2.0 Rogue Cliff Notes
-2.1 Abbreviations
-2.2 What Race Should I Be?
-2.3 What Professions should I learn?
-2.4 What Build Should I Use?
--(A) The Cookie Cutter Build 21/8/22
--(B) The Seal Fate Build 30/8/13
--(C) The Combat Grinding Build 20/31/0
-2.5 What Weapons and Why?
-2.6 What Talents First?
-2.7 What is Stunlock?
-2.8 What are some Combos I can Use?
****************************************Cut and paste the top to put in your ToC ****************
2.0 Rogue Cliff Notes by Rod

I don't want to sound like a jerk but, try reading the FAQ at the top of the rogue forums page. Also, my forum buddy Chefassassin has compiled quite the FAQ himself called The Ultimate FAQ found here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-rogue&t=518864&p=1&tmp=1#post518864
There is a lot of valuable information in there about EVERYTHING rogue. You will probably want one build for leveling and then pay 1g at level 60 to change to a PvP build. So without further ado, here is WAY more information than you asked for.

2.1 ABREVIATIONS:

The following are abbreviations you should become familiar with as you will see them used throughout this guide, WoW forums and even during game play:

DPS=Damage per Second
CP=Combo Point
SS=Sinister Strike
CS=Cheap Shot
KS=Kidney Shot
BS=Back Stab
SnD=Slice and Dice
EA=Expose Armor
CB=Cold Blood
BF=Blade Flurry
AR=Adrenaline Rush
Hemo=Hemorrhage
Prep=Preparation
Premed=Premeditation
DoT=Damage over Time
Rupt=Rupture
Imp. =refers to getting the “improved version” of the skill by use of talent points.
Proc=Just read this as “Activate” as in “I put Cripple Poison on my main hand so it will proc more often”
AI=Artificial Intelligence, or the computer generated thinking of a creature
Mob=Monster using artificial intelligence to fight.
NPC=Non-Player Character
PvP=Player verses Player
PvE=Player versus Enemy (against NPC Mobs only)
PvM=Player versus Monster (against NPC Mobs only)

2.2 WHAT PROFESSIONS SHOULD I LEARN?

First Aid, Cooking and Fishing should ALL be trained as rogues have no other way to heal.

Gathering – Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning

These are great for selling on the Auction House (AH) for money. You may take two but make sure one of them is Skinning because if you have Mining and Herbalism you cannot search for both on your mini-map at the same time. Herbalism is great for rogues to gather Fadeleaf for vanish and Swiftthistle for cooking Thistle Tea. Skinning is good when coupled with leatherworking to provide you own leather. Mining is good for both Blacksmithing and Engineering.

Trade Skills – Leatherworking, Alchemy, Engineering, Tailoring, Enchanting, Blacksmithing.

Out of these trade skills there is one you simply SHOULD NOT be choosing; tailoring. You can wear leather so there is no need for cloth and it uses up you cloth you need for bandages. Blacksmithing is a weak choice too for the opposite reason; you cannot use any armor greater than leather so you would only be using it for weapons. Leatherworking at endgame is pretty much useless but great up until then. Enchanting is great as you can farm for weapons as a rogue and disenchant all soulbound items you cannot use but keep in mind that it is a HUGE goldsink early on and requires AH sitting to profit at endgame.. Engineering is the most useful skill because it has all the cool toys that only engineers can use. My personal favorite is alchemy though because if you are buffed up with potions you are able to compete about 2-3 levels higher than not buffed. Alchemy is also great because you will already want to pick up Herbalism to supply yourself with Fadeleaf and Swiftthistle and then you can do something with all those other herbs as well.

Combo choices:

Money: Skinning & Herbalism, Skinning & Mining
Self-Sustaining: Herbalism & Alchemy, Mining & Engineering, Mining & Blacksmithing, Skinning & Leatherworking
Usefulness without regards to money or supply: Engineering & Enchanting

2.3 WHAT RACE SHOULD I BE?

ALLIANCE

Night Elves - Shadowmeld is on a separate timer than stealth and gives you a passive +5 bonus to stealth. 305 possible at Level 60 (makes it effectively like a level 61)
Humans - Perception to find other stealthed rogues, druids, invisible warlock summons or hunter pets.
+5 to Maces & Swords. 305 possible at Level 60 (makes it effectively like a level 61)
Dwarves - Stoneskin clears DoTs, great for a rogue looking to restealth.
Gnomes - Escape Artist clears binds so you can close to melee distance where you’re effective.

