In preparation for the possible expansion of Classic into The Burning Crusade, I've restored an archive of my entire site (warts and all) as it was at the end of TBC. Enjoy!

ShadowPanther - TBC

It's been a long, busy year. I've put countless hours into restoring and improving my site in preparation for Classic. The past few months have been especially busy as I've thoroughly tested my Quest Completionist Guide through level 40 in the closed Beta. Unfortunately, I've proven that you cannot achieve Exalted with any faction by level 40. However my guide will get you most of the way there, minimizing the number of turn-ins required to finish up. Listed below are all of the projects and site improvements I've worked on over the last year:

Leveling Guides and Resources

• I spent 6+ months developing and testing a detailed Quest Completionist Guide to maximize Darnassus rep, spillover rep and Alliance rep in general.
• I devised a new Level 1-6 strategy for Rogues called The Gladius Grind.
• I wrote up an Alliance Exploration Leveling Guide in case starting zones are completely swamped on Day 1.
• I created a Main Hand Progression Chart to highlight weapons you can easily obtain while leveling.
• I made several improvements to my Leveling Tips page.
• I added quest rewards, vendor items and "of the Monkey" BoEs to my Twink Armor and Twink Weapons charts so they would be more useful for leveling purposes.

Site Improvements

• I added phase information to my charts to indicate which phases items would be available.
• I added several PVE and PVP BiS Lists to my Armor Sets chart for Phase 1 and Endgame.
• I added numerous consumables and buffs to my Rogue Buffs page.
• I restored and updated my Rogue Links page with current links to external Classic sites containing information useful to Rogues.
• I put together a picture montage of my very first Rogue, Zodar, detailing A Night Elf Mace Rogue's Path to Thunderfury.

Beta/Stress Testing

• I tested various game mechanics during the first Stress Test.
• I tested death travel mechanics in the Beta.
• I tested Brushwood Blade to see just how low your level can possibly be to wield a mighty sword that straps across your back (level 4).
• I performed Stress Testing of Stealth, MoD and Shadowmeld to see the in-game effects of those abilities.

I hope you've found this information to be useful and that it helps your own Rogue's journey through Classic. Happy Classic Day!

Over the past six months since updating my site for Classic, I've put a lot of thought into how I would want to level a Rogue if I were to play again. I've decided that a quest completionist strategy would be my preference, and specifically maximizing Darnassus reputation to reach Exalted for the Nightsaber mounts (obviously).

So then the question is, how best to reach Exalted if playing a race other than Night Elf? Many would say to just complete all Darnassus reputation quests and you should eventually reach Exalted. But what if a player really wanted a Frostsaber as soon as they could ride a mount? Would it be possible to achieve Exalted by level 40? I believe it is achievable through a quest completionist approach, and not just Darnassus quests, but all Stormwind/Ironforge/Gnomeregan Exiles quests as well, with spillover reputation being the key.

Spillover rep is a side-effect of completing a quest with one of the four city factions, resulting in a cascade of 25% spillover rep to the other three factions. Not all private servers use spillover rep, but that capability was verified to be active on the Classic Demo released last year. I believe that getting maximum spillover rep, while completing all city faction quests before they turn gray, is the key to getting the most possible reputation. That way, you aren't forced to turn in a bunch of Runecloth and Un'Goro Soil/Morrowgrain later on to reach Exalted.

With that goal in mind, I set out to design a leveling guide that could remedy several pain points I had identified with the Classic leveling process:

• It's tricky completing all quests at the optimum level

• Rogue is often thought to be a difficult leveling class

• Gathering professions don't keep pace with leveling

• Melee classes suffer against many higher level mobs

• Most guides expect you to grind mobs to fill in gaps

To try and address all of those issues, I've started putting together a detailed leveling plan that methodically guides you back and forth through the three starting zones (Elwynn Forest/Dun Morogh/Teldrassil) and continues in the same deliberate fashion into the follow-up zones (Westfall/Loch Modan/Darkshore/Redridge Mountains). If you're interested in experiencing every single quest while dabbling in various professions along the way, then my Classic Questing Guide for Alliance Rogues is the guide for you (currently complete for levels 1-22 and up through The Deadmines).

Six years ago, I stepped away from ShadowPanther.net and World of Warcraft. For many players, this game was a time-consuming diversion, but for me it had become a second job. I simply couldn't keep up with the frenzied pace of changes from expansion to expansion and still have enough time to actually play the game. When it stopped being fun, I simply wasn't motivated to continue with my site or the game. And for me, the two were inexorably linked. I couldn't enjoy one without the other, so I felt like I had to give up both.

Since then, the game has passed me by and I've had no desire to return. However, players continued contacting me through my site, and the question I would get most frequently was - where could they find archives of my charts? It seems that many players had migrated to private servers to relive previous versions of WoW. Unfortunately, the charts and resources on my site had evolved many times over the eight years I'd played and weren't terribly useful for anyone playing a Rogue on a much earlier version of the game. So, I usually just pointed them to the WayBack Machine archives of my site in the hopes that it would meet their needs.

Then I received an email last November from a player named Ghostknife asking if I would be returning for "Vanilla WoW". I didn't know what he was talking about and frankly had little interest in finding out at the time, since I was pretty adamant about staying away from the game. So I never looked into it and almost another year passed by. Then, about a month ago, I received an email from M. Sylvester asking if I would release a 1.12 version of my site for Classic WoW. Well, after weeks of digging through backups, I've finally gathered and updated many of my old files and charts from late 2006, which can now be found in the links above. Enjoy!

I've decided that it's time to move on. After 8 years, my desire to play World of Warcraft has finally waned. ShadowPanther.net will remain online in its current form indefinitely, but I will no longer be updating any charts or guides. Thanks to everyone who has visited over the years. As a final gift, I've made my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues available to all as a free download. Enjoy!

I've updated my Level 90 Rogue Pawn scales with the latest AEP/MAEP values. From my testing, the in-game Pawn results are slightly off from my own calculated AEP/MAEP ratings, but they're still pretty close. I'm not exactly sure why there's a small discrepancy in the Pawn values, since I don't manage the Pawn mod itself.

I've updated the source and location information for hundreds of items in my endgame Rogue Armor and Weapons charts. I've also added Galeburst versions of Daily Random Scenario rare items to my armor charts.

I spent the past few weeks completely reworking all of my level 90 charts to include new AEP/MAEP values. Changes include:

• I updated all of my level 90 AEP/MAEP values, to include values for both PVP & PVE Assassination, Combat and Subtlety.
• I added non-dagger weapons to the offhand sections of my weapons charts.
• I resorted the stat columns in all of my level 90 charts to match the order used in Wowhead item pages.
• I removed numerous older and weaker items from my weapons and armor charts for ease of use and faster downloads.

As always, if you disagree with the AEP/MAEP values I've used in my charts, you're welcome to use the customizable XLS versions and enter whatever AEP/MAEP values work best for you.

I've updated the stats of Season 12 PVP gear in my Rogue Armor charts, which includes the addition of the PVP Power stat.

I've made several updates to my charts, including:

• I updated my armor and weapons charts to reflect the iLvl 417 requirement for MoP gems (thanks Vaelarrus!)
• I updated stats for dozens of weapons in my endgame weapons charts.
• I switched the deprecated AP column in my endgame weapons charts over to PvP Power.
• I updated Frag Belt in my professions and enchantment charts (thanks Aladdin!)
• I updated Agile Retinal Armor with corrected stats in my endgame armor charts (thanks again Vaelarrus!)

I have updated my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues (both the Adobe .PDF format and the Kindle format) to be current for Mists of Pandaria.

If you purchased the Adobe .PDF guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide for free. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

If you purchased the Kindle guide, you should be receiving an e-mail from Amazon soon asking if you would like to download the free update of the guide. If you have any problems updating your guide, you will need to contact Amazon support for assistance.

Note: When replacing a previous version of the guide, loading the new version will cause any highlights, the last page read, and bookmarks to be removed, and the locations of any notes you've made will no longer match the updated copy of the guide.

I've made several more updates to my site design, cleaning up some of the clutter and converting the few images I use over to nicer, Retina quality graphics. I also removed a few outdated charts and resources that I no longer plan on updating.

I've updated hundreds of Cataclysm weapons in my endgame Rogue Weapons charts as well as in my 81-85 and 85-89 Rogue Twink Weapons charts. With the 5.0.4 patch, many weapons received double their previous Min/Max damage values and most 1.4 speed daggers were changed to 1.8 speed, so my charts have been updated to reflect those various changes. I still need to update the remaining weapons in my lower level twink charts.

