Assassination Rogue Guide for WoW Forever: Talents, Rotation and Raids

Assassination is the dagger and poison rogue, and the best-rated rogue spec for raids in our rankings. Mutilate is the generator, Seal Fate turns its crits into extra combo points, and the new Venom talent boosts your poisons for 6 seconds after every Shank. You need a dagger in each hand, and the spec only comes together late.

Talents and builds

The links open the talent calculator with the finished build, including why the points go where they go.

• Leveling: Assassination leveling (points 34/12/5). The calculator shows the point-by-point order below the tree.
• Raid: Assassination PvE (simulated) (points 31/19/1). The best simulated Mutilate setup for a two-minute boss fight on the reworked Rogue trees: Mutilate, Venom and Seal Fate for poison damage, with Precision from Combat.

Where it ranks

• PvE DPS (raid): Drops from A to B: the newest simulation says B, as do most lists since launch. Seal Fate and Venom carry the damage, Death Mark stores it for the finisher.
• PvP (battleground/open world): Drops from A to B: Cold Blood and Seal Fate give burst, but lists since launch mostly rate Assassination B or C. Only one older list says S.
• Leveling: B and C: good finishers, but little difference from Combat before the deep talents, and more downtime.

The tiers combine several tier lists and level-60 simulations. Raid logs only exist from 9 December, so treat this as a snapshot. Every spec side by side: rankings.

How the spec works

Mutilate hits with both weapons for 90% weapon damage plus 40, deals 20% more against poisoned targets and awards two combo points. It only works with two daggers. Deadly Poison keeps the target poisoned, Instant Poison alone doesn't.

Venom is passive: every Shank raises your poison damage by 30% and your poison application chance by 20% for 6 seconds. So you use Shank on cooldown, as long as it doesn't cap your energy. Seal Fate gives every crit from a combo-point ability an extra point at 3/3, Relentless Strikes has a 20% chance per combo point to refund 25 energy on finishers, and Ruthlessness adds a point after a finisher 60% of the time.

Single-target rotation

1. Open from Stealth with Garrote.
2. Keep Slice and Dice up. Refresh it when it drops, even with few points.
3. Shank when it won't cap your energy.
4. Eviscerate at five combo points. In both level-60 simulations it is your biggest single source of damage.
5. Mutilate as the builder.

Rupture isn't used, and Envenom doesn't exist. Assassination has no cleave: on packs you kill one mob after the other. Cold Blood guarantees a crit and belongs on a five-point Eviscerate; the linked raid build skips it, the leveling build takes it.

Stats and weapons

Hit up to 8% for special attacks against raid bosses comes first, 80 rating or 50 with 3/3 Precision from the Combat tree. Poisons share the same hit but need 17% against bosses, which makes hit worth more here than for any other rogue. After that: Agility, weapon damage, crit, haste. Fast daggers trigger more poisons. Instant Poison goes on the main hand, Deadly Poison on the off-hand, and since launch both scale about twice as much with attack power.

Common mistakes

• Mutilate at four combo points. It wastes a point and delays the finisher.
• Letting Slice and Dice drop.
• Shank at or near full energy.
• Gouge on a target with Deadly Poison. The next tick breaks it.
• Equipping anything but daggers and wondering why Mutilate is grey.

Leveling

Assassination is a weak leveling spec. Mutilate needs 30 points, so level 40 at the earliest, and until then you play with Sinister Strike or Backstab. The leveling build takes Venom at 32, Seal Fate at 37 and Mutilate at 42. Unless you really want to, level as Combat and respec at 60.

In raids

Assassination is the best-rated rogue spec for raids. One simulation puts it at the top of the rogues, the other second behind Combat. You bring Kick and, if asked, Expose Armor, which equals five stacks of Sunder Armor and adds nothing once a warrior keeps Sunder up. Feint now drops twice as much threat.

Further reading

• Rogue class guide: races, new abilities and every build of the class
• The other specs: Combat Rogue, Subtlety Rogue
• Raid comp planner: put your raid together and see which buffs are still missing
• Rogue talent calculator: plan your own build and share it as a link