Stats:
Now are you asking from a standpoint of someone who is interested in getting the game and wants to know what rogues are like, or are you asking what my exact talent build and skill sets are?
I'll assume you meant the former, and if not, clarify the question.
Rogues in WoW are fantastic damage dealers. I consistently find myself doing more damage than the other classes in my party, with the exception of a mage.
I've built my rogue so that I'm pretty self-reliant, and I can solo easily. I picked up leathercrafting, so I can make my own armor, and skinning, so I can gather materials myself. I'm dual-wielding daggers, because there are several rogue skills, including backstab and ambush, that require you to have a dagger in your main hand. However, rogues can also use one-handed swords and maces.
I primarily play with one of my friends who is a priest, and talking to him I've realized that the versatility of the rogue's skills allows them to overcome many obstacles in ways that other classes cannot. Here are some of our skills. This is a sampling of some of the skills I've gotten so far at level 40:
Saving your own *** skills:
I frequently find myself alive and safe even when my party blunders into something that gets them all killed.
- Flee: allows the rogue to run faster than normal for a short period of time. I use it to run out of the aggro radius of a mob that's about to kill me.
- Evasion: increases the rogue's chance to dodge attacks, preventing them from getting hit from behind as they flee, or even allowing them to tank for a short period of time without getting hit.
- Vanish: This is the big one that's saved me so many times. Normally you can't enter stealth mode while you're engaged in combat. Not so with vanish. At a certain level (I forget which), you gain the ability to use flash powder, allowing you to vanish in a puff of smoke. This immediately breaks all aggro and puts you in stealth mode so you can sneak away. Also useful for using stealth-based attack in the middle of battle.
- Feint: The opposite of provoke, this skill reduces your threat, making the monster less likely to attack you and more likely to attack one of the other party members (hopefully the tank). Because I do so much damage, the tank sometimes has trouble keeping aggro off me, so I use this skill to help him out.
- Sap: This is crowd control. It only works when you're stealth, and when the enemy is not in combat. If I come across a group of enemies that looks like more than I can handle, I can sap one of them, rendering him unconcious for a certain amount of time, usually enough time for me to dispatch his friends.
- Detect/disarm traps: I actually haven't come across any traps, aside from the one that's part of a rogue test after you get the skill. I assume this will be useful in the future... maybe. Maybe in higher-level dungeons I haven't been to yet.
- Kidney shot: This move stuns the enemy for a few seconds. The best use I've found for this is for keeping enemies from running away. Often when I'm in a dungeon, I'll be fighting someone and when he gets low on health, he'll run away. If he runs into any other enemies, they will aggro me. This is bad. Therefor, I stun enemies as soon as they get low on health and finish them off while they sit there helpless.
Money making skills
- Stealth: When you enter stealth, enemies can't see you unless you bump into them or they are a way higher level than you. It also reduces your movement speed. I maxed out my stealth talents so that now it only reduces my movement speed to 80% normal, and enemies are far less likely to detect me. As such, I can cruise through dungeons looting chests and whatnot without being attacked.
- Pick pocket: While you're stealthed, you can pick-pocket humanoids for money or whatever items they're carrying without killing them.
- Pick lock: Rogues are the only class that can pick locks, so if a party comes across a locked chest, guess who gets the loot
![:D](../../smileys/biggrin.gif)
(seriously though, I try to share :p). I can also open doors that other classes have to find keys for.
Damage-dealing skills
- Poisons: Rogues gain the ability to brew all kinds of nasty poisons, which we apply to our weapons. There are many different status effects associated with the poisons, including weakened spellcasting, slowed movement, etc. but I mainly just use the ones that deal damage. It makes a big difference and lets me kill things much faster.
- Ambush/backstab: These both require daggers, and you must be stealth and behind the enemy. They do a crapload of damage.
- Expose armor: Reduces the enemy's armor, letting you do more damage.
- There are tons of other skills in this catagory, but the bottom line is: daggers > blood splatters everywhere > enemies die hard.
Well that's all I can think of to say at the moment. Feel free to ask any specific questions. Oh, and if you do get the game, join my server! (Elune) I'll hook you up.