Rogue Gold Farming Guide

Skill Gear & Useful Enchants

Herbalist's Gloves Enchant Gloves - Advanced Herbalism Enchant Gloves - Lotus Claw

Enchant Gloves - Advanced Mining Miner's Cape

Enchant Boots - Minor Speed

Dark Leather Gloves Defias Jailbreakers

Thief's Blade

Engineering

Target Dummy Advanced Target Dummy Masterwork Target Dummy

Gnomish Harm Prevention Belt Gnomish Rocket Boots Goblin Rocket Boots

Gnomish Mind Control Cap Gnomish Cloaking Device Goblin Rocket Helmet

Flash Bomb Iron Grenade and any other bombs that can control targets

Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector

Poisons

When goldfarming, you’ll almost always be using the latest version of Instant Poison on both weapons because Deadly Poison will break our Blind or Gouge which we need for our bandage casts. We can switch to Deadly Poison when we're engaging a boss that's immune to our stuns and Crippling Poison, Mind-numbing Poison, or Wound Poison are situational options.

Stones

In Forever, we can now have poisons and sharpening stones on each of our weapons at the same time, which is a strong boost to our damage. Dense Sharpening Stone and Heavy Sharpening Stone are the highest level stones we are aware of at this point (Elemental Sharpening Stone are far too expensive to ever be considered) but like Healing Potions, the most cost-effect option is usually the second best variant.

Bandages

First Aid bandages synergize incredibly well with our stuns, allowing us to heal large portions of our health with a single cast. When you find yourself back in a city and low on supply, check the auction house for the max level bandage you can use as they’re usually listed for less than the cloth required to make them. Especially consider buying when know you’re going to befarming in an area with few humanoids as you won’t be getting the cloth required for crafts.

Campfires

Fish Bowl (learned at Fishing 20) is the best bang for our goldfarming buck - budget Blessing of Kings buff giving +8% to all stats on a 1hr cooldown. Incredible value that scales with your gear. Buy enough Flint and Tinder and craft 5-10 campfires, Fish Bowl (or required materials) cost very little on the auction house, buy enough to match your campfire stack and restock whenever you're back in a city.

Food Buffs Cookie's Feast

The best food for combat-farming rogues is anything that gives bonus Agility, Attack Power, or Stamina. Poached Sunscale Salmon, Swiftstrike Steak, and Savory Turtle Stew are the BIS variants but as always, lower tiers will be much cheaper. Stamina is the cheapest overall but I generally don't spend money on food for farms unless I'm right on the bleeding edge of possibility for a given farm (gear level, talent setup, required profession items, etc).

Alchemy Buffs

As a general rule we want to keep consumable use to a minimum when we're goldfarming since the cost of anything we use will come out of our overall profits. That being said, there are many potions and elixirs that are cheap and provide excellent utility across different farms. Swiftness Potion Swim Speed Potion Lesser Invisibility Potion Invisibility Potion are just a few examples of the kinds of effects we can bring into a given situation.

Healing Potion variants can now be crafted with First Aid and require herbs that are relative to the level of the potions. We often loot these potions from pickpocketing, chests, and Toxin Study but when you want to stock up before starting a farm, the best bang for your buck in the endgame will come from Superior Healing Potion. The purpose of a potion is boost our health enough to stop us getting killed, and in the vast majority of cases when you use one, Superiors will do just as good a job as Major Healing Potion at a fraction of the cost. Similar to Tea, use them for emergencies or taking on an unusually large pack of mobs.

Thistle Tea

Thistle Tea is one of the best offensive consumables for rogues, use it immediately after draining your energy as close to 0 as possible in order to maximize your energy gain, and in turn, your damage output. If you are Combat spec, use it during your Blade Flurry window to maximize damage.

