Assassination Rogue DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2

Disclaimer: With the vast amount of changes to Rogue and Assassination talents and abilities in Patch 10.2, we expect more findings and optimizations to surface as the Theorycrafting community continues their efforts to find the best possible way to play the spec. As a result, information on this page might receive frequent updates after Patch 10.2 hits live servers.

Welcome to our Rotation page for Assassination Rogues. Here you will find out more about your rotational priorities in both single-target and multi-target situations, which you will apply in both Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

If you are just starting, you might want to get more comfortable with your Assassination Rogue by using a more simplified yet still effective build and rotation. You can find out more about it in our Easy Mode section.

For information about Mythic+ as an Assassination Rogue and the rotation you need to use in this content type, please refer to our Mythic+ page.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.

This is a quick guide on how to play Assassination Rogue. You can find more details on how to use each individual ability further below.

• Use Mutilate as your single-target builder, and Envenom as your single-target spender. Use Ambush instead of Mutilate when available.
• Use Fan of Knives as your AoE builder, and maintain Crimson Tempest as your AoE spender. Use Mutilate or Ambush once every 10 seconds in AoE if talented into Caustic Spatter.
• Maintain Slice and Dice, Rupture and Garrote at all times.
• Use Shiv, Vanish, Echoing Reprimand, Sepsis, Kingsbane, Shadow Dance and Deathmark on cooldown.
• Use Thistle Tea to avoid overcapping charges.
• If talented into Nightstalker, you will want to snapshot your DoT effects during your stealth effects. This typically means that you will want to maximize the uptime of your Nightstalker empowered dots, and sync either Vanish or Shadow Dance with Kingsbane (you can Macro Shadow Dance and Kingsbane together).

This is the general priority list on how to use your abilities. This is NOT a list that should be followed step by step; it simply serves as a good idea on which things to prioritize in your moment-to-moment gameplay, as you will often be faced with multiple choices on which buttons to press. The priority list simply highlights which buttons are more important than others. You can find a sample opener sequence further below on this page.

1. Apply Slice and Dice with 1+ Combo Points, and maintain it by casting Envenom with 4+ Combo Points.
2. Use Serrated Bone Spike if the debuff is not yet present.
3. Maintain Garrote, casted from Stealth when possible.
4. Maintain Rupture with 4+ Combo Points.
5. Use Echoing Reprimand on cooldown (if talented).
6. Use Shadow Dance on cooldown. Make sure to refresh Rupture and Garrote while it is running to snapshot the Nightstalker damage bonus. You can macro this ability together with Kingsbane.
7. Use Kingsbane on cooldown. Make sure to sync it with all the other buffs.
8. Use Sepsis on cooldown. Use one empowered Garrote immediately, and one right before the debuff ends (~17seconds after you cast Sepsis).
9. Activate Deathmark when available.
10. Activate Vanish on cooldown. Do not use it in your opener immediately. Hold it to sync this ability with the last 3 seconds of your Kingsbane for the Master Assassin buff, and to refresh Garrote.
11. Use one charge of Shiv before Kingsbane and extend it with the second charge to cover the entire duration of Kingsbane. Use Shiv outside of cooldowns to avoid overcapping charges.
12. Use Serrated Bone Spike (if talented) to avoid overcapping charges.
13. Cast Envenom with 4+ Combo Points. Refresh Envenom in the last second of its duration, to maximize the damage from Rogue Assassination 10.2 Class Set 4pc.
14. Cast Ambush to generate Combo Points whenever it is usable.
15. Cast Mutilate to generate Combo Points.
16. Use Thistle Tea whenever you have more than 100 Energy missing. Make sure to hold at least one charge for each Kingsbane.

1. Apply Slice and Dice with 1+ Combo Points, and maintain it by casting Envenom with 4+ Combo Points.
2. Use Serrated Bone Spike (if talented) if the debuff is not yet present.
3. Make sure you are in stealth for Indiscriminate Carnage.
4. Maintain Garrote, cast from Stealth when possible, on as many targets as possible.
5. Maintain Crimson Tempest.
6. Cast and Maintain the Envenom buff with 4+ Combo Points. Refresh Envenom in the last second of its duration, to maximize the damage from Rogue Assassination 10.2 Class Set 4pc.
7. Maintain Rupture with 4+ Combo Points on as many targets as possible.
8. Maintain Caustic Spatter by using Mutilate once every 10 seconds to generate Combo Points.
9. Use Echoing Reprimand on cooldown (if talented).
10. Use Shadow Dance on cooldown. Make sure to refresh Rupture and Garrote while it is running to snapshot the Nightstalker damage bonus. You can macro this ability together with Kingsbane.
11. Use Kingsbane on cooldown. Make sure to sync it with all the other buffs.
12. Use Sepsis on cooldown (if talented). Use one empowered Garrote immediately, and one right before the debuff ends (~17seconds after you cast Sepsis).
13. Activate Deathmark when available.
14. Activate Vanish on cooldown. Do not use it in your opener immediately. Hold it to sync this ability with the last 3 seconds of your Kingsbane for the Master Assassin buff, and to refresh Garrote.
15. Use one charge of Shiv before Kingsbane and extend it with the second charge to cover the entire duration of Kingsbane. Use Shiv outside of cooldowns to avoid overcapping charges.
16. Use Serrated Bone Spike (if talented) to avoid overcapping charges.
17. Cast Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points on 3+ targets.
18. Use Thistle Tea whenever you have more than 100 Energy missing. Make sure to hold at least one charge for each Kingsbane.

