Assassination Rogue DPS Guide — Dragonflight 10.0.5

Last updated on Mar 05, 2023 at 18:30 by Seliathan 55 comments
General Information

Welcome to our Assassination Rogue guide for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.5. Here, you will learn how to play as an Assassination Rogue in both raids and Mythic+ dungeons: from the very beginning to maximizing your DPS.

If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Assassination Rogue guide.

1.

Assassination Rogue Overview

Assassination Rogues deal damage through the application and empowerment of poison and bleed effects. The damage toolkit of Assassination is somewhat limited, mainly focusing on dealing single-target damage over a long period. As with the other Rogue specializations, Assassination sports phenomenal defensive abilities that allow them to soak and survive mechanics that most other classes cannot.

2.

Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
X Weaknesses
  • -Lack of burst damage outside of very specific talent builds.
  • -Target-swapping is difficult if enemies are not within melee range.
  • -Distinct talent builds for single-target and AoE means there is no catch-all build.
3.

Assassination Rogue in Dragonflight Patch 10.0.5

Assassination has received a variety of changes, that serve as the foundation for removing some of the issues with the class and talent tree, and these efforts will continue into future patches to fully "fix" some of the concerns.

Feint Icon Feint is now baseline, and Elusiveness Icon Elusiveness and Cheat Death Icon Cheat Death are further up the tree now.

Two new talents were added, one on the class and one on the spec tree: Unbreakable Stride Icon Unbreakable Stride and Arterial Precision Icon Arterial Precision.

Sepsis Icon Sepsis received a slight buff, but is still worse than Serrated Bone Spike Icon Serrated Bone Spike.

Kingsbane Icon Kingsbane has moved positions and is now a choice node with Dragon-Tempered Blades Icon Dragon-Tempered Blades. Arterial Precision Icon Arterial Precision has taken the old location of Kingsbane and offers some slight cleave-damage increase. Kingsbane is unplayable with the current state of its tuning.

Dashing Scoundrel Icon Dashing Scoundrel now only costs 2 Talent Points, offering slightly more build variety in the Spec tree.

If you liked the way Assassination played before Dragonflight Patch 10.0.5, with a focus on multi-dotting, ramping damage, and powerful cooldowns, then you will feel right at home in the new patch as well.

4.

Leveling an Assassination Rogue

If you want to level a new Rogue for Dragonflight, you should check out our leveling guide to help you on your journey.

If at any point you feel like you would like to customize your user interface or have been wondering if there are any useful macros or addons that might further your enjoyment and performance on your Rogue, you should check out our Addon section.

5.

Basics of Assassination Rogue Gameplay

Assassination Rogue is a spec that utilizes a Combo Point system and spreads its damage over time effects to generate additional resources, while maintaining a couple of high-impact buffs and debuffs to deal strong sustained DPS.

Generating additional resources is core to the spec, so making sure to maintain both Garrote Icon Garrote and Rupture Icon Rupture at all times is of vital importance due to Venomous Wounds Icon Venomous Wounds. Combo Points are generated by using either Mutilate Icon Mutilate on single-target or Fan of Knives Icon Fan of Knives on AoE. Excess Combo Points that are not used on Rupture can be spent on Envenom Icon Envenom to increase the passive damage your poisons provide. Shiv Icon Shiv offers some minor burst-damage potential on a low cooldown.

For more information on the basics of the spec you can check out the Spell Summary to get a good idea of the abilities you will be using while playing Assassination. If you are completely new to playing Assassination Rogue, we suggest taking a look at the Easy Mode page below to get a general idea of how to set up your new character.

If you already have some experience playing a Rogue or have familiarized yourself with the basics of the Spec you can also read up more information on how to optimize your Rotation and the individual strengths of the different Talents.

6.

How to Gear Up as an Assassination Rogue

With all the different gearing options that are available to you, you might ask yourself what gear is worth chasing after. Since a lot of the decisions and variables depend on the gear that you are already wearing right now we strongly recommend "simming" yourself. You can find more information on how to do that, as well as a list of the current Best in Slot gear for newly-leveled characters and advice on wearing two legendaries on our dedicated gearing page.

After gearing up your character, the next step is to apply the appropriate enchants and gems, as well as prepare the best potions, flasks, and buff food. Which consumables are the best for you depends on your stat priority, which might change depending on your gear, talents, and the type of content you are about to tackle. The following two sections of the guide address all questions about consumables as well as the shifting stat priorities for Assassination Rogues.

7.

End-Game as an Assassination Rogue

The gameplay of your Assassination Rogue will change drastically once you start getting access to better and higher item-level gear. Once you feel that you are ready to tackle some of the most difficult content the game has to offer you should check out the dedicated pages for each type of content below. You will find helpful tips and tricks, recommendations on your talents and equipment as well as general information on mechanics and guidance on what to look out for as you make your way to the top.

8.

Improving as an Assassination Rogue

Once you have your gear in order and are looking to improve not just your character itself but also your gameplay, you can check out these helpful sections as a first step into analyzing your own performance in more detail.

9.

Changelog

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