Season of Discovery Combat Rogue DPS Talents and Runes

Your talent build as an Combat rogue is almost completely set in stone as the strength of talents such as Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry are incredibly strong but as we level the additional points available can be spent outside of the Combat tree. The two default options for this are spent in Opportunity which greatly increases the damage of our primary generating ability, Mutilate and Malice which increases our Critical Strike rating.

Gloves — Mutilate

Pants — Envenom

Chest — Deadly Brew

Waist — Shadowstep

Feet — Master of Subtlety

Helm — Combat Potency

Wrist — Cut to the Chase

Mutilate is the default choice due to recent changes reducing its energy cost down to 40. While Saber Slash is still quite strong it is just much worse and does not synergize quite as well with other runs we have chosen to run. Mutilate synergizes incredibly with Envenom and Deadly Brew by taking advantage of their constant applications of poison to allow Mutilate to always benefit from the increased damage against poisoned targets.

Envenom benefits from the quick attack speed associated with using two daggers to use Mutilate as it will deal more damage to targets with higher stacks of Deadly Poison. Between the Eyes is a great tool if you find yourself needing a ranged stun but deals considerably less damage and will not benefit from the other Runes we have chosen the same way Envenom does.

Deadly Brew applies a stack of Deadly Poison anytime your target is inflicted with any kind of poison, allowing us to use Instant Poison while still getting all of the benefits of Deadly Poison. Deadly Brew also synergizes incredibly well with Envenom and Mutilate as they both deal additional damage to poisoned targets.

Shadowstep is an incredibly powerful, short cooldown ability that allows you to maximize your uptime by teleporting you to your target as well as giving you a 70% movement speed buff for 3 seconds. Shuriken Toss is another ability to consider for this slot should you find yourself in a situation with a lot of AoE. As Combat, Adrenaline Rush should do the trick most of the time but if there is a lot of AoE throughout the fight Shuriken Toss can be a great choice.

Master of Subtlety increases your damage by 10% for 6 second when attacking from stealth, this is especially potent as Combat when paired with Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry. It also allows you to consider using Vanish as a DPS cooldown, especially for your second usage of Adrenaline Rush.

Combat Potency greatly increases the amount of energy we will generate allowing for more abilities to be cast. Energy is the primary limiting factor for Rogue DPS so there is never a situation where you will find yourself with too much. Honor Among Thieves is another great choice but can depend heavily on what other classes you find yourself grouped with as it is entirely dependent on other classes Critical Strikes.

Cut to the Chase allows you to spend more Combo Points on Envenom and frees up global cool downs you would otherwise be spending on Slice and Dice. While the other option Carnage is also incredibly strong the talent points you save being able to avoid Improved Slice and Dice and the ability to spend your globals on other abilities slightly outweighs the flat damage increase.

More engravings are likely to come out as we reach higher level caps so make sure to checkout our general Runes guide to get a better understanding of what all tools you have available to your Rogue.

Precision increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 1% per rank, up to 5%. This talent is incredible as Hit rating is often hard to find on gear.

Improved Backstab increases your critical strike of your Backstab ability by 10% per rank, up to 30%. Mutilate benefits from all talents that improve Backstab unless stated otherwise, so maxing this talent increases the Critical Strike chance of your Mutilate by 30%.

Blade Flurry increases your attack speed by 20% and attacks strike additional nearby enemies. One of Rogues greatest limitations is their lack of AoE but this 2 minute cooldown allows you to deal massive cleave damage while it is active, especially when paired with Adrenaline Rush.

Adrenaline Rush Increases the rate your Energy regenerates by 100% for 15 seconds. The greatest limiting factor on damage output on a Rogue is your energy, increasing the rate your energy regenerates allows you to deal massive damage while this buff is active, it also synergizes incredibly well with other Runes/talents we have chosen such as Blade Flurry and Master of Subtlety.