I) Introduction
This is going to be a step by step rogue guide for the upcoming expansion Mists of Pandaria, we’ll be delving to each and every detail you need to optimize your play, from your race to your very last gem.
Before we get to it, I’ll have you know, what you’re not going to be finding here is extensive math, because quite frankly, no one wants to read an equation. Instead, you’ll be given clear answers to optimize your rogue.
Abbreviations
SS = Sinister Strike
RvS = Revealing Strike
CS = Cheap Shot
CoS = Cloak of Shadows
FoK = Fan of Knives
AR = Adrenaline Rush
SB = Shadow Blades
TotT = Tricks of the Trade
BF = Blade Flurry
II) General Information
a. Races
I’ll be covering the race section here, there’s plenty of races that can be rogues, but only a few that can prove beneficial, I’ll be covering the most important ones, filtering out the redundancy.
Worgen: There’s really not much of a debate, if you’re alliance, you’d want to be playing Worgen. The extra crit from “Viciousness” supplies with you a fairly considerable dps boost. On the other hand “Darkflight” provides you with that extra bit of utility, I would personally consider that the greatest of Racials when it comes to progress, even though our utility is much better off now that we’ve shadowstep.
Night elf: There really isn’t much to say about this race, though, there’s a notable” bug”(or is it really?) that’s been changed several times ever since the new “Shadowmeld” was introduced in Wrath. Long story short, using “Shadowmeld” in a raid drops combat, which allows you to enter stealth and throw an extra Ambush if you’re playing Subtlety, refreshing your Master of Subtlety and buff and “Find Weakness” debuff on your target, a pretty significant boost that you can only make use of if playing Subtlety.
Troll: Currently our go-to DPS race, with their “Berserking” increasing your melee attack speed, trolls have to upper hand in any encounter that would require a short burst window of dps. Worth noting that “Beast Slaying” is incredibly useful on bosses that are Beasts and absolutely blows any other racial out of the water on that regard.
Orc: If you happen to be using an axe main hand, “Axe specialization” will help you out with that. Besides that, Orcs also have a considerably powerful DPS cooldown that is “Blood Fury”, a nice bump of dps, especially when coupled with Adrenaline Rush & Shadow Blades
Goblin: Slightly worse than the previous two races, goblins have a fairly decent disengage that is “Rocket Jump” that might prove nifty if you happen to put yourself in a difficult situation. As far as DPS goes, you’re paired with “Time is money” which increases your attack speed by 1%.
Pandaren: This is the new and exciting race that’s coming with MoP, Pandaren have several racials, though the most notable one would be “Epicurian”, which doubles your food stats.
b. Professions
Leatherworking: Fur Lining, Bracer. (500 Agility, 330 over regular enchant)
Engineering: Synapse springs, glove enchant. (1920 Agility on use. I’d highly recommend going for Engineering, especially if you’re planning on playing combat, we’re very reliant on our CDS with MoP and that extra boost of agility exactly when we need it could yield you that extra bit of dps.
Blacksmithing: Providing you with 2 extra sockets for your gloves/wrists. (320 Agility)
Tailoring: Swordguard Embroidery, cloak enchant, a proc that increases your ap by 4000 for 15s. (Averaging out at 1080~ AP)
Jewelcrafting: Allows the use of prismatic of two prismatic gems. (320 Agility)
Inscription: Secret Tiger Claw Inscription, shoulder enchant. (520 Agility, 320 over regular enchant)
Enchanting: Allows you to enchant your rings with 160 agility, 320 in total.
Alchemy: You get decent buff from your flask, boosting your agility by 320.
And now for the gathering professions which are obsolete if you’re interested in maximizing.
Skinning increases your crit rating.
Herbalism grants you with extra haste.
And minings “toughness” raises your stamina by 480.
III) Playstyle & Mandatory consumables
a. Talents
Tier 1: 
Nightstalker: 25% damage increase on your opening ability from stealth, plus extra movement speed while in stealth.
Pretty decent if you're looking at running back quickly after wipes, otherwise a fairly weak talent in comparison to its alternatives.
Subterfuge: You’re given 3 second window to use abilities that require stealth each time you break stealth.
Might be beneficial on later tiers, but not right now.
Shadow Focus: Abilities cost no energy while in stealth.
Your primary choise on this tier, pretty good for your openers.
Tier 2: 
Deadly Throw: Finisher that slows the target/interrupts at 5cp.
