Shadow Panther's Classic Frequently Asked Questions

I created this page to answer common questions about my site and to clear up some confusion about how to properly use my charts.

Let me provide a little background. When I first put together the charts on my site, they were for my own personal use but I soon realized that many others could benefit from the results of my efforts. Over time, I've tried to make my site as useful for Rogue players as I possibly can.

My site is designed to be helpful throughout your Rogue experience, from low level to high level and everywhere in-between. Rather than focus my efforts on creating a specialized resource for a very specific purpose (like squeezing the last 0.1 DPS out of your raiding gear) I divide my time between numerous items of Rogue interest, to include PVE, PVP, Twinking and Leveling.

Around May of 2005, Ming started a thread on the Rogue forums where he was devising an Agility comparison system for comparing gear using the formula 10 Agility = 10 Stamina = 20 Strength = 20 Attack Power = 1% Crit. One of the first people who responded to the thread coined the phrase "Agility Equivalence Points" and his formula has been known as AEP ever since. Over the years, I've made numerous changes and improvements to the formula and have developed additional formulas based upon that formula.

With the AEP/MAEP system, each stat is given a different weight when compared to Agility. MAEP, or Maximum DPS AEP, is designed for comparing gear for PVE, and specifically raiding. In raiding situations, Stamina and other defensive stats have little to no value when compared to DPS stats, so they're weighted at just a fraction of Agility (for tie-breaking purposes mostly.) However, in PVP, stats like Stamina, Parry, Dodge, Defense, Armor and Resistances provide necessary defense and survivability, so their AEP values are rated higher than their MAEP weightings. When looking for gear upgrades, determine what your goal is, then use the chart that works best for you. If your goal is to maximize your PVP gear, then pick items that will give you the largest AEP upgrade. If your goal is to maximize your raid DPS, then select items that will give you the most MAEP.

You can use the MAEP ratings in my charts to give you a general indication of the relative DPS output of items when planning out your PVE upgrades, but the results will never be perfect. Since my charts are mostly static (aside from the customizable XLS versions I provide), they don't factor in talent specs, attack rotations, relative increases in gear, etc. A general rule of thumb when using my charts is that any item that scores within 5-10 AEP/MAEP of another item can be considered a virtual sidegrade. If you're expecting precision to the nth degree, then you'll probably need to look elsewhere. As always, if you disagree with the AEP/MAEP values I've used in my charts, you're welcome to use the customizable XLS versions and enter whatever AEP/MAEP values work best for you.

No. The AEP/MAEP values I've assigned for set bonuses can be found separately on my Armor Sets chart but I leave it up to you to factor in those bonuses when evaluating gear for upgrades.

No. If you're approaching the Hit Cap or any other cap, then you'll need to manually adjust for that when evaluating gear upgrades.

I score most trinket abilities on an "averaged effect over time" basis. Other ability scores are extrapolated from similar abilities that I've scored in the past. Sometimes, I'll assign an "opportunity cost" value to an effect. What this means is assigning a value that is equal (or better than) the AEP/MAEP rating of the next best alternative. Scoring trinket abilities and proc abilities has always been a tricky process, so I do the best I can.

Not necessarily. Your talent spec plays a major factor in your potential DPS. Also, don't try to compare main hand Dagger ratings with main hand non-Dagger ratings on my charts, as they use completely different attacks.