Classic Rogue DPS Stat Priority (2024)

Last updated on Dec 02, 2020 at 01:28by Sellin43 comments

Before we begin, it should be said that gear in WoW Classic tends to be veryunique, and as such, you will often be chasing very specific items, ratherthan simply following a stat priority list. Still, a more detailed explanation oneach of Rogue's relevant stats will help you understand why those pieces areso sought after.

1. 9% Hit Rating (The PvE Ability Cap)
2. Agility
3. Strength/Attack Power (Since Strength gives Attack Power these 2 are equal)
4. Crit Chance

Weapon Skill is also one of the most powerful stats, however it does not havemany sources, with the only ones being the talent Weapon Expertise andthe Human Racial Sword Specialization.

If you are playing a build that prioritizes Crit Chance higher, such as the SealFate build, then you may want to prioritize that over Strength and Agility, however doNOT sacrifice your Hit Rating to go below 9% for Crit Chance or any other stat.

Your Weapon as a Rogue is the most important piece of gear that you shouldfocus on. You want to get a hard hitting main hand weapon for both dagger orsword spec, since both of their combo generators scale based off of main-handweapon damage. You also want a fast off-hand, in order to take advantage of theyour poisons proc rate.

Weapon Skill is very important when leveling in Classic WoW. Every levelincreases the cap of your Weapon Skill by 5, up to a maximum of 300. Since youstart with Daggers as a Rogue, if you plan on switching to the Sword levelingbuild, then you want to make sure to raise your Weapon Skill when you make theswitch.

Weapon Skill allows you to hit enemies more often and, more importantly, for alot more damage when you land a glancing blow. Glancing blows are regular hitsthat deal reduced damage. Against your typical Level 63 boss, a full 40% of yourattacks will be glancing blows, which deal 30% reduced damage if you only have 300weapon skill. However, by increasing your weapon skill, up to a maximum of 310 forthis purpose, you can increase your glancing blow damage up to a cap of 100% of anormal hit, effectively making glancing blows be normal hits for all purposes.

Hit Rating allows your attacks to land more often. This is incredibly importantas a Rogue, since auto attacks do a good amount of damage, but it is awful whenyour special attacks, such as Eviscerate, miss. You will gain 5% HitRating from the talent Precision.

Mobs and players at Level 60 will have a defense skill of 300, meaning that, inorder to never miss your abilities as a Rogue, you will need 300 Weapon Skill and5% Hit Rating. Any Bosses or Level 63 mobs will have a Defense Skill of 315, meaningyou will need to have higher Hit Rating (9%) in order to hit the PvE ability hitcap when you are behind the boss. Getting to 9% Hit Rating is an absolute necessity,in order to prevent missing your main damaging abilities.

Bosses have a base dodge chance, as well as being able to parry or block anyattacks that are made from the front. As you gain adifferent stat such as critical strike chance, your chance to miss will not beaffected, but instead your chance to hit a normal hit will lower and your chanceto hit a critical hit will increase. You will be capped at a certaincritical and normal hit chance, since the boss has a base 40% glancing blowchance, 5.6% dodge chance, and your base chance to miss is 24.6%. This means thatany critical hit chance exceeding 29.8% would be wasted, therefore it is your criticalhit chance cap (this number fluctuates depending on your hit chance). As you gain gearthat increases your chance to hit, your chance to miss will be lowered, thus increasing the chance fornormal attacks or critical hits to occur more often. This math assumes that youare Level 60 and have 300 weapon skill.

Agility is your strongest stat as a Rogue, since it increases your AttackPower with melee and ranged weapons by 1 per point, Crit Chance (by 1% per 29Agility), and your Dodge by 2% per 29 Agility. This means at Level 60, a Roguethat gains 29 Agility will gain from that 29 Attack Power, 1% Crit Chance, and2% Dodge. Rogues will need less Agility to gain Dodge Chance, with it being20 Agility for 1% for most other classes and Hunter being even higher.

Increases your Attack Power with melee weapons by 1 per point. This makes Strengthless beneficial point for point compared to Agility, which also gives you Crit Chanceand Dodge. There are pieces of gear in WoW Classic, like some from the Bloodfang ArmorSet, that have both Strength and Agility on them. Attack Power is a very important stat asit increases nearly all damage that a Rogue does.

Stamina increases your health by 10 per point at level 60. This is a great stat thatwill usually not require you to choose other stats over it. Stamina is an importantstat for Rogues in PvP, especially since Rogues do not have much self healing, so havinga bit more Health can be the difference between life and death. In PvP, you will seesome Rogues stacking Stamina in order to achieve much higher levels of survivability.In PvE, Stamina is less valuable, but still a strong stat for Boss and Dungeon encounters.

Resistance is a very niche stat, as it is incredibly useful for certainencounters. Wearing resistance gear of an elemental type makes you take less damagefrom that magical damage type.

Critical Strike is a very powerful stat for Rogues in PvE. It is increased byAgility at a rate of 1% per 29 Agility. If you want to see the critical strikechance you have, then open your spellbook and move your mouse over your Attackability in the general tab. This stat gains a lot of value when you are running theSeal Fate build, since it relies on your critical hits.

If you want to make a switch to dagger from swords or vice versa, then equippingsome Intellect gear can help you with leveling your weapon skills quicker. Intellectincreases the rate at which weapon skills improve, which can help you get back tocurrent level content as quickly as possible.