Assassination Rogue PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.2)

1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Assassination Rogues

Assassination Rogues have the strongest consistent damage out of all three Rogue specializations. With an emphasis on poisons and using them for sustained damage, they are a threat to all classes. This strong sustained damage in combination with stuns, Blind, and countless other forms of crowd control means the Assassination Rogue has some of the best control a spec can have.

1.1. Strengths of Assassination Rogues

• Great control
• Decent mobility
• Strong burst damage

1.2. Weaknesses of Assassination Rogues

• Weak to teams with two melee on it
• Predictable burst damage
• Very few defensive cooldowns

The stat priority for Assassination Rogues in PvP is as follows:

1. Agility;
2. Haste;
3. Mastery;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Versatility.

Agility is the best stat in all situations. Haste is the strongest secondary stat at all times due to it reducing the Global Cooldown on abilities and increasing your attack speed.

2. Azerite Essences for Assassination Rogues

Essences allow players to customize their characters while adding a new ability to use. This section will cover the best overall Azerite Essences for Assassination Rogues in PvP. For a general guide to all the essences, as well as how to obtain them and increase their ranks, check out our Essence Guide.

2.1. Major Essences

Memory of Lucid Dreams increases your Energy regeneration by 100% for 12 seconds. This is by far the best Major Essence you can have as an Assassination Rogue. More Energy regeneration results in being able to use more Mutilates and this will allow you generate Combo Points quicker while this is active.

Concentrated Flame gives you a Major Power that blasts the target for damage. Each time you use this ability, it increases the damage dealt by 100% and stacks up to 2 times. If you do not have Memory of Lucid Dreams, this is a solid Essence that deals good single target damage.

2.2. Minor Essences

In addition to having a Major Essence, you can choose two Minor Essences to place in your neck at Heart of Azeroth Levels 55 and 65.

Vision of Perfection reduces the cooldown of Vendetta. This is a good choice because most players will line up their Gladiator's Medallion with your Vendetta (both have 2 minute cooldowns). This trait gives you a small window to use your burst cooldowns on a player that will not have a trinket.

Conflict and Strife grants a very powerful Versatility Minor Power. Not only do your spells have a chance to give you Versatility, but any loss of control to your character does too. This means that, if teams stun you and try to swap to you, you have additional Versatility and take less damage.

3. Azerite Traits for Assassination Rogues

Azerite traits are unlocked in you helm, shoulders and chest. With each Azerite level in your neck, you get closer to unlocking the center trait in your gear. These traits vary from increasing damage of certain abilities to helping increase your survivability. Depending on what traits you use, it can completely alter your playstyle and what talents you should be using.

3.1. Outer Rings

Below are the best Outer Ring traits.

1. Shrouded Suffocation
2. Nothing Personal
3. Scent of Blood
4. Twist the Knife
5. Double Dose

Assassination Rogues do not depend on one single trait to increase their damage. Instead, they want a mix of the above traits. It is crucial to have Shrouded Suffocation in at least one piece of Azerite gear. This gives you an additional Combo Point and Garrote will deal additional damage when used from Stealth. Scent of Blood, Twist the Knife, and Double Dose all increase your overall single target damage. Nothing Personal significantly increases your burst damage.

3.2. Middle Ring

Below are the best Middle Ring traits.

1. Overwhelming Power
2. Elemental Whirl
3. Heed My Call
4. Earthlink

The Middle and Inner rings are important for additional damage. Elemental Whirl, Overwhelming Power, and Earthlink give an increase to your stats. These are minor stat boosts, but still increase your damage. Heed My Call will help increase your single target pressure.

3.3. Inner Ring

Below are the best Inner Ring traits.

1. Resounding Protection
2. Impassive Visage
3. Footpad
4. Shrouded Mantle

All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all passive, but are crucial to have.

4. Gear Recommendations

4.1. General Guidelines

In general, Assassination Rogues want to get trinkets that line up well with Vendetta. These trinkets can have a passive or on-use effect. The stat you want to be increasing is Agility. The reason you want to increase Agility is because it drastically increases your overall damage output.

To be successful in 3v3 arena, you need to have at least 2 pieces of gear with either Scent of Blood or Shrouded Suffocation. You will also want either Heed My Call or Overwhelming Power in the second tier.

Below, we list the items that have these traits.

4.1.1. Helms

• Crown of A'akul's Dark Reign;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Hood;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Hood;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Skullguard;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Skullguard;
• Hood of the Slithering Loa;
• Cowl of Righteous Resolve.

