2.1.
New Content
The Midnight Season 1 launch has finally arrived, and with it we get a lot of new
goodies to play with. From a new Tier-Set, to three new raids, as well as the start
of the Mythic+ and PvP Season 1, there is a lot of new content to engage with. If you
want to check out any of the new content, make sure to head over to the dedicated sections!
2.2.
Class Tuning
For the start of Season 1, Assassination received no changes whatsoever. Blizzard previously
announced that there will be multiple tuning passes in the first few weeks of the season though,
so we are looking forward to hopefully receiving updates in the first few weeks of S1. We
will ensure to update this guide as soon as new changes occur, or new theorycrafting findings have
been made. Even without major or even minor changes, there is still new things to discover
in this guide, from new BiS lists to updated information on Mythic+ builds.
When it comes to tuning adjustments, our next planned pass is expected to arrive
with the Midnight Season 1 launch on March 17. Our next pass will follow immediately
afterwards utilizing data gathered during the week Heroic difficulties are available;
these changes will go live with the launch of Mythic raid difficulty and Mythic+ on
March 24.
Beyond these dates, we will look to perform more tuning passes based on data gathered
during the starting weeks of Mythic difficulty for Season 1 and the March on Quel’Danas
available the week of March 31.For these two passes we err on the side of caution with
the amount of tuning we do until their respective Mythic end-bosses die to avoid being
overly disruptive to progression. After these key dates we will have several check-in passes
planned roughly a month apart. Once players obtain higher item level and better optimized gear
sets, the throughput of several specs will shift up or down relative to others and we feel
it’s important to be diligent in looking at the current state of class balance as time goes on.
The Midnight Launch has finally arrived, and there are a large amount of changes
to Assassination Rogue, both for the Spec itself as well as changes to the Rogue
class in general. Many of these changes have already been applied with the
Pre-Patch prior to the expansion's launch, but we have listed the entire set of changes
here for returning players, and to ensure you know exactly what awaits you when you explore
Midnight on your Assassination Rogue.
The main goal behind many of the changes is to strengthen the
identity of the two Hero Talent trees, 
Deathstalker and 
Fatebound,
changing rotational gameplay flow by making Energy a more impactful resource again,
and changing the AoE rotation to more closely resemble our single-target rotation.
As a result of these changes, a lot of skills have been pruned or re-designed, and we
have outlined the most impactful changes below, highlighting how they affect your regular
gameplay compared to the version of Assassination that you might already be used to. Fret not,
however, as the rotational gameplay loop is still very similar to the one that Assassination
has relied on for years, so even if you are returning to the game with Midnight after a longer break,
you will not feel lost!
2.3.
Hero Talent Changes
Deathstalker's Mark will be easier to apply as it is no longer tied to Ambush,
removing the requirement of having to be in 
Stealth. However, it is harder to switch marks, as you can
no longer 
Vanish and 
Ambush to apply it to a target of your choosing. The only
way to swap marks is by waiting for a 
Darkest Night proc and swapping the mark
to a different target. You will also be able to trigger Darkest Night at 5+ Combo Points,
instead of needing to use a maximum Combo Point Envenom, which will make the
rotation a bit more forgiving to play, but in most scenarios you will want to still use
it at maximum CP.
Fatebound is finally able to compete in AoE, thanks to 
Fate Intertwined
drastically boosting 
Caustic Spatter. Rolling Fatebound Coins is also more
consistent now, and no longer requires Vanish or the now-removed 
Cold Blood to
consistently hit the capstone buff. This improves the usability of Fatebound
in all cases, giving it a more reliable benefit to our damage profile, while
still retaining its core identity of flipping coins.
2.4.
Rotational Aspects
By far the biggest change to our rotation is a renewed heavy emphasis on chaining
Envenom. There are numerous talents that received large buffs to
encourage creating long chains of casting Envenom right before it expires, and
our Apex Talent Implacable further emphasizes this identity as well.
Some of the most impactful talents supporting this playstyle are:
- Inspiring Strike
A new choice-node talent at the bottom of the tree, that boosts all of our
class-damage when chaining Envenoms.
Poisoner's Drive
The alternative talent to Inspiring Strike, which grants 1 Combo Point instead
when chaining properly.
Rapid Injection
This talent was massively buffed to grant 30% increased Envenom damage when
chaining.
2.5.
Apex Talent: Implacable
Implacable is our Apex Talent in Midnight, and it covers some of the weaknesses
of Assassination by providing a surge of Energy whenever your Envenom chain runs out. This
means you will not be spending seconds without any buttons to press anymore once you run out
of Energy, and between 
Thistle Tea and Implacable, you can get back to
using your abilities quite fast.
The other benefits, Implacable and Implacable are largely just additional
DPS gains on top of the initial benefit, and generating CP automatically after using 
Kingsbane
is a welcome bonus too.
2.6.
Energy Generation
Our Energy generation has been changed quite dramatically as well. Unlike
the previous The War Within iteration of the spec, you will receive much less
Energy from 
Venomous Wounds, and instead generate more Energy
passively. This change also heavily lowers our Energy generation in AoE,
leading to less overcapping, and highlighting the importance of the moment-to-moment
decision-making when it comes to the abilities you spend your resources on.
2.7.
Cooldown Adjustments
Shiv no longer grants any bonus damage, and all talents that boosted
either its direct damage, or made it apply bonus damage effects to enemies, have
been removed. It now serves as a utility ability for its Soothe, while no longer
being part of our DPS rotation whatsoever.
Deathmark no longer duplicates bleeds, instead making them deal
more damage, and the Energy loss from that is off-set by it generating Energy by itself.
Kingsbane is more accessible and will likely be a required pick
for any build as our 1-minute cooldown.
2.8.
AoE DPS
Our rotational gameplay in AoE has been simplified a lot, with both our single-target
and AoE rotation now being very similar to one another. The main reason for
this is the new design of 
Crimson Tempest, which combines the effects of
Fan of Knives and 
Indiscriminate Carnage by being a CP builder that also
spreads bleeds. It costs more Energy than FoK and deals less damage, so you will have
to decide which of these abilities you will be using in AoE as your main builders at any given time.
Caustic Spatter has also been changed to no longer require active
bleeds or poisons to be applied, and triggers off of casting Envenom and Kingsbane.
No more having to use Mutilate or Ambush in AoE!
Deathstalker
Fatebound