HORDE

Undead - Will of the Forsaken (WotF) clears fear and charm effects, great against casters. Cannibalize is good for a non-healing class.
Orcs - 25% Passive resistance to stuns. When you’re stunned you can’t do DPS or your stuns.
Trolls - Beserking is great for Combat specced rogues.
Tauren - HA! I don’t think so. You’re prey would hear that cowbell around your neck a mile away. Moooo!

Keep in mind that even though Night Elves and Undead may look very appealing, you will pick the same race as 95% of other rogues. If you want to be different, choose Troll or Dwarf.

2.4 WHAT BUILD SHOULD I USE?

First, get to know The Three Talent Trees and each talent is. It might help to use a talent calculator.
This is my favorite: http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Talents.View&category_select_id=7
Or Blizzard’s own: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html

Assassination - Burst or Frontloaded Damage, Critical Hit Increases and Poison Improvements.
Combat - Sustained Damage and Passive Bonuses and improvements to Open Melee Fighting.
Subtlety - Stealth Improvements, DoTs and Energy Conservation.

Most builds try to utilize two of the three major 21pt talents: Cold Blood, Blade Flurry and Preparation. Other builds try to incorporate a 31pt Talent: Vigor, Adrenaline Rush or Premeditation. With the 31pt talent, be sure to pick up the 21pt talent in that tree as well but be forewarned that grabbing a 31pt talent will limit your flexibility and customizability of choosing your talents as they we mostly be in one talent tree. The builds below are fairly common and keep in mind there are variants for all of them and as long as you keep the key talents, are fully customizable. The talent trees are separated with a "/" to read as Assassination/Combat/Subtlety

-Leveling/Grinding Builds: 30/8/13, 20/31/0 and 30/21/0
-PvP Builds: 30/8/13, 21/8/22
-Stunlocking Builds: 31/2/18, 31/8/12, 21/8/22, 21/3/27
-DoT Build: 25/0/26
-Dodge Build: 0/17/34
-Combat (Swords/Maces) Build: 20/31/0, 21/30/0
-Seal Fate/Combat (Dagger) Build: 30/21/0, 31/8/12

Let’s take a look at two of the most popular builds, shall we?

(A) THE COOKIE CUTTER BUILD 21/8/22
Consists of Cold Blood 1/1, Improved Backstab 3/3 and Preparation 1/1 and whatever else you want to fill in the spaces.

Assassination Talents (21 points)
Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points
Malice - 5/5 points
Murder - 2/2 points
Ruthlessness - 3/3 points
Lethality - 5/5 points
Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point
Improved Instant Poison - 1/5 point (You may put this point anywhere in the assassination tree)
Cold Blood - 1/1 point

Combat Talents (8 points)
Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points
Improved Gouge - 3/3 points
Improved Backstab - 3/3 points

Subtlety Talents (22 points)
Rapid Concealment or Master of Deception or Camouflage - 5/5 points
Opportunity - 5/5 points
Improved Ambush - 3/3 points
*** Initiative - 4/5 points (May substitute with Rapid Concealment or Master of Deception or Camouflage 4/5 or anything else you wish)
*** Improved Rupture - 3/3 points (May substitute with Imp. Sap 3/3 or anything else you wish)
Preparation - 1/1 point
Improved Cheap Shot - 1/2 point

(B) THE SEAL FATE BUILD - 30/8/13
Consists of Cold Blood 1/1, Seal Fate 5/5 and Improved Backstab 3/3 and whatever else you want to fill in the spaces.

Assassination Talents (30 points)
Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points
Malice - 5/5 points
*** Remorseless Attacks - 5/5 points – Place these 5 points anywhere you like. (Imp. KS, Imp. Instant, Imp. EA, Imp. SnD)
Murder - 2/2 points
Ruthlessness - 3/3 points
Lethality - 5/5 points
Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point
Cold Blood - 1/1 point
Seal Fate - 5/5 points

Combat Talents (8 points)
Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points
Improved Gouge - 3/3 points
Improved Backstab - 3/3 points

Subtlety Talents (13 points)
Rapid Concealment or Master of Deception or Camouflage - 5/5 points
Opportunity - 5/5 points
Improved Ambush - 3/3 points

~~ For the 31/8/12 build, just steal one point from Improved Ambush and put it in Vigor.

