It’s Patch 4.3, and everyone in melee just got a buff – including Assassination Rogues. Hurrah! But how to best make use of our newfound powers? Well, here’s our quick guide to the best way to stat, spec your talent build, reforge, gem, glyph, and perform your rotation to top the meters and hopefully not stand in too much fire in the process.
Updated Nov 29th, 2011, for Patch 4.3
Assassination Rogue Changes in Patch 4.3
This patch isn’t too exciting for rogues as far as mechanics changes go. We get a 10% buff along with every other melee class, a slight (PvP-focussed) change to Wound Poison, and… that’s it.
However, there’s one massive thing all rogues need to be aware of in Patch 4.3, and that’s the Rogue Legendary quest line . Not only does it lead to the best damn daggers ever at the end, but you can just do the first few quests – requiring you to get to the fourth boss in Dragon Soul on Normal – in order to get your hands on the best daggers outside Heroic mode. Seriously, this is VERY worth doing.
The Tier 13 Set bonuses are worth a mention. If you have 2 pieces of T13, make sure to use Tricks of the Trade on cooldown.
Assassination/mutilation rogue rotation
Make sure you’ve got poisons on! Instant Poison on your Main Hand weapon, and Deadly Poison on your offhand and thrown weapons.
Always open the fight from stealth. Open with Garotte if you can do so QUICKLY – but if it’ll take even 2 seconds to get into position, use Mutilate instead. Immediately use those combo points on Slice and Dice.
From here:
- If you don’t have any combo points: Use Mutilate unless the boss is below 35%, in which case use Backstab.
- If you have 1, 2 or 3 combo points: In priority order: if Slice and Dice is about to run out, use Envenom to refresh it. If Rupture is about to run out, use Rupture. Otherwise, use Mutilate or Backstab as above.
- If you have 4 or 5 combo points: In priority order: if Slice and Dice is about to run out, use Envenom. If Rupture is about to run out, use Rupture. Otherwise, use Envenom.
- NEVER Mutilate when you have 4 or more combo points or allow your Energy to hit 100 (always use an ability before then).
For more advanced tips, see our more in-depth Assassination Rogue rotation guide
Cooldowns: You have 3 Cooldowns – Cold Blood, Vendetta and Vanish (yes, it’s a DPS cooldown). Use Cold Blood whenever it’s up, with a 5 point Envenom. Use Vanish whenever it’s up and you’ll get a solid 15 sec of DPS. Use Vendetta whenever it’s up and you’ll get at least 30 sec of uninterrupted DPS. Vendetta and Vanish work very well with Bloodlust, so try to coordinate that where possible.
Your multi-target AOE rotation is pretty simple: Fan Of Knives. Repeat. If there are 3 or more enemies and no pressing reason to only DPS one, use this rotation instead. Make sure you’re ALSO attacking something in melee at the same time, and still open from stealth.
Want to stay up to date?
Want to stay up to date with what's happening in the world of WoW and other MMOs?
Subscribe to the Melting Pot on Twitter or by a feedreader (Google Reader or others) to learn about everything that's going on in the MMORPG world, before it goes mainstream.
Assassination talent spec
Stats:
Gem: Agility is your most important stat. Always gem for Agility unless it isn’t available or there is a Agility socket bonus of more than 10. In the second case, use [Adept Ember Topaz] in yellow sockets and [Glinting Demonseye] in blue sockets.
Reforging: Reforge for Hit until you pass the Spell Hit Cap (1332 Hit Rating). After that, reforge for Mastery. Once you’re past Spell Hit Cap, reforge excess Hit first. If you’re not there yet, reforge Crit first, then Expertise, then Haste, then Mastery.
Note: The above notes for Hit Rating assume you have 2/3 Precision in your talent tree, as the advised tree above does.
Assassination Rogue Enchants
Remember, your profession may provide a better enhancement option- check the stat priorities above!
| Head | Arcanum of the Ramkahen |
| Shoulders | Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal |
| Back | Enchant Cloak – Major Agility |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer – Agility |
| Hands | Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery or Enchant Gloves – Expertise if you are under expertise cap. |
| Belt | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle |
| Legs | Dragonscale Leg Armor |
| Feet | Enchant Boots – Major Agility |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Landslide on both |
Glyphs
Primes: Glyph of Mutilate — Glyph of Backstab — Glyph of Rupture
Major: Glyph of Tricks of the Trade — Glyph of Feint — Glyph of Sprint.
