Rogue Megapost -- pt. 1, Basics (3.0.9)

I usually feel a little discouraged about sharing rogue information, but since it's all swimming around up there, I might as well put it down on paper-- er, or something. The discouragement mostly stems from 1.) the fact that most rogues I know Know Everything and Don't Want to Listen to You, and 2.) a select few resources are taken as god, and that's mostly what everyone looks at anyway. But you know, if you're one of those people, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog anyway so... :P nyah!

Here goes.

Energy
Part of the reason we excel in long-duration fights is the fact that we do not depend on mana, which can be used in huge bursts at the beginning but is slow to regenerate once used. Instead, we have energy, and although we only have 100 of it, it has a quick rate of regeneration and multiple tools to make that happen faster. Of course, you will still frequently see your most hated error on your screen ("Not enough energy."), but that's ok. You'll have enough in a second, so you learn to ignore the messages pretty quickly :P

Still, keep in mind that energy is our powerhouse, so generally, if you see an energy restoring talent or item (Thistle Tea!), it's a very good thing.


Combo Points, Builders, and Finishers
As I mentioned in my intro post, my first rogue was incredibly aggravating because I couldn't figure out combo points and finishing moves for the life of me.

Combo points are awarded for using special abilities. You can have a maximum of five, and a minimum of one is required to use a "finishing move," which then consumes the combo point(s). The more points you have, the more powerful the finishing move will be.

Your main abilities that award combo points are Garrote, Ambush, Cheap Shot (awards 2), Sinister Strike, Mutilate (awards 2), and Hemorrhagethough there are a few others that award points but will not be used often (if ever) depending on your spec and what you want to do. The first three are opening moves that require stealth, so they will only be used once per encounter, but they should still be used when possible.

Sinister Strike is the primary combat builder, whereas Mutilate is for assassination (since Mutilate is an assassination talent itself), and Hemorrhage is for subtlety (also a subtlety talent).

The primary finishing moves you will find yourself using are Slice and Dice (bonus to attack speed), Rupture (bleed DoT), and Envenom/Eviscerate (straight chunks of damage).


Specs
I feel like I only really understand two trees -- Assassination (often referred to as Mutilate) and Combat. I leveled as Subtlety and enjoyed it for its ability to be super sneaky (remember that I am lazy, and the less effort I have to spend steamrolling everything in my way, the better). So, that being said, here are the two specs I usually roll with:

Combat (fist/sword) -- 7/51/13
Mutilate -- 51/13/7

Let's look at some key talents for each.

For any spec you decide to take, the following talents are important to include:
Malice (5/5) -- 5% crit chance.
Dual Wield Specialization (5/5) -- Increases damage done by your off-hand weapon.
Precision (5/5) -- Increases your chance to hit by 5%
Relentless Strikes (5/5) -- Grants finishing moves a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy. Emphasis on the per combo point part. Any time you use a finishing move, you should have 4-5 combo points saved up, making this an 80%-100% chance to restore 25 energy. This is a ton of energy, hence its importance.


Stats
We have several to keep in mind, namely the following:

Agility -- each point of agility grants 1 attack power (AP) and 0.013% crit chance at level 80. Agility also contributes to armor and dodge, which can be helpful to keep in mind while leveling, but if you're more interested in raiding, the AP/crit is more important to consider.

Hit Rating -- since most of a rogue's damage is white damage (or "melee swing" on a breakdown of abilities, i.e. any non-special ability), ensuring that you're actually hitting what you are intending to hit is important! There are 3 hit caps you should be concerned about, namely those for Specials, Poisons, and White Damage. In Wrath, the white damage hit cap is so absurd that you would have to gem and enchant solely for hit and still only get about halfway to the goal, so instead we are more concerned with the next level of hit cap -- Poisons. Unbuffed, this cap requires a hit rating of 315. If you are grouped with a Balance druid or Shadow priest, these drops down to 235. And if you are fortunate enough to be Alliance and have a draenei in your raid, this drops even farther to 210.

Expertise -- reduces the chance your target will dodge, block, or parry your attacks. Bosses have a 6.5% dodge chance, so to make up for this, you will need to stack a little bit of expertise. Your total expertise should be close to 26 (214 rating for assassination, 132 rating for 2/2 Weapon Expertise combat rogues).

Attack Power -- basically affects how much damage your attacks will hit for. The more, the better.

Crit Rating -- determines how often your attacks will land as a critical strike. Stacking crit is nice because seeing big numbers is always fun, but now it also contributes to energy returns or generation of extra combo points, depending on spec.


Generally, when weighing two items of gear, the preference is Hit (until capped) > Expertise (until capped) > Agi > AP/Crit. But keep in mind that it is important to look at the overall set and how the item in consideration will change certain stats. Try not to get into the habit of looking at each piece at face value alone.

Hope this helps with some of the "I has rogue now wat?" sentiments I've heard some people express.