Classic Rogue DPS Stat Priority

Before we begin, it should be said that gear in WoW Classic tends to be very unique, and as such, you will often be chasing very specific items, rather than simply following a stat priority list. Still, a more detailed explanation on each of Rogue's relevant stats will help you understand why those pieces are so 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 have many sources, with the only ones being the talent Weapon Expertise and the Human Racial Sword Specialization.

If you are playing a build that prioritizes Crit Chance higher, such as the Seal Fate build, then you may want to prioritize that over Strength and Agility, however do NOT 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 should focus on. You want to get a hard hitting main hand weapon for both dagger or sword spec, since both of their combo generators scale based off of main-hand weapon damage. You also want a fast off-hand, in order to take advantage of the your poisons proc rate.

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

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

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

Mobs and players at Level 60 will have a defense skill of 300, meaning that, in order to never miss your abilities as a Rogue, you will need 300 Weapon Skill and 5% Hit Rating. Any Bosses or Level 63 mobs will have a Defense Skill of 315, meaning you will need to have higher Hit Rating (9%) in order to hit the PvE ability hit cap 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 any attacks that are made from the front. As you gain a different stat such as critical strike chance, your chance to miss will not be affected, but instead your chance to hit a normal hit will lower and your chance to hit a critical hit will increase. You will be capped at a certain critical and normal hit chance, since the boss has a base 40% glancing blow chance, 5.6% dodge chance, and your base chance to miss is 24.6%. This means that any critical hit chance exceeding 29.8% would be wasted, therefore it is your critical hit chance cap (this number fluctuates depending on your hit chance). As you gain gear that increases your chance to hit, your chance to miss will be lowered, thus increasing the chance for normal attacks or critical hits to occur more often. This math assumes that you are Level 60 and have 300 weapon skill.

Agility is your strongest stat as a Rogue, since it increases your Attack Power with melee and ranged weapons by 1 per point, Crit Chance (by 1% per 29 Agility), and your Dodge by 2% per 29 Agility. This means at Level 60, a Rogue that gains 29 Agility will gain from that 29 Attack Power, 1% Crit Chance, and 2% Dodge. Rogues will need less Agility to gain Dodge Chance, with it being 20 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 Strength less beneficial point for point compared to Agility, which also gives you Crit Chance and Dodge. There are pieces of gear in WoW Classic, like some from the Bloodfang Armor Set, that have both Strength and Agility on them. Attack Power is a very important stat as it increases nearly all damage that a Rogue does.

Stamina increases your health by 10 per point at level 60. This is a great stat that will usually not require you to choose other stats over it. Stamina is an important stat for Rogues in PvP, especially since Rogues do not have much self healing, so having a bit more Health can be the difference between life and death. In PvP, you will see some 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 certain encounters. Wearing resistance gear of an elemental type makes you take less damage from that magical damage type.

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

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