WoW Classic 39 Twink Rogue Guide

Wow Classic 39 Twink Rogue Guide
  • Author: OrinDac
  • Date: November 26, 2019
  • Updated: October 12, 2020
  • Expansion: WoW Classic

Rogues are one of the more popular and downright fun classes to play.  They focus on damage output, which is satisfying and for many, cathartic and their stealth role is both crucial and specialized, as Rogues are the only class, save the Druid, who can actively stealth.  In PvP, Rogues are vital damage dealers and scouts, and their abilities are almost always welcome to any battle group, or party.  They excel most at single target DPS and in this regard, they are beaten only by Warriors, and only when a given Warrior is kitted out with gear.  If you’re into ambush tactics, surprise attacks and skullduggery, the Rogue is the class for you.

Contents

  • Races:  Which races can play as a Rogue and which racial traits are most beneficial to a Rogue in PvP?
  • Professions:  Which professions are the best for a Rogue Twink and which are the best items to use in PvP?
  • Spells and Abilities:  What abilities are available to a level 39 Rogue and how best can they be employed in PvP?
  • Talents:  Which talents are the best for a PvP and which builds should a Rogue Twink use?
  • Gear:  What is the Best in Slot (BiS) gear for a level 39 PvP Rogue and how can it be acquired?
  • Enchantments:  Which enchantments are the best for a Rogue Twink?
  • Buffs:  Which potions, scrolls, elixirs and other consumables are of use to a Rogue Twink of 39th level?

Races

The only race that cannot play a Rogue are the poor Tauren, because they are just too big!  Because of this, the Rogue has the highest number of racial choices in World of Warcraft (WoW), save for the Warrior.  This can make choosing a race for your rogue just a touch difficult sometimes.  Many of the racial traits offered by the different races are very useful to a Rogue, especially in PvP, but some not at all of use.  To help you to figure out which is which, the following is a list of all of the races that can play as a rogue and all of the racial traits of theirs that are of use in PvP.

DwarvesStoneform is the best racial trait offered by Dwarves for any Rogue engaging in PvP. It allows you to counter the bleed abilities of the Hunter, Rogue and Warrior while also increasing your armor for a short time. Frost Resistance is good for keeping Frost Mages off your back, but not much else. Another trait with a minor, but definite benefit is Find Treasure, as Twinking by its nature is expensive and every advantage in that regard helps.

Gnomes

Gnomes have Escape Artist, which counters the CC effects of four other classes and Engineering Specialization, which gives a little extra advantage in the form of Engineering gadgets and devices that other races cannot access yet. Arcane Resistance lowers the damage type used by at least three classes and that is good.

Humans

Perception is handy for being able to spot other sneaky Rogues and less sneaky Druids. You can see them…but they can’t see you. The Human Spirit and Sword Specialization offer great passive edges to health regeneration and your chance to hit, which never hurts.

Night Elves

Quickness increases your chance to dodge, which is only ever a good thing. Nature Resistance offers decent protection from the poisons of other Rogues, the Stings of Hunters and the other nature damage used by Shaman and Druids. Another racial trait of Night Elves, which might seem useless to any Rogue is Shadowmeld, however, there are two important factors that can make this ability incredibly useful in PvP. Shadowmeld does not share a cooldown with Stealth, giving you the ability to immediately stealth after downing an enemy, as long as you down move and you can eat and drink while in Shadowmeld as well, allowing you to swiftly regain health in safety after a difficult fight.

OrcsWith a short cooldown and a massive short term damage increase, Blood Fury is the absolute best racial trait for Rogues that Orcs possess. Hardiness is the other Orcish Racial trait that means anything to a rogue. It might not seem like it offers much, but remember – it is a Passive ability, which means it’s always there. If it procs, it protects you, if it doesn’t, you don’t have to kick yourself for not remembering to use it.

Trolls

The Berserking trait is of particular usefulness, especially when things are looking grim. Regeneration adds a lot of survivability, articularly if you couple it with a regeneration buff to increase its efficacy.

Undead

Will of the Forsaken is one of the best racial traits for PvP of any kind and of particular use to Rogues, who are often the target of CC effects. Shadow Resistance is great for countering the damage type used by Priests and Warlocks. This, coupled with Will of the Forsaken, makes the Undead the absolute bane of those classes in PvP as well. Cannibalize is basically a free somewhat weak bandage, but most importantly – it can be used while in stealth.