I've made several updates to my site for the recently released Patch 5.0.4, including:

• I added relevant 5.0.4 patch notes to my Nerfs/Buffs list.
• I removed Thrown and Ranged sections from my Rogue Twink charts.
• I removed Helm enchants and updated Engineering tinker mats in my Rogue Enchantments charts.
• I removed bonuses for run speed enchants now that all Rogues get Fleet Footed at level 62 (thanks Kagero!)

Unfortunately, I was recently notified by Sannin that numerous weapons have had their Speed/Min/Max/DPS values changed in the latest patch. That means that I'll need to go back and manually update hundreds, if not thousands, of weapons in my various Rogue Weapons charts. Ugh.

Now that I've completed a very active month of daily updates to my charts and site, I'm going to spend the next few weeks working on updating my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues with all of the changes coming in Mists of Pandaria. I'm hoping to have it fully updated by the time the new expansion releases next month. As a reminder, anyone who purchases this guide will receive each update to the guide as it is released, at no additional cost.

I've added several more MoP items to my endgame Rogue Armor charts.

I've created a new Rogue Talent Specs chart for Mists of Pandaria which provides sample talent specs and glyph suggestions for each build. Players can use this chart to easily compare talents and available glyphs within each level range.

I've updated the source and location information for a few dozen items in my endgame Rogue Armor and Weapons charts.

I'm currently tweaking the design of my non-chart webpages to improve the overall user experience, especially with respect to mobile devices.

Over the past few days, I have made several updates to my charts including:

• I updated source and location information for new MoP items in my Rogue Twink charts.
• I added some missing, profession-specific, MoP enchantments to my Rogue Enchantments charts.
• I made some minor corrections to my Rogue Consumables chart along with a few others charts.

I've updated my Rogue Professions Chart with MoP profession bonuses.

I've updated my Rogue Races Chart with MoP racial traits and abilities, which includes the addition of the new Pandaren race.

I've added a few more items to my Rogue Armor charts, including some new gear introduced in yesterday's Beta Build 15983.

I've updated my Rogue Stat Formulas chart with MoP Combat Rating values up to level 90. More work still needs to be done before I can update my AEP/MAEP values in that chart, so for the time being, those values are merely placeholders.

I've updated my Rogue Glyphs chart with MoP glyphs. After working on that chart, I realized that PVP/PVE/Lvlg columns could be useful in my Rogue Talent Tree Analysis chart, so I've updated that chart with those categories.

I've added a few more items to my Rogue Armor charts, including some new gear introduced in today's Beta Build 15972.

I've updated my Rogue Talent Tree Analysis chart with MoP talents.

I've updated my Rogue Consumables Chart with 45 new MoP consumables.

Now that I've finished updating my endgame Rogue Armor and Weapons charts with MoP gear, I'm going to switch things up for a moment to discuss another project I've been working on. Last year, I added a Level 10 Twink section to my Rogue Twink charts, separate from the Level 10-14 section, to highlight differences between a level 10 twink and a level 14 twink. Normally, you would think that a level 14 character would naturally be more powerful than a level 10 character, however due to the way stats scale between the two levels, higher level characters actually get less benefit out of certain stats. You can see this in action by looking at the Hit% and Crit% columns of my Rogue Twink Armor chart. Twink gear for a level 10 Rogue provides considerably more Hit % and Crit % (as well as Haste %) than the same gear does for a level 14 Rogue.

Despite those stat scaling differences, level 14 characters benefit from advantages in other areas, such as health, attack power and talent points. But is that enough to overcome the relatively lower amounts of Hit, Crit and Haste? I decided to find out for myself by creating both a Level 10 Twink Rogue and a Level 14 Twink Rogue, each on separate accounts, fully twinked out to the best of my ability. If you look closely, you'll notice that even though they have similar gear, the level 10 Rogue has significantly higher amounts of Hit, Crit and Haste while the level 14 Rogue has more health and attack power.

So which Rogue actually does more DPS? And which Rogue is more effective in PVP? In order to try and answer the first question, I ran both Rogues through the same DPS tests I set up for my Rogue Twink Project a while back. The results of those tests show that, while it's close, the level 14 Rogue generally tends to put out a bit more DPS than the level 10 Rogue. And to answer the 2nd question, I had the two Rogues duel against each other 20 times as Combat and 20 times as Mutilate to see which Twink Rogue was more effective in PVP against the other. The level 14 Rogue won that test as well, defeating the level 10 Rogue by a score of 11-9 in Combat and 15-5 in Mutilate. So, even though level 10 twinks have better DPS stats, it appears that a similarly geared level 14 twink will still be more effective.

I've finished updating my PVE Rogue Armor and PVP Rogue Armor charts with the final 40 MoP trinkets.

Mists of Pandaria introduced a ton of new trinkets. I've already added 50 of those trinkets to my Rogue Armor charts, and that doesn't even include the level 90 trinkets. Over the next day or so, I'll work on adding all of the remaining level 90 trinkets to my charts.

I've added another 100 MoP items to my Rogue Armor charts, with Trinkets being the final section I still need to update. I've also removed the Thrown and Ranged weapon sections from those charts, since we will no longer have a ranged weapon slot in the new expansion.

I've added another 50 items to my Rogue Armor charts, including some new gear included in today's Beta Build 15952.

I've added about 50 more items to my Rogue Armor charts. I'm slowly working my way from slot to slot, manually updating my 81-85 and 85-89 Rogue Twink Armor charts as well as my endgame Rogue Armor charts. At this point, I'm about halfway done updating those charts, with another 200 or so items to go.

I've added over 100 items to my PVE Rogue Armor and PVP Rogue Armor charts. My 81-85 and 85-89 Rogue Twink Armor charts have also been updated with many of those same items.

Over the past few days, hundreds of MoP items have been updated in Wowhead with required levels, quest locations, etc. I'm currently updating my 81-85 and 85-89 Rogue Twink charts as well as my endgame Armor and Weapon charts with those items.

I've added more items to my 81-85 and 85-89 Rogue Twink charts.

I've updated my endgame armor and weapons charts with MoP gem AEP/MAEP values. Until I hear otherwise, I'm making the assumption that MoP gems will operate in much the same way as MoP enchantments, requiring ilvl 372+ gear. Any gear on my endgame charts lower than ilvl 372 will revert to Cataclysm epic gem values, which can be found in my 81-85 Rogue Twink charts.

I've updated my Rogue PVE Enchantments and Rogue PVP Enchantments charts with MoP enchantments.

I've finished adding over 120 MoP gems to my Rogue PVE Gems and Rogue PVP Gems charts. While updating those charts, I added a "Pow" column for the new PvP Power stat, assigning it the same PVP AEP value as Attack Power for the time being. I've combined the other new stat, PvP Resilience, with the old version of Resilience in the "Re" column until I can get a better understanding of how the new version differs from the regular one.

I've started adding MoP gems to my Rogue Gem charts, beginning with meta gems and cogwheel gems.

More pre-90 items from today's Wowhead update have been added to my Rogue Twink charts.

I've added a few more items from the latest Beta Build 15913 to my Rogue Twink charts. Some of those new level 85 epic items are believed to be rewards from the upcoming Theramore's Fall event.

I've added over 40 level 90 weapons to my Rogue PVE Weapons and Rogue PVP Weapons charts.

Yesterday, Blizzard announced that Mists of Pandaria would be released on 9/25/12. With just two months until the release date, I have a lot of work ahead of me in order to get my site fully updated for the new expansion. If you would like to help support my efforts, you can pre-order your copy of Mists of Pandaria (or Mists of Pandaria Collector's Edition) through my Amazon links. Shopping at Amazon through those links will provide me with a small referral bonus in return for each sale. Thanks for your continued support!

I've added a few dozen items in the 85-89 range to my Rogue Twink charts. I've also updated my endgame Armor and Weapon charts with those same items.

I've started updating my charts for Mists of Pandaria (MoP). As part of that process, I've combined a few older twink charts while adding four new charts. My 60-69 and 61-70 twink charts have been combined as well as my 70-79 and 71-80 twink charts to make space for the new MoP twink charts.

The new twink charts I've created are listed below:

81-85 Twink Armor Chart

81-85 Twink Weapons Chart

85-89 Twink Armor Chart

85-89 Twink Weapons Chart

Currently, the 85-89 charts only contain new items up to level 85, but I'll be adding more gear to those charts soon.

