Mists of Pandaria Classic Assassination Rogue Leveling

Last updated on Jun 16, 2025 at 12:00 by Sellin

On this page, you will find our level-by-level Assassination Rogue leveling guide for WoW Mists of Pandaria Classic.

1.

Assassination Rogue Leveling in Mists of Pandaria Classic

AssassinationAssassination Rogue remains one of the best leveling specializations in the game. As a Rogue any of the three specializations are great choices but Assassination benefits massively from our primary Combo Point generating ability not having a positioning requirement, so regardless of if you are solo leveling or find yourself inside a group you will be doing similar damage. The single biggest increase to quality of life while leveling your Rogue in Mists of Pandaria is Glyph of Deadly Momentum Icon Glyph of Deadly Momentum that causes your Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice and Recuperate Icon Recuperate to be refreshed to their original duration any time you land a killing blow that yields experience. This will massively increase your uptime and allow you to spend more Combo Points on Envenom Icon Envenom.

1.1.

Assassination Rogue Leveling Spec

Nightstalker
Subterfuge
Shadow Focus
Deadly Throw
Nerve Strike
Combat Readiness
Cheat Death
Leeching Poison
Elusiveness
Cloak and Dagger
Shadowstep
Burst of Speed
Prey on the Weak
Paralytic Poison
Dirty Tricks
Shuriken Toss
Marked for Death
Anticipation
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Recuperate
Glyph of Deadly Momentum
Glyph of Cloak of Shadows
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Blurred Speed
Glyph of Poisons
Glyph of Safe Fall

Below also includes a breakdown of each of your options talent wise while leveling. In Mists of Pandaria you will unlock a new row of talent selections every 15 levels, starting at level 15. The goal of our talents recommended is to maximize your up time and damage so you can quickly progress through each zone.

1.2.

Level 15 Talents

This tier of talents is focuses on maximizing the benefit of your Stealth Icon Stealth ability and augments some of your abilities while Stealthed.

  • Shadow Focus Icon Shadow Focus reduces the Energycost of all of your abilities by 75% while Stealth Icon Stealthed. While leveling this should be your default choice. Your largest limiting factor while dealing damage while leveling will be the availability of Energy so any chance to make your abilities cheaper should be taken.
  • Subterfuge Icon Subterfuge causes your Stealth Icon Stealth to break 3 seconds after dealing or taking damage as opposed to breaking instantly. As mentioned above the largest limiting factor while leveling your Rogue will be energy, while it would be great to be able to Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot your target and then quickly Ambush Icon Ambush them this will end up slowing us down in the long run.
  • Nightstalker Icon Nightstalker increases your movement speed by 20% while Stealth Icon Stealthed and increases your damage done by 50% while Stealthed. The increased movement speed while stealthed is incredible and the bonus damage can help you quickly dispatch your enemies but again the availability of Energy is key while leveling and the majority of our damage done while leveling will be outside of Stealth.
1.3.

Level 30 Talents

This tier of talents focuses on ways to mitigate incoming damage in very different ways.

  • Nerve Strike Icon Nerve Strike causes the target of your Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot to deal 50% less damage for 6 seconds after the stun fades. While leveling this is an incredible talent that will greatly reduce your damage taken. You will often be using Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot when fighting against an Elite or any monster dealing more damage than you are comfortable dealing with so the added damage reduction for the 6 seconds following this can help keep you alive until your next stun is available.
  • Combat Readiness Icon Combat Readiness reduces incoming damage by 10% each time you are hit stacking up to 5 times. While this is a great talent especially when fighting groups of multiple enemies its rare that we will ever gain the full benefit of this, giving Nerve Strike Icon Nerve Strike the slight edge. It also synergizes poorly with Evasion Icon Evasion which we will be aiming to use often while leveling.
  • Deadly Throw Icon Deadly Throw consumes Combo Point to deal damage, slow and interrupt the target. This can be a great tool to slow or kill a fleeing enemy while leveling but its uses are far too niche to consider while leveling unless you are constantly finding yourself in PvP scenarios or are leveling via battlegrounds, and even in those situations Nerve Strike Icon Nerve Strike will likely be a stronger choice.
1.4.

Level 45 Talents

This tier offers a few different ways to increase personal survivability.

