Reader Mail: What’s the best weapon type for rogues?

The other day i received the following email:

Hey Numberseven,

What’s the best weapon type for rogues?

-Stabby

Well Stabby that’s a good question.  First off let’s take a look at the weapon choices we have as rogues.

• Melee Weapons
  • Swords
  • Maces
  • Daggers
  • Fist Weapons

• Ranged Weapons
  • Bows
  • Guns
  • Crossbows
  • Thrown Weapons

So which is best??? The answer is YES 🙂  Let me explain a little better.  The weapons you choose are based on two factors: Your Spec and your playstyle.

There are certain specs that require certain weapons.  A Mutilate/Assassination build for example will REQUIRE you to use daggers.  A combat spec will require you to use the weapon you have chosen as your specialty.  Subtlety Spec is nice because you can use any weapon you want and even mix and match and change on a whim.

So let’s assume that you just want to do the MAXIMUM DPS… well there are currently two specs that people rave over… one is Combat/Swords the other is Mutilate/Assassination… In the current build both to tremendous amount of damage… Mutilate through insane burst damage and a ton of crits… and Combat through is slow but steady stream of white damage.

Now… which have i chosen?  Personally i am Subtlety specd and am using swords.  Why swords?  Well they look cool and i don’t have to worry about the positioning problems that a dagger build would have (ie i can attack from in front or behind)  So why am i not combat then since it would increase my overall DPS?  Personally i find Subtlety more “fun” and that it suits my playstyle quite well.  (and Cheat Death has saved my ass more than once both in PVP and in PVE.

Well, what about ranged weapons?  Well back in “vanilla WoW” all that really mattered is “pick the one with the best stats” Things changed in TBC so that thrown weapons have a slight advantage over the other ranged weapons… That advantage is Deadly Throw.  Deadly throw is a finishing move that we have that is perfect for enemies that run away after a certain point in the fight.  It also provides a way to add some dps if we get knocked back and have to run for a second or two before we can get back in melee range.  While leveling i mainly used bows and crossbows.  But once i got the Deadly Throw ability and saw how useful it can be i became a throwing weapons believer.

So really there is no wrong answer it’s what suits you the best and will help you play to your highest potential.  I hope this helped out Stabby, thanks again for taking the time to write.  If any one else out there in “internetland” has any other questions or comments let me know.  (That’s what the contact me tab is for).

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Rogues: To Hit or not to Hit… That is the question…

Today i thought i’d discuss the Rogue “to hit cap” since i’ve noticed that this site has been getting a lot of searches on it (and it’s a good thing to know too).  Let’s start with the basic definition of hit:

Hit refers to physical damage that occurs as a result of an attack made with melee or ranged weapons. The chance to hit increases by 1% per 15.77 hit rating points at level 70 and 10 hit rating points at level 60. The base chance to miss with maximum weapon skill against an opponent of equal level is 5% for two handed and 24% for dual wield.

Next let’s take a look at our chance to miss on various level raid targets (these are all dual wield values):

   * v. Level 70 mob: 24%
   * v. Level 71 mob: 24.5%
   * v. Level 72 mob: 25%
   * v. Level 73 mob: 28%

In the context of stats, the term “cap” refers to the point at which equipping more of a particular stat will have no additional value. For hit rating the cap usually discussed is in regards to raid bosses. For example, once you reach or surpass the hit cap, you will never miss an attack against a raid boss unless you are under the effect of some debuff that reduces your hit chance (for example, Attumen the Huntsman‘s curse).

As shown above, your base chance to miss a raid boss while dual wielding is 28% with auto-attack on both hands. Your base chance to miss a special attack is 9%. For each 15.77 hit rating you equip, you reduce your chance to miss by 1%. Thus we can calculate hit caps for auto-attack and special attacks:

For rogues there are two different caps we’ll look at. (Why two? Our talent Precision (Combat Tree) will rase our base change to hit, thus reducing our need for +hit gear).

Without Precision:

• Dual-wield auto-attack: 442 hit rating
• Special attack or Single-wield auto-attack: 142 hit rating

With Precision:

• Dual-wield auto-attack, with 5/5 Precision (Rogue talent): 363 hit rating
• Special attack, with 5/5 Precision (Rogue talent): 64 hit rating

As you can see Precision makes a HUGE difference in the amout of +hit gear that we will need to collect.  Until you hit the cap +hit will boost your dps usually more than any other stat… (less misses=more DPS)

I hope you found this helpful, feel free to comment and ask questions if you have any 🙂

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Got Talent???

Today i thought we discuss the rogue talent trees.  As with all of the other classes in World of Warcraft the rogus has three different “trees” in which to put points.  They are: Assassination, Combat, and Sublety.

Assassination

• Pros:
  • Strong (insane) Burst Damage
  • ability to kill clothies in just a couple of hits
  • did i mention INSANE damage
• Cons:
  • Need to use daggers (lack of weapon flexability)
  • for best results you need to be behind your target
  • for best results you will need high end gear

Combat

• Pros:
  • Very high white damage (higher average than the other two trees with less burst damage)
• Cons:
  • Weapon dependant (forces you to choose a speciality weapon)
  • mashing “sinister strike” over and over for a 4 hour raid can be a little mind numbing

Subtelty

• Pros:
  • A pretty good mix of pvp and pve skills
  • Cheat death can save your butt in a pinch
  • Use any weapon(s) you want with no penelties
• Cons:

Less overall damage then Combat or Assassination specs

So which is the “best”? the answer is YES… I have seen all three top the charts in dps in a 10/25 man raid and have seen all three specs excell in PVP.  So what it all boils down to is which spec is right for your playing style, level of gear, and what you will be doing with your rogue.

Questions? Comments? I’d love to hear them.

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