Getting your Cooking up to 60 will allow you to craft the tea and you’ll get Recipe: Thistle Tea as a reward from the level 20 poison quest (it can also be bought in Ravenholdt Manor). Apart from the vendor water, Swiftthistle is the only other ingredient and it's generally quite cheap on the auction house. Though it can fluctuate from time to time so when you find it listed at a low price, get yourself a stack if you can afford it. Buying Tea outright is usually a bad idea as its almost always listed for more than Swiftthistle and it only takes a few seconds to craft your own.

Night Elf

Elune's Light grants 10% increased crit chance for 15 seconds with a 3-minute cooldown - very strong when combined with Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush, for increased damage in any combat farming situation.

Quickness adds 1% dodge (synergises well with Setup and a small bonus to survivability) and a flat 2% increased movement speed, which does stack with other bonuses like the 8% movement from the Minor Speed enchant for boots. 

Shadowmeld increases the base strength of our stealth, making Night Elves more effective at moving around enemies without being seen. Check the macro section below for my all-in-one stealth macro which uses shadowmeld when stealth is on cooldown. It'll get you out of a tight spot.

Wisp Spirit is a bittersweet racial that grants us an impressive 75% extra movement speed with the rather unimpressive condition that we have to be dead to avail of it. Getting back to our corpses as quickly as possible will be a benefit while farming, just hopefully not too often.

Dwarf

 Stoneform has a 3-minute cooldown, removes and grants immunity to all Bleeds, Poisons, and Diseases, as well as reducing incoming physical damage by 10% for 8 seconds. Niche but useful for farms that have elites or bosses that use any of those abilities.

Artisan's Precision increases hit chance with all spells and attacks by 1% which is a very nice boost to one of the strongest stats for rogue and will push your damage in farms that have combat situations.

Find Treasure is the big one for goldfarming, giving us a chance at bonus loot from chests which makes Dwarves the best race for any farm that involves opening chests. Tracking treasure chests on the mini-map is nice but not necessary (we know where all the chests spawn are).

Big Game Hunter increases damage to beasts by 5% which is a significant boost, especially for any combat-farms that include this creature type.

Undead

Cannibalize gives us 35% of our health back by consuming a dead humanoid - which saves you food and bandages in any humanoid-based combat-farms. Eat after fights to reduce downtime, or in the middle of one when you need a quick bite: Gouge, Blind, or Kidney Shot, then Cannibalize.

Touch of the Grave has a 20% chance per hit to drain life (up to 5% of our life total) from the target, with an internal cooldown of 15s, granting us some much welcomed damage and healing in any of our combat-farms. Whenever you finish a fight with just a sliver of health left, you can be grateful for Touch of the Grave as you would probably have died without it. 

Will of the Forsaken removes Charm, Fear, and Sleep and has niche applications for gold farming. When you are against an elite or boss that fears, it feelsgood.

Underwater Breathing allows us to breathe 300% longer underwater - a small convenience from time to time.

Human

Perception increases stealth detection for 20 seconds which is mainly useful in open-world farming when there's an enemy rogue or druid skulking about. You can occasionally check stealth patrols in dungeons like Dire Maul East, that might slow you down or get you killed.

Will to Survive instantly removes all stun effects on a 3-minute cooldown, which will come in handy across a variety of combat farms - always feels good to push a button that gets you out of a crunch.

Ruthless now increases critical strike chance by 1% for all spells and attacks - a nice boost to a good stat that will push a little more damage when combat-farming.

The Human Spirit increases (you guessed it) our spirit by 10%. A little extra health regen, but since spirit doesn’t affect energy gains, that’s about it.

Gnome

Eureka! grants both 10% reduced energy cost and 10% increased damage to our non-periodic damaging abilities for 8 seconds with a relatively short 2-minute cooldown. This solid burst of DPS will be best used with Blade Flurry and Adrenaline rush to speed up your combat-based farming.

Expansive Mind increases our maximum energy by 5% which in most situations, will be 5 energy. Another racial that synergises well with burst tactics and gives you a little push when fighting.

