Assassination Rogue PvP Guide (Dragonflight 10.1)
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from talent choices, PvP talents, gameplay and rotation, and useful racial bonuses. It is most applicable to Arena content, but most talents and racial bonuses will work in Rated Battlegrounds and skirmishes.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Rogue PvP guide.
Assassination Rogues in the Current Meta
Assassination Rogues have consistently sustained damage thanks to their Bleeds
and Poisons, as well as a permanent healing reduction effect with Wound Poison.
They also have lethal burst damage with
Deathmark. In addition,
they have access to a potent healing reduction effect tied to their burst
rotation thanks to the Honor Talent
Hemotoxin, making their setups even more
lethal. Dragonflight also brought them enhanced mobility and CC, making them an
offensive force to be reckoned with. Their access to a silence effect with
Garrote has made them known to be great at killing healers. An Assassination Rogue left
unchecked will quickly close a PvP match!
Noteworthy changes throughout Dragonflight
Patch 10.1
Kick interrupt duration decreased to 3 seconds (was 5 seconds).
Veil of Midnight has been redesigned. Now causes
Cloak of Shadows to remove harmful physical effects and increases dodge chance by 100%.
Maneuverability has been redesigned. Now
Sprint has a 50% reduced cooldown and 50% reduced duration.
Blind duration decreased to 5 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Sap duration decreased to 6 seconds in PvP combat (was 8 seconds).
Kidney Shot duration decreased by 1 second per combo point in PvP combat (capped at 5s with 5 CPs).
Dismantle duration decreased to 5 seconds (was 6 seconds) and energy cost reduced to 15 (was 25).
Patch 10.0.5
Deathmark duplicated effects now deal 50% (was 70%) of normal damage in PvP combat.
Numbing Poison effectiveness now reduced by 47% (was 33%) in PvP combat.
Hemotoxin healing reduction effect reduced to 30% (was 35%). Note that with
Wound Poison already reducing healing by 24% permanently and on multiple targets, Hemotoxin goes from mandatory PvP talent to optional in favor of utility PvP talents.
Patch 10.0.2
Improved Garrote's Garrote damage bonus reduced by 40% in PvP combat.
Deathmark damage dealt by duplicated poisons and bleeds reduced by 30% in PvP combat.
Numbing Poison attack and cast speed debuff effectiveness reduced by 33% in PvP combat.
Exsanguinate cooldown increased to 3 minutes (was 45 seconds), and bleed effect magnitude reduced to 80% (was 100%).
Strengths of Assassination Rogues
- Great burst.
- Excellent sustained damage.
- Great control.
- Excellent utility.
Weaknesses of Assassination Rogues
- Very prone to dying in stuns.
- Significant cooldown on defensive abilities.
- Often reliant on teammates to stay alive.
- Predictable burst damage.
Content of the Guide
This guide was very long, so we split it into different pages.
- On the Assassination Rogue PvP Talents page, you will find an analysis of each PvE talent row to help you decide which talent to pick on each row, as well as an overview of the PvP talents, which advice on which ones to take and under which conditions.
- On the Assassination Rogue PvP Rotation and Playstyle page, you will learn how to use your spells, depending on the situation (dealing damage, surviving, controlling enemy players, etc.), and what is generally expected of your class and spec in PvP.
- On the Assassination Rogue PvP Stat Priority and Gear page, you will find the stat priority to follow in PvP, as well as advice for choosing your gear, particularly trinkets.
- On the Assassination Rogue PvP Best Races page, you will find lists of the Alliance and Horde races, ranked by how good they are for Assassination Rogues in PvP, as well as explanations regarding why and how their racials benefit you.
- On the Assassination Rogue PvP Useful Macros page, you will find a collection of useful macros for PvP for Assassination Rogues.
- On the Assassination Rogue Arena Composition page, you will find the list of the most powerful Arena compositions featuring Assassination Rogues, in both 2v2 and 3v3 modes.
Changelog
- 30 Apr. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7.
- 25 Jan. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 28 Jul. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 01 Jul. 2022: Added small changes.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 21 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5.
- 21 Jul. 2021: Added small changes.
- 03 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 06 Apr. 2021: Rewritten by Shadenox and further updated for Patch 9.0.5.
- 10 Mar. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.0.5.
- 29 Nov. 2020: Removed old Azerite mentions and updated gear page.
- 27 Nov. 2020: Added Covenant page.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Shadenox, an experienced Gladiator player who has achieved over 3,000 rating on Rogue. You can find him on his YouTube channel, where he creates guides and other informational content regarding Arenas.
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