Originally Posted by Spork
For leveling a rogue, once high enough, go mace spec, pick up riposte on the way, and get the Shatterer ( Thottbot World of Warcraft: The Shatterer ). After that, find a good offhand mace and go nuts. Downtime will be very minimal, especially vs mobs that use weapons. They will be either stunned or disarmed the entire time. Also makes dueling other melee classes a joke. |
I found that the biggest hindrance to leveling a rogue was not a lack of damage throughput or control over a mob: it was the amount of damage that I'd take, and with bandages and food your only options to heal, that can add up to a lot of downtime.
You can avoid a lot of incoming damage just by timing your stuns well, and Spork's point of using Maces is a good one; but there will always be a few hits that get through, and mitigating them through natural avoidance seems the best way to go.
If I were to level a rogue again, I'd be looking for a build that picked up as many points in Lightning Reflexes and Deflection as possible, early in the leveling process. The first two talent points would go to Imp SS, then max out LR, max out Deflection and pick up Riposte. An extra 10% avoidance to all melee mobs - which account for a huge proportion of the mobs you'll be fighting in the game - translates directly into less damage taken and less overall downtime. You might not kill things as quickly as some of the other rogue builds posted here, but I'm of the opinion that the best way to improve your rogue's leveling speed is to reduce his incoming damage.
Riposte is an excellent talent for solo play in general; at 10% parry talented, you're virtually guaranteed a parry at least every third mob, and it amounts to the lowest energy cost damage dealer you have. The disarm is just icing on the cake. When WotLK comes out any build I take will incorporate the ability somehow.
Of course, this is completely irrelevant if you're going to be partied with a healer. If that's the case, go straight for maximum damage, with imp gouge, precision, dual wield spec and the weapon spec of your choice.