Hey guys, my bad if there is a similar post on these forums already (I don’t check forums very often), but when I check them I always see a lot of assassination questions coming by. About gemming and what not. So I thought, i’ll make a guide for those who might find it helpful
Things you’ll find in this guide:
- Talents
- Glyphs
- Stats
- Gemming
- Reforging
- Enchants
- Weapons and Poisons
- Rotation
- Useful Macro
Talents
31/2/8
This is the spec to go with when you’re going to raid.
There are 2 points that can be used in a different way though. 1 talent point in Opportunity can be switched to Precision if you lack hit.
Amount of hit you need for spell hit cap:
3/3 Precision: 1127
2/3 Precision: 1332
The 2nd talent point is a filler point. You can put it wherever you want that you think is useful. Most people pick either Deadly Brew or Deadened Nerves. I personally prefer Deadly Brew as it can be very useful on boss fights with adds (like Omnotron).
Glyphs
Prime
The prime glyphs an Assass rogue needs are pretty basic, Since there are only about 4 Prime glyphs that are somewhat usefull. The way to go is:
Glyph of Backstab
Glyph of Rupture
Glyph of Mutilate
Another glyph a lot of people consider is Glyph of Vendetta instead of Glyph of Backstab. But Glyph of Backstab shows a higher DPS increase then Glyph of Vendetta does, so go with Glyph of Backstab. The 6 extra seconds on Vendetta are really not worth it. As soon a boss hits 35% health you switch to Backstab instead of Mutilate, which makes the glyph so awesome. Less energy cost -> more Backstabs.
Same reason for Glyph of Mutilate. Mutilate is your main skill from 100% to 35% health. So less energy cost -> more Mutilates.
Why Glyph of Rupture? Rupture is a very important skill in your rotation. You should always keep Rupture up on the boss. The 4 extra seconds the glyph gives just makes it easier to keep up the rotation and be able to maybe do an extra Envenom in between.
Major
There are a few different glyphs you can pick as Major Glyphs. The glyphs I use myself are:
Glyph of Feint
Glyph of Cloak of Shadows
Glyph of Sprint
Why these glyphs? I picked Glyph of Feint as the energy reduction from it can be extremely useful in some of the fights. Cause there are several fights where Feint can be very useful. Conclave of Wind, Maloriak, Chimearon, Nefarian, Al’akir etc. enough bosses where it can be useful to use. So the energy reduction on it is very nice.
Glyph of Cloak of Shadows is just personal choice. It also more useful on raid trash then it is on bosses though.
I picked Glyph of Sprint cause the 30% extra speed can be extremely useful on a lot of fights. A very nice example for this is Atramedes. When you get targeted by his breath in the air phase it can be very useful to have the extra speed as you’re able to kite his breath a bit longer.
2 other glyphs that can be useful:
Glyph of Tricks of the Trade
Glyph of Kick
Glyph of Tricks of the Trade makes your TotT cost no energy, but reduces the damage bonus with 5%. This is a slight DPS boost for yourself as you can spend that 15 energy on something else. Reason I don’t have this glyph myself is because I raid 25mans and we usually have 2-4 rogues in the raid, so we TotT each other for the bonus damage (which gets reduced with the glyph).
Reason I don’t have Glyph of Kick is because we always have several people assigned to interrupting in our raid so it’s not really needed for me personally.
Minor
Most useful Minor Glyph is the Safe Fall one. Beside that it’s totally up to what you prefer yourself =) Glyphs I use myself:
Glyph of Safe Fall
Glyph of Poisons
Glyph of Blurred Speed
Stats
EP Values
Agi 2.6
Yellow Hit 1.75
Spell Hit 1.4
Mastery 1.3
Haste 1.2
Expertise 1.1
Crit 0.9
White Hit 0.75
As you can see, the first 5 have the highest EP values. These are also the most important stats for an Assassination Rogue. Although Yellow and Spell hit are below Agi, Hit cap is the first thing you need to go for. Yellow hit cap is for your skills (like Mutilate), Spell hit cap is for your poisons.
Beside the hit cap your priority will be:
Agility -> Mastery -> Haste
Agility:
Gives Attack Power, and increases the damage done from all your damage dealing skills.
