WOTLK PVE Assassination rogue Guide

Rogue Guide

Patch: 3.3.5

Author: fappy

I’m Oneliner from Deathwing.
BIS Assassination GEAR: http://armory.warmane.com/character/…ecrown/summary
More Assassination gears:
http://armory.warmane.com/character/…ecrown/summary SCREENSHOT https://imgur.com/TTISVmc
Poisons
Mainhand(1.8 dagger): Instant Poison IX
Offhand(1.4 dagger): Deadly Poison VIII
Main dps comes from the poisons. It’s a must to get hit cap first for the poisons.

There is an 17% chance for a spell attack to miss a level 83 Boss.
(Poisons are regarded as spells!)
Your hit cap is 315.
If you wanna read more about rogue caps then click here.

Stat priority
1. Hit [315]
2. Expertise [26/26]
3. Haste [4k AP>Haste] Haste will become useful when you get to have over 4,000 AP.
4. Crit [Critical Strike Rating not Agility]

Stats Conversion

Rating	Conversion to 1%
Expertise	32.78998947
Hit	32.78998947
Spell Hit	26.23199272
Critical Strike	45.90598679
Haste	32.78998947
Armor Penetration	13.99572719
Agi to Crit	83.33333333

Items
Try to avoid armor penetration. Your main dps comes from poisons which are spells. Get trinkets with haste bonus. Items with bonuses like this Charge of the Eredar are the best and items with bonuses like this Chewed Leather Wristguards are the worst.

Talents

Assassination (51 points)

Tier 1

Malice (5/5) – Increases your Critical Strike chance by 5% (1 per point). This is a very powerful talent to be in a first tier, and that’s why this isn’t skipped by any Rogue, regardless of Spec.

Tier 2

Ruthlessness (3/3) – Gives your melee finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combat point to your target. Assassination rogues rely on fast generation of combo points rather than pure energy regen like Combat.

Puncturing Wounds (3/3) – Increases the critical strike chance of your backstab ability by 30% and the critical strike chance of your Mutilate ability by 15%. We’re taking this solely for the Mutilate crit.

Tier 3

Lethality (5/5) – Increases the critical strike damage bonus of all combo moves by 30%. This won’t improve our white DPS, but 30% on Mutilate is too huge to ignore.

Tier 4

Vile Poisons (3/3) – Increases the damage dealt by your poisons and Envenom ability by 20% and gives your poisons an additional 30% chance to resist dispel effects. As an Assassination Rogue, we’re always going to have poisons on both weapons (really, all rogues should), and Envenom is our main finishing move, as it will refresh Slice and Dice with a talent we’re taking later. Buffing the damage of both is a must.

Improved Poisons (5/5) – Increases the chance to apply Instant and Deadly Poison to your targets by 10%. We’re going to be using both of these poisons at all times. Poisoned targets take more damage from Mutilate, the poisons themselves, and it’s necessary to use Envenom.

Tier 5

Cold Blood (1/1) – When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next offensive ability by 100%. A guaranteed crit. Take it and use it as often as possible. I tend to save mine for 5 combo point envenoms, which can crit for 15k+.

Fleet Footed (2/2) – Reduces the duration of all movement impairing abilities by 30% and increases movement speed by 15%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects. Reducing the amount of time that you spend moving from target to target will increase your overall DPS. You can also get this from the foot enchant Tuskar’s Vitality. If you go that route, take these two points and place them elsewhere in the tree.

Tier 6

Seal Fate (5/5) – Your critical strikes from abilities that add combo points have a 100% chance to add an additional combo point(20% chance per point). Between talents, buffs and abilities, Mutilate is going to crit a fair number of times, so we’re taking this for much faster combo point generation.

Murder (2/2) – Increases all damage caused against Humanoid, Giant, Beast, and Dragonkin targets by 4% (2% per point). Unfortunately this doesn’t increase damage against undead, but we still see these types of mobs a lot in Wrath, so you’ll still get that 4% increase a fair amount of the time.

Tier 7

Overkill (1/1) – While stealthed and for 20 seconds after breaking stealth, you regenerate 30% more energy. As Combat, it makes sense to run around outside of stealth to start rotations, as opening with Sinister Strike is often the most efficient way to start combat. However, with this talent, it makes sense to open from Stealth whenever possible. This basically functions as a weaker version of Combat’s Adrenaline Rush. When killing trash, it’s generally available on every pull, and on bosses, you can use Vanish offensively to activate it multiple times in a fight.

