Friday, October 12, 2007

New Rogue Badge Loot and AEP

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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
HandsLeather
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
WristLeather
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
LegsLeather
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
FeetLeather
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.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I noted that Shadowpanther.net now lists the "Brooch of Deftness" significantly higher than it did previously, although I don't know why.

Also - you'd be remiss to forget the "Waistguard of the Great Beast". 60 badges nets you an amazing belt. http://wowhead.com/?item=33583

Chris Connelley said...

@drayle: Hi! Thanks for your comment.

^_^ As of when I wrote this, Shadowpanther had yet to include them. Since then, WoW Head has also corrected and updated their entry on the Brooch of Deftness. I'll see about updating my post soon as this does make the Brooch even more attractive.

I honestly dismiss most gear with more Strength than Agility. I think it's intended to be DPS Warrior or Feral Druid gear. However, this one may be an exception. One thing that Shadowpanther does that I'm not in 100% agreement with is the value given to armor or strength. Armor helps a Rogue survive, but we aren't tanks and, therefore, it shouldn't be valued as much in my opinion. Since Agility gives Dodge, Crit, Armor and Attack Power, I think Strength should also be valued even lower as well. If you look two of the key indicators, TCrit and TAP for the Belt it rates at 0.70 TCrit and 60 TAP. This places a lot further down in the ranks IMO.

However, given all you need to do is collect Badges to get it, I think it would make an excellent belt for any rogue without access to 10-man raids or even a rogue tank. ;D

Anonymous said...

Thanks for responding Valenna, love the blog.

I agree on your assessment of the belt, it's much better suited to a feral druid. I think the main plus is the accessibility. I've been unlucky on my belt slot in general and a locked-in upgrade was nice to see.

This was before I saw the belt from the first boss in ZA, now I'll be able to hope for that and save my badges for a more significant upgrade.

Tenaki said...

I think the bit with the Brooch of Deftness that was missed out, is the fact that it has 21 expertise rating. That translates to about 3 expertise, which is approximately -0.75% chance to be dodged or parried.
Add to that the 22 hit rating, and you've got a neck piece that removes a decent amount of misses.

I've been raiding as a 11/27/23 hemo rogue for the last 2 months or so, and Dory's Embrace also appeals to me as a PvE cloak, because of the way that the armor ignore will stack with 3/3 Serrated Blades.

I can't WAIT for 2.3! :D

And fantastic site, btw. :D