Assassination Rogue Guide — Class Guides · WoW Burning Crusade

Crits, poisons and stronger finishing moves.

A leather-wearing melee fighter who builds combo points with Energy and spends them on finishing moves. Rogues open from stealth, stun and blind enemies, and poison their weapons. More about the rogue

Class: Rogue
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Player versus player
Top talent: Mutilate
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Burning Crusade

How to play

Assassination in The Burning Crusade is built on Mutilate, which strikes with both daggers and adds two combo points, and Envenom, which spends combo points and consumes Deadly Poison doses for big nature damage. Seal Fate, Cold Blood and Find Weakness boost your crits and finishers.

Mutilate needs a dagger in each hand and has to be used from behind. Keep Slice and Dice up, Mutilate to four or five points, and spend them on Envenom or Rupture while Deadly Poison stays stacked on the target.

Mutilate rogues are strong in raids with a good pair of daggers and in arenas, where Cold Blood and Mutilate kill fast.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Burning Crusade.

Rotation and priorities

1Slice and Dice first, and keep it up.
2Mutilate from behind to build combo points.
3Envenom at four or five points while Deadly Poison is stacked; Rupture on long fights.
4Cold Blood before a big Envenom or Eviscerate.
5Feint to manage threat; Kick casts.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Very high burst with Mutilate and Cold Blood.
Two combo points per Mutilate.
Strong in raids and arenas.

Weaknesses

Needs two good daggers.
Mutilate only works from behind.
Little area damage.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Hitto 142 rating, less Precision
2
Agility
3
Attack power
4
Critical strikefeeds Seal Fate
5
Haste
6
Expertise

What to look for

Two daggers with high damage: Mutilate strikes with both.
Deadly Poison on one weapon and Instant Poison on the other.
Agility and hit gems.

Items worth chasing

The Night BladeA raid dagger that lowers the target's armour.
Dragonspine TrophyAttack power and a haste proc in a trinket.
Bloodlust BroochA burst of attack power on use.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Assassination
Combat
Subtlety

Mutilate Poisoner
DamagePvE
4120
41/20/0
Dagger Assassination: Mutilate hits with both daggers, Seal Fate turns its crits into combo points, and Find Weakness and Vile Poisons boost finishers and poisons.
- Cold Blood 1/1
- Seal Fate 5/5
- Vigor 1/1
- Find Weakness 5/5
- Mutilate 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Cold Blood Mutilator
DamagePvP
4417
44/0/17
Mutilate for arenas: Cold Blood into a guaranteed critical finisher, Seal Fate for fast combo points, Improved Kidney Shot for longer stuns and Subtlety's Elusiveness for escapes.
- Cold Blood 1/1
- Seal Fate 5/5
- Vigor 1/1
- Find Weakness 5/5
- Mutilate 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Mutilate · top talent, up to 1
Instantly attacks with both weapons for an additional 44 with each weapon. Damage is increased by 50% against Poisoned targets. Must be behind the target. Awards 2 combo points.
Vile Poisons · tier 4, up to 5
Increases the damage dealt by your poisons and Envenom ability by 20% and gives your poisons an additional 40% chance to resist dispel effects.
Fleet Footed · tier 5, up to 2
Increases your chance to resist movement impairing effects by 10% and increases your movement speed by 15%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
Cold Blood · tier 5, up to 1
When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next offensive ability by 100%.
Improved Kidney Shot · tier 5, up to 3
While affected by your Kidney Shot ability, the target receives an additional 9% damage from all sources.
Quick Recovery · tier 5, up to 2
All healing effects on you are increased by 20%. In addition, your finishing moves cost 80% less Energy when they fail to hit.
Seal Fate · tier 6, up to 5
Your critical strikes from abilities that add combo points have a 100% chance to add an additional combo point.
Master Poisoner · tier 6, up to 2
Reduces the chance your poisons will be resisted by 10% and increases your chance to resist Poison effects by an additional 30%.
Vigor · tier 7, up to 1
Increases your maximum Energy by 10.
Find Weakness · tier 8, up to 5
Your finishing moves increase the damage of all your offensive abilities by 10% for 10 sec.

Assassination abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.