Assassination Rogue DPS Guide — The War Within (11.1.0)

The big class tuning changes on March 25th gave Assassination a small set of highly impactful changes. The overall gain of these buffs sits at around 4-6% on single-target, while the changes to AoE are minimal at best.

Our AoE damage was already among the highest in the game, so the below changes simply serve to boost our middling single-target DPS, and bring it in line with most of the other classes in the game. There are a handful of rotational changes that result from these buffs, which end up lowering some of the rotational complexity on single-target!

We received large buffs to Ambush and Mutilate, as well as a small aura buff (meaning, all damage except melee-attacks and trinkets), and some of the trinket tuning also benefits us slightly. The end result is a change in talents, as we drop Master Assassin and Improved Garrote to pick up Vicious Venoms on single-target instead, with the option to play Tiny Toxic Blade instead of Arterial Precision for pure single-target. We also no longer use Fan of Knives as part of our single-target rotation.

For the updated rotational priorites and talents, make sure to check out the dedicated sections of our Assassination Rogue guide!

Unfortunately, even the massive Patch 11.1 has brought very few changes to Assassination Rogue. At its core the spec remains the same it has always been with most changes only aiming to slightly boost our Bleed damage in AoE scenarios.

If you are a returning player who stopped playing shortly after The War Within launched, you will find that Assassination continues to be a very solid spec for Raid performance, while being a bit easier to play than at the very start of the expansion. For a comprehensive list of all 11.1 Assassination and Rogue changes, we got you covered!

These changes have been active since Patch 11.1.

• Rupture and Crimson Tempest have been buffed by 6%.
• Talent changed: Arterial Precision. Shiv now applies to 8 target, instead of 5.
• Sudden Demise was buffed to increase Bleed damage by 15% (previously 10).

These changes largely aim to boost our Bleed DoT in AoE, which was previously dominated by just spamming Envenom and sharing this damage via Caustic Spatter. We might see some alternative Mythic+ builds that take Arterial Precision going forward.

These changes have been active since the 20th Anniversary Patch 11.0.5, but if you are a returning player, we recommend you take a quick look at what changed since expansion release.

• Talent replaced: Echoing Reprimand. This was replaced with Supercharger, which adds 1/2 Supercharged Combo Points after using Shiv. Casting damaging finishers consumes one of these, making them function as if cast with 2 additional Combo Points (3 with a follow-up talent). This means you can theoretically cast multiple 10 Combo Point Rupture, Crimson Tempest or Envenom.
• Talent replaced: Resounding Clarity/ Reverberation. This choice node was replaced with Echoing Reprimand and Forced Induction.
• Talent changed: Thistle Tea. This talent now procs automatically when below a certain Energy threshold, so you don't necessarily have to use it manually anymore (you still want to for maximum DPS).
• Talent added: Thrill Seeking. This talent adds a charge to your active movement ability.
• Cut to the Chase now also grants Slice and Dice if it is not already active, meaning you never have to press SnD yourself again.
• Feint is no longer on the Global Cooldown.
• Subterfuge now adds to the already existing Stealth-Cast window, giving us 12 seconds of Garrote stealth benefits if talented alongside Improved Garrote.

• Talent changed: Twist the Knife. This talent now has asynchronous stacking, allowing you to benefit from the buff twice if two stacks are active. This also applies to any effects caused by Envenom being applied twice, i.e. Dashing Scoundrel or Rapid Injection.
• Master Assassin now lasts longer but had its effect slightly reduced.
• Iron Wire had its silence duration reduced in both PvE and PvP.

Fatebound also received some minor buffs, but none of them affect gameplay in any way.