Assassination Rogue DPS Guide — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1.5

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. Patch 8.1 Changes for Assassination Rogue

Assassination did not receive many changes in 8.1, and remains a fairly competitive spec. However, due to changes in Azerite traits, AoE potential has gone up, which is a welcome change, especially in Mythic+.

• Echoing Blades is a new trait that replaces Fan of Blades .
• Nothing Personal is a new trait that replaces Poisoned Wire .

3. Assassination Rogue Strengths

• Strong and consistent single target damage
• Strong sustained cleave (good for council fights)
• Exceptional defensive utility

4. Assassination Rogue Weaknesses

• Burst AoE and short-term cleave
• Very cooldown-reliant, and cooldowns only affect one target

5. Assassination Rogue Viability in the Current Patch

Assassination is currently fairly competitive with both of the other Rogue specializations. It is hard to say definitively which spec will be the best for Uldir, as there are still numerous number changes going out, and all three specializations have the mechanical potential to be the best, so this will come down mostly to tuning. That being said, Subtlety does appear to sim about 2% higher than Assassination.

6. Changelog