Spec recommendations please

Classes Rogue
1

Hi, I’m going through and levelling each class to 80. Normally I know which spec I want to roll but I’m stuck for Rogue…
Can anyone recommend the spec with the funnest play experience for levelling and dungeons?
I’m NOT looking for a meta late game spec, just something fun for leveling.

Outlaw seemed cool b/c of theme and transogs but not sure if play style is fun for levelling?

2

Outlaw’s grim until around 40 or 50 when it starts to feel like it’s actually functioning properly.
Couldn’t tell you if the other 2 feel any better at really low levels though, unfortunately.

3

All three specs can reach 40 quickly though.

I would play what you like.

The specs start to separate from another 50+.

:+1:

:surfing_man: :surfing_woman:

4

They are all pretty terrible for levelling because you can barely press any buttons until you pick up a certain talents, and even with them it can feel pretty bad sometimes.

Personally, my favourite spec is outlaw I just don’t play it at endgame because of killing spree getting me killed, but that won’t be an issue while levelling. It can also be a bit intimidating to play at first but again mostly won’t matter until you start doing endgame content.

All three have quite a different feel so unless you already have something in mind, I’d get to level 40ish on one of them and then try the others out.

3 Likes
5

I’m going with Sub for the fun factor. Each spec has its pro and cons. Subtlety is designed around Shadow Dance which provides short burst windows to get things done. I find this to be a fun playing style while leveling.

1 Like
6

Play what stands out to you that you will enjoy. Disregard the doomers that may speak up.

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7

Hard to say what you find fun and I haven’t tried leveling a rogue 1-70 recently but

Outlaw

  1. Grappling Hook is fun
  2. You wanna mash buttons? Hell yeah.

Subtlety

  1. Shadowstrike teleporting you from stealth to the target is GREAT for me.
  2. As someone who gets bothered I can’t do my rotation mostly the same in every pull, I had to adjust my mindset and pull a lot or get used to using shadow dance and not making the most out of it sometimes cuz things die too fast. But I’m also assuming that 1-70 is relatively chill compared to 70-80, cuz it was a slog.
  3. The burst is fun! You feel really powerful in the burst compared to the other two specs

Assassination
I don’t have experience leveling as sin ever so I can’t give anything but once I tried it at 80 and did the bleed build with Sudden Demise, idk it was satisfying for me to just put the bleeds, do a little damage and watch them die. I also found myself throwing in some cheap shots to feel like I was bullying my target

1 Like
8

Ive been wondering about this myself. For any prolonged fight im strugling with energy regen as Sin and am wondering if i should try Sub. Is sub really that much worse in dungeons and raids? Ive yet to really try it out so whats the consensus with Sub performance VS Sin?

9

Each struggle for leveling/max level play in different ways and have a high level of jank. Unironically, the best and most polished version of rogue right now is Ret pally (combo point building, spending, high defensives, great cc/interrupt capabilities, with great movement baked into the spec/class). However, if you do desire to still play/level a rogue I would urge you to focus on which play style you like the most out of the following:

    1. Do you like ‘spinning plates’ style of game-play where you’re maintaining upkeep on your target(s), where there’s a bit of damage burst from a few cooldowns, but often you’re doing a steady stream of damage? With this playstyle having a somewhat internal clock of when to re-apply your abilities to all targets involved and exceptional understanding of energy management is important to succeed. (This one is Assassination)
    1. Do you like high APM classes where you’re less about the same rotation and more reactionary based on procs and ability priority lists? With this style of gameplay having exceptional knowledge of your priority list is crucial to doing your highest potential of damage. (This one is Outlaw)
    1. Do you like all of your damage to come in heavy sledge hammer hits from cooldown windows where you go from low damage to exceptionally high burst? With this gameplay style you’re in full control of when your damage happens. However, without a proper understanding of when/how/and why to use your cooldowns you’re going to have a bad time. (This one is Subtlety)

Also, I wouldn’t recommend leveling through dungeons with any of these 3 if this is your first time playing a rogue. You’ll start moving too quickly through your leveling and rotations get exceptionally complicated on the last two, and leveling through dungeons as assassination feels awful until you unlock a few abilities that help with your energy regeneration.

3 Likes
10

With Sin on a single target you’re generally pooling energy to 200 at all times unless you’re in your cooldown window of kingsbane or deathmark/kingsbane combo. This means there’s going to be frequent times you’re not pressing a single button on your keyboard and only refreshing rupture/garrote when necessary.

So, unless you’re in a cooldown window you’re generally only refreshing your envenom at ~1 second remaining on your target and ~5 seconds remaining on garrote/rupture. If you get a few lucky procs and your energy is at or above 200, feel free to push in a few more envenoms, but that’s more of the exception instead of the rule.

Sub I also wouldn’t say is ‘worse’ as much as it’s significantly harder to learn than assassination as you have a lot more cooldowns, these cooldowns don’t all play nicely together as far as timing goes, and you need to know exactly what order/when to push each one or you’re going to have a very, very bad time as you’ll de-synch everything and have to wait several minutes to have everything lining up again properly (and in that time you’ll be hitting like a wet noodle).

1 Like
11

Sin and Outlaw have much more consistent damage - with sub you have to play around cooldown timings which isn’t always easy even if you’re in an organised group. Plus even if you play it amazingly, you’re probably still going to do both less overall and less prio damage than the others.

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12

Outlaw is all I play, haven’t touched another spec since wrath.

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13

TRUEEEEEEE.

Sub is great in a way for me where the biggest thing I have to worry about is when to use my bursts. I watched a video on youtube from shindig and he explained how to play in a way that made sense to me where we have the 90s big cooldowns (shadow blades and flag), and our smaller cooldowns (SD, Symbols, SecTec), and the absolute most crucial part for sub is that you don’t screw up the 90s burst.

I’m not great at the game, but I personally have an easier time with my mental load doing the burst than properly managing dots on sin, though I have yet to test out sub on m+ since I decided to try sin again. I’m not sure how bad my sin performance is yet to gauge.

2 Likes
14

Thanks for the replies. I just tried sub for the last hour and ran a timewalking after spending some time on a dummy. I came back to the game after almost a 4 year break and have only played sin until now. Im not really sure how i feel about sub. With some talents it feels like i always have shadow dance, symbols and secret technique up. With trickster hero talents flawless form and nimble flurry, im almost not sure when to use black powder unless its on some weak trash pack or something. I understand the importsnce of lining up my cooldowns with shadow blades and flag and the importance of using cold blood with secret technique… umm i dunno it almost feels more fun then sin tbh but onviously i need more practice. When i pop the big cooldowns in the order reccomended by the icy guide its absolutely absurd damage and combo points. Correct me if im wrong but i guess the challenge is always trying to line up everything with shadow blades and flag while still using symbols and shadow dance on the regular? Symbols also refreshes faster then shadow dance but it has 3 charges with my current talents so its not too bad. I guess the key is to not waste the big huge burst window unless mobs or a boss aren’t gonna die too fast. I will keep practicing but so far it feels pretty good. Keep in mind im not geared and have just started doing basic end game stuff.

1 Like