Complete Subtlety Leveling 1-60

The Best Bits

Subtlety is the king of combo-point generation and a whole new way to play Rogue in World of Warcraft Forever. I challenge you to find something as satisfying as an Improved Ambush crit that one-shots your target, or as rewarding as rotations that can produce more than fifteen combo points in fifteen seconds. While these talents have received the most changes of any rogue specialisation, there are many more to come due to the fact that the end-of-tree talents are being redesigned for launch - with this in mind, I won't be detailing Quietus Cutthroat or Thousand Cuts. We weren't going to use these talents anyway as we get everything we really want from Subtlety at level 35 and there is more value to be found in other trees, detailed in the builds below.

Starting with my favourite rogue talent: Setup - I could write an entire article about how foundational Setup is to the way we level our class but in a nutshell, it is a fully-automatic combo-point printer and it fundamentally changes the way we rotate during solo content. With Combat you're constantly chasing for value, spending everything as soon as possible to manage Slice and Dice or boost Eviscerate before your Blade Flurry runs out, the mob dies, or both. Subtlety on the other hand, establishes finishers much earlier, with talents like Premeditation, Initiative, or the incredibly powerful Setup Evasion combo. The subsequent points created by this talent can support Slice and Dice Expose Armor and Rupture simultaneously, with points appearing on-target so quickly that energy-pooling to fish for freebies becomes your new meta. In other words - Combat feels as though you're constantly behind the curve, but with Subtlety you feel like you're always ahead of the game.

You'll be using Ambush or Garrote into Ghostly Strike and Sinister Strike in the early levels, then drop Sinister after unlocking Hemorrhage which is our most cost-effective combo-builder. Amazing with any slow main-hand weapon, it also boosts damage when you have a dagger equipped - a great way for Subtlety to support a weapon-type that has a lot less top-end damage than heavier one-handed alternatives. A useful way to think about Dagger-Hemo is that it's basically a much cheaper Backstab without the annoying positional requirement. With that being said, don't feel trapped by weapon type as any one-handed sword, mace, axe, fist, or dagger (with the same item level) will do similar damage.

Hemorrhage and the pre-requisite Serrated Blades provide a combined 45% increase to the damage of our Rupture which upgrades it into an s-tier finisher that we definitely want on bosses and high-health targets. While the armor reduction of Serrated Blades (which also compliments Ambush very well) means you'll be melting through mobs like a hot knife through butter, regardless of what you have equipped in either hand.

Premeditation gets straight into more good points with an update removing the stealth requirement. Use it in the opener to start your fights with full finishers, or during the combat to fill gaps and maintain Slice and Dice Rupture or Expose Armor. You will never feel as resource-rich as you do when you play a Subtlety rogue and as previously mentioned - I've had fights in which I gained more than fifteen combo points in fifteen seconds. Just think about what that means when we spec Sub-Combat to pick up Blade Flurry with Improved Eviscerate.

Whatever cooldown combination, point-play shenanigans you cook up with Subtlety (and there are many of them) with just one button, you can use them all again. Preparation is the true hold-my-beer ability of this specialisation, allowing us to pull off insane rotation sequences that will leave people wondering how the hell you managed to do.. whatever it was that just happened.

Subtlety Pros

• Huge burst damage that deletes targets fast
• A lot of powerful talents for open-world PvP
• Smoother rotations with free combo-points
• Easily to solo elites and high level enemies
• Broken flurry damage when combat hybrid

Subtlety Cons

• Stealth openers take more time to set up
• Less free points in dungeon content
• No cleave damage in deep subtlety
• Awkward hybrid-talent routing

Primary Stats

Agility > Attack Power / Strength > Stamina

Agility is the king of primary stats for Rogues, granting us attack power, critical strike chance, dodge chance, and armor - which are all extremely valuable while leveling.

Attack Power and Strength have 1:1 value, but when an item has an Attack Power bonus, it will usually be higher than the amount of strength you would get from an item of the same ilvl. 

Stamina gives us more health points at a rate of 1:10 as well as improving the new Undead racial Touch of the Grave at roughly +0.5 damage/healing per point of stamina.

Spirit gives us health regeneration but it is never a factor when deciding on equipment unless two items have the same value but one of them also has spirit.

Intellect increases the rate at which we learn weapon skills, which has a niche use when you want to train up a weapon type quickly. 

