The Rogue in World of Warcraft is traditionally the one of the best classes when it comes to open world PvP (Player versus Player) encounters. With the ability to stealth and approach your prey unnoticed, you can easily obtain the upper hand and engage your opponent on your own terms. A powerhouse of potential damage per second, the rogue also makes for a good addition to many dungeon and instance encounters when other ranged DPS classes cannot be found.
From level 1 through 9 you will only be able to wield a single weapon, you start out with a dagger. Once you hit level 10, however, you will be able to learn the Dual Wield ability and can equip a second one-hand weapon for additional damage, though at a reduced rate than the weapon would provide alone. These extra attacks, however, do benefit from chance-on-hit enchants and the second weapon provides another item that can be enchanted with stat increasing enchants that are always active. A young Rogue equipped in enchanted heirloom armor and weapons with Crusader or agility enchants is a true mechanism for destruction in the Battlegrounds. And since Blizzard now allows you to gain experience in the BG's, you can spend your time questing or you can gain your levels by inflicting agony on your fellow players by dominating in your favorite contest of honor.
At one time, my main character was a Rogue. I very much enjoyed the simple pleasures of killing players of the opposing faction in the "safety" of their inns and quest hubs and then making my escape before guards or higher level players could exact their revenge. Joining up with another Rogue in the BG's was always a blast, tearing apart entire groups with coordinated use of Sap and then destroying each player while the others watched helplessly. My favorite of all my experiences as a Rogue, though, was a time back in Vanilla WoW (World of Warcraft before expansions) when I was out in Azshara gathering Dreamfoil to sell on the Auction House. Out of nowhere a gnome Mage came riding through and I instantly knew where my herbs had been disappearing to. A deftly timed distract drew the attention of several nearby Elite mobs that made short work of the poor fellow. Good times, good times.
But playing a Rogue isn't just about inflicting Nerd Rage on random strangers, heaven's no. There are a few other special things about the Rogue class that will provide hours of entertainment. There's always the ever-popular Lockpicking ability, where you can charge reasonable tips to unlock chests of all shapes and sizes for your fellow factionites. You can also pickpocket mobs for money and loot. And if that isn't enough, there are always the stealth instance runs where you can skip over pesky trash mobs and make your way right to the bosses, where the real treasure is.
Rogues have three distinct Specialization trees, just like any other class, but all of the trees are just variations of dealing death and destruction. As such, there is no real need for a rogue to dump money into Dual Specialization, an ability that allows a player to change between two specializations near dynamically. Unless, of course, you want to use one spec for raiding and another for PvP. Another tip for being a smart Rogue in WoW is to always have your poisons on your weapons and a good supply in the ready. Many amateur Rogues forget that a good source of their damage and utility comes from the poisons they can cover their blades with.
If that isn't enough for you, then perhaps useless trivia will win you over to the Cleft of Shadow. Rogue is the most commonly misspelled class name in World of Warcraft. Be prepared to be referred to as the Rouge. Yeah, sounds girly, doesn't it? Not exactly a nickname befitting of a silent killer. Oh well, you'll show them.