Is Assassination still viable at 90?

[DakonBlackblade]

In high gear (and considering you have an Assurance of Consequences) Combat pretty much blows anything else out of the watter and Assas lags behind. In lower gear (normal SoG or less) Assas is definetly comparable with the other 2 specs. And Sub is just Sub, half the fights it doesnt realy work the other half theres some kind of cleave mechanic that strongly favors Combat anyway.

[Sicarius87]

Okay, well I actually joined a new 25m guild this afternoon, running with 2 other rogues, one of whom is combat, and one is assassination, and the assassination rogue is pulling higher numbers, and they're much in the same gear. I've gone with assassination and I'm on par with the combat rogue, and I don't feel I'm letting anyone down with the numbers, so I'll be sticking with mut as I enjoy it far better

Thanks everyone for the input

Im assassination and I always pull higher numbers than a combat rogue with an equivalent item level. (outside of aoe). So Im not sure why everyone thinks combat is so godly and assassination is shit.

[Larinnian]

Im assassination and I always pull higher numbers than a combat rogue with an equivalent item level. (outside of aoe). So Im not sure why everyone thinks combat is so godly and assassination is shit.

I too wonder this.

[Ryme]

Im assassination and I always pull higher numbers than a combat rogue with an equivalent item level. (outside of aoe). So Im not sure why everyone thinks combat is so godly and assassination is shit.

Maths, simulation and experimentation - to be totally fair, that last one is a little lacking. Also not shit, just behind.

[Miko]

Im assassination and I always pull higher numbers than a combat rogue with an equivalent item level. (outside of aoe). So Im not sure why everyone thinks combat is so godly and assassination is shit.

It's gear and how it scales with combat, mostly the AoC heroic WF to me seems the be the biggest issue. Combat is a good 100k dps over Assassination on almost all 25m Heroic fights. Add in the fact you can cleave on demand /w burst for that cleave just makes it the top spec for SoO. Not saying that Sub or Assassination isn't viable, but based purely on dps Combat is the place to go for dps and burst dps largely due to the big ilvl boost and what SoO heroic was actually tuned for.

The way gear scales and how long fights last and what CDs you are able to use on any given fight play a lot into how actually dps is measured.

[Fiska]

Im assassination and I always pull higher numbers than a combat rogue with an equivalent item level. (outside of aoe). So Im not sure why everyone thinks combat is so godly and assassination is shit.

If something is ~5% weaker, then the consensus seems to become "it's shit". Assassination has lower dps potential than Combat, especially on encounters where Blade Flurry shines, but unless you're in a bleeding edge guild it really doesn't matter in my opinion. I always try advocating that players should play the spec they enjoy.

[Sesshou]

Im assassination and I always pull higher numbers than a combat rogue with an equivalent item level. (outside of aoe). So Im not sure why everyone thinks combat is so godly and assassination is shit.

Who said it was shit? Viable or not is just a personal opinion on how far from optimal is acceptable. I don't think I saw anyone suggest it was far enough behind to qualify as 'shit'.

And even if assassination did match combat on ST, hardly anything is ST. If anything, that is why assassination wouldn't be viable.

[Maelstrom51]

Im assassination and I always pull higher numbers than a combat rogue with an equivalent item level. (outside of aoe). So Im not sure why everyone thinks combat is so godly and assassination is shit.

Competing against worse players does not make a spec viable.

An equally geared, equally skilled combat player should never be below assassination on single target damage unless we're talking bottom of the barrel with no AoC and very low skill.

[Warstar]

Competing against worse players does not make a spec viable.

An equally geared, equally skilled combat player should never be below assassination on single target damage unless we're talking bottom of the barrel with no AoC and very low skill.

Pretty much this. Most people run into the fallacy of thinking that they're a super awesome player and that the spec they play they some how make it work better than the hundreds of other people who say other wise. Unless you raid in one of the top end heroic guilds and are competing against very skilled players more than likely you're raiding with a bunch of mouth breathers who suck really bad so comparatively when you look at recount/skada you see yourself way better than them and think that that means that you solved the internet and some how made a bad spec awesome.

