Assassination Rogue DPS PVE Guide – WotLK

Welcome to the PVE Assassination Rogue DPS Guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King!

This guide will teach you how to play an Assassination Rogue in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

The first build provides more Energy regeneration which is useful when constantly changing targets. Keep in mind that you can also swap points into Vigor for more effective target-swapping.

The second build is for focusing on single targets. It will increase your haste, thus increasing poison procs, which results in more damage in the long-run.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Hunger for Blood
• Glyph of Tricks of the Trade
• Glyph of Mutilate

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Distract
• Glyph of Vanish
• Glyph of Safe Fall

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
• Red: Stark Ametrine, Bright Cardinal Ruby, Precise Cardinal Ruby
• Yellow: Quick King’s Amber, Rigid King’s Amber
• Blue: Nightmare Tear x1, or Forceful Eye of Zul for a good socket bonus.

• Head – Arcanum of Torment
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Axe
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracers – Greater Assault
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Crusher
• Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs – Icescale Leg Armor
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Icewalker
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Berserking for both weapons

Assassination Rogue uses daggers. Main hand – 1.8 with Instant Poison IX. Offhand – 1.4 with Deadly Poison IX

Open up from Stealth with a Garrote or Ambush, if someone else applies the bleed. Use Hunger For Blood and use that 1 combo point to activate Slice and Dice. Get 4-5 Combo Points using Mutilate and use the main finisher move – Envenom. Slice and Dice will be renewed thanks to our talents.

Keep up your Hunger For Blood and use Mutilate with Envenom. 20 Seconds after the fight use your Vanish to trigger Overkill. Use Vanish and Cold Blood on cooldown.

Cold Blood is used only on Envenom.

Important: Envenom gives you a buff, that procs Instant poison 75% more often and increases Deadly Poison chances by 15%. After Envenom try landing 1-2 Mutilate and Envenom again. The main thing here is to have the Envenom buff at all time. This will increase your damage a lot!

Stat Priority

1. Hit
2. Expertise
3. Attack Power & Haste
4. Critical Strike Rating

Mutilate Rogues require 17% of spell Hit because the primary damage comes from poisons (spell damage). To obtain 17%, we need 12% from gear (315 hit rating) + 5/5 Precision. [26.23 hit rating = 1% spell hit]

Dual-wielding requires a significant amount of hit rating to never miss a melee attack. It is unobtainable without sacrificing other crucial stats. The 315 Hit rating + Precision mentioned above will provide 9.6% + 5% of melee Hit [32.79 hit rating = 1% melee hit].
That being said, having an increased amount of Hit in late-game isn’t the worst idea since it gives an increase in DPS.

A standard 26 Expertise is required to remove the possibility of dodged attacks.

It is crucial to have a combination of both Attack Power and Haste, as they are the main stats for this spec. Haste synergizes with other stats and starts to be the superior stat after you have approximately 4k Attack Power.
Critical Strike Rating is an excellent secondary stat for Mutilate Rogue, but it’s best to acquire it passively through gear upgrades.