(C) THE COMBAT GRINDING BUILD - 20/31/0 (or simply 20/31)
Consists of Riposte, Blade Flurry, Weapon Spec, Dual-Wield Spec, Adrenaline Rush and whatever else you want to fill in the spaces.

Assassination Talents (20 points)
Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points
Malice - 5/5 points
Improved Slice and Dice
Ruthlessness - 3/3 points
Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point
Lethality - 5/5 points

Combat Talents (31 points)
Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points
Improved Gouge - 3/3 points
Deflection 5/5
Riposte 1/1
Precision 5/5
Dual Wield Specialization 5/5
Blade Flurry 1/1
Sword Specialization or Mace Specialization 5/5
Aggression 3/3
Adrenaline Rush 1/1

Subtlety Talents (0)
none

~~For the 21/30/0 build, just steal one point from Adrenaline Rush and put it in Cold Blood.

2.5 WHAT WEAPONS AND WHY?

I’ll start with a disclaimer. All the below comments are given without regard to stats, special attacks or procs. The reason being is that these seriously complicate the issue of which weapon is better than the next. Also, there is a lot of room for preference. Let’s just keep it simple for now.

-MAIN HAND-

Daggers are required for Backstab and Ambush and in order to get the most damage from these moves, you should use the HIGHEST DAMAGE RANGE DAGGER WITH THE ABSOLUTE SLOWEST WEAPON SPEED YOU CAN FIND.

Swords/Maces are more effective if using a combat build. Since these weapons do not have an option to Backstab or Ambush your main attack will be Sinister Strike. The same rule applies for these weapons as for daggers. THE BEST WAY TO GET A HIGH DAMAGING SINISTER STRIKE IS TO GET THE HIGHEST DAMAGE RANGE WEAPON WITH THE ABSOLUTE SLOWEST WEAPON SPEED YOU CAN FIND.

Main Hand: (in order of priority)
1) Weapon Speed - SLOW
2) High Damage Range
3) DPS

-OFFHAND-

Off-Hand, regardless of weapon choice you will want the FASTEST weapon you can find as it will excel mostly at using poisons because the off-hand weapon damage is cut in half and has a higher chance of missing than your main hand. (Even with talents it’s still reduced by 25% and have the same chance to miss) Also, it’s important to know that your off-hand is not even considered in any of rogues special abilities. It basically just keeps swinging at a constant rate while fighting melee. The only special abilities that help an off-hand are ones that increase your attack rate, like Blade Flurry or Slice and Dice.

Off-Hand:
1) Weapon Speed - FAST (The importance of this depends heavily when poison is applied)
2) DPS
3) High Damage Range


2.6 WEAPON SWITCHING

Regardless of what weapon choice and build you are using, it would be in your best interest to get a weapon switching macro to switch to a dagger main hand for Backstabs and Ambushes and to a Sword or Mace main hand to boost your Sinister Strike. You could use a good weapon switch macro from www.curse-gaming.com and while you are there, pick you Rogue Helper, Stun Watcher, and Energy Watcher from their site as well.

2.7 WHAT TALENTS FIRST?
-No matter what build you use, GET IMPROVED SINISTER STRIKE FIRST. Let me also say that for grinding I think Remorseless Attacks is the best talent as it gives you a 40% opportunity to Critical that next Ambush leaving your same level mob with around 60% of his health. Once fully specced with malice and Imp. Ambush that could bring it up to over 100%. That’s like a free CB for 20 sec after every kill from a green or higher mob.

2.8 WHAT IS STUNLOCK?

-Stunlock is using your stuns and disorients (even including Blind and Vanish) to keep a mob or Char from being able to move. In PvP it is affected by diminishing returns. It is commonly accepted that in order to achieve a “true” stunlock you will need either Vigor in the Assassination Tree or at least 1 out of 2 points in Improved Cheap Shot.