Not really of much use, perhaps it'd prove worth using you've mistakenly put your kick on cd and you've no other option of interrupting your target.
Nerve Strike: Reduces the damage of a target that was previously afflicted from your Kidney Shot by 50%.
Decent for heroics when gearing up towards your raids.
Combat Readiness: Reduces all damage taken up to 50%, stacks every time you get a melee hit by 10%.
Heavily situational, though it can prove extremely useful in fights where you’re likely to have several mobs swinging at you. (Think Ragnaros p2)
Tier 3: 
Cheat Death: Absorbs an attack that would otherwise kill you.
Pretty fail-safe talent, can forgive overly aggressive play.
Leeching Poison: 50% chance to inflict your target with your poison, with each strike after that healing you for 10% of damage dealt.
One of the two new poisons we’re getting with his expansion, a fairly significant self heal for encounters with passive aoe damage.
Elusiveness: Your feint reduces all damage taken by 30%.
Worth noting, feint no longer has a CD, and also no longer requires a target. If you’re hit from an aoe spell while having Elusiveness talented, you’d be looking at 65%~ reduce on all damage from that particular source, extremely useful, probably more so than any other talent that we currently have access to.
Tier 4: 
Preparation: Instantly finishes the cooldown of your Sprint, Vanish, Cloak of Shadows, Evasion, Dismantle.
For those of you that have been playing the class for quite a while now, this talent has been changed several times ever since Vanilla, and with MoP, we yet again have Cloak of Shadows and Evasion added to it, while Smoke bomb was removed. All in all, pretty decent talent that isn’t likely to be used due to it’s alternatives.
Shadowstep: Teleports you directly behind your target, no longer increases damage of any ability.
Oh, um, yeah, you read this right. Shadowstep is now a talent and isn’t restricted to sub, needless to say, this is the most massive change to utility we’ve probably ever had.
Burst of Speed: Instantly increases your movement speed by 70% for the cost of 60 energy.
Interesting concept, I don’t particularly like it’s implementation though, 60 energy is simply too much to spare in most scenarios.
Tier 5: 
Prey of the Weak: Enemies afflicted by your Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot, Gouge, Sap or Blind take an addiction 10% damage from all sources.
Another talent that’d prove decent for heroics, not much use of it in raids.
Paralytic Poison: 20% chance to poison an enemy, stacks up to 5 times, upon the last stack, the enemy will be stunned for 4s. Shiv Effect: Rooting enemy for 4s.
Again, perhaps useful for heroics, I wouldn’t go further than that though.
Dirty Tricks: Gouge and Blind no longer have energy requirement and no longer break from poisons and bleed effects.
I don’t see a fitting place for this talent in a pve environment.
Tier 6: 
Shuriken Toss: An instant ranged attack which awards 1 combo point, replacing throw. Costs 20 Energy.
Versatility: Removes the CD from redirect.
Nifty for fights with lots of target switching.
Anticipation: Stores up to a maximum of 5 extra CP's on your target.
Your go-to talent of this tier, incredibly useful to soak up Sinister strike double CP procs, or mutilate crits.
b. Glyphs
There’s really not that many choises as far as glyphs go, or rather, there’s too many, only their use is situatonal at best. Here’s my primary choises.
Assassination:
Vendetta: Adds a flat 5% damage reduction, but increases it's duration by 10 seconds.
DPS increase for the time being.
Sprint: Provides you with a 30% extra speed increase on your sprint.
Feint: Increases your feint by 2 seconds.
Expose Armor(Optional): Instantly gives your expose armor 3 stacks for one use.
This glyph will be absolutely mandatory for Emperor if your add doesn't already have a person that can provide the sunders.
Combat:
Adrenaline Rush: While AR is active, your GCD of Sinister Strike, Revealing Strike, Eviscerate, Rupture and Slice and Dice is reduced by 0.2%.
Your most important glyph and the only one in our disposal that actively impacts our DPS which needless to say, you can only make use of as Combat.
Sprint: Provides you with a 30% extra speed increase on your sprint.
Again, that extra utility is just very useful.
Feint: Increases your feint by 2 seconds.
Coupled with Elusiveness, feint is likely to be your most important utility glyph.
Blade Flurry(Optional): Attacks have a 30% chance of applying non-lethal poisons to your target.
Decent for fights with target switching and lots of cleaving potential, again, only usable as combat.
