I just wanted to clear things up a bit as far as weapons go. I’m an assassination rogue atm, so Backstab is my bread and butter. Weapon damage on my main hand determines how hard that ability hits right? Atm I have:
Main hand: 21-40 damage, 15.25 dps, 2.0 speed
Off-hand: 18-35 damage, 18.9 dps, 1.4 speed
Before I logged off last night, I did a few back to back runs of SM LIB. On my last run, the Hypnotic Blade dropped (26-49 damage, 26.8 dps, 1.4 speed). No one could use it so I grabbed it just in case based on its much higher damage than the ones I currently have, even though it’s a caster weapon…
If weapon damage on my main hand determines backstab damage, then it should go in my MH, But the speed would normally indicate that it should go in my off-hand. This is also assuming I can ignore the fact that it’s a caster weapon with intel etc… My offhand also has +12 attack power that I would lose should it go there…
What if my main hand only had, say 10% less damage than the Hypnotic Blade. Would the 10% increase backstab damage make up for the 25% increased damage from my off-hands auto attacks should I put it there instead?
I know this is probably trivial and over-complicated at my current level and all, and my brain is melting right now since I have the flu, but I’d still like to clear all this stuff up. Plus I can’t test it out yet since I’m one level too low to equip it.
Anyways, thanks for any info related to any of this. Break it down as deep as you want 
Hypnotic Blade is a good weapon for dagger Rogues. Stats on it aren’t as important as weapon damage. Keep in mind that offhand weapons do less damage (even with the talents which are Combat) and that AP doesn’t necessarily translate 1-1 for damage.
You’re also right that the damage of Backstab is 1.5 times normal weapon damage (which is basically top end), so top end matters most for your main hand, which is usually why slow weapons are king - but go with whatever is best for you. Outside of that, you also gain the benefit of more white hits for more as it’s just a higher DPS and top end weapon. Offhand weapon speed is supposed to be fast for Rogues for poison application, but really just use whatever is best. Worry about speed at 60.
Check out shadowpanther dot net
They have a rating system for weapons
Cool, thanks for the help. I also got confused a bit since a few days ago when reading about warrior weapon damage, that if the damage and dps are identical, the slower one still actually hits for more damage. I’m not sure if that was for auto attacks only though, so I thought maybe a faster weapon might deduct damage from abilities for some reason 
I’m… not sure that’s how it works. If the DPS is identical but one is faster, the slower one has to have (and always has) higher top end. Which is why 36/40+ it matters more for speed, but prior to that it doesn’t as you don’t have a weapon damage attack you use a lot - you mostly auto attack. Heroic Strike does matter but it’s a trap.
Thanks for the link, looks in-depth like I like em! I’ll check it out when I’m feeling better, already working on a pretty nasty headache…