Getting gearFollow

Combat 3.2 spreadsheet
Mutilate 3.2 spreadsheet

Those are links to dps spreadsheets for 80, but you're obviously not there yet, so you might want to just pocket those until later when they become useful. A spreadsheet calculates the DPS you are capable of doing under certain circumstances- and you can set those circumstances. However, the gear you can choose starts at the low-tier epics (and maybe some blues, unsure) at 80, so it's useless until then.

Just remember to have a slow (2.4, 2.5, 2.6) speed mainhand and a fast (1.4-1.8) speed offhand to maximize your DPS. put on double instant poison, and the rest is pretty easy. At your level, there won't really be sidegrades (two pieces of gear that have different pros/cons so you are unsure which to use), so in most cases just take the higher level piece of gear that has the most rogue stats (agi, ap, crit, hit, etc.) At level 50, you probably want to respec Mutilate, and get two slow (1.6-1.8) speed daggers.

Here's a spec for level 49, with combat swords or axes: (If you are using fists, change to Close Quarters Combat. Never use Combat spec with Daggers, and only uses maces if you have to- the mace specialization talent is kinda mediocre.)
Combat Swords level 49

Once you ding 50, start using those daggers! If you don't have any good ones from quests, you might consider picking up some from the AH if they're cheap, but remember you get to Outland at 58 (8 levels later) and the upgrades there are incredible compared to old world gear. (what you're using right now most likely.)
Mutilate Spec level 50

By the time you're 80 your spec should look something like this:
Levelling Mut spec at 80
Of course, a lot of this isn't set in stone. You might want to swap Camoflage and Master of Deception out for the crit bonus from Master Poisoner, but personally when you kill things in 3-4 seconds as mutilate, having a 6 second cooldown (instead of 10) on stealth can add up to save you a lot of time. I don't know if you have any gathering professions, but Master of Deception is useful for sneaking past mobs, sapping and gathering, as well as some quests where you don't want to kill loads of mobs just to get to 1 quest mob. That's personal preference- you can switch that out for Focused Attacks, or keep Camoflage and switch that into Master Poisoner. (For levelling, Master Poisoner>Focused Attacks, because you have a chance to let your energy regen to 100% in between each mob fight, and Overkill basically increases your energy regen by 30% all the time, because you should be stealthing more than once every 20 seconds.

Edit: For a more in depth explanation of stat comparison, look at this: (taken from Shadow Panther AEP page

AEP is a term that means Agility Equivalence Points.

1 Agility = 1 MAEP
1 Strength = .55 MAEP
1 Stamina = .01 MAEP
1 Hit Rating = .83 MAEP
1 Crit Rating = .81 MAEP
1 Attack Power = .50 MAEP
1 Expertise Rating = .87 MAEP
1 Haste Rating = .64 MAEP
1 Armor Penetration Rating = .65 MAEP
1 Resilience = .001 MAEP
1 Blue Socket = 16 MAEP (with no socket bonus)
1 Red Socket = 16 MAEP (plus socket bonus)
1 Yellow Socket = 15 MAEP (plus socket bonus)
1 Meta Socket = 80 MAEP
.1 MH Speed = -9 MAEP per .1 faster than 1.8
.1 OH Speed = -8 MAEP per .1 slower than 1.4
1 MH DPS = 2 MAEP
1 OH DPS = 1.4 MAEP

So you can see here all of the values of stats for PvE mutilate (mind you, a lot of these stats you can't get pre-70). Also be careful using this chart, because these are values for a DPS specced PvE mutilate rogue at 80- not a levelling specced rogue at X level. It should roughly be the same worth.
The reason, if you are wondering, that STR is ranked .55 MAEP while AP, which is the same thing as 1 str, is rated .50 MAEP, is because of Blessing of Kings, this paladin buff that many raiding rogues get at level 80. It increases all of your attributes by 10%, so 1 point of strength becomes actually 1.1 points of strength, while AP is still 1 AP. (1 strength gives 1 AP.)

Something strange about this list is that Agility should be weighed as 1.1 MAEP, because it also benefits from blessing of kings, while the other stats in there (Hit, Crit, AP, Expertise, Haste, Arpen, etc.) don't benefit from kings.

Anyways, here is a slightly edited list for you because you're probably not levelling with a paladin:

1 Agility = 1 MAEP
1 Strength = .50 MAEP
1 Stamina = .01 MAEP
1 Hit Rating = .83 MAEP
1 Crit Rating = .81 MAEP
1 Attack Power = .50 MAEP
1 Expertise Rating = .87 MAEP
1 Haste Rating = .64 MAEP
1 Armor Penetration Rating = .65 MAEP
1 Resilience = .001 MAEP
1 Blue Socket = 16 MAEP (with no socket bonus)
1 Red Socket = 16 MAEP (plus socket bonus)
1 Yellow Socket = 15 MAEP (plus socket bonus)
1 Meta Socket = 80 MAEP
.1 MH Speed = -9 MAEP per .1 faster than 1.8
.1 OH Speed = -8 MAEP per .1 slower than 1.4
1 MH DPS = 2 MAEP
1 OH DPS = 1.4 MAEP

Lastly, an excellent site for determining gear upgrades (at 70-80ish, that's the only equipment on his list) and overall great help for the rogue class, is [link=www.shadowpanther.net]ShadowPanther[/link]. He has tips on all sorts of things- I recommend, if you lived through this huge post, to check it out.

Edited, Aug 18th 2009 1:51pm by morgorg

Might I suggest either a link to this thread in the compendium, or morg linking it in his sig. Would help to direct ppl w/ the same questions, great work Morg! Rate ups

My immediate assumption would be that Camouflage is not a speed increase, but rather changes the Stealth ability to reduce your speed by less, which would mean that they stack. I don't have any evidence to back this up though.

Thanks for the information guys. That is really helpful! I like the idea of nearly walking at normal speed (without FF) while stealthed. Rate up.