PVE TBC Assassination Rogue DPS Guide (Short)

Rogue Guide

Patch: 2.4.3

Author: Legacy-WoW

Welcome to our PVE Assassination Rogue DPS guide for WoW TBC. This guide will show you what you need to know to play an Assassination Rogue in dungeons and raids. This guide covers everything from talents to consumables. 

Talents

This is the standard Assassination build that most rogues run. It has 41 points in Assassination to get Mutilate which doesn’t leave a lot of room for customization.

The three main skills from the combat tree are Dual Wield Specialization, Precision and Improved Slice and Dice.

Two skills you should swap around would be Improved Poisons and Fleet Footed. If you have Enchant Boots – Cat’s Swiftness then you should be using Improved Poisons. If you instead choose Enchant Boots – Dexterity then you should take Fleet Footed. The movement speed caps out at 8% and does not stack. This makes it best to swap the talents around to maximize your DPS.

Gear

Daggers are your weapon of choice with Mutilate. You are looking for a slow main hand dagger, in the 1.7 to 1.9 speed range. Your offhand should be faster though, this will help your poisions apply more often.

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Relentless Earthstorm Diamond 
• Red: Delicate Crimson Spinel, Delicate Living Ruby 
• Blue: Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst, Shifting Nightseye (only 2 for meta)
• Yellow: Glinting Pyrestone, Glinting Noble Topaz

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear. 

• Head: Glyph of Ferocity
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Blade, Greater Inscription of Vengeance or Might of the Scourge
• Back: Enchant Cloak – Greater Agility 
• Chest: Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats 
• Bracers: Enchant Bracer – Assault
• Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Superior Agility 
• Legs: Nethercobra Leg Armor 
• Boots: Enchant Boots – Dexterity or Enchant Boots – Cat’s Swiftness 
• Weapons: Enchant Weapon – Mongoose 

If you pick up enchanting you can benefit from Enchant Ring – Stats or Enchant Ring – Striking on both rings.

Consumables

Below is a list of consumables which help in any raid.

• Potion: Haste Potion 
• Elixir: Elixir of Major Agility or Elixir of Demonslaying
• Flask: Flask of Relentless Assault 
• Food: Spicy Hot Talbuk, Warp Burger
• Other: Thistle Tea or Flame Cap
• Drums: Drums of Battle, Drums of Restoration

Professions

• Leatherworking – This is a great choice for feral druids. Allows you to craft useful gear all the way through. You also benefit from Leg enchants. You can also increase your raid utility by crafting Drums of Battle.
• Enchanting – Enchanting both of your rings will give you a boost plus you can save money enchanting your own gear.
• Jewelcrafting – Great gold making choice and you can make your own gems early on. Can also be used to make Figurine – Shadowsong Panther, Hard Khorium Band, and Hard Khorium Choker.
• Engineering – You can create Deathblow X11 Goggles and Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles, both of which are great. You can also Vanish once your party dies and then attempt to use Goblin Jumper Cables XL! 

Stat Priority

1. Expertise
2. Agility & Hit rating
3. Haste
4. Critical Strike 
5. Armor Pen

After getting Precision you need an additional 64 hit rating to hit your soft cap. Once soft capped hit rating drops down a little in the priority list.

Rotation

Mutilate rogues have a pretty simple rotation.

Open with Garrote applying the bleed.

Apply Slice and Dice with 3-5 combo points and keep applying it for the rest of the fight.

Apply Rupture, always using 5 combo points and keep this applied for the entire fight as well.

Use Mutilate as your main combo point generator.

You can also use Shiv to maintain Deadly Poison on the target. Only use Shiv when Deadly Poison is about to fall off.

Poisons

With a shaman, get Windfury Totem on your MH and Deadly Poison on your OH.

Without a shaman, use Instant poison on your MH and Deadly Poison on your OH.