A friend notified me yesterday that my Google+ account is apparently active now. This came as a surprise to me, since I never received an e-mail notification from Google letting me know that my 2nd appeal had been successful. Well, after logging back in, the "Account Suspended" message is gone, so I guess the account is truly approved.

I had previously read reports of another person in a similar situation getting their account suspended, then approved, then suspended again and finally approved, so I waited another day just to make sure everything had settled down. For all I know, my account may have been active for several days and I just never realized it.

I had planned to log into Google+ from my phone a few days ago to check on the status of my appeal, but gave up after discovering that you are forced to agree that Google+ will use your location when accessing it through a mobile device. Apparently, you can bypass this "feature" by disabling location services, but then you cripple the other capabilities of your phone. The whole situation has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, so I'm not really sure what to think at this point...

I've been Shadow Panther longer than Google's been Google.

Let that sink in for a second...I didn't realize it myself until just this week.

So, what's the significance, you might ask? Well, a few days ago, Google+ announced that they were going to "broaden support for established pseudonyms, from +trench coat to +Madonna." But there's a catch - you need to provide "proof of an established identity online with a meaningful following". It's still not clear exactly what qualifies as a "meaningful following", but apparently "gamer handles" don't make the cut.

I tested this out myself by trying to sign up as Shadow Panther, but it was immediately flagged as a name that would require further justification. So I submitted a list of links to Google+ providing proof of my established online identity including links to my site, my Twitter page, etc. Despite all that, I received a notice several days later that my request had been rejected because "the name provided violates the Google+ Names Policy".

I have used the name Shadow Panther, in various forms, since before 1996 when Google was first formed. I'm known as Shadow__Panther on Twitter, Shadow Panther on AOL/AIM, Shadow Panther on Xbox Live, and many more sites and services across the web. Thousands of gamers around the world know me as Shadow Panther and have benefited directly from the resources found on my personal site.

Before World of Warcraft, I had a significant following on Xbox Live (beginning with the original Xbox back in 2003) when I made charts for MechAssault, Halo 2 and other games. In those early days, I also managed the Co-op Games List as well as the massive Xbox Clan Registry, which helped numerous players find and contact Xbox clans.

I like to think that I've established a very "meaningful following" over the past decade consisting of thousands of fellow gamers who have supported me and my various efforts. Google+ may classify Shadow Panther as merely being a "gamer handle", but for me it has been my primary online presence for over 15 years.

If you doubt me, go to Google and type in "Shadowp"...because that's as far as you'll need to get before my site (and hundreds of sites mentioning me and my work) appears. If that's not "proof of an established identity online with a meaningful following", then I don't know what is.

UPDATE: (2/2/12) It appears that my Google+ account has now been approved.

I've updated my Rogue Weapons and Armor charts to correct a few changes made to items between the PTR and Live versions. In particular, many of the trinket proc effects were revised before going live, so I've updated my charts to reflect those changes.

I have updated my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues (both the Adobe .PDF format and the Kindle format) to be current for Patch 4.3.

If you purchased the Adobe .PDF guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide for free. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

If you purchased the Kindle guide, you should be receiving an e-mail from Amazon soon asking if you would like to download the free update of the guide. If you have any problems updating your guide, you will need to contact Amazon support for assistance.

Note: When replacing a previous version of the guide, loading the new version will cause any highlights, the last page read, and bookmarks to be removed, and the locations of any notes you've made will no longer match the updated copy of the guide.

I've added all three stages of the upcoming Legendary Daggers to my Rogue Weapons charts. I've also updated my Gems charts with epic gems from Patch 4.3.

I've updated my Rogue Weapons and Armor charts with a few more items from the PTR and I've also updated the source and location information for many other items added over the past few weeks.

I've converted my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues into Kindle format available for purchase through Amazon. Now you can easily download and read my guide on your Kindle or on the upcoming Kindle Touch or Kindle Fire. If you don't have a Kindle, you can still read it on just about any computer or mobile device using one of the free Kindle Apps available through Amazon.

I've added about 100 more Patch 4.3 items to my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts, including new Raid Finder rewards.

I've updated my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts with over 100 items from the upcoming Patch 4.3, including Tier 13 "Blackfang Battleweave" gear and Season 11 PVP gear.

People occasionally ask how they can support my site. There are now three easy ways you can help support ShadowPanther.net:

• My Powerleveling Guide for Rogues.
• My Donations page.
• And as of today, ShadowPanther.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

When you're shopping, just go to Amazon through this page and I get a small referral bonus in return. Thanks for your support!

UPDATE: (7/3/12) Amazon has separate affiliate programs for each country in which it operates, however my link will only work for U.S. customers.

I've updated my Rogue Twink Armor Chart and Rogue Twink Weapons Chart with new sections for level 10 and level 20-24 gear. Players with Level 10 twinks enjoy beating up on level 14 players due to stat scaling benefits while level 24 twinks are becoming more common for players looking to get an advantage over the influx of level 20 Starter Editon Free to Play (F2P) opponents.

UPDATE: (8/10/11) Due to the addition of these new sections in my lowest level twink charts, those charts have now become quite large. To help alleviate some of this problem, I've moved over the 50-59 section of both charts into my 51-60 Twink charts.

I've updated my Rogue Armor Charts with the recently buffed Darkmoon Card: Hurricane and the nerfed Unheeded Warning.

Over the past few weeks, I've been making several changes to my site and charts to improve the user experience throughout.

Site updates include:

• Removed unnecessary scripts from most of my non-chart pages to speed up page load times.
• Removed outdated Internet Explorer 6 HTML workarounds in those same non-chart pages.
• Added a Brazilian Portuguese translation icon to the list of foreign translations for each localization of the game.

Chart updates include:

• Tweaked the format of my charts so that they wouldn't be so wide.
• Removed suboptimal gear from many of my high level charts to reduce the size of those charts.
• Removed the TCrit and TAP columns from my high level charts to further reduce chart sizes.
• Updated the stats and Loc/Info/Source for all currently listed gear.
• Updated Valor/Justice/Conquest/Honor point prices for all gear affected in patch 4.2
• Added various items to my low level twink charts to help players in the 10-20 level ranges.

A lot of those technical modifications should enable my site to be more user-friendly for people visting on mobile devices with smaller screens and slower download speeds.

I've made a few updates to my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues to be current for Patch 4.2. If you previously purchased this guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide for free. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

Over the past month, I have been painstakingly updating thousands of items contained in my Rogue Twink Armor and Weapons Charts so that those charts would be current with all Cataclysm changes. I'm still working on adding some items to those charts that had been overlooked, but all items currently listed on those charts should now have the correct stats.

In addition to those updates, I have added a new Level 20 Starter Edition bracket to my Level 14-59 Twink Charts for those players interested in trying out the new World of Warcraft Starter Edition trial accounts. Those Free to Play "F2P" trial accounts are limited to level 20 characters with other significant restrictions including max 10 gold, max 100 trade skills, and no access to AH, mail or trades.

I've updated my Rogue Weapons charts with a few more items from the PTR Build 14199 update. I've also updated the source and location information for many Firelands items added to my armor and weapons charts over the past few weeks.

I've updated my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts with Heroic Firelands gear from the PTR Build 14179 update.

I've updated my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts with more Firelands gear and upcoming World Event loot discovered in today's PTR Build 14133 update.

I've updated my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts with about a dozen items including new Patch 4.1 Al'Akir loot and more Patch 4.2 Firelands gear.

I've made some minor updates to my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues to be current for Patch 4.1, and I've also reduced the price to just $4.99. If you previously purchased this guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide for free. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

I've added several more items revealed in today's PTR update to my Rogue Armor charts, including the Tier 12 "Dark Phoenix" gear.

I've updated my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts with over 100 items from the upcoming Patch 4.2, including Firelands loot and Season 10 PVP gear.

I've updated the Location and Source information for all Zul'Gurub/Zul'Aman items on my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts.

I've updated my Rogue Armor and Weapons charts with items from the upcoming Patch 4.1 and Zul'Gurub/Zul'Aman 5-man instances.

I've updated my Rogue Powerleveling Chart and Rogue Links to be current for Cataclysm. The Powerleveling Chart is a nice resource to use along with my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues. The Links page is a compilation of every Rogue-related website, guide and resource I've been able to find. In addition to that, there's also a comprehensive list of useful sites for other classes at the bottom of that Links page. I have removed all of the old, outdated and broken links on that page, so the majority of sites listed there should be current and relevant for Cataclysm.

I've updated my Rogue Armor Sets and Rogue Armor Locations charts for Cataclysm.

