.. AP or crit?

You seem like an AP guy, but I assume you're sealfate specced so how much give and take do you allow? There's a ton of stam/ap gear coming into the game now (taut dragonhide, boots of shadowflame, etc.) and I was just wondering which you relied more heavily upon if either.

Crit is king but big numbers win fights.

Yeah, I'm a seal fate build with imp ambush and imp backstab. I used to be huge on AP, all blue gear I had 875 AP unbuffed. Now with all these epics to choose from, I like the stam a lot but miss the AP as well. Stam helps a lot in fights, AP has been nerfed, crit is from talents. When I look at items I try to keep myself above 800 AP and then go for as much stamina as possible. I plan on going for those items you metioned. Anything else? :-D

Yeah bredar was talking about his 1k+ AP after Crusader proccs and that was before any buffs. He's got crazy gear. Seal Fate is great for quick combo's if you crit so I'm thinking about trying to get a +crit set for PVP but doubt it will happen.

I've talked to two other rogues about their preferences as well. Yojack from Frostmane prefers crit and Jihan from Magtheridon prefers ap/stam.

I understand stacking crit will help guarantee landing those 2cp ambushes and backstabs but I'm not so sure about buffing a stat which, in essence, may fail altogether. The most unbuffed crit you can really get these days is ~33 or so, and average rogue gear will get you 29-30 easily (NS, agi enchants, etc).

Now AP and Stam are a lot more reliable but I was wondering how much crit it would be worth dropping for the extra AP. My AP is abysmal (640 something) but I still sting pretty hard (1200-1500 amb, 1000-1200 bs). Would an extra 200-300 ap really kick that up a few notches?
Jihan provided his profile of completely absurd gear (unbuffed: 5k hp, 900 ap, but 25% crit) and it looks like a good way to go. However he IS wearing multiple Nef drops and is 21/8/22 specced so doesn't rely on extra cps from crit amb/bs. With that kind of ap/stam however (and prep) you probably wouldn't even need them.
http://wow.allakhazam.com/profile.html?429671

Just thought I'd get the THC opinion while I'm at it since you fellas are some of the better rogues out there. :)

Oh don't look at me too much. I suck. I'll admit it (That's why when I log on vent, it says "The Bench Warmer"). Blader/Bredar/Nokturne. Those three are really good rogues. Skib... Well Skib just dies alot while posting huge amounts of damage. I've gotten better but I'm 21 sub/30 assassin.

uhmm imo as a rogue, go which ever way you feel most comfortable with cause you can't go wrong.

you can set up your crit/AP how ever you want aslong as you have a good amount of stamina and a good set of weapons.
my rogue is decked out with mainly blues and greens and i can guarantee that i can easily take down ANY warrior with full epics.... if they're afk. GG.

i dont die so much anymore ... id def say its more of an inside joke now! :P
i love crit, and have always been combat ... recently (skib's lifetime recently, i.e. several months ago) i dropped to a 15 / 23 / 13 spec.
i love crit! (in the same way that brick tambland loves lamp)
i dont have the *tactical* advantages of a prep or seal fate build, but i do more damage than a chinese phone book. 33.5 crit, 674 ap.

In my opinion, its really about preference. You can do well in PvP with either spec or with either gear, and even in PvE. We have a dagger rogue that stacks crit over AP and he does just as much damage as me in raids; even the ones where rogues are sitting there consistantly pressing backstab a million times over ;-).

Before my epic items i was at 3.2k HP 20% crit and 875 AP and I felt myself criting just fine, with the talents of course. Now with most of the epic gear I want, minus some enchants, i have 4,4k HP 25.42% crit and 807 AP and of course when two crusaders proc... 1007 AP. The extra 5% crit helps, but I haven't noticed a huge difference; I still have times where I go on a non-critting spree. So if i were to go for another 5% crit and dumping 200-300 AP, I wouldn't say its worth it. Going from 55% crit on my backstab to 60% shouldn't help that much in my opinion . But it's all in my preference.

As far as why I picked my spec ... well I wanted to kill things really fast. With seal fate, my combo points generate quick and I have alot to my disposal. For finishing moves, I like to use more than just that eviserate thing and use more rupture and expose armor; I do have improve expose. I find it very useful to slap on a 4 point expose armor on a shaman and see him fly down with 1500-1600 backstabs in his face. Same with hunters, warlocks, or even pray I can manage to do it on those crazy warriors. Preparation is good, might be even better. With preparation you survive a lot more, and in group pvp that is what makes the difference. But I still prefer seal fate because it's my preference.

I like the information about the other rogues on difference servers; that guys equipment is pretty nice, but hes still missing some AP gear(pvp stuff and some pve stuff) that I plan on getting myself as well. And he is missing some +hit.... thats very important as well.

Yea I figure either way you go as long as you watch your ass and take on your targets in an appropriate manner (using the right finisher for the job as you explained, etc.) you'll do well regardless of gear focus or spec.

I just ask questions and get opinions because I like to chat about this sort of stuff. :)

I've been every spec I could think of (including 0/25/26, sword spec hemo oooh!) so I enjoy messing around with the rogue class. I do think I need more ap though so I might work on getting the zg enchant for my BF hat, that'll give me another 40 ap over my NS hat and I'd only lose like 1 crit.

Expose, in my experience, is only useful in a protracted 1v1 or 2v2 fight where you know you can just wait it out for the huge double backstabs. In group situations I usually feel like I need to just frontload and split rather than hang around debuffing. I play a little differently however, I dropped MOD for RC and I have 5/5 remorseless, if that tells you anything. I love the 100% ambushes I can get and RC is FAR more useful in AV/AB than MOD, but that's just the way I play. :P

One final question... where did Lanzer go!

hes in ironforge a lot ... and he found some new things outside of wow ... "friends" and "going out" is what i think he calls em

Does he prefer friends or crit?

lanzer is a beast ... he needs to get in here and flaunt his rediculous new sword combat pwnage spec

Lightblades > all