World of Warcraft Classic has largely been figured out, but the recent “Hardcore” trend has spiced things up in a way that forces players to approach the game with a little more caution, and a good Rogue build is always welcome.
Rogues are known for having several ways to avoid damage. Stealth and the ability to vanish can at times be the difference between living and dying, and in Hardcore, the stakes are as high as they can be.
Here are some Rogue talent builds tips and tricks that will help you stay as safe as possible on your quest to hit level 60 without dying.
Best Rogue leveling build in WoW Classic Hardcore
If you’ve played enough Classic, you probably don’t need to steer too far from the build that you might typically go for as a rogue in WoW Classic. You might be tempted to take talents in the Subtlety, but in all honesty, you’ll just be shorting yourself a lot of damage that might put you in stressful situations.
The damage difference between running Combat and Subtlety is significant enough that I recommend sticking to Combat Rogue as you level, even though talents like Elusiveness, Camouflage, and Master of Deception might feel like strong survivability tools.
In reality, the hit chance that you get from Precision and the buffs to Evasion and Sprint that you can get relatively early on in the Combat tree are a boon for leveling safely. I also advise trying to spec your character for swords as opposed to daggers. Unless you’re exclusively leveling with a group and can always be behind your enemies, daggers won’t be able to work as well as swords because you’ll lose a lot of damage when you can’t Backstab.
Once your talent tree opens up, you should spend every point that you can to work toward reaching Endurance and Improved Sprint. After that, I highly recommend pushing to get Adrenaline Rush as soon as possible because it’s the strongest offensive Rogue ability in the game. Having Adrenaline Rush will allow you to skip a lot of potentially lethal mechanics from bosses in dungeons and powerful mobs out in the wild.
The biggest survivability option that you can consider early on Hardcore is to potentially put points into Lightning Reflexes instead of Improved Gouge. The choice is yours and depends on whether or not you plan on using Gouge regularly.
Related: How to earn gold in WoW Classic Hardcore
I would take Improved Gouge for solo leveling because it will give you the ability to kite from enemies if necessary. This can buy you important time and space in some encounters. If you’re playing with a group, you won’t get as much use from Gouge, and having that extra dodge chance will be ideal.
With this build, at least at 60, you won’t have the highest damage possible, but you’ll be able to prevent at least a little bit more damage than you might otherwise. Surviving and advancing is the goal with Hardcore, not necessarily topping damage meters. The damage is important to survival, but there are a few places where you can shave off some DPS in favor of staying alive.
