As a Rogue, you’re mostly going to be relying on the strength of your dagger for your damage. There are a select few daggers pre-Molten Core that are considered acceptable. For starters, the Barman Shanker which drops off of Plugger Spazzring in Blackrock depths, the almost identical dagger keris of zul’Serak which drops from Warmaster Voone in Lower Blackrock Spire. An upgrade from both of those, however, would be the Lobotomizer, an Alterac Valley exalted level purchasable dagger, and glacial blade, available before lobotomizer.

In terms of off hands, Rogue preferences vary. For a dagger Rogue, preference is almost always given to offhand weapons with better stats than DPS, so you may find the occasional Rogue off handing a green dagger just because it has +30 attack power on it. A dagger with decent DPS that has +attack power bonus on it is Bonescraper, which can drop from Baron Rivendare.

For combat Rogues, suitable swords may be found in the form of the dal’rend set: Dal’rend’s Sacred Charge and Dal’Rend’s Tribal Guardian , which drops off of Warchief rend blackhand in Upper Blackrock Spire but is relatively hard to get both of them without doing many runs. The only other alternative would be to get lucky and loot a sword of zeal or buy one off the auction house, though they tend to be pretty expensive. Krol blade is a decent sword for a sword Rogue, either main hand or off but for the price is probably not worth buying.

There are two easily obtainable rings every Rogue should have, painweaver band from General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire and Don Julio’s band from Alterac Valley exalted rewards. They add a decent amount of attack power and both of them have a +1% crit bonus.

There are relatively few options in terms trinkets, but the ones available are fine so it honestly just makes things a lot simpler. The best trinket is one that you will get from the second part of the Warlord’s command quest line, obtainable in kargath. The trinket Blackhand’s breadth adds 2% crit and it’s a nice boost, considering the alternatives. Another trinket is one that can be obtained in the high 40s from a hinterlands quest. The trinket is called rune of the guard captain, which gives +1% to hit and +20 attack power. This is a pretty safe and beneficial combination, and many combat Rogues prefer the trinket called Hand of Justice which drops from General Angerforge in Blackrock Depths. The trinket grants +20 attack power and a 2% chance to gain an extra attack, pretty ideal for a combat Rogue, especially one with the sword specialization talent.