Everything you need to level a Rogue in World of Warcraft: Forever: which spec to pick, point-by-point talent builds, the best races and what changed from Classic.
Updated October 9, 2026 · WoW Forever beta
Combat gives the highest upfront damage and the most reliable kills, and Riposte and Blade Flurry let you handle extra mobs. Vanish, Blind and Evasion let you take riskier pulls. It is also the strongest dungeon spec once Blade Flurry arrives at level 30.
Alternative: Assassination · Pick it if you prefer daggers and poison-based burst over sustained swords.
Want to tweak a build? Open the Rogue talent calculator.
alliance
Human
Sword crit pairs with Hack and Slash; extra Spirit improves regen.
horde
Troll
In-combat regeneration and Rapid Regeneration reduce eating between pulls.
Orchorde
Undeadhorde
Trollhorde
Skyborne (Windshaper)horde
Humanalliance
Dwarfalliance
Night Elfalliance
Gnomealliance
Skyborne (High Order)alliance
Compare every race in the WoW Forever race guide.
While leveling
At endgame
Leatherworking makes your own armor and attack power bracer kits. At endgame, Engineering's explosives and gadgets are especially strong for Rogues in PvP. All professions and camp buffs.
Energy
Comes back 1 point every 0.1 sec, 10 a second: Classic's rate with no tick to wait for. From the Energy tooltip and Blizzard's Class Highlights video (3:41).
Mutilate
New talent, Assassination row 5: both weapons at 75% each, 20% more on poisoned targets, 2 combo points. Remorseless Attacks, Lethality, Cold Blood, Puncturing Wounds and Opportunity name it.
Venom
New finisher at the bottom of Assassination. Your poisons do 30% more and apply 10% more often, longer per combo point.
Thousand Cuts
New Subtlety capstone. Each Rupture tick takes 3 Energy off your next Hemorrhage or Backstab, stacking to 5.
Axes
Rogues can use one-handed axes now. The Hack and Slash talent lists Axe/Sword as a weapon group.
Combat is our recommended Rogue leveling spec (B tier in our leveling tier list). Combat gives the highest upfront damage and the most reliable kills, and Riposte and Blade Flurry let you handle extra mobs. Assassination is the alternative.
For leveling we pick Human on the Alliance side and Troll on the Horde side. Rogues can choose from 9 races, all listed below with their racials.
While leveling we recommend Skinning and Leatherworking. At endgame the recommended pair is Mining and Engineering.
Each spec has a point-by-point leveling build for levels 10–30 with an interactive talent tree. Open the Rogue talent calculator to plan your own build.

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