finish a target. In battlegrounds, Blade Flurry also lets you hit two players at the same time. Since climbing the PvP ranks eats up many evenings of battlegrounds, our WoW Forever PvP services can help you reach the rank you want.

Combat Rogue PvP Talents

Combat has no dedicated PvP build, because the PvP lists that exist are built on Subtlety. If you stay inside the Combat tree, these are the strongest PvP picks:

Improved Sprint 2/2 and Endurance are already part of the level 60 build. Overall, Combat in PvP is a sturdy melee spec that wins with steady pressure, not surprise: use your defensive tools early and save your cooldowns for a stun window.

To see how rogues stack up against other classes, read the WoW Forever best PvP classes tier list.

Combat Rogue Overview

No Rogue spec is more complete at every level than Combat. Sinister Strike generates your Combo Points, Slice and Dice and Eviscerate use them up, and the rest of your damage comes from the two weapons in your hands. Classic already had Combat as the top PvE tree for Rogues, so it is also the spec Forever touched the least.

Energy fuels every Rogue ability, so two changes to the whole class end up helping Combat in particular. Regeneration is now smooth rather than tick-based, and an ability that misses seems to hand back part of the Energy it cost. On top of that, poisons now scale with Attack Power, even though Instant Poison starts from a lower base damage than it had in Classic.

By the time you sit between level 20 and 30, you already own almost the entire Combat kit. Leveling zones not your thing? Our WoW Forever power leveling options can bring a Rogue up to the cap for you.

Think of Combat as the steady all-rounder of the class. It works without any special setup, it gains extra value whenever two enemies stand close together, and it holds a dependable pair of cooldowns for the moments that count. Talents come next in this guide, followed by the rotation, the gear and finally PvP.

Prefer fighting from stealth? The WoW Forever Subtlety Rogue guide covers its builds, rotation and PvP.

Combat Rogue Strengths and Weaknesses

Everything on this list follows from how the spec is built. Weapon damage makes it far less vulnerable to immunities, but you bring no buff for the group. Here are both sides next to each other.

Strengths Weaknesses
Damage comes from auto-attacks, not from poisons or bleeds that some bosses resist No raid buff of its own, and Sunder Armor already does what Expose Armor does
Blade Flurry gives it the only real cleave among Rogue specs Energy feels tight in early gear, before set bonuses kick in
Blade Flurry, Adrenaline Rush and racials stack into burst windows Your damage depends heavily on how good the main hand is
Evasion, Vanish and Riposte form a strong defensive kit Blade Flurry reaches just one extra target

The trade-off is utility for reliability. When a boss ignores poisons or bleeds, your damage stays exactly where it was, and that alone is a good reason to keep Combat as one of your specs.

Best Race for Combat Rogue

On the Alliance side Human comes out on top, on the Horde side it is Orc, and Skyborne sits just behind both. Tauren is the only race that cannot roll a Rogue, so you will find Skyborne Rogues in both factions.

Faction Race Combat Value
Alliance Human Ruthless takes the place of Sword Specialization and grants 2% crit with all attacks.
Horde Orc Blood Fury adds to your burst when stacked with Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry, while Savage adds 1% crit regardless of weapon.
Both Skyborne Wind Blessed: 3% Haste, so every swing lands sooner.
Horde Troll Berserking: 10% attack speed for 10 sec, one more cooldown for your auto-attacks.

Gnome is only a hair behind Human and Skyborne thanks to Eureka! and Expansive Mind, which gives +5% Energy. A small step further back you find Night Elf with Elune’s Light (10% crit), Dwarf with Stoneform and Undead with Will of the Forsaken. The gaps are small, so pick the race you like if you play for fun, and follow the table if you chase every point.

One more thought on racials: the active ones, such as Blood Fury and Berserking, are the bonuses you notice most in a real pull, especially when you press them together with your burst. Passive Haste and crit bonuses simply do their work in the background.

Combat Rogue Changes

Weapons sit at the heart of the Combat updates in Forever, since most of the reworked talents change how you play swords, axes, daggers, fists and maces. The separate weapon specializations are gone in favor of Hack and Slash, Flawless Execution lowers the price of Eviscerate, and a number of talents now hand out flat percentages rather than weapon skill.

