- Author: Nevermore
- Date: June 24, 2022
- Updated: August 3, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Besides your gear and talents, there are 3 additional ways you as a player can increase your character’s power: gems, enchants, and consumables, which make your character significantly more powerful when combined correctly.
Many guilds and raid groups may not invite you at all if you don’t have the correct gems, enchants and consumables — but worry not, this guide will help you avoid that problem!
Gems
Every physical DPS character will use this gem, and for Rogues in particular it’s a no-brainer as Agility is even better for us than most other physical DPS. The fact that its activation requirements have been toned down since the original version from TBC makes it even more appealing to use.
Rogues have a LOT of options for gems in the red slot. Armor penetration is your strongest stat, as explained in the Stat Priority section. However, armor penetration has a cap at 100% total penetration, achieved with 1400 armor penetration rating, or 1190 armor penetration rating if you’re using the Mace Specialization talent with maces.
After you have reached the cap, you should switch to using other gems in Red sockets. The main two gems you’ll be using in that situation are pure attack power (Bright Scarlet Ruby / Bright Cardinal Ruby / Bright Dragon’s Eye), or pure expertise gems (Precise Scarlet Ruby / Precise Cardinal Ruby / Precise Dragon’s Eye) if you’re not expertise capped.
Furthermore, if you’re not hit capped, you can also socket Attack Power + Hit (Pristine Monarch Topaz / Pristine Ametrine) or Expertise + Hit (Accurate Monarch Topaz / Accurate Ametrine) in order to reach your caps. However, using those in red sockets is a last resort — as much as possible, you’ll want to use them in Yellow sockets only.
You need 1 yellow gem to activate your meta gem, which you will automatically get by using the Tears (Enchanted Tear / Nightmare Tear) for the blue socket requirement anyway, as they count as 1 gem that has every color (Red, Yellow and Blue) so they activate your meta gem for free.
The gems listed above are very strong if you’re under the hit cap, as explained in the Stat Priority section. You should therefore use them in yellow sockets in order to boost your hit rating until you’re capped, and then transition away from using yellow and orange gems, using red gems in yellow gems.
The exception to this rule will be items with yellow sockets & powerful socket bonuses, such as agility, armor penetration or hit. In those situations, you could use Attack Power + Haste gems (Stark Monarch Topaz / Stark Ametrine), or Attack Power + Hit (Pristine Monarch Topaz / Pristine Ametrine) if if you’re not hit capped.
You need 1 blue gem to activate your meta gem, and the Tears (Enchanted Tear / Nightmare Tear) are your best option for that one slot. They count as 1 gem that has every color (Red, Yellow and Blue) so they activate your meta gem for free.
Ignore all other blue sockets, socketing red gems into them instead.
Enchants
This is your only viable option for this slot.
If you don’t quite have the Knights of the Ebon Blade reputation necessary to buy it yet, you can temporarily use Arcanum of Triumph (purchased with 40 Stone Keeper’s Shard from Wintergrasp).
Players with the Inscription profession should use their profession-exclusive Master’s Inscription of the Axe enchant here, while everyone else uses Greater Inscription of the Axe.
If you don’t quite have the The Sons of Hodir reputation necessary to buy it yet, you can temporarily use Inscription of Triumph (purchased with 30 Stone Keeper’s Shard from Wintergrasp).
Players with the Tailoring profession should use their profession-exclusive Swordguard Embroidery enchant here, while everyone else uses Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed. The tailoring enchant is really not impressive for Rogues though, so really, just drop tailoring and use the haste enchant.
Players with the Engineering profession can use Flexweave Underlay instead, but we only recommend using this on a 2nd cloak that you don’t generally use, just for the fun slow fall effect.
There is an alternative enchant in this slot in Enchant Cloak – Major Agility. Simulation tools will have to show if it is better than Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed, but for now we recommend Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed.
This is your only viable option for this slot.
Players with the Leatherworking profession should use their profession-exclusive Fur Lining – Attack Power enchant here, while everyone else uses Enchant Bracers – Greater Assault.
Additionally, players with the Blacksmithing profession should use Socket Bracer to add an extra socket to their bracers. It stacks with enchants.
Players with the Engineering profession should use their profession-exclusive Hyperspeed Accelerators enchant here, while everyone else uses Enchant Gloves – Crusher.
If you’re slightly shy off meeting your expertise or hit caps (explained in the Stat Priority section), you can use the Enchant Gloves – Expertise and Enchant Gloves – Precision enchants respectively. This is more of a last resort, however — do not rely on these enchant for your cap.
Additionally, players with the Blacksmithing profession should use Socket Gloves to add an extra socket to their gloves. It stacks with enchants.
