This section is designed to help you look for items throughout your career as a rogue. Obviously, WoW changes all the time and the items are highly subject to change. Though this is a general guide to what you might want to pick up, check out item sites such as www.thottbot.com and wow.allakhazam.com and search for an item that you’re looking for and the general area it’s found.
I should also point out www.shadowpanther.net as a great resource for optimizing what items you should gear up with. It has a built in AEP listing and gives a good idea of what’s available to you.
As stated in the beginning of this guide, you need to know what stats to look for. You will want a balanced of agility and stamina near the 60/40 ratio. If you find you’re taking too much damage, then perhaps increase your stamina ratio. As for deciding if you want to sacrifice a stat for an effect, remember that at level 70, 1% increase chance of a critical hit is equal to about 40 agility. Agility also affects dodge, parry, your avoid rate and armor value. There are sets out there where you can collect tons of +% for a critical hit but you are sacrificing elsewhere. I will list such special items below.
Agility also affects Dodge chance and armor values. 1 Agility is equal to 2.5 Armor. 20 Agility is equal to 1% Dodge at level 70.

Basic understanding of weapons in WoW is important. Items with gray names are sub-standard and should only be picked up to be sold. Items with white names are regular items and should only be used from level 20 and below. They do not appear as loot, or at least I have not experienced it. Items with green names are considered rare and will be what you will be equipping from levels 20-60, the bare minimum will be fully equipped in rare items. These items drop

from any type of creature, though more often from humanoids. Items with blue names are considered unique and are very uncommon as drops from regular creatures. Unique items are extremely rare on regular opponents and you will really only start to find them in instances against elite opponents or in high level quests. Items with purple names are epic items and you will perhaps find 1 by the time you reach level 60. They only drop from the most difficult creatures in WoW. Items colored red or orange are considered legendary and artifact and to this point in the game, only a scarce amount have appeared.
Similar to Diablo II, there are also item sets. If you collect the whole set, you will get added benefits. Make no effort to collect the sets until you’re in your 50s as you will outgrow all of your gear until that point. That being said, there are item sets for each class in the highest instances and making an effort to collect these is a good idea. As a rogue, you’re looking for Shadowcraft armor initially.
Also making an appearance from Diablo II are socketed items. These currently only seem to appear from level 60 on and have various colered gems that can be used. Red, Yellow or Blue are the main colors. You will find Purple, Green and Orange gems however, that will meet their basic counterparts. For example, Purple works as Blue or Red. Additionally, there are Meta gems, which require a combination of colored gems to activate their bonus. These are colorless and generally appear in headgear. There are currently very few of these gems available however. A list of noticeable rogue gems follows:
●Red - Bright Living Ruby +16AP
●Yellow - Smooth Dawnstone +8Crit, Rigid Dawnstone +8Hit
●Blue - Solid Star of Elune +12STA
●Orange - Enscribed Fire Opal +5STR/+5Crit, Glinting Fire Opal +5AGI/+4Hit, Deadly Fire Opal +8AP/+5Crit
●Green - Jagged Talasite +4Crit/+6STA
●Purple - Shifting Nightseye +4AGI/+6STA, Brutal Tanzanite +10AP/+6STA, Pulsing Amethyst +10AP/+6STA
●META - Swift Skyfire Diamond +24AP/Minor Speed (2Y,1R), Swift Windfire Diamond +20AP/Minor Speed(2Y,1R), Brutal Earthstorm Diamond +3MeleeDMG/StunProc(5R,5Y,5B)

Items listed below are in a short format. Weapons are listed with the name followed by (damage / speed in seconds). Nearly all these items are Bind on Pickup so you need to be there to loot it.
It’s common to see Rogues at 70 with over 400 Agility and 350 Stamina. That in turns equates to 10% critical chance, 20% dodge chance, 800AC boost and 3500 hit point boost. That’s a fair chunk. At 70, you should be aiming to get 7000HP above all else, then get to 1200Atk. From that point, you’re going to be very difficult to kill and be dealing out a large amount of damage. Remember that enchants can help greatly with improving your stats as explained later on.
A final note, when hunting for items to drop from humanoids, is to focus on trolls. They seem to have the highest chance to drop leather and agility items, at least from my experience. If you are hunting in an instance, they take 15 minutes after you exit to reset. To make this go faster, when in an instance, get a friend to invite you. Leave the instance and then leave the group. This should reset the instance. Do not leave the group while in the instance as you will get bugged.
Levels 1 to 20
It really doesn’t matter what gear you use at this point. I do suggest doing the rogue quest at level 10 for the Blade of Cunning though as it’s easy for all races to do. You’ll more than likely be replacing it in a day or 2. You’ll start collecting the odd green item, but it’ll mostly be white gear.
Levels 20-30
Dagger
●Blackfang (17-35/1.5) – This is a random drop and easy to pick up in the Auction House for cheap. You might even have it drop for you.
●Prison Shank (21-39/1.8) – Drops in the Stockades instance off Bruegal. The instance is good for levels 25-30. BoP
●Meteor Shard (23-43/1.8) – Drops in Shadowfang Keep off Arugal. Easier for Horde to find. BoP
Sword
Oddly enough, for this level gap, there are no good swords that are easily acquirable from a specific creature. Just visit the AH and kill humanoids.

