I’ve decided to bring back my PVP Rogue Armories chart, but with one significant modification. I will no longer be tracking specific “noteworthy and influential PVP Rogues”, but instead will be taking a snapshot of 20 of the top PVP Rogues as listed on SK Gaming’s Rogue rankings. Trying to keep up with a particular set of PVP Rogues became too much trouble, as some of them would switch to PVE specs, take breaks from PVP or just stop playing altogether. Now, the chart will simply list data from 20 of the top PVP Rogues to give players a better idea of the current PVP environment.
Here are some of the trends I noticed while compiling this information:
- Mutilate is still king, with most specs falling in the 44+/X/23+ range with some minor variations
- About half of the top PVP Rogues use fast offhand weapons while the rest still seem to prefer slow offhands
- 26,500 Health, 950 Resilience, 4,800 AP and 38% Crit looks to be about the average for top PVP Rogues
- Most of the top PVP Rogues have paired up an Ashen Band reputation ring with their PVP ring
- Many of the top Rogues use Battlemaster’s Rage along with their PVP trinket
- Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and AP gems are pretty much the standard for PVP Rogues across the board
- The standard weapon enchantments continue to be MH Berserking and OH Titanium Weapon Chain
- Armor enchantments vary from player to player, with some preferring AP/Res over AP/Crit enchants
- Aside from the standard Mutilate glyph, Sprint and Vigor are the next most common glyph choices
- Blood Elves, Undead and Humans are some of the more popular Rogue races being used in high level PVP
- Engineering is a clear favorite as far as professions are concerned, with Jewelcrafting being a close second
Thanks to the excellent work over at MMO-Champion, I’ve updated my charts with all of the Lich King loot as well as the new 3.3.2 Wintergrasp gear. I also corrected a few errors from the chart updates I’d posted earlier this morning (thanks Iords).
I’ve updated my charts with the new Season 8 PVP gear released in patch 3.3.2 yesterday. I’ve also adjusted the prices for most of the previous season’s gear. Eventually I’ll get around to updating my AEP formulas with the recent change to the value of Resilience, so the current PVP gear rankings will see a bit of adjusting.
I’ve made numerous updates to my site including:
- Updating the source and drop % on much of the recently added 3.3 gear in my charts
- Separating “FH” gear into Forge of Souls (FoS), Pit of Saron (PoS) and Halls of Reflection (HoR) on my charts
- Correcting the socket bonuses on many 3.3 items that previously had unknown socket bonuses
- Adding new Twink loot which can be obtained from Satchels after completing “Classic Random” Dungeon Finder quests
- Adding a bold “BC Enchantable” to the “Notes” column of applicable items in the 20-29 range of my Twink charts
- Updating base racial stats on my Races chart to reflect changes made in 3.3
After researching the specs of top PVP Rogues from SK Gaming’s Rogue rankings, I’ve updated my PVP Specs page, moving the 41/5/25 spec down to the bottom of the page, replacing it with the more effective 44/4/23 Mutilate Spec. That spec is very similar to the 44/2/25 spec also listed on that page, with points taken out of Heightened Senses to put into Dual Wield Specialization. With both of those specs, you’re free to move 2 to 3 points in the Assassination tree between Find Weakness, Deadened Nerves, Focused Attacks and Improved Kidney Shot, depending upon your team composition, playstyle and personal preferences.
I’ve also updated the Glyph choices for those specs, with Mutilate, Sprint and Vigor appearing to be the standard choices amongst most top PVP Rogues, although some prefer the Cloak of Shadows glyph.
I’ve updated my charts, assigning AEP/MAEP values to the special ability of Tiny Abomination in a Jar while at the same time reducing the value of Heartpierce’s special ability. It seems that Blizzard has recently changed the mechanics behind these types of proc effects, preventing them from proccing off of poisons. This has resulted in both items becoming weaker than their previously overpowered versions, so they now fall more in line with similar iLvl items in terms of overall power.
I’d also intended to update my AEP/MAEP formulas after the previous set of nerfs (Hunger for Blood/Poison AP damage), but after evaluating the changes, I didn’t notice any particularly major changes in updated stat values that merited a complete overhaul of my AEP/MAEP formulas. Making minor changes to those formulas requires me to alter values and re-sort item rankings in about 30 different charts in addition to my AEP/MAEP and Pawn scale pages. That’s a whole lot of extra work for a minimal effect, so I’ll usually wait until more significant changes take place before I undertake a major revision to my charts like that.
I want to make it clear that the AEP/MAEP formulas I use in my charts are more of a starting point rather than any type of hard and fast rule. I try to assign values that make sense, resulting in item rankings that end up in the general ballpark of where you expect them to be. If scores or rankings start to get out of whack, people usually let me know, and I’ll reevaluate them as necessary. But that’s just the nature of static item charts. Stat values will always vary depending upon a multitude of factors (talent spec, buffs, attack rotations, your other gear, etc.), so a static chart is never going to be the perfect solution for evaluating your gear.
One factor that you always need to keep in mind when using my charts is how I value stats with caps. Expertise gives little to no additional benefit once you go over its cap, so I’ve assigned AEP/MAEP values for Expertise based on the assumption that you’re still beneath that cap. The value I’ve listed for Hit Rating assumes you’re above the Specials and Poisons hit caps, but have not yet reached the White Hit cap. You can read more about the Expertise cap, Hit caps and other stat caps here. For more precise PVE DPS calculations, you’ll probably want to consult a spreadsheet, several of which can be found here.
As always, if you disagree with any of my AEP/MAEP values or item rankings, you can simply download the .XLS versions of my charts and input whatever values work best for you. Many players like to pull stat values out of their favorite spreadsheet and plug them directly into my charts for a more convenient gear ranking solution tailored to their specific needs.
My website was experiencing some technical difficulties this morning. These issues should be resolved now.
I’ve finally completed the conversion of my website, which includes the following resources:
Now that I’ve finished converting my old pages over to the new design, I can get back to updating my charts and other content.
I’ve made numerous updates to my site today, including the following:
Design Conversions
Design Conversion & Page Update
Chart Updates
- Level 80 Armor charts (Updated both versions of Deathbringer’s Will with the new Haste proc and corrected the link to Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance)
Note: I previously applied a +4 Agility socket bonus to all new/upcoming items on my armor and weapons charts that have sockets with unknown socket bonuses. I did this to make it easier to compare those items to similar iLvl items without sockets. Some of those socket bonuses may have already been discovered by now, but I just haven’t had the time to update them on my charts. If you see any socket bonuses on my charts (listed in italics) that don’t match up, that’s probably why. I’ll update them as soon as I can.
Apparently, my Contact Form stopped working properly once I released my new site design and I just found out about it today. So, I’ve created a new Contact Form (using the updated page design) that should be operational now. If you tried to send me a message in the last few days, then you’ll probably want to re-send it.
If you experience any more problems with my Contact Form, you can always e-mail me directly at one of the e-mail addresses listed on that page. Alternatively, you could just post a comment here or send a quick message to my Twitter account.