Mastery:
Increases the damage done by your poisons.
Haste:
Increases your Energy Regeneration and makes you auto attack faster.
A lot of people still wonder why Expertise is not important for Assassination atm. The reason for that is because Finishing moves that fail no longer take the full energy cost. If Envenom fails it only costs about 7 energy, instead of 35. 7 energy is such a small amount that it won’t screw up your rotation so easily.
Gemming
Red Sockets: Delicate Inferno Ruby
Yellow Sockets: Adept Ember Topaz
Blue Sockets: Glinting Demonseye
Gemming on socket color, assuming the socket bonus is nice…if not.. just gem Agi
Meta Socket: Agile Shadowspirit Diamond or Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond
The Agile meta is the best ofcourse. But the recipe for this meta gem is very rare so the gems can be very expensive on the AH (depends per server). So if you cant afford it, go for the Fleet meta.
Reforging
Crit and Expertise are the 2 stats you need to get rid of as much as you can.
Crit Expertise -> Reforge -> Master/Haste/Hit (if under capped)
Enchants
A list of enchants for all the gear pieces. (The list does not include Enchants from proffesions like the Ring enchants)
Head: Arcanum of the Ramkahen (Revered with Ramkahen - Uldum)
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal (Exalted with Therazane - Deepholm)
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Critical Strike
Chest: Enchant Chest - Mighty Stats
Bracers: Enchant Bracer - Speed
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Mastery
Legs: Dragonscale Leg Armor (Created with Leatherworking or can be bought on AH)
Feet: Enchant Boots - Major Agility
Weapons: Enchant Weapon - Hurricane
Or Enchant Weapon - Landslide if you can afford it. Don’t pick Landslide until you have an epic weapon though.
There are a few improvements for these enchants. Like for Chest, Cloak ,Bracers and Gloves. But just like Landslide these enchants require Maelstrom Crystals which are very expensive and hard to get. I wouldn’t bother with upgrading these gear pieces. The Landslide Enchant is the only expensive Enchant atm that is a lot better then the weaker version (Hurricane).
Weapons and Poisons
As an Assass Rogue you should go for a slow Main Hand and fast Off Hand dagger. The fast dagger is for more Poison procs. The slow dagger is for the higher Backstab damage.
Slow MH -> Instant Poison
Fast OH -> Deadly Poison
Rotation
Opener: Garrote
Main Skill: Mutilate 100%-35% and Backstab 35%-0%
Finisher: Envenom and Rupture
Buffs: Slice and Dice and Envenom buff
Cooldowns: Vendetta and Cold Blood
The rotation will be like this:
Garrote -> Mutilate -> Slice and Dice -> Mutilate till about 4-5 CPs. -> Rupture -> Mutilate till about 4-5 CPs -> Envenom.
Envenom will refresh the duration on Slice and Dice. And beside that it will also give you a buff:
Deadly Poison application chance increased by 15%.
Instant Poison application frequency increased by 75%.
The duration on this buff is short, but you should try to keep it up as much as you can.
Most important thing in your rotation: Never let Slice and Dice and Rupture drop. Both are very important to keep up.
Once your Rupture and Envenom buff are up (so also a fresh Slice and Dice) it’s time to pop your Vendetta. When this one is active you should also use your Cold Blood.
The rotation continues like that. Only change is at 35% where you swap Mutilate with Backstab.
When you’re on a boss encounter that requires target switching (like Theralion and Valiona) try to push in a few Combo Points on the current target. Once this switch happens you can Redirect those combo points to the new target and start of with a fresh Rupture.
If you see that ..for example..your Slice and Dice is going to drop, Envenom at the amount of combo points you have. Even if its just 1 combo point, Envenom. You will lose more DPS if you let Slice and Dice drop and need to “activate” it after again.
Useful Macro
I only use 1 macro in Dungeons/Raids but i find it extremely useful.
The TotT macro.
/cast [target=Awesumsauce] Tricks of the Trade
/w TotT on you!!!
The macro lets you TotT the person you name in the macro without losing target on the boss. So you can either put the tank in the macro or another Rogue for example.
If i missed something, feel free to reply. But i hope this guide was useful for some of you