Inspired by the Tank gear thread, I rattled this up. This is rogue gear available without setting foot in Karazhan or beyond, using quests/instances/drops. I left out PvP gear as I doubt in the early months there'll be many people with the time to run both the endless instances and the PvP grind.

This is taken from a Hemo perspective, so maximising AP. I daresay other builds will favour crit, which can significantly change your priority order.

Head:
Helm of the Claw
+25 Agi
+21 Sta
+14 hit rating
+60 AP
1 Meta gem
1 Yellow gem
+4 Resi gem bonus

Drop: Quest reward in Coilfang Resevoir

Shoulders:
Shoulderpads of Assassination
+25 Agi
+25 Sta
+47 AP
2 Yellow gems
+4 Sta gem bonus

Drop: Setheck Halls boss drop

Chest:
Tunic of Assassination
+28 Agi
+21 Sta
+54 AP
2 Red gems
1 Blue Gem
+4 Resi gem bonus

Drop: Mechanus/Morass boss drop

Wrist:
Nightfall Wristguards
+23 Agi
+21 Sta
+42 AP

Drop: Old Hillsbrad boss drop

Hands:
Gloves of the Unbound
+27 Agi
+20 Sta
+38 AP
1 Red gem
1 Blue gem
+3 Resi gem bonus

Drop: Arcatraz

Waist:
Socrethar's Girdle
+23 Agi
+21 Sta
+20 hit rating
+48 AP

Drop: Netherstorm Quest

Legs:
Leggings of the Unrepentant
+25 Agi
+25 Sta
+60 AP
1 Blue gem
1 Yellow gem
1 Red gem
+4 agi gem bonus

Boots:
Fel Leather Boots
+25 hit rating
+12 crit rating
+36 AP
1 Yellow gem
1 Red gem

Drop: Leatherworking recipe

Neck:
Bone Chain Necklace
+19 Agi
+18 Sta
+13 hit rating
+36 AP

Cloak of Malice
+21 Agi
+18 Sta
+30 AP

Drop: Shattered Halls boss

Fingers:

Ravenclaw Band
+20 Agi
+15 Sta
+13 hit rating
+30 AP

Drop: Setheck Hall boss

Light Warden Band
+18 Agi
+22 Sta
+38 AP

Drop: Aldor rep

Trinkets:
Abacus of Violent Odds
+64 AP
Use: 260 Haste for 10 secs

Figurine - Nightseye Panther
+ 1 stealth level
+54 AP
Use: +320 AP for 12 secs

Ranged:
Telescopic Sharprifle
+13 Agi
+28 AP

Drop: Mechanus

Enchants:
2 * Enchant Ring - Stats (requires Revered Scale of Sands rep)
+8 Agi
+8 Str
+8 Sta

Enchant Boots - Dexterity (Auchenai drop)
+12 Agi

Enchant Bracer - Assault (Trainer)
+24 AP

Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats (Thrallmar Revered)
+6 Agi
+6 Str
+6 Sta

Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility (Trainer)
+12 Agi

Enchant Gloves - Assault (Trainer)
+26 AP

Nethercobra Leg Armour (Thrallmar Exalted LW)
+45 AP
+12 crit rating

Gems
5 * Bright Living Ruby (Trained JC) {Red}
+80 AP

3 * Shifting Nightseye (Trained JC) {Red/Blue}
+12 Agi
+18 Sta

2 * Jagged Talasite (Trained JC) {Yellow/Blue}
+8 crit rating
+12 Sta

3 * Glittering Noble Topaz (Trained JC) {Yellow/Red}
+12 hit rating
+12 Agi

That selection of gems enables pretty much any meta gem
1 * Swift Skyfire Diamond (Trained JC) {Meta}
+24 AP
+minor run speed


Phew.
That all adds up to...

+333 Agi
+275 Sta
+878 AP
+11 resi rating
+97 hit rating
+32 crit rating
+minor run speed

2 part Assassination bonus
Use: +320 AP for 12 secs
Use: +260 haste for 10 secs


As a devoted clown suit wearer (never completed a tier yet), I was looking to see how much that was ahead of the new Dungeon set 'Assassination'.
For general rogue purposes, not as much as the original UBRS clown suit was above SC. There's some astonishingly well stated non-gem pieces out there, but when consdiering even just the common gems the socketed pieces like assassination pull ahead. FOrtunately for us dedicated clowns, there's alternate socket pieces - though Assass still tops AP in two places.

I realise the above gear is distorted as hell towards my preference - AP then Agi then Crit - as a consequence of favouring Hemo builds. Seemed a lot more freedom in pieces between those stats though in TBC than there ever was in UBRS era...

From what I saw in beta, the feral druid set (wastewalker) was preferable to assassination because it was better itemised for DPS and its set bonuses were better for raid situations.

Never really thought of Wastewalker as a feral druid set.. I just figured it was a leather dps set intended to be ideal for either them or rogues. It's all agility, stamina, AP, hit and crit - no strength or anything like that to annoy rogues.

We don't really need a new thread for every possible gear combination do we? If its that important to you, post a link in http://forums.elitistjerks.com/viewtopic.php?id=8133 to this thread.