Professions

There are a lot of professions to choose from, which can make deciding which ones to go with hard.  Fortunately, one of the coolest professions is also an absolute necessity for a Twink of any class.  Engineering.  There are a plethora of gadgets, devices and bombs that are extremely useful within Battlegrounds and you won’t want to miss out on them.

While Engineering is a necessity, you’re other Profession is also important.  Which ones you’ll be interested in will largely depend on your class.

What follows is a description of each of the Professions that should be of interest to a level 39 Twink Rogue and why.

Engineering

For Twinks of any class, this profession is an absolute must-have.  Along with all of the engineering gadgets and doodads you get before reaching 230 in engineering, there are some seriously fantastic items at this level that are of extreme use in PvP.  Make sure you get all of them.

The Major Recombobulator is especially useful for countering the Crowd Control (CC) effects of Polymorph.  Other items of note are the  Alarm-O-Bot, which can help in detecting other Rogues and Druids, and the Dark Iron Bomb, which is the absolute best bomb in early Classic WoW, with the most damage and longest Crowd Control (CC) duration.  CC can be really important to a Rogue, too.  As it allows them to stop the action and get behind their opponent, if they aren’t already. There are also three energy reflectors; Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector, Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector and Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector, which all reflect their type of damage for 5 seconds.  This is extremely useful and can quickly turn the tables on any caster in the game.  Finally, there is the Arcane Bomb, which absorbs mana and does half of what is absorbed as damage to anyone in range.

All of these items are incredibly useful in PvP and are the best engineering has to offer at this level.  Not to mention all of the fun fireworks and pet companions you can make.

Enchanting

Enchanting is probably the best choice for players who are not supporting their Twink with another character.  It has few expensive reagents that must be truly gathered, most being products of disenchanting items you are already likely to pick up.  It also offers lucrative selling opportunities with the many materials you will acquire from breaking down all of the Green and Blue items you do not need.  It can also offset the cost of getting your own enchantments some, as higher level enchanters are sometimes on the lookout for lower level materials.

Alchemy

If you are being supplied herbs and reagents by another character, then Alchemy can be an extremely useful Profession to endeavor upon.  The ability to simply create the many potions and elixirs that offer decided advantages in PvP at this bracket, instead of having to go shop for them, almost pays for itself.  Alchemy can also be a great way to make money, especially if the reagents and materials can be acquired cheaply.

Other Professions

HerbalismMining, and Skinning should be avoided entirely, unless you are hoping to compliment your Engineering with Mining and take some pressure off of the character supporting your Twink.  Tailoring and Blacksmithing are useless to a Rogue as well.  Leatherworking is only a viable option in that it allows you to craft your own Pre BiS armor and even some of the BiS gear.

Another use for for Alchemy, Leatherworking and Tailoring is to sell the various high level components and transmutes that only these Professions can craft.  Alchemists can transmute metals with recipes like Recipe: Transmute Arcanite, Leatherworkers can craft the Cured Rugged Hide and Tailors can use Pattern: Mooncloth to purify Felcloth.

Secondary Skills

  • CookingCooking has but one benefit to any Twink at any level bracket.  The Well Fed Buff.  The food that offers the highest possible Well Fed bonus at this level is Spider Sausage, the recipe for which can be purchased from virtually any standard Cooking trainer.  Another fun and useful food the cooks can make at this level is Dragonbreath Chili, the recipe for which can be purchased from Helenia Olden (Alliance) or Ogg’marr (Horde) in Duskwallow Marsh.  It can also be purchased from Super-Seller 680 in Desolace.
  • First Aid:  The only thing to worry about here is to get your First Aid maxed as high as it will go, so that you can use the Heavy Runecloth Bandage, which can heal you almost completely full with just one bandage.  To do this, you will need the three books Expert First Aid – Under WrapsManual: Heavy Silk Bandage and Manual: Mageweave Bandage.  The only trouble is that, because you still can’t get your Secondary Skills up to 300 yet, you’ll have to find someone to craft the bandages for you.  Alternatively, you could simply purchase them off of the AH.
  • Fishing:  Fishing is a great way to increase your income, especially while you’re bored and waiting around near some water.  Take any opportunity you can to fish, because each time you fish is a chance to catch a rare fish that can earn you some good money.  It’s also not a bad way to get Cooking and Alchemy reagents to increase those skills.

