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Assassination Rogue Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

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
Top talent
Hunger For Blood
Popular builds
1
Version
WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Assassination in Wrath is a poison spec: Hunger for Blood raises your damage while the target bleeds, Overkill and Master Poisoner add Energy and poison damage, and Cut to the Chase refreshes Slice and Dice whenever you Envenom.

Keep Slice and Dice and Hunger for Blood up, Mutilate to four points and Envenom. It is simple and strong from the start of the expansion.

Mutilate needs a dagger in each hand and works from behind.

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 Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

  1. 1Slice and Dice, and a bleed (Rupture or Garrote) for Hunger for Blood.
  2. 2Hunger for Blood kept up.
  3. 3Mutilate to four or five combo points.
  4. 4Envenom: it also refreshes Slice and Dice.
  5. 5Cold Blood before an Envenom; Tricks of the Trade on the tank.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Strong damage with simple play.
  • Good from the start of the expansion.
  • Mutilate burst.

Weaknesses

  • Needs two 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. 1

    Hitto 263 rating; Precision covers 5%

  2. 2

    Agility

  3. 3

    Attack power

  4. 4

    Haste

  5. 5

    Critical strike

  6. 6

    Expertise

What to look for

  • Two daggers with high damage.
  • Hit first; spell hit helps your poisons land.
  • Agility gems.

Items worth chasing

  • HeartpierceA raid dagger that returns Energy.
  • Deathbringer's WillA trinket that procs Strength, Agility or haste.
  • Darkmoon Card: GreatnessA trinket that procs your best stat.

Builds

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

  • Assassination
  • Combat
  • Subtlety

  • Assassination Raider

    DamagePvE
    51/13/7

    Raid damage with 51 points in Assassination, down to Hunger For Blood, and 13 in Combat and 7 in Subtlety.

    • Overkill 1/1
    • Master Poisoner 3/3
    • Mutilate 1/1
    • Cut to the Chase 5/5
    • Hunger For Blood 1/1

    Glyphs: Glyph of Mutilate (major), Glyph of Tricks of the Trade (major), Glyph of Hunger For Blood (major)

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycrafting

Key talents

  • Hunger For Blood · top talent, up to 1

    Enrages you, increasing all damage caused by 5%. Requires a bleed effect to be active on the target. Lasts 1 min.

  • Cold Blood · tier 5, up to 1

    When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next offensive ability by 100%.

  • 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.

  • Murder · tier 6, up to 2

    Increases all damage caused by 4%.

  • Overkill · tier 7, up to 1

    While stealthed, and for 20 seconds after breaking stealth, you regenerate 30% additional energy.

  • Focused Attacks · tier 8, up to 3

    Your melee critical strikes have a 100% chance to give you 2 energy.

  • Find Weakness · tier 8, up to 3

    Offensive ability damage increased by 6%.

  • Master Poisoner · tier 9, up to 3

    Increases the critical hit chance of all attacks made against any target you have poisoned by 3%, reduces the duration of all Poison effects applied to you by 50%, and gives Envenom a 100% chance not to consume Deadly Poison.

  • Mutilate · tier 9, up to 1

    Instantly attacks with both weapons for 100% weapon damage plus an additional 44 with each weapon. Damage is increased by 20% against Poisoned targets. Awards 2 combo points.

  • Cut to the Chase · tier 10, up to 5

    Your Eviscerate and Envenom abilities have a 100% chance to refresh your Slice and Dice duration to its 5 combo point maximum.

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.

Related

Other rogue specs: Combat, Subtlety