This weekend I got this whisper from my guild’s raid leader…
RL: I’ve heard that rogue dps is trailing behind other classes in end game
Me: Oh yeah?
RL: Yeah. I’m waiting for you to ding 80 so you can prove it wrong.
Honestly, I’ve heard the same rumors.
So now the pressure is on to perform, to stand up for rogues everywhere! That said, my guild has a fury warrior who is doing over 3500 single-target dps, and assorted casters who are around 2500. So I’ll be measured against them when I hit 80 and start doing heroics and Naxx.
Today I went back to my raiding Mutilate spec so I can start training myself on the key bindings until they are second nature.
I need to stack the odds in my favor so that I can hit the ground running as soon as I reach 80. I am dragging my feet a little on my way to 80 to make sure my Leatherworking is leveled. I want to be able to craft and equip the Trollwoven Girdle and Trollwoven Spaulders as soon as I level. Those are better than just about any heroic instance drop for those slots, and are a significant upgrade over my quest blues.
My LW is currently at 427. I need it to be at 440. To get from 427 to 440 I will have to make Virulent Spaulders and Icescale Leg Armor. Once at 440 I need to buy the two patterns, and then craft them. Total mats for this process: 56 Heavy Borean Leather, 13 Eternal Fire, 11 Eternal Shadow, 24 Arctic Fur, 20 Icy Dragonscale, and 2 Frozen Orb, barring some bad luck with RNG. Whew.
Fortunately, I have about 15 Arctic Furs in my bank along with a bunch of leather and dragonscales, and I think we have a Frozen Orb or two in the guild bank. Still, if I want to get these items quickly I’ll have to buy a lot of Eternals and a few Arctic Furs. I think I’m looking at 1500g if I buy it all on the AH. Heck, its only pretend money. And I should be able to make some of it back by selling the Icescale Leg Armor.
I should probably craft the Ice Striker’s Cloak, too. But that’s adding another Frozen Orb and a handful of Eternals to the mix, which would push me near the 2k gold cost for this.
I’m happy with my weapons for now – my two Saronite Shivs are fast (1.4) and have the hit rating I’ll need to get me near the Poison Hit Cap. Mongoose on both is still the way to go. My pre-Wrath trinkets, Dragonspine Trophy and Darkmoon Card: Crusade hold up well against newer items for boss fights, so I’ll stick with those. I may try to fish up the Chain Gang Legguards in Dalaran if I have the time.
I will try to grab a couple of nice BoE rings from a JC or the AH. I’ll give my guild’s enchanters some work by getting my gear enchanted. After that, I hope I’ll be ready to put up respectable DPS numbers in heroics. I won’t be at 3300 dps yet, but when the loot starts coming in from heroics I should see a quick improvement. Once I am there I’ll post my gear.
Forever a Noob - A WoW Rogue Blog 
What level are you now?
Just hit 79 yesterday.
Preface:
For pre-raiding fun, I’ve been playing SUB spec daggers. It may be *slightly* broken, but I can’t image grinding/questing in any other spec, so my end game input probably isn’t too useful (far from optimum DPS spec). 😉
Now, I’ve snagged quite a few of the “end game” heroic gear for rogues (shadowpanther’s gear sheet), and a hit rating in 320s (about 10%)…I’ve not been in groups with insanely geared toons, but I’ve noticed that we do NOT put out the huge numbers we should considering we are a pure DPS class…During Boss encounters I peak at about 1400-1600 dps (good crits), but on average I hover at about 1100-1300 dps…overall dps recounts for the instance are at about 1150…very lackluster.
I’m curious about what appropriately spec’d Mut/Combat rogues are putting out in currently. Your report’ll be particularly useful Dinaer, since we both seem to have an affinity for dagger rogues…and I’m playin with the idea of a Mut build.
I was out and out horrified by my performance in Naxx right after I hit 80. I was literally at the bottom of the chart, barely squeaking out 1900 DPS if I blew every single cooldown I had (I was Combat/Sword spec at the time, so if I didn’t have Blade Flurry/Killing Spree/Adrenaline Rush available it was more like 1600). In the week or so since then I’ve gotten a few upgrades including a pair of nice daggers so I swapped to Mutilate. My damage output has gone up significantly but I’m still pretty much in the middle of the pack. On a good fight with full raid buffs I’m seeing about 2400 DPS, wearing a mix of level 80 blues and epics. The hardest thing has been keeping hit rating up as I get upgrades. Right now I’m getting to that magic 315 number for poisons with the help of an elixir so I can wear my ‘better’ gear.
Curious to see how your results look. I’m very new to Mutilate so there has been a high learning curve. Getting the hang of it though. 🙂
You will, unfortunately, find out that yes Rogue dps is pretty gimp. However, for raids and specifically 25 mans Honor Among Thieves builds that literally chain spam evisc can actually do respectable dps.
For another data point, I typically get around 3.4k as Combat Fist/Dagger on 10 man Patchwerk with most of the essential rogue raid buffs except for Unleashed Rage (or equivalent). That seems reasonably competitive to me – maybe not at the top (though it is in my case) but close to it, surely.
I’d expect mut rogues to be slightly higher but within the same ballpark.
And like David says, HaT is ridiculously broken at the moment 😉
I’ve been running heroics and, with trash mixed into my datasets, I’m being out DPSed by our frost DK, and sometimes our prot pally (who gets my TTT bonus). However, on boss fights in CoT: Strat I’ve been pulling some decent numbers. In mostly blues, plus the 3 LW crafted epics, I’m putting out 1900-2000 DPS with a measly 55 hit rating. My strategy, until I get some more hit gear, is to dual wield 2x Librarian’s Paper Cutter (got both for under 350g) and stack AP and haste. With SnD up and 2x mongoose procs, I’m down around 0.8 attack speed. IP procs like crazy, for over 1k each. The only one to really out dps me on pure boss fights is our BM hunter, but his day is coming. This has worked well for me, and I should see the numbers go up a bit now that everything is chanted. Now, to just cross my fingers that http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39427 drops tonight on my first time in Naxx.
For better or for worse, it’s extremely hard to replace those Paper Cutters. You mentioned Omen which is fantastic, but so many of the epic daggers are so very slow…
It will vary with your gear of course, but the EP weights I’ve seen (including those for my own gear) show 1 haste at worth around 0.77 agility or 1.4 AP (keeping in mind that it’s costed the same as 2 AP).
If you care about your DPS, which you seem to, I’d urge you to consult a spreadsheet and not just stack haste because “IP procs like crazy”!
Those Paper Cutters are way more expensive on my server. Fortunately, someone just put one in our guild bank. 🙂 I’ll hate to lose the +hit from the Saronite Shiv, though.
I actually got mine for 60g – guess someone didn’t know how in-demand it would be :>
Heh! One dropped for me last night in H HoL. I was practically dragged in there kickin’ and screamin’ cause I wanted to run H Gun or H Nexus for a chest/legs upgrade. Thankfully the group had a 2 Tank 2 Healer setup, so I didn’t have any competition. We got respawns on the last boss, and abandonded ship, but I was already in HOG HEAVEN thanks to the Paper Cutter drop. 🙂
Oh! one more thing…How awesome would you guys rate the “Mirror of Truth” trinket? I’m thinking of getting that first; then going for the T7 pieces (unless I win them in Naxx).
Mirror of Truth is definitely one of the pieces you will keep through all the 25 man raiding currently in game. You can make an argument for Fury of the Five Flights replacing it (if you have a DMC:G for your other slot) but it depends on the fight and that’s probably a way off anyways.
Definitely grab it!
/agree
Mirror of Truth is a great item