Escape Artist gives brief immunity to roots and snares which is often useful for open-world farming on PvP rulesets. Also useful for dungeon farms in which these mechanics will slow you down.

Engineering Specialization reduces the rate of engineering devices failing or backfiring by 20% which is a nice benefit when our farms use Gnomish Rocket Boots and other such shenanigans!

Skyborne 

Walk on Air allows you to glide downward through the air for 10 seconds while controlling the direction of your travel, with a 1.5-minute cooldown. A useful ability in a many goldfarming situations, both instance-based and open-world. You can disengage or engage with a player or target from height, get down to an asset quickly, as well as protect yourself from falling to death. Lots of interesting potential when combined with items like Rocket Boots or Parachute Cloak.

Read Leyline is the Alliance Skyborne racial that has a 2-minute cooldown and increases health and mana regeneration by 50% for 15 seconds. Using Read Leyline at a Ley Line grants “Attuned” for 1 hour, during which the benefit of Read Leyline is increased to 100% regeneration. You could grab the buff before starting your farm and have a spirit set to equip between fights in order to heal up quickly.

Skysight is the Horde version that increases movement and mounted speed by 15% for 15 seconds. It has a half-second cast and a 2-minute cooldown. Using Skysight at an elemental convergence now grants “Charged” for 1 hour (persists through death), during which the benefit of Skysight is increased to 30% movement speed. This is a powerful ability that will improve your gold-per-hour as you can cover more ground (and bag more assets) in less time. You can also out-manoeuvre most other races in open-world scenarios on both PvP and PvE rulesets. Pick up the Charged buff before you start farming.

Wind Blessed increases casting, melee, and ranged haste by 2%, and considering that roughly half our damage comes from our normal weapon swings - this equates to a 1% damage increase from our white hits. Additionally, the extra speed will further increase DPS from on-hit weapon procs like poisons, enchants, and items. Nice for combat-farming.

Elemental Insight increases damage to Elementals by 5% which is a powerful DPS boost against these types of enemies, elites, or dungeon bosses - especially when combined with Alchemy potions that increase our attack power against Elementals.

Troll

Berserking increases both casting and attack speed by 10% for 10 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown - a powerful damage ability that will return maximum value when used with Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush. Additionally, anything that has a flat % chance to proc when we hit something (like poisons, windfury, etc) also gets a boost in value.

Rapid Regeneration is a cast that grants 50% of your total health over 6 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. Excellent synergy with our short-term crowd controls; we can Gouge, Blind, or Kidney Shot, then Rapid Recuperation (usually when you’ve recently bandaged or run out altogether). Great for reducing downtime and for particularly difficult solo elite encounters.

Regeneration is a passive that allows 20% of your health regeneration to continue in combat, is best understood as a passive healing racial, and can be boosted with spirit gear.

Beast Slaying increases damage to beasts by 5% which is a powerful DPS boost against these types of enemies, elites, or dungeon bosses.

Orc

 Shatter Curse has a 3-minute cooldown, removes curses and banes immediately, while also reducing incoming magical damage by 5% for 8 seconds. Niche but useful for farms that have elites or bosses that use any of those abilities.

Blood Fury increases attack power and spell power by 10% for 15 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. A powerful damage ability that will return maximum value when used with Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush, as well as boost the damage of many of our abilities that scale with attack power.

 Hardiness is a passive that reduces the duration of stun effects on you by 20%. It finds most of its value in open-world PvP farming scenarios but also be nice for dungeon enemy stuns as it will allow you to get back on target faster, which results in more overall damage and hopefully not a corpse run.

Command increases Warlock and Hunter pet damage by 5%, completely useless to Rogue unless it has unintended synergies with trinkets or on-use items that spawn combat pets into a fight.

All-In-One Stealth

The macro that got me into macros, everything you need in one button (including shadowmeld for night elves). It casts stealth when out of combat, casts shadowmeld when stealth is on cooldown, casts vanish if you’re in combat, and casts stealth to unstealth you if you are already in stealth. Set and forget for PvE but not always ideal in PvP!

