Ready to Raid – Combat Rogue

You’re a swashbuckling sword master.  You can go toe to toe with anyone, dodging and ducking while your deadly blades hack their way mercilessly through your foes.  You’re a combat rogue.

You’ve leveled to 85.  You’ve got your heroic gear.  The call goes out – “need dps for our raids.”  Its time to bring the pain.

Lets look at what you need to check.

#1 – Spec

You probably want to spec into something like this… 7/31/3.  Some of that is filler, like Blade Twisting, but that’s going to be your best bet overall.

#2 – Gems

You want to match all socket colors if the socket bonus is +Agility.  If the socket bonus is anything else, then it is probably worthwhile to use the Delicate Inferno Ruby instead and forgo the socket bonus.

• Red sockets will get the Delicate Inferno Ruby (40 Agi)
• Yellow sockets get the Deft Ember Topaz (20 Agi/20 Haste)
• Blue sockets get the Glinting Demonseye (20 Agi / 20 Hit) if you are below the poison hit cap.  If you are above that number, then you might consider going with a red gem in a blue slot, unless you need the blue gems to activate your metagem.
• Meta sockets – Agile Shadowspirit Diamond.

#3 – Enchants

• head – Arcanum of the Ramkahen (revered with Ramkahen faction)
• shoulder – Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal (exalted with Therazine faction)  (or Swiftsteel Inscription if you have inscription)
• back – Greater Critical Strike or Major Agility (or Swordguard Embroidery if you are a tailor)
• chest – Peerless Stats
• wrists – Greater Speed (or the Draconic Embossment if you are a LW)
• hands – Greater Expertise if you’re not expertise capped.  Otherwise, Haste.
• waist – Ebonsteel Belt Buckle with a Delicate Inferno Ruby
• legs – Dragonscale Leg Armor (from LW)
• feet – Major Agility
• weapon (both) – Landslide

#4 – Reforging

• First, gem your gear.  Then check to see if you are at the specials hit cap.  That should not be a problem.
• For combat rogues, where poison is not the dominant part of your damage, being expertise-capped is slightly more important than being at the poison hit cap.  You can reforge crit or mastery into expertise rating.  You don’t have to completely ignore hit, but the priority is on capping expertise.
• Once you are expertise-capped (781 rating without racial bonus, 691 if you have a racial expertise bonus), then reforge the rest of your pieces to reduce crit or mastery and add hit or haste
• Once you are expertise capped and at the poison hit cap, then all reforging goes to haste

#5 – Glyphs

See this post

#6 – Consumables

• Your flask of choice right now is Flask of the Winds
• For a short-term dps boost carry a stack of Potion of the Tol’vir
• For now your food buff can come from Skewered Eel or possibly a Fortune Cookie Eventually, your raid will have the Seafood Magnifique Feast

#7 – Rotation

The combat rotation is pretty simple, and basically the same as it was in Wrath.

1. Get SnD going
2. Sinister Strike to 4 combo points
3. Revealing Strike for your 5th combo point
4. At 5 combo points, Refresh SnD if its going to expire, otherwise apply Rupture if its expired, otherwise Eviscerate.

If needed, you can skip Rupture and only lose  a small amount of dps.  You could even skip Revealing Strike and just SS for all 5 combo points and sacrifice only a small amount of dps.

The key to maximizing combat dps is timing your cooldowns.  Now that Blade Flurry is a cleave rather than a haste buff, we only have two cooldowns to manage – Adrenaline Rush and Killing Spree.  Adrenaline Rush can be used any time, but preferably in conjunction with something like heroism/bloodlust.  Killing Spree is best used when your Bandit’s Guile is stacked up.  Watch for the “Deep Insight” buff and then hit KS.

None of this makes you a good rogue.  It does, however, make you a well-prepared rogue and gives you the best chance to have a good showing in your raids.  Good luck!