The following is a basic guide to both gemming and enchanting your gear for the highest possible PvE dps. A PvP gemming guide will follow shortly. Keep in mind that all epic gems are available on Sunwell Island at the cost of 15 badges of justice, from bosses in Hyjal, Black Temple, and Sunwell Plataeu, and from your local auction house for a few hundred gold.
Meta Gem
+12 agility & 3% critical strike damage. Require 2 red gems, 2 blue gems, 2 yellow gems.
(Note – having an orange gem will count as having 1 yellow gem and 1 red gem. The same is true of purple and green gems.)
This is the best choice for any PvE situation. It provides the highest damage output. The meta that provides haste suffers from a hidden cooldown of 40 seconds and is inferior to this meta in every way.
Combat spec gem selection:
Red Sockets
rare: 4 agility / 4 hit – Glinting noble topaz
epic: 5 agility / 5 hit – Glinting Pyrestone
Yellow Sockets
rare: 8 hit - Rigid Dawnstone
epic: 10 hit – Rigid Lionseye
Blue Sockets
rare: 4 agility / 6 stamina – Shifting Nightseye
epic: 5 agility / 7 stamina – Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst
Mutilate gem selection:
Red Sockets
rare: 8 agility – Delicate Living Ruby
epic: 10 agility – Delicate Crimson Spinel
Yellow Sockets
rare: 4 agility / 4 hit – Glinting noble topaz
epic: 5 agility / 5 hit – Glinting Pyrestone
Blue Sockets
rare: 4 agility / 6 stamina – Shifting Nightseye
epic: 5 agility / 7 stamina – Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst
Notes:
Buffs such as Blessing of Kings are what make agility superior to attack power.
Unless the socket bonus is stamina, it’s best to gem for socket bonuses.
You should not use more than 2 blue gems if you are maximizing dps. These are only being used in order to satisfy a meta requirement. After this point gem 10 hit, 5 agility / 5 hit, or 10 agility depending on how close you are to hit cap, or 10 agility if you are mutilate.
When gemming, take note of hit cap to ensure you are not wasting statistics. Past a certain amount of hit, you will not gain anything.
Hit Cap for raid bosses:
0/5 precision: 442
5/5 precision: 363
Enchanting Gear
The following are the highest dps enchants available for PvE
Mainhand Weapon:
Executioner – Permanently enchant a Melee Weapon to occasionally ignore 840 of your enemy’s armor. Requires a level 60 or higher item.
or
Mongoose – Permanently enchant a Melee Weapon to occasionally increase Agility by 120 and attack speed slightly.
(situationally)
This is somewhat of a subject of debate. The safe answer is going double mongoose. Executioner does become superior to mongoose as a mainhand enchant deep into endgame raiding (Black Temple, Sunwell), especially for rogues with a lot of armor penetration. It also scales better with gear. It’s important to remember that both are extremely comparable. Mutilate should always use double mongoose.
OH Weapon: Enchant Weapon:
Mongoose
Head Enchant:
Glyph of Ferocity – 34 attack power, 16 hit rating
*Requires revered with Cenarion Expedition
Shoulder Enchant:
Greater Inscription of Vengeance (Aldor exalted) – 30 attack power, 10 critical strike rating
Greater Inscription of the Blade (Scryer exalted) – 20 attack power, 15 critical strike rating
Might of the Scourge (Naxxramas) – 26 attack power, 14 critical strike rating
Might of the scourge is superior to all other enchants if one has access to it.
Back Enchant:
Enchant Cloak – Greater Agility – 12 agility
Chest Enchant:
Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats – +6 to all stats
Wrist Enchant:
Enchant Bracer – Assualt – 24 attack power
Hand Enchant:
Enchant Gloves – Superior Agility – 15 agility
Leg Enchant:
Nethercobra Leg Armor - 50 attack power, 12 critical strike rating
Boot Enchant:
Enchant Boots – Dexterity – 12 agility
Ring Enchant:
Enchant Ring – Stats – +4 to all stats
Enchant Ring – Striking (superior for daggers) – +2 physical damage
These enchants are available only to enchanters.
Related posts:
You’re behind the times, Executioner is now always inferior to Mongoose, in any situation.
Comment by Karzerus — June 7, 2008 @ 3:46 pm
nicely done
Comment by Ero — June 7, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
An arguement can be made for surefooted to boots. I personally find 10 hit to be superior to 12 agi if your below cap.
Although I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, I actually swapped from 10hit in my yellow sockets to 5hit/5agi, going off of the math from shadowpanther.net.
10 hit = 11.5 AEP (1.15*10) and 5 hit 5agi = 11.25 ((1.15*5)+(1.1*5)) the difference is .25 AEP. However, when you factor in blessing of kings, the agi gains +10% making the 5agi 5hit gem worth 11.8 AEP .3 more.
They’re pretty equivilent, in an ideal raid situation you have 3 paladins in the group for Might Salv and Kings, 5agi 5hit comes out slightly on top.
Comment by Shizuka (Sargeras) — June 7, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
Would be nice to extend this guide for pvp gemming as well
Comment by Zanshin — June 7, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
@Zanshin – They are working on a PvP gemming guide atm and will be posting it shortly.
