Rogue Gems

[Prune/Jak]

Edit: The original post was full of bad information. I'm posting the real deal instead.

If you want to maximize your DPS, follow these maxims:

1. Only take the socket bonus if it is an offensive stat bonus and does not require any blue gems.
2. Put Rigid Dawnstones in every yellow slot, and in all slots that you do not want the socket bonus for.
3. Put Glinting Noble Topazes in red slots on items you want the socket bonus.
4. You will need 2 Shifting Nightseye to activate your Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. The best place to put them is in Red slots on items you want the socket bonus for, or in blue slots on items with good socket bonuses.
5. For your metagem, use Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. It is by far the best Metagem.

[pamplona]

although +hit isn't useful at all past taking miss off the hit table. If you're doing PvE then there's an exact number you need to reach (and that being job #1 for stat building is probably you're best bet). Its +5.6% for normal 70 and +8.6% for bosses.

But, against PvP foes that might be increasing their +defense then I guess that's a constantly moving target. Don't forget that attack from behind takes things like parry and dodge off the hit table.

[meanmoocow]

You are very smart- make me feel dumb dumb

[Prune/Jak]

pamplona said:

although +hit isn't useful at all past taking miss off the hit table. If you're doing PvE then there's an exact number you need to reach (and that being job #1 for stat building is probably you're best bet). Its +5.6% for normal 70 and +8.6% for bosses.

But, against PvP foes that might be increasing their +defense then I guess that's a constantly moving target. Don't forget that attack from behind takes things like parry and dodge off the hit table.

Pamp is right except that rogues dual-wield, increasing our miss rate to 24% or so. That gives us a lot of hit rating to make up for, and currently it's very difficult to reach that cap. One reason I put out the massive dps I do is I have +19% to hit. that leaves me only a 5% miss rate on my white attacks, which is amazing for dual-wield. If you're sitting at 24% to hit, stop adding hit. Also, grats.

--Jakani

[pamplona]

although of note, all your special attack which is where your get your combo points from adhere to single wield hit rates, is that correct?

[meanmoocow]

White damage is just as important as yellow damage... I think anyway

[pamplona]

yeah, that's the part I'm unsure about for rogues. White damage is big for me, and misses carry a high price. Same for warriors. What I don't know is the rogue perspective. The issues are:

-24% is a lot of +hit gear to get
-You only need 5.6%/8.6% for your skills
-How much is white damage a part of your DPS?
-Combo point and skill attacks fuel your DPS, and talents that give you extra combo points with crits
-You only waste energy if you miss with a skill attack

Now the only problem is I don't know how to weigh these issues from a rogue's perspective.

[meanmoocow]

I know that my whita damage accounts for like 10%-15% of a 5 man groups damage. I would assume that a rogue is closer to 8% but that is still a lot of damage. I really don't play my rogue enough to know these things

[Mcguirk]

White vs. yellow damage depends VERY heavily on the spec. At least, it did as of February. Dunno what's changed.

A combat rogue HAS to care about white damage, it is where a LARGE part of his DPS comes from. A rogue spec'd for BS or mutilate cares more about the big yellow damage numbers, because he isn't counting on slice n' dice and BF to keep his attack rate as high as possible.

So, it really becomes a trade off based on spec.

[Prune/Jak]

White damage is a HUGE part of a rogue's DPS. At least, it should be. My white damage sits around 50% of my total damage. Almost any spec should see the majority of its damage coming from white damage (at least, in any sustained fight. If the fight is 10 seconds, big yellow hits count for more than the white hits). Though combat builds see a much larger percentage of damage coming from white hits (due primarily to Precision and DW spec).

And yes, it's true that our miss rate on yellow attacks follow the rules for single-wield. You'll notice rogue PvP gear is low on +hit. That's because we only have to hit 80 hit rating to ensure that our special attacks hit. But that's PvP, where yellow damage is where its at. For PvE, your sustained damage is mostly your white damage.

The gem rating system I used above is to maximize sustained DPS. It's not considering PvP at all (use +stam gems for PvP). What's true for rogues is that hit rating is a cheaper increase to dps than crit rating, bottom line (this is because 1% hit and 1% crit are roughly the same dps increase, but it takes 14 hit rating vs 22 crit rating for that 1%, making hit rating a better deal for DPS).

--Jakani

[Prune/Jak]

Original post updated with new considerations.