TBC Combat Rogue Phase 3 BiS List

Phase 3 is a big step for Combat rogues: Slayer’s Armor tier 6 set, epic gems, and - if you’re lucky enough - the legendary twin blades Warglaives of Azzinoth, the best rogue weapons in the game.

What’s new in Phase 3

• The Slayer’s tier set. Both the 2-piece and 4-piece Slayer’s Armor bonuses are strong, so the set anchors the build - shoulders, chest, hands and legs, leaving the head open for Cursed Vision of Sargeras.
• Armor penetration everywhere. Many of the new items carry flat armor penetration, which is a damage multiplier for your melee attacks.
• Epic gems. Delicate Crimson Spinel replaces the old Delicate Living Ruby, so socketed items gain relative value.
• The old kings survive. Dragonspine Trophy and Belt of One-Hundred Deaths are still best in slot - don’t discard all of your previous phase gear yet.

Best in slot

The first row in each slot is the BiS pick - the rest are ranked alternatives. Items from earlier phases only appear where they’re still competitive in Phase 3. Hit Equip on any item to view it in the character viewer and its impact on the stats.

Male Female

Shir

Taba

Base Stats

Strength

100

Agility

683

Stamina

637

Intellect

43

Spirit

69

Health

9894

Armor

4103

Melee

Attack Power

2085

Crit

708 / 32.06%

Hit

320 / 20.28%

Haste

0 / 0.00%

Expertise

16 / 16

Armor Pen

476

Click any gear slot above, or an Equip button in the list, to try items - the model and stats update instantly.

Head

• 
  Cursed Vision of Sargeras BiS

  Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple

  Huge agility, hit and crit - the leather helm to beat.
  Equipped
• 
  Slayer's Helm

  Archimonde - Mount Hyjal

  Take it if you'd rather build the tier set around the head.
  Equip
• 
  Deathblow X11 Goggles

  Crafted - Engineering (BoP)
  Equip

Neck

• 
  Choker of Endless Nightmares BiS

  Supremus - Black Temple
  Equipped
• 
  Choker of Serrated Blades

  Trash drop - Mount Hyjal
  Equip
• 
  Choker of Vile Intent

  G'eras - Badge of Justice x25
  Equip

Shoulder

• 
  Slayer's Shoulderpads BiS

  Mother Shahraz - Black Temple

  Slayer's tier - anchors the 2pc and 4pc set bonuses.
  Equipped
• 
  Swiftstrike Shoulders

  Crafted - Leatherworking (BoP)
  Equip

Back

• 
  Shadowmoon Destroyer's Drape BiS

  Teron Gorefiend - Black Temple
  Equipped
• 
  Thalassian Wildercloak

  Kael'thas Sunstrider - Tempest Keep
  Equip
• 
  Drape of the Dark Reavers

  Shade of Aran - Karazhan
  Equip

Chest

• 
  Slayer's Chestguard BiS

  Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple

  Slayer's tier.
  Equipped
• 
  Midnight Chestguard

  Archimonde - Mount Hyjal
  Equip
• 
  Nether Shadow Tunic

  Supremus - Black Temple
  Equip

Wrist

• 
  Insidious Bands BiS

  Teron Gorefiend - Black Temple
  Equipped
• 
  Deadly Cuffs

  Rage Winterchill - Mount Hyjal
  Equip
• 
  Vambraces of Ending

  High Astromancer Solarian - Tempest Keep
  Equip

Hands

• 
  Slayer's Handguards BiS

  Azgalor - Mount Hyjal

  Slayer's tier.
  Equipped
• 
  Grips of Damnation

  Reliquary of Souls - Black Temple
  Equip

Waist

• 
  Belt of One-Hundred Deaths BiS

  Lady Vashj - Serpentshrine Cavern

  Still the best rogue belt in Phase 3.
  Equipped
• 
  Shadow-walker's Cord

  Shade of Akama - Black Temple
  Equip
• 
  Don Alejandro's Money Belt

  Anetheron - Mount Hyjal
  Equip

Legs

• 
  Slayer's Legguards BiS

  Illidari Council - Black Temple

  Slayer's tier.
  Equipped
• 
  Shady Dealer's Pantaloons

  Azgalor - Mount Hyjal
  Equip
• 
  Vengeful Gladiator's Leather Legguards

  Arena
  Equip

Feet

• 
  Shadowmaster's Boots BiS

  Mother Shahraz - Black Temple
  Equipped
• 
  Black Featherlight Boots

  Kaz'rogal - Mount Hyjal
  Equip
• 
  Edgewalker Longboots

  Moroes - Karazhan
  Equip

Ring 1

• 
  Stormrage Signet Ring BiS

  Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple
  Equipped
• 
  Ring of Deceitful Intent

