Mists of Pandaria Classic Assassination Rogue Rotation and Cooldowns

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

On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Assassination Rogue in both single-target and multi-target PvE situations in Mists of Pandaria Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS.

1.

Assassination Rogue Rotations

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 in Mists of Pandaria remains one of the strongest melee DPS in the game. Your goal as an Assassination Rogue is to deal as much damage with your Envenom Icon Envenoms as possible while optimizing each of your Vendetta Icon Vendetta windows and keeping Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice and Rupture Icon Rupture on active at all times.

1.1.

Poisons

Your poison usage as an Assassination Rogue is quite simple, we will always use Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison as our lethal poison. For our non-lethal poisons you have a few choices to make Leeching Poison Icon Leeching Poison will cause a small amount of self-healing and will often be the best choice but also consider Mind-numbing Poison Icon Mind-numbing Poison to slow casting speeds on your target and Crippling Poison Icon Crippling Poison to slow the targets move speed.

2.

Single-Target Rotation

As an Assassination Rogue you will follow a list of priorities rather than a traditional rotation. The goal as an Assassination Rogue is to generate Combo Points with Mutilate Icon Mutilate/Dispatch Icon Dispatch and keep your Rupture Icon Rupture and Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice abilities active at all times while spending excess Combo Points on Envenom Icon Envenom. Keep in mind as Assassination that your Envenom ability will automatically refresh the duration of Slice and Dice so this becomes much easier once the buff is established.

The priority order is as follows:

  1. Keep Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison active;
  2. Make sure to prepot using Virmen's Bite Icon Virmen's Bite;
  3. When exiting from Stealth Icon Stealth open with Mutilate Icon Mutilate;
  4. Keep Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice active at all times, this should be refreshed by Envenom Icon Envenom thanks to Cut to the Chase Icon Cut to the Chase but you will need to apply it manually if the buff is not already active;
  5. Keep Rupture Icon Rupture on the target, this is ideally refreshed with 5 Combo Points but it is more important to keep this active than ensure it is refreshed with 5 Combo Points;
  6. Use Vanish Icon Vanish on cool down to take advantage of Shadow Focus Icon Shadow Focus for cheaper Mutilate Icon Mutilate;
  7. With 5 Combo Points cast Envenom Icon Envenom.
  8. While the boss 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;
  9. While the boss is below 35% Use Dispatch Icon Dispatch to generate Combo Points;
3.

AoE Rotation

Your AoE rotation as an Assassination Rogue will depend largely on the amount of targets you will be hitting and how long you can expect them to survive.

3.1.

Against Two to Three targets

When fighting just two or three targets your goal is to keep your Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison and Rupture Icon Rupture debuffs active on all targets and then resume your single target rotation which is highlighted above.

3.2.

Against Four to Eight targets

When fighting against 4-8 enemies use Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives to generate combo points, make sure to apply Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice and continue to cast Envenom Icon Envenom to maintain your Slice and Dice buff. Your Combo Points should be spent on applying as many Rupture Icon Ruptures as possible to the targets once Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice is active.

  1. Keep Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison active;
  2. Keep Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice active, casting Envenom Icon Envenom will refresh its duration thanks to Cut to the Chase Icon Cut to the Chase;
  3. Apply as many Rupture Icon Ruptures as possible with 3 or more Combo Points;
  4. Use Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points
3.3.

Nine or more targets

When fighting 9+ enemies things get much simpler, our goal at this point is to keep our Envenom Icon Envenom buff active while spamming Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points. The majority of our AoE damage at this point will be from the application of Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison.

  1. Keep Deadly Poison Icon Deadly Poison active;
  2. Keep Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice active;
  3. Use Envenom Icon Envenom to spend your Combo Points
  4. Use Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points
4.

Cooldowns

AssassinationAssassination Rogue has only a few DPS cooldowns but making sure to utilize them optimally can lead to a massive increase in your damage done.

Vendetta Icon Vendetta increases your damage done to the target by 30% for 20 seconds. This is a massive increase of damage dealt to our target and should ideally be used on cool down if you are guaranteed up time on the target for its entire duration. Glyph of Vendetta Icon Glyph of Vendetta will increase its duration by 10 more seconds but reduces the damage bonus by 5%. This glyph will be a default choice again in a situation where we can ensure up time for the entirety of its duration. Vendetta is best paired with any other source of increased damage so try to pair it with your combat potion Virmen's Bite Icon Virmen's Bite, Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust/Heroism Icon Heroism and Shadow Blades Icon Shadow Blades if possible.

Shadow Blades Icon Shadow Blades causes your auto-attacks to deal Shadow damage and causes your Combo Point generating abilities to generate an additional Combo Point making abilities like Mutilate Icon Mutilate and Dispatch Icon Dispatch even more powerful per Energy spent. Shadow Blades are best paired with Vendetta Icon Vendetta if possible to take full benefit of the increased damage taken on the target.

Vanish Icon Vanish causes you to instantly return to Stealth Icon Stealth. Assassination is a bit unique in that your stealth with optimally be used to cast another Mutilate Icon Mutilate/Dispatch Icon Dispatch as opposed to a regular Stealth ability like Ambush Icon Ambush. Even though neither Mutilate or Dispatch require Stealth they will often be a more efficient use of your Energy than Ambush, especially when paired with one of the talents that impact your character upon leaving stealth like Subterfuge Icon Subterfuge or Shadow Focus Icon Shadow Focus.

Smoke Bomb Icon Smoke Bomb obscures anyone inside of it from outside targets and reduces damage taken by 20% while inside of the Smoke Bomb. This ability has many unique interactions with various mechanics in dungeons and raids so make sure to coordinate with your group when this is best utilized.

5.

Changelog

  • 31 May 2025: Guide created.
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