• You will only ever cast Slice and Dice once per fight. You will naturally maintain it whenever you cast Envenom as a regular part of your rotation, thanks to Cut to the Chase.
• Optimal usage of finishers is at 4+ Combo Points, even with Deeper Stratagem.
• If Rupture is about to fall off, it can be reapplied with any number of Combo Points to maintain uptime. It is best to apply it with 4+ Combo Points, however, for maximum Energy efficiency and rotational fluidity.
• Sepsis will grant you two casts of free stealth-based abilities. These benefit from all talents, including Improved Garrote. You should always use these casts on Garrote. You receive one free cast when using Sepsis, and one when Sepsis expires. You can use these for up to 10 seconds, and the goal is to cast one immediately after Sepsis, and one as late as possible, right before the Sepsis buff expires. This guarantees maximum empowered Garrote uptime.
• You will always want to sync Kingsbane and Vanish on single-target, granting the last 3 seconds of Kingsbane the crit bonus from Master Assassin.
• Always hold and chain both charges of Shiv with Kingsbane when talented into it, to ensure the entire Kingsbane receives the bonus damage.
• When talented into Indiscriminate Carnage, you will want to make sure to use Improved Garrote empowered Garrotes to spread it to all targets, and using maximum Combo Point Rupture as well.
• Nightstalker snapshots its damage bonus to the entire duration of your DoT effects (Rupture, Garrote, Kingsbane). Make sure to refresh these abilities while Vanish or Shadowdance are active.

Rogue Assassination 10.2 Class Set 2pc has no bearing on your rotational gameplay.

Rogue Assassination 10.2 Class Set 4pc requires you to clip your Envenoms. Envenom pandemics, so as long as the previous Envenom debuff is within the last 30% of Envenoms duration, you can refresh it to maximize Envenom uptime while ensuring the highest benefit from the tier-set.

Your Lethal Poison should always be Deadly Poison and Amplifying Poison.

You have three choices for your non-lethal Poison, Crippling Poison, Atrophic Poison, and Numbing Poison. For raiding, you will want to use Atrophic Poison unless your raid wants you to slow a specific group of targets. For Mythic+, you will want to use the Poison that best suits your tank's needs. Crippling Poison allows your tank to more easily kite enemies, whereas Numbing Poison slows their attack speed instead, while Atrophic Poison reduces the damage the group takes from enemy attacks and spells.

The 50% damage buff from Improved Garrote, and the damage bonus from Nightstalker are removed when you overwrite the bleed you empowered by re-applying an unempowered bleed. Therefore, it is best to let the DoT run its full duration before refreshing it.

Whenever casting Shadow Dance and Vanish, make sure to refresh Garrote.

When you refresh Rupture, Garrote, Crimson Tempest, Envenom or Slice and Dice before they expire, the remaining duration is added to the newly applied effect, up to 30% of the newly applied base duration. This mechanic is called "Pandemic."

Example — You can safely refresh a 5-Combo Point Rupture when it has 7.2 seconds or less remaining because its base duration is 24 seconds. Deeper Stratagem allows for 6 Combo Point Ruptures, which last 28 seconds. 6-Combo Point Ruptures can be refreshed safely when they have 8.4 seconds or less remaining.

Safe Pandemic refresh timing is based on the newly applied base duration and not the original length of the effect. Therefore, a 2 Combo Point Rupture can benefit from full Pandemic if it is refreshed by a 5-6 Combo Point Rupture. We explain how to take advantage of this in the opening sequence later in the guide.

As an Assassination Rogue, many of your abilities require Energy to be utilized. Your baseline rate of Energy regeneration is 10 Energy per second. However, it is increased by:

• current Haste rating (Haste and Haste-enhancing buffs);
• the Venomous Wounds talent;
• the Venom Rush talent;
• the Dashing Scoundrel talent;
• the Thistle Tea active ability talent;
• the passive regeneration increase of Vigor.

Higher Energy regeneration allows for higher uptimes on Envenom, which awards much higher DPS over an extended encounter.