  Shade of Akama - Black Temple
  Equip
• 
  Band of the Ranger-General

  Kael'thas Sunstrider - Tempest Keep
  Equip

Ring 2

• 
  Band of the Eternal Champion BiS

  Quest: The Scale of the Sands (Champion's Covenant)
  Equipped
• 
  Ring of Deceitful Intent

  Shade of Akama - Black Temple
  Equip
• 
  Violet Signet of the Master Assassin

  The Violet Eye - Exalted
  Equip

Trinket 1

• 
  Dragonspine Trophy BiS

  Gruul - Gruul's Lair

  Still the best melee trinket in the game.
  Equipped
• 
  Warp-Spring Coil

  Void Reaver - Tempest Keep
  Equip
• 
  Bloodlust Brooch

  G'eras - Badge of Justice x41
  Equip

Trinket 2

• 
  Warp-Spring Coil BiS

  Void Reaver - Tempest Keep
  Equipped
• 
  Madness of the Betrayer

  Illidari Council - Black Temple
  Equip
• 
  Abacus of Violent Odds

  Pathaleon the Calculator - The Mechanar
  Equip

Main hand

• 
  Warglaive of Azzinoth BiS

  Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple

  Legendary. Warglaive of Azzinoth (main hand).
  Equipped
• 
  Blade of Infamy

  Anetheron - Mount Hyjal
  Equip
• 
  Vengeful Gladiator's Slicer

  Arena
  Equip

Off hand

• 
  Warglaive of Azzinoth BiS

  Illidan Stormrage - Black Temple

  Legendary. Warglaive of Azzinoth (off hand).
  Equipped
• 
  Blade of Savagery

  Mother Shahraz - Black Temple
  Equip
• 
  Talon of Azshara

  Morogrim Tidewalker - Serpentshrine Cavern
  Equip

Ranged

• 
  Arcanite Steam-Pistol BiS

  Al'ar - Tempest Keep
  Equipped
• 
  Twisted Blades of Zarak

  Teron Gorefiend - Black Temple
  Equip
• 
  Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix

  Prince Malchezaar - Karazhan
  Equip

Enchants

Gems

Meta: Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. Fill red sockets with Delicate Crimson Spinel, and use Glinting Pyrestone (agility + hit) in yellow sockets while you still need hit, and Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst in blue. Try to maximize agility primarily and hit secondarily, while of course keeping the meta socket bonus active.

Talents

The raiding standard is 20/41/0 - deep Combat for Adrenaline Rush, Combat Potency and Surprise Attacks, with 20 in Assassination for Relentless Strikes and Lethality.

Open in talent calculator

Assassination

20

3/3 2/2 5/5

3/3 1/2

0/3 1/1 0/2 5/5

0/5 0/5

0/2 0/1 0/3 0/2

0/5 0/2

0/1 0/5

0/5

0/1

Combat

41

0/3 2/2 5/5

3/3 0/5 5/5

0/2 0/1

0/2 0/2 0/5 5/5

0/5 1/1 5/5 0/5 0/2 2/2 3/3

2/2 1/1 1/2

5/5

1/1

Subtlety

0

0/5 0/5

0/2 0/2 0/5

0/3 0/1 0/3

0/3 0/2 0/3

0/2 0/1 0/2 0/1 0/3

0/5

0/3 0/1 0/3

0/5

0/1

How much hit do you need?

9% (142 hit rating) caps your yellow attacks - Sinister Strike and other abilities - against a level-73 boss, at 15.77 rating per 1%. However, you do want to go way beyond that. Hit is one of your most important stats apart from agility. 5/5 in Precision in the talent build gives you an additional 5% hit, and if you group with a Draenei you gain an additional 1% from Heroic Presence.

5/5 points in the talent Combat Potency makes your successful off-hand melee swings have a 20% chance to regenerate 15 energy, which in turn allows you to dish out more Sinister Strikes and build combo-points faster. Your off-hand melee swings have about a 28% chance to miss, so that’s why hit is such a crucial stat.

Poisons matter here too: Deadly Poison and Instant Poison are a large share of your damage, and they land on a separate spell-hit roll - they can be resisted even when the weapon swing connects, and that miss window (17% against a level-73 boss) is bigger than the 9% cap on your yellow attacks. So hit keeps reducing poison misses long after your specials are capped.

What about expertise?

Expertise reduces the raid boss’s chance to dodge your attack from behind (0.25% per point; a raid boss dodges 6.5% of attacks, so 26 expertise removes it entirely). Combat rogues get 10 expertise from 2/2 Weapon Expertise, and a human adds another 5 when wielding a sword (Sword Specialization) or mace (Mace Specialization). Belt of One-Hundred Deaths contributes 6 expertise (25 rating), which is why it’s still BiS in Phase 3.