'Morning! I'm at work so I don't dare post on the WoW forums, but I thought I could ask your opinions here on MMOC.
I've decided to raid again (I go through bouts of raid burnout and raid appeal every 3-6 months) and I want to know if any of you have heard of the effectiveness of raiding as Shadowstep. (I know there's one rogue from some famous guild that was recently ridiculed on the WoW rogue forums for raiding as Shadowstep, but later posts in that thread showed that the guy was top dps in raids, doing 2000+ dps.)
I realize -- I seriously do -- that the lack of "Precision" and DW spec hurts DPS. I've raided MC, BWL, AQ40, Naxx, SSC, TK, and, of course, Kara (about two hundred times). And I've always been either #1 or #2 in raid DPS as Combat swords (in TBC).
But isn't there something to say about the 15% more agility and, on top of that, a 10% increase in attack power that makes up for the lack of 5% hit (which can be compensated for through +hit gems) and 25% more damage from the offhand? Special attacks don't suffer from the dual wield penalty to hit, so stacking agility and attack power (playing to the strengths of the spec) MAY make up for the lack of dual wield, possibly surpass (if geared well) the Combat spec for raid DPS.
Any thoughts? Any personal experiences to relate, whether YOU are the raiding Shadowstep rogue or a teammate of one?