I've updated my Powerleveling Spreadsheet for Engineering (.XLS version) with Cataclysm recipes up through level 525. I've also removed all of the ammunition schematics and updated raw material prices based on current average market values. According to my revised calculations, it takes approximately 8,000 gold to powerlevel Engineering from 1-525. More than 2/3 of that is just from 426-525. And that doesn't even include the 2,000 or so gold that you'll need to make your helm, tinkers and cogwheels.

So what makes this spreadsheet better than your average powerleveling guide? Most guides don't really address the issue of using alternate schematics nor do they provide you with any kind of estimate as to how much this effort is going to cost you. I've designed this spreadsheet to give you the ability to select alternate schematics, calculate material costs and customize your own personal powerleveling plan based on resource availabilities and AH price fluctuations. Not only that, but I've also included tables at the bottom of the spreadsheet that you can use to calculate the approximate number of attempts needed to skill up each point in the Yellow -> Green -> Gray ranges, which can be useful for pretty much any profession.

I've finally gotten around to updating my Rogue Leveling Tips and Rogue Twink Specs for Cataclysm.

Lots of players have recently been contacting me asking when I would be updating my Rogue Talent Specs, but I knew that wasn't going to be a simple task. Updating my Excel-based Talent Calculator and Talent Spec pages required a lot of effort because I had to completely rebuild those charts to account for all of the changes to the Talent Tree system. I'm pretty satisfied with the current results, which includes easily viewable Wowhead Tooltips for each rank of those talents.

The following charts and pages on my site have now been updated for Cataclysm:

• Rogue Talent Calculator
• Rogue Talent Tree Analysis
• Rogue PVP Specs
• Rogue PVE Specs
• Rogue Stealth Chart
• Rogue Nerfs, Buffs & Fixes
• Shadow Panther's Site FAQ
• I also added an Engineering Cogwheels section to my Gems charts.

I have updated many of the charts on my site with Patch 4.0.6 changes. I've also updated my AEP/MAEP formulas for those charts, the details of which can be found in my Formulas, AEP/MAEP and Pawn pages.

I have finished updating my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues all the way up to level 85 as well as incorporating changes from the upcoming patch 4.0.6. If you previously purchased the guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

I have updated my Rogue Consumables, Races and Professions charts for Cataclysm and Level 85. I added a "Lvl" column to the Consumables chart to help players figure out which items were applicable to their Rogue. I also updated the components needed to make many of those consumables. The Races chart has been updated with the new Worgen and Goblin races, both of which scored highly for PVP and PVE. Finally, I have incorporated a few upcoming patch 4.0.6 changes into those charts.

I have updated my Rogue PVP Enchantments and Rogue PVE Enchantments charts for Cataclysm and Level 85. I've added "Lvl" and "iLvl" columns to those charts to make it easier to figure out which enchantments can be used on your Rogue's gear.

I have updated my Rogue Starter Weapons chart for Cataclysm and Level 85. This time, I've decided to split it into two separate charts; one for PVP and one for PVE. I've also created two new Rogue Twink weapons charts to assist players in twinking/leveling in the sub-85 level brackets. Listed below are the descriptions for all of those charts:

71-80 Rogue Twink Weapons Chart (New) - For those players who don't have Cataclysm yet or want to raid/PVP at 80.

80-84 Rogue Twink Weapons Chart (New) - For those players who are twinking/leveling in the 80-84 level range.

Level 85 PVP Rogue Starter Weapons Chart - The best pre-Raid/pre-Arena weapons to get geared up for PVP at 85.

Level 85 PVE Rogue Starter Weapons Chart - The best pre-Raid/pre-Arena weapons to get geared up for raiding at 85.

High Level Rogue PVP Weapons Chart - Endgame PVP weapons for competitive Arena/Rated Battlegrounds at 85.

High Level Rogue PVE Weapons Chart - Endgame PVE weapons for high level raiding at 85.

I have updated my Rogue PVP Weapons and Rogue PVE Weapons charts for Cataclysm and Level 85. I've also made some adjustments to the MAEP values for Weapon Speed and DPS in those charts, which has been carried over to my updated AEP/MAEP formulas and Pawn scales. At this time, I don't plan on updating the charts for each individual weapon type (swords, maces, etc.) since the removal of weapon specializations has made the differentiation between non-dagger weapon types mostly cosmetic.

I have updated my Rogue Starter Gear charts for Cataclysm and Level 85. Those armor charts list the best pre-Raid, pre-Arena items that can be crafted, purchased, acquired from quests or obtained in 5-man Regular/Heroic dungeons. I've also created two new Rogue Twink Armor charts to assist players in twinking/leveling in the sub-85 level brackets. Adding and updating those charts has allowed me to reduce the size of my High Level Rogue Armor charts to a more manageable level.

With so many armor charts, it can be confusing to figure out which one(s) to use, so I've included descriptions below.

71-80 Rogue Twink Armor Chart (New) - For those players who don't have Cataclysm yet or want to raid/PVP at 80.

80-84 Rogue Twink Armor Chart (New) - For those players who are twinking/leveling in the 80-84 level range.

Level 85 PVP Rogue Starter Gear - The best pre-Raid/pre-Arena gear to get geared up for PVP at 85.

Level 85 PVE Rogue Starter Gear - The best pre-Raid/pre-Arena gear to get geared up for raiding at 85.

High Level Rogue PVP Armor Chart - Endgame PVP gear for competitive Arena/Rated Battlegrounds at 85.

High Level Rogue PVE Armor Chart - Endgame PVE gear for high level raiding at 85.

I have finished updating my Rogue PVP Armor Chart and Rogue PVE Armor Chart for Cataclysm and Level 85. I have added over 400 new items and updated the stats, prices and other info for every item on those charts. Soon I'll work on updating my weapons charts and starter gear charts to be current for level 85.

I'm currently working on updating my high level Rogue Armor charts for Level 85. Listed below are the various changes and improvements I'm making to those charts:

• Change the ArP column to Mastery.
• Update all previous ArP gear with their new stats.
• Move Mastery values for currently listed gear from the Special columns into the Mastery column.
• Incorporate my updated AEP/MAEP values into the charts, including rare gems values from my Gems charts.
• Modify the AEP/MAEP calculations in my charts to award reduced socket values for socketed gear below Ilvl 285.
• Remove ranged weapon bonuses and add static "Thrown Weapon bonuses" for all thrown weapons.
• Update the TCrit and TAP calculations with Level 85 formulas.
• Remove italic socket bonuses from stats and break those values out into the Special columns.
• Update the stats and Loc/Info/Source for all currently listed gear.
• Add all new and missing Cataclysm Rogue gear. (In progress)

In preparation for upcoming changes to my various charts, I've updated my Rogue Stat formulas, AEP/MAEP formulas, Pawn scales and Gem charts (PVP/PVE) for level 85 and patch 4.0.3a. Soon I will incorporate many of these changes into the rest of my charts.

I have updated all level 1-80 information in my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues to be current with patch 4.0.3a. I will be adding level 81-85 information to the guide soon.

I have updated pages 21-26 of my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues to be current with patch 4.0.3a. Updated portions in those revised pages include level-by-level recommendations up to level 40.

Numerous players have contacted me asking when I plan on updating the rest of my site to be current with Cataclysm. I would have liked to have had it ready by now, but I've been really busy the past few months working on several other projects. I hope to have the rest of my site updated soon, but it's going to take some time.

I have updated pages 14-20 of my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues to be current with patch 4.0.3a. Updated portions in those revised pages include Worgen leveling tips and level-by-level recommendations up to level 22.

I have updated the first 13 pages of my Powerleveling Guide for Rogues to be current with patch 4.0.3a. If you've already purchased the guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated version of the guide. Over the next few weeks, I'll be working on getting the rest of the guide current for Cataclysm, posting updated versions of the guide as it's revised.

I have updated my Rogue Twink Project chart with DPS tests for all level ranges up through level 59. The results are pretty interesting, as you can see just how much of an impact the 4.0.3a changes have made to low level Rogue damage output compared to the insane levels in the 4.0.1 patch. Assassination and Subtlety specs took a much bigger hit than Combat, with DPS reductions ranging from around 15% to as much as 40%, affecting burst damage the most. Combat DPS only appears to have been reduced by about 10-20% in most level ranges. This information should be useful to players leveling up new Rogues in Cataclysm.

I have updated my Rogue Twink Armor chart with all known item changes as well as new items introduced in the recent 4.x patches. I think I may have severely underestimated just how much time and effort it's going to take for me to update all of my charts and resources, as hundreds of items have been altered in various ways due to Cataclysm changes. I knew there would be a lot of work to do, but I never imagined it would take so long. Roughly half of the 1,200+ items on that chart have changed in one way or another.

