Assassination Rogue PvP Best Covenants, Soulbinds, Conduits, and Legendary Powers (Shadowlands / 9.1)

For more information about what Covenants bring you, please refer to our page about Covenant abilities for Rogues.

There are four Covenants available: Night Fae, Kyrian, Venthyr, and Necrolord. Each Covenant will provide you with a class ability and a Covenant ability. Assassination Rogue players have several options, since underperforming Covenants have been buffed with Patch 9.0.5 and now three options are viable up to at least Gladiator. The fourth one is playable, but worse than the other three. Necrolord is the most popular at the moment, followed by Night Fae and Venthyr. Kyrian is the worst option.

1. Necrolord is the Covenant that will give you the most survivability as well as the most sustained damage. The class ability, Serrated Bone Spike, deals decent damage, is very cheap, and allows you not only to generate Combo Points from a distance, but also to keep dealing damage to an enemy who managed to get away from you. It is worth mentioning that it also works with the Doomblade legendary power. It is a great spell overall. The Covenant ability, Fleshcraft, is a channeled ability that grants you a large shield and reduces all damage you take by 20% while channeling the shield. This is a very powerful defensive ability, especially with the Ultimate Form passive that comes with one of the Soulbinds, as you will get a crowd control immunity and healing on top of the shield.
2. Venthyr is the Covenant that will give you the most burst damage. The class ability, Flagellation, deals large amounts of damage for every Combo Point spent, even more so with the Lashing Scars Conduit. It also gives a bit of Haste, which is great as Assassination. This ability works particularly well alongside Vendetta and Marked for Death for heavy burst damage, since your burst rotation will include two Envenom back to back, causing Flagellation to deal a lot of damage in a very short period of time. The Covenant ability, Door of Shadows, is decent as it allows you to escape a dangerous situation and may even allow you to re-Stealth, but it can be interrupted, making it unreliable when enemies have their interrupts ready.
3. Night Fae is the Covenant that will give you the most mobility. The class ability, Sepsis, deals moderate damage by itself, but since it is a Poison it benefits from Shiv and Well-Placed Steel and can end up dealing a very large amount of damage. It also allows you one use of a Stealth-based ability without being Stealthed, but as Assassination it is currently possible to use two. If you start with Garrote it will silence the enemy as if you were in Stealth but will not consume the Sepsis buff, allowing you to also use Cheap Shot, Ambush, or Sap. One of the Night Fae Soulbinds will also allow Sepsis to give you a significant Mastery buff, making it a nice addition to your burst. The Covenant ability, Soulshape, is the reason why Night Fae is such a great Covenant for Rogues. It allows you to teleport 15 yards away every 4 seconds for 12 seconds. This is a great tool to escape lethal situations and go for re-Stealths. This gives you more mobility, allowing you to get re-Stealths more. Of course it can also be used to reach a target that has been kiting you. An instant teleport effect that can be repeated a few times while the enemy is using its mobility spells really is a boon to a class such as Rogue, as escaping damage and going back into Stealth is really core to the gameplay. It is also worth mentioning that Night Fae players are getting very powerful defensive traits in Patch 9.1 which might make this Covenant more viable if the PvP meta requires Rogues to be tanky.
4. Kyrian is the worst Covenant you can pick. While it will not prevent you from being successful in PvP, all the other options would make you have an easier time. The Covenant ability, Echoing Reprimand, deals very little damage in PvP combat due to being heavily nerfed in PvP, so the only benefit you would get from it is the possibility of landing a 7 Combo Point Envenom. This is decent damage, but it is also random due to the fact that you cannot know which of your Combo Points will be anima-charged, and you will have a hard time controlling your Combo Point generation because of the passive Seal Fate. The Covenant ability is a spell that will summon a steward, and the steward will give you Phial of Serenity. The cooldown on this heal is excessively long, and it does not start until you leave combat. It is not worth the healing from the Necrolord ability, or the ability to simply avoid damage by escaping provided by both Venthyr and Night Fae. With a mediocre class ability and a Covenant ability overshadowed by all other Covenant abilities, it is easy to see why Kyrian is the worst option.

Soulbinds are unlocked as you progress your character with a Covenant. Each Covenant features 3 Soulbinds, and every Soulbind has its own set of passive effects. In every Soulbind you will have to choose a path, and that path is important as it determines what passives you get, and what kind of Conduits you can use.

Here are the Soulbinds and paths you should take if you chose Necrolord. There are two good options, depending on the situation.

You should use this Soulbind when facing a team with a lot of consistent damage. This Soulbind gives you the Ooz's Frictionless Coating passive, which will amount to quite a bit of healing overall despite its recent nerf in PvP combat. You also gain the passive Ultimate Form that allows Fleshcraft to heal you and provide you with crowd control immunity for a short period of time. This can be useful in many situations if you know the enemy team is about to crowd control you.

You should use this Soulbind when facing a team that will try to kill you in a stun, such as a Rogue team or a Feral team. The first passive of the Soulbind, Lead by Example, is a decent damage increase. The passive Sulfuric Emission is the reason why you want to pick this Soulbind when facing a team that will kill you in a stun. As soon as you go below 20% health, everyone around you is feared for 3.5 seconds, and this can happen every minute. This will allow you to survive burst damage by fearing the enemy melee DPS. However this forces you to play with three Finesse Conduits and that is not very good as Assassination Rogue.

Here are the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Venthyr.

