Originally Posted by
Huikreu
Equipment: as I was leveling my rogue, I generally replaced my armor/jewelry every 5 levels but tried to replace my weapon more often than that if I saw a good deal. If you get a good deal on equipment, you can resell it when you're finished with it later for very little net loss in gold (sometimes you can even make a little but you have to consider CS fees). In choosing equipment, I focus on dmg/dex, int/mana, str/health/armor, in that order.
The prior post is correct: dps is for basic attacks (considers the attack speed of the weapon), dmg is what skill damage is calculated from.
Your approach will depend on your play style. I prefer to use a bow and generally keep my distance from mobs. I use aimed shot, noxious bolt, shadow piercer (in that order), then repeat. I use a lot of mana pots. Bows are too slow to add a normal attack into your skill rotation (i.e., aimed shot is ready to be used again before I can finish a regular bow attack).
If you prefer to be in the thick of the action, I believe that blades allow you to add an extra normal attack at the end of your skill rotation before your first skill is ready to be used again. So, overall, this may allow you more total damage in the same amount of time (I have not tested any of this, just my feeling based on experience and what I've read on the forum).
Hope this helps.