Spells and Abilities

Rogue abilities tend to center around doing increasing amounts of damage and for this purpose, they tend to have a lot of them.  Rogue abilities break down into three basic groups, Assassination, Combat/Sword, and Subtlety.  Here’s a look at all of the Rogue abilities that are available at level 39 and a short note on each.

  • Garrote: This is a great ability to use on a lightly armored target with a lot of hit points, like Tauren Druids and Clothie Dwarves. It opens combat with a DoT and awards a combo point.
  • Expose Armor: Use this finisher on heavily armored opponents. The higher your combo points, the more armor Expose Armor will strip away – to a maximum of over 700 Armor. This is not an ability to forget!
  • Rupture: This is a cruel finisher that lays down a Damage over Time (DoT) that’s damage is based both on your attack power and the number of combo points you have on a target. A really great ability that scales as you level.
  • Ambush: You must be stealthed, behind the target and using a dagger for this to work, but it’s well worth the trouble. If you play an Assassination Rogue, you are more than likely going to start every combat with this ability. Bonus: It awards a combo point!
  • Eviscerate: This is the combo finisher you will likely have used the most with this character so far. It releases your combo points and does a bunch of damage. It’s particularly useful against the lightly armored, like other Rogues, Druids and Clothies.
  • Kidney Shot: A finisher that stuns the opponent. The more combo points on a target, the longer they are stunned!
  • Cheap Shot: Another fantastic CC ability of Rogues. It doesn’t really replace Kick, as it doesn’t prevent spellcasting, but it also doesn’t share a cooldown with it. You’ll want to open with this ability most of the time, because it both stuns and builds combo points.
  • Slice and Dice: The damage on this is so low that you are only going to want to use it when you are fighting low armor, high HP foes like Druids and Priests. While not of much use right now, this ability gets a nice upgrade in the next bracket.
  • Sinister Strike: Should only be used if you are not specializing in Backstab/Hemorrhage, or if you can’t get behind your opponent. If neither of these things is the case, then it will likely be your main ability of choice.
  • Backstab: Named in a somewhat counter intuitive manner, backstab is all about specificity. You don’t need to be stealthed, you just need to be behind your opponent. Use this when a tougher ally has an opponent busy for some serious damage.
  • Sprint: The recent upgrade for this ability makes the Rogue a contender with the Druid for best FC in this bracket, but not much of one. Still, 60% move speed is fantastic, even if it is for a short duration. You can do a lot in 15 seconds.
  • Gouge: This is a great ability to use when you are outnumbered, or just outmaneuvered. It cuts at an opponent’s weak spot and incapacitates them for a time. Make sure you stop attacking, or switch targets swiftly, or your next attack with disrupt your CC. A great way to do this is to immediately use a bandage if you’re at low health, as the amount of time it gives you will take you right up to almost full. Another great use for Gouge is to interrupt spellcasting. Oh, and unlike Backstab, you have to be looking them in the eye for this to work.
  • Kick: The bane of enemy spellcasters, Kick does a bit of damage, but also stops an opponent from casting whatever spell they were thinking about casting and makes them think about not casting it for a bit.
  • Evasion: One of the Rogue’s most overlooked abilities. Use this when you are in the middle of a tough fight and taking too much damage, or when you’ve just used Sprint and you don’t want to get stunned as your bailing on your party.
  • Blind: Another fantastic CC ability for Rogues. It’s always important to remember to cancel attacking if you are using this ability to truly incapacitate an opponent for a time, as any concurrent damage following the initial use of this attack will cause it to be canceled.
  • Hemorrhage: You only get this if you speced for it and if you speced for it, it becomes your main ability, completely replacing Sinister Strike, as it’s energy cost is lower and it adds a lot of effects. If you are speced for Hemorrhage, you want this on your number 1 button.
  • Disarm Trap: With this ability, you can disarm a Hunter’s well laid traps and save you, and your party a lot of headache and hassle.
  • Sap: This is probably the Rogue’s greatest offering of CC, in or out of PvP. The target can do nothing until it wears off, unless they are attacked, or have some kind of counter to CC. This is often best used on opponents that themselves like to use CC, like Mages, Priests, Druids and other Rogues.
  • Detect Traps: A great passive ability that you might overlook in PvP, but Detect Traps actually lets you track the traps of enemy Hunters, allowing you to not only avoid them, but track where the Hunter has been.
  • Vanish: This is a fantastic little Nope button for enemy CC. It puts you into a heightened state of stealth, while breaking out of any movement impairing effects. Really great for when you’ve just been rooted by a druid.
  • Distract: While largely a PvE ability, Distract can be used to great effect in PvP as well. You can use it on any fleeing opponent, or on enemy FC to make them pause and give you time to catch up with them. It forces characters to turn around, so you can use it to set yourself up for an Ambush, or Backstab. Oh, and it can be used from stealth. Use your imagination.
  • Stealth: Probably the most important ability that a Rogue possesses, stealth has been discussed throughout this section of the guide for a reason. It is the main thing that a Rogue brings to any group. Oh and in case you hadn’t figured it out, this ability essentially makes you invisible.

