Hey All,
I have recently been looking into expertise vs hit rating and cant quite seem to figure out which is better to have. I am planning to raid on my rogue for Wotlk and would like to max my dps as much as possible. Atm i am combat swords, but it seems i might have to go mutilate, i hear it has alot more damage then combat swords. Anyways any help would be appreciated about the expertise vs hit rating issue. Which to go for, whats better, etc... Thanks All

a) Are you talking about PvE?

You should max your hit rating ( the exact number can be found pretty much anywhere talking about rogues, it's a basic ) as quickly as possible, and over any other stats. A crit is 150% damage ( may vary ); but a missed hit, is -100%, which is twice as bad as good as a crit is ( you see what I mean ). I'm not even sure that expertise is that great of a stat to begin with, so you may wish to do a little research. Try googling Elitist Jerks, go around the class mechanics forum and look for the rogue section. These guys know what the fuck they're doing.

b) Are you talking about PvP?

Expertise and hit are rather useless here, may want to try pene, ar or crit if anything. With stam and resil, of course.

Mutilate isn't necessarily superior to combat in a PVE environment, but it is good for competitive raid dps. Combat with it's new found Killing Spree is even better when your group takes on packs, while mutilate forces you to stick to one target at a time. Overall both will be very close to each other on the dps charts, but I think Combat will always have the edge.

Except no raiding guild gives a crap about people's DPS on trash. They look at boss fight DPS to determine if you're pulling your weight. I will be interested to see reports as to how mutilate fares vs. combat, but will never have Erk in a 25 man raid environment again, and it will be a long time before I get the time to level him and try him out in heroics and 10 man stuff.

Expertise is a good stat, but is far, far more important for tanks than for dps. Hit rating is the most important stat for dps until it's capped, and then work on expertise if you feel like it. For tanks, the more expertise, the better, especially for druids.