4.1.2. Shoulders

• Phantom Stalker Shoulders;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards;
• Gilded-Wing Shoulderguards;
• Dire-Tooth Spaulders;
• Gold-Tasseled Epaulets.

4.1.3. Chest

• Grongpelt Vest;
• Mekkatorque's Bomber Jacket;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Vest;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Vest;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Jerkin;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Jerkin;
• Venture Co. Plenipotentiary Vest;
• Gore-Splattered Vest.

4.2. Recommended Items

Notorious Gladiator's Maledict is absolutely the best trinket you can have. The on-use damage and healing absorption is capable of forcing defensives by itself. This can be used by itself or while you are using your burst rotation to force multiple cooldowns out of enemy teams.

Notorious Gladiator's Safeguard is a mandatory trinket if you think the enemy team can swap to you and kill you. This provides an additional defensive for when you drop to low health. If you do not think a team will swap to you and kill you, you can use replace this one with any of the trinkets below.

Notorious Gladiator's Badge is strong for the versatility and the on-use Agility effect. The 2-minute cooldown lines up well with Vendetta.

Notorious Gladiator's Insignia has a good amount of Versatility on it and has a passive effect. This effect increases your Agility. This increases your sustained damage.

Darkmoon Deck: Fathoms is not an item you get from PvP. Instead, you will have to look at the auction house or find an someone with the Inscription profession. This trinket also gives a passive effect. You cannot control the proc, but the damage this trinket can do is substantial. You will quickly notice a large increase to your overall damage.

Notorious Gladiator's Medallion is good because of the on-use Versatility effect. This increases your overall damage and lines up well with your burst cooldowns.

4.3. Weapon Enchant

Enchant Weapon - Quick Navigation and Enchant Weapon - Masterful Navigation are the best weapon enchants. You will be duel wielding weapons and having one of each of these enchants on your weapons. These enchants give you a strong Haste and Mastery buff that can be crucial in multiple ways. Both of these procs increase your damage output and are great if you can line it up with your burst.

5. Regular Talents for Assassination Rogues

Level	Choices
15	✔ Master Poisoner	✘ Elaborate Planning	✘ Blindside
30	✘ Nightstalker	✔ Subterfuge	✘ Master Assassin
45	✘ Vigor	✘ Deeper Stratagem	✔ Marked for Death
60	✘ Leeching Poison	✘ Cheat Death	✔ Elusiveness
75	✔ Internal Bleeding	✘ Iron Wire	✘ Prey on the Weak
90	✘ Venom Rush	✔ Toxic Blade	✘ Exsanguinate
100	✔ Poison Bomb	✘ Hidden Blades	✘ Crimson Tempest

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

5.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

Master Poisoner is the best choice in this tier. As most of your damaage comes from your poisons, this talent greatly increases your overall damage output.

5.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

Subterfuge is the best choice in this tier. This talent gives you more control when you leave Stealth. You can use multiple Cheap Shots or Garrotes on enemy teams. Garrote will not have a cooldown and an 80% increase in damage.

5.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

Marked for Death is the best choice in this tier. This is a very versatile talent and crucial for your utility. This talent can be used in multiple situations. For example, you can use Marked for Death for an instant Kidney Shot on an enemy. If you want to be even more aggressive with it, you can use it on an Envenom.

5.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

Elusiveness is an all-around solid choice, and the best talent in this tier. Just make sure to use Feint before you think you are about to get stunned or when the enemy team uses their burst cooldowns.

5.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

Internal Bleeding is the best choice in this tier. This gives you an additional Bleed and makes Kidney Shot a very crucial stun to use on your main target.

5.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

Toxic Blade is the best choice in this tier. This increases your overall sustained damage dramatically and is very strong when using offensive cooldowns.

5.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

Poison Bomb is the best choice in this tier. Although you cannot control the proc from this talent, you will be using Envenom and Rupture often and will see it often. This is a solid talent to increase your sustained and burst damage.

6. PvP Talents for Assassination Rogues

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP talents, depending on your team's goal.

Smoke Bomb creates a cloud around you. Enemy players who are outside the cloud will not be able to target anyone inside of it. This talent is mandatory for multiple reasons. The first is to land a kill while your target is stunned without a trinket. The enemy healer will not be able to heal and you will easily secure a kill while Smoke Bomb is active. The second is to stop incoming spells. This is not done often, but you can use Smoke Bomb on your healer to prevent enemies from crowd controlling them. It all depends on the situation, which is why this PvP talent is so good.