  • Cheat Death Icon Cheat Death causes an otherwise fatal attack to reduce you to 10% of your maximum health and reduces damage taken by 85% for 3 seconds. The majority of your deaths while leveling will come at a surprise, this allows for a buffer that can let you quickly Vanish Icon Vanish or even Sprint Icon Sprint away from your enemy.
  • Leeching Poison Icon Leeching Poison can be used as a non-lethal poison causing your attacks to have a 50% chance to heal you for 10% of the damage dealt to the target. The healing received from Leeching is definitely a bonus while leveling but due to the nature of leveling it is rare we will be able to benefit much from this healing as mobs will often die after just a few hits. Assuming Recuperate Icon Recuperate is active this can also lead to some unnecessary overhealing.
  • Elusiveness Icon Elusiveness causes your Feint Icon Feint ability to reduce all incoming damage by 30% while it is active. This is a great choice in a situation where you find yourself constantly fighting enemies dealing a considerable amount of damage but most of your time leveling will be spent dealing with low health enemies where your Energy and global cooldowns are better spent dealing damage.
1.5.

Level 60 Talents

This tier of talents is centered around mobility and maximizing our uptime on the target through a few different options.

  • Burst of Speed Icon Burst of Speed increases your movement speed by 70% for 4 seconds and removes any slowing effects. While leveling this should be your default option, the ability to move quickly between groups of enemies is often times your largest limiting factor as a Rogue and if you can burst from group to group instead of having to mount up this can quickly shave time off your levels. This is also incredibly strong when paired with Shadow Focus Icon Shadow Focus which makes it nearly free.
  • Shadowstep Icon Shadowstep instantly teleports you behind your target and increases your movement speed by 70% for 2 seconds. This is a great ability to maximize your uptime on a target but while leveling it is rare that we will need to be hitting the same target for more than a few seconds so maximizing our uptime is not a major concern.
  • Cloak and Dagger Icon Cloak and Dagger causes your Ambush Icon Ambush, Garrote Icon Garrote, and Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot to teleport you behind your target. We will be entering and exiting Stealth Icon Stealth countless times throughout the leveling process but similarly to Shadowstep Icon Shadowstep the ability to gain a 70% movement speed increase for a small amount of Energy is just too good to pass up.
1.6.

Level 75 Talents

This tier of talents increases the effectiveness of your crowd controlling abilities and allows you an entirely new way to stun your enemies with Paralytic Poison Icon Paralytic Poison.

  • Prey on the Weak Icon Prey on the Weak causes the target of your Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot, Gouge Icon Gouge, Blind Icon Blind, or Sap Icon Sap to take 10% more damage for the duration of the effect. This acts as an essentially free increase to our damage against targets we will be stunning. While leveling the easiest way to mitigate incoming damage is a well timed Kidney Shot so the ability to deal even more damage to this target can help killing the target before they are able to resume attacking you.
  • Paralytic Poison Icon Paralytic Poison is a utility poison that causes you to stun your target upon reaching 4 stacks. The added stun here can be helpful when fighting against Elite mobs but you will rarely be fighting a mob long enough to receive the benefit of this, and the randomness of it makes it difficult to interrupt enemy spell casting.
  • Dirty Tricks Icon Dirty Tricks causes your Gouge Icon Gouge and Blind Icon Blind to now be free and no longer break from your periodic damage dealt by bleeds like Rupture Icon Rupture or your poisons like Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison. This is a great way to immediately crowd control an enemy you are actively engaged with, but it is rare that this will be of any use as often times Blind will be used on an off target and Gouge is usually just an impromptu interrupt.
2.

Glyphs

Glyphs in Mists of Pandaria are still a major part of the leveling process but not quite as much as previous expansions. In Mists of Pandaria Prime Glyphs have been entirely removed, Major Glyphs are often situational benefits in combat and Minor Glyphs are exclusively cosmetic or quality of life benefits, but understanding how each of these works can help your leveling process tremendously.

2.1.

Major Glyphs

As any Rogue specialization there are two Glyphs you should pretty much always be running Glyph of Deadly Momentum Icon Glyph of Deadly Momentum and Glyph of Recuperate Icon Glyph of Recuperate. Deadly Momentum refreshes our Recuperate Icon Recuperate and Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice back to their original duration any time you kill an enemy yielding experience. This is an incredible way to maintain these two buffs while leveling as you should constantly be in combat killing mobs that yield experience while leveling. Glyph of Recuperate increases the potency of the heal-over-time effect. The single largest way to increase your leveling speed is by constantly being gaining experience and any time spent out of combat healing will slow this down. Listed below are some other options to consider while leveling.

