Please help an old manFollow

tldr: I would like help with spec and glyphs, armory http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Undermine&cn=Slice&gn=Booty+Bay+Surf+Club . Please don't tell me to go to another site, it does Allakhazam a disservice in my opinion.

Good morning,

I'm looking for what I can do to improve my wow gaming experience. I've always played virtually solo, rarely if ever joining groups. Therefore, while my Rogue is level 80, I have very little experience in the Lich King instances. With the advent of the random dungeon and new LFG, I'm on the verge of changing that. What I really don't want to do is make a fool of myself and/or let my group down.

To make this transition, I have set aside about 3K gold. I don't have any badge, emblems or other such tokens to immediately improve my gear. I don't believe I'm exalted with anyone that would have gear to help either.

Things I know:

1. I need a lot more hit rating
2. I love mutilate specs
3. My gear needs serious upgrading, enchanting and gemming.
4. Gear should change so fast, I hate to enchant or gem with top end stuff until it makes sense.
5. I am in no way ready for heroics.
6. I hate to be carried through an instance. I want to be a contributing factor in the success of the endeavor.
7. I don't enjoy pvp.

Things I'd like to know:

1. Is my current spec decent for normal instances?
2. Should I spend the gold for dual spec or is there a good spec that will carry me through both instances and solo play.
3. Rotation should start with Garrote, Slice n Dice, Muti, Muti, Rupture?
4. Cheap enchants to get me by?
5. Glyphs?

I've been playing the game for a long time (11/27/04) and used to be able to keep up with the changes. As I approach the big Five-Zero, I find it's getting harder to do.

I really appreciate all of the information I've gleaned off of this site over the years and thank you for your help.

Slice

Most groups will be running very fast through the instances, so you won't really have time to stealth up for a Garrote, especially on trash. You need some sort of bleed to be active on the target in order to activate Hunger For Blood, but I'm not sure if Muti rogues bother with this on trash pulls or not. A 1pt Rupture would do the job, if you can't easily Garrote.

Tricks of the Trade is probably something you've not really used in solo play, but it's great in groups, to help the tank keep their threat ahead of all those trigger-happy DPS. An easy way to do it is to create a macro to cast tricks on your focus target, and bind it to a keystroke, or stick it on your action bar.

The macro is "/cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade"

Focus your tank at the start of the run (target the tank and type "/focus"), and cast it at the start of each pull, just before you start hitting things.

It's hard to really ***** up as a rogue in a 5-man. Basic group-play tips are:

- Stand behind the target you're DPSing
- Don't pull aggro (get the Omen addon to keep track of your threat, and use Tricks of the Trade liberally)
- The floor hates you, and will try to kill you whenever it can (move out of the fire!)

Most importantly, don't worry about making the odd mistake, and when you do (and you will), don't worry about it, just learn and move on. And have fun!

Thanks for the advice.

Therion, I think I copied your build for my leveling/questing and that is what I've been using.

I've dual spec'd and picked up a couple of daggers since my original post, but definitely need to get back into a group frame of mind and knock a lot of rust off.

This is not a response to your questions, I just wanted to say I love the way you structured your post and I wish more people would put similar thought into their questions.

Thanks!