Minor:
Killing Spree: Few words on this glyph, pretty interesting I have to say, particularly because they won’t manually have to fix bosses such as Magmaw, Ragnaros, Ultraxion, etc. that’d previously kill you if you used your spree. Although, unless such a case presents itself again, we’re not going to be using this glyph as combat.
c. Stat priorities
All there values are taken in full BiS gear, there’s currently no indication that the priorities are going to change from your preraid gear to full BiS. Naturally, values will shift upwards, but your priorities should remain the same.
Combat: Starting off with what appears to be the most popular spec of this tier, as combat your priorities should be:
Agility > Exp/Hit(Up to 7.5%) > Haste > Mastery > Crit
Note: Crit is likely to be worth more than mastery if you're sitting at pre raid gear, though as you progress into the tier mastery should take over.
Mutilate:
Agility > Exp/Hit(Up to 7.5%) > Mastery > Haste > Crit
Subtlety:
Agility > Exp/Hit(Up to 7.5%) > Haste > Crit > Mastery
d. Rotation
Combat
• Stealth
• Shadowstep
• Revealing Strike
• Sinister Strike
• Sinister Strike
• Slice and Dice
• Killing Spree
• AR/Trinket/SB
This is what your opener should look like, if your first sinister procs a double CP and you’re at 3, feel free to skip the second SS.
Notes:
• Revealing strike is essentially your Sinister Strike glyph now, you’d always want to sinister and/or eviscerate your target with RvS on it, To minimize the amount of energy spend on RvS per fight, you should ideally pool energy when it’s about to drop, and using it when you’re as close to capping as you can get, which would yield less energy spend on your overall RvS’s in your session.
• If you’re at 5CP and your RvS happens to drop, you should still use it and soak up the CP’s with Anticipation.’
Mutilate
• Stealth
• Shadowstep
• Mutilate
• Slice and Dice
• Mutilate
• Mutilate
• Rupture
This is what your opener should ideally look like, you want to get your SnD / rupture up as fast as possible, and then follow a fairly passive play from there.
Notes:
• Blindside is a random proc that’s been added to Assassination with MoP. It’s essentially a proc that allows the use of Dispatch for the cost of no energy, a new ability that came with it.
• Dispatch has replaced Backstab in the Assassination spec, below 35, Dispatch should be used to pick up combo points, and as mutilate is your Blindside generating ability, that means no more blindsides at sub 35%. Also, Dispatch has no facing requirement.
Subtlety
• Stealth
• Shadowstep
• Ambush
• Slice and Dice
• Backstab(Up to 5CP while soaking HaT)
• Rupture
Notes:
• Your eviscerates no longer refresh rupture, so this is an extra thing you have to keep in mind
• Recuperate is no longer needed as SnD proves the energy regeneration that was previously given by it.
e. Consumables
The following consumables are going to be the ones you're going to want to use in your every raid, these are absolutely vital and should not be neglected at any cost.
Flask: Flask of Spring Blossoms
Food buff: Sea Mist Rice Noodles
Potion: Virmen’s Bite
IV) Gear
a. BiS Setup
Dungeon gear
| Slot |
Item |
Boss, Dungeon |
| Head |
Soulburner Crown |
Lillian Voss, Scholomance |
| Neck |
Scorched Scarlet Key |
Flameweaver Koegler, Scarlet Halls |
| Shoulders |
Doubtridden Shoulderguards |
Sha of Doubt, Temple of the Jade Serpent |
| Back |
Wind-Soaked Drape |
Wise Mari, Temple of the Jade Serpent |
| Chest |
Korloff's Raiment |
Brother Korloff, Scarlet Monastery |
| Wrists |
Saboteur's Stabilizing Bracers |
Saboteur Kip'tilak, Gate of the Setting Sun |
| Hands |
Tombstone Gauntlets |
Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance |
| Waist |
Belt of Brazen Inebriation |
Hoptallus, Stormstout Brewery |
| Legs |
Ghostwoven Legguards |
Jandice Barov, Scholomance |
| Boots |
Dashing Strike Treads |
High Inquisitor Whitemane, Scarlet Monastery |
| Finger1 |
Pulled Grenade Pin |
Saboteur Kip'tilak, Gate of the Setting Sun |
| Finger2 |
Signet of Dancing Jade |
Liu Flameheart, Temple of the Jade Serpent |
| Trinket1 |
Windswept Pages |
Lorewalker Stonestep, Temple of the Jade Serpent |
| Trinket2 |
Searing Words |
Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance |
| Main hand |
Claws of Gekkan, combat / Koegler's Ritual Knife, Subtlety & Assassination |
Gekkan, Mogu'shan Palace / Flameweaver Koegler, Scarlet Halls |
| Off hand |
Koegler's Ritual Knife |
Flameweaver Koegler, Scarlet Halls |
b. Enchants
Head: Removed with MoP
Shoulders: Greater Tiger Claw Inscription
Back: Accuracy
Chest: Glorious Stats
Wrists: Greater Agility
Hands: Greater Expertise(combat), Greater Haste(Sub), Superior Mastery(Mutilate)
Waist: Living Steel Belt Buckle for your extra gem
Legs: Shadowleather Leg Armor
Feet: Blurred Speed
Weapons: Dancing Steel
None of the above are involved in any reputation like they previously used to be
c. Gems
Meta: Agile Primal Diamond
Red: Delicate Primordial Ruby
Yellow: Deft Vermilion Onyx for Combat and Subtlety, Adept Vermilion Onyx for Assassination
Blue: Glinting Imperial Amethyst
V) Interface
In this section of the guide I’ll be listing several addons that I’d personally consider absolutely mandatory for your play, it’s completely okay if you’d want to use something different yet similar to any of these, it’s ultimately a preference as they’d end up serving the same purpose.