Leather
Not much here either from specific creatures. Find a tailor and get some Dark Leather items. Again, hunting humanoids works well.
Levels 30-40
Dagger
●Toxic Revenger (27-51/1.9) – Viscious Fallout (30+) in Gnomeregan. You can solo this guy pretty easy at level 35. Just run in with stealth, drop from the first floor to the ooze floor and find him. Reset the instance until you get it. Best bet is to pair with another Rogue and get one each.
●Tigerbane (27-51/1.9) – Random drop in Scarlet Monastery.
●Black Menace (31-58/1.5) – Complete the Scarlet Monastery quest In the Name of the Light.
Sword
●Black Knight (26-49/1.9) – Bazil Thredd in Stockades. You’re not likely to solo this guy in your 30s due to the amount of people around him.
●Electrocutioner Leg (26-49/1.7) - Electrocutioner 6000 drops this in Gnomeregan. This is a good instance to do and killing this boss should be part of it. If you don’t get it, don’t worry though.
●Sword of Serenity (46-86/2.2) - Complete the Scarlet Monastery quest In the Name of the Light.
Leather
●Dusky leather set. Get a tailor to make these for you, they carry a nice agility bonus and can last you through the 30s until Nightscape items
●Triprunner Dungarees – Get for completing the quest to kill Thermaplugg in Gnomeregan. These will last you a long time. BoP
●Best bet though, is to do multiple runs of Scarlet Monastery. This is by far the best place to get gear for the 30s and low 40s

Levels 40-50
Dagger
●Coldrage Dagger (31-58/1.5) – Drops off Amnennar the Coldbringer in Razorfen Downs. I suggest getting the quest Bring the Light from the cathedral in Stormwind as it rewards a decent sword listed below
●Gahz'rilla Fang (35-66/1.8) – Drops off Gahz’rilla in Zul’Farrak.
●Satyr’s Lash (39-74/1.7) – Drops Lord Vyletongue in Mauradon. One of the better daggers you’ll find for a while.
Sword
●Phantom Blade (59-111/2.6) – Get a Weapon specialized blacksmith to make this for you.
●Thrash Blade (66-124/2.7) – Complete the Corruption of Earth and Seed quest in Desolace, which requires a trip to Mauradon.
Leather
(I’ll list the important stats since you’ll be using some for a while)
●Albino Crocscale Boots (AC: 105, Agi: 20, Sta: 5) – Drops off Rotgrip in Mauradon
●Fleshhide Shoulders (AC: 95, Agi: 6, Sta: 15, Str: 5) – Drops in Razorfen Downs off Glutton, who is only 40+
●Fungus Shroud Armor (chest AC: 148, Agi: 25, Sta: 10) - Meshlok the Harvester in Mauradon. The best tunic for a while.
●Sandstalker Ankleguards(feet AC: 95, Agi: 17, Str: 6) – Drops off Zerillis in Zul’Farrak.
●Get a leatherworker to create a Helm of Fire (AC: 118, Agi: 17, Sta: 10). Awesome helm.
●Get the same leatherworker to create the Gauntlets of the Sea (AC: 85, Agi: 7 heal for 300-500 – 30mins)
Levels 50-60
Pre BC expansion, level 60 items were all about running instances. You can still do this if you want but I highly suggest you treat this section as you did 40-50. Once you hit level 58 or so, the first quests available in the Outlands will make any 5 man item (and some 40 man items to be honest) look like a twig. Though I generally don’t advise spending a large amount of time buying things from the Auction House from 57 on up, it’s a good idea to completely refit yourself.

Dagger
●Hunt Black Rock Depths(BRD) or Black Rock Spire (BRS). If you don’t have Satyr’s Lash, get it now, as it really is the best dagger until you find something in BRD.
●Scholomance has a Demon Blade (46-87/1.8) that adds to agility that you might want to swap in
●The Keris of Zul’Serak that drops in LBRS is a very nice dagger for a long time.
●Felstriker drops off of Rend in UBRS, though it’s a rare drop. When it procs for 3 seconds of crits, be mindful that you will most likely draw aggro.
●Bonescrapper drops from the Baron on the live side of Stratholme. You’ll be running this zone almost as frequently as UBRS as it can be done in less than 1 hour.
Sword
●Again, BRD/BRS for a new sword as the Thrash Blade is still really good.
●Strathholme has a chance of dropping the Assassination Blade (71-132/2.7), which is pretty good. Increases crit chance by 1%.
●Farming the Rend event in UBRS can give the Dal Rend’s Set, which is a good set of swords
Mace
●Buy a Mass of McGowan from the AH. It’s a very good weapon for a long time.
Leather
●Try searching for the Cadaverous leather set(chest, belt,gloves,legs,feet), which drops through Scholomance
●Other than the set above, you really should just check the Auction House for gear and hunt humanoids in Winterspring/Eastern Plaguelands
Levels 60-70