Some dungeon drops have completely moved from one level bracket to another. Other quest reward items are no longer available because their quests have been changed or removed completely. Items purchased with badges and honor points have all had their prices changed. Even items "of the Bandit" have had their stats altered. I'm doing my best to capture of all of this information so that my charts are as accurate as can be, but it's very time consuming.

To complicate matters, Blizzard has recently doubled the number of PVP level brackets by splitting each bracket in half (ie. 10-19 is now 10-14 and 15-19). To account for this new development, I've added a 10-14 bracket to that chart. For the time being, I'm going to stick with the standard 10 level breakdowns for the other brackets within that chart, so just refer to the level numbers listed in the "Lv" column to find items that qualify for any particular x0-x4 "half-bracket".

I've finally gotten around to making the last few updates to my Northrend Guide for Rogues. I've also reduced the price for this guide by 50%. If you previously purchased the guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

Over the past few months, I've been working very hard on two related projects. One was my Rogue Twink Project. The other one is a Powerleveling Guide for Rogues. I had hoped to release this guide weeks ago, but it wasn't ready yet, and I didn't want to rush it out.

The good news is that I finally completed the guide early this morning, and it's my largest, most detailed guide ever, filled with over 30 pages of useful information current through patch 4.0.1. The bad news is that a lot of the work I put into the guide is based on my experiences powerleveling half a dozen Rogues in many zones that will be radically changed with the 4.0.3a patch being released today. Also, the guide only goes up to Level 80. However, as soon as I get the chance to level up my Rogues in Cataclysm, I will add Cataclysm information to this guide to assist players in powerleveling their own Rogues all the way to Level 85.

To make up for the lack of Cataclysm/Patch 4.0.3 content in this new guide, I will be offering it at 50% of the standard price through the end of 2010. Anyone who purchases the guide, whether at the standard or discounted price, will receive each update to the guide as it is released, at no additional cost. If you're looking for a great gift to give that new Rogue in your life, then look no further.

Shadow Panther's Powerleveling Guide for Rogues

Thank you all for your continued support!

I've decided to powerlevel two more Rogues, one to level 59 and another well on his way to 69, in order to provide more upper level data for my Rogue Twink Project. I've also added calculations to each section which show the percentage DPS increase between a twinked Rogue and a non-twinked Rogue in each of those level ranges. It's interesting to see just how much of a damage increase you can expect to see in fully twinked gear as opposed to basic "Monkey" leveling gear, which has a noticeable effect on your leveling speed. After leveling so many Rogues over the past few months, I can really tell the difference.

Numerous players have contacted me asking when I plan on updating my charts and other resources for the 4.0.1 patch. I'm working on that, but it's going to take some time. To get things started, I've updated my Rogue Stat formulas, AEP/MAEP formulas and Pawn scales to reflect changes in the Combat Rating system, the removal of Armor Penetration and the addition of Mastery. I have also added PVE Subtlety MAEP formulas into the mix. These new formulas and scales are still a work in progress, so expect some tweaking as I incorporate these updated stat values into all of my charts.

I have completed updating my Rogue Twink Project for the time being, after having added Sustained DPS results for all brackets up to 49 as well as Heirloom enchant test results. There are still some gaps in the Sustained DPS sections, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results I've been able to achieve at this point. This chart is unlike any other chart I've ever created, requiring hours and hours of meticulous testing of weapons, enchants and specs. So what does it all mean?

This chart helps players interested in twinking/leveling their Rogue to determine the following:

1. How much potential DPS can Rogues put out with fully twinked heirloom gear vs. standard "Monkey" leveling gear, at various level ranges?
2. Which heirloom weapon combinations are most effective for Rogue twinking/leveling?
3. Which enchants are best for Rogue heirloom leveling weapons and how do they compare to Mongoose-enchanted weapons in the 39/49 brackets?
4. Which DPS-oriented leveling specs work best for burst vs. sustained damage, and what glyphs and poisons are used with those specs?
5. What are some basic attack rotations optimized for burst DPS and how long do each of those single rotations take?
6. How much has low-to-mid level Rogue DPS changed since the previous patch?

If you're considering twinking and/or leveling a Rogue, this information could be very useful to you.

I've completed all of the single rotation DPS tests on my Rogue Twink Project chart through level 49. Overall, the results were pretty amazing. According to the results of my tests, Rogue burst damage appears to have more than doubled in most of the lower PVP brackets. The most striking differences can be seen in the level 39 & 49 Subtlety results, mainly due to the ability to pull off 2-second Premeditation-> Shadowstep->Ambush->Eviscerate combinations for 4,000 - 6,000 damage against the Level 1 Theramore Combat Dummy, and that's using either daggers or non-daggers. Even Mutilate made a strong showing, with similar damage potential in the level 49 bracket. I can only imagine that this kind of burst damage is probably wreaking havoc in the lower level PVP brackets...

I feel like I'm having to learn the class all over again, along with the rest of the Rogue community. During the course of performing these tests on each of my six twink Rogues, I kept finding changes that really impact the early Rogue experience. Listed below are a few observations I jotted down, some of which may not necessarily be new to people, but others players may find enlightening.

• Contrary to popular belief, Strength still gives 1 AP to Rogues, so Crusader is still useful for Heirloom weapons.
• Rogues no longer get Eviscerate, or combo points for that matter, at level 1. They have to wait until level 3 for those.
• With all Rogue weapon skills now being known from the start, that means no more leveling weapon skills. Nice.
• Access to Instant Poison at level 10 is also nice.
• Lifeblood gives Haste Rating now, which makes Herbalism much more attractive than Mining for leveling purposes.
• Ambush is learned a lot earlier now (level 8 vs. 18) and can be used with any Rogue weapon.
• Slice and Dice is delayed until level 22 now, previously available at level 10. Not a big deal, but may take some adjusting.
• Backstab, previously available at level 4, cannot be learned until level 18 now.
• Not having access to Sprint until level 16 is a tad disappointing. Sprint at lower levels almost made up for not having a mount.
• Poisons no longer have multiple ranks, but you can still buy poisons from Jeeves that can't be used by lower level Rogues.
• Wintergrasp Commendations were nerfed hard. They only give 50 Honor now, while the items they're used to purchase cost 40-200 honor each. Before, you could outfit your Rogue with a full set of PVP Necklace/Ring/Boots/Belt using a single token.
• Pick Lock no longer requires skilling up (yay!) but isn't available until level 20 now (boo!)
• Delaying glyphs until level 25 is mildly annoying. Glyph of Blurred Speed was always a nice perk during those earlier levels.
• The in-game Mutilate tooltip doesn't mention anything about getting added damage from poisoned targets, but you do in fact get a 20% bonus to Mutilate damage against poisoned targets. That's an important distinction for leveling Rogues, because you'll have to choose between +20% Mutilate damage (using Wound Poison) or the +50% frequency of Instant Poison...or use one of each...or put points into the PVP-oriented Deadly Brew to get the best of both worlds, as pointed out by Sharqy.

I have been working on an ambitious project over the past few weeks. When browsing the Rogue forums, I would frequently see players asking which BoA Heirloom weapons were the best for leveling purposes. Players would respond with numerous weapon configurations, but nobody could ever seem to agree on the best overall weapons. So, I set out to try and determine the answer for myself.

In order to perform this experiment, I decided to level up several Rogues and spend thousands of gold to fully twink out their gear for each of the PVP twink brackets up to level 49, as well as twinked level 1 and 10 Rogues. That way, I could test out various gear setups (both Monkey and Twink), talent specs and attack rotations in each level range to help determine the best overall configuration. I performed both "burst" (single rotation) and 1 minute DPS tests with each combination to see which would generate the most DPS. I even tested how daggers performed as Sinister Strike weapons, to illustrate why that isn't such a great idea.

The final results were mixed, with no clear favorite weapon combination standing out. Still, it was interesting to see how certain specs and configurations performed better than others in specific level ranges. More importantly, I now have a good baseline to work with as we head into Cataclysm. I will be able to easily see just how much Rogue Base DPS is affected across multiple level ranges with the changes coming in the next patch.

Shadow Panther's Rogue Twink Project

I have added over 40 more Cataclysm items to my Rogue armor and weapons charts.

I've added a few Cataclysm Tol Barad reputation rewards to my charts courtesy of MMO-Champion.