System Shock reduces the enemy's movement speed by 90% when you use an Envenom with 5 Combo Points on a target with Garrote, Rupture, or any lethal poisons. This is great for keeping a mobile target from kiting your damage or to peel for teammates that are in trouble. This is also a good choice to play when your main target is the enemy healer.

Maneuverability makes Sprint suppress all movement-impairing effects for 4 seconds when used. This is a great talent versus teams with multiple slows. You should take this versus classes like Mages and Death Knights. You can replace Honor Among Thieves with this PvP talent.

Mind-Numbing Poison causes your Deadly Poison and Wound Poison to also apply Mind Numbing Poison. This will cause the enemy to take damage every time they cast a spell. This should be taken when your primary target is a caster. You should replace Maneuverability with this PvP talent.

Creeping Venom makes your Envenom apply Creeping Venom, dealing Nature damage over 4 seconds. Creeping Venom's duration is refreshed when the target moves. This is a great talent versus classes that have high mobility. Feral Druids, Monks, Rogues, and Hunters are examples of classes you should take this talent against. You can replace Maneuverability with this PvP talent.

7. Racial Bonuses

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.

7.1. Horde

The passive Orc racial bonus ( Hardiness) is also great if you find yourself being stunned a lot and having a hard time against melee classes.

7.2. Alliance

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns. This helps with survivability and when kiting away from players.

The Dark Iron Dwarf racial bonus ( Fireblood) is a great defensive and can also increase your burst damage. You also have a passive physical damage reduction in the form of Forged in Flames.

8. Playstyle for Assassination Rogues

The Assassination Rogue has two roles in PvP: shutting down casters/healers with relentless mobility and crowd control and having strong sustained damage outside of burst cooldowns. With high damage, high control and great sustained damage, this is one of the top PvP specs for Rogues.

To lock down healers, you will aim to push in and get crowd control on the healer ( Sap, Blind when they do not have trinket, Kidney Shot or Cheap Shot).

The ability to deal sustained damage is what makes Assassination Rogues so deadly. They have the ability to damage an enemy down to below 50% without using a single cooldown. It is at this point that they can stun you and use their burst rotation.

8.1. Before Gates Open

Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on. Rogue crowd control is powerful, but dealing any damage to the target and will break and waste it. Also, remember to enter Stealth and apply your Wound Poison and Crippling Poison.

8.2. Offensive Rotation

8.2.1. The Opener

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns.

If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. Blind is one of the most devastating crowd control abilities in the game, with very few ways of getting out of it without having a trinket. Save Blind for when the enemy healer does not have their trinket. You can follow this up with a Vanish to Sap the enemy healer.

If an enemy DPS uses their trinket, you can crowd control the healer and stun the DPS without a trinket. This means they can be burst down in a stun and possibly killed.

When opening, always try to Sap the enemy DPS player who is trying to bring you out of Stealth,then Sap the healer. Then, use your burst rotation. After you are done with your burst rotation, perform your sustained damage rotation until your burst abilities are available again.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game. This opener stuns your target and applies your bleeds.

1. Use Marked for Death.
2. Use Garrote.
3. Use Mutilate if you do not have 5 Combo Points.
4. Use Cheap Shot.
5. Use Rupture.
6. Use Mutilate until you have 5 Combo Points.
7. Use Envenom.

After this the rotation is a priority list of things you should be doing. Make sure you are maintaining your Rupture and Garrote on your main target. Use Mutilate to generate Combo Points for these abilities. If your main target has these Bleeds already and they can be stunned, use your Toxic Blade and Kidney Shot your main target. You can then generate Combo Points to use Envenom.

8.2.2. Burst Damage

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. Use Garrote.
2. Use Mutilate until you have 5 Combo Points.
3. Use Rupture.
4. Use Mutilate until you have 5 Combo Points.
5. Use Memory of Lucid Dreams.
6. Use Kidney Shot. This will apply Internal Bleeding.
7. Use Vendetta.
8. Use Toxic Blade (if you have taken this talent).
9. Use Mutilate until you have 5 Combo Points.
10. Use Envenom.
11. Use Marked for Death.
12. Use Envenom.
13. Use Garrote.

Important note: If you are using Cheap Shot instead of Kidney Shot while using your burst cooldowns, you can use Marked for Death for a Kidney Shot on the healer for additional crowd control. This is the versatility of Marked for Death. It can be used aggressively on a second Envenom or you can use it for additional crowd control.