Tier 8

Focused Attacks (3/3) – Your Melee critical strikes have a 100% chance to give you 2 Energy. You crit with your white hits more often than you think. This provides a much needed infusion of extra energy.

Find Weakness (3/3) – Offensive ability damage increased by 6%. This ability is a flat 6% increase on all damage abilities you use, so you should definitely take it.

Tier 9

Mutilate (1/1) – Instantly attacks with both weapons for and additional 181 with each weapon. Damage is increased by 20% against poisoned targets. Awards 2 combo points. You can’t be a true Assassination Rogue without taking this talent, as the tree is really built around it now. True it is expensive at 60 energy (unglyphed), but it does massive damage and awards 2 combo points (3 if it crits).

Master Poisoner (3/3) – Increases the critical hit chance of all attacks made against any target you have poisoned by 3%, reduces the duration of all poison effects applied to you by 50% and increases the bonus chance to apply Deadly Poison when Envenom is used by 45%. The raid wide critical buff is nice, but a ret paladin will also provide the same buff. The poison duration reduction is also nice but we’re taking this for the increased chance to apply deadly poison. Having this talent will pretty much guarantee that you have 5 stacks up almost all the time. If you do roll with a Ret Paladin and want to take Turn the tables on the other side of this tier, that’s cool too.

Tier 10

Cut to the Chase (5/5) – Your Eviscerate and envenom abilities have a 100% chance to refresh your Slice and Dice to its 5 combo point maximum. This was one of the best improvements that Assassination got in Wrath. If you Envenom with 1 combo point, it not only does the Envenom damage, but you’ve just hit a 5 combo point Slice and Dice as well. The only caveat is that Slice and Dice must already be up first.

Tier 11

Hunger for Blood (1/1) – Enrages you, increasing all damage caused by 5%. Requires a bleed effect to be active on the target. Lasts 1 minute. We’ll be using Garrote and Rupture if needed, so there’s your bleed effect. This buff should be kept up at all times.

Originally Posted by taralej

Regarding reapplying Hunger for Blood, it is worth mentioning that MM hunter crits will also proc a bleed that can be used for that purpose.

Combat (13)

Dual Wield Specialization (5/5) – Increases the damage done by your offhand weapon by 50%. This is a buff to offhand damage, which includes the offhand damage from Mutilate. We’re taking it mainly to get deeper into the tree; plus, it’s a prereq for Close Quarters Combat.

Precision (5/5) – Increases your chance to hit with weapon and poison attacks by 5%. The hit penalty for dual wielding is simply too high for any PvE Rogue build to skip this talent.

Close Quarters Combat (5/5) – Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Daggers and Fist Weapons by 5%. because you’re using two daggers, you’ll get 5% extra crit on all direct damage you do.

Lightning Reflexes (3/3) Increases your Dodge chance by 6% and gives you 10% melee haste. The dodge is nice, but we’re mainly taking this for the haste buff. This will cause your Deadly Poison to proc more often, which will in turn increase your Instant Poison procs. Additionally, this means more white damage, and more Energy from Focused Attacks.

Subtlety (7)

Relentless Strikes (2/5) – Your finishing moves have a 8% per combo point to restore 25 Energy. A 40% chance to get free energy every time you use a 5 point finisher and a 32% chance with a 4 point finisher.

If you’re under 4,500 gs you would like to use these talents…

Glyphs
1. Glyph of Mutilate
2. Glyph of Hunger for Blood
3. Glyph of Tricks of the Trade with t10 2 set bonus
or Glyph of Fan of Knives without t10. Both glpyhs are optional if you wish to have more aoe dmg the get Fan of Knives.

Gems
Meta Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
Yellow Quick King’s Amber
Red Stark Ametrine if you’re under 4k AP then gem red sockets with Bright Cardinal Ruby
Blue Forceful Eye of Zul only when the socket bonus is with agility.
T9 geared rogues will benefit more from full AP gemming, and as they gain gear from ICC, Haste overcomes AP in EP and becomes the best stat. Why? Haste EP’s improves as your AP increases. Therefore, once you’re decked out in T10, you will benefit the most from mixing AP gems with Haste. AGI vs AP? The reason why you should never gem agility is because 1 agility equals to 1 AP, 0.012% Crit, and 0.024% dodge. It gives a little crit bonus (works on yellow and white hits, does not affect poisons) but it surely is not better than AP gem because poisons benefit from AP and Critical Strike Rating only.
At high gear levels, it is possible to run into crit cap issues – sometimes quite severely. Hence, it is not uncommon to need some hit both on gear and in sockets to mitigate this problem. This also makes crit (and to a lesser extent, agi) somewhat less desirable as a stat (as it means you need to socket more hit to cover it).

