Assassination Rogue Mythic+ Dungeon Guide

Assassination Rogue Mythic+ Guide

World of Warcraft Guide Patch 11.1.5

Pros/Cons

Pros

Strong Defensives Bait and Switch, Feint, Cloak of Shadows, and Evasion
Tons of Mob Control with Blind, Kidney Shot, Kick, Cheap Shot, and Numbing Poison
Top-Tier AOE damage through Caustic Spatter and Crimson Tempest
Shroud of Concealment one of your major group utilities that can help skip packs

Cons

Weaker Single Target Damage
No Group Buff, but an argument to be made with Atrophic and Numbing Poison
As we are a DoT based spec, we will do less damage in lower keys and short-lived packs.
No Lust or Battle Rez

Talents

Pros & Cons

Tier: A

Talent Calculator

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How To Play Assassination Rogue

Assassination Rogues are the epitome of precision, patience, and deadly efficiency. With a gameplay style rooted in resource management, debuff upkeep, and perfectly timed cooldowns, playing this specialization at a high level offers immense satisfaction—and damage. Whether you’re pushing Mythic+ dungeons or climbing the raid ladder, mastering the nuances of Assassination will elevate your performance significantly. Let’s explore the mechanics, priorities, and optimizations that define the spec.

Core Gameplay Philosophy

At its heart, Assassination Rogue gameplay revolves around maintaining powerful bleeds and poisons while juggling cooldowns and energy. Your main energy source is Venomous Wounds, which only activates when enemies are affected by Garrote or Rupture. Keeping both active at all times is crucial—without them, your rotation slows down to a crawl.

Additionally, Slice and Dice is maintained through Cut to the Chase, which allows you to keep your focus on managing bleeds and poisons instead of reapplying the buff manually. In AoE, debuffs like Crimson Tempest and Caustic Spatter demand attention to ensure maximum uptime and effectiveness.

Cooldown Synergy and Burst Phases

The most defining moments for an Assassination Rogue come during cooldown windows. Deathmark, Kingsbane, Vanish, and Shiv create a potent synergy that leads to explosive burst potential. Deathmark doubles bleeds and poisons, which in turn fuels Venomous Wounds for energy and Kingsbane for damage. Shiv enhances the damage taken, making its timing crucial—it should bracket the Kingsbane window for maximum effect.

In single-target encounters, understanding the sequence and purpose of these cooldowns is essential. For example, casting Deathmark followed immediately by Shiv and Kingsbane ensures the most efficient overlap of powerful effects. In AoE, this cooldown choreography becomes more situational but equally important.

Poisons: Setup and Strategy

Poisons play a central role in both your utility and damage profile. They’re no longer applied to weapons but are now character buffs, and with the Dragon-Tempered Blades talent, you can apply two of each type—lethal and non-lethal.

For lethal poisons:

Deadly Poison is your default option across all content.
Amplifying Poison adds a buff to Envenom and is excellent when used alongside Dragon-Tempered Blades.
Instant Poison is situationally used when Amplifying Poison isn’t available.

For non-lethal:

Numbing Poison is preferred in Mythic+ for reducing melee damage taken.
Atrophic Poison shines in raids or high keys for reducing overall group damage.
Crippling Poison is your default utility pick for slowing enemies.

Make sure to reapply these poisons every hour—something many newer rogues overlook.

Opening Sequence and Combat Flow

A solid opener can set the tone for the entire encounter. Generally, it follows a simple structure:

Apply Garrote, Rupture, and activate Slice and Dice.
Prepare for the Kingsbane burst window by aligning cooldowns.
Unload with Envenom and spread bleeds using Indiscriminate Carnage if talented.

Timing Vanish to refresh Improved Garrote right before or during Deathmark is key. In AoE, you should prioritize establishing strong bleeds on the primary target and let Indiscriminate Carnage spread them passively.

Flexibility is crucial. Knowing how many enemies you’re about to face and whether cooldowns should be delayed or rushed makes all the difference. Unused cooldowns are worse than poorly used ones.

The Energy Game: Managing the Flow

Assassination Rogues have a large energy pool but relatively slow regeneration. This makes energy management one of the spec’s key challenges. Venomous Wounds partially offsets this, but the burden remains high in single-target scenarios.