Specialty Stats

Expertise > Hit > Crit

Expertise - Reduces the chance that our attacks can be dodged and parried by a flat % amount. It is point-for-point the best of the three speciality stats - you can think about it like Hit+ since dodges and parries account for a large amount of overall damage loss and our Hit stat doesn't mitigate any of that.

Hit - We need 9% to ensure we never miss a special attack (basically anything that comes from pushing a button). Beyond that, it still provides value by reducing the miss chance of our normal weapon swings, which account for roughly half of our overall damage (depending on talent specialisation). Furthermore, our weapon hits facilitate additional damage sources like poisons, enchants, talents, and on-hit effects.

Crit - Increases the chance to score a critical strike with all attacks and poisons, which increases the damage of a given attack by 100% (spell caster critical strikes only increase the damage by 50%). Point-for-point it is still less desirable than Expertise or Hit but it is nonetheless a very powerful rogue stat.

Weapon Skill

Weapon skill - Is the most powerful stat in the endgame because it mitigates the damage penalty of glancing blows - normal auto-attacks against a higher-level target that deal significantly reduced damage and cannot critically strike. You'll find weapon skill itemised on individual pieces of gear or set bonuses like this Defias Leather (5). Against a level 63 raid boss a flat 40% of all your auto-attacks will be glancing blows.

• +0 Levels (Level 60): 10% of white hits are glancing blows
• +1 Level (Level 61): 20% of white hits are glancing blows
• +2 Levels (Level 62): 30% of white hits are glancing blows
• +3 Levels (Boss / Level 63): 40% of white hits are glancing blows

Assuming that our auto-attacks are worth roughly half of our damage (will be a little more or less depending on spec) this is how much weapon skill increases our damage against a lvl 63 raid boss.

• +1 skill: +1.2% overall damage (+6.1% more damage on glancing blows)
• +2 skill: +2.5% overall damage (+12.3% more damage on glancing blows)
• +3 skill: +3.7% overall damage (+18.4% more damage on glancing blows)
• +4 skill: +4.9% overall damage (+24.6% more damage on glancing blows)
• +5 skill: +6.1% overall damage (+30.7% more damage on glancing blows)
• +6 skill: +7.4% overall damage (+36.9% more damage on glancing blows)
• +7 skill: +8.6% overall damage (+43.0% more damage on glancing blows)
• +8 skill: +9.2% overall damage (+46.1% more damage on glancing blows)

At +8 skill you reach absolute cap for glancing blow mitigation - any more has absolutely no effect.

Racials: General

Night Elf

Elune's Light grants 10% increased crit chance for 15 seconds with a 3-minute cooldown. A very strong ability for increased damage in any situation but particularly powerful when combined with Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush, both of which also last for 15 seconds. 

Quickness adds 1% dodge (a small bonus to our 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 gives us a budget form of stealth with a 10-second cooldown that breaks after moving. We can also use it as a threat drop in combat but on doing so the cooldown increases to 2 minutes. Stealth abilities cannot be used while Shadowmeld is active and it doesn’t remove us from combat like vanish. However, it does increase the base strength of our stealth, making Night Elves the sneakiest Rogues on Azeroth, and particularly effective at moving through tight spaces unseen.

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 nonetheless be a benefit while leveling.

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. Nice for survivability in general and in PvP situations where those particular debuffs are being thrown at you quite often.

 Earth Fury gives us a flat 2% increased critical damage, a little bit of extra pump but nothing to get excited about.

Find Treasure allows Dwarves to track treasure chests on the mini-map simultaneously with other tracking (like mines or herbs). Additionally, this racial now grants a chance at bonus loot from chests, making Dwarves the best race for any gold farm that involves opening these bountiful boxes. 

Big Game Hunter increases damage to beasts by 5% which is a significant boost, especially impactful for dungeon or raid bosses of this creature type.

Undead

Cannibalize has always been a fantastic leveling racial, giving us 35% of our health back by consuming a dead humanoid (and it doesn’t even have to be our kill). Excellent synergy with short-term crowd controls; we can Blind Gouge or Kidney Shot then Cannibalize (usually when you’ve recently bandaged or run out altogether). It’s undead-only fast food, that saves you time and money.