[Zale]

Assassination is just fine. But if they are wanting you to maximize your potential (and are giving you justifiable reason to do it), the other two specs perform better. They are, however, substantially harder to get right. So you need to be able to justify the extra effort.

[jtstormrage]

It really depends on the fight.

On Immerseus HC, Assassination is clearly best. You can do massive AOE damage on the adds (especially on 25 man).

It is the best spec on Garrosh if your raid needs output on parts 3 and 4 where Assassination really shines (the fight is all execute by that stage).

On some fights, Assassination is close to the other specs. On Juggernaut (the single target fight) it does comparable damage by the end of the fight (after execute with cds). It is also competitive on Nazgrim, Thok, Siegecrafter and Paragons (I find it very good on Thok where you can't Killing Spree during kite phase).

However, on fights where there is lots of cleave, Assassination is inferior to Combat by a long way (Protectors, Galakras, Spoils).

There are other fights where cleave is not a huge part of the fight, but Combat can do massive damage when it is possible to cleave (Sha during adds, Shamans at the start, Thok during bats, Siegecrafter during mines). Assassination really falls behind on those fights as well.

In summary, Assassination is ok, and it is certainly "viable". Combat is better overall (by a margin). Forget Sub - too much effort for very little reward.

PS you can optimise damage on add fights (Galakras and Spoils) as Assassination or Subtlety by using Marked for Death, which is very strong for those fights.

[Miko]

It really depends on the fight.

On Immerseus HC, Assassination is clearly best. You can do massive AOE damage on the adds (especially on 25 man).

It is the best spec on Garrosh if your raid needs output on parts 3 and 4 where Assassination really shines (the fight is all execute by that stage).

On some fights, Assassination is close to the other specs. On Juggernaut (the single target fight) it does comparable damage by the end of the fight (after execute with cds). It is also competitive on Nazgrim, Thok, Siegecrafter and Paragons (I find it very good on Thok where you can't Killing Spree during kite phase).

However, on fights where there is lots of cleave, Assassination is inferior to Combat by a long way (Protectors, Galakras, Spoils).

There are other fights where cleave is not a huge part of the fight, but Combat can do massive damage when it is possible to cleave (Sha during adds, Shamans at the start, Thok during bats, Siegecrafter during mines). Assassination really falls behind on those fights as well.

In summary, Assassination is ok, and it is certainly "viable". Combat is better overall (by a margin). Forget Sub - too much effort for very little reward.

PS you can optimise damage on add fights (Galakras and Spoils) as Assassination or Subtlety by using Marked for Death, which is very strong for those fights.

I don't know where you're getting these numbers, but Combat is ahead of Assassination on EVERY SoO fight. Like over 100k on Iron Jugg, when we got a 588 AoC Assassination fell way way behind.

[Sesshou]

It really depends on the fight.

On Immerseus HC, Assassination is clearly best. You can do massive AOE damage on the adds (especially on 25 man).

It is the best spec on Garrosh if your raid needs output on parts 3 and 4 where Assassination really shines (the fight is all execute by that stage).

That is just pointless padding on immerses. Those adds are not a threat and they will be murdered super fast by people that have ae naturally. Bf Ks gibs the oozes going to the boss which assassination is far worse at, and doing better at that part actually matters.

At this point, if you're stuck on p3 or p4 garrosh, it isn't going to matter if you have a tiny bit more execute damage. You know what the most important dps target n p3 is? mind controls where bf Ks is ludicrously good and assassination is garbage. Freeing your raid faster is easily more raid dps on garrosh than assassinations execute.

[Ryme]

Blade Flurry is nuts in the first transition which often serve as a barrier to groups working on Garrosh, saving a killing spree for that will melt your groups adds.