The performance of rogues in WoW Classic is significantly influenced by their gear. Back in Phase 1 and 2 of WoW Classic we could jump into Molten Core with green quest rewards and do okay. But now in Phase 5, you’ll need to gear up to be accepted into later content raid groups. This rogue gear guide is aimed at fresh level 60 rogues. Helping you to gear up as quickly as possible.
Thanks to Dranoel, Roxannamyu, and Ryntli from Pagle-Alliance for the ideas and inspirations behind this guide.
We’ll focus on good gear from quest rewards and crafted items. That’s not to say you won’t have to work for it, the crafted items require a decent amount of gold to buy the mats. But almost none of it will be left up to the random chance of a dungeon drop. Meaning all the effort put in will earn you a reward.
This is not a pre-raid BiS (best in slot) rogue gear guide. There are plenty of those available already to show you the best pre-raid gear you can get. But getting the best takes time. This guide will help you gear up quickly and more easily so you can join your guild and friends in raids. Leaving the pre-raid BiS stuff for something you can do between raid nights.
Head | Neck | Back | Chest & Wrists | Waist | Hands & Legs | Feet | Rings | Trinkets | Weapons
Head
This is our only dungeon farm item in the rogue gear guide. But with four helpful guildmates, you’ll probably be able to get this in less than an hour.
- Enter Stratholme from the side (servant’s) entrance.
- Kill the first trash pack in front of you, then head down the tunnel to the left.
- Work your way to the right, killing trash packs and patrols as needed.
- When you go back uphill need a side gate The Unforgiven will spawn with adds. The boss has a stupidly high dodge rate, but otherwise isn’t a big deal with geared up guildies.
- The hat has a 20% drop rate, run out and reset the instance until you get it.
Neck
Reward from a long quest chain, but well worth it. Only a handful of other necklaces in the game are better for rogues.
- Find Tirion Fordring in Eastern Plaguelands.
- Complete his first three quests:
- After that, you’ll start the quest Redemption. Worth through the entire quest chain.
- Of Love and Family (second part) will require you run Live Strat with a group
- Scarlet Subterfuge is doable solo, but read the comments and don’t be afraid to ask for help
Back
One of three rewards from the rogue level 50 quest series. If you didn’t complete it while leveling it is worth going back for this cloak. If you did complete it and picked a different reward then just skip this slot.
- Find a rogue trainer in a capital city and they should offer you the quest A Simple Request. This kicks off the questline.
- Near the end, you’ll need to go into The Temple of Atal’Hakkar aka Sunken Temple. Ask your guild for help, there aren’t many Sunken Temple runs to be found in LFG channels.
Pick the cloak, even if the other items are also upgrades. The cloak is unique in the game, no other item offers fall damage reduction. Making it useful for a long time, even when leveling again in Outland.
Chest & Wrists
Primal Batskin Jerkin & Primal Batskin Bracers
Two crafted items associated with the Zandalar Tribe (ZG rep). Chances are there is a leatherworker in your guild who has the needed rep to make them for you. You’ll just need to provide the mats, which will be a mix of buying from the auction house and farming.
Materials:
- Primal Bat Leather (22) – Skinned from bats inside ZG, your best bet is the auction house
- Cured Rugged Hide (8) – Created by leatherworkers on a 3-day cooldown, so don’t expect to just send them mats and get one back. See if a guildie will give you a deal, otherwise check the auction house.
- Living Essence (8) – Farmable from various creates in higher-level zones
- Rune Thread (7) – Buy from a vendor near a leatherworking or tailoring trainer
Waist
This is a great piece, almost as good as an epic belt out of Molten Core. If this was a pre-raid BiS rogue gear guide it would still make the list.
- Pick up A Collection of Heads from the Zandalar island.
- Get into a Zul’Gurub raid and loot a head (quest item) off of the five bosses with turn into animals (have priest or priestess in their name).
- Turn in the 5 heads back on the island and put on your new belt.
Be sure to also have the quest The Perfect Poison to get them both done in one run.
Hands & Legs
Devilsaur Gauntlets & Devilsaur Leggings
If this was a pre-raid BiS rogue gear guide it would still make the list. They were your best option when I leveled up, and they still are today. The set bonus is powerful enough you may not want to replace either until you can replace both with epics.
Chances are there is a leatherworker in your guild who has the recipes and can make them for you. Provided you give them the needed mats. But also check and see what they are selling for on your server. On mine, you can buy the set directly from a farmer/crafter for less than you can buy the materials.
Materials:
- Rugged Leather (60) – If you’re a skinner you probably have lots, otherwise they are cheap on the auction house
- Devilsaur Leather (22) – Obtainable by skinners, but hard to solo in quest greens. Either ask for help if you have 275+ skinning or buy from the auction house.
- Cured Rugged Hide (1) – Created by leatherworkers on a 3-day cooldown, so don’t expect to just send them mats and get one back. See if a guildie will give you a deal, otherwise check the auction house.
- Rune Thread (2) – Buy from a vendor near a leatherworking or tailoring trainer
Feet
Mongoose Boots or Swiftfoot Treads
Mongoose Boots are better and an easily crafted item. But their materials can get expensive, on my server they are the single most expensive item on this list. If you have more gold than time then go for them, and get the better set of boots out of the deal.
But if you’re gold starved you’re better off doing the quest for Swiftfoot Treads. Spending what you have on the Devilsaur and Primal Batskin sets (in that order).
Mongoose Boots Materials:
- Rugged Leather (12) – If you’re a skinner you probably have lots, otherwise they are cheap on the auction house
- Cured Rugged Hide (2) – Created by leatherworkers on a 3-day cooldown, so don’t expect to just send them mats and get one back. See if a guildie will give you a deal, otherwise check the auction house.
