Assassination Rogue DPS Guide (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• ×Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Strengths
  • 6. Weaknesses
  • 7. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 8. Contents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
    • 2.2. General Purpose/Leveling
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Third Golden Trait
    • 1.4. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
  • 2. Poisons
  • 3. Important Notes
    • 3.1. The Interaction Between Combo Points and Energy
    • 3.2. Pooling Energy and Combo Points
    • 3.3. Surge of Toxins
    • 3.4. Rupture
      • 3.4.1. Pandemic and Rupture Refresh
    • 3.5. Vendetta Usage
    • 3.6. Kingsbane
    • 3.7. Defensive Utility
  • 4. Core Concepts
    • 4.1. Ability Uptimes
    • 4.2. Cooldown Usage
    • 4.3. Resource Management
    • 4.4. Opening Sequence
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Boss by Boss Strategies
  • 1. Tomb of Sargeras
    • 1.1. Goroth
      • 1.1.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.2. The Demonic Inquisition
      • 1.2.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.3. Harjatan
      • 1.3.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.4. Sisters of the Moon
      • 1.4.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.5. Mistress Sassz'ine
      • 1.5.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.6. The Desolate Host
      • 1.6.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.7. Maiden of Vigilance
      • 1.7.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.8. Fallen Avatar
      • 1.8.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.9. Kil'jaeden
      • 1.9.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
  • 2. The Nighthold
    • 2.1. Skorpyron
      • 2.1.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.2. Chronomatic Anomaly
      • 2.2.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.3. Trilliax
      • 2.3.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.4. Spellblade Aluriel
      • 2.4.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.5. Tichondrius
      • 2.5.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.6. Star Augur Etraeus
      • 2.6.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.7. Krosus
      • 2.7.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.8. High Botanist Tel'arn
      • 2.8.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.9. Grand Magistrix Elisande
      • 2.9.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 2.10. Gul'dan
      • 2.10.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Stat Priority
    • 1.1. Master Poisoner/Toxic Blade
    • 1.2. Elaborate Planning/Alacrity
    • 1.3. Elaborate Planning/Exsanguinate
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
    • 1.1. Master Poisoner/Toxic Blade or Elaborate Planning/Alacrity
    • 1.2. Elaborate Planning/Exsanguinate
  • 2. Enchants
    • 2.1. Master Poisoner/Toxic Blade or Elaborate Planning/Alacrity
    • 2.2. Elaborate Planning/Exsanguinate
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. AddOns
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. Death Note
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Startattack Macros
    • 2.2. Tricks of the Trade
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Best in Slot List
    • 2.1. Trinket List
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Racial Bonuses
  • 5. Legendaries
  • 6. Loot Competition
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

Welcome to our Assassination Rogue DPS guide for World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. Here, you will learn everything you need to know about playing an Assassination Rogue in a raid environment and in Mythic+ dungeons.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Perfecto, an Outlaw/Assassination Rogue who raids in Method.

1. Class Overview

Assassination Rogue focuses primarily on dealing damage through the application of lethal poisons and bleed effects. They have a wide array of abilities to deal with a multitude of fight types, but they especially excel at dealing high single target burst damage. Similar to other Rogue specializations, Assassination also provides a wide array of crowd control utility which can be invaluable in controlling adds. Rogues also excel at dealing with abilities that need to be soaked and deal high damage, as they have a variety of defensive tools to mitigate or avoid damage. High personal mobility also makes them excellent at kiting fixates or sticking to mobile targets.

2. Patch 7.3 Changes

• None

3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes

• New legendary items have been added.
• All damage done increased by 10%.
• Agonizing Poison has been removed and replaced by Toxic Blade.
• Exsanguinate bleed out speed increased to 150% (up from 100%). It now costs 25 Energy to cast.
• Fan of Knives damage increased by 40%.
• Vendetta now affects Poison Bomb damage.

4. Patch 7.2 Changes

• New Artifact traits added.
• Bag of Tricks is now a 2.5% chance proc per Combo Point spent.
• Urge to Kill now causes Vendetta to grant 60 Energy, plus an additional 60 Energy over 2 seconds.

5. Strengths

• Strong and consistent single target damage
• Exceptional defensive utility
• Fantastic mobility

6. Weaknesses

• Weak AoE and cleave
• Very cooldown reliant, and cooldowns only affect one target

7. Viability in the Current Patch

Assassination is currently a below average specialization in the Tomb of Sargeras, with little flexibility in how it deals damage and no major niche that outshines competitors.

8. Contents

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 11 pages:

• Easy Mode: TL;DR to own without reading much;
• Spell Summary: see a summary of all your useful spells;
• Builds and Talents: learn how to choose your talents;
• Artifact Traits and Relics: discover how to level up your Artifact;
• Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths: choose the right paths on your Netherlight Crucible;
• Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities: master your rotation and your cooldowns;
• Boss by Boss Strategies: find out how to defeat current content bosses;
• Stat Priority: read up on the respective values of your statistics;
• Gems, Enchants, and Consumables: choose the best gems, enchantments, etc.;
• Macros and Addons: step up your game with useful macros and addons;
• Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot: find the best gear you can wear.

9. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 17 Sep. 2017 (gear page): Updated 4-set bonus from 40% to 60%.
• 13 Sep. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Updated Tier 2 priority after recent rebalancing based on new SimCraft results.
• 12 Sep. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Added Netherlight Crucible page for Assassination Rogue.
• 10 Sep. 2017 (bosses page): Added boss by boss page for Tomb of Sargeras. Updated Nighthold talent choices.
• 10 Sep. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic Priority and added a note about the 3-Master Assassin relic setup.
• 10 Sep. 2017 (gear page): Updated Best-in-Slot and trinket list with a new paragraph on recommended trinket combinations.
• 10 Sep. 2017 (rotation page): Updated opener.
• 29 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Added a mention about Healthstones in Patch 7.3, removed a mention of Old War, and slightly redesigned "Consumables" section.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (talents page): Updated talents for Patch 7.3.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (rotation page): Added a more detailed explanation of Toxic Blade usage.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (this page): Updated strengths/weaknesses and viability section. Added 7.3 changes.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Added Lightforged Augment Rune and new 7.3 epic gems.
• 28 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Updated trinket list.
• 28 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Updated opener.
• 28 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic Priority.
• 18 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added Tomb of Sargeras Best-in-Slot and Tier 20 set bonus.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added The Empty Crown and Soul of the Shadowblade to the Legendary items section.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (enchants page): Updated consumables according to our new split stat priorities.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (stats page): Split stat priority into 3 sections for each T6 talent combination and removed stat weights.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): A few improvements here and there. Split opener in 2 sections: with and without Mantle of the Master Assassin.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic Priority.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Updated for Patch 7.2.5 (Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 6).
• 12 Jun. 2017 (spells page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.2.5 changes.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated talents for Patch 7.2.5.
• 17 May 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic Priority and 7.2 pathing slightly.
• 29 Mar. 2017 (enchants page): Added Lavish Suramar Feast.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (talents page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.2 changes.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (artifact page): Added path for new 7.2 traits.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (gear page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (rotation page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 07 Mar. 2017 (rotation page): Numerous updates, new sections added, reworked several existing sections.
• 05 Mar. 2017 (artifact page): Added further exposition in the Duskwalker's section.
• 05 Mar. 2017 (gear page): Updated trinket list slightly.
• 13 Feb. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic priority, added additional explanation for Master Assassin Relics.
• 13 Feb. 2017 (talents page): Minor update to talent descriptions.
• 13 Feb. 2017 (gear page): Updated trinket list & legendary priority.
• 13 Feb. 2017 (stats page): Minor wording update.
• 10 Feb. 2017 (bosses page): Added boss by boss page for Nighthold.
• 26 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic priority; Toxic Blades roughly on par with Gushing Wound with Tier 19 4-piece bonus.
• 26 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Updated trinket list following stealth hotfixes.
• 24 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Full update including Nighthold Best-in-Slot list, trinket update, and set bonus explanation.
• 18 Jan. 2017 (this page): Updated viability section.
• 14 Jan. 2017 (rotation page): Trimmed some mentions of Deeper Strategem and updated opener.
• 14 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Added a new Relic priority for players with Duskwalker's Footpads.
• 14 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Added new legendary items and updated ranking.
• 14 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Minor update to talents; Alacrity for multitarget.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (enchants page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (easy mode page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (stats page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (rotation page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (this page): Added a Patch 7.1.5 changes section and updated strengths/weaknesses.
• 21 Dec. 2016 (easy mode page): Added easy mode for Assassination Rogues.
• 11 Dec. 2016 (this page): Further clarified wording in weaknesses to make sure no ambiguity was possible.
• 09 Dec. 2016 (gear page): Updated trinkets and legendary lists.
• 09 Dec. 2016 (artifact page): Updated Relic priorities (Master Assassin/Master Alchemist).
• 09 Dec. 2016 (this page): Revised weaknesses a little.
• 09 Dec. 2016 (stats page): Minor update to AP stat priority (Crit=Vers).
• 09 Dec. 2016 (talents page): Updated talent tiers (T1/T2/T3/T6) to include further details and references to legendaries and Mythic+.
• 09 Dec. 2016 (rotation page): Updated Kingsbane section, Opening Sequence, and Action Priority List.
• 02 Nov. 2016 (talents page): Updated Raid Encounters build to include a reference to Exsanguinate for players with lower item levels/Mastery levels.
• 02 Nov. 2016 (rotation page): Updated pooling section to make note of Urge to Kill.
• 02 Nov. 2016 (stats page): Added Exsanguinate priority for players with lower item levels/Mastery levels.
• 25 Oct. 2016 (this page): No changes in patch 7.1.
• 25 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Updated Kingsbane section to note that it generates a Combo Point in Patch 7.1.
• 22 Oct. 2016 (this page): Updated viability.
• 07 Oct. 2016 (artifact page): Updated Relic choice.
• 07 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Adjusted page to be further in line with the Agonizing Poison build.
• 06 Oct. 2016 (gear page): Updated best in slot & legendary list.
• 05 Oct. 2016 (talents page): Updated talent build.
• 05 Oct. 2016 (stats page): Updated stat priority and weights.
• 05 Oct. 2016 (enchants page): Updated enchants and food to be in line with current stat priority.
• 05 Oct. 2016 (this page): Updated strengths/weaknesses and viability section.
• 05 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Updated opener.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (talents page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (artifact page): Added.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (stats page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (this page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (spells page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (gear page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Updated Weapon Enchants with a note on Shadowmoon ICD.
• 29 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Updated Opening Sequence & added note about 5-6 CP vs. 6 CP finisher usage.
• 19 Jul. 2016 (talents page): Made Thuggee an alternative to Prey on the Weak in Tier 5.
• 19 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Removed trinket sims and added BiS recommendations.
• 19 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Added a mention about safe Pandemic refresh for Rupture.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (this page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (spells page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (addons page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (stats page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (talents page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.