I hit 85 a couple of days ago and I’m in the process of gearing Sin for raiding. Well, possibly anyway. There are a couple of things we need to sort out guild-wise before we get there but that’s a different story. Anyway, here are a couple of things you might want to know in case you’re also considering getting your rogue geared.

The item level of regular dungeon drops is 333. Gear that can be acquired by Justice Points is 346. Regular dungeon drops have a heroic equivalent when you run heroic dungeons. The level of these items is also 346 and says “Heroic” under the name.

You need an item level of 329 in your character sheet to qualify for heroic dungeons.

Assassination provides the most DPS out of all three specs. Combat is supposed to be close. That isn’t the case in my experience though.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, everything you need to know about Cata raiding (stats, specs, etc.) can be found here. An in-depth Assassination guide is also here. Specs, stat weights, gems, etc. are all there.

Here’s a gear list of sorts that you might find useful, sorted by slot. Note that I only queried armor so trinkets, rings, cloaks and weapons aren’t included.

That’s it for now. Hope you find the information useful.

Tricks of the Trade is the lesser known (as opposed to Misdirect) aggro management skill that allows Rogues to redirect threat to the tank. Think of it as a short-ranged version of the more popular Misdirect. Used properly, it will allow you to unleash damage without having to worry about getting aggro.

As you can tell from the description, Tricks will redirect all of the threat caused by your actions to whoever you cast it on for six glorious seconds. Minus macros and addons, you can cast it by hitting the spell, then clicking your target, which is usually the tank. I don’t have a habit of casting it on another DPSer because I don’t want threat issues and I don’t want to share the damage buff. Yes, I’m selfish. Terribly, horribly selfish.

Now, doing it that way is a bit tedious. As rogues, we’re used to casting skills without having to worry about who or what to cast them on. When we press a button, there’s usually no need to select a target because we’re already on it. That’s where Tricks is…well, tricky. You have to cast it then click on your tank to use it successfully. Macros will remove that unnecessary click.

1. Select your tank, then enter “/focus”. You can also right click on his frame and then set your focus there.
2. Create a new macro and then type:
   • /cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade

Bind the macro to a key and try it out. Hitting it will cast Tricks on your focus target, removing the extra click.

What I really like about Tricks is that it gives you a full six seconds to do anything you want. The next time your raid runs into a big group of mobs, try doing Tricks + two Fan of Knives + Adrenaline Rush and watch your damage blow up everything in sight. Don’t be shy about using Killing Spree and Blade Flurry as well.