#showtooltip Vanish
/cast [nostealth,nocombat] Stealth
/cast [nostealth,nocombat] Shadowmeld
/cast [nostealth,combat] Vanish
/cast [stealth] Stealth

One-Click Poisons & Stones

Left-click to apply to the main hand, right-click for the off hand. Remember to update the poison or stone name in the macros when you get more powerful ranks.

#showtooltip Instant Poison

/use Instant Poison;

/use [button:1] 16; [button:2] 17;

/click StaticPopup1Button1

#showtooltip Deadly Poison

/use Deadly Poison;

/use [button:1] 16; [button:2] 17;

/click StaticPopup1Button1

#showtooltip Coarse Sharpening Stone

/use Coarse Sharpening Stone;

/use [button:1] 16; [button:2] 17;

/click StaticPopup1Button1

Faster Poison Window

One-click access to your poison profession tab.

#showtooltip Poisons

/cast Poisons

One Button Healing

Uses any healing items you have equipped (first two lines) and any healing potion you have in your bags (starting with the best). This one uses my Minor Recombobulator, Satchel of Potions and a Healing Potion at the same time, providing a massive lay-on-hands type heal. 

/use Minor Recombobulator

/use Satchel of Potions

/use Major Healing Potion

/use Superior Healing Potion

/use Greater Healing Potion

/use Healing Potion

/use Lesser Healing Potion

/use Minor Healing Potion

One Button Bandage 

Uses the best bandage you have available, replace Linen bandage with Heavy Runecloth Bandage in later levels (not enough space I the macro for all of them). While you generally won’t be using bandages that are more than one bandage level below your current best, putting this macro on your bars means you always use the best of what you have and you never have to worry about swapping your action bar icons around as you level up First Aid.

#showtooltip Silk Bandage

/cast Runecloth Bandage

/cast Heavy Mageweave Bandage

/cast Mageweave Bandage

/cast Heavy Silk Bandage

/cast Silk Bandage

/cast Heavy Woolen Bandage

/cast Woolen Bandage

/cast Heavy Linen Bandage

/cast Linen Bandage

One Button Pick Lock 

Targets any lockbox you have in your bags, picking and opening them one by one. There's a slight delay so sometimes you'll click it twice but this just adds to the charm - like you're trying to jimmy the lock.

#showtooltip Pick Lock

/use Battered Junkbox

/use Worn Junkbox

/use Heavy Junkbox

/use Sturdy Junkbox

/cast Pick Lock

/use Battered Junkbox

/use Worn Junkbox

/use Heavy Junkbox

/use Sturdy Junkbox

Start Attacks

This macro has a double benefit: it automatically uses the ability and saves a prime action bar slot that your normal attack ability would have taken.

The normal ability buttons will target mobs but if you don’t have enough energy to use the ability it will not start attacking the target, costing you precious DPS.

The Riposte command that I’ve added (won’t interfere with abilities if you don't have it talented) uses Riposte whenever it activates, I've excluded it from abilities with which it would undermine the use-case intention.

#showtooltip Gouge

/startattack

/cast Gouge

#showtooltip Sinister Strike

/startattack

/cast Riposte

/cast Sinister Strike

#showtooltip Backstab

/startattack

/cast Backstab

#showtooltip Hemorrhage

/startattack

/cast Riposte

/cast Hemorrhage

#showtooltip Mutilate

/startattack

/cast Riposte

/cast Mutilate

#showtooltip Ghostly Strike

/startattack

/cast Riposte

/cast Ghostly Strike

Auto Pick Pocket

When you open on a target from stealth this macro always picks the targets pocket first (if the target has pockets to pick). Sometimes you’ll loot the pocket when you push the button, sometimes the pocket loot will be added to the corpse loot. I don't make the rules.