Professions
Engineering
Jewelcrafting

Enchants
Head: Arcanum of Torment
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Axe
Back: Formula: Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
Chest: Formula: Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
Wrist: Formula: Enchant Bracers – Greater Assault
Hands: Hyperspeed Accelerators
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
Feet: Formula: Enchant Boots – Greater Assault if you’re not hit caped then Scroll of Enchant Boots – Icewalker
Mainhand: Formula: Enchant Weapon – Berserking or if you’re with +6,5k gs then Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Black Magic
Offhand: Formula: Enchant Weapon – Berserking

Race
1. Troll Berserking
2. Night elf Shadowmeld Potion of Speed goes on cd.
3. Blood elf Arcane Torrent

Food
1. Elixir of Lightning Speed or Flask of Endless Rage
2. Baked Manta Ray

Enough of the build up….

This class is pretty awesome to play but pretty expensive if you want to get your dps to the top. It’s because you need a lot of Potion of Speed .

3 things you must know before reading the rotation section 😛
1. You need to keep up your Hunger For Blood (HFB) all the time(8% dps increase).
2. Keep up the Slice and Dice (SND). This part is easy because every time you cast Envenom your SND gets instantly back to maximum buff time which means you only need to apply this buff once at the start and never use it again when you’re in combat. This awesome thing comes from your talent tree called as Cut to the Chase .
3. Try to time your Envenom . Don’t spam it. Use this only when the last one runs out. Use Envenom only with 4 or 5 combo points.

Rotation
Close or hide recount for the fight! Less stress, more fun. It’s huge distraction (For example imagine yourself watching the recount, seeing you’re first with big numbers. But one moment you’re dropping down like to 6th place. From that moment you might start focusing more on recount than on your rotation. You might get discouraged and you might start to make mistakes).
Keep your eye on cooldowns, combo points and never let the energy to the maximum.

When there’s no warrior or druid in your party/raid then you have to use Garrote and Rupture to apply Hunger For Blood (works only with bleed effect).

I’ll use seconds for timing the skills you’ll have to use for the best rotation there is.

-2 seconds

Potion of Speed
Stealth

0 seconds

Hunger For Blood
Mutilate
Slice and Dice

2 seconds

Mutilate use it twice if needed to get 4 or 5 combo points
Because you have all your trinkets and abilities on proc at start. You’re with highest ap at start always.
Envenom
This is basicly all what you do from start to the end of the fight.

60 seconds

Hunger For Blood
Potion of Speed
Vanish

120 seconds

Hunger For Blood
Potion of Speed
Night elf can use Shadowmeld here.

Without warrior or feral kitty

Spoiler: Show

-2 seconds

Potion of Speed
Stealth

0 seconds

Garrote
Hunger For Blood
Mutilate
Slice and Dice

2 seconds

Mutilate use it twice if needed to get 4 or 5 combo points
Because you have all your trinkets and abilities on proc at start. You’re with highest ap at start always.
Envenom
This basicly all what you do from start to the end of the fight.

60 seconds

Rupture
Hunger For Blood
Potion of Speed
Vanish

120 seconds

Rupture
Hunger For Blood
Potion of Speed
Night elf can use Shadowmeld here.

Lists are starting with BiS
Trinkets
Tiny Abomination in a Jar
Sharpened Twilight Scale
Herkuml War Token
Comet’s Trail
Shard of the Crystal Heart
Tears of Bitter Anguish
Mark of Norgannon
Embrace of the Spider
The Egg of Mortal Essence

Head
Geistlord’s Punishment Sack
Discarded Bag of Entrails
Garona’s Helmet of Triumph
Frayed Scoundrel’s Cap
Conqueror’s Terrorblade Helmet
Hood of the Exodus
Helm of the Vast Legions

Neck
Sindragosa’s Cruel Claw
Charge of the Demon Lord
Baltharus’ Gift
Sindragosa’s Cruel Claw
Wodin’s Lucky Necklace
Nymph Heart Charm
Choker of the Abyss
Barbed Ymirheim Choker
Fool’s Trial