There is an alternative enchant in this slot in Enchant Gloves – Major Agility. Simulation tools will have to show if it is better than Enchant Gloves – Crusher, but for now we recommend Enchant Gloves – Crusher.
This is your only option for this slot.
This is your best option for this slot.
If you’re strapped for cash, you could use the more budget-friendly Nerubian Leg Armor instead.
Players with the Engineering profession should use their profession-exclusive Nitro Boosts enchant here, while everyone else uses Enchant Boots – Greater Assault.
If you’re slightly short on hit, you could use Enchant Boots – Icewalker instead, but you generally will want to get your hit elsewhere.
There is an alternative enchant in this slot in Enchant Boots – Superior Agility. Simulation tools will have to show if it is better than Enchant Boots – Greater Assault, but for now we recommend Enchant Boots – Greater Assault .
Players with the Enchanting profession should use their profession-exclusive Enchant Ring – Assault enchant here. There are no other options.
Berserking is WotLK’s Mongoose essentially, and you’ll want to put it on both of your weapons. It’s a bit pricey however, so if you cannot afford it, you could use Enchant Weapon – Superior Potency or Enchant Weapon – Exceptional Agility instead — but be warned, they’re significantly weaker.
Consumables
The Flask of Endless Rage is the strongest option for the flask / elixir slot.
If you’re extremely short on cash and they’re cheap on your server, you could consider using Elixir of Mighty Agility instead. Be warned however that they’re significantly weaker than the flask, and you have to re-apply them on death, meaning if you’re dying often they might end up being more expensive anyway.
Like with your gems, you’ll want to use armor penetration food (Hearty Rhino), unless that would push you past the armor penetration cap (1400 rating, or 1190 if using Mace Specialization), at which point you should then use attack power food (Fish Feast / Poached Northern Sculpin) instead.
In a pinch, you can also use hit rating (Snapper Extreme) or expertise (Rhinolicious Wormsteak) food, in order to hit your hit and expertise caps respectively. This is only a last resort however — do not rely on them for your cap.
The Potion of Speed is our strongest option for the potion slot. You will want to use 2 of them in a fight – one right before the fight starts (known as “pre-potting”), and one when your Blade Flurry is ready again, 2 minutes into the fight, stacking it with any other DPS cooldowns you have available.
As Rogues, we get access to temporary weapon enchantments in the form of our poisons. These have thankfully been improved significantly in WotLK: you can now buy them directly instead of having to craft them, they last 1 hour and don’t have a specific number of charges, and you don’t have to worry about Windfury Totem anymore, as it has been reworked and no longer interferes with poisons. Their damage has been improved significantly, and hit rating now also grants spell hit rating, making it possible for us to reduce their chance to miss to 0%.
You should be using Instant Poison IX on your main hand, and Deadly Poison IX on your off-hand weapon
You can still use scrolls in Wrath of the Lich King — however, they do not stack with stat-boosting effects offered by class buffs.
For Combat Rogues in particular, you will most likely be getting the strength and agility buffs from Gift of the Wild, Strength of Earth Totem or Horn of Winter, meaning scrolls will be useless for you. If your raid doesn’t have any of those buffs for some reason, you could use the listed scrolls instead.
Rogues have a bunch of minor DPS-increasing consumables they can bring if they desire. The first is our old-trusty Thistle Tea, which only Rogues can make by using with the Cooking profession. It has been nerfed in WotLK, only restoring 20 energy at level 80, but it’s still something.
Furthermore, we have Flame Caps. This obscure little consumable from the TBC era causes our attacks to do a minor amount of fire damage. Herbalists can farm it in Zangarmarsh and the Slave Pens dungeon. However, they must be used constantly throughout a fight, and they share a cooldown with Fel Healthstones, so beware.
Finally, for some more fire damage procs, we have Dragonbreath Chili, also made with the Cooking skill. This technically counts as buff food, but you could have it active on top of your regular buff food if you use it AFTER activating your regular buff food.
It should be said that all of these consumables combined offer a miniscule DPS increase. Only use them if you really want to maximize your character’s DPS potential — it’s not worth it for the average player.
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About the Author
Hmm, how about Mongoose / Exectuioner for weapons (instead of berserker, cuz its expensive for prebis probably)
I just got to your guide, after doing my research about how big difference it really is, between going Mongoose or Berserker atm, especially as the Berserking enchant is 1.700G each at my realm atm, and I enchant Mongoose, for around 240-250g. So the price is for sure very different, but Ive came across alot of people who still says Mongoose is the best choice in the long run even in WOTLK, wich makes me wonder!
Thanks for a nice guide & the fact that you did add that there is a extra belt socket to get to the belt, was something I had forgot, since I put a Engineering Bomb on my belt, but the belt socket works even with the Engineering enchant. +++++
cheers! <3
Agility food is the best choice.