Cataclysm Classic Assassination Rogue Rotation and Cooldowns

What Poisons you use as an Assassination Rogue is relatively set in stone, we will always be using Instant Poison on our main-hand weapon and Deadly Poison on our off-hand weapon and Deadly Poison applied to your thrown weapon in a situation you find yourself casting Fan of Knives.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

Assassination Rogue focuses on applying Poisons to the target in order maximize damage dealt by our Envenom ability and take full advantage of our Potent Poisons mastery. Our primary goal with this rotation is to maximize the amount of Envenom casts while still maintaining our Rupture on the target. Your rotation as Assassination acts much more as a list of priorities than a true rotation.

1. Cast Tricks of the Trade on cooldown;
2. Start combat in stealth and cast Garrote to fish for Venomous Wounds procs. Use the Combo Points generated by your Garrote to apply your initial Slice and Dice;
3. Cast Mutilate to build Combo Points, when the target is sub 35% switch to casting Backstab to try for Murderous Intent/ Glyph of Backstab procs;
4. Apply Slice and Dice once you have reached 5 Combo Points. Make sure you always have Slice and Dice active;
5. Apply and maintain Rupture;
6. Cast Envenom if you have 4 or more Combo Points and Rupture and Slice and Dice are active. Envenom casts will cause Cut to the Chase to refresh your Slice and Dice to its maximum duration so you will no longer need to focus on refreshing it, only Rupture will require your attention.

You will typically follow the Single-Target rotation highlighted above but it is important to understand how to initiate combat with the boss as it is crucial to get your Deadly Poison stacks up as quickly as possible while also putting your cooldowns on cooldown so you can take full advantage of Vendetta.

1. Use your Potion of the Tol'vir pre-pull;
2. Open from stealth with Garrote;
3. Cast Slice and Dice with the points generated from your Garrote;
4. Cast a Mutilate;
5. Apply Rupture to maintain Venomous Wounds;
6. Cast Vendetta;
7. Cast Mutilate until you reach 5 Combo Points;
8. Cast Cold Blood and spend your Combo Points on Envenom;
9. As soon as your Overkill buff times out cast Vanish and use Garrote to begin combat and stick to our single-target rotation highlighted above.

Assassination Rogue is incredibly limited when it comes to AoE Damage, the only situation we will be able to contribute meaningfully in AoE damage is when fighting 5 or more mobs in which case we will spam Fan of Knives, otherwise stick to your single target rotation on whatever the highest priority kill target is.

Assassination Rogues has some incredibly powerful DPS cooldowns and utilizing them properly will yield a massive increase in your DPS so it is important to understand how they each function and how they interact with each other.

1. Vendetta — increases the damage you deal to the target by 20% for 30 seconds. This should be used on cooldown assuming you will be attacking the same target for 30 seconds continuously.
2. Cold Blood — increases the Critical Strike chance of your next non-periodic offensive ability by 100%. This should be used on cooldown, but always paired with a 5 Combo Point Envenom
3. Vanish — instantly returns you to Stealth. This should be used on cooldown to maximize your Overkill uptime and you should always utilize Garrote when leaving stealth to take further advantage of your Venomous Wounds talent.