8.2.3. Sustained damage

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Use Mutilate to generate Combo Points.
2. Maintain your Rupture on multiple enemies. If you cannot keep it on multiple enemies, at least keep it on your main target.
3. Maintain your Garrote on multiple enemies. If you cannot keep it on multiple enemies, at least keep it on your main target.
4. Use Envenom at 5+ Combo Points when you do not have to refresh Rupture.
5. Use Toxic Blade right before you put your target in a full Kidney Shot. This will deal a large amount of damage and might make the enemy player panic and use defensive cooldowns.
6. If the enemy team has pets nearby or is stacked, use Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points quickly.
7. Use Poisoned Knife if your target is far away or to apply your poisons to a target that you cannot reach.

8.3. Defensive Techniques

Cloak of Shadows is a strong defensive cooldown when playing against casters. Use this when in trouble against caster teams and run to your healer or re-enter Stealth.

Evasion is a strong defensive when playing against melee. This grants you 100% Dodge chance. Use this when the enemy team has melee and is focusing you.

Vanish is a very versatile ability. You can use this offensively, to use Cheap Shots and Garrotes on enemies, or defensively. If you are overextended or need to get away quickly, use Vanish to get away from the enemy team.

Feint (with the Elusiveness talent) grants you a flat 30% damage reduction from everything. This is a buff that should be active on you at all times. A Rogue is very weak against stuns, so having Feint up when stunned greatly increases your chance of surviving heavy damage from the enemy team.

Crimson Vial is the trickiest, but most useful defensive ability a Rogue has. If you feel a hard swap onto you or you are about to be stunned, use Crimson Vial. Using this efficiently can enable you and your teammates to save your other cooldowns.

9. Best Team Compositions for Assassination Rogues

Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage rotation, it is time to step into the Arena with your team. Assassination Rogues want to stay aggressive and get a kill on an enemy without a trinket using Kidney Shot and Vendetta.

9.1. 2v2 Arena

In 2v2 Arena you will be focusing on single target damage. Depending on what healer you are playing with, use Cheap Shot on the enemy healer to setup crowd control. For example, if you are playing with a Discipline Priest, you should use Cheap Shot on the enemy healer so your Priest can get close enough to use Psychic Scream.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

• Assassination Rogue + Discipline Priest
• Assassination Rogue + Restoration Druid
• Assassination Rogue + Fire Mage

9.2. 3v3 Arena

Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. You will likely be focusing on maximizing your single target damage. If you are playing against a healer that is not mobile (Discipline Priest, Holy Paladin, or Restoration Shaman), you can open on them and try to force a trinket or major defensive. If the enemy healer trinkets, you can use Blind with your next setup. Your overall goal is to focus an enemy without a trinket. When you and your teammate have damage, use Cheap Shot on the enemy healer. After this, use Kidney Shot on your kill target and continue with your burst rotation. It is important to note that Rogues are very easy to kill in 3v3 Arena. Make sure you are maintaining your Feint buff and play defensively when your team does not have much damage.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

• RMP (Assassination Rogue + Fire Mage + Holy Paladin/Discipline Priest)
• RLS (Assassination Rogue + Destruction/Affliction Warlock + Restoration Shaman)
• Assassination Rogue + Retribution Paladin + Restoration Druid

10. Useful Macros for Assassination Rogues

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Assassination Rogues can benefit from.

10.1. Shadowstep + Kick Focus Macro

• #showtooltip Polymorph
• /cast [target=focus] Shadowstep
• /cast [target=focus] Kick

Using this macro will use Shadowstep on your focus enemy. If you press this macro again, it will use Kick on your focus target. This makes it easier to interrupt an enemy while staying focused on your target.

10.2. Blind Focus Macro

• #showtooltip Blind
• /cast [target=focus] Blind

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Blind on that player while you are still focused on your target.

10.3. Kidney Focus Macro

• #showtooltip Kidney Shot
• /cast [target=focus] Kidney Shot

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Kidney Shot on that player while you are still focused on your target.

10.4. Sap Focus Macro

• #showtooltip Sap
• /cast [target=focus] Sap

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Sap on that player while you are still focused on your target.

10.5. Stealth Macro

• #showtooltip Stealth
• /cast !stealth

This makes it so when you use Stealth it will not cancel if you click it a second time.

11. Changelog