Assassination Rogue DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities - The War Within Pre-Patch (2024)

Welcome to our Rotation page for Assassination Rogues. Here youwill find out more about your rotational priorities in both single-targetand multi-target situations, which you will apply in both Raiding and Mythic+scenarios.

If you are just starting, you might want to get more comfortable with yourAssassination Rogue by using a more simplified yet still effective build androtation. You can find out more about it in our Easy Mode section.

For information about Mythic+ as an Assassination Rogue and the rotation youneed to use in this content type, please refer to our Mythic+ page.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvPRotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.

Each of the sections below explain the rotation for different environments.Click the boxes to switch to the desired situation.

Assassination has a very long opener sequence that aims to maximize its 2-minuteburst potential.

1. Start from Stealth.
2. Cast Garrote.
3. Cast Echoing Reprimand.
4. Cast Rupture.
5. Cast Slice and Dice.
6. Cast Ambush and Mutilate until you are at 5+ CP.
7. Cast Envenom.

This is your set-up, followed by your cooldowns.

1. Cast Deathmark together with your DPS potion and your on-use trinket,if you have one. If you are the recipient of Power Infusion, ask for it here.
2. Cast Shiv and Thistle Tea.
3. Cast Kingsbane.
4. Use Mutilate and Ambush as builders.
5. Spam Envenom with 5+ CP.
6. Refresh Shiv when the first one ran out.
7. Use Vanish to re-apply empowered Garrote once it is 5.4 secor lower duration.

After your Kingsbane expires, your opener is finished, and you continuewith your regular rotation until the next Kingsbane window, a minute later.

• You will only ever cast Slice and Dice once per fight. You willnaturally maintain it whenever you cast Envenom as a regular part of yourrotation, thanks to Cut to the Chase.
• Optimal usage of finishers is at 5+ Combo Points, even with Deeper Stratagem.
• If Rupture is about to fall off, it can be reapplied with anynumber of Combo Points to maintain uptime. It is best to apply it with 5+Combo Points, however, for maximum Energy efficiency and rotationalfluidity.
• Sepsis will grant you two casts of free stealth-based abilities.These benefit from all talents, including Improved Garrote. You shouldalways use these casts on Garrote. You receive one free cast when usingSepsis, and one when Sepsis expires. You can use these for up to 10 seconds,and the goal is to cast one immediately after Sepsis, and one as late as possible,right before the Sepsis buff expires. This guarantees maximum empowered Garroteuptime.
• You will always want to sync Deathmark and Vanish onsingle-target, granting Improved Garrote damage bonuses to your Garroteduring Deathmark.
• Always hold and chain both charges of Shiv with Kingsbanewhen talented into it, to ensure the entire Kingsbane receives the bonus damage.
• When talented into Indiscriminate Carnage, you will want to makesure to use Improved Garrote empowered Garrotes to spread it to alltargets, and using maximum Combo Point Rupture as well.

Rogue Assassination 10.2 Class Set 2pc has no bearing on your rotational gameplay.

Rogue Assassination 10.2 Class Set 4pc requires you to clip your Envenoms.Envenom pandemics, so as long as the previous Envenom debuff is within the last30% of Envenoms duration, you can refresh it to maximize Envenom uptime whileensuring the highest benefit from the tier-set.

Your Lethal Poison should always be Deadly Poison and Amplifying Poison.

You have three choices for your non-lethal Poison, Crippling Poison, Atrophic Poison, and Numbing Poison. For raiding, you willwant to use Atrophic Poisonunless your raid wants you to slow a specific group of targets. ForMythic+, you will want to use the Poison that best suits your tank's needs.Crippling Poison allows your tank to more easily kite enemies,whereas Numbing Poison slows their attack speed instead, while Atrophic Poisonreduces the damage the group takes from enemy attacks and spells.

The damage buff from Improved Garrote is removed when you overwrite the bleed youempowered by re-applying an unempowered bleed. Therefore, it is best to let the DoT runits full duration before refreshing it.

Whenever casting Vanish, make sure to refresh Garrote.

When you refresh Rupture, Garrote, Crimson Tempest, Envenom or Slice and Dice before they expire, the remainingduration is added to the newly applied effect, up to 30% of the newly appliedbase duration. This mechanic is called "Pandemic."

Example — You can safely refresh a 5-Combo Point Rupture when ithas 7.2 seconds or less remaining because its base duration is 24 seconds. Deeper Stratagem allows for 6 Combo Point Ruptures, which last 28seconds. 6-Combo Point Ruptures can be refreshed safely when they have 8.4seconds or less remaining. With Sanguine Stratagem and 7 maximumCombo Points, this changes to 9.6 seconds.