#showtooltip Ambush

/cast Pick Pocket

/cast Ambush

#showtooltip Cheap Shot

/cast Pick Pocket

/cast Cheap Shot

#showtooltip Garrote

/cast Pick Pocket

/cast Garrote

Prem, Pick, Opener

Puts two points on target, picks pocket, uses opener. Premeditation and Pick Pocket can both miss which will drop you out of stealth, so this is a somewhat risky macro.

#showtooltip Cheap Shot

/cast Premeditation

/cast Pick Pocket

/cast Cheap Shot

Weapon Swaps

Mostly used for Ambush, Backstab, or hybrid builds, you can change the weapon names to whatever you're using.

/equipslot 16 Assassin's Blade

/equipslot 16 Cruel Barb

Cold Blood Eviscerate

Automatically uses Cold Blood (when available) and then Eviscerate, make sure you have 5 combo points. 5-point Eviscerate crits are worth more damage than Mutilate crits.

#showtooltip Eviserate

/cast Cold Blood

/cast Eviscerate

Blade Flurry +

Uses whatever consumable or trinket you have written into the macro so your flurry does maximum damage. In this example from TBC, I’m using a haste potion and trinket to massively increase my attack speed and power.

#showtooltip Blade Flurry

/use Haste Potion

/use Bloodlust Brooch

/cast Blade Flurry  

Chain Pick Pocket

A great macro for Pick Pocket farming - it targets, picks pocket, and clears target. 

#showtooltip Pick Pocket

/cleartarget

/targetenemy [noharm] [dead]

/cast [harm,nodead] Pick Pocket

Sap Target

Adds a target and clear target to your sap which makes it a cleaner experience overall. 

#showtooltip sap

/cleartarget

/targetenemy [noharm] [dead]

/cast [harm,nodead] Sap

Instant Dummy

Removes the green reticle step from the process of placing a dummy and spawns it immediately wherever your cursor is (generally I like the green reticle but there are certain situations when speed is crucial). 

#showtooltip Target Dummy

/cast [@cursor] Target Dummy

/focus Target Dummy

Instant Bomb

Removes the green reticle step from the process of throwing a grenade and spawns it immediately wherever your cursor is (generally I like the green reticle but there are certain situations when speed is crucial). 

#showtooltip Iron Grenade

/use [@cursor] Iron Grenade

One Button Instance Reset

Resets the dungeon or raid as long as you are outside the instance.

/script ResetInstances();

Ghetto Graveyard

Automatically creates the instance countdown to telport you out of a dungeon or raid, to the nearest graveyard.

/run C_PartyInfo.InviteUnit("ghetto");C_Timer.After(1,function() ConvertToRaid() end)

/run C_PartyInfo.InviteUnit("ghetto");C_Timer.After(1,function() LeaveParty() end)

Ping

Prints your current latency into the chat window, useful for UI setups that remove the Blizzard icon showing your ping on mouseover.

/run print("Current Latency: "..select(4,GetNetStats()).."ms.")

Spec Swap

One button talent specialization swap: ’Sap’ and ‘Sinister Strike’ in the first line denotes only which icons are used.

#show [spec:2] Sap; [spec:1] Sinister Strike

/script C_SpecializationInfo.SetActiveSpecGroup(3 - GetActiveTalentGroup())

Easy Enchanting 

Two-button macro for when you want to train many enchanting levels at once (two separate macros for each button). Open your enchanting window and left-click to highlight the enchant you want to spam, open your bag and mouseover the item you want to enchant.

Click button 1, click button 2, repeat.

Button 1

/click CraftCreateButton

/run GetMouseFoci()[1]:Click()

Button 2

/click StaticPopup1Button1

SM GY Rare Target Macro

Spam click in the outer courtyard and it'll target any rare (if they're there). There's a spawn point in the crypt at the end of the yard; stealth to the middle fountain - if you still don't get a target, there's no rare.

/tar Aszhir

/tar Ironspine

/tar Fallen