Assassination Rogue DPS Spell Summary — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as an Assassination Rogue in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic DPS Rogue spells.
Assassination Rogue Spell Summary
If you are new to Assassination, it is recommended you read this before proceeding! In this section we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, and how they interact with important cooldowns. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.
Main Resources for Assassination Rogue
Energy is the main resource of Assassination Rogues. Energy is generated
passively, the rate of which can be increased by Haste and talents.
Venomous Wounds also provides some bonus Energy. Keeping track of
your Energy and pooling for windows of increased burst is extremely important
to playing Assassination properly.
Combo Points are another primary resource utilized by Assassination Rogues.
Some of your abilities generate Combo Points, while finishing moves spend them.
Spending more Combo Points on a finishing move increases the damage it deals or
the duration of the effect it applies. Critical strikes generate additional
Combo Points, due to the Seal Fate passive. Combo Point management is
very important to maintaining your abilities and maximizing burst.
Unlocking Abilities
This page lists all the abilities that are available to you on a max level character. If you have just started your journey by leveling a new Rogue, you can head over to our leveling section to learn more about when you get access to these abilities on your way to max level.
Basic Abilities for Assassination Rogue
These abilities are available no matter what talents you choose, and form the bread and butter of this specialization.
Mutilate costs 50 Energy and deals moderate damage, generating 2
Combo Points. This is your main Combo Point generator and requires Daggers to
be used.
Ambush can only be used from
Stealth and deals
strong damage, generating 2 Combo Points.
Rupture is a finishing move that applies a bleed to the
target that deals damage over time, lasting longer per combo point. Rupture
returns Energy via
Venomous Wounds. This is a very important
finisher and should be maintained at all times on primary and secondary
targets.
Envenom is a finishing move that deals Nature damage and
increases your poison application chance by 30%. The damage and duration of
Envenom are increased per Combo Point. This is your primary combo point dump
when
Rupture does not need a refresh.
Fan of Knives deals AoE damage and can apply poisons. This
generates one Combo Point. It is usually better to focus on single target, but
this can be useful for applying poisons to a stacked group of targets
quickly.
Garrote is a bleed effect that lasts 18 seconds and generates 1
Combo Point. It also silences the target for 3-seconds when used from
Stealth.
Slice and Dice is a finishing move that increases your attack speed
by 50% and Energy regeneration by 10%. This increases the damage of your melee
attacks as well as giving you more poison procs on your main-target.
For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.
Important Procs for Assassination Rogue
Seal Fate generates an extra Combo Point per critical
strike.
Venomous Wounds generates 7 Energy when your abilities deal bleed
damage to a target.
Stealth lets you move around the battlefield unseen. You will
start every fight from Stealth, as your Tier 2 talent provides a damage benefit
to using your abilities while Stealth is active.
Alacrity increases your Haste after using a finishing move. This
stacks up multiple times and provides a decent amount of Haste, allowing for a
more fluid rotation because of the way Haste improves our energy regeneration
passively as well as through faster ticking bleeds and
Venomous Wounds.
DPS Cooldowns for Assassination Rogue
Vendetta is your main DPS cooldown, which marks an enemy for 20
seconds. During this time, you deal 30% increased damage to the target and are
granted true sight of the target. Vendetta is a strong cooldown, but you should
be careful using it on targets that are short lived, as it is a debuff on the
target rather than a personal buff.
Vanish breaks movement-impairing effects and instantly shifts
you into
Stealth.
Exsanguinate is a DPS cooldown that you can talent. Using it speeds
up the rate at which your bleeding effects deal damage, increasing your DPS until
they expire. This will also generate energy faster thanks to
Venomous Wounds.
Shiv is a 25-second cooldown that increases the Nature damage your
target takes by 20% for 9 seconds. This damage bonus can be increased further
with a specific conduit. Playing around this cooldown is of huge importance
and you will always try to get three casts of
Envenom inside this
9-second burst window.
For more information on Talent choices and which ones to pick you can head over to the Talents and Builds section of this Guide.
Defensive Cooldowns for Assassination Rogue
Feint reduces AoE damage taken by 40% for 5 seconds, for only 35 Energy. When talented into
Elusiveness, it also reduces all other damage by 30%. Feint is fantastic for dealing with predictable raid damage, even if it has a 15-second cooldown now.
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.
Changelog
- 23 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands release, updated descriptions for new and upgraded abilities.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Rogue Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written and reviewed by Seliathan, who has been playing Rogue since the first day of Classic. He currently raids in Familiar with Drama, and is one of the foremost Mythic+ Rogue players. You can often find him streaming on Twitch, or follow him on his personal Discord server.
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