- Black Diamond (4) – Common drop from Blackrock Depths, usually found on the auction house for cheap
- Essence of Air (6) – Farmable, but expect competition
- Rune Thread (4) – Buy from a vendor near a leatherworking or tailoring trainer
Swiftfoot Treads Quest:
- Pick up the quest Mayara Brightwing (Alliance) or Vivian Lagrave and the Darkstone Tablet (Horde).
- Both quest series require you to go into UBRS (10-man dungeon) and pick up an item in the egg room. Check out Wowhead comments for details
Rings
I consider these options in my rogue gear guide. If you have spare gold you can buy two of these from other players farming Dire Maul North. Prices vary by server, so ask in trade chat before you commit.
- Travel to Dire Maul until you join the Dire Maul general chat.
- Advertise you’re wanting to buy a Tarnished Elven Ring.
- If a farmer (likely a hunter) has one available they’ll whisper you and you two can work out the details. Usually, they’ll offer to help escort you as needed. Take it if you aren’t familiar with Dire Maul North instances. Otherwise, you can stealth through the more dangerous parts.
- You’ll meet at the end with a lootable chest available. Pay for your ring, then take it from the chest.
You can do this twice, as the rings are not unique.
Trinkets
A sometimes overlooked trinket. Its 2% hit is useful even after hit capped, and it is the cheapest and easiest item to get on this list. That said this will be the first trinket you replace when you get something better.
- Get your lock picking skilled up to 300.
- Buy Garona: A Study on Stealth and Treachery from the auction house, it’ll be cheap and you can’t farm it solo.
- Use the book to start the quest, then travel to Dire Maul.
- Go into Dire Maul North (picking the lock) and stealth once inside.
- Make your way into the courtyard ahead and below where you start. Wait for ogre patrols to move off. Don’t go anywhere near the dogs, they have stealth detection.
- When going down the ramp to the courtyard you’ll see a door to your left, head that way. Lock pick the door and go inside. You are now safe.
- Run down the long hallway until you come to the library. Turn in the book and get your trinket. Then either stealth back out or hearth.
Quest reward from completing both LBRS and UBRS. You could get it all done in one long run with a willing group. Or plan for two dungeon runs at different times. Either way, it is a strong trinket, and given the lack of options in raids one that most rogues (myself included) still use.
- Pick up General Drakkisath’s Command (Alliance) or Warlord’s Command (Horde).
- The quest series are different, but both require you to go into LBRS and kill the end boss.
- You will then need to go into UBRS and kill a boss there.
Weapons
You’re going to start with a pair of swords. Even if you want to go daggers these swords are stronger starting options and are easier to get. Wait until you can get epic daggers from raiding to make the switch from a sword to dagger rogue. For enchants, I recommend Crusader on both the main hand and off-hand to start. It is among the cheapest of the better enchants, and the extra heals will help with your lower health pool when taking raid level damage.
Your best option for the main hand weapon. Requires an easy quest and a couple of kills in 20-man raids.
- Pick up The Perfect Poison quest in Cenarion Hold, Silithus.
- Get into an AQ20 raid and loot a venom sac from the first boss.
- Get into a ZG raid and loot a venom sac from the second boss (snake priest).
- Return to Cenarion Hold and select the Ravenholdt Slicer as your reward.
Be sure to also have the quest A Collection of Heads to get them both done in one run.
Almost as good as Ravenholdt Slicer for your main hand weapon. This was my top pick for a pre-raid rogue weapon until Phase 5 came out. You can pick one up from the auction house if you have gold and want to skip getting into two 20-man raids. Prices vary, with the US median being 50 gold as of this post.
A strong off-hand weapon for rogues. You can do the needed quest series in one Scholomance run with a willing party.
- Head to Scholomance and talk to the female ghost just outside the building.
- Pick up Doctor Theolen Krastinov, the Butcher, then head into Scholomance.
- Tell your group you’re working on this quest series. It can be done in a single run, provided you kill bosses in the right order.
- Skip Kirtonos the Herald (bat boss who is summoned with Blood of the Innocent) and Jandice Barov (in the catacombs filled with undead).
- Kill Doctor Theolen Krastinov, who is one of the mini-bosses near the end of the dungeon. Then click on the two large meat piles to complete the quest.
- Go outside the instance (you can kill the last boss first), turn in the quest, and pick up the next one.
- Go back inside and kill Jandice Barov.
- Once again go outside the instance, turn in the quest, and pick up the final one.
- Kill Kirtonos the Herald. The quest will provide you with the Blood of the Innocence needed to summon him.
- Go outside for the last time and select Mirah’s Song as your reward.
Your Rogue’s First Raid Upgrades
What early raid epics you’ll get will depend on the raids you run and how loot is handled for them. In my guild, it wasn’t uncommon for a fresh level 60 to get a lot of their Tier 1 armor set in a single Molten Core run with some luck. The blue items from ZG and AQ20 are usually as good as Molten Core epics, so are also worth going for.
If you have a choice, or want to plan your DKP or EP/GP spending, then focus on these slots:
- Weapons – These should always be your #1 priority
- Shoulders – The one slot the rogue gear guide didn’t fill
- Any other slots you haven’t filled from above yet
- Ranged weapon
Other Gearing Options
If your guild runs AQ20 regularly get into those runs for rep and loot. The 3-piece Veiled Shadows set is great even for well-geared rogues. You’ll easily win all three turn in tokens well before you reach the needed reputation.
Don’t worry about Darkmantle armor. While some rogues consider it BiS at the start of Phase 5 it is a ton of work for a fresh level 60 to complete.
If you’re inclined you could work on the Field Duty quests and get Earthstrike as a strong trinket upgrade.