Top 5 Rogue Weapon Choices for the Phase 1
In phase 1 of The Burning Crusade Classic, there are many different weapon options for rogues that are all very very close in power level. You can pick whichever one of these options you want and you will be totally fine. For main hand weapons Dragonmaw, Gladiator’s Slicer, Blinkstrike, Spiteblade, and Hope Ender are all fine weapon choices. For off hand weapons both Latro’s Shifting Sword and Gladiator’s Quickblade are good choices, not meaningfully different from each other.
| Weapon | PvE Damage |
| Dragonmaw | Best |
| Blinkstrike | -0.10% |
| Gladiator’s Slicer | -0.12% |
| Spiteblade | -0.31% |
| Hope Ender | -0.51% |
The main difference in these weapons is how they are acquired – not their relative power level. This gives you a lot of flexibility and freedom in what weapons you get, which is great!
Your Main Hand Weapon Options
1. Dragonmaw
| Dragonmaw Bind on Pickup Source: Crafted by Blacksmithing – Master Hammer Smith |
Dragonmaw is an excellent main hand weapon with really high weapon damage. It has a very powerful haste buff that sometimes triggers when attacking which really makes this weapon quite good. Part of Dragonmaw’s power comes from that buff, so if you cannot fully utilize the buff the weapon will perform slightly worse. For situations like frequently changing targets, stop and start attacking, or trash mobs that die very fast, Dragonmaw will perform slightly worse than the other options. For single target sustained attacking, Dragonmaw is exceptional.
The main advantage of Dragonmaw is that it is reliable and quick to obtain. It costs some money and a profession, but there is no forced waiting like the arena weapons and no random drops or luck involved like Spiteblade. If spending a little extra coin is worth having a very strong weapon very early, then I suggest getting Dragonmaw.
If you choose Dragonmaw, you will want to switch up your talents to 16/45/0, taking both Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization in combat for PvE. Shadowstep builds for PvP do not care as much about weapon types so no need to change talents for PvP.
2. Blinkstrike
| Blinkstrike Bind on Equip Source: Epic World Drop |
Blinkstrike’s extra attack effect is quite strong and that is what makes this weapon a contender as a phase 1 weapon. Based on research from the old Burning Crusade, it is expected that this is approximately 4.33% chance to trigger. With that figure, Blinkstrike is definitely a top weapon. Once we get access to Blinkstrike on the TBCC Beta, we will be able to confirm exactly how good this weapon is – maybe it is even better, maybe it is worse!
Blinkstrike is a tricky one to obtain. You cannot directly farm this weapon since it drops from any high-level mob, just terribly low drop chance. Your best bet is to try to stalk the auction house and trade chat to find one for sale – then buy it before anyone else does! Each server will be different, but I expect early Blinkstrikes to go for many thousands of gold, maybe even 10 thousand for a single sword.
If you are looking to just buy a weapon, I suspect Dragonmaw will be cheaper and overall more reliable to get. An advantage of Blinkstrike over Dragonmaw is that Blinkstrike does not suffer from having to change target or start and stop attacking as Dragonmaw does – so your damage to trash mobs will be a bit better.
3. Gladiator’s Slicer
| Gladiator’s Slicer Bind on Pickup Source: 2625 Arena Points (1850 rating), Season 1 |
Gladiator’s Slicer is a great weapon, and it doesn’t cost any gold either! Unfortunately, it does cost arena points (2625) and even has a rating requirement. You can only get arena points once per week based on your arena team ratings. 5v5 teams give the most points as you can see below (you can also use our arena-point calculator). This means that if you want this weapon as early as possible, it will take you at least three weeks around 2050 rating to unlock it.
Update May 15th: Blizzard announced that the rating requirement for weapons was lowered to 1850 for Season 1 (it was 2050 initially). More details in patch notes below.
Using a 2v2 or 3v3 team to gain points will require either a higher rating or more weeks of waiting. If you are okay with waiting to get a powerful weapon, I suggest getting Gladiator’s Slicer. It is very good, and doesn’t cost a profession slot or gold!
Silent Shadows team update: Since MMR will be officially part of the game, this calculation could change a bit, as these numbers rely on the original Burning Crusade system, and we’ll update this article accordingly.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/beta-arena-rating-update-may-15/964984
Read more
4. Spiteblade
| Spiteblade Bind on Pickup Source: Drops from Netherspite in Karazhan |
Spiteblade is another great weapon, and while it is narrowly behind the top 3, it is likely not a noticeable difference. Spiteblade drops from Netherspite in Karazhan, which means you get only 1 chance at it per week. Depending on your group, you may have to get lucky twice – not only see it drop, but also win the roll against any other melee interested in the weapon. You could get lucky and get this on your first clear of Karazhan, or you could clear Karazhan for 6-7 weeks without seeing Spiteblade! This is a strong weapon, but you cannot control whether you get it or not, it just comes down to luck.
5. Hope Ender
| Hope Ender Bind on Equip Source: Drops from Doom Lord Kazzak world boss |
Hope Ender is about 0.51% behind the best options, which starts to get into a range where it may be a noticeable difference, but not a huge difference. This comes from the world boss Doom Lord Kazzak, and is a bind on equip weapon. Because of this, you can either raid and kill Kazzak and get it that way, or hope to find one for sale and trade a large stack of coins for this powerful blade. There are limited spawns of Kazzak on each server, and only a chance to drop per kill – so this item may be quite rare.
Off Hand Weapons
Latro’s Shifting Sword
Bind on Pickup
Source: Drop from Aeonus, The Black Morass (Normal & Heroic)
Gladiator’s Quickblade
Bind on Pickup
Source: 1125 Arena Points, Season 1
You might look at these swords and say “how could Latro’s Shifting Sword possibly be on par with Gladiator’s Quickblade!? Gladiator’s has 20 more dps!” For PvE damage dealing, you always need to think about Combat Potency talent. This gives offhand melee attacks a 20% chance to generate 15 bonus energy – which translates into more Sinister Strikes, more Ruptures, more damage! The slightly faster weapon speed on Latro’s is incredibly important because it results in more chances to trigger Combat Potency.
For PvE Combat, these two swords are not meaningfully different from each other and you will do just fine with either one. For specs without Combat Potency (like Shadowstep for PvP), Gladiator’s Quickblade is the clear winner.
Note that this video does not take into account the change announced in the PVP patch note (May 4th)
Thank you for reading and I hope this calms some of your anxiety about which weapons to get in phase 1 of The Burning Crusade Classic. There are very many good options, it is hard to go wrong! In addition, make sure to check the article How to choose your weapons to get more information on this topic.
Simonize
Simonize is a long-time Rogue player from original Vanilla, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King. Primarily focused on PvE, he is the author of two rogue damage simulation spreadsheets – one for Classic and one for The Burning Crusade.
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