Safe Pandemic refresh timing is based on the newly applied baseduration and not the original length of the effect. Therefore, a 2 ComboPoint Rupture can benefit from full Pandemic if it is refreshed by a 5-7Combo Point Rupture. We explain how to take advantage of this in the openingsequence later in the guide.

As an Assassination Rogue, many of your abilities require Energy to beutilized. Your baseline rate of Energyregeneration is 10 Energy per second. However, it is increased by:

• current Haste rating (Haste and Haste-enhancing buffs);
• the Venomous Wounds talent;
• the Venom Rush talent;
• the Dashing Scoundrel talent;
• the Thistle Tea active ability talent;
• the passive regeneration increase of Vigor.

Higher Energy regeneration allows for higher uptimes on Envenom, which awards much higher DPS over an extended encounter.

It is very important to avoid resource overflow. Capping Energy andovercapping Combo Points (unless caused by Seal Fate procs) is an egregious error.Special care should be taken to avoid wasting precious resources. "Pooling" higher levels ofEnergy, however, can be very beneficial (provided you do not overcap), as itallows you to store resources in anticipation of a window of burst damage.This can help reduce the patchiness of your debuff/buff uptimes, which willresult in more consistent and smoother damage output.

Combo Point generation is increased by Seal Fate, which causesyour critical hits with melee Combo generators to add Combo Points toyour target per critical hit. This means Mutilate can generateup to 4 Combo Points if the main hand and the off-hand both critically strike. Fan of Knives can generate the maximum number of Combo Points with asingle cast if it critically strikes 5 or more targets.You should never cast a Combo Point generator at or above 4 Combo Points,unless it is Garrote or Poisoned Knife (as neither ofthese benefits from Seal Fate). Do not use Poisoned Knife to reachmaximum Combo Points, unless you are out of range of the boss and in danger of hittingthe Energy cap.

It can be very beneficial to "pool" your Energy and Combo Points, whichinvolves auto-attacking while your Energy regenerates. The advantage thisprovides is variable, meaning that pooling does not always result in damagegained. Situations where pooling Energy and Combo Points is beneficialinclude:

• before the cooldown on Shiv recharges, to allow for immediate useand optimized burst;
• before an important add spawns, so you can apply as much instant pressureas possible;
• to assist with Envenom uptime, by clipping two Envenoms orfinishers so that the buff does not drop;
• An encounter-specific buff or damage phase is imminent.

Pooling Energy is not a magical DPS gain by itself. It allows you toslightly adjust the timing of your abilities so that you fit more attacksduring periods of increased damage (provided you can properly identify whensuch periods are going to happen).

Kingsbane is a new talent that applies a DoT effect that increasesin strength for every lethal poison application. It is incredibly powerful, andlarge parts of our burst will rely on maximizing its damage output.

Try to maintain a 100% Envenom and Shiv uptime during its entire debuff duration.

All Rogues have a solid number of defensive cooldowns, making them the bestcandidate for soaking required mechanics and dealing with heavy incomingdamage.

• Feint reduces AoE damage taken by 40% for 5 seconds for only 35Energy. When talented into Elusiveness, it also reduces all otherdamage by 20% and grants Evasion a 10% damage mitigation. This is oneof the most overpowered abilities in the game and a huge asset in fights withheavy raid damage.
• Cloak of Shadows provides magic immunity for 1 second, followedby 4 seconds where all spells will miss you. Cloak of Shadows has a variety ofuses, both pre-emptive and reactive, such as solo soaking mechanics or clearingdebuffs that would force you out of melee range.
• Evasion increases your Dodge chance by 100% for 10 seconds.This can be useful if you have to tank some adds or the boss for a fewseconds. In rare cases, it can be used to negate physical ranged attacks orspells.
• Cheat Death is a talent that allows you to escape lethal damageonce every 6 minutes. The damage cannot exceed more than twice your maximumhealth. Cheat Death is great for soaking mechanics that pierceimmunities and damage reductions, as it guarantees your survival. It is alsogreat for encounters with bursty damage that might take you by surprise, asyou get a free get-out-of-jail-free card at least once in the encounter.
• Crimson Vial provides a respectable amount of healing on a 30-secondcooldown.

Do not forget about this defensive toolkit, as it can be a major asset forboth individual and raid-wide survivability.