Shoulder
Cultist’s Bloodsoaked Spaulders
Sanctified Shadowblade Pauldrons
Shoulderpads of the Snow Bandit
Bewildering Shoulderpads
Spaulders of Egotism

Back
Shadowvault Slayer’s Cloak
Cloak of the Untamed Predator
Drape of Icy Intent
Drape of the Deadly Foe
Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak
Ice Striker’s Cloak

Chest
Ikfirus’s Sack of Wonder
Garona’s Breastplate of Triumph
Cuirass of Calamitous Fate
Chestguard of the Frigid Noose
Blackened Geist Ribs
Conqueror’s Terrorblade Breastplate
Tunic of Indulgence
Tunic of Dislocation

Wrist
Umbrage Armbands
Vambraces of the Frost Wyrm Queen
Armbands of Dark Determination
Mechanist’s Bindings
Sinner’s Bindings
Solar Bindings
Bracers of Swift Death
Thrusting Bands
Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands
Wristwraps of the Cutthroat

Hands
Sanctified Shadowblade Gauntlets
Garona’s Gauntlets of Triumph
Frosted Adroit Handguards
Gloves of the Blind Stalker
Aldriana’s Gloves of Secrecy
Gloves of Smoldering Touch
Gloves of Fast Reactions
Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets

Waist
Astrylian’s Sutured Cinch
Belt of the Merciless Killer
Soulthief’s Braided Belt
Vengeful Noose
Waistguard of the Creator
Flayer’s Black Belt
Nimble Climber’s Belt
Belt of the Tortured
Stalk-Skin Belt
Batrider’s Cord

Legs
Sanctified Shadowblade Legplates
Plague-Soaked Leather Leggings
Leggings of the Broken Beast
Fleshwerk Leggings
Leggings of Wavering Shadow
Leggings of Fleeting Moments
Gored Hide Legguards

Feet
Frostbitten Fur Boots
Footpads of Impending Death
Flamestalker Boots
Icewalker Treads
Treads of the Invader
Footwraps of Vile Deceit
Boots of Captain Ellis
Acidmaw Treads
Boots of the Neverending Path

Ring
Signet of Twilight
Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance
Band of the Bone Colossus
Seal of the Twilight Queen
Band of Callous Aggression
Etched Band of the Kirin Tor
Band of Draconic Guile

Mainhand
Heaven’s Fall, Kryss of a Thousand Lies
Rib Spreader
Bloodsipper
Gouge of the Frigid Heart
Fang of Oblivion
Blood Weeper
Heartshiver

Offhand
Lungbreaker
Flesh-Carving Scalpel
Stygian Bladebreaker
Orcish Deathblade
Bladetwister
Dirk of the Night Watch
Krick’s Beetle Stabber

Thrown
Fal’inrush, Defender of Quel’thalas
Shrapnel Star
Gluth’s Fetching Knife
Papa’s Brand New Knife

(If I missed anything from this list or something is wrong then let me know:P)

Lordaeon BIS list

Originally Posted by gad777x

BiS List for Assassination Rogue T7: Engineering/JC

Main Hand – Webbed Death
Off Hand – Webbed Death
Ranged – Envoy of Mortality
Head – Valorous Bonescythe Helmet
Neck – Favor of the Dragon Queen
Shoulder – Valorous Bonescythe Pauldrons
Back – Drape of the Deadly Foe
Chest – Valorous Bonescythe Breastplate
Wrist – Sinner’s Bindings
Hands – Frosted Adroit Handguards
Waist – Belt of the Tortured
Legs – Valorous Bonescythe Legplates
Feet – Footwraps of Vile Deceit alliance/ Dawnwalkers horde
Ring 1 – Surge Needle Ring
Ring 2 – Strong-Handed Ring
Trinket 1 – Fury of the Five Flights
Trinket 2 – Darkmoon Card: Greatness

Trinket 3- Mark of Norgannon really good on some fights as well, but you need to regem or carry with you 2 parts of the same gear with ap instead of exp gems. (os +3d ->)

gem 20 agi in all free slots,32 ap if you cant afford. JC-2expertise 1ap JC gems alliance/3exp gems as horde