Touch of the Grave gives us a 20% chance per hit to drain life from the target at an amount up to 5% of our life total (with an internal cooldown of 15s) granting us passive damage and healing in all areas of content. 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 while it is definitely more valuable for leveling on a PvP ruleset, there are plenty of PvE situations in which you'll be glad to have this racial.

Underwater Breathing allows us to breathe 300% longer underwater. More of a novelty racial that does have niche uses which will convenience you from time to time.

Human

Perception dramatically increases stealth detection for 20 seconds and it’s the main reason why human rogues are by far the best race for mirror matches in arenas and open world PvP situations. A good start is half the battle, but when it comes to rogue on rogue - a good start can often mean the entire battle.

Will to Survive instantly removes all stun effects on a 3-minute cooldown, insanely powerful in PvP for obvious reasons, and the second reason why humans are the best rogue vs rogue race in the game. It will also come in handy across a variety of PvE situations but regardless of how it is used, you will always feel good pushing a button that gets you out of a crunch.

Ruthless is the latest update to the human racial (replacing sword specialisation) and it adds 2% critical chance to all spell and attacks, making it at least twice as strong as other racial bonuses that affect critical strikes.

The Human Spirit increases (you guessed it) our spirit by 5%. 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 very powerful in both PvP and PvE, especially when you understand that the energy reduction itself is also a DPS increase since we can use more abilities within the same 8 second window.

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 means you’ll always be 5 energy ahead of other races who push their buttons at the exact same times as you. When we have equipment that also increases our max energy, combined with the Vigor talent from Assassination, this racial will provide Gnomes with a little more. 

Escape Artist gives brief immunity to roots and snares which is often useful in PvP and rarely useful outside of it. Nonetheless, it will probably save your life at least once on the road to 60.

Engineering Specialization reduces the rate at which engineering devices fail or backfire by 20% which is significant in PvP, and niche in PvE scenarios like speed-running or gold-farming. 

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 powerful ability in a many logistical situations with PvP being the most obvious, you can quickly disengage or engage with a player from height, as well as protect yourself from falling to death. Jumping from zeppelins, mountains, bridges, and various other structures, gives us a nice movement advantage in the open world and a lot 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 that increases health and mana regeneration by 100% for 30 seconds, or 15 minutes if there is a leyline nearby. Cast it and keep moving for passive regen that reduces downtime while questing, though getting the most out of this ability would require a dedicated spirit set to equip-on-cast so you can fully heal on the move. 

Skysight is the Horde version that increases movement and mounted speed by 10% for 30 seconds, or for 15 minutes if there is a leyline nearby. It has a half-second cast (presumably you cannot activate it while mounted) and a 2-minute cooldown. A powerful ability in all areas of content with the 10% boost being enough to outrun most mobs or players, as well as having gold-farming applications, with just a 2-minute cooldown and potential to have the bonus for a full 15 minutes. 

Wind Blessed increases casting, melee, and ranged haste by 3%, considering that roughly half our damage comes from our normal weapon swings - this equates to roughly a 1.5% damage increase. Additionally, the extra speed will increase on-hit weapon procs from poisons, windfury, enchants, and items, which will scale our damage even further and while it’s not game-breaking, it is significant.

Elemental Insight increases damage to Elementals by 5% which is a powerful dps boost against these types of dungeon or raid boss, especially when combined with the new 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, and then Rapid Regen (usually when you’ve recently bandaged or run out altogether). Great for reducing downtime and a satisfying way to clutch a kill in PvP or PvE situations.

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 significant boost and especially valuable against dungeon or raid bosses of this creature type.

Orc

 Shatter Curse has a 3-minute cooldown, removes curses and banes immediately, while also reducing incoming magical damage by 5% for 8 seconds. Nice for survivability in general, and very powerful in PvP situations where those debuffs are being thrown at you. This defence-against-the-dark-arts racial makes orcs the only rogue race with an answer to curses, banes, and magic damage in general.

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 PvP but will also be nice for dungeon and raid stuns where it will allow you to get back on target faster, which results in more overall damage.

 Savage increases the critical strike chance of all spells and abilities by 1%. This will include poisons but not your normal weapon swings as they are not abilities.

Racials: Leveling

Most players will be better served by choosing a race based on play style and endgame goals (PvP, PvE, Gold Farming). However, if you are primarily concerned with speed, it’s useful to consider racial bonuses in three categories; Movement Speed, Combat Speed, and Downtime Reduction.

