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Encrypted Text: Enchanting your gear, part 1

Elizabeth Wachowski
Updated ·7 min read

So your rogue has finally hit 70, you've gotten some decent blue gear, and you're preparing to raid, PVP, or do whatever else your little heart desires. Then one day, your guild leader, class leader, or some random jerk on the forums calls you out. Sure, you've got nice gear, but you've done nothing to improve it! No expensive enchants, no gems, no leg armor, no shiny little items from various professions.

Making the mental shift from quickly-discarded quest gear to long-term end-game gear can be tough -- and it can be just as difficult figuring out what enhancements to use. Is it time to spring for the big-name enchantments and such, or should I stick to what's cheap and easy? To help you out, today we'll cover what your friendly neighborhood enchanter can do for your gear. In two weeks or so, we'll revisit the topic to look at glyphs, armor kits, gems, and other such non-enchanty enchants.

Cloak

  • Dodge: Dodge is nice for rogues, but this is really more of a tanking enchant. Plus, the pre-BC mats are probably too expensive for the mere 12 dodge rating. Twinks only! 2/10 PVE, 5/10 PVP.

  • Greater Agility: 12 agi is worth a lot for rogues, as a major infusion of our best all-around stat. And with only one Primal Air and a minimum of enchanting mats, this is a serious bargain for serious PVE and PVP rogues. 9/10 PVE, 8/10 PVP.

  • Major Resistance: To gain a mediocre 7 resist to all schools of magic, expect to spend upwards of 300g on this sixteen Primal enchant. Pass! PVE 1/10, PVP 2/10.

  • Stealth: This interesting enchant effectively gives you an extra level of stealth, giving you an advantage in battlegrounds and world PVP. However, unless you're farming chests, it does little good in PVE. 3/10 PVP, 6/10 PVP.

  • Subtlety: By far the most desired cloak enchant for most DPS classes, rogues shouldn't need the 2% decrease in threat from this moderately expensive enchant. Get it if you keep pulling aggro, or if your Vanish button is broken. PVE 6/10, PVP 0/10.

Chest

  • Exceptional Health: 150 health is nothing to sneeze at, but it's not going to increase your DPS in PVE (unless you die a lot.) 5/10 PVE, 7/10 PVP.

  • Exceptional Stats: Sure, the 6 int and 6 spirit you get from this are going to waste, but there's not really a lot of awesome chest enchants out there. Semi-expensive but worth it. 8/10 PVE, 7/10 PVP.

  • Major Resilience: Cheap and easy, just like ... well, fill in your own insult here. The 15 resilience is far superior to 150 health in PVP, at least until you have enough resilience from other things. 1/10 PVE, 9/10 PVP.

Bracers

  • Assault: This 24 AP enchant is extraordinarily cheap, and as one of the first 300+ enchants, you can probably get a leveling enchanter to do it free -- or even provide mats! Just be nice and tip. 8/10 PVE, 8/10 PVP.

  • Brawn: 15 strength is superior to 24 AP for feral druids and warriors, but even with Blessing of Kings, you're better off sticking with Assault. 5/10 PVE, 5/10 PVP.

  • Fortitude: One of the more expensive bracer enchants, this 75g+ modification gives you 12 stamina. Good for the dedicated PVPer. 4/10 PVE, 8/10 PVP.

  • Stats: The presence of Assault and Fortitude make this +4 to all stats enchant much less desirable than on the chest. 5/10 PVE, 5/10 PVP.

Gloves

  • Assault: Same as above -- inexpensive, easy to find, and powerful. This one grants you 26 AP for 8 Arcane Dust. 8/10 PVE, 8/10 PVP.

  • Major Strength: The 15 strength here is closer to Assault than it is on the bracers, but the AP still wins in a shootout. 5/10 PVE, 5/10 PVP.

  • Minor Haste: Haste rating is one of the two new stat kings in BC, but this 10 haste enchant only increases your speed by 0.6% at 70. Plus, do you really want to find two Kingsblood? 6/10 PVE, 6/10 PVP.

