Assassination Rogue DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. 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
• +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. The Nighthold
    • 1.1. Skorpyron
      • 1.1.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.2. Chronomatic Anomaly
      • 1.2.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.3. Trilliax
      • 1.3.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.4. Spellblade Aluriel
      • 1.4.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.5. Tichondrius
      • 1.5.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.6. Star Augur Etraeus
      • 1.6.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.7. Krosus
      • 1.7.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.8. High Botanist Tel'arn
      • 1.8.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.9. Grand Magistrix Elisande
      • 1.9.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
    • 1.10. Gul'dan
      • 1.10.1. Talents, Trinkets, and Legendaries
  • 2. 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

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Assassination Rogues in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Assassination Rogue guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

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. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	✔ Master Poisoner	✔ Elaborate Planning	✘ Hemorrhage
30	✔ Nightstalker	✔ Subterfuge	✘ Shadow Focus
45	✘ Deeper Stratagem	✘ Anticipation	✔ Vigor
60	? Leeching Poison	✔ Elusiveness	✔ Cheat Death
75	✔ Thuggee	? Prey on the Weak	✘ Internal Bleeding
90	? Toxic Blade	? Alacrity	? Exsanguinate
100	✔ Venom Rush	? Marked for Death	✘ Death from Above

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets

While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.

2.1. Raid Encounters

This build is an excellent starting point as a standard raid setup.

• Level 15: Master Poisoner
• Level 30: Nightstalker or Subterfuge (if using Tier 20 4-set bonus)
• Level 45: Vigor
• Level 60: Cheat Death
• Level 75: Thuggee
• Level 90: See talent discussion below
• Level 100: Venom Rush

2.2. General Purpose/Leveling

This build is an excellent starting point for questing and general purpose usage.

• Level 15: Elaborate Planning
• Level 30: Nightstalker
• Level 45: Vigor
• Level 60: Leeching Poison
• Level 75: Thuggee
• Level 90: Alacrity
• Level 100: Venom Rush

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

✔ Master Poisoner

✔ Elaborate Planning

✘ Hemorrhage

Tier 1 talents offer playstyle choices that have strong synergy with other talents.

• Master Poisoner increases your poison damage by 40% and their non-damaging effects by 20%.
• Elaborate Planning grants 12% damage for 5 seconds after using a finishing move.
• Hemorrhage is an ability that applies a bleed for 20 seconds that also increases bleed damage by 25% for the duration.

Master Poisoner is currently the best choice for single target situations, regardless of the removal of Agonizing Poison.

Elaborate Planning is a very competitive choice and should be used for cleave builds that rely on maximizing Energy return through multiple applications of your poisons and the gains received from Venomous Wounds and Venom Rush.

Hemorrhage could see a use for a very bleed heavy build, however, it currently appears to fall slightly behind its peers.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

✔ Nightstalker

✔ Subterfuge

✘ Shadow Focus

Tier 2 talents improve your Stealth functionality.

• Nightstalker increases movement speed by 20% and damage by 50% while Stealth is active.
• Subterfuge allows abilities requiring Stealth to be used for an additional 3 seconds after Stealth breaks. Garrote also has no cooldown when used from Stealth and deals 125% additional damage while Subterfuge or Stealth is active.
• Shadow Focus reduces the Energy cost of abilities by 75% when used from Stealth.

Nightstalker is overall the best option for all situations and results in a moderate damage gain. Your Vanish should generally be used to apply a fresh Rupture, as the entire duration of the bleed benefits from this damage bonus. Can also be used on an Envenom if the target is nearly dead, or for a bit of extra burst on a priority target.

Subterfuge is the best option if you are using the Tier 20 set bonuses due to its synergy with Garrote. It also allows you to get out multiple Garrotes in cleave scenarios which can be a huge boon to both direct damage and resource return.

Shadow Focus is current not a viable option.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✘ Deeper Stratagem

✘ Anticipation

✔ Vigor

Tier 3 talents augment your resource systems.

• Deeper Stratagem increases maximum Combo Points to 6, allows finishing moves to consume 6 combo points, and increases the damage of finishing moves by 5%.
• Anticipation increases maximum Combo Points to 10, but finishing moves still consume 5 combo points.
• Vigor increases your maximum Energy by 50 and increases Energy regeneration by 10%.

