Cataclysm Classic Assassination Rogue Leveling
On this page, you will find our level-by-level Assassination Rogue leveling guide for WoW Cataclysm Classic.
Level by Level Rotation and Talents
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Leveling Talents
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
Coup de Grace is a great way to start your leveling journey as the added damage to Eviscerate and later Envenom.
Coup de Grace is a great way to start your leveling journey as the added damage to Eviscerate and later Envenom. Deadly Momentum increases the Critical Strike rating of your next damaging ability by 40% for fifteen seconds after killing an enemy, but more importantly it causes your Slice and Dice and Recuperate abilities to be instantly refreshed to their original duration.
Coup de Grace is a great way to start your leveling journey as the added damage to Eviscerate and later Envenom. Deadly Momentum increases the Critical Strike rating of your next damaging ability by 40% for fifteen seconds after killing an enemy, but more importantly it causes your Slice and Dice and Recuperate abilities to be instantly refreshed to their original duration. Quickening is a great way to benefit even more from our Recuperate ability and also gives much needed movement speed, throughout the leveling process we will be traveling a lot so the faster you can get there the faster you can level.
Cold Blood will act as one of our main DPS cooldowns while leveling, using it early and often is recommend as it is better to have it on cooldown than be waiting for the perfect opportunity and miss a chance to use it.
Cold Blood will act as one of our main DPS cooldowns while leveling, using it early and often is recommend as it is better to have it on cooldown than be waiting for the perfect opportunity and miss a chance to use it. Seal Fate causes your Critical Strikes from abilities to add an extra Combo Point to your target enabling us to cast our finishing abilities more often.
Cold Blood will act as one of our main DPS cooldowns while leveling, using it early and often is recommend as it is better to have it on cooldown than be waiting for the perfect opportunity and miss a chance to use it. Seal Fate causes your Critical Strikes from abilities to add an extra Combo Point to your target enabling us to cast our finishing abilities more often. Overkill increases the rate of our Energy regeneration by 30% while in Stealth and for twenty seconds after leaving it.
Cold Blood will act as one of our main DPS cooldowns while leveling, using it early and often is recommend as it is better to have it on cooldown than be waiting for the perfect opportunity and miss a chance to use it. Seal Fate causes your Critical Strikes from abilities to add an extra Combo Point to your target enabling us to cast our finishing abilities more often. Overkill increases the rate of our Energy regeneration by 30% while in Stealth and for twenty seconds after leaving it. Master Poisoner allows us now utilize our Envenom ability without it consuming the Deadly Poison stacks on the target making Envenom much more powerful and making it our default finishing ability when we have excessCombo Points.
Cold Blood will act as one of our main DPS cooldowns while leveling, using it early and often is recommend as it is better to have it on cooldown than be waiting for the perfect opportunity and miss a chance to use it. Seal Fate causes your Critical Strikes from abilities to add an extra Combo Point to your target enabling us to cast our finishing abilities more often. Overkill increases the rate of our Energy regeneration by 30% while in Stealth and for twenty seconds after leaving it. Master Poisoner allows us now utilize our Envenom ability without it consuming the Deadly Poison stacks on the target making Envenom much more powerful and making it our default finishing ability when we have excessCombo Points. Cut to the Chase causes our Envenom ability to refresh the duration of our Slice and Dice ability back to its maximum duration, making it much easier to maintain the buff.
Cold Blood will act as one of our main DPS cooldowns while leveling, using it early and often is recommend as it is better to have it on cooldown than be waiting for the perfect opportunity and miss a chance to use it. Seal Fate causes your Critical Strikes from abilities to add an extra Combo Point to your target enabling us to cast our finishing abilities more often. Overkill increases the rate of our Energy regeneration by 30% while in Stealth and for twenty seconds after leaving it. Master Poisoner allows us now utilize our Envenom ability without it consuming the Deadly Poison stacks on the target making Envenom much more powerful and making it our default finishing ability when we have excessCombo Points. Cut to the Chase causes our Envenom ability to refresh the duration of our Slice and Dice ability back to its maximum duration, making it much easier to maintain the buff. Our final talent in the Assassination tree will be Vendetta that marks the target for death, increasing its damage taken by 20% for thirty seconds, this ability is best used on enemies that will survive longer than just a few seconds but do not hesitate to use this to get it on cooldown.
As we leave the Assassination tree we will head over to Combat for Precision which increases our chance to hit which greatly benefits our Auto-Attacks and our Poison application rate, as Assassination it is nearly impossible to get too much Hit Rating.
