Rogue T10 Stats Revealed: The Rogue Shadowblade Armor Set…

We’ve seen the pictures and the video and now, finally, the T10 armor stats for the Rogue Shadowblade set have been revealed!

According to World of Raids the set is active on the PTR now and without further ado here it is…

 Rogue Shadowblade Armor Set (iLevel 251)

Rogue T10 Stats

In summary, when comparing the T10 set stats to the T9 Level 245 Garona’s Battlegear it’s no surprise it provides a considerable upgdrade. Please note the Attack Power and Critical Strike Rating stats in the table below don’t include the AP and Crit gained from Agility (they are merely the Equip bonuses).

Stats	T9	T10	Change
Agility	562	646	84
Stamina	610	646	36
Attack Power	717	801	84
Armor Penetration Rating	149	223	74
Critical Strike Rating	247	422	175
Expertise Rating	133	80	-53
Hit Rating	215	0	-215
Haste Rating	0	63	63

On top of this the +84 agility between T9 and T10 will give you another +84 attack power and +46 crit rating (+1% crit).

In total the change from T9 to T10 in terms of attack power and critical strike rating is significant:

Total AP & Crit	T9	T10	Change
Attack Power	1279	1447	168
Critical Strike Rating	553	778	225
Critical Strike Chance	12.05%	16.94%	4.90%

Don’t forget this is before we even look at the other slot items AND we’ve got those lovely set bonuses to take into consideration too…

Rogue T10 Bonuses

• 2-Piece Bonus – Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.
• 4-Piece Bonus – Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.

Gems

On the gem front we are going to be better off with 2 more red sockets in the T10 and none of those crappy blue sockets:

Gem Sockets	T9	T10	Change
Yellow	0	2	2
Red	3	5	2
Blue	4	0	-4

Overall

I like the look of the T10 set, I like the bonuses, gems and stats. Win. Win. WIN!

Thanks to World of Raids for making my day!

What are YOUR thoughts on the new T10 Shadowblade set?

WoW News: Weekly Raid Quests?

We’ve known for some time now Blizzard will be upgrading the daily heroic dungeon quests and all the raids to drop Emblems of Triumph instead of Conquest.

Well, now they’ve gone a step further…

In a bid not to let the older raid content go to waste when they open up the Icecrown Citadel, Blizzard are also bringing in weekly raid quests.

Of course, things are always subject to change but at the moment it looks like the raid quest rewards will be 5 Emblems of Frost and 5 Emblems of Triumph.

If you don’t believe me here’s a snapshot courtesy of World of Raids…

To complete the quest it looks like you can do either the 10-man or 25-man raid.

I’m all for this! I must admit I’m struggling to get motivated to run any raids at the moment with the exception of Crusader’s Coliseum – I’m still after that Death’s Choice trinket everyone wants in ToC-25 and of course I’m looking to pick up what upgrades I can with the heroic stuff.

What about the daily dungeon quests?

Meh! To be perfectly honest I don’t bother with them now. I’m sick of them! Of course I’ll have a go if we’re gearing up some guildies or perhaps a quick run through The Violet Hold.

With the new weekly raid quests I’ll certainly be doing these if it means getting my grubby little hands on some of those new shiny Emblems of Frost.

So there you go… Good news for those of you newer to the game (or alts) and in need of gearing up and good news for all.

What do YOU think?

Icecrown Citadel Rogue Gear Recipes Revealed!

Yes! You heard me right!… The raid recipes from Icecrown Citadel have been revealed.

• Bladeborn Leggings
• Footpads of Impending Death

That’s not all… Check out the stats courtesy of World of Raids:

 

According to WOR these recipes will be available from normal 25-man mode.

… And if that doesn’t get you drooling just think what the T10.5 armor stats are going to be like.

One thing’s for sure, with stats like these combined with the Tier-10 set bonuses, Rogues will be dealing some serious damage in Icecrown.

Rogue T10 2-Piece Bonus
– Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.

Rogue T10 4-Piece Bonus
– Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.

Now show me the weapons already damn it!

WoW News: T10 Armor Set from Emblems and T10.5 from Tokens?

Well, well, well… What have we here?

In a Q&A session Blizzard has revealed T10 and T10.5 armor set pieces will be available from a mixture of Emblems of Frost and Tokens.

• T10 armor set pieces will be available from Emblems of Frost similar to the T9 set and Emblems of Triumph.
• T10.5 will only be available from Tokens from the 25-man raid similar to the T8 Tokens from Ulduar.

Here’s the actual quote from Aratil:

“With T10, are we going to see tokens like in Ulduar? or like Crusaders’ Coliseum? CC style had every class and spec rolling on same thing?

With T10 we’re going to see a hybrid. The Tier 10 items (the ones with item levels you’d find in the 10-player raid) will be purchased with Emblems of Frost.

The Tier-10.5 items (the ones with item levels you’d find in the 25-player raid) will be obtained by getting a token (one that is specific to 3 or 4 classes, much like the Ulduar tokens) and using it to upgrade the Tier-10 item that was purchased with Emblems of Frost.”