• Movement Speed - anything that affects our logistical movement through the world
• Combat Speed - anything that increases our damage and therefore kill times
• Downtime Reduction - allows us to fight for longer and/or get back to the fight sooner by utilizing defensive, healing, and regenerative racials.

S-Tier

Horde Skyborne - Skysight brings 10% movement and mounted movement for 30 seconds (or 15 minutes with leyline) on a 2-minute cooldown, and is the single best racial for leveling speed. Nothing else even comes close. When there’s no leyline nearby, activate it immediately after Sprint (they don't stack) to keep your cooldowns synced and fill the gap between speed bursts. Once you include Walk on Air which brings many micro time-saves across a single session of play, and Wind Blessed offering a flat 3% haste that increases kill times regardless of mob type, and you can start to see why Horde Skyborne is the clear favourite for any player who is primarily concerned with leveling speed.

A-Tier

Night Elves bring a balance of bonuses to both movement and combat speed. The 2% run speed increase from Quickness is not to be underestimated - if leveling was based purely on movement speed, by the time every race listed below reaches 50, Night Elves will be 51. Elune's Light increases combat speed by way of increased crit (and in turn damage) against any mob type, while Wisp Spirit is the single best run-speed racial in the game, albeit when you’re dead.

Gnomes will be leveling quickly with Eureka! and the double-dip combat speed benefits it brings, lasting for 8 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. The damage increase of 10% is our first big boost, while 10% reduced energy costs means that they can use more abilities in the same amount of time. The little kings of combat burst have another trick up their sleeves in the form of Expansive Mind. Consider that rogues reach their energy cap between fights a lot, and that Gnomes will have 5 more energy to play with, allowing them to execute certain openers without having to wait for energy regen. Even in clone-rotation scenarios, the Gnome will be 5 energy ahead and can therefore push their buttons half a second before any other race, ending fights in slightly less time. Now multiply that time by the thousands of combats you will engage in on the way to 60. 

Undead find their advantage in the form of reduced downtime, which is a direct consequence of passive healing from Touch of the Grave, and active healing from Cannibalize. You will need far less food and bandages overall when playing Undead, which means fewer trips back to town and more time to focus on the grind. Trust me when I tell you - that time adds up.

Trolls have a powerful combination of increased combat speed and reduced downtime by way of Berserking, Rapid Regeneration, and Regeneration. With faster fights and a second bandage every 3 minutes, combined with 20% passive Regen while in combat, Troll rogues will have a lot less downtime overall than most other races. As such, they'll maintain a steady, self-sufficient pace all the way up to level cap.

Alliance Skyborne’s Read Leyline is a significantly weaker racial than their Horde counterparts, and while it grants passive regen that can be buffed with spirit, doing so would require extra gear for the healing benefit that both Troll and Undead already have, without needing to carry a second set. Walk on Air does have many time-saving applications across a single play session, and Wind Blessed will increase your kill times regardless of mob type with it's flat 3% haste, but the difference between the alliance Read Leyline and the horde Skysight is difficult to overstate when it comes to leveling speed.

B-Tier

Orcs are the only race to boast combat bonuses in every one of their racials. The defensive (but nonetheless niche) Shatter Curse and Hardiness are a minor factor for leveling speed, and while Savage and Blood Fury are solid offensives in any combat, Orcs are painfully lacking in both movement and healing bonuses.

Humans have two defensive racials in Perception and Will to Survive, both are very useful on PvP rulesets and not very useful outside of them. Their offensive bonus comes in the form of Ruthless which boasts an impressive 2% flat crit to all attacks and spells - twice as powerful as other racials that affect crit. The Human Spirit is a non-factor regen boost and the last card in a somewhat weak leveling deck.

Dwarf racials are generally the worst for speed of any kind, but what else can you expect from a group of short-legged alcoholics. The ones that do affect leveling are all combat-based, with Stoneform, Earth Fury, and Big Game Hunter offering one defensive and two offensive bonuses respectively, though all are nonetheless minor increases to speed in general. Hic!