Talents

While many other classes don’t have a lot of freedom with respect to their talents, Rogues are quite different.  There are quite a few viable builds and a lot of really useful talents to be had.  The builds shown here are the most popular and straight forward, so don’t feel obligated to adhering to them completely.

This first build is designed to streamline your damage output by maximizing your AP.

Wow Classic Twink Talent Build Images Rogue Max Ap

Another very popular build, this one focuses on getting to the Hemorrhage talent and exploiting it in conjunction with Improved Gouge.

Wow Classic Twink Talent Build Images Rogue Hemogouge

For those who like to stay behind their targets and out of harms way, this build focuses on maximizing your Backstab and Ambush potential.

Wow Classic Twink Talent Build Images Rogue Backstab&ambush

Focusing almost exclusively on increasing your potential with the Ambush ability, this build also adds to your stealth detection and AP.

Wow Classic Twink Talent Build Images Rogue Ambush

For those who like to stay mobile this build adds some speed with Improved Sprint – this build is especially useful in CTF.

Wow Classic Twink Talent Build Images Rogue Improved Sprint

As stated, there are a lot of ways to go with a Rogue, most of which involve doing a lot of damage to a single opponent.  If you’d like to try your hand at your own build, to see what the class has to offer for yourself, check out the Rogue Talent Calculator.  You can plan out how you’d like your Rogue to build and make sure you get the bonuses you want without having to constantly spend gold on respecing.

BiS Gear

Gear is important for all classes and is usually one of the most difficult aspects of building a Twink of any level.  For Rogues, whether engaging in PvP or not, your choice of gear is going to be pretty straight forward and focus mainly on increasing your Agility, Attack Power and Strength in that order of importance.  You’ll also want to try and find gear that offers Stamina when you can, as in PvP, survivability is key.

Acquiring all of this BiS gear won’t be easy and it is advised that you get financial backing from a Main to get the items from the AH, which will make the task much easier.  Listed below are all of your BiS gear slot items and how, or where to get them. Good Luck!

Enchantments

The enchantments for your gear are almost as important as the gear itself.  Make sure to get all of the best enchantments for each gear slot item that can be enchanted.  If your Main is not an enchanter, then acquiring these enchantments will be expensive, so keep that in mind.  Here are all of the best enchantments for a level 29 Twink Rogue.

Buffs

There are a plethora of buffs to be had at this level and some of them are incredibly useful.  If you’ve taken Alchemy, you’ll be able to acquire most of these, fairly easily.  Otherwise, you can get them through other players who are Alchemists, or simply from the AH. Some of them are often sold by vendors in a limited quantity as well.

Elixirs

Remember that you can only have one Guardian and one Battle Elixir active at a time.

Battle

Guardian

  • Elixir of Fortitude:  Not a single character in all of WoW has ever complained about having more health.  You shouldn’t either.
  • Mighty Troll’s Blood Potion:  This one is great to pop right before a long fight.  It helps mitigate damage to you and let’s your Healer take it a bit easier.
  • Elixir of Greater Defense:  More armor is always a good thing, especially in these quantities.
  • Gift of Arthas: Hard to come by and somewhat situational with respect to the resistance, but definitely worth the defensive proc.  Being able to disease opponents is very useful in PvP.
  • Elixir of Water Walking This one might only be useful when running away from something, but when you can walk on water and your opponents can’t you’ll be glad you bought this.

