WOW GOLD-WoW Rogue Equipment Guide

Gearing Up while Leveling Up
   Rogues wear leather and gain attack power from Strength, Agility, and Attack Power. So any leather with any combination of those stats plus Stamina is beneficial. Since Rogues are not spellcasters there will never be a time where you'll want to downgrade your gear to cloth. At higher levels seek out Hit Rating and Expertise (level 60+) along with Critical Strike Rating. These three stats can help push you over the edge in combat and make you one monster of a killing machine.

   Expertise lowers the chance an enemy will dodge or parry your attacks (one point of Expertise decreases the chance by 0.25%). Hit Rating determines the chances your melee and poison attacks will actually hit. These two stats can make a world of difference against enemies of equal or slightly higher levels. If your attacks connect most of the time then you'll be able to really strike them down.

Heroic and Raiding Gear to Look For
   Let's talk weapons first, since Mutilate and Combat require two different weapon types. Combat Rogues will want to look for swords or axes which currently have the best talent (Hack and Slash). You'll be able to easily find swords in heroics, on the vendors, and all over the place. You can do Mace Specialization, but it's all up to you. Mutilate specs will need daggers, for obvious reasons. In Combat, Rogues will need a slow main hand and a fast offhand weapon, while Mutilate just needs a fast offhand. Combat Daggers/Fists has not been viable for a long time, so if you're looking to snag some daggers then head over to the Mutilate side of things. That isn't to say that you couldn't do it, but as you get better gear the bonuses from going Swords & Axes or Maces will be much higher. You can also read our combat article for more details.

   As for gear, you'll want to look for and socket Attack Power, Haste, and Hit Rating for Mutilate builds. Combat is a bit more forgiving on what to focus on, so you'll want to gear and stock for Hit, Armor Penetration, Attack Power, and Haste. Melee DPS leather from the emblem vendors, your tier pieces, and most Melee DPS leather will automatically have most of these stats on it.

   As for what emblem gear to pick up, you can't go too wrong with just grabbing the tier 9 232 set and mixing in some 245 offset pieces from the vendor (shoulders are a good choice) then doing heroic ToC and The Frozen Halls to pick up more offset pieces/trinkets/etc. That's by far not the optimal path, but the gear itself will provide enough stats to dominate in heroics and for entry level ToC/ICC raiding.