Mists of Pandaria Classic Assassination Rogue Guide

Assassination Rogue is one of the strongest melee dps in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Assassination Rogue offers a unique and exciting play style focused around maximizing your damage output by maintaining buffs and debuffs like Slice and Dice and Rupture while quickly reacting to procs like Blindside which enable you to use Dispatch. Properly understanding how to utilize your Energy and Combo Points will play a huge part in your ability to do damage so understanding how to optimally use them is key.

Yes! While all three Rogue specs have a place in Mists of Pandaria Assassination is certainly viable and can deal a considerable amount of damage. As an Assassination Rogue you will provide a considerable amount of DPS both single target and in AoE thanks to abilities like Crimson Tempest while also providing the powerful buff Swiftblade's Cunning for your group. Rogue also now provides some unique utility in the form of Smoke Bomb which on top of reducing incoming damage by 20% obscures anyone within the bomb allowing for some very unique interactions with certain boss mechanics.

Strengths

• Great crowd controlling abilities and utility like Blind and Smoke Bomb.
• Powerful defensive cooldowns like Cloak of Shadows.
• High single target/burst damage.
• Provide the raid with buffs in the form of Master Poisoner and Swiftblade's Cunning.
• Great mobility.

Weaknesses

• Incredibly gear dependent and struggles at lower gear levels.
• Struggles in large AoE situations.
• Lower damage than other Rogue specs at higher levels of gear.

As Horde, you have six different options; Pandaren, Troll, Orc, Goblin, Blood Elf, and Undead. Undead and Orc both offer unique benefits in the form of Will of the Forsaken and Blood Fury but will fall behind Troll or Pandaren. Troll is our default pick due to the way Berserking interacts with your kit as a Rogue, pairing this with Vendetta can result in a massive increase in your damage done. When fighting Beasts that are quite prevalent throughout Mists of Pandaria you will also benefit from Beast Slaying which is just a flat 5% increase to your damage done when fighting a Beast. Pandaren offers Epicurean which doubles the effectiveness of our Food buff. Agility is king when it comes to stats especially as Assassination so this makes Pandaren another great option.

As Alliance, you will have six races to choose for your Rogue; Gnome, Night Elf, Human, Worgen, Dwarf, and Pandaren. Similar to Horde Pandaren is a great choice and as Alliance is your best option by a considerable margin due to the benefits of Epicurean. Human can be a solid choice due to Will to Survive but will fall behind in PvE. Worgen is another race to consider but again struggles to compete with the bonus Agility provided by the Pandaren racial. Darkflight is a great cool down but can be made a bit redundant by abilities like Sprint or Burst of Speed.

1. Engineering — Engineering will be your best choice as an Assassination Rogue. Synapse Springs pairs incredibly with both Vendetta and Shadow Blades. Nitro Boosts can also be very situationally useful if you find yourself without access to Sprint allowing you to quickly close the gap between you and your target or possibly avoid an incoming boss ability.
2. Tailoring — provides us with Swordguard Embroidery which greatly increases our Attack Power and can often be paired with our Vendetta ability to gain even more benefit from the proc. While Agility is king as an Assassination Rogue Attack Power is a close second.

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