T8 Pre-Hardmode Assassination Bis List: Engineering/JC

Main Hand – Daschal’s Bite
Off Hand – Golem-Shard Sticker
Ranged – Siren’s Cry
Head – Guise of the Midgard Serpent
Neck – Favor of the Dragon Queen
Shoulder – Conqueror’s Terrorblade Pauldrons
Back – Drape of the Deadly Foe
Chest – Chestguard of the Recluse
Wrist – Mechanist’s Bindings
Hands – Conqueror’s Terrorblade Gauntlets
Waist – Death-warmed Belt
Legs – Conqueror’s Terrorblade Legplates
Feet – Footpads of Silence
Ring 1 – Metallic Loop of the Sufferer
Ring 2 – Etched Band of the Kirin Tor
Trinket 1 – Blood of the Old God
Trinket 2 – Darkmoon Card: Greatness

T8 Assassination Bis List: Engineering/JC

Main Hand – Fang of Oblivion
Off Hand – Bladetwister
Ranged – Siren’s Cry
Head – Conqueror’s Terrorblade Helmet
Neck – Pendulum of Infinity
Shoulder – Shoulderpads of the Intruder
Back – Drape of Icy Intent
Chest – Embrace of the Gladiator
Wrist – Solar Bindings
Hands – Conqueror’s Terrorblade Gauntlets
Waist – Soul-Devouring Cinch
Legs – Legguards of Cunning Deception
Feet – Footpads of Silence
Ring 1 – Godbane Signet
Ring 2 – Brann’s Signet Ring
Trinket 1 – Blood of the Old God
Trinket 2 – Comet’s Trail

List made by: [H] Vast <Memories>

Originally Posted by Spatter

Little update.

I’ve done some testing on PTR as I was attempting to find out what weapons would give better results. Since I was already there I ran a set with your proposed BiS list to see what the difference was. To make it somewhat consistent I ran with 2 million damage intervals, self bleeding, and absolutely zero external buffs. I assumed that as per chemical titration, 4 attempts at testing were sufficient. Here are the results:

Your BiS list:
Attempt 1: 3669 DPS
Attempt 2: 3599 DPS
Attempt 3: 3619 DPS
Attempt 4: 3641 DPS

Average: 3632 DPS

My BiS list with 2x :
Attempt 1: 3874 DPS
Attempt 2: 3921 DPS
Attempt 3: 3869 DPS
Attempt 4: 3901 DPS

Average: 3891.3 DPS

My BiS list with 1x and Webbed Death :
Attempt 1: 3813 DPS
Attempt 2: 3809 DPS
Attempt 3: 3789 DPS
Attempt 4: 3796 DPS

Average: 3801.8 DPS

My BiS list with 1x and Murder :
Attempt 1: 3328 DPS
Attempt 2: 3543 DPS
Attempt 3: 3467 DPS
Attempt 4: 3497 DPS

Average: 3458.8 DPS

Discussion: I had a feeling in the back of my head that using two would be better, but never tested it. Now that I have it seems to be yielding better results. Our 2nd rogue managed to get his hands on two of these bad boys and has greatly improved his DPS. 16k on Thaddius was quite a shock.

Conclusion: Have any rogues parsed 8k on Patch? Not quite. However, in the same raid you manage to do less on other bosses than us. Excuses aside, if you want somebody to accept your results as valid, consistency is vital. I am also quite sure that the numbers above, as well as in our logs, will not convince you of anything. How could they? When I ignored all-so-important secondary stats… Feel free to test it yourselves. As for “your” list, it has just been posted in the most viewed assassination rogue thread, which in a few months will be completely obsolete and we can begin this dance once more. 🙂 So if the stupid want to be lead by the blind, who am I to stop them. As far as I am concerned, my input here has concluded.

Your attention was very much appreciated 🙂

Best of luck in your future endevours

Macros
Mutilate with autoattack.

Spoiler: Hide

#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Mutilate

Really simple ToTT macro, no need to worry where’s the tank.

Spoiler: Hide

#showtooltip Tricks of the Trade
/cast [@targettarget] Tricks of the Trade

Poisons on the skillbar slot 16 is mh and 17 oh.

Spoiler: Hide

#showtooltip
/use Deadly Poison
/use 17

Spoiler: Hide

#showtooltip
/use Instant Poison
/use 16

Vanish & autoattack.

Spoiler: Hide

/cast Vanish
/startattack

Poweraura
Will update soon…
I suggest to download poweraura addon so you can track your skills. I will upload the codes when I can.
This is a guide for maximum dps. I didn’t make any expetions for it.