Rogue: New rogue needs help with gear question

[dr8bit]

My main of course is a warlock and this site has been extremely helpful to me. So helpful, that my lock is geared the best he can be, without going into post Kara content, which i can't find groups for, so I decided to try out a rogue.

My rogue is level 28. I never played a melee character before. I know agility is important, as well as strength, attack power and stam and important stats. Though my question is: When looking at weapons, should I be focusing on their dps, or more on the stats they provide (ie. +5 agility)?

Also, I've read that combat swords is the way to level but I like the big crits of backstab. So far I've been running with a dagger in the main hand and sword in the offhand, or basically whatever I want in the offhand. I know I could use a macro to switch but don't want to create one. So the second question is: Is there something fundamentally wrong running with one dagger and one sword/mace/ in my offhand?

Thanks in advance. I could really use the input. I'm enjoying playing my rogue, as I get to see how the bane of locks gets to live...lol...

[Dunsinane]

Been a while since I played my rogues (as in, years, pre-BC) but I'll give it a shot.

In the early levels, your biggest concern is generally going to be pure dps. Stats are less important until you can really start stacking them, and I doubt you've reached that point yet. Still, agility and +ap gear (do they have it that low now?) is what you should be targeting. Stamina third, strength can be completely ignored.

As far as weapon types, you don't worry about them until you get to the point where you can pick specializations (or if you've picked dagger-specific talents). Combat swords has the reputation it does because of the extra swing proc on sword specialization. This, and the fact that combat is the highest steady dps tree, means combat swords is generally the fastest leveling build.

An important feature for weapon selection is speed. Your main hand weapon should be SLOW for most builds, because you use it in sinister strike. Sinister strike is essentially a "free" melee attack that does weapon damage + bonus, so you want that weapon to hit as hard as you can. Offhand weapons are often very fast, in order to apply poison to your target. There are slow daggers and fast daggers, slow swords and fast swords - so keep an eye out for one that will suit you best.

In other words, no there's nothing explicitly wrong with having a dagger in the main hand and a sword in the offhand. Unless the dagger is fast and the sword is slow. Then you're hurting yourself.

[Cynic]

Concerning weapons..

Main Hand: Slowest, highest dps (hardest hitting) weapon you can find
Offhand: Faster is better for poison procs, look for stats a little more on this weapon but don't go out of your way.

Stats: Agility > Stam > All else. I leveled as an agility whore and it made things much easier for me (don't neglect your hp too much though, being 3-shot by some same-level ally will make you mad). When you hit outland start picking up some hit gear too, it's a handy stat to have.

At your level, nothing wrong with being daggers. I found that there's a long, dry period where there isn't any good daggers, levels 35-60 kind of thing. Lots of swords, no daggers, so I went swords until outland, when I went assassination/sub. Not the best spec but I do a lot of world pvp.

[Rykkan]

Best leveling spec is definately Combat. Best weapon is swords, yes you can use daggers, but why would you when you get higher damage from swords. because of the max damage on them, a 2.6 speed sword will always out damage a 1.8 speed dagger. but remember, the rogue is yours. if you like daggers, use them. you might not kill as quickly or as efficiently as a combat swords rogue, but you will have alot of fun. or look at my post for helpful rogue pvp add-ons, and pick up those add-ons and use combat swords, and use daggers for ambushes.

[Maltyrius]

If you are generating combo points with Sstrike it is hard to make an argument for daggers when leveling. I also found positioning a pain when I needed to grind fast when there is mob competition (instant cast spells are faster than you!). If you add up the time it takes to get into position, and occasionally losing a mob or two to someone else tagging it first while you get in to position, it adds up big time over 70 levels. But then, for many it's simply a style choice.

As far as non weapon synergy, when I would level I would often toss a dagger in my OH just for the skill ups. 99% of all leveling quest content is such that you can get away with non-optimal choices in a pinch. When you want to all-out dps in instances etc. yes, keep your main and offhand the same when you can.