Rogue Hero Talents — The War Within (11.2)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Assassination Rogue, check out our Talents page:

Deathstalker is the more involved Hero Talent Tree for Assassination, adding a variety of Plague (Shadow & Nature) damage to your toolkit by enhancing several of your abilities and having some minor rotational impact. Its key mechanic is the application of Deathstalker's Mark and the maintenance of the Mark through Darkest Night, which will greatly boost your Energy regeneration and direct damage.

The Patch 11.2 Set bonuses sadly do not alter the gameplay for Deathstalker in any way, they simply further enhance the damage benefits the Hero Talent tree provides. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Fatebound really needed the attention more than Deathstalker, but it is still sad that the new Tier set is somewhat uninspired. That being said, Deathstalker remains the undisputed best choice for any Cleave or AoE environment.

Fatebound is the more passive Hero Talent Tree for Assassination Rogue. It is centered around the idea of 'flipping coins' whenever you use a damaging finisher while hoping that you flip the same side of the Fatebound Coin multiple times in a row. The more you roll the same side of the coin back to back, the more damage you will deal, while certain Hero Talents help you guarantee the outcome of your coin flips for added consistency.

With the Patch 11.2 changes and tier-set, the flipping of the coin is no longer as random, and you are guaranteed to get the capstone buff as part of your opening rotation. On top of this, the Tier set changes your spec into a 90-second CD class, lowering the cooldown of Kingsbane to 45 seconds, and Deathmark to 90 seconds. With the buffs from the Fatebound coins, this version of Assassination has some incredible burst, but is sadly held back a little by the lack of potent 90-second CD trinket options to supplement this burst.

On pure single-target, Fatebound has some incredible DPS potential, but sadly it quickly falls behind Deathstalker once any kind of adds or additional bosses are involved. On pure AoE it is left in the dust entirely.

Fatebound is the more situational choice of the two, as it is only worth playing in this environment on pure single-target. Many fights have adds spawn throughout the fight, and that is where Deathstalker quickly pulls ahead.

On fights that punish 2-minute CD classes, and are more suitable to shorter CD bursts, Fatebound now offers the option to turn Assassination Rogue into a 90-second CD spec, provided you have the new Rogue Fatebound 11.2 Class Set 4pc.

Deathstalker is the go-to choice for Mythic+ due to its funnel-damage properties, as well as having useful boosts to Fan of Knives and Crimson Tempest, and buffing Rupture. While Fatebound offers some damage bonuses as well, Deathstalker is the preferred pick for M+ of any key-level. You can still play Fatebound if you want, but it will negatively affect your DPS output on AoE in a notable way.

4.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Assassination Rogue

Deathstalker Standard Build Fatebound Standard Build

5.

Best Deathstalker Build for Assassination Rogue

The Deathstalker build is the same for Mythic+ and Single-Target. While there are a few DPS choice nodes in the Deathstalker Tree, the chosen ones in the Tree below are numerically superior to the alternatives.

There might be some unique situations where Ethereal Cloak or Shroud of Night can make a difference, but unless you can leverage the extended duration for some tangible benefit, the currently selected options are more useful.

5.

Best Fatebound Build for Assassination Rogue

The Fatebound build is the same for Mythic+ and Single-Target. The tree is entirely passive, augmenting your flips and helping you generate longer chains of flipping your coin.

Two of the choice nodes are simply for Utility, with Death's Arrival allowing you to quickly Shadowstep to a ranged party member and back to the boss, potentially gaining you a second or two of additional boss uptime. You can pick between these choices freely, as they are all low impact and situational, to the point where they do not make much of a difference either way.

The only DPS choice node ends up with us picking Inevitable End, as it is simply stronger than the alternative talent.

For more general information on your rotation, make sure to check out our rotation guide:

Make sure to always use Envenom with 7 CP when you have Darkest Night active, in order to re-apply Deathstalker's Mark to your main target.

This is the only rotational change for Deathstalker, and you will want to make sure that you do not run into the issue of having to refresh Rupture while Darkest Night is active. You will want to keep track of how many more finishers you have to cast before gaining the Darkest Night buff to avoid this from happening.

Thanks to the Rogue Fatebound 11.2 Class Set 2pc you will be guaranteed to receive the Fatebound capstone during your opener. The CD reducton of Rogue Fatebound 11.2 Class Set 4pc applies retroactively, so you do not have to worry about proccing it before you use your cooldowns.

This turns the spec into a 90-second high-burst spec, but sadly there aren't any good 90-second trinkets to boost the damage, which may end up resulting in us still using all our burst every 2 minutes anyway.

You will also want to macro Cold Blood into Kingsbane as this will naturally get you the most benefit out of this specific aspect of the Fatebound hero talent tree.