It’s been way overdue, but I’ve finally added an Enchantments section to my 19-59 Twink Armor and Twink Weapons charts. With this built-in section (located on the far right side of both charts), players will be able to easily see which enchants are best and how certain items rank higher than others simply because those items can benefit from better enchants.
Items in the 29 & 39 brackets that qualify for Burning Crusade (BC) enchants generally score higher than items that don’t. The same holds true for items in the 49 & 59 brackets that qualify for Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) enchants. Conversely, Heirloom gear tends to become less useful at higher levels because those items cannot be enchanted with the higher quality enchants.
In both charts, items that qualify for the higher level enchants have a bold BC/WotLK notation listed in the Special column, with the AEP bonus added to the PVP field. In the 49 & 59 brackets, Heirloom items have been given a “penalty” that reflects the reduced AEP value of those items when enchanted with inferior enchants.
In addition to these changes, I’m also in the process of adjusting my Twink AEP values (beginning with Stamina and Hit Rating in the 30-39 bracket) based on feedback I’ve received from several players. If you are an avid player in any of the Rogue Twink brackets, take a look at my updated charts and let me know if you see any items or AEP values that really seem out of whack.
I’ve corrected an issue that was preventing people from being able to post comments to my articles. To encourage feedback, I’ve removed the user registration requirement, so readers can now quickly and easily post questions, suggestions, etc. To respond to any article, just click on the title of the article or the little “chat bubble” at the top right to be taken directly to the discussion page.
I have made several updates to my Northrend Guide for Rogues for the 3.3.2 patch and Arena Season 8. If you previously purchased the guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your “Order Info” e-mail to download the updated guide. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you’ve lost or deleted your “Order Info” email, contact me and I’ll send you a copy for your records.
Note: Just hours before I was ready to release this latest update to the guide, Blizzard announced their brand new 3.3.3 PTR Patch Notes, so I haven’t had a chance to incorporate any of those upcoming changes into the guide.
I’ve gone through my armor charts correcting all of the price and source information for PVP gear. Every season when new gear is released, all of the prices and availabilities on old PVP gear gets adjusted, which is a real pain to update on my various charts. Most of my initial efforts each season are directed towards adding all of the new season’s gear and updating AEP formulas, but I know that I’ll have to eventually go back and change all of the source information on the old gear.
Tracking down the numerous PVP gear vendors (Dalaran Sewers, Dalaran Emblem vendors, Stormwind, Isle of Quel’Danas, Netherstorm, Tanaris, etc.) to make sure I haven’t missed anything is the most annoying part. Wowhead’s database is usually pretty good at tracking these changes, but even some of that information can be listed incorrectly. So I usually try to verify many of those prices myself by visiting each of the vendors, which can be rather time consuming.
In addition to the PVP gear changes, I’ve also updated a few other items with recently changed stats and made a few other corrections throughout. Of particular note are the PVP items that have been added to my Starter Gear charts as well as older PVP items that get removed from circulation and can no longer be purchased. In the latter case, the items remain on my charts but I change the source information for those items to “No Longer Available”.
I’ve updated the AEP/MAEP values on all of my charts. I’ve incorporated the increased value of Resilience into my PVP AEP formulas and made some adjustments to weapon DPS & speed values in my PVE MAEP formulas. Other values received some minor adjustments as well, and all of those changes are reflected on my Pawn scales page.
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.
