PvE Assassination Rogue Stat Priority

Assassination Rogue Guide

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Pre-Raid & Best In Slot (BiS)

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

In this section we will cover the stats you should be prioritizing and the order in which they should be prioritized. After which we will cover why each of these stats are vital for you.

Stat Conversions for Rogues

Regardless of specialization, these are the important stat conversions for Rogues:

• 1 Agility = 1 Melee Attack Power
• 1 Agility = 0.03% Critical Strike Chance
• 1 Agility = 2 Armor
• 1 Agility = 0.05% Dodge Chance
• 1 Agility = 2 Ranged Attack Power
• 1 Stamina = 10 Health
• 15.77 Hit Rating = 1% Hit Chance
• 22.1 Critical Strike Rating = 1% Critical Strike Chance
• 15.77 Expertise Rating = 1 Expertise

Stat Priority List

1. Expertise
2. Hit Rating
3. Agility
4. Haste
5. Critical Strike Rating

Expertise – Expertise, similar to Hit, reduces the chance your attacks won’t hit the target. Unlike Hit, Expertise affects the target’s chance to either dodge or parry your attacks. Since most DPS do prefer to attack targets from the back, and Rogues are no exception, especially since some of their attacks have that as a prerequisite, they only need to concern themselves with reaching the “soft cap” of 6.5%, or 64 (Humans using Swords or Maces can aim for 44, since they have Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization) since enemies cannot parry attacks that come from behind.

Hit Rating – Hit Rating reduces, or eliminates the chances of your attacks missing the target. Dual-wielding DPS classes (such as Rogues and Shamans) require substantially more Hit Rating to reach their “cap” than DPS wielding two-handed weapons or tanks wielding a one-handed weapon and shield. As a Rogue, we need to reach the universal 9% Hit Chance, or 142 Hit Rating, to ensure our special attacks never miss. For our white-damage attacks to never miss, we need a total of 28% Hit Chance. Thanks to Precision, we only require 4% Hit Chance for our Special Attacks and 23% Hit Chance for our auto-attacks.

Agility – Agility is the stat that directly increases the amount of damage your abilities and auto-attacks cause. It also increases your Critical Strike Chance.

Haste – While not as plentiful in early phases as it will become in later phases, Haste increases your attack speed, and reduces your global cooldown.

Critical Strike Rating – Because Agility increases our Critical Strike Chance while increasing our Attack Power, Critical Strike Rating does fall below it in level of importance. However, you should always keep an eye out for pieces with Critical Strike Rating as it can certainly help increase your damage.

While not present in Phase 1, Armor Penetration does provide substantial benefit since it reduces the effect the target’s armor has against your attacks. It should be noted that in TBC Classic, raid bosses have either 6,200 or 7,700 armor, and depending on your party or raid composition, you could reach 0 armor rather easily:

• Curse of Recklessness – This reduces armor by 800 (Stacks with Sunder Armor or Expose Armor)
• Expose Armor with Improved Expose Armor – This pair can reduce armor by 3,075
• Faerie Fire – This can reduce armor by 610

If all three abilities were used on a single boss, this would grant the raid a total of 4,485 reduced armor, allowing for only 1,715 or 3,215 (6,200 and 7,700 armor, respectively) Armor Penetration before becoming essentially useless since an enemy’s armor cannot be reduced past zero.