I've added a few crafted profession items from Cataclysm to my Rogue Armor charts courtesy of MMO-Champion.

I've added nearly 20 more Cataclysm items to my Rogue Twink Armor chart.

I've updated my Rogue Twink Armor and Rogue Twink Weapons charts with new gear from Cataclysm.

I've updated my high level Rogue Armor Charts with new Cataclysm gear (highlighted in gray). For the time being, any items with Mastery Rating will have that stat listed in the "Special" columns of my charts, tentatively valued at 1 AEP/MAEP per point. Eventually, once all of the Cataclysm Beta stat changes are finalized, and things settle down, I'll make a separate column for Mastery Rating.

I've added every currently known Cataclysm Rogue Weapon to my weapons charts and updated the few weapons I'd previously added several weeks ago. If you're wondering why the price of Battered Hilt has recently started to drop on the AH, then you can see why by checking out my weapons charts. Quel'Delar, Cunning of the Shadows looks rather ordinary compared to early Cataclysm weapons. This trend should begin to manifest itself in less demand and lower prices for other BoE epics as well, as players quickly realize how easily replaceable many of those expensive epics will become.

I'll begin adding Cataclysm Rogue Armor to my charts over the next few days. And eventually some real Rogue Talent charts too, now that the Real ID crisis has been averted.

Two days ago, Blizzard announced their plans to force Real ID on their official forums. A day later, in an obvious attempt to deflect the numerous heated discussions over this controversial decision, they announced a major overhaul of their talent tree system. Aside from the curious timing, I wondered if there was a deeper reason for this coincidence. Well, I think I've found the answer, in the form of updated Beta Rogue talents. Many Bothans died to bring me this information...

Cataclysm Beta Rogue Talents Preview

The Cataclysm Beta is live now, so I've begun the laborious process of adding Cataclysm Rogue gear to my charts, starting with my weapons charts. Adding new gear during the beta of a new expansion is always a hassle as item names and stats often change from one beta build to another. Also, with the upcoming changes to various stats, I'll have to redesign most of my charts and modify old gear to reflect those stat changes. It's going to require a lot of effort, but after working through the previous expansions, I've pretty much gotten used to the drill by now.

Thanks to the excellent work over at MMO-Champion, I've added the Heroic 10-man and 25-man loot from Halion to my armor charts.

I've added The Frost Lord's War Cloak from Lord Ahune to my armor charts. This is a nice pre-raiding cloak for Rogues, as can be seen in the Cloaks section of my PVE Starter Gear chart. The Lord Ahune boss battle can be completed in about 5 minutes and you can run it over and over again until you win the cloak, so there's really no reason not to farm for it. In addition to that, you can earn two Emblems of Frost each day from this encounter. Just click on the Dungeon Finder button and select "The Frost Lord Ahune" from the drop down menu. This boss battle, which is part of the Midsummer Fire Festival, will only be available today through July 4th.

I've added three new items from the upcoming Patch 3.3.5 to my armor charts. These items, which drop off Halion in normal mode Ruby Sanctum on the PTR, have been highlighted in a darker gray on my charts to differentiate them from other recently released Rogue gear from the past few patches.

Blizzard recently announced the beginning of the Cataclysm Beta Opt-In. If you want to opt-in for the Beta, then you'll need to submit your current system specifications using their automated Battle.net System Check tool. That tool only collects limited information about your computer, so it doesn't have the capability to let you know if you'll actually meet the minimum system requirements for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. Those minimum requirements haven't been announced yet, but it's safe to say that if your Rogue is having trouble moving around Northrend now, then Cataclysm may give your computer some problems once you upgrade.

So, if your system is acting sluggish these days, you'll probably want look into getting a hardware upgrade soon - - either upgrading components on your current computer or replacing it altogether with a new one. As someone who has been dual-boxing two accounts on the same three year old laptop, I'm keenly aware of the frustration caused by outdated hardware. Lately, my World of Warcraft load times have been taking forever, one or both accounts would crash any time I visited Dalaran, and the entire process had become pretty much unbearable. That is, until now... Now that I've installed a Solid State Drive...

Upgrading Your Computer To Prepare for Cataclysm

In the aftermath of the recent attacks on my site, and reports of other high profile sites that have been compromised, I felt that it might be helpful if I put together a checklist of useful tips to help visitors protect their own computers from "Rogue" malware infections (viruses, trojans, keyloggers, rootkits, spyware, adware, etc.) which are designed to assault you with pop-ups, steal your passwords, compromise your personal information, crash your computer or just take over your entire system. A lot of this information should be common sense for most people by now, but a few of these techniques may be new to some of you...

Steps You Should Take To Protect Your Computer From Malware

Several months ago, when I decided to try out blog/database software on my site, I had to move the website to a different server to accomodate the new software. Since moving to that server, my site has been hacked twice. And it wasn't just my site. Many other sites on that server were also hacked. The first time it happened, many blog sites running the same blogging software were hacked due to an apparent misconfiguration of the server's folder and file permissions which allowed hackers to compromise the SQL databases running those blogs. To prevent that from happening again, I removed the blog/database software from my site.

This time, the hackers managed to inject malware iframes and scripts into both blog/database sites and basic HTML sites like my own. I had hoped that removing the blog/database software would mitigate the problem, but apparently that wasn't enough. To prevent this from happening again, I have moved my site off of that server back onto the server that had been safely running my site for the previous 5 years.

I hope that this solution fixes the problem once and for all and I apologize to anyone who may have been adversely affected by these events. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

I received several e-mails from visitors this morning letting me know that my site was serving up malware. I have cleaned up the immediate threat and I'm taking measures to prevent this from happening again. I will be switching servers today, so my main site may be down for a day or so. As always, you can visit my Mirror Site during the downtime. I will provide more information soon.

I've finally gotten around to making a few minor updates to my Northrend Guide for Rogues for the 3.3.3 patch. As always, if you previously purchased the guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

I've also updated my PVP Armories Chart to reflect the current state of some of the top PVP Rogues. Mutilate is still the most popular spec, but there are many Rogues effectively using Shadow Dance specs at high level Arena. Some of the specific trends I noticed include:

• Nearly all top PVP Rogues in this Armory Snapshot use a fast dagger in their offhand, up from the 50% mark two months ago.
• Some Rogues are opting for a more offensive-oriented ring like Seal of Many Mouths or Band of the Bone Colossus instead of the standard PVP ring.
• Some of those very same Rogues are also trading out their Relentless Earthsiege Diamond for Persistent Earthsiege Diamond.
• Tuskarr's Vitality seems to be the standard boot enchantment for Shadow Dance Rogues.

I've updated the prices for all PVP gear on my armor and weapons charts to reflect the removal of the Battleground Marks of Honor in patch 3.3.3. For the most part, this really doesn't affect high level Rogue gear, but will make a difference for any Twinks who may have been saving up BG Marks of Honor. Now those Marks of Honor can be turned in for 185 Honor Points each. The Honor prices for items that previously required BG Marks of Honor have all been increased slightly, but usually no more than a few hundred Honor Points higher than their previous prices.

In addition to those chart updates, I've also made a slight change to the way the Wowhead Tooltips script loads on all of my charts and pages. I've moved that script to the bottom of each chart and page so they should now load up and display faster before that external script goes into effect. I've been researching ways to help my pages and charts load quicker and putting scripts towards the bottom seems to help. I hardly run any scripts on my site to begin with, because I like to keep it clean and simple. Hopefully these changes I've been making lately will translate into a better overall user experience for you the visitor.

I've spent the past two weeks fine-tuning the design and structure of the pages on my site. Hand coding web pages so that they look and work properly across three site formats (Main, Mirror and Secure) when viewed through eight various browsers in eight different languages can be a pretty daunting task. If that weren't enough, I've also figured out how to recreate my RSS Feed using the Atom feed format.

I think I'm finally happy with the design of my site. These past few months have been a real learning experience for me as I've progressed from using crude HTML to writing well-formed, semantic XHTML complete with a CSS stylesheet and now an XML feed. Now that I've gotten the site looking sharp, it's time to get back to updating my Rogue charts and other content on my site. With Cataclysm coming up, I know that I've got a lot of work ahead of me to prepare for this new expansion.

During the course of "fixing" my website, I made some more design changes in order to streamline operations. Some of these changes I had already been working on before all of the insanity happened yesterday. The significant changes include:

• I removed the sidebar from all of my pages and moved the Search, Translation and Twitter buttons up to the top right corner.
• I validated all of the XHTML code on those pages, so my site should now work equally well in most major browsers.
• During the course of validating the code, I made numerous improvements to help pages load even faster.
• I moved the links under the "Guides" menu item into the "Misc." menu dropdown to free up some space.

