If you have a new rogue, an alt rogue or even your main rogue who needs a bit of TLC the gear choices out there can be somewhat confusing and daunting. This guide will take you through the steps for gearing your character quickly and effectively ready for Icecrown Raiding straight away.

First of all a brief explanation on how to get gear in the first place. There are a few different methods for doing so and these are:

• HEROICS – Many of the instances you can do while leveling up can be completed at the level cap of 80 on heroic mode. Completing these heroic dungeons will give you a) Better loot drops and b) Emblems of Triumph (1 per boss in the encounter, maximum of 5 emblems per instance).
• RANDOM HEROIC DAILY – Every day you will be able to complete a random heroic through the Dungeon Finder Tool. Selecting to find a group for a random WOTLK heroic dungeon will reward you with 2 x Emblems of Frost for the first dungeon completed that day and 2 x Emblem of Triumph for each subsequent random dungeon completed on the same day.
• WEEKLY RAID – The weekly raid quest can be picked up in Dalaran near the Violet Hold instance. The weekly raid is usually completable by anyone regardless of current gear levels. Simply ask to join a raid group through trade and complete the quest by killing the required boss in that raid. The Weekly Raid will provide you with a) Epic quality gear drops from the boss and b) 5 x Emblems of Frost and 5 x Emblem of Triumph. This quest can only be completed once a week in line with raid lockouts.
• Emblems of Triumph – These emblems themselves can also provide you with additional gear. In order to obtain full ICC ready gear Emblems of Triumph (EoT) will be very important for your rogue. You can trade in EoT with the EoT Vendor in Dalaran in the Silver Enclave (above the room with all the portals in).  EoT vendors provide you with either a) Item Level 245 gear or b) Emblems of Conquest or lower. Exchanging your emblems for other emblems will always mean you are exchanging them for lower quality gear. When you obtain Conquest Emblems, you are acquiring ilvl 226 gear, Valor Emblems are ilvl 213 gear, and Heroism Emblems are ilvl 200 gear. The higher the ilvl of a gear item, the more useful it is likely to be to you.
• Emblems of Frost – This is currently the highest level of Emblem you can obtain in Wrath of the Lich King as of Patch 3.3.5. You can only obtain Emblems of Frost (EoF) from completing the weekly raid, the daily random heroic dungeon and raiding in Icecrown Citadel (ICC – the highest level raid available). You will not be able to go to ICC until you are properly geared for it first so raiding for EoF is not an option to gear up your rogue.

Now you know what to do to get your gear now we will help you decide which gear is best to obtain before you begin raiding in Icecrown Citadel. The easiest and quickest way to obtain good rogue gear ready for raiding is to farm heroics as much as possible for EoT. EoT will be your main staple method for obtaining gear, however make sure you do complete the random heroic dungeon every day as well as as many weekly raids as you can while gearing up.

Your goal is to obtain a total of 310 Emblems of Triumph.

You will then be able to acquire from the Emblem of Triumph Vendor the following gear:

• Ranged – [Crimson Star] (25 EoT)
• Chest – Tier 9.0 Alliance [Vancleef's Breastplate of Conquest] or Horde [Garona's Breastplate of Conquest] (50 EoT)
• Finger01 – [Dexterous Brightstone Ring] (35 EoT)
• Hands -Tier 9.0 Alliance [Vancleef's Gauntlets of Conquest] or Horde [Garona's Gauntlet's of Conquest] (30 EoT)
• Head – [Mask of Lethal Intent] (75 EoT)
• Shoulders – [Duskstalker Shoulderpads] (45 EoT)
• Trinket01 – [Mark of Supremacy] (50 EoT)

Alongside farming heroics for emblems you will also need to specifically complete the following dungeons at least once per day for additional gear drops:

Forge of Souls Heroic
Pit of Saron Heroic
Halls of reflection Heroic
Forge of Souls Normal

Doing these instances will give you the following gear items to add to your set:

• Legs – [Fleshwerk Leggings] (PoS Heroic: Scourgelord Tyrannus)
• Back – [Accursed Crawling Cape] (FoS Normal: Devourer of Souls)
• Feet – [Blighted Leather Footpads] (HoR Heroic: The Captain’s Chest)
• Ring02 – [Band of Stained Souls] (PoS Heroic: Scourgelord Tyrannus)
• Neck – [Barbed Ymirheim Choker] (PoS Heroic: Forgemaster Garfrost)
• Wrists – [Chewed Leather Wristguards] (PoS Heroic: Ick and Krick)

Combat Specific Items:

• Trinket02 – [Needle-Encrusted Scorpion] (FoS Heroic: Devourer of Souls)
• Main Hand Weapon – [Nighttime] (FoS Heroic: Bronjahm)
• Off Hand Weapon – [Liar's Tongue] (HoR Heroic: The Captain’s Chest)

Mutilate Specific Items:

• Main Hand Weapon – [Blood Weeper] (FoS Heroic: Devourer of Souls)
• Off Hand Weapon - [Heartshiver] (FoS Normal: Devourer of Souls)

Additional Gear

You will also need to obtain an additional 28 Emblems of Triumph and convert them into Emblems of Conquest to obtain [Belt of the Twilight Assassin].

Mutilate rogues only, will need to obtain another 50 EoT for [Shard of the Crystal Heart] as thier Trinket02 slot instead of the Needle-Encrusted Scorpion (NES).

Final Notes

Once you have the above gear set in full you will also need to supplement it with upgrades from the Emblems of Frost vendors. This will ensure you are easily Icecrown Citadel 10 man and 25 man ready. Without frost gear you will only be ICC10 ready until you gear up further. However, you do not need to start thinking about ICC25 until you have obtained plenty of gear drops from 10 man ICC first as well as some EoF vendor items. If you are a part of a raiding guild they may be happy to boost you in ICC25 mans once you are ICC10 man ready. In addition you may also purchase certain gear items from the Auction House if you have enough money. Many good gear items can be purchased or crafted so keep an eye on the AH for ilvl 245 and ilvl 264 gear for rogues.

The upcoming 3.3.2 patch is set to be released next week (February 2^nd at this stage). Blizzard has posted the patch notes for this mini-patch on the official Korean WoW site. The most noticable changes include some small fixes to make dungeons run smoother, some class buffs for druids, shamans and warlocks and a much needed nerf for prot warriors. We will also see the introduction of Toravon the Ice Watcher in the Vault of Archavon and the start of Season 8 (Arena). 

The translated patch notes can be seen below. Please note that some of the wording or accuracy may be slightly off. If you notice any mistakes, please post in comments with the correct wording.