Poisons

For levelling, you’ll almost always be using the latest version of Instant Poison on both weapons because Deadly Poison generally doesn’t last long enough to produce the same damage on a single target before it dies. Crippling Poison, Mind-numbing Poison, and Wound Poison are rarely-used situational options on PvE rulesets, and often-used situational advantages on PvP rulesets.

Stones

In Forever, we can now have poisons and sharpening stones on each of our weapons at the same time, which is a significant boost to our damage. The low level versions are generally very cheap on the auction house and add a lot of value in the early game so pick up a stack of Rough Sharpening Stone or Coarse Sharpening Stone whenever you’re back in the city. Their higher-level equivalents can become expensive so don’t break the bank if it’s not worth it.

Bandages

First Aid can be learned as soon as you get to the town beyond your starting area, train it up as you level whether you're a speed-runner or snail-chaser. Bandage synergizes 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 be questing 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 buck and is a budget Blessing of Kings buff that gives us +8% to all stats on a 1hr cooldown. Incredible value that scales with your gear, all the way to 60. Buy enough Flint and Tinder for 5-10 campfires, craft them all at once, and keep them in your bags. Fish Bowl (or required materials) will cost very little on the auction house so buy enough to match your campfire stack and restock them whenever you're back in a city.

Food Buffs

All food that gives stat buffs also gives 5% flat experience gain which is by far the most valuable leveling bonus that we can get from food. We will never get a stat increase boosts our damage enough to get anywhere close to the +5% increased leveling time we get from the experience bonus. Keep this in mind whenever you are unable to find optimal food on the auction house, just buy whatever is cheap like Herb Baked Egg, as long as it has the 5% exp buff.

That being said, the best food for rogues is anything that gives bonus Agility or Attack Power, Brilliant Smallfish or Spiced Wolf Meat are the lowest level, with bonuses increasing all the way up to Poached Sunscale Salmon and Swiftstrike Steak. You can train fishing and cooking as you level up to craft the foods of your choice, or simply buy stacks from the auction house if you want to focus on speed. Their cost increases with each new tier but attack power is generally cheaper than agility and provides roughly the same value. 

Westfall Stew and the recipe are alliance-only rewards for a quest of the same name and this food grants +15% movement speed bonus within the zone of Westfall. Currently one of only two edibles that are known to offer such a bonus, the other being Sweetpaw Jam for the Hyjal zone, much later in the game.

Alchemy Buffs

Elixir of Minor Strength, Elixir of Minor Agility and Elixir of Minor Force will be plentiful and cheap on the auction house as everyone leveling Alchemy will be crafting them in multitudes. These are massive value boosts for very little cost in the early game and keeping a stack of 5-10 of each will help you power through these levels quickly. Elixir of Minor Defense, Elixir of Minor Fortitude, and Minor Troll's Blood Elixir are also valuable but unless you’re playing Hardcore or expect a lot of PvP activity, they usually aren’t worth the bag space. Like most consumables, variants tend to get more expensive than they’re worth (at least on a fresh server when money is tight and mounts still need to be paid for) but keep an eye on the auction house for more powerful tiers that are listed at low prices.

Healing Potions

Healing Potion variants can now be crafted with First Aid and they require herbs that become increasingly expensive relative to the level of the potions. Handy if you're a herbalist - but in that case you're probably an Alchemist too so it would make little difference. We often loot these potions from mobs, pickpocketing, and chests, so I generally don’t prioritise crafting or buying them unless I know I'm going to be engaging particularly difficult encounters. Similar to Tea, I tend to use them for emergencies or taking on an unusually large pack of mobs.

Thistle Tea

While not always affordable, Thistle Tea is one of the best offensive consumables for rogues. It's best utilized during your Blade Flurry window as any direct damage ability that you cast with that extra energy will hit a second target, essentially doubling its value. 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.

Outside of combat use-cases, I like to keep a few Thistle Tea in my bags for emergencies and having the ability to instantly refresh to full energy will definitely save your life on the road to level cap. 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.

Professions & Leveling

Speed - You take no professions, as far as you’re concerned the time it takes to disenchant an item is time taken away from you hitting 60. You'll deal with it after getting your world first title.

Quick - You pick two gathering professions (no crafting so leveling stays quick). Materials can be sold to vendors, via the auction house, or stashed in the bank for later use. Gathering is a popular gold farming method in the endgame.

Relaxed - You level any combination of gathering and/or crafting professions to 300, collect all the patterns, and craft items to use or sell on the auction house.