I know my pages look a little more crowded as a result, but I found that the sidebar was just wasting a lot of space. As you can tell from looking at my charts, I like to pack a lot of information into a tightly controlled area. I've always valued function over form.

It appears that the front page of my site may have been briefly infected with malware this morning. I have taken it down and replaced it with this new static front page. If you visited my site between the hours of 3am and 10am EDT, then your computer may have been infected.

To prevent this from ever happening again, I've taken drastic measures to alter the backend of my website, completely removing the dynamic blog/database portion of the site where the malware infection appears to have taken place. I had gone to great efforts to properly secure both the database and blog software, but it seems that it may not have been enough. From now on, all of my pages will be simple static pages, devoid of the bloat and complexity that may have contributed to this event.

Over the past few months, I had been trying to incorporate blog software into the site in order to add increased functionality. Instead, I've run into numerous issues with the site including slow access times and significant hassles whenever trying to modify features. This apparent malware infection was just the final straw that broke the camel's back.

So, with that in mind, I've now removed all of the blog/database portions of the site while still retaining the upgraded design elements I've worked so hard to tweak to perfection. RSS Feeds and Comments have also been removed, as they were built directly into the blog software. I may try to add RSS functionality back into the site at a later date, and as far as comments are concerned, you can always post comments to my Twitter page. Right now, my main concern is providing a safe, reliable website that works the way it's supposed to.

My apologies to anyone who may have been adversely affected by this situation. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

I want to thank Sloat for bringing the recently buffed Corroded Skeleton Key to my attention. When I first saw this trinket (which can be purchased for 60 Emblems of Frost and originally absorbed 3,200 damage over 20 seconds) I figured Tank trinket and moved on to the next item. But now that it has been buffed to absorb 6,400 damage over 10 seconds, this trinket stacks up well against Battlemaster's Rage.

If you're willing to give up some AP for more defensive capabilities, then you can switch to this trinket and get a very healthy Stamina increase along with a powerful "bubble" type effect. Corroded Skeleton Key has a shorter cooldown than Battlemaster's Rage and the bubble can protect you from DoTs/pets, allowing you to safely Vanish and attack from stealth.

In fact, Zodz, the 4th highest rated Rogue right now, is already using it. So, now I've finally gotten around to adding it to the Trinket section of my PVP Armor Chart. The exact AEP value of the Use effect (and even the Stamina) is up for debate, but I've scored it higher than the +Health effects from the Battlemaster trinkets due to the shorter cooldown, increased protection and the bubble effect helping with Vanish.

A week has passed since the 3.3.3 patch released and some of the new Rogue PVP specs are beginning to emerge. I've added a few of those new specs to my Rogue PVP Specs chart. Some of the specs are based around the 11/X/53+ Shadow Dance build. This appears to be a very effective build, with 3 of the Top 10 Rogues currently using versions of that spec. Variants include 11/7/53, 11/5/55 and 11/0/60. Differences between the three flavors include points floating between Malice, Ruthlessness and Blood Spatter as well as swapping points between Dual Wield Specialization/Improved Slice and Dice and Initiative/Heightened Senses. Glyph choices vary widely from player to player, although Glyph of Shadow Dance seems to be a pretty standard choice.

I've also updated the similar 15+/0/52+ Shadow Dance spec on my Rogue PVP Specs chart, a spec which ignores Combat Talents and trades some of the utility talents from the Subtlety tree for more DPS-oriented talents from the Assassination tree. Common variants of that spec include 19/0/52, 17/0/54 and 16/0/55. I've also added another Mutilate variant to the chart, 46/0/25.

All of the specs listed above are Dagger specs, so you probably won't expect to see any competitive non-Dagger builds making a splash any time soon. However, I have included one token, non-dagger, "Fun BG" spec on the chart so daggerless Rogues won't feel completely left out.

I've incorporated the 3.3.3 patch changes into the various resources on my site. Changes have been made to the following pages and charts:

• Rogue Nerfs, Buffs & Fixes
• Rogue Glyphs Chart
• Rogue Talent Calculator
• Rogue Talent Trees
• Rogue PVP Specs (updates to revised talents)
• Rogue PVE Specs (updates to revised talents and I added a HAT spec at the bottom)

Over the next few days, I'm going to go through those PVP & PVE specs charts, updating the old specs, adding new specs and removing some of the weaker specs that don't really apply anymore. I usually tend to keep old specs around on those charts just in case a new patch or other design change comes along that causes a previously outdated spec to return to the spotlight. The new buff to Rupture is one such change, allowing Rupture-based PVE builds to suddenly become useful again.

I've spent the past week working on cleaning up the HTML on my site and improving some of the design elements throughout. Many of my older pages now have the new sidebar added on. I've also added a navigation bar with drop-down menus to the top of most pages to help visitors more easily find whatever they're seeking. In addition to those changes, I've also consolidated a lot of the HTML code to improve page access times and increase overall performance. Eventually I'll get around to tweaking my Excel-based charts to see if I can find a way to make those load faster too.

It's been way overdue, but I've finally added an Enchantments section to my 19-59 Twink Armor and Twink Weapons charts. With this built-in section (located on the far right side of both charts), players will be able to easily see which enchants are best and how certain items rank higher than others simply because those items can benefit from better enchants.

Items in the 29 & 39 brackets that qualify for Burning Crusade (BC) enchants generally score higher than items that don't. The same holds true for items in the 49 & 59 brackets that qualify for Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) enchants. Conversely, Heirloom gear tends to become less useful at higher levels because those items cannot be enchanted with the higher quality enchants.

In both charts, items that qualify for the higher level enchants have a bold BC/WotLK notation listed in the Special column, with the AEP bonus added to the PVP field. In the 49 & 59 brackets, Heirloom items have been given a "penalty" that reflects the reduced AEP value of those items when enchanted with inferior enchants.

In addition to these changes, I'm also in the process of adjusting my Twink AEP values (beginning with Stamina and Hit Rating in the 30-39 bracket) based on feedback I've received from several players. If you are an avid player in any of the Rogue Twink brackets, take a look at my updated charts and let me know if you see any items or AEP values that really seem out of whack.

I've corrected an issue that was preventing people from being able to post comments to my articles. To encourage feedback, I've removed the user registration requirement, so readers can now quickly and easily post questions, suggestions, etc. To respond to any article, just click on the title of the article or the little "chat bubble" at the top right to be taken directly to the discussion page.

I have made several updates to my Northrend Guide for Rogues for the 3.3.2 patch and Arena Season 8. If you previously purchased the guide, you can go back to the Download Link provided in your "Order Info" e-mail to download the updated guide. If your Download Link has already expired, you can use that link to request an additional download. If you've lost or deleted your "Order Info" email, contact me and I'll send you a copy for your records.

Note: Just hours before I was ready to release this latest update to the guide, Blizzard announced their brand new 3.3.3 PTR Patch Notes, so I haven't had a chance to incorporate any of those upcoming changes into the guide.

I've gone through my armor charts correcting all of the price and source information for PVP gear. Every season when new gear is released, all of the prices and availabilities on old PVP gear gets adjusted, which is a real pain to update on my various charts. Most of my initial efforts each season are directed towards adding all of the new season's gear and updating AEP formulas, but I know that I'll have to eventually go back and change all of the source information on the old gear.

Tracking down the numerous PVP gear vendors (Dalaran Sewers, Dalaran Emblem vendors, Stormwind, Isle of Quel'Danas, Netherstorm, Tanaris, etc.) to make sure I haven't missed anything is the most annoying part. Wowhead's database is usually pretty good at tracking these changes, but even some of that information can be listed incorrectly. So I usually try to verify many of those prices myself by visiting each of the vendors, which can be rather time consuming.

In addition to the PVP gear changes, I've also updated a few other items with recently changed stats and made a few other corrections throughout. Of particular note are the PVP items that have been added to my Starter Gear charts as well as older PVP items that get removed from circulation and can no longer be purchased. In the latter case, the items remain on my charts but I change the source information for those items to "No Longer Available".

I've updated the AEP/MAEP values on all of my charts. I've incorporated the increased value of Resilience into my PVP AEP formulas and made some adjustments to weapon DPS & speed values in my PVE MAEP formulas. Other values received some minor adjustments as well, and all of those changes are reflected on my Pawn scales page.

