Originally Posted by
Sorzzara
Hello there as well.
Rotation is about the same except you no longer need to start with garrote (since VW procs only from either rupture or garrote), thereby removing the need to begin a fight stealthed. (Yes, Overkill is also gone, to prevent Preparation being mandatory talent choice for Assassination), we still have Cut to the Chase, so its only a matter of keeping up Rupture, not wasting CPs and avoid overlapping Envenom-Buff as good as possible. Btw. the moment you choose Assassination as your spec, Eviscerate is gone and replaced completely by Envenom.
The new element is Dispatch, a Backstab-ish strike that becomes available once the target falls below 35% health, and can be considered our execute-phase CP-Generator...same as Backstab except its cheaper and has no positional requirement. And to beef up our rotation a little bit (lets face it, above 35% things are pretty boring), there is a 30% chance on every mutilate to proc "Blindside", enabling one free Dispatch (no energy cost) regardless of target health, so thats pretty neat.
Another thing is that with the merge of Instant and Deadly poison into the new Deadly Poison, and removal of DP Stacks, Assassinations Ramp-Up-Time has been reduced considerably, removing the need for an early Envenom. Further buffing things up, Exp now also gives Spell hit, making it much easier to reach the spellhit cap, and Poison now crits with our melee-crit chance, which will further improve assassinations dmg output.
Target switching, the biggest issue with Assassination since...ever...has been made easier with versatility and the removal of DP stacks. (To clarify, DP still puts a DoT on the target, but does not stack anymore)
Stat weights stay about the same, mastery still trumps haste by a small margin, Agi is > all and meleehitcap and expertise cap are of equal importance. Crit and whitehit are our least important stats, however the value of crit goes up a little with the poison changes.
Assassination always had the best Rogue AoE on 5+mob packs, with the removal of DP stacks, Poison Merge, FoK giving CPs and the new Crimson Tempest AoE finisher, these numbers can only go up.
So to summarize things, assassination is clearly a specc to be considered in MoP, I for one hope it trumps, or is at least equal to, combat and sub, since I enjoy the playstyle.
PvP wise, the rogue will have a hard time, as with every new xpac, expect a lot of whining here. The monk is a completely new class, saying its the better version of (enter class here) is plain stupid.