Comment by Jexy — June 8, 2008 @ 3:54 am
@3
Surefooted basically never beats Dexterity. 12 agi is more dps than 10 hit. Using the shadowpanther numbers, 10 hit = 11.5 AEP, 12 agi = 13.2 AEP.
Shadowpanther is a great reference site, but does suffer from the need to cater to a wide selection of gear ranges. As such, the values found there are less accurate than you could get from one of the established rogue DPS spreadsheets.
FWIW, I believe Shadowpanther accounts for buffs like blessing of kings when assigning aep values, so there’s no need to adjust. I could be wrong on this.
Regardless, for boot enchants I use Cat’s Swiftness. The movement speed buff is a greater DPS benefit than Dexterity in any fight where you’re moving at least 4 seconds every minute. This is almost every boss encounter in TBC, making it by far the most valuable enchant for your all-purpose boots. Ideally, you’d have two sets of boots with dexterity and cat’s swiftness respectively used for appropriate encounters, but we’re not all that lucky.
Comment by Jakani — June 8, 2008 @ 10:55 am
I would also like to point out that in this post: http://elitistjerks.com/514302-post65.html a good case can be made for Cat’s Swiftness to boots. It really comes down to situational fights where you either do have to or dont have to run.
Just wanted to throw this out there to make sure the guide covered everything.
Other than that, I love the site.
Comment by Thatboyandy — June 8, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
How come nition never posts
Comment by Deeoz — June 8, 2008 @ 9:18 pm
I wish nition would post more
Comment by Talanos — June 8, 2008 @ 9:21 pm
WHY DOESNT NITION POST
Comment by Colora — June 9, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
WHY DOESNT NITION POST DAMN IT.
Gemming for PvP.
Sub:
red: ap
yellow: crit/ap
Mut:
red: agi
yellow: crit/ap
THERE I JUST WROTE THE GUIDE FOR YOU.
Comment by Hey Akrios what's up in the world of Pokemon hmm I wonder how longer this name can become wow It's getting pretty long haha I bet you didn't expect this now did you? Well I guess I was going to go post on Gameriot but then I realized I had you on my bookm — June 9, 2008 @ 10:12 pm
“Sub:
red: ap”
LOL
Comment by Colora — June 9, 2008 @ 11:16 pm
Ap/agi is preference only, scrub. !
Comment by Hey Akrios what's up in the world of Pokemon hmm I wonder how longer this name can become wow It's getting pretty long haha I bet you didn't expect this now did you? Well I guess I was going to go post on Gameriot but then I realized I had you on my bookm — June 10, 2008 @ 10:36 am
because more crit, dodge and armor for a few less ap is bad amirite
Comment by Colora — June 11, 2008 @ 9:33 pm
I was just wondering.
My rogue is Mutilate spec, i was wonder if it crucial to have the red slots for 10 agi gems instead of 20ap. i have 1649 ap and 33.59% crit with ap gems in.
I love to get some feed back on this
thanx
Comment by Bloodcrave — June 15, 2008 @ 11:33 pm
Blood, for pve it would be noticable, but not a huge different. Its the same case for pvp, the difference between 10agi and 20 ap is very small.
Comment by Akrios — June 16, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
I’d say get Cat’s swiftness as boots enchant, gives minor speed and +6 agil, witch is good in PvE situations. Btw very handy information else, so ty alot
Comment by Ziggeman — June 17, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
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Comment by Neverfly — June 18, 2008 @ 7:45 am
Do you prefer 10 agi or 20 AP when going dpriest/shs in arena?
Comment by Astéron — June 27, 2008 @ 6:38 am
When are we going to get the PvP version?? *anxiously awaits*
Comment by Psychotik — July 18, 2008 @ 7:17 am
u mean that agility goes before Hit even if u havent reached the hit cap if u Play Mutilate?
Comment by Honungen — July 25, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Is ShS viable with full pvp gear with a restokin or Dpriest?
From reading arenajunkies seems like you just cant put out enough DPS to make it viable… any imput?
Comment by Darkbear — August 8, 2008 @ 11:17 am
Want to ask:
does [Enigmatic Skyfire Diamond] (5% Snare & root resist), [Surefooted] enchant on boots, and assassination talent [Fleet Footed] stacks? How much % to resist root with all 3 items?
Comment by Knavelt — August 19, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
ya3tek 3asba ya Neilyo w ya Akrioss
Comment by Zebiii — November 30, 2008 @ 7:01 am
Yes Thnx ZEbi
Comment by Neilyo — November 30, 2008 @ 7:01 am
What The Fuck ?!
Comment by Akrios — November 30, 2008 @ 7:02 am
Does Haste Rating affect rogues at all?
Comment by Future — December 1, 2008 @ 3:28 am
Neilyo 15 is out!
Comment by Neilyo — December 5, 2008 @ 3:44 am
Can we get a update here?
Comment by mex — February 19, 2009 @ 12:23 am
Please, update it!!
Comment by Goblin — June 20, 2010 @ 3:12 am