World of Warcraft: Forever Assassination Rogue - Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

Assassination Rogue is a melee DPS that focuses on dealing as much damage as possible with powerful Poisons and generating Combo Points with abilities like Mutilate and using the Combo Points to establish powerful buffs and debuffs like Slice and Dice and Expose Armor.

Assassination Rogue does not run off a strict rotation, but rather a list of priorities based around maximizing the uptime of buffs and debuffs while generating as many Combo Points as possible and avoiding overcapping Energy.

1. Maintain Buffs and Debuffs
   • Make sure you have Poisons active on your weapons.
   • If the target does not have another, stronger, source of armor reduction, apply Expose Armor
   • Keep Slice and Dice active at all times.
   • Keep Rupture active if you believe the target will survive its duration.
2. Start in Stealth and open with Garrote
3. Use Shank on cooldown, to maximize your Venom uptime. Try to avoid using it when your Energy is near full to avoid capping Energy.
4. Use Mutilate to generate Combo Points.
5. Once you have reached 5 Combo Points, cast Eviscerate if Slice and Dice and Rupture are already active and Shank is on cooldown.

A very simple version of the priority list above is: after leaving Stealth try to keep your debuffs and buffs active, Shank on cooldown to keep Venom active, and cast Mutilate until you have 5 Combo Points to Eviscerate.

Assassination Rogue unfortunately has no AoE or means of hitting multiple targets at the same time.

As an Assassination Rogue, we only have two major cooldowns to focus on, Cold Blood and Vanish. Below is a breakdown of how each functions and how it should optimally be used.

Cold Blood increases your Critical Strike chance with Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, Eviscerate, or Mutilate to 100%, guaranteeing a Critical Strike. Try to pair this with a 5 Combo Point Eviscerate as soon as Threat is established on the target.

Vanish instantly returns you to Stealth. This ability is a bit harder to know when and how to use optimally, but a general rule of thumb is if there is a mechanic you can ignore by using Vanish that should be your first priority. If not, then feel free to use it as either an emergency threat drop or a way to refresh your Garrote debuff on the target. Alternatively, simply hold it for the end of a wipe, to save yourself some repair cost.

Rogue offers an immense amount of utility that will help not just you, but your entire group, in handling almost any challenge.

• Kick
  • Interrupts the target's spellcasting; keep in mind this ability does cost 25 Energy.
• Blind
  • Disorients the target for 10 seconds. Any damage will interrupt this effect. This can be used as either a quick form of crowd control or a makeshift interrupt against some targets.
• Sap
  • Incapacitates the target for up to 45 seconds. Can only be used in Stealth and against Humanoids that are not in combat. Any damage will break this effect. This can be used pre-pull to help thin the number of enemies you will have to deal with at the same time.
• Distract
  • Attracts the attention of the targets to a specific location and reduces the targets' Stealth detection. This can be used to get closer to mobs you may have otherwise not been able to avoid or get close enough to safely open from Stealth on.
• Gouge
  • Deals a small amount of damage and incapacitates the target for 4 seconds. The target must be facing you, and any damage will break this effect. Generates 1 Combo Point. This can be used as either an emergency interrupt or just a way to stop incoming damage for a short period.
• Evasion
  • Increases your chance to Dodge by 50% for 15 seconds. This acts as a powerful defensive cooldown if you find yourself with Aggro.
• Kidney Shot
  • Stuns the target for a duration based on the amount of Combo Points used.
• Cheap Shot
  • Removes you from Stealth and stuns your target for 4 seconds. Generates 2 Combo Points.

• Sprint
  • Increases your movement speed by 70% for 15 seconds. Does not break Stealth. This can be used to either escape or close the gap to a target.

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