I've decided to bring back my PVP Rogue Armories chart, but with one significant modification. I will no longer be tracking specific "noteworthy and influential PVP Rogues", but instead will be taking a snapshot of 20 of the top PVP Rogues as listed on SK Gaming's Rogue rankings. Trying to keep up with a particular set of PVP Rogues became too much trouble, as some of them would switch to PVE specs, take breaks from PVP or just stop playing altogether. Now, the chart will simply list data from 20 of the top PVP Rogues to give players a better idea of the current PVP environment.

Here are some of the trends I noticed while compiling this information:

• Mutilate is still king, with most specs falling in the 44+/X/23+ range with some minor variations
• About half of the top PVP Rogues use fast offhand weapons while the rest still seem to prefer slow offhands
• 26,500 Health, 950 Resilience, 4,800 AP and 38% Crit looks to be about the average for top PVP Rogues
• Most of the top PVP Rogues have paired up an Ashen Band reputation ring with their PVP ring
• Many of the top Rogues use Battlemaster's Rage along with their PVP trinket
• Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and AP gems are pretty much the standard for PVP Rogues across the board
• The standard weapon enchantments continue to be MH Berserking and OH Titanium Weapon Chain
• Armor enchantments vary from player to player, with some preferring AP/Res over AP/Crit enchants
• Aside from the standard Mutilate glyph, Sprint and Vigor are the next most common glyph choices
• Blood Elves, Undead and Humans are some of the more popular Rogue races being used in high level PVP
• Engineering is a clear favorite as far as professions are concerned, with Jewelcrafting being a close second

Thanks to the excellent work over at MMO-Champion, I've updated my charts with all of the Lich King loot as well as the new 3.3.2 Wintergrasp gear. I also corrected a few errors from the chart updates I'd posted earlier this morning (thanks Iords).

I've updated my charts with the new Season 8 PVP gear released in patch 3.3.2 yesterday. I've also adjusted the prices for most of the previous season's gear. Eventually I'll get around to updating my AEP formulas with the recent change to the value of Resilience, so the current PVP gear rankings will see a bit of adjusting.

I've made numerous updates to my site including:

• Updating the source and drop % on much of the recently added 3.3 gear in my charts
• Separating "FH" gear into Forge of Souls (FoS), Pit of Saron (PoS) and Halls of Reflection (HoR) on my charts
• Correcting the socket bonuses on many 3.3 items that previously had unknown socket bonuses
• Adding new Twink loot which can be obtained from Satchels after completing "Classic Random" Dungeon Finder quests
• Adding a bold "BC Enchantable" to the "Notes" column of applicable items in the 20-29 range of my Twink charts
• Updating base racial stats on my Races chart to reflect changes made in 3.3

After researching the specs of top PVP Rogues from SK Gaming's Rogue rankings, I've updated my PVP Specs page, moving the 41/5/25 spec down to the bottom of the page, replacing it with the more effective 44/4/23 Mutilate Spec. That spec is very similar to the 44/2/25 spec also listed on that page, with points taken out of Heightened Senses to put into Dual Wield Specialization. With both of those specs, you're free to move 2 to 3 points in the Assassination tree between Find Weakness, Deadened Nerves, Focused Attacks and Improved Kidney Shot, depending upon your team composition, playstyle and personal preferences.

I've also updated the Glyph choices for those specs, with Mutilate, Sprint and Vigor appearing to be the standard choices amongst most top PVP Rogues, although some prefer the Cloak of Shadows glyph.

I've updated my charts, assigning AEP/MAEP values to the special ability of Tiny Abomination in a Jar while at the same time reducing the value of Heartpierce's special ability. It seems that Blizzard has recently changed the mechanics behind these types of proc effects, preventing them from proccing off of poisons. This has resulted in both items becoming weaker than their previously overpowered versions, so they now fall more in line with similar iLvl items in terms of overall power.

I'd also intended to update my AEP/MAEP formulas after the previous set of nerfs (Hunger for Blood/Poison AP damage), but after evaluating the changes, I didn't notice any particularly major changes in updated stat values that merited a complete overhaul of my AEP/MAEP formulas. Making minor changes to those formulas requires me to alter values and re-sort item rankings in about 30 different charts in addition to my AEP/MAEP and Pawn scale pages. That's a whole lot of extra work for a minimal effect, so I'll usually wait until more significant changes take place before I undertake a major revision to my charts like that.

I want to make it clear that the AEP/MAEP formulas I use in my charts are more of a starting point rather than any type of hard and fast rule. I try to assign values that make sense, resulting in item rankings that end up in the general ballpark of where you expect them to be. If scores or rankings start to get out of whack, people usually let me know, and I'll reevaluate them as necessary. But that's just the nature of static item charts. Stat values will always vary depending upon a multitude of factors (talent spec, buffs, attack rotations, your other gear, etc.), so a static chart is never going to be the perfect solution for evaluating your gear.

One factor that you always need to keep in mind when using my charts is how I value stats with caps. Expertise gives little to no additional benefit once you go over its cap, so I've assigned AEP/MAEP values for Expertise based on the assumption that you're still beneath that cap. The value I've listed for Hit Rating assumes you're above the Specials and Poisons hit caps, but have not yet reached the White Hit cap. You can read more about the Expertise cap, Hit caps and other stat caps here. For more precise PVE DPS calculations, you'll probably want to consult a spreadsheet, several of which can be found here.

As always, if you disagree with any of my AEP/MAEP values or item rankings, you can simply download the .XLS versions of my charts and input whatever values work best for you. Many players like to pull stat values out of their favorite spreadsheet and plug them directly into my charts for a more convenient gear ranking solution tailored to their specific needs.

My website was experiencing some technical difficulties this morning. These issues should be resolved now.

I've finally completed the conversion of my website, which includes the following resources:

• Rogue Links (as well as links to sites for Other Classes)
• Pawn Mod AEP/MAEP Values
• Rogue Nerfs, Buffs & Fixes
• Powerleveling Guide for Blacksmithing
• Powerleveling Guide for Leatherworking
• Past Updates (going back 7 years!)
• Retired Projects
• Donations Page

Now that I've finished converting my old pages over to the new design, I can get back to updating my charts and other content.

I've made numerous updates to my site today, including the following:

Design Conversions

• XLS Charts Page
• PVP Resources
• PVE Resources
• Twink Resources
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Zodar's Notepad
• Mirror Homepage

Design Conversion & Page Update

• History of AEP (I'd forgotten to update the AEP/MAEP values on this page back on 12/28/09)

Chart Updates

• Level 80 Armor charts (Updated both versions of Deathbringer's Will with the new Haste proc and corrected the link to Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance)

Note: I previously applied a +4 Agility socket bonus to all new/upcoming items on my armor and weapons charts that have sockets with unknown socket bonuses. I did this to make it easier to compare those items to similar iLvl items without sockets. Some of those socket bonuses may have already been discovered by now, but I just haven't had the time to update them on my charts. If you see any socket bonuses on my charts (listed in italics) that don't match up, that's probably why. I'll update them as soon as I can.

Apparently, my Contact Form stopped working properly once I released my new site design and I just found out about it today. So, I've created a new Contact Form (using the updated page design) that should be operational now. If you tried to send me a message in the last few days, then you'll probably want to re-send it.

If you experience any more problems with my Contact Form, you can always e-mail me directly at one of the e-mail addresses listed on that page. Alternatively, you could just send a quick message to my Twitter account.

It took me a while, but I've finally figured out how to transfer most of the design elements of the new layout into one of my existing pages. You can see the results here:

Zodar's Rogue Leveling Tips

I'm still tweaking the format here and there, but for the most part, I'm pretty happy with the results. Now that I've straightened that out, it should be pretty easy for me to convert the rest of my static pages. As far as my Excel-based charts are concerned, I don't currently have any plans to modify their design, but anything's possible.

Updates are going to be short and simple over the next few days as I learn the ins and outs of this blogging software. Considering that for the past six years I've simply been using a basic text editor to design my site, this new framework poses a major learning curve for me. There are so many options to consider and hurdles to overcome as I work on integrating all of the old content into the new layout. Meanwhile, my e-mail has been piling up for the last few weeks as I've focused most of my time on the new site design. Oh well, one thing at a time...

Happy New Year and welcome to the new ShadowPanther.net! This site redesign is in response to a lot of your comments and I really hope you like it. In addition to a more user-friendly interface, I've included the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed, directly comment on blog posts and share your favorite posts on Twitter and Facebook.

This new layout is still a work in progress, so bear with me as I go through the process of converting all of my old pages. As always, there's still plenty of room for improvement and I'm open to suggestions and ideas, so let me know what you think!

Thank you for your continued support!