Leveling Glyphs
In your Prime Glyphs we recommend Glyph of Vendetta which increases the duration of your Vendetta by 20%. Glyph of Slice and Dice which increases the duration of our Slice and Dice buff even further allowing us to have a nearly 100% uptime on this buff while leveling. For the third slot we recommend Glyph of Mutilate reduces the energy cost of our primary Combo Point generating ability.
For your Major Glyph slots we recommend Glyph of Fan of Knives which increases the radius of our Fan of Knives ability allowing us to deal AoE damage much more easily. The next Glyph we choose will be spent in Evasion which increases the duration of one of our strongest cooldowns when it comes to mitigating incoming Physical damage. The last Glyph slot should be dedicated to Glyph of Sprint which makes our Sprint ability increase our movement speed by an additional 30%, Sprint should be used as often as possible to get around and maximize your uptime.
For your Minor Glyphs we recommend Glyph of Blurred Speed which allows you to walk on water with Sprint active. The next Glyph we recommend is Glyph of Safe Fall which greatly reduces the damage taken from fall damage. And last is Glyph of Distract which increases the range of your Distract ability.
Leveling Rotation
- Melee.
- Use Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points and deal damage.
- Use Eviscerate to spend your Combo Points and deal damage. This ability is best used with five Combo Points.
- Use Stealth to approach your enemies.
- Use Evasion to mitigate incoming Physical damage, use this any time you are fighting more than one enemy at once that is attacking you.
- Use Mutilate to generate Combo Points and deal damage.
- Apply and keep Instant Poison active on your weapons.
- Use Recuperate as needed to heal yourself, this ability is best used with five Combo Points but in any situation where you need to self-sustain it should be used.
- Use Kick to interrupt any enemy spell casting.
- Use Gouge as an impromptu interrupt or as a way to incapacitate your enemy for a short period of time.
- Use Sprint early and often to get around and maximize your uptime against enemies. Remember you can use this to cross water thanks to Glyph of Blurred Speed.
- Apply and maintain Slice and Dice as much as possible to maximize your outgoing Auto Attacks.
- Use Vanish to quickly re-stealth should you find yourself in danger. This ability will reset any mob you are engaged with if you are the only one on their aggro table. If you have someone else to take aggro do not hesitate to use this to refresh your Overkill buff on longer fights.
- Use Cheap Shot if you are in Stealth and need to stun your target.
- Use Cold Blood on cooldown to deal maximum damage, this is best paired with Envenom.
- Use Kidney Shot as needed to stun your target and minimize incoming damage, while most of your combo points should be spent on Envenom or Recuperate do not hesitate to Kidney Shot if you need to stop incoming damage or interrupt.
- Use Blind to disorient your target for up to a minute, this can be used to disengage from an enemy or can even be used as an impromptu interrupt should you find yourself in danger.
- Apply and keep Instant Poison active on your main-hand weapon and Deadly Poison on your off-hand.
- Use Envenom to deal damage and spend your Combo Points.
- Use Cloak of Shadows to stop incoming Magic damage or become immune to incoming Magic effects.
- Use Deadly Throw to deal damage to enemies you will not be able to otherwise reach or are fleeing. Keep in mind this ability can only be used with a throwing weapon equipped.
- Use Vendetta early and often to maximize your damage output, this ability is best used on a target that is likely to survive its full duration but it is better to use it and have it on cooldown than just wait for the perfect opportunity and miss an extra usage.
- Use Fan of Knives when fighting three or more enemies, keep in mind this ability can only be used with a throwing weapon equipped.
- Use Combat Readiness to mitigate incoming Physical damage when being attacked.
- Use Redirect to move your Combo Points from a target that using a finishing move would be overkill on.
Continue Improving at Level 85
Congratulations on hitting Level 85 in Cataclysm! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level 85 Assassination Rogue gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.
More Cataclysm Rogue Guides
More Cataclysm Spec Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Sellin, a former top 10 US raider and current season and several time Gladiator, long time WoW Player and passionate about all things Warcraft and Theorycrafting. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him on Twitch.
- Dual Spec Has Arrived to Classic Anniversary Realms!
- Sole Survivor World First Level 60 on Classic Hardcore Anniversary Realms
- Nostalgia Revived: Game Masters Return to WoW Classic, Rekindling Memories from 20 Years Ago
- Long Forgotten Memories Quest Fixed in Season of Discovery
- Season of Discovery, Classic Era and Cataclysm Classic Hotfixes: November 22nd
- DragonflightUI Brings Modern WoW Interface to Classic Players
- WoW Classic Tier Lists: Best Classes for DPS, Healing, Tanking, and Hardcore Leveling!
- Cataclysm Classic Hotfixes: November 21st