Popular Endgame Combos

Skinning Leatherworking - Craft gear for leveling or pre-raid - make money selling it.

Herbalism Alchemy - Use and sell the best consumables for all classes in the game.

Mining Engineering - Explosives and gadgets that are often best-in-slot for PvP and PvE.

Herbalism Mining - An understandably popular pairing for gold-farmers and gathering alts.

Gathering Professions

Enchanting, Skinning, Mining, and Herbalism are all relatively quick to level, with enchanting and skinning being the quickest and lowest maintenance.

Enchanting allows you to disenchant items into dusts, essences, and shards that stack well in bags, cost nothing to list on the auction house, and sell relatively well. Furthermore, a player with level 1 enchanting can disenchant any item in the game regardless of its level or rarity, and you can pick up Enchanting at any point in your journey and avail of this - no other profession provides you with such a powerful value-add as soon as you learn it. If you decide to stop levelling a certain profession in favour of getting to 60 faster, consider a drop and swap to Enchanting for hassle-free passive income.

Skinning provides solid vendor prices throughout your journey and a satisfyingly efficient double-dip leveling system. Experience from kills and subsequent skinning skill-ups feels good - though you will have to grind on some beasts (is it Saturday already?) in order to reach the level requirement for skinning in the upcoming zone. Selling leather directly to vendors keeps your bags light while providing a solid income, you can try to sell on the auction house but unlike enchanting materials, you have to pay for each listing whether someone buys them or not. Vendor what you can, when you can - this keeps your bags light and your purse full.

Herbalism and Mining also require that you gather what you need to access higher level nodes in upcoming zones, which often means you’ll spend a little time picking and/or mining before you move on from a given area. Gathering professions in Forever are supposed to provide experience but players on the Beta are reporting that this isn't currently working as intended. Even if fixed, they likely won’t provide as much as the mobs you would be killing for Skinning, especially if skinning is included in the new gathering experience system - triple dip hype!

Q: If other gathering professions are faster and easier, why would I take Herbalism or Mining?

Herbalism and Mining provide massive gold-farming utility in the endgame and a Rogue with both would have immediate access to multiple s-tier farms at level 60.

• With three new raids and an unknown number of new dungeons, two gathering professions provide the best potential for any as-of-yet undeveloped gold farms. 
• If you’re considering Alchemy, Engineering or even Blacksmithing, but want to see all the new benefits before you pick, simply drop whichever gather doesn't serve your chosen craft.
• With new materials, crafts, consumables, class changes, and endgame meta, we simply don’t know where the value lies in professions for PvP, PvE, & Gold Farming. 
• Once the dust settles, we will discover which materials are most in demand and be able to make more gold by farming whatever has the highest value in the current market.

Crafting Professions

Engineering

Target Dummy's and stunners like Iron Grenade or even Rough Copper Bomb provide excellent utility all the way to 60. Yes, you can continue to stun and taunt late-game mobs (usually so you can run away) with these early-game items. They are required to open the first chest in the Scarlet Monastery Graveyard Farm so if you want to get rich in the mid-game you need to go engineering. Materials for these early items should remain relatively cheap as you level so don’t feel like you have to take mining if you would rather take enchanting, skinning, etc. 

Leatherworking

A plethora of new leather sets for all classes and specs has been added to the game, with more powerful variants of things like Brawler's Leather Armor available every ten levels or so. Furthermore, there are multiple pre-raid quality items like Devilsaur Leggings and Primal Batskin Jerkin (which can both be sold by the way) waiting for us at the endgame, as well as the Forceful Heavy Armor Kit with caster caster variants. Leatherworking will be a viable and profitable profession choice for rogues in Forever, though you'll make the most money with certain in-demand crafts when they're best-in-slot for large portions of the player-base.

Alchemy

Things likeElixir of Minor Strength, Elixir of Minor Agility and Elixir of Minor Force can all be bought on the auction house for very little since every Alchemist will be crafting them in abundance. End-game recipes like Flask of Natural Precision, Elixir of Shadow Power, Elixir of Ferocity, or Major Mana Potion, are just a few example of what Alchemy has to offer and the real value of this profession is in the money you can make selling these crafts at the right time.