SKILLS: 1 = Opener, 2 = CP builder, 3 = Finisher

Stuns/Disorients
(1) CS (2) Gouge (3) KS

DoTs
(1) Garrote (2) Hemo (A de-buff; not a true DoT) (3) Rupt

Instant
(1) BS & Ambush (2) SS & BS (3) Evis

Others
(3) EA/SnD

2.9 WHAT ARE SOME COMBOS I CAN USE?

Which combos you can try to use will depend on whether you have learned the skill, have the right weapon type and which talents you decided to spend talent points on. For instance, I could put a combo on here with hemorridge, cold blood or prep but it wouldn’t do any good if your level 15. I’m going to just throw down some combos that are not talent dependent but will require the correct weapon type and for you to be high enough in level to actually have the skill. Unless otherwise stated you should assume that you wait until the last possible moment to break gouge and blind to allow for the full energy recover possible. Also for simplicity I will also not be using thistle tea in these combos. BS can be substituted for SS anytime you have the extra energy in PvP or when the PvE Mob is still stunned. Be aware that certain resistances or having a critical move be parried, dodged or missed will require quick thinking to recover from.

Mini-Combos:
1) CS > SS > Gouge > SS > KS
2) Ambush > Gouge > BS > SS > SS > Evis (any finisher)
3) Garrote > SS > SS > SS > SS > Rupt

Stunlock Combo: (PvE or PvP if you have 5/8 Nightslayer set, the Vigor talent or ½ of the Imp. CS talent)
1) CS > SS > Gouge > KS > SS > Gouge > Blind > Vanish > CS > SS > Gouge > KS > SS > SS…

Noob Combo: (PvE only)
Don’t discount this combo, it has been very effective attacking a mob that normally is beyond you abilities, or when you health is low. The main tactic used is gouging and then running away in the opposite direction long enough for you to jump 3 times while running then turn back around and throwing/shooting at the incoming mob until he closes to melee range. It is a great tactic as you will lower there health with your ranged weapon, regain all your energy and your stun’s cooldowns might be done by the time they close. This will be simplified as (Gouge+Pull). Of course, the area must be cleared of other mobs that won’t like you running around all over the place.

1) CS > BS > Gouge+Pull > SS > KS > BS > Gouge+Pull > SS > Gouge+Pull > SS > KS
2) Ambush > Gouge+Pull > SS > Gouge+Pull > SS > Evis

Soloing a Boss Combo: (some bosses have special resists against stuns)

Ambush > Gouge+Pull > SS > Gouge+Pull > SS > EA > Gouge+Pull > SS > Gouge+Pull > SS > Gouge+Pull > SnD > SS > SS > SS > SS > SS > Evis

3.0 Most Popular build by Slaide

21,8,22 (Dagger, Ambush Build)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30530310500010003203000000000000000005055003003100000

21,3,27 (Hemo with Ambush Version)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30530310500010003000000000000000000005255003003120010

20,31,0 (Sword Combat AR)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30530310500000003200550100050150031000000000000000000

21,30,0 (Sword Combat CB)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30530310500010003200550100050150030000000000000000000

30,8,13 (Seal Fate Dagger Build)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30532312500010503203000000000000000005050003000000000

31,8,12 (Vigor Seal Fate Dagger Build)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30532310500210513203000000000000000005050002000000000

31,20,0 (Vigor Seal Fate Combat Build)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30532310500210513200550100040000000000000000000000000

17,34,0 (Dagger Combat Build)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogues/talents.html?30530010500000003203550100050150031000000000000000000

4.0 To-Hit FAQ by Slant

With a 300 weapon skill attacking a mob with a 300 defense (IE level 60) you will miss 5% of the time. With +5 tohit you will never, ever, ever miss. You can be parried/blocked/dodged but you will NEVER miss. As in 0 misses after days of play.

Dualwielding has a hard cap of 19% miss. Thus no matter how much tohit gear you get, you will always miss a minimum of 19%.

If you raid constantly, +6 could be worthwhile as you need +5.6% to hit a level 63 mob 100% of the time.

Assuming a maxed weapon skill to-hit past +6% is absolutely worthless under every circumstance.

(0.04% hitrate per defense * 15 defense for 3 levels = 0.6)

Yes, this means that the precision talent is not optimal with endgame equipment. Yes, you need precision for imp dualwielding. It's a problem.

The Numbers:
- 19% minimum missrate is added when you dualwield. These misses are static and cannot be mitigated through gear or talents.
- 5% missrate against a mob whose defense is equal to your weapon skill
- There is no minimum cap for single-attacking and special attacks (sinister strike, backstab, etc). These attacks can get to a 0% missrate.
- each po