New Combat Rogue Abilities and Talents

Dagger players and sword players both get something from the new talents. Here is each one at max rank, together with the job it does for Combat.

Combat Talent Effect at Max Rank Combat Use
Puncturing Wounds Backstab crit +30%, Mutilate crit +15%, plus a 45% chance of a bonus Combo Point from Backstab Takes over from Improved Backstab; central to dagger Combat
Flawless Execution Eviscerate becomes 10 Energy cheaper Lets you fit in more finishers per minute
Hack and Slash Sword or axe: 5% extra-attack chance. Dagger or fist: +5% crit. Mace: 15% of armor ignored. A single talent covers every weapon type, so switching weapons never forces a respec

In practice your talents no longer lock you into one weapon type: whatever drops, you can equip it and still get a bonus from the tree.

See how the damage specs compare in the WoW Forever DPS ranking.

Combat Rogue Changes from Classic

The list below covers the changes with the biggest effect on your damage. A few of them are weaker than the Classic values veterans remember, so do not trust old numbers.

  • Precision: 3 ranks for 3% Hit now, compared with 5 ranks for 5% in Classic.
  • Endurance: at 2/2 it trims 60% off the cooldowns of Sprint and Evasion.
  • Dual Wield Specialization: off-hand damage rises by 25% at 5/5, which is half the Classic value. The reduction is probably tied to poisons scaling with Attack Power now.
  • Weapon Expertise: there is no weapon skill on it anymore; at 2/2 your attacks are 2% less likely to be dodged or parried.
  • Aggression: it now raises Backstab damage too, by 6% at 3/3.
  • Improved Eviscerate: 20% more Eviscerate damage at 3/3, while Deflection grants 6% Parry.
  • Blade Flurry: the tooltip now says that its attack speed bonus is for melee attack speed.
  • Removed from the tree: Dagger, Fist Weapon and Mace Specialization, plus Improved Backstab.

Overall, Combat is easier to pick up than it was in Classic, because fewer talents exist only to prop up a single weapon. If you remember the old tree well, read every talent again before copying a Classic build, since several of them now work differently.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are answers to the questions players ask most about Combat Rogue in WoW Forever, from axes to leveling talents.

Can Rogues use axes in WoW Forever?

Rogues can use axes in WoW Forever, which is a first for the class. Axe skill begins at 1, so train it early if you find one; Hack and Slash also gives axes the same bonus as swords.

Which weapon should a Combat Rogue use at level 30?

At level 30, a Combat Rogue should wield Ruby-Adorned Blade in the main hand, the reward for finishing The Eye of Bhossca, a Rogue class quest. For the off hand, add Bloody Brass Knuckles.

Is Combat a good leveling spec in WoW Forever?

Combat is a strong leveling spec in WoW Forever and the most complete of the Rogue trees while you level. Sinister Strike is on your bar from level 1, and Blade Flurry arrives by level 30 to deal with packs.

What does Hack and Slash do in WoW Forever?

Hack and Slash gives you a bonus that depends on the weapon you hold, and it takes the place of the old separate weapon specializations. At 5/5, swords and axes have a 5% chance of an extra attack, daggers and fists gain 5% crit, and maces ignore 15% of armor.

Should you pick Combat or Assassination in WoW Forever?

Between the two, Combat is the safer choice on encounters that may be immune to poisons or bleeds, because it relies on neither. That is why most Rogues will likely keep Combat as one of their two specs.

Which talents should a leveling Rogue take first?

A leveling Rogue should take Improved Sinister Strike, Precision and Improved Eviscerate first. Spend the last points on Remorseless Attacks when soloing or on Malice in a group, then follow the Combat tree to Dual Wield Specialization and Blade Flurry by level 30.

To wrap up, Combat is a reliable melee DPS spec: immunities bother it less than poison and bleed specs, its rotation is simple, and Blade Flurry answers every pack. Steady boss damage comes from good Slice and Dice uptime and well-timed cooldowns. Pick up Ruby-Adorned Blade at level 30, keep Slice and Dice running, and once the level 60 cap arrives, respec into 18/32/0 for Adrenaline Rush.