Enchanting

The perfect money making profession for alt-tab enjoyers and those who work from home - if the semi-afk grind in capital cities is right fit for your wow-life balance, more power to you. Enchanting also has the potential to be one of the most lucrative professions for any class, if you are one of the lucky (or knowledgable) players who can be first to market with things like Enchant Weapon - Crusader. I've seen enchanters on fresh classic servers charge 50-100g as a crafting fee, simply because they were the only person online with a powerful enchant that a lot of endgame players needed.

Secondary Professions

First Aid

It will save your life many, many times both while leveling and in the endgame - bandage cast time synergises incredibly well with Rogue stuns like Gouge, Blind, and Kidney Shot. Just make sure your stun has actually hit the target before you start to bandage or the cast will be interrupted, often followed by a corpse run. Whenever you have more than you need for emergencies, use them for quick heals and less downtime between fights.

Speed, Quick, and Relaxed levelers should all learn First Aid in the town after your starting area (or any capital city) and make bandages from the Linen Cloth, Wool Cloth, Silk Cloth, Mageweave Cloth, and Runecloth that you loot as you level to 60. This is by far the easiest profession to level and you can often get to 300 skill without ever buying a single piece of cloth from the auction house.

Cooking

Should be learned by everyone for three reasons; campfire buffs, food buffs, and thistle tea. As soon as you learn this skill you can make a Basic Campfire Kit (flint and tinder bought from vendors) which can be used to cook food and/or drop the new personal buff items like the fantastic Fish Bowl.

Speed levelers should learn it for the immediate ability to create campfires and never touch it again until reaching 60.

Quick levelers who want access to Thistle Tea can level cooking to 60 quickly with meat looted and/or bought on the auction house. Tea is a life saver and Swiftthistle is usually quite cheap, but unlike Bandages, you will likely want to save these for emergencies only. Recipe: Thistle Tea is a reward from the lvl 20 Poison Quest chain, but it can also be bought from Smudge Thunderwood in the basement of Ravenholdt Manor. 

Relaxed levelers who invest time into cooking will have access to all the food buffs they could ever want, from Raw Brilliant Smallfish and Spiced Wolf Meat all the way up to Mightfish Steak and Flank au Poivre. The more powerful variants will net you a tidy income on the auction house, while consistently checking for under-priced materials can make you a lot of gold without ever leaving the city.

Fishing

Skill to 20 for everyone as it's required to avail of the Fish Bowl, which is the best personal buff for leveling with its incredible +8% all stats bonus. Who doesn't want a budget Blessing of Kings in thier backpack on a 1hr cooldown?

Speed & Quick levelers will likely stop there as food can be easily obtained from the auction house, with the most important bonus (+5% experience gain) being standard across all foods regardless of level or tier. Herb Baked Egg in stacks of 20, all the way to level cap.

Relaxed levelers can spend their days reeling in some of the biggest fish (and profits) that are available to enjoyers of this beloved profession/hobby/life-calling. If you know, you know.

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

For poisons and sharpening stones: left-click to apply to the main hand, right-click for the off hand. Add your own for the poison of your choice and remember to update the poison/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 engineering heal trinket and my satchel heal trinket and a potion all at once, 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 and all lockboxes you have in your bags, picking and opening them one by one. 

#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

The start attack command in the first line will target and attack any mob in range making it a convenient way to swap targets when your initial target is dead. The default ability buttons will target mobs but if you don’t have enough energy to cast the ability it will not start attacking the target, costing you precious damage until enough energy regenerates for you to actually use the ability. The Riposte command that I’ve added (won’t interfere with abilities if you do not have it talented) uses Riposte whenever it activates, and there is no situation in which you would not want to use Riposte over your main ability as it is the best value-for-energy rogue offensive in the game. With these macros you double-up your benefit by automatically using the ability and saving a prime keybind and actionbar slot.

#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 tele you out of a dungeon or raid, useful for stealth farming situations.

/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 that shows ping on mouseover.

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

Spec Swap

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

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

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

Easy Enchanting 

Two-button enchanting leveling macro for when you want to train many levels at once (make two separate macros for each button). Open your enchanting window and click to highlight the enchant you want to spam, open your bag and mouseover the item you want to spam enchant. Click button 1, click button 2, repeat.

Button 1

/click CraftCreateButton

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

Button 2

/click StaticPopup1Button1