This Soulbind gives you the Thrill Seeker passive. This will grant you 20% Haste at times, and Haste is a great stat for Assassination Rogues. You also gain Agent of Chaos, allowing you to disorient enemies with Door of Shadows. Beware, this will put the target on diminishing return for Blind. You also gain the passive Dauntless Duelist that will slightly increase your damage to one target. Last but not least, the final passive, Fatal Flaw, is extremely powerful as it will give you 20% Versatility once Euphoria ends, which means a 28% flat damage boost thanks to the PvP Trinket bonus as well as a 10% flat damage reduction.

Here are the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Night Fae.

This Soulbind gives you the Grove Invigoration passive. This will allow you to gain 300 Mastery when using Sepsis, greatly increasing the burst damage of your Bleeds and Poisons. This buff will become 450 Mastery for the first 5 seconds thanks to Bonded Hearts, the last passive, if the condition is met, for even more burst damage. Envenom counts as a Poison too. You also get Run Without Tiring, which is a bit of healing when kiting away with Soulshape. The passive Survivor's Rally also provides passive healing which is always a huge help in PvP. Bonded Hearts also provides a bit of passive healing, but most importantly allows Sepsis to heal you and your allies upon use, which can help your healer a little bit.

Here are the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Kyrian.

This Soulbind gives you the Combat Meditation passive. This will allow you to gain Mastery when using Echoing Reprimand, increasing the burst damage of your bleeds and Poisons. Envenom counts as a Poison, so you gain a lot of burst damage with this passive. You also get the passive Let Go of the Past, which is a small defensive bonus. Phial of Patience allows the Kyrian potion to become a strong healing over time effect, albeit on a long cooldown. The last two passives are the strongest of the Soulbind. Path of the Devoted will reduce all incoming damage by 20% after recovering from a crowd control effect once every 30 seconds. While this may be triggered by crowd control abilities that will not hurt you it could also trigger on very dangerous abilities such as Kidney Shot or Storm Bolt. If you are the target it is likely that you will indeed get value out of it as many crowd control attacks on you will be meant to kill you. The last passive, Newfound Resolve is a powerful damage increase when you manage to get it, although it may not always be very practical to do so while in PvP combat.

Conduits are passive buffs that you can use to fill empty slots in your Soulbind Trees. There are three types of Conduits: Potency, Endurance, and Finesse. Here are the best Conduits for each of those different types:

1. If you are Venthyr, Lashing Scars increases the damage of your Flagellation, increasing your burst damage in a short period of time.
2. If you are Night Fae, Septic Shock increases the damage of your Sepsis, making the DoT much stronger.
3. Well-Placed Steel causes the target you use Shiv on to take more Nature damage. This is crucial for increasing your burst damage.
4. Maim, Mangle causes Garrote to increase the damage of Mutilate on the target. This is good to increase your sustained damage, especially with the Doomblade legendary power.
5. Lethal Poisons increases the damage of your weapon poisons by a substantial amount. This is a great Conduit to use when playing with Deadly Poison.

1. Recuperator makes Slice and Dice heal you over time. This is good to help your healer with sustained healing as you will have Slice and Dice up most of the time.
2. Nimble Fingers reduces the Energy cost of your low-cooldown defensive options, which will let you keep the Energy for offensive purposes.

1. Quick Decisions reduces the cooldown of Shadowstep and increases its range. This is great for both running down enemies or kiting away from them if you need to. Assassination is not an overly mobile spec so this Conduit definitely helps a lot.
2. Prepared for All reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows when you successfully interrupt a cast, and of Evasion when you dodge an attack. It is not mandatory, but can be a good pick when you know you will get a lot of value out of it. The fact that you can have your defensives back off cooldown when the enemy thinks they are still unavailable can cause them to do mistakes.

Legendaries have many different effects and some can alter how you should use some of your abilities. For more information on Legendaries, check out our general guide on them.

Here are the best Legendaries for an Assassination Rogues.

1. Doomblade is a great pick. This gives you an additional bleed and will result in Envenom dealing more damage. It will both increase your sustained damage output and your burst damage output. It is worth mentioning that the bleed applied by Serrated Bone Spike works with the Legendary, so using it as Necrolord is very valuable. In most 3v3 games you should use this Legendary. You should also use it in 2v2 if you need to save Vanish defensively.
2. Obedience is a strong choice if you are Venthyr. Not only will Flagellation give you a Versatility buff, which is the best stat in PvP, but it will also reduce its cooldown with every Combo Point you spend during the effect, which leads to having the ability more often. The only issue is that if the enemy team uses cooldowns to prevent you from spending many Combo Points then you waste the entire Legendary, so you need to make sure you will be able to press your abilities freely.
3. Mark of the Master Assassin is a still decent Legendary despite the recent nerf. It gives you 100% Critical Strike chance for 2.4 seconds after Stealth breaks. This gives you short windows to do large amounts of damage to enemy players. However, as Assassination your damage will not be high after you exit Stealth the first time as you will need to apply your bleeds to your target. That means that you need to sacrifice Vanish offensively to get value out of this Legendary and in return you get one of the highest burst damage output in the game. You will use this Legendary only when you can afford to use Vanish offensively. It is worth mentioning that if you are a Night Elf, you can trigger the Critical Strike buff by going in stealth with Shadowmeld. This Legendary then gains a lot of value and can sometimes be used in games where you need to use Vanish defensively as you will use Shadowmeld to trigger the Legendary during your burst window and not Vanish.