New Rogue Badge Loot and AEP

Recently, MMO-Champion posted all the new Badges of Justice loot from Patch 2.3. Among them were some major Rogue upgrades for neck, back, wrist, hands, legs, feet and trinkets. So, start running some Heroics and saving up your Badges of Justice as you'll need 475 to get everything that's new.

I plugged the items into Shadowpanther's Excel spreadsheet to determine their AEP. As far as I know, Ming was attributed to coining the phrase or at least making it so widely known. His work is the backbone behind most Rogue theorycraft. Shadowpanther uses a group of fixed values for AEP, though some other Rogues theorycraftsmen have a dynamic AEP based on current gear, talents, etc.

Quick rundown on AEP. AEP stands for Agility Equivalency Points. Each stat an item possesses is given an AEP score to measure it against Agility. Each point of Attack Power is valued at .5 AEP because Agility gives Attack Power, Dodge and Crit. Strength is also valued at .5 AEP because it is worth 1 AP. Stamina is valued at 1 AEP for survival in the base AEP ratings but there are also two other AEP values called DAEP and MAEP. See, normal AEP is weighed for PvP, DAEP is weighed for PvE and MAEP is weighed for Maximum Damage. Once each stat is given a weighed AEP value, you can then look at a piece of gear convert all the stats to AEP and add them together. The item with a higher overall AEP should be better for you character than an item with a lower AEP. This isn't always the case, but it's a pretty good estimation.

The other two stats that are useful to examine are Total Crit (TCrit) and Total Attack Power (TAP). TCrit is a calculation of the total crit for an item converting Agility into +Crit and adding it to the item's +Crit. TAP is the same concept adding Strength plus Agility plus Attack Power to give you one score.

Brooch of Deftness, neck slot, cost 35 Badges of Justice. It ranks only 28 MAEP (Maximum DPS AEP) and 49 on DAEP (PvE AEP) which is incredibly low down with the level 70 blue and greens, but not surprising given only +22 Hit Rating. It ranks much higher on AEP (PvP AEP) at 67 (Worgen is rated at 76). While this won't replace the Worgen Claw Necklace because it lacks Agility and Attack Power, it might go into my PvP set as it has 37 more Stamina.

Brooch of Deftness Binds when picked up Neck +48 Stamina Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves hit rating by 22.

New gloves, Trickster's Stickyfingers, costs 60 Badges of Justice. AEP 120, DAEP 106, MAEP 93, TCrit 0.75%, TAP 98. Like the Shallow-grave Trousers below, +25 Haste makes these gloves much more desireable based on AEP. They rank about 4th overall even above the Tier 4 Netherblade Gloves.

Trickster's Stickyfingers Binds when picked up Hands Leather 252 Armor +30 Agility +28 Stamina Durability 40 / 40 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves haste rating by 25. Equip: Increases attack power by 68.

Dory's Embrace is a new cloak, 60 Badges. AEP 106, DAEP 69, MAEP 54, TCrit 0.90%, TAP 45. If you look at AEP vs MAEP and AEP is twice as high, you can immediately surmise an item was built for PvP. The high AEP is a result of more Stamina than any cloak rated on Shadowpanther's list and +20 Resilence and a feature from the Tier 6/Season 3 gear: Your attacks ignore 112 of your opponent's armor. Nice.

Dory's Embrace Binds when picked up Back 114 Armor +34 Stamina Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 20. Equip: Improves your resilience rating by 20. Equip: Increases attack power by 46. Equip: Your attacks ignore 112 of your opponent's armor. "Approximately priceless."

New bracers, Master Assassin Wristwraps, 35 Badges. AEP 93, DAEP 81, MAEP 71, TCrit 1.33%, TAP 67. There's not much special about these except they rank 4th for sheer awesomeness. You'll probably still want to wear your Veteran's Leather Bracers for PvP though.

Master Assassin Wristwraps Binds when picked up Wrist Leather 177 Armor +17 Agility +22 Stamina Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +2 Critical Strike Rating Durability 40 / 40 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 18. Equip: Increases attack power by 50.

Shallow-grave Trousers, 75 Badges. AEP 171, DAEP 148, MAEP 127, TCrit 1.13%, TAP 137. Due to its +30 Haste Rating component, this is rated 3rd on MAEP, 5th on MAEP and 4th on DAEP. That's about Tier 5, Deathmantle, equivalent. Wow.

Shallow-grave Trousers Binds when picked up Legs Leather 353 Armor +45 Agility +46 Stamina Durability 90 / 90 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves haste rating by 30. Equip: Increases attack power by 92.

Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots, 60 Badges. AEP 126, DAEP 117, MAEP 105, TCrit 0.73%, TAEP 89. Imagine these boots did not have the gem slots or the slot bonus, this item would still hover around 5th on all 3 AEP lists. With the slots and the slot bonus, these boots rise up to the 2nd (or 3rd) best boots for Rogues.

Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots Binds when picked up Feet Leather 278 Armor +29 Agility +21 Stamina Blue Socket Red Socket Socket Bonus: +3 Hit Rating Durability 60 / 60 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves hit rating by 22. Equip: Increases attack power by 60.

Two new trinkets, Cruelty and Determination.

Cruelty gives +Crit and for 15 seconds, once every 3 minutes, 1750 maximum health. This doesn't rate high on the AEP charts, but is definitely important for PvP players.

Cruelty Binds when picked up Unique Trinket Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 40. Use: Increases maximum health by 1750 for 15 sec.

Like Cruelty, Determination gives the same On Use effect for 15 seconds, but instead gives +80 AP. As I'm a Sword Rogue, I'll be using Determination over Cruelty, because of the +AP.

Determination Binds when picked up Unique Trinket Requires Level 70 Equip: Increases attack power by 80. Use: Increases maximum health by 1750 for 15 sec.

So, should you start racing through Heroics now saving up or wait until Karazhan and Zul'Aman bosses start dropping Badges as well? That's up to you, probably both! Don't forget about the great items already available from Badges like the Bloodlust Brooch, Blood Knight War Cloak, Choker of Vile Intent, Ring of Arathi Warlords, and the Mask of the Deceiver. Now, you have get a full set of epic gear without having to raid 10-man or 25-man instances, and if you do, you have even more options.