“Pooling” energy before big cooldowns, especially Kingsbane, helps you avoid starvation during those crucial windows. Aim to save energy for a couple of seconds before a burst phase if you’re under 50%. Also, watch for Rupture sniping opportunities on dying targets to gain a quick energy injection—this trick can often make or break your uptime in raid encounters.

Rotation Priority

Single Target

Cast Ambush from Stealth to apply Deathstalker’s Mark
With Darkest Night active, cast Envenom with Maximum Combo Points as soon as possible
Maintain Garrote
Maintain Rupture
Cast Deathmark on cooldown
Cast Shiv and Thistle Tea before Kingsbane, and then again for the last 8 seconds of Kingsbane
Cast Kingsbane on cooldown, making sure to cast it during Deathmark when it lines up every 2 minutes
Generate Combo Points with Mutilate
Cast Envenom

AOE

Use Fan of Knives on 2+ Targets
Use Mutilate to apply Caustic Spatter

Cast Ambush from Stealth to apply Deathstalker’s Mark on your main target
With Darkest Night active, cast Envenom with Maximum Combo Points
Use Garrote as your main generator during Indiscriminate Carnage until most enemies (especially notable/long living mobs) have Garrote. It’s not necessary to make sure Garrote is present on all mobs.
Use Rupture as your main finisher during Indiscriminate Carnage until all notable enemies have Rupture. If an enemy will die in <10 seconds, it’s not important enough to Rupture. It’s not necessary to make sure Rupture is present on all mobs.
Maintain Garrote on your main target
Maintain Rupture on your main target
Maintain Caustic Spatter on your main target
Maintain Crimson Tempest
Maintain Rupture on at least 5 targets. Ruptureing additional targets is only worth if they will live for >10 seconds
Cast Deathmark on cooldown
Cast Vanish to spread bleeds using Indiscriminate Carnage. In Mythic+, hold Vanish for upcoming chainpulls
Cast Shiv and Thistle Tea before Kingsbane, and then again for the last 8 seconds of Kingsbane
Cast Kingsbane on cooldown, making sure to cast it during Deathmark when it lines up every 2 minutes
Generate Combo Points with Fan of Knives if Clear the Witnesses is active
Generate Combo Points with Fan of Knives on 2+ Targets, otherwise use Mutilate
Cast Envenom

Tier Set

Spectral Gambler’s Last Call

2-Set – Rogue Assassination 11.1 Class Set 2pc Your spells and abilities have a chance to activate a Winning Streak! increasing the damage of your Envenom, Rupture, and Crimson Tempest by 3% stacking up to 10 times. Envenom, Rupture, and Crimson Tempest have a 15% chance to remove Winning Streak!
4-Set – Rogue Assassination 11.1 Class Set 4pc When you would lose Winning Streak!, you have a 70% chance to instead gain maximum stacks of Winning Streak! for 10s. These cannot be removed and have 50% additional effect while immune to removal.

General Tips

Maintain DoTs

Keep Garrote and Rupture active to fuel Venomous Wounds, with Slice and Dice, Crimson Tempest, and Caustic Spatter maintained automatically or on AoE.

Tempest and Caustic Spatter

Align Deathmark, Kingsbane, Vanish (with Improved Garrote), and Shiv for maximum burst damage.

Line up Cooldowns

Spend Combo Points efficiently and manage your 300-cap Energy pool to avoid resource loss or downtime.

Stat Priority

Haste: Increases attack speed and spell casting speed. This also applies to pets.
Critical Strike: Chance for extra effectiveness on attacks and heals (double damage/healing).
Mastery: Increases the effectiveness of Mastery: Potent Assassin.
Versatility: Increases damage and healing, and reduces damage taken.

1. Agility- As with all specs, main stat will be top priority.

2. Mastery – Enhances Mastery: Potent Assassin, boosting a large portion of your damage; slightly more favored in Deathstalker builds, particularly with Vicious Venoms.

3. Critical Strike – Increases your chance to deal double damage and generates extra Combo Points via Seal Fate; especially valuable for Fatebound builds due to Deal Fate.

4. Haste – Speeds up attacks and DoT ticks, but can drop in value if you already have a lot from temporary buffs like trinkets.

5. Versatility – Offers a flat bonus to all damage dealt and reduces damage taken, but typically ranks lowest among secondary stats.