[Rogue] PVP Stat Standards/advice
 

First please forgive me for my ignorance, I play a Priest main but have a 70 rogue Alt that I just started PvPing with and really could use some help.

Couple of things right off I noticed is I miss a lot. I'm mutilate spec and everytime I miss a KS or Gouge is ruins my ability to stay on my opponents back, which in-turn kills my dps making me a pretty crappy rogue.

So I thought I would come here to get some advice from some skilled rogues.

What +hit do I need to be at to keep from missing so much?

What are the standard PvP specs?

What kind of ability rotation should I be using to keep people locked down?

Really I'm just a noob rogue looking for some good overall, all-around advice on what stats I need to be shooting for, some good combos that will help me keep my opponent under better control, and what the best (standard) PvP specs are.

Thanks in advance for your insights.

You need 5% +hit to not miss in pvp although some talents might require you to have more (frost mages etc). The most used specs at the moment probably are combat mutilate (41/20/0) and combat sword/fist/mace (17,19-41,43-0) which both have the advantage of precision which gives 5% +hit. As a mutilate rogue a combination like cheapshot, mutilate, kidney shot, mutilate or even a double mutilate depending on energy is most likely the most viable. In between your kidney shot cooldowns you can throw in a gouge to interrupt spells whenever kick is on cooldown or to simply get behind your target easier.

Edit: My post stated 7% but this has been corrected later on in this thread for being wrong, its 5%. Having more then 5% is still recommended though due to certain defensive talent specs you might encounter on opponents which can cause missed secials/blinds.

so what does 7% equate to in +hit if I pick up 5/5 precision? I expected to see a Prep build as a standard PvP spec, seems like having 2 sets of cooldowns in arenas would be pretty strong.

For 2% chance to hit you would need 31.6 hit rating, this should easily be obtainable. The main problem with prep builds is that past the openers they can't come close to the sustained dps combat mutilate or combat fist/sword/mace can obtain. In the arena you pretty much only get 1 or 2 openers off so a spec that is focused around doing damage outside of stealth will be better. Where mutilate has the highest damage per energy ratio which is good for doing maximum damage if you are being kited and get short breaks at your target, combat fist/mace/sword has the advantage of very high sustained dps that has no poison or positional requirement. Both these specs have there strengths in different areas but are very viable for arenas.

Two sets of cooldowns IS very strong. The issue is that the things you give up for it are pretty big too. None of the rogue arena gear (weapons excluded) has +hit, so without precision you need a lot more pve gear on your character. Also, dual wield spec is a big dps bump for mutilate (which doesn't get prep anyway). Hemo prep and old standards like ambush/bs builds are doable in 2v2 and 3v3, but they tend to be inconsistent and have more issues as your rating goes up (and enemies get over 10k hp and 200-400 resilience). To be honest, a priest is a much more useful PvP class than a rogue right now.

Well I have 36-37 +hit right now so picking up 5/5 precision should fix my missing problems. I pvp with my priest too :-)

I am in two 3vs3 arena teams, with my rogue (main) and my priest(alt).

My partners when I play as rogue are a MM Hunter and a paladin, we are currently at 1813 (arround 2k last season) and I play combat/swords.
When I'm on my priest my teammates are a MS warrior and another MM Hunter (a different one), currently at arround 17xx.

The spec of a rogue really depends on your playstyle and to a part also on your teammates. Say for example your partners are a warlock and a priest, or a mage; it is unlikely that you will be focused first. So a 41/20 will give you the most benefit, because you can almost every time beat up the enemy caster/healer what ever.

But when you play war/pal/rogue you will yourself often see as the primary target. So a combat build (preferably maces) will give you a little advantage.

Depending on your partners your role also changes. Have a warrior as partner, expose armor, stun and call burst, maybe blind the healer if possible. Have a caster as partner, try to cripple their melee dps, interupt heals/fears/sheeps and do as much damage to the focus
as possible.

I suggest as a first goal, try to get to 10k hp unbuffed, without sacrificing to many damage stats.

In the 5vs5 bracket that changes of course, but I don't play that bracket anymore (with my rogue) because I think rogues are bogus in 5vs5 :)

When did this change from 5%? Or was it always 7% for rogues?

...

edit

I have a rogue friend who has just started with pvp, and he chose this build:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
I am under the impression that this would be better than 1x/4x/0, or am I mistaken?

well it is a standart quick recovery mace build, pretty common.

Ì personally can't justify giving up "Suprise Attack" and "Nerves of Steel".
But I think Quick Recovery will help early on, when you do not have the HP and Res to survive some focus fire.

You need ~7% to not miss specials in PVP but you WILL still miss plenty of white attacks if that's all the +hit you have. That's not such a big deal for dagger rogues and I think it's less important than other stats but extra +hit certainly won't hurt you. When you took dual wield as a wee rogue your miss rate on white attacks from both hands went up to ~25%.

Sword builds do a majority of their long-term damage from white attacks so I think +hit is actually somewhat decent in PVP. Granted you'll do more special damage in arenas than you would in raids but white damage is still an important part.

Having +hit is good, especially if you can get it in exchange for +crit which is less useful against high resilience targets. Hit rating also increases the chance for your poisons to land on white attacks (since poison can't get applied on a missed attack), which is important if you want to keep crippling applied to your target, and/or a stack of wound poison up.

Ok to recap, this is what I'm getting from your responses so far:

a) my +hit should be fine in the mid 30s (if I pick up Precision)
b) if I stay mutilate spec I need to take my 15 points out of sub and put them combat for obvious reasons
c) I need to get my HP up to 10k

All good advice. I'd like to get more specific if possible,

1) For PvP, how should I rank my stat importance. I assume stam>Resilliance>AP>Agility...and on those lines, what are realistic number I can shoot for.
2) If I'm primarily doing 2v2 and 3v3 arenas would a spec that doesn't require positioning for max-DPS be more suitable?
3) What rogue specific addons should I consider?