Vigor is the best talent currently. It improves quality of life considerably and is especially strong when paired with the Duskwalker's Footpads. It also has good synergy with the Master Poisoner talent as you will require less Critical Strike to fill your Combo Points.

Deeper Stratagem is currently slightly behind on DPS but does allow for further flexibility in Combo Point usage, and less Combo Point overflow. Anticipation should not be considered.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

? Leeching Poison

✔ Elusiveness

✔ Cheat Death

Tier 4 talents improve your personal survivability.

• Leeching Poison grants 10% leech to your damage.
• Elusiveness causes Feint to also grant 30% reduced damage taken from all sources.
• Cheat Death causes fatal damage to instead reduce you to 7% of your maximum health and grant 85% reduced damage taken for 3 seconds. Cheat Death cannot save you from damage great that double your maximum health. It has a 6-minute cooldown.

Cheat Death is a good choice for players in a raid environment, as it is entirely passive and great for soaking raid mechanics when needed. Elusiveness is a great talent in the right situation, but requires you to be extremely proficient with Feint usage and very aware of incoming damage. Generally, Cheat Death is best for learning encounters and soaking high damage mechanics, whereas Elusiveness is great for sustained incoming damage, or soaking frequently occurring mechanics (such as Blood Ritual on Iron Maidens).

Leeching Poison is useless for max level content, but the most useful choice while questing or doing world content.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

✔ Thuggee

? Prey on the Weak

✘ Internal Bleeding

Tier 5 talents improve your crowd control utility.

• Thuggee resets the cooldown of Garrote if a target dies while it is active.
• Prey on the Weak causes enemies disabled from your Kidney Shot, Sap, and Cheap Shot to take 10% increased damage from all sources.
• Prey on the Weak causes targets afflicted by your Cheap Shot, Blind, Sap, and Gouge to take 10% damage from all sources.
• Internal Bleeding causes your Kidney Shot to also make bleed the target for increased damage per Combo Point over 12 seconds.

Thuggee should be your default choice on the tier as it can result in a solid DPS increase through extra uptimes on Garrote. Prey on the Weak is a great choice in certain situations, as 10% increased damage from all sources can be incredible for bursting down important adds. Internal Bleeding does not offer the same damage potential, even while leveling.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

? Toxic Blade

? Alacrity

? Exsanguinate

Tier 6 talents alter your playstyle significantly.

• Toxic Blade stabs the enemy, dealing heavy Nature damage and increasing the damage your poisons against the target by 35% for 9 seconds. Generates 1 Combo Point.
• Alacrity causes finishing moves to have a 20% chance per Combo Point to grant 2% haste for 20 seconds, stacking 10 times.
• Exsanguinate is a new ability that causes your bleed effects to bleed out 100% faster when activated.

Toxic Blade is a strong choice for single target. Due to its relatively short window of 9 seconds, it is ideal to have Combo Points ready for Envenom before use, then pile as many additional Envenom casts into the window as possible to maximize damage.

Alacrity is the best talent for constant target swapping.

Exsanguinate is a competitive option for single target damage, though slightly behind Toxic Blade. It provides extremely potent burst, however, which can be very helpful for dealing with priority targets or pushing burst windows.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✔ Venom Rush

? Marked for Death

✘ Death from Above

Tier 7 talents offer some additional damage utility.

• Venom Rush causes Venomous Wounds to grant 3 additional Energy every time it procs.
• Marked for Death marks a target and instantly generates 5 Combo Points. The cooldown is reset if the marked target dies.
• Death from Above is a two-part finishing move with a short cooldown that ends with an automatic cast of a 50% stronger Envenom.

Venom Rush is the best choice in every end-game situation, currently. Marked for Death is the talent of choice for leveling.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.2.5 (Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 6).
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 13 Feb. 2017: Minor update to talent descriptions.
• 14 Jan. 2017: Minor update to talents; Alacrity for multitarget.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Dec. 2016: Updated talent tiers (T1/T2/T3/T6) to include further details and references to legendaries and Mythic+.
• 02 Nov. 2016: Updated Raid Encounters build to include a reference to Exsanguinate for players with lower item levels/Mastery levels.
• 05 Oct. 2016: Updated talent build.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Made Thuggee an alternative to Prey on the Weak in Tier 5.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.