This is one way of dealing with the “everyone wants the Trophies of the Crusade” issue we have with ToTC 25-man. Sounds like a good idea to me.

So it looks like we will simply pick up the Tier-10 gear from Emblems to get into Icecrown 25-man. Once in Icecrown we’ll pick up Tokens (and no Emblems) to upgrade our set to the 25-man level armor. This would be very nice… It would certainly save us having to farm loads of Emblems.

If only they thought of this with the T9 and T9.5 armor sets!

As far as I can see this is the only drawback going down the T9 armor set and upgrading to T9.5 route:

You’ve farmed 160 Emblems of Triumph to get your T9 armor to get into 25-man raids (assuming you get the cheapest 4 pieces in order to get the set bonus).

You get into Trials of the Crusade 25-mans and pick up Trophies of the Crusade. Now you have to farm another 240 Emblems in order to upgrade to the T9.5 set.

What if you had 4 pieces of T9 and only had to use the Trophy to upgrade it to the T9.5 set? Although you wouldn’t need Emblems anymore you would still be running the 25-man raid anyhow for the other items (weapons, belt, boots, etc).

What do YOU think?

p.p.s. The Rogue T10 set stats have just been revealed (on 12th November 2009). Go check it out.

Rogue Tier-10 Pictures by Race

MMO-Champion have now put up pictures of the Rogue Tier-10 Armor set for each race, male and female.

THE GOOD…

I like the look of the first row of pictures best with the sort of brownish orange rusty coloured armor and orange glowing head-piece..

Of course I think Undead Male is by far the best (even with the headgear on show!) followed closely by Troll Male. I wasn’t a big fan of the head-piece in my previous post but looking at it on an Undead rather than a Human I take it all back!

THE BAD…

Orcs and Dwarves look too wide to be a Rogue for me but then they always have (personally I think they’re much more suited to Warrior Armor).

… AND THE DOWNRIGHT STUPID

The Nightelf Male looks dopey with those floppy ears sticking out and Gnomes look as dumb as ever (Pah! I’ve never liked either races anyway).

What race do you think looks the best?

Rogue Tier-10 Armor Video and Set Bonus Update

Rogue Tier-10 Armor Set Video

We’ve seen the pictures of the new Rogue T10 armor set and now the guys over at MMO-Champion have put up a video. Check it out…

I still think the Rogue head-piece looks awful but I suppose it might grow on me – I can see a lot of Rogues hiding it to be honest. I wasn’t too fond of the T8 helm either but I absolutely loved it as soon as I got it.

If you think our head-piece is bad and really want a laugh check out the Hunter helm in the video. What the hell were they thinking? Are they having a pop at them here? Don’t get me wrong I cannot stand Hunters (kiting me in Battlegrounds) but surely this is a bit harsh?

Other than the Rogue set (minus the helm) the Tauren Warrior is probably my favourite with the Tauren Druids a close second but then I would say that wouldn’t I?

Rogue T10 Set Bonus Update

BAD NEWS
Unfortunately it seems it was too good to be true. Following on from my original post the Tier-10 Set Bonuses have been changed.

GOOD NEWS
They are still the same but Blizzard have decided to switch the 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses around so here they are again:

Rogue T10 2-Piece Bonus
– Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.

Rogue T10 4-Piece Bonus
– Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.

Enjoy!

p.s. The Rogue T10 set stats have just been revealed (on 12th November 2009). Go check it out.

WoW Rogue Tier-10 Armor and Set Bonuses

Well, well, well, what can I say other than GIEF!?

In short; the Rogue T10 set bonuses look very nice and a vast improvement over the crappy T9 bonuses. The armor looks evil – just what a Rogue should look like – bar the helm which just looks stupid.

Rogue T10 2-Piece Bonus
– Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.

Tastey eh? Cannot fault extra combo points. Be interested to see how this set will effect specs and rotations. Up to now we’ve had the Slice and Dice, Rupture and Hunger for Blood and Envenom finisher pretty much throughout Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard said they want us to be pressing more buttons and here we are. Are we going to see a new cycle?

Rogue T10 4-Piece Bonus
– Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.

I love this one. I always use this ability on the Tank at the start of the fight (to get started right away without aggroing) and on a fellow Rogue during the fight (who returns the favour for that extra 15% damage for 6 seconds every 30 seconds). This ability currently costs you 15 energy so who is going to argue with 30 extra energy every 30 seconds?

All in all both bonuses are very useful and a considerable improvement on the Rogue T9 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses:

Rogue T9 2-Piece Bonus
– Your Rupture ability has a chance each time it deals damage to reduce the cost of your next ability by 40 energy.

Rogue T9 4-Piece Bonus
– Increases the critical strike chance of your Hemorrhage, Sinister Strike, Backstab and Mutilate abilities by 5%.

I’ll be interested to see the stats on the gear compared to the T9 245 items. Will they be as big a jump as the stats on Tier 8 to Tier 9?

What do you think about the Rogue T10 set bonuses and looks?

WARNING: Obviously this is only on the PTR at the moment so as usual they are subject to change.

Please note since this post the set bonuses have changed and an update has been posted (on 12th October 2009)