Rogues are extremely popular in World of Warcraft, the primary reason being because they’re such a fun PvP class. They’re awesome because the get the immediate advantage over all other players in the arena by having the ability to stealth before they can even become attacked. Of course, then they can make some very powerful attacks from the stealth position.

The way you use your rogue’s abilities is going to depend on a few things; but primarily his spec and weapons. Rogues can fight in a few different styles, and it’s going to be dependent on the abilities you can use with the weapons you have.

If you decide to go assasination spec, you’re most likely going to want to get the mutilate abiliity, and this will become your “main” ability. You’re also going to want to spec in your stun and poison abilities, so that you’re going to be able to stun your opponet more often and do more damage while they are stunned. In order to use the mutilate ability, you must be behind your opponet. The best way to do this is to keep them stun locked while in combat with them for as long as possible. if you have your poison proc rate increased, your damage from mutilate will also increase dramatically, since there is a 50% bonus if used on an opponet with poisons applied. I recommend using either deadly or crippling poison; deadly because you can also use the envenom ability if the cooldowns on your other abilities are still running down. Assasination rogues are more of a leveling spec, but are also very decent in PvP. They’re one of the better dps classes for rogues.Make sure to keep two daggers equipped, preferrably two slower daggers, for your mutilate ability.

Combat is next up, and is probably the best leveling spec for rogues. In my opinion, the combat spec basically turns rogues into a “soft” warrior. In this, I mean that they can take on mobs, and what not, but they’re going to die a lot easier. The plus side is that they’re going to do much more damage than a warrior. So it really all works out. A few combat abilities basically make taking on multiple mobs at a time extremely easy. With moves like fury and adrenaline rush, it becomes extremely easy to go into a rage, dealing damage to all nearby enemies at a massive rate because you have an awesome flow of energy. As far as PvP goes, combat is pretty much useless. Combat is definitely more of a leveling/raiding skill. It does okay for raids because you’re going to be able to take multiple mobs more easily. I recommend using either swords or maces for combat, with the slowest weapon being in your off-hand to gain more energy.

Subtlety is the final spec, and this is by far the most common rogue spec. Most rogues spec in subtlety because it’s known as the best pvp spec, and it definitely is for a few reasons. For one, subtlety rogues are extremely hard to detect, and they’re much better at detecting other stealthed units nearby than other classes in the game. They also have a few really great abilities that makes them much better while in the arena. For one, sub rogues are able to spec in ambush. They can spec so that their damage from behind as well as their crit chance is dramatically increase. Ambush will become their main move, essentially, and they’re going to hit for huge numbers with it. If you spec in this way, I recommend keeping your attack power up as well, and to spec primarily in backstab and ambush. Always have a dagger in your mainhand, your off-hand isn’t that important. Hemmorhage spec is quite popular too. If you want to make hemmorhage your main ability to spam, I recommend having an extremely slow weapon in your mainhand, and the offhand isn’t that important. I recommend getting a mace or a really slow sword for your main hand, to increase the damage of the hemmorhage ability.

In the end, all of the rogue classes definitely have advantages and disadvantages. You’re going to see more sub rogues than any other rogue spec, since most rogues are out there for the PvP, and subtlety is definitely the best PvP spec.