a. UI
Addons that I use:
TellMeWhen: Buff/debuff tracker, using it as an icon tracker for several abilities, it also has the module to add sounds to each and every thing you’d want to track, such addon I’d consider a necessity for any raider.
NeedToKnow: Bar tracking for your abilities such as SnD, RvS, Rupture, etc. And while TellMeWhen serves about the same purpose, NeedToKnow is primarily used for abilities that impact my dps directly.
Tidy Plates: Nameplates are pretty important nowdays, and you’d ideally want an addon that isn’t going to feel too clutter your screen with endless healthbars. I’m personally using Neon theme.
Bigwigs/Deadly Boss Mods: A set of mods for each boss that’d simply guide you through each encounter with warnings and hints.
Quartz: If you’re on interrupt duty, you better have some proper addon for it. Quartz was the first casting bar addon I’ve used and I’d recommend it to anyone.
Omen: While rogues aren’t exactly the ones pulling aggro often due to our crafty tools, having a threat meter is always useful.
Pitbull: Probably the most generic Unitframe addon out there, if you’re using the default unitframes and you’re comfortable playing with those, that’s fine too, although you’d be incredibly limited when it comes to configurability. (I’m personally using STUF right now, though.)
Skada: Damage meter is an essential for every damage dealer. Recount would be an alternative to it.
MikScrollingCombatText(MSBT): Scrolling combat text addon that replaces the default blizzard one.
Worthy mentions of addons that can prove useful, I’m not using all of these personally:
Tracking, Powerauras: Probably the most used tracking addon.
Reforging, Reforgesaver: Allows for you to make reforging profiles, making switching between specs a whole lot less painful.
Bartender: Bar addon, pretty straight forward.
OmniCC: Replaces the cooldown piece with the actual number that’s left until an ability is ready.
Moveanything: If you’re using default UI, chances are, you’re going to want to have this. Basically allows you to change position of just about any element in the default ui.
My UI in action:
(click on the image for fullscreen link)
b. Macros
I’ve a ton of these, sadly, most of them aren’t particularly important, although I’m going to be listing a few that might potentially help you out.
Code:
/startattack
/cast Sinister Strike
Code:
/startattack
/cast Fan of Knives
Generally speaking, start attack macros are pretty standard and you could make use of them in several cases, although these two could be the most beneficial ones.
Code:
#show Sprint
/cancelaura Stampeding Roar
/cast Sprint
Have to press this twice if you’re already under the Stampeding Roar effect, grants you with that extra 10% of movement speed. (60% for Stampeding roar, 70% for sprint unglyphed.)
Code:
/cast Adrenaline Rush
/cast "Insert Trinket Here"
I’ve never really used such macros before, but with MoP, rogues, and particularly the combat spec is very reliant on our CDS, so using your trinket with ar is likely to yield you with that extra bit of dps.
Code:
#show Tricks of the Trade
/cast [target=”NAME”, exists] Tricks of the Trade; Tricks of the Trade;
Regular TotT macro.
VI) Useful links
Rogue EJ: http://elitistjerks.com/f78/
Reforging site: http://wowreforge.com/
MoP Rogue Guide
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