I’m at a crossroads in my Emblem purchases. Making things worse, the different resources I used are giving me conflicting guidance. I decided to write out my thought process went, in part to help me organize the information and in part because others might like to see what I do when its time to upgrade my gear. Caution: this rambles on for quite a bit.
Recap:
My first Emblem purchase was the Herkumi War Token trinket. That was a no-brainer.
After that, I chose to pass on the Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape in hopes that I would eventually get the Shawl of Nerubian Silk from Marrowgar 10. It took a while, but that decision did pay off.
Instead of getting the cloak, I used my 2nd and 3rd Emblem purchases to go straight for my 2-piece T10 bonus. I bought the Shadowblade Gauntlets and Shadowblade Breastplate because they were the best upgrades based on the gear I had in those slots at the time.
Now I’ve accumulated 125 Frost Emblems and I’m looking for my next purchases. Here’s how I evaluated my options.
My first resource was to WoWHead’s gear ranking service to see what’s out there. I used the stat weights given by Elitist Jerks and got these results. Comparing those results to my current gear, the best options would be either Bladeborn Leggings, the Shadowblade Legplates (if I’m moving toward the T10 4-piece bonus) or Footpads of Impending Death. The Bladeborn Leggings and Footpads are both crafted, but I’d use my Frost Emblems to buy Primordial Saronites so I include them as Emblem purchases. Another good option is the Shadow Seekers Tunic, but that would break my T10 set bonus so its out for the time being.
Since I am not running ICC 25 or heroic ICC 10 right now, any of these options would be the top available piece I could expect to get in their respective slots.
Armed with that information, I pulled out Aldriana’s Mutilate spreadsheet. With my current gear and spec input, I replaced my items one at a time with the various options to see the effect on my optimal dps figures. Using that tool, the result was very clear… the Bladeborn Leggings were far and away the biggest theoretical impact on my dps. Nothing else was even close.
In fact, according to the spreadsheet the Bladeborn Leggings by themselves are a bigger upgrade than getting both the Shadowblade Legplates and the Shadowblade Helmet to get my 4-piece T10 bonus.
That surprised me a little. While the Bladeborn Leggings are certainly nice, they have armor penetration which is not an optimal stat for mutilate rogues. That doubt has made me a bit hesitant… 8 Primordial Saronite is a big expense and I don’t want to blow that much gold and emblems without being certain. I know that rogues live and die by the spreadsheet predictions, but should I blindly follow what seems to be against common sense?
Looking for more input for my decision, I went to Mavanas Rogue DPS Simulation Spreadsheet. This isn’t as user-friendly as Aldriana’s, and the interface is not as intuitive. After the setup process, I let it run some DPS simulations in my current gear. Then I switched individual gear items to see the difference. This spreadsheet doesn’t calculate based on a formula, but rather does many, many iterations of simulated attack sequences to find the expected damage output. That spreadsheet gave different results that Aldriana’s – saying that the Bladeborn Leggings are still a very good upgrade, but not as good as replacing both Shadowblade head + legs together. However, I don’t have enough Emblems to buy both pieces of Shadowblade at this time, so that’s not a real option.
Here are the different combinations I tried in both spreadsheets:
- upgrade to Bladeborn Leggings (cost: 115 Emblems + 4800 gold for the other 3 Saronites)
- upgrade to Footpads of Impending Death (cost: 115 Emblems for Saronites)
- upgrade to both Shadow Seeker’s Tunic AND Shadowblade Pauldrons (to keep my T10 2-pc bonus) (cost: 155 Emblems, which I will have in about 2 weeks)
- upgrade to both Shadowblade Legplates AND Shadowblade Helmet, thus getting my 4-pc T10 bonus (cost: 190 Emblems, which I will have in about 5 weeks)
The last option is the best according to Mavanas, and second best according to Aldriana. However, I don’t feel like waiting 5 weeks to get my next upgrade. So I’m focusing on the other choices.
Looks like the Bladeborn Leggings will win out here, BUT there is one more thing to consider! Am I likely to get any drops that are comparable to the Emblem purchases?
My guild right now can clear the first six bosses in ICC 10 in one raid night. The only drop in there that needs to be considered are the Plague-Soaked Leather Leggings from Festergut. Not surprisingly, these are not as big an upgrade as the Bladeborn Leggings. However, they also don’t cost me anything except patience as I wait for the drop.
After including that in my decision, the choice became clear. I should buy the Footpads of Impending Death now and wait for the Plague-Soaked Leather Leggings to drop from Festergut. If I go a few weeks without the drop, then I’ll re-evaluate.
Forever a Noob - A WoW Rogue Blog 
If I were in your position I would do exactly that.
I went blindly into the night getting all the BIS I could purchase and now im suffering immensely! OMG its brutal. I went for the non set chest and t10 legs because my expertise was in trouble. Then I got BIS stuff now my hit is all dead! (Mobius on Perenolde US if you are interested) The gear I have currently equipped is what I use for both mut and cbt spec. Be careful and weigh it out carefully. I have had to socket so many hit gems now, my Attack power is suffering.
You made the right choice. One thing you neglected from your analysis is that the t10 pants drop in Vault, so you’ll have a chance to see a pair drop “for free” every week (assuming you do Vault).
That said, you should keep your BiS in mind when making these decisions. Assuming you never do ICC 10 Heroic or ICC 25, I’m curious if your “BiS” will feature 4/5 t10 and the Bladeborn Leggings. You might also keep in mind that the Sack of Wonder is BoE. You should be able to land one for under 10k at this point and maybe closer to 4 or 5k if you’re a good negotiator. That’s a pretty sick piece for a Mut Rogue, since it has no ArPen and takes care of most of your Hit and Expertise needs.
Without running a spreadsheet or simulator, I’m going to guess a 10 man “BiS” uses 3/5 t10, Bladeborn, and the Sack of Wonder.
I don’t think I could ever convince myself to spend 10k on a piece of gear. Its not that I don’t have 10k gold. I just think of how long it took me to get that, and it pains me to imagine it all going away in a quick puff of pixels.
Something to bear in mind with the 4pc T10 bonus is, for a Muti Rogue, Envenom clipping. With the 3 CP proc and a Ruthlessness proc that’s you ready to do another Envenom just after your previous one (after energy has regenerated). This may mean the 4pc bonus may not be optimal (although other finishers could be considered like Rupture / Eviscerate).
I’m actually in the same boat as you Dinaer, my guild only runs 10-mans non-heroic.
I chose to go the other option and get my 4-piece t10 first. I have to tell you that although the spreadsheets don’t show it, my DPS did go up significantly (200-300 DPS).
Despite with the previous commenter said. Envenom “clipping” is a GOOD thing. It’s not really a clip (like if warlocks clip they miss out on their biggest tick) but it’s rather just an extention of the DoT. This has allowed my Envenom DoT to be active a much greater % of the time then I was able to achieve before.
I would advise you not to skip out on the 4t10 bonus if you can manage! It’s worth it! And don’t forget about possibly getting the set pants for free from VoA! I was lucky and got the Sanctified version from VoA25 on a PUG.
Go for it! And ❤ your blog, your guides have been so helpful for me, even all the way back to Naxx.
Here is me if you care to look, you and I have much the same pool of items to choose from, my guild is currently 9/12. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Moon+Guard&cn=Vulpina
аренда недвижимости Петербург – Аренда комнату в Петербурге