It’s patch time! And Assassination Rogues are right in the middle of the pack – we’ve not changed totally since Mists of Pandaria, but we’re not quite the same either. We’ll get you up to speed with the new glyphs and talents, your stats, reforging and gems, and your new rotation in MoP / WoW Patch 5.3, so you can get back to stabbing things ASAP – no walls of text required!
Updated 22nd May 2013 to World of Warcraft Patch 5.3
Assassination Rogue changes in 5.3
No significant PvE changes.
Assassination / Mutilate “Rotation” and Priorities
Our rotation has gotten a bit simpler, but not much has changed. Biggest change – we no longer have to be behind anything to use our below-35% ability, Dispatch!
Single-target DPS as Assassination
Open from Stealth. Use Mutilate, and immediately start Slice and Dice. From there:
From here:
- If you don’t have any combo points: Use Mutilate unless the boss is below 35% or unless the Blindside buff has become active, in which case use Dispatch.
- 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 Dispatch 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).
Also – remember, you have Kick (interrupt) and Feint (AOE protection). Do use these! A dead rogue can’t do DPS.
AOE DPS as Assassination
Don’t use this rotation unless there are at least 4 enemies close at hand.
Spam Fan of Knives up to 5 Combo Points, then use Crimson Tempest. Repeat.
Cooldowns
- Vendetta Use this on cooldown unless you expect to have to stop attacking in the next 30 seconds.
- Shadow Blades Use on cooldown.
- Vanish Still a DPS cooldown, albeit a minor one. Use on cooldown followed by Mutilate unless you expect to need it for survival.
- Cloak of Shadows Powerful magic damage reduction cooldown – particularly useful for getting rid of dangerous effects. Now works 100% of the time!
- Dismantle – Situationally useful, but don’t forget about it! Any time a monster or boss can be disarmed, this is very powerful.
- Tricks of the Trade – Boosts damage and transfers threat. Use it on the tank at the pull, and whenever it’s available.
- Preparation – Resets the cooldowns on a number of your abilities, notably Vanish. You can use this to perform a double Vanish-Mutilate-Vanish-Mutilate at the start of a fight.
You can also “Tricks Swap” with another rogue to boost both your DPS – but don’t do that without discussing it with your tank and raid leader first.
Buffs
Use Deadly Poison.
Assassination Rogue Talent Choices
Most Rogue talents are PvP focussed, to be completely honest. However, here is a good basic build. Experiment to find your own preferences, though, particularly on Tier 4!
- Tier 1: Shadow Focus
- Tier 2: Combat Readiness – gives you another powerful defensive cooldown.
- Tier 3: Cheat Death
- Tier 4: Shadowstep – great mobility spell with a very short cooldown.
- Tier 5: Dirty Tricks
- Tier 6: Anticipation
Stats, reforging and gemming for Assassination Rogue
Our Hit priorities have changed – poisons are now off melee hit – but other than that, not much has altered.
Priorities: Agility > Expertise and Hit to the caps (7.5% / 2550 rating) > Mastery > Haste > Critical Strike
Reforging: Reforge for Expertise and Hit to the caps, then reforge everything else to Mastery. Reforge from excess Hit and Expertise first, then Crit, then Haste.
Gems: Delicate (Agility) gems in red sockets and sockets with a less than 10 Agi bonus. Adept (Mastery/Agi) in yellow sockets and Glinting (Hit/Agi) in blue sockets otherwise.
Meta Gem: Agile meta gem.
Mutilate / Assassination Glyphs
Glyphs are much more situational now, so choose your favourites, although Glyph of Vendetta is a must. Here’s a good basic setup:
Major: Glyph of Vendetta, Glyph of Cloak of Shadows, Glyph of Feint
Minor: Whatever you like. Glyph of Poisons and Glyph of Blurred Speed are both nice.
Assassination Rogue enchants and item enhancements
You should almost always use a profession enhancement item if it provides appropriate stats instead of a general enchant.
- Shoulder – Greater Tiger Claw Inscription
- Cloak – Accuracy or Superior Critical Strike, depending on if you’re at hit cap.
- Chest – Glorious Stats
- Wrist – Greater Agility
- Hands – Superior Expertise
- Belt – Living Steel Belt Buckle
- Legs – Shadowleather Leg Armor
- Feet – Blurred Speed
- Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Dancing Steel
Links
Assassination Rogue guides are a bit thin on the ground at present:
- The Icy Veins Assassination Rogue guide is solid, although gems and enchants aren’t updated yet.
- The always excellent PvE Rogues has a good guide to Rogue glyphs
- And Tikari has a general rogue guide to 5.2
- You should really check out the latest and greatest from the blogosphere on World of Warcraft, here at the Melting Pot.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
My main has been my rogue since vanilla, and this is an absolutely excellent guide for new rogues. I hope that every new rogue that reads this appreciates the time you took to compile this guide.
Talent choices now, however, are really about the style you want to play… I like what Blizzard did there…
I think Preparation in tier 4 will be the default choice, as it resets the cooldown of Vanish (which you can use to grant yourself a cast Mutilate with no Energy cost) and of several survival cooldowns.
I realy like your guides.