Assassination Rogue DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.0.2)

With the release of The War Within, the gear treadmill begins anew once more.

The War Within once again uses the Crest upgrade system that was introduced in Dragonflight. We recommend that you check out our dedicated page for more information on this gear upgrade system if you are not yet familiar with it:

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BiS Gear for Assassination Rogue

With the sheer amount of gear available early on in an expansion, we will be providing you with a Pre-Season gear list that is worth chasing after. Once we move closer to the start of Season 1 that sees Nerub-ar Palace and Mythic+ open; we will once again provide you with multiple BiS lists for all content types as well.

Pre-Season Gear List

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Pre-Season Gear List for Assassination Rogue

This list contains an early set of gear that will help you get started into the first season of The War Within once it opens its doors on September 11th/12th.

This list is by no means a replacement for simming yourself. Depending on your previous Great Vault choices and the gear you have available to yourself, your BiS gear might look different than this list in some spots.

Slot	Item	Source/Note
Mainhand Weapon	Crepuscular Carver (580)	The Darkness in Heroic Darkflame Cleft
Offhand Weapon	Crepuscular Carver (580)	The Darkness in Heroic Darkflame Cleft
Helm	Helm of the Righteous Crusade (580)	Baron Braunpyke in Heroic Priory of the Sacred Flame
Neck	'Emergency Stop' Keychain (580)	E.D.N.A. in Heroic The Stonevault
Shoulder	Whispering Umbral Mantle (580)	Void Speaker Eirich in Heroic The Stonevault
Cloak	Chef Chewie's Towel (580)	Brew Master Aldryr in Heroic Cinderbrew Meadery
Chest	Viscera-Lathered Coat (580)	Izo, the Grand Splicer in Heroic City of Threads
Bracers	Unbreakable Beetlebane Bindings (580)	Anub'zekt in Heroic Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Gloves	Tempestwind Handlers (580)	Kyrioss in Heroic The Rookery
Belt	Shadow Congregant's Belt (580)	Speaker Shadowcrown in Heroic The Dawnbreaker
Legs	Gauzewoven Legguards (580)	Avanoxx in Heroic Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Boots	Whisperer's Echoing Steps (580)	Orator Krix'vizk in Heroic City of Threads
Ring #1	85-Year Tenure Ring (580)	Goldie Baronbottom in Heroic Cinderbrew Meadery
Ring #2	Hoop of the Blighted (580)	Voidstone Monstrosity in Heroic The Rookery
Trinket #1	Signet of the Priory (580)	Captain Dailcry in Heroic Priory of the Sacred Flame
Trinket #2	Ara-Kara Sacbrood (580)	Avanoxx in Heroic Ara-Kara, City of Echoes

With all the different layers of gearing currently available to players, it is impossible to cover all edge cases and individual recommendations in a guide. We therefore highly recommend simming your own character by using Raidbots. This website allows for precise and individualized recommendations that consider your exact talents, gear, trinket, and all the other layers of gearing that the game has to offer. Learning to use this tool is essential to maximizing your potential, as it is the only reliable way to get information on which piece of gear, enchant, gem, or trinket is the best for your character.

The Droptimizer feature from Raidbots lets you identify which dungeons and Raid Bosses offer the highest DPS upgrades to you. It simulates all of the potential upgrades in a raid or a dungeon and lists the bosses/dungeons by rank order of how much DPS you can expect to gain from each of the items it drops. We have a guide for it that you can access using the link below.

Professions are a great way to gear up with your optimal secondary stats, as generating specific secondary stat combinations is now possible when adding special items to the crafting process. With the heavily reworked crafting system in The War Within, exploring the new professions will help you gear up throughout the expansion, as you will be able to craft some Mythic Raid item-level pieces further down the line.

If you want to find out more about professions, make sure to check out our The War Within Profession guide!

As your ability to craft items will be time-gated in the initial stages of The War Within, we highly recommend getting a Main Hand weapon as soon as possible, unless you can reliably get one elsewhere. Once you have a good weapon, work on Embellished Items next, and then craft whichever pieces you do not have high-item-level versions of yet.

Up to two of your crafted items can be Embellished. This is a similar concept as Unique-Equipped, as you can only wear two items that have the Embellished status. Some crafted items, many of which have powerful procs or beneficial effects by default, are considered Embellished. You can also add Embellishments from a variety of professions to any crafted item, adding the effect to this item either when creating it or at a later stage.

In the current state, Embellished items are close to impossible to figure out, as they were heavily bugged right up until the end of the TWW beta, with many of them nonfunctional or tooltips being completely out of control. We will be updating this section as soon as possible, and you will have plenty of time to read up on the most up-to-date theorycrafting behind Embellished items once you gain your first Spark to craft items in TWW.

You can add sockets to your necklace and rings by using a Magnificent Jeweler's Setting on them. This will allow you to get up to six sockets on your gear.

You can also add sockets to Helmets, Belts, Bracers, Necks and Rings with a consumable you can get if you do not select any of the choices in your Great Vault. 6 of these tokens can be traded in for an item that allows you to add a socket to any piece of gear you acquired in Season 1.

Which gems and enchants to use heavily depends on your current stat priority. As previously mentioned, this priority can shift and change whenever you acquire new gear, so simming yourself to figure out the best use of your newly acquired socket is highly recommended. The general rule is to prioritize Critical Strike and Mastery on as many pieces of gear as possible, and prioritizing those stats for any consumables as well.