Potions

  • Lesser Stoneshield Potion: One thousand extra armor?  Yes, you can easily find a situation where this is useful.
  • Invisibility Potion: Makes you invisible.  What’s not to love?
  • Swiftness Potion: No matter what bracket you’re in, no matter what class you play, this potion will never not be useful in some way in PvP and in CTF it is invaluable, as it stacks with dash.
  • Restorative Potion: Expensive, but worth the price and extremely utilitarian.  You can just keep this in your back pocket just in case and rest easy, knowing you have an answer for almost every debuff.
  • Jungle Remedy: You might have to spend a lot of time farming these, or a bit of gold buying them, but they are worth it.
  • Magic Resistance Potion:   If 50 resistance in all schools of magic doesn’t seem like enough to you, you are wrong.  This potion is perfect for when every caster on the field is flinging different colored light at each other.
  • Dreamless Sleep Potion:  Makes you vulnerable for a awhile but pretty much completely restores your health and mana.  Good to use right after a some kind of mass CC has just occurred, like Psychic Scream, or Fear.
  • Wildvine Potion:  Kind of a gamble, but might be worth having for when things are really down and out.
  • Superior Healing Potion:  The healing potion is a staple of adventurers everywhere.  Use it in good health.  Heheh.
  • Superior Healing Draught:  Not as effective as the above, but plentiful and cheap.  You can only use them in BGs though.

Scrolls

Use all of them if you are alone, because they are cheap and why not?

Team Buffs

You’re really only going to get any real benefit from about 3 long term class buffs.  Power Word: Fortitude is the good old standby, while  Blessing of Kings is also a great buff if you are Alliance.  The real winner here is Mark of the Wild, because it buffs both Strength and Agility.

Other Consumables

  • Rumsey Rum Black Label: Being a little tipsy is a small price to pay for an extra 15 Stamina.
  • Dragonbreath Chili: As stated above, this is a great little added boon that you can get easily if you cooking skill is high enough.
  • Spider Sausage: Again, make sure you have some of this sausage before heading out there.  The well fed buff shouldn’t be ignored.

Well, now you’ve done it.  You’ve learned all that you can about how to build the perfect level 39 Twink Rogue.  Whether you want to duel your opponents openly, stab them in the back and run, or simply disembowel them any way you can, you are now prepared.  Don’t forget the sweet spot to the left of the spine, fourth lumbar down, the abdominal aorta.  Gets ‘em every time.  Have fun!

 

About the Author

OrinDac

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

13 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Lex
Lex
4 years ago

Hello! What weapon enchantment to use in the 2nd phase of the addon?

Last edited by Lex
kyle
kyle
4 years ago

Fiendish Skiv is BiS

Last edited by kyle
Kyle
Kyle
Reply to  OrinDac
3 years ago

Gotchu dawg. Is this list updated to current? And if it is will you roll it through tbc? Your guide helped alot

Cory Rodman
Cory Rodman
4 years ago

woudn’t the sword of omen be a decent off-hand option?

Last edited by Cory Rodman
Steve
Steve
3 years ago

So..How do i get rep with WSG and AB without getting experiance? When you turn in the marks of honor you get quite a bit of xp. Will you gain enough rep without turning in marks?

Last edited by Steve
Snackbar
Snackbar(@mister-k)
3 years ago

Why maces on MH? The 8STR from the sword below will translate into more damage…. lol

Last edited by Snackbar
llewella
llewella
Reply to  Snackbar
3 years ago

Yes, there’s a few errors. The MH sword is better, Monolithic bow is biz ranged. Stonevault Shiv (fast poison applications), Coldrage Dagger (fast poison and slow proc), Sword of Omen should all be included as viable offhand selections. Arachnid Gloves of the monkey (10/10) is probably lower then 1%. Wolfear Harness and Huntsman’s Armor of Power (+38 ap) are viable chests.

Last edited by llewella
Haezel
Haezel
3 years ago

Dont you think that the 8 str and 4 agi on Stonevault is more dmg output than HoR?

Last edited by Haezel
Timmi Borup Christensen
Timmi Borup Christensen
3 years ago

I have a few questions for this guide, which by the way is really good 🙂

Why wouldn’t you have HOR in MH and Legionnaires/Protectors in OH?

Is there a specific reason why you don’t just run with 15+ agi on both your MH and OH? Crusader is proccing so rarely for me.

Wouldn’t 8 agi on head and legs be preferred over 100 hp since it gives you crit, dodge, ap etc…, if not, is there a good reason?

Last edited by Timmi Borup Christensen
devyn bruner
devyn bruner
3 years ago

How do get lesser Arcanum of veracity on a lvl 39 twink?

Last edited by devyn bruner
Scroll to Top