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You’re a rogue that’s going places.
You’re wearing better
gear, learned how to maximize your abilities (even if you had to
relearn them
after the latest patch changes), style="">  done
a
little raiding, and even perhaps a little PvP. So, what’s
next? Why do people keep
pointing at you and laughing or telling you to upgrade your gear?
There’s no
need to drag a blade across their scornful throats after they turn
away, my
friend. The answer to your dilemma is enchantments. In your
never-ending quest
to raise your potential, enchantments are what separate the wheat from
the
chaff, or to put it more bluntly, those that suck from those that
don’t suck.


What
is an enchantment, you ask? An enchantment is something
that provides a stat bonus to an item, such as your chestpiece or
weapon. These
bonuses can range from increases in stats (such as Agility, Stamina,
etc.),
attack power, to hit rating, critical rating, haste rating, expertise
rating,
and so on. There is a bewildering amount of enchantments that you can
place on
your gear, and picking what enchantments to use will be vitally
important to
you. You’ll have to decide if enchanting a piece of gear is
worth it, depending
upon if you’ll be upgrading that gear in the near future, and
also by how much
gold you have. The best enchantments are very expen$ive! In addition,
you can
only have one enchantment at a time on a piece of gear. If you place an
enchantment on an item that already has an enchantment, the new
enchantment
will replace the old one. Don’t worry about poisons, fellow
rogues. Poisons are
not considered an enchantment, per se. They act as a temporary enhancer
called
an imbue. Don’t wrack your mind worrying about the
difference; just remember
that you can enchant your weapons and still apply your sweet, sweet
poisons.

Where,
oh where, do you go for enchantments? I’m going to
assume that, as a rogue, you don’t have the enchanting
profession. Therefore,
the first place to turn is to your fellow guild members. You should
have
somebody in your guild that can do enchantments. Usually,
they’ll just ask you
for the materials needed to complete the enchantment. These materials
can be
purchased off the auction house, or you can gather said materials by
having
items disenchanted. Again, I’m going to assume that you
can’t disenchant items,
so you’ll have to get a buddy to do so. You’re a
rogue, not a bookworm! Green
items on up can be disenchanted for materials. Naturally, the higher
the items
(blues, then purples), the better the materials that can be retrieved
through
disenchantment. The other main source for enchantments, besides a guild
buddy,
is the auction house. You can, and will, be able to buy practically any
enchantment you’ll need. Of course, the better the
enchantment, the more costly
it will be. So be prepared to grind, grind away for more gold.

A
third source of enchantments is rewards, either through
faction reputation or by turning in various points. The Sons of Hodir
in Northrend
are a great source of shoulderpad enchantments. Next, another good
source of
enchantments is leatherworking. Since most rogues have this profession,
you
should make the best use of this as possible. As you climb from level
one to
eighty, leatherworking will probably be the most common enchantment
you’ll use
through the use of armor kits. At the higher levels, you’ll
be able to make a
few really nice enchantments.

A
final source is gems. We touched on gems in our gearing up
to raid article, but we’ll elaborate a little more this time
around. Higher end
gear has gem slots, which you should take advantage of. Nothing screams
“Noob!”
louder than somebody walking around with gear that has unfilled gem
sockets.
Don’t be one of those.

 

style="">What to look for

So,
what kind of bonuses are we looking for? The first thing
we need to determine is if the enchantments are for PvE or PvP. If
you’re doing
PvP, then you’re mainly looking for stamina and resilience.
For PvE, the answer
gets more complicated.

As
stated in the gearing up to raid article, you’re looking
at a variety of abilities. Foremost are hit rating (decreases your
chance to
miss in combat) and expertise (reducing the chance of an opponent
dodging you).
To begin, you want at least a 99 hit rating. This is the threshold
where your
special attacks, such as sinister strike or mutilate, will hit bosses.
The next
hit rating threshold is 315, wherein your poison attacks
can’t be resisted by
bosses. There is a final hit rating threshold of 722, which entails
that your
auto-attacks do not miss. To get this high of a hit rating, however,
would mean
that you’re sacrificing a lot of other vital stats.
It’s best to stick with the
315 hit rating. Your main goal is to start with 99 and get up to 315
hit
rating, while maintaining an expertise of 26 (if you’re a
combat rogue with 2/2
specialization, then your expertise need only to be a 16).

style="">Yes, I know that we’re
talking math here, and I’m not happy about the math either.
The only math that
a rogue should be concerned with is counting his gold after a
successful haul!

The
other major thing that you’re looking for in an
enchantment is attack power. Since attack power enhances the damage we
deal in
combat, it is vital. Just make sure that you’re not
sacrificing hit rating or
expertise to do so. Some gear slots do not have any real good attack
power enchantments,
so in that case, it’s best to use enchantments that increase
agility, overall
stats, or critical strike ratings. Remember, each point of agility also
adds a
point of attack power.

style="">Enchantments

Listed
below are some enchantments ranging from the best,
listed on top, to some lesser ones. They are broken down by slot
(chest,
weapon, etc.). This list is not exhaustive; there are many more
enchantments
available.

style="">Head

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44149"
target="_blank">Arcanum of Torment



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44069"
target="_blank">Arcanum of Triumph

style="">Shoulders

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44133"
target="_blank">Greater Inscription of the Axe



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44131"
target="_blank">Lesser Inscription of the Axe



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=28888"
target="_blank">Greater Inscription of Vengeance



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=28910"
target="_blank">Greater Inscription of the Blade

style="">Cloak

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44457"
target="_blank">Enchant Cloak – Major
Agility



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38959"
target="_blank">Enchant Cloak – Superior
Agility

style="">Chest

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44465"
target="_blank">Enchant Chest – Powerful
Stats



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38989"
target="_blank">Enchant Chest – Super Stats

style="">Wrists



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44815"
target="_blank">Enchant Bracers – Greater
Assault

style="">Hands

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44458"
target="_blank">Enchant Gloves – Crusher



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38951"
target="_blank">Enchant Gloves – Expertise

style="">Waist

href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41611" target="_blank">Eternal
Belt Buckle

style="">Legs

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38374"
target="_blank">Icescale Leg Armor



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38372"
target="_blank">Nerubian Leg Armor

 

style="">Feet

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38986"
target="_blank">Enchant Boots – Icewalker

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44469"
target="_blank">Enchant Boots – Greater
Assault

style="">Weapon

href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=44493"
target="_blank">Enchant Weapon – Berserking



href="http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38925"
target="_blank">Enchant Weapon – Mongoose

style="">Gems
(these are
not from best to least)

Balanced
Twilight Opal



Shifting Twilight Opal



Balanced Dreadstone



Guardian’s Twilight Opal



Guardian’s Dreadstone



Bright Scarlet Ruby



Delicate Scarlet Ruby



Precise Scarlet Ruby



Pristine Monarch Topaz

You’ll
have to do a fair amount of tinkering to strike the
right balance between the various attributes that you’re
looking for: hit
rating, expertise, agility, attack power, critical rating, etc. Each
new piece
of gear might require you to make adjustments to enchantments on other
pieces
of gear. Just keep working at it. Eventually, you’ll get the
right enchantments
on every uber piece of gear that you own, making you a titan of power
and
destruction. Right before the newest expansion comes along!



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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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