How to Level Up a Rogue in World of Warcraft

First of all, let me just say this. Rogues, by far, are one of the faster leveling classes in World of Warcraft. Rogues are high in DPS, low in downtime and have a lot of moves that prevent you from being killed or let you escape death so you don't spend a lot of time running to your corpse when leveling. If you're playing WoW for the first time, a Rogue is a wise choice because once you get the hang of them, they're pretty simple.

You should start your battle like this to get the maximum damage, survivability and efficiency out of your Rogue while leveling in World of Warcraft.

1) Use Stealth for every battle. A lot of Rogues get impatient. I see it all the time. They'll specialize or "build" for Combat, meaning they're using a more direct combat style than most rogues do. This is fine, but they lack the foresight to understand that Stealth (though you walk slower) grants you more efficiency than just walking up to a creature and smacking it. Stealth allows you to use Cheap Shot, which stuns your opponent, which prevents them from attacking you, which means YOU SPEND LESS TIME HEALING after the fight which means, you win more battles, granting you more experience. whew!

2) Rogues are completely versatile while soling. You can use Daggers, Swords, Maces and throwing weapons to your advantage. This means that with a Rogue, you're ultimately going to have a better chance at higher quality gear because you have so many options available to you. Focus on this. A little bit of time spent getting better gear means you win battles more quickly. After you fight 300 battles, you become more efficient even if you only shave 30 seconds off of each fight. That's 150 minutes less that you spent getting your level because you had a better weapon. All classes are gear dependent, but Rogues are some of the most dependent.

3) Use your abilities. Rogues are known as the "cooldown class" for a reason. You have loads of different cooldowns that can get you out of trouble and prevent you from Death. Often times, the difference between efficient levelers and non-efficient ones are the timing of Evasion, Vanish and Blade Flurry. Look into these abilities in depth and know only to use them when you're going to die. Dying is a big detriment to speed leveling. Remember, time spent running for a corpse and healing is time spent not leveling! Hoorah!

If you're looking to get even more hardcore about leveling, Zygor's Leveling Guide is a great one. I've used it for 4 of my alts and couldn't be happier with it. Until next time, WoW on my friends!