Content Type: Gaming Guides
Welcome to the Combat Rogue DPS guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5a. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Combat Rogue in a raid. The guide includes Talents, Glyphs, Gems, Enchantments, Add-ons, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.
Talent Tree
The first one is more effective when you don’t have your Armor Penetration capped because Rupture ignores armor. Second is for fights where you constantly change your target. The damage is more or less the same. Don’t forget that you can spend 1 point from Ruthlessness or Poisons [Tier 4] into Vigor to have an extra 10 energy.
Rupture build
Eviscerate build
Glyphs
Major Glyphs
Minor Glyphs
Gems
Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.
- Meta: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
- Red: Stark Ametrine, Fractured Cardinal Ruby, Precise Cardinal Ruby
- Yellow: Quick King’s Amber, Rigid King’s Amber, Stark Ametrine
- Blue: Nightmare Tear x1
Enchants
- Head – Arcanum of Torment
- Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Axe
- Cloak – Greater Speed
- Chest – Powerful Stats
- Bracers – Greater Assault
- Gloves – Crusher
- Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
- Legs – Icescale Leg Armor
- Boots – Icewalker
- Weapon – Berserking for both weapons
Rotation
Use a slow main-hand (2.5 to 2.8) and a swift offhand weapon (1.4 to 1.5). Use Instant Poison IX on your main-hand weapon and Deadly Poison IX on your offhand.
Opening up with a Sinister Strike, which can proc a glyph. Doing another one or two Sinister Strike to drain all the energy. Finishing move: Slice and Dice followed up with a Killing Spree. This start will give us a burst of damage.
Afterwards, we are gaining Combo Points with our Sinister Strike while using our Finisher move depending on the priorities below:
- Slice and Dice is always up. Use at any amount of CP if it’s going to wear off in 2 secs
- Rupture is always on the target. Use Rupture only if you have 1st build and at 5 Combo Points
- Use Eviscerate on cooldown.
Stat Priority
Combat Rogues require 17% of spell Hit for the poisons to be effective (spell damage). To obtain 17%, we need 315 Hit Rating + 5/5 Precision. [26.23 hit rating = 1% spell hit]
Dual-wielding requires a significant amount of hit rating to never miss a melee attack. It is unobtainable without sacrificing other crucial stats. The 315 Hit rating + Precision mentioned above will provide 9.6% + 5% of melee Hit [32.79 hit rating = 1% melee hit].
That being said, having an increased amount of Hit in late-game isn’t the worst idea since it gives an increase in DPS.
A standard 26 Expertise is required to remove the possibility of dodged attacks.
Hit rating -> Expertise -> Attack Power & Haste -> Critical Strike Rating -> Armor penetration
In the beginning, you will want to focus on stats such as Attack Power, Haste, and Critical Strike Rating because you won’t have enough Armor Penetration to make it work effectively. Attack Power and Haste will provide steady DPS, while Crit rating synergizes with Glyph of Sinister Strike. At this stage, aim for approximately 35% of Crit chance.
Hit rating -> Expertise -> Armor Penetration & Critical Strike Rating -> Haste -> Attack Power
When you progress into 25-man raids, you can switch to Armor Penetration as it becomes to the superior stat, and you now have access to better gear. The hard cap for Armor Penetration is 1400 (including trinket procs).
Crit chance remains a vital stat, and you can now improve it up to 55% while being buffed.
um what about the bis gear?
Poisons are not spell damage, they are nature damage. Nature damage requires 11% hit, not 17%.
Nature damage is a form of spell damage. The spell schools are: frost; fire; shadow ; nature; arcane; and holy.
To be hit capped for real you need 24% hit rating for your off hand but no one go for that stat no worth
Now this is me speaking about ICC 3.3.5
As a combat rogue you should never be gemming Pure Haste, Pure AP, or AP + Haste mixed.
For gemming at bis, you need 1x 20 Expertise, 1x 10 Hit + 10 Expertise, and the rest will be ARP gems until 1400 or 1360 with Hearty Rhino food. For every other slot that is not dedicated to one of those 3 things, you will be gemming 10 Agi + 10 Haste as that is the most effective gem in a yellow slot. Also make sure to have a nightmare tear as always
if you read it properly it does say this is the gems for the start before u get the gear to reach arp cap