  • Superior Agility: Ah, here we go. This former AQ40 enchant, now gotten at exalted with Keepers of Time, gives you 15 more of your favorite stat. It's moderately expensive, though, so rogues on a budget may want to stick with Assault. 9/10 PVE, 9/10 PVP.

  • Various Skills: If you want your riding, herbalism, mining or skinning to get a small stat boost, put these on a spare set of gloves. However, you're going to get laughed at if you go into battle with them. 0/10 PVE, 1/10 PVP (riding only).

Boots

  • Boar's Speed: Which is faster, a boar or a cat? According to these enchants, they both give you an 8% speed increase, and in the boar's case, 10 stamina. On any other body part, this would be the superior PVP enchant, but Cat's Swiftness and Surefooted give it a run for its money. Plus, it's rare (blue world drop) and moderately expensive (100g+), and speed boosts don't stack past 8%. 6/10 PVE, 9/10 PVP.

  • Cat's Swiftness: Like the boar, except with 6 agi instead of 10 stam. It looks nice and is very useful for people who both PVE and PVP, but the mats are insanely expensive (300g+ because of 8 Primal Air.) Skip it and use Dexterity for PVE and Boar's Speed for PVP. 7/10 PVE, 7/10 PVP.

  • Dexterity: This 12 agility enchant drops from a boss in Auchenai Crypts, and like many boot recipes, can be difficult to find. It's pretty cheap, though, and is technically the best PVE damage enchant. 9/10 PVE, 6/10 PVP.

  • Fortitude: 12 stam would look a heck of a lot better if Boar's Speed and Surefooted weren't around. However, this enchant only uses Arcane Dust and is a nice bargain for the PVPer that's short of cash. 5/10 PVE, 8/10 PVP.

  • Surefooted: A very weird enchant, Surefooted is a Karazhan drop that gives you 10 hit rating and 5% snare and root resistance. The 10 hit can be killer for PVE rogues looking to reach the hit cap, and the snare resist is invaluable in PVP. However, it requires two Void Crystals and a Primal Nether, so expect to shell out a LOT of cash. 8/10 PVE, 9/10 PVP.

Weapons

  • Battlemaster: This expensive enchant occasionally heals your party of 180-300 health when you hit the enemy. Good for the self-sacrificing martyr type of rogue, but the rest of us are probably looking for something more dependable that will actually increase our DPS and not generate enough threat to kill us. Very bad choice for PVE. 1/10 PVE, 3/10 PVP.

  • Executioner: A new enchant from Zul'Aman, little is known about this ability in practice. It occasionally ignores 840 of your opponent's armor, and appears to proc once per minute. Theorycrafters suggest that top-end rogues will use this enchant on their mainhands and Mongoose offhand -- but don't hold your breath waiting for a friend to find the recipe. 10/10 PVE, 9/10 PVP.

  • Greater Agility: This 20 agi enchant comes from exalted with the Violet Eye. Agility is always nice, but this is a bit expensive for its quality, running much more than Major Striking. 7/10 PVE, 7/10 PVP.

  • Major Striking: Adding 7 additional points of damage to your weapon, this is a nice, affordable enchant for your weapons. It's about equal to Greater Agility in effectiveness, so if you're on a budget, put this on your MH and agi on your OH. 7/10 PVE, 7/10 PVP.

  • Mongoose: The premier rogue enchant occasionally gives you 120 agility and a 2% attack speed increase for 15 seconds. An average proc of once per minute means an average of 30 agi and 0.5% attack speed -- and it can double-proc if you have two weapons with it. I dual-wield Mongoose, which explains where all my money went -- expect to pay several hundred gold for it. 10/10 PVE, 9/10 PVP.

  • Potency: A 20 strength enchant, this used to be okay for offhands before Greater Agility became available. Leave it to the strength-based classes. 4/10 PVE, 4/10 PVP.