Minor: Glyph of Safe Fall and whatever else catches your fancy.
Links
- As always, Elitist Jerks have an excellent, in-depth (if long) guide to Assassination – updated to 4.3 already.
Did you find this guide useful? Want to read cool stuff about WoW daily? Then check out our main World of Warcraft page, and get the best posts from the Internet’s WoW blogs, every day.
Did you find this guide useful? If so, please consider sharing it! You can find Twitter, Facebook and Google+ buttons below.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Quick qeuestion you say gem and ENCHANT for agility so does that mean that Mongoose enchant on weapons would be more viable than Landslide for isntance
You’re absolutely correct, that’s not the right advice to give. I’ve altered the guide. Enchants are reasonably complex – see the EJ guide for an enchant list – but Landslide is the current correct weapon enchant.
Hey there, a good upto date guide and one of the only ones out there.
a thing i noticed is that you say in the yellow socket put a +20 agi +20 mast, But on tier legs (wind dancers legguards http://www.wowhead.com/item=60300) isnt it better to lose out on the +20agi and stick 2 +40agilty gaining +20agilty?
One other note, the talent spec you have…why take Deadly Brew? since Ass/Mutilate is a pve (or the set up you have here is) then appling crippling posion makes no sence since you only have Instant and deadly so the talent point is wasted ? what im caught up on is, is it better to take Deadly Momentum (50/100% chance of your next move to crit with in 15seconds and refresh recupe and SnD to Full) or Deadend Nevers (Reduce damage taken by 3/6/9%)?
Thanks
Egore
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/emeriss/Egore
For Egore when his comment turns up (damn you, Wordpress!):
That’s a difficult call. Personally I’d suggest gemming according to the socket colours in the Wind Dancer’s Legguards, but it’s VERY close – either could work. If you’re a more advanced player I’d suggest simming it or using Rawr to determine your best choices.
Deadly Brew – yeah, all of the talents you mention have utility. Personally I rather like Deadly Brew – I find there are many occasions when having a mob slowed is useful, but I don’t want to gimp my DPS by removing a poison. Consensus seems to be that Deadly Momentum is a bit crap in dungeons and VERY crap in raids (once the boss is dead your problems are kinda over), but Deadened Nerves is a decent choice on progression content. See the EJ guide for more discussion of these two talents.
My two critiques:
1: You want to get as close to 100% uptime on rupture as you possibly can, so you spend your first combo points on rupture, then slice & dice. If your rupture is dropping off, refresh it. Even if it’s only a one combo point rupture.
2: The hit cap is only 1332 if you have 2/3 Precision. I just feel it’s important to state why it’s only 1332.
Otherwise, good, quick, dirty, and effective rundown of the key points of Assassination.
-Gastroph of Ner’Zhul
I have a question about the major glyphs. Would it not be better using Glyph of Tricks of the Trade instead the Glyph of FoK? Since you do not use FoK alot in raids (expect for trash that is, but then the damage is usually not as important as on bosses).
@Gastroph – Thanks! Good point on Precision – I’ll add that in.
Slice and Dice vs Rupture: losing either is a DPS loss, and I’m reasonably sure from the theorycraft that losing Slice and Dice is a higher loss – hence, it’s best to get SnD running at the start of a fight, even before Rupture. You’re absolutely correct that Rupture should be refreshed as soon as it drops, though – although not at the expense of wasting CP or energy capping. (EJ has a nice chart illustrating the various options).
@Marcus – The rogue Major glyphs are a tricky choice, and I’d recommend switching them on a fight-by-fight basis if you want to maximise everything. Personally, my feeling is that the ToTT glyph is such a minor bonus that FoK is likely to be more useful on average, but of course, on a fight-by-fight basis ToTT is slightly more useful.
Superb!
Great to see someone else noticing the same thing I’ve been advocating with my own guild mutilate rogues. Rupture BEFORE S’nD gains massive burst damage to the cyle early. Partly because your energy starts ticking in earlier, partly because you’re not “wasting” energy or combo points on a and starter you get for free anyway most of the time by the finisher extra combo point generated. Mostly because it also gives your deadly poisons the perfect time to build before your first CB Eviscerate.
Either way, it’s a huge boost to opening
@Gastroph -
@Stabalot – @ stabalot
i COMPLETETLY AGREE i couldnt have said that better myself, espcially cuz it gives time for ur deadly pzn to stack for ur first envenom
Hey its me again, so im trying to get these stupid daggers every rogue on my server seems to have already, what would be my best approach, pay someone to take me through, yesterday when some scrub rogue in my guild got them i was fed up, i need to get them PLEASE HELP!!!!