  • Glyph of Cloak of Shadows Icon Glyph of Cloak of Shadows causes your Cloak of Shadows Icon Cloak of Shadows ability to reduce incoming physical damage by 40% while Cloak is active. While leveling you will constantly be dealing with both types of damage so this can help us mitigate Physical damage in a situation where you are not encountering much incoming Magic damage.
  • Glyph of Expose Armor Icon Glyph of Expose Armor causes your Expose Armor Icon Expose Armor ability to instantly apply all 3 stacks to the target granting you the full effect of Weakened Armor Icon Weakened Armor. It is rare we will be using Expose while leveling but this greatly increases the potency of it per cast.
  • Glyph of Feint Icon Glyph of Feint increases the duration of your Feint Icon Feint ability by 2 seconds. In any situation where you are constantly using Feint Icon Feint this is a great option.
  • Glyph of Sharpened Knives Icon Glyph of Sharpened Knives causes your Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives to apply 1 stack of Weakened Armor Icon Weakened Armor to any target hit. If you find yourself leveling in dungeons or grouping up consistently with other Physical damage dealers this is a great way to increase their damage.
  • Glyph of Evasion Icon Glyph of Evasion increases the duration of our Evasion Icon Evasion by 5 seconds. Evasion is one of our best tools when dealing with multiple enemies or just one heavy hitting physical damage dealer, so the added duration makes us even tankier.
2.2.

Minor Glyphs

Minor Glyphs as mentioned above will only offer you quality of life or cosmetic benefits in Mists of Pandaria. While their in combat effects can be limited these Glyphs can make it considerably easier to traverse the map and get to your next quest even quicker.

  • Glyph of Blurred Speed Icon Glyph of Blurred Speed causes your Sprint Icon Sprint ability to let you walk on water while it is active.
  • Glyph of Safe Fall Icon Glyph of Safe Fall greatly increases the effectiveness of Safe Fall Icon Safe Fall.
  • Glyph of Poisons Icon Glyph of Poisons increases the speed you apply Poisons to your weapons by 50%.
3.

Leveling Rotation

Your leveling rotation as an Assassination Rogue is very similar to your max level rotation but with a few small changes, mostly aimed at keeping yourself alive and mitigating incoming damage so you can spend as much time as possible in combat. The Poisons you will use while leveling are Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison and Crippling Poison Icon Crippling Poison. Deadly will consistently be our highest damage output and Crippling will slow the targets making it much easier to maximize your uptime and making it harder for them to flee at low health. Your non-lethal poison can be changed though at your own discretion.

3.1.

Rotation

Highlighted below is a rough priority order of things to consider while you are leveling and how to optimally deal damage.

The priority order is as follows:

  1. Keep Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison active;
  2. When exiting from Stealth Icon Stealth open with Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot;
  3. Maintain Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice and Recuperate Icon Recuperate, these will be refreshed by Glyph of Deadly Momentum Icon Glyph of Deadly Momentum but if you find yourself without one or the other make sure to reapply it as quickly as possible;
  4. If you find yourself taking more damage than you are comfortable consider casting Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot to stun your enemy and allow Recuperate Icon Recuperate to heal you up;
  5. Remember you can always use Vanish Icon Vanish to exit combat if you find yourself at risk of dying;
  6. While the mob is above 35% Use Mutilate Icon Mutilate to generate Combo Points unless you get a Blindside Icon Blindside proc, then use Dispatch Icon Dispatch instead;
  7. While the mob is below 35% Use Dispatch Icon Dispatch to generate Combo Points;
  8. With 4-5 Combo Points cast Envenom Icon Envenom if Recuperate Icon Recuperate and Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice are already active.
  9. If you are fighting 3 or more enemies use Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points in place of Mutilate Icon Mutilate/Dispatch Icon Dispatch.
  10. If you are fighting 7+ enemies spend your Combo Points on Crimson Tempest Icon Crimson Tempest instead of Envenom Icon Envenom Assuming Recuperate Icon Recuperate and Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice are active.
4.

Changelog

  • 14 Jun. 2025: Guide created.
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