It is very important to avoid resource overflow. Capping Energy and overcapping Combo Points (unless caused by Seal Fate procs) is an egregious error. Special care should be taken to avoid wasting precious resources. "Pooling" higher levels of Energy, however, can be very beneficial (provided you do not overcap), as it allows you to store resources in anticipation of a window of burst damage. This can help reduce the patchiness of your debuff/buff uptimes, which will result in more consistent and smoother damage output.

Combo Point generation is increased by Seal Fate, which causes your critical hits with melee Combo generators to add Combo Points to your target per critical hit. This means Mutilate can generate up to 4 Combo Points if the main hand and the off-hand both critically strike. Fan of Knives can generate the maximum number of Combo Points with a single cast if it critically strikes 5 or more targets. You should never cast a Combo Point generator at or above 4 Combo Points, unless it is Garrote or Poisoned Knife (as neither of these benefits from Seal Fate). Do not use Poisoned Knife to reach maximum Combo Points, unless you are out of range of the boss and in danger of hitting the Energy cap.

It can be very beneficial to "pool" your Energy and Combo Points, which involves auto-attacking while your Energy regenerates. The advantage this provides is variable, meaning that pooling does not always result in damage gained. Situations where pooling Energy and Combo Points is beneficial include:

• before the cooldown on Shiv recharges, to allow for immediate use and optimized burst;
• before an important add spawns, so you can apply as much instant pressure as possible;
• to assist with Envenom uptime, by clipping two Envenoms or finishers so that the buff does not drop;
• An encounter-specific buff or damage phase is imminent.

Pooling Energy is not a magical DPS gain by itself. It allows you to slightly adjust the timing of your abilities so that you fit more attacks during periods of increased damage (provided you can properly identify when such periods are going to happen).

Kingsbane is a new talent that applies a DoT effect that increases in strength for every lethal poison application. It is incredibly powerful, and large parts of our burst will rely on maximizing its damage output.

In order to maximize its damage, we use it together with Shadow Dance to snapshot the Nightstalker bonus damage. We also use Vanish during Kingsbane's last 3 seconds of duration, to boost its crit chance via Master Assassin.

You will want to hold Thistle Tea to overlap with the ending of the debuff, and try to maintain a 100% Envenom and Shiv uptime during its entire debuff duration.

All Rogues have a solid number of defensive cooldowns, making them the best candidate for soaking required mechanics and dealing with heavy incoming damage.

• Feint reduces AoE damage taken by 40% for 6 seconds for only 35 Energy. When talented into Elusiveness, it also reduces all other damage by 20% and grants Evasion a 10% damage mitigation. This is one of the most overpowered abilities in the game and a huge asset in fights with heavy raid damage.
• Cloak of Shadows provides magic immunity for 1 second, followed by 4 seconds where all spells will miss you. Cloak of Shadows has a variety of uses, both pre-emptive and reactive, such as solo soaking mechanics or clearing debuffs that would force you out of melee range.
• Evasion increases your Dodge chance by 100% for 10 seconds. This can be useful if you have to tank some adds or the boss for a few seconds. In rare cases, it can be used to negate physical ranged attacks or spells.
• Cheat Death is a talent that allows you to escape lethal damage once every 6 minutes. The damage cannot exceed more than twice your maximum health. Cheat Death is great for soaking mechanics that pierce immunities and damage reductions, as it guarantees your survival. It is also great for encounters with bursty damage that might take you by surprise, as you get a free get-out-of-jail-free card at least once in the encounter.
• Crimson Vial provides a respectable amount of healing on a 30-second cooldown.

Do not forget about this defensive toolkit, as it can be a major asset for both individual and raid-wide survivability.

Assassination has a very long opener sequence that aims to maximize its 2-minute burst potential.

1. Start from Stealth.
2. Cast Garrote.
3. Cast Ambush.
4. Cast Rupture.
5. Cast Mutilate once.
6. Use Slice and Dice.
7. Cast Ambush and Mutilate until you are at 4+ CP.
8. Cast Envenom.

This is your set-up, followed by your cooldowns.

1. Cast Deathmark together with your DPS potion and your on-use trinket, if you have one. If you are the recipient of Power Infusion, ask for it here.
2. Cast Shiv.
3. Cast Shadow Dance together with Kingsbane.
4. Refresh Garrote once during Shadow Dance.
5. Use Mutilate and Ambush as a builder during Shadow Dance.
6. Spam Envenom with 4+ CP.
7. Refresh Shiv when the first one ran out.
8. Use Thistle Tea during the last 6 seconds of Kingsbane for the Mastery buff.
9. Use Vanish during the last 3 seconds of Kingsbane.
10. Refresh Garrote and Rupture during Vanish.

After your Kingsbane expires, your opener is finished, and you continue with your regular rotation until the next Kingsbane window, a minute later.

The fully inclusive rotation is a lot more extensive than the one listed above but gives only marginal gains at best. As such, it is included here (in raw simc format).