Would this be opening with Garrote and the 1-2 combo points you recieved you are using those straight away on Rupture or are you getting your combo points up to 4-5 before doing this?
This is something that I have been a little unsure about with the whole SnD after Garrote.
Also I am totally lost on Expertise. I am sitting at around 8 Exp with no reforging. I have left it cos I thought it wasn’t that important to get to 26. Am I doing the right thing? This stat priority would say yes but is 8 Exp too low?
Would this be opening with Garrote and the 1-2 combo points you recieved you are using those straight away on Rupture or are you getting your combo points up to 4-5 before doing this?
This is something that I have been a little unsure about with the whole SnD after Garrote.
Also I am totally lost on Expertise. I am sitting at around 8 Exp with no reforging. I have left it cos I thought it wasn’t that important to get to 26. Am I doing the right thing? This stat priority would say yes but is 8 Exp too low?
I have accidentally replied to someones comment with my questions and comments. Please ignore that.
My normal opener is Garotte (if I can get into place in time) -> SnD -> Mutilate -> Rupture. Use the Garotte combo point for SnD, then a SINGLE Mutilate to get Rupture going, then concentrate on getting an Envenom out to refresh SnD. Then go into the standard rotation.
(Other Rogue players recommend Garotte -> Rupture, then SnD. The advantage there is a lot of the time Rupture will generate a CP which you can use on SnD directly, and there are arguable damage improvements. Personally I’m sticking to the “classic” SnD first opener for now. )
As for Expertise – I know it feels a bit scary to be sitting there with no Expertise to speak of, but don’t panic. Just stick to the recommendations on Reforging and you’ll be fine.
Could it be just me that is seriously considering to remove rupture from the priority list. After a couple of dungeons I tried I came out a lot better on the damagelist. Taking in consideration that my Mastery is somehwere around 17.5
I reckon the damage done by my poisons did break my rupture viability? For example the Murozond fight is all about blowing your cooldowns after every hourglass shake. With rupture I was near the big 40.000 but never made it, but my cycle without rupture and so on a lot more envenoms (or as I like to call them omnoms) boosted my dps to 49.000 in a 3minute fight … I know there’s always a lot of theorycrafting behind the dps sheets but I still reckon that rupture takes away a bit of your dps when your mastery is up around 17-18 ish
@Ploxykins – Interesting theory, and I must admit I’ve wondered about Rupture’s viability myself under some circumstances. On Murazond, there may well be unusual circumstances going on – the constant-CD nature of the fight means it’s going to obey rather different mechanics than usual Patchwerk-style fights.
Currently I believe the theorycraft for most fights is still thoroughly in favour of a Rupture-based cycle, but I’d be interested in seeing the numbers from EJ’s Rogue spreadsheet or Simulationcraft for a Ruptureless cycle.
@Ploxykins – @Hugh Hancock –
I highly doubt in any sustained DPS environment (read:raid boss) a Ruptureless cycle would provide you with anything but disappointment. The Murazond fight you mentioned is quite gimmicky and most definitely favours a burtsy approach, which is why I assume you saw better numbers spamming Envenom.
However, when a fight is drawn out and you don’t get to spam Vendetta boosted Envenoms for the entire duration, the constant Energy Regen and Damage from Venomous Wounds procs (which also benefit from Mastery, I might add…) would add up to a far greater DPS gain than going without.
This assumes of course the fight lasts long than 20 seconds. If it’s just a trash mob or a gimmicky fight like Murazond, you may well be better off spamming Envenoms all day while Vendetta is up.
@Dazzlefraz – That makes sense. Thanks!
Why is haste so important and crit isn’t? Haste seem to need a ton of point for not much result…Can anyone explain that mechanic to me? Thanks!
@Mirshann – Haste has two main effects for us – it increases our energy regen and speeds up our weapon swings. Both of these have significant DPS benefits. If you have the spare gold, try reforging all your Haste away and then attacking a target dummy – you’ll notice the energy difference.
Crit isn’t much cop for Assassination because a lot of our damage, oddly enough, is spell damage. Spell damage only gets a 150% modifier from a crit as opposed to the usual melee 200% modifier.
I reckon I overlooked the venomous wounds though in the longer cycles like Bossfights. Espescially where mastery becomes the most viable stat for your assassination rogue. And just like Dazzle mentions the gimmicky part about the murazond fight where the hourglass makes you reset everything (when starting in stealth it will save your overkill). After wrenching my new gear and trying fights with and without rupture the difference was neglectable, 61.3k with rupture 61.8k without.
We can’t drop our rupture from the priority system, after doing a lot of 10man raids and spamming my theory on LFR’s too it made me realise that venomous wound contributes in 2 ways … Energy regen, and ofcourse the damage done by them.
I also found out that there is a vast improvement on my damage when the spelldamage gets enhanced totems, magebuffs or spellcrit increasements … my poisons love it. I would honestly say it makes us the best dps class at the moment considering melee damage and spelldamage done we can easily beat those nasty enhancement shamans now.
Fear, Vengeance and Assassination our game!
Is there any word on whether Expertise becomes viable again when you have the legendaries? EJ said it might be, given that you want all six finishers to land during the proc, but I don’t think they’ve actually done any hard and fast research, at least that I could find.
You are wrong. All of you. And i think you are n00bs . Why stack agility on a assassin rogue when his mastery is more important? Assassin rogue need increased damage in POISONS, stacking agility on assassins is useless because on this talent tree there is no Sinister Calling for 30% agility bonus. So, you think you’ll obtain some dps burst stacking agility ? Try again. Attack power no longer increase envenom damage but mastery will do. Would you sacrifice 25% increased damage in your poisons for stacking agility that will give you some 2-3% maximum dodge and no damage increase in your poisons ? This guide is a bullshit.
Practical testing beats theory, and practical testing shows that each point of Agility is worth 1.697 points of Mastery – source.
You’re correct – Assassination rogues do indeed rely heavily on poison damage, which is why Mastery is one of our highest-rated secondary stats. However, it’s far from our only source of damage, and the 2 Attack Power per point of Agility we receive (plus the crit strike and bonus Agi from specialisation) vastly outstrip its effectiveness, point for point.
What about socketing with 40 mastery gems ? I have full bloodthirsty set and accesories, enchants and got 8 points (app 25%) bonus damage on poisons. With the white bonus damage i got 16 points in Mastery. 5 stacks of Deadly Poisons with an cold-blooded Envenom i got 25k+ critical on full vicious players. Deadly poison 5 stacks hit for 3.5k and bleed with Venomous wounds for app. 4k . Why geming with agility ??? Non sense..
“Agility
Agility is by far your strongest stat simply because each point provides 2 AP and some crit and because you get an extra 5% more Agility for wearing leather via the rogue version of” say your sorce. But i think they forgot to learn the change of Envenom ability on Cataclysm. As you say, testing beats theory, what about a test of your own ? Attack power no longer increase Envenom damage so stacking agility is useless. Assassins doesn’t need phisical damage,crit or dodge but haste and spell hit. Assassination rogues need spell damage obtained from mastery instead phisical damage obtained from agility. 5% agility when wearing leather in all slots with full agility sockets will give you – a poor – app 3% dodge and 2.5% critical. Useless. Instead, geming with mastery will give you increased spell damage wich count on Deadly poisons, Venomous Wound and finally Envenom.
Try it for yourself and see the diference. :>
I think you’re talking about PvP, so this guide probably isn’t optimal for you – it’s PvE focussed.
However – Assassination rogues don’t just do damage from Envenom. AP boosts white damage, Backstab and Mutilate damage, which is likely to be more damage than we do with poisons. I checked a couple of recent logs on World of Logs, and top Assassination rogues are doing around 40% poison damage, 60% non-poison damage.
In addition, at current damage levels two points of AP simply add more DPS than one point of Mastery. Remember, Mastery points add a TINY amount of additional damage – at level 85, each point of mastery increases your poison damage by approximately 0.015%.
Testing with Shadowcraft, swapping an epic Agi gem for an epic Mastery gem drops my DPS by a simmed 157 DPS.
If you really believe you’re right on this one, I strongly encourage you to download Simulationcraft and run some sims with all Agi gems and all Mastery gems. You’ll pretty rapidly see the difference.
i have stupid question: as i understand spell hit and hit rating is the same and hit rating is main reforging stat right? and this needed to not miss poisons?
That’s not a stupid question at all – and yes, you’re right. Hit rating is the same stat for melee and spells – you just need more of it for spells, and poisons are considered spells.
{ 3 trackbacks }