Season of Discovery Assassination Rogue DPS Leveling

The build highlighted above focuses on doing as much damage as possible. Rogue has incredible single target kill speed and the faster you kill a mob the less damage it is able to do you in return. If you are able to minimize the amount of damage you take in each encounter you will find yourself fighting more often and spending less time eating.

• Chest — Deadly Brew
• Hands — Mutilate
• Legs — Envenom
• Waist — Shadowstep
• Feet — Master of Subtlety
• Helm — Focused Attacks
• Wrist — Unfair Advantage
• Back — Fan of Knives
• Ring — Dagger Specialization
• Ring — Nature Specialization

Deadly Brew greatly increases the amount of damage you deal by constantly applying Deadly Poison to your target, this synergizes incredibly with Mutilate and Envenom which both deal additional damage to a poisoned target.

Mutilate deals massive damage and thanks to its low energy cost can be used quite frequently applying poisons more often.

Envenom replaces Eviscerate as the primary finisher and deals considerably more damage while also benefiting from the Deadly Poison applied by Deadly Brew.

Shadowstep is one of the strongest mobility cooldowns in the game and allows you to cover a great amount of distance in a short time.

Master of Subtlety is a small but consistent damage increase that you will be able to take advantage of during the leveling process as you are constantly entering and leaving stealth between mobs.

Focused Attacks increases the amount of energy you will have available as you will generate 3 energy every time you critically strike, while your Critical Strike rating is likely to be somewhat low while leveling just due to the shear number of attacks it takes to kill a mob as a Rogue you will be constantly generating extra energy with this rune.

Unfair Advantage will trigger each time you dodge returning 100% of your main-hand weapon's damage to the target whose attack you dodged. The high amount of Agility present on gear will cause this to proc quite often while leveling.

Fan of Knives fills a massive void we have as Rogues allowing us to now have a spammable AoE ability. This synergizes incredibly with the other talents we have opted for specifically Mutilate as it deals an additional 25% damage while you have Daggers equipped, totaling at 75% weapon damage instead of 50% of weapon damage from other weapon types.

Dagger Specialization and Nature Specialization increases our Dagger skill by 5 and our chance to hit with Nature damage by 6%. This allows us, especially while leveling to hit much more often allowing us to deal much more damage while leveling.

If you are unsure where to find these Runes or are just curious what other options may be available, feel free to check out our Rogue Rune guide listed included below to get a better idea of how to plan this all out in your leveling journey.

Leveling as a rogue acts much more as a list of priorities as opposed to a definitive rotation, listed below is what your ideal encounter while leveling should look like.

The weapon you are using can also play a major factor in what abilities you will be using, following the build we have highlighted above you will need to be using two Daggers to fully benefit from Mutilate.

1. If level 20, ensure you have Instant Poison applied to your weapons before entering combat.
2. Approach the mob in Stealth to ensure Master of Subtlety procs and open with Ambush if possible.
3. use Mutilate to build combo points.
4. Maintain the Slice and Dice buff as often as possible, auto attacks will be your primary source of damage while leveling.
5. use Envenom at 5 combo points if Slice and Dice is already active.
6. Use Kick if the mob is casting an ability that is able to be interrupted.
7. Do not hesitate to use Kidney Shot to stun your target if they are dealing large amounts of damage or an important spell cast cannot be interrupted.
8. Use Gouge on cool down to minimize incoming damage and interrupt any spell casts.
9. If you find yourself out of range, do not hesitate to use Shadowstep to close the gap to your target.

In situations where you are fighting 3 or more mobs you should be casting Fan of Knives and ignore the recommended list of priorities above.

Stats while leveling your rogue as any specialization will grant you an identical increase to DPS and survivability so do not hesitate to switch specializations based off of the gear you currently have equipped. Agility is by far your best stat while leveling as it not only makes you deal more damage but increases the likelihood you'll be able to avoid incoming damage, listed below we have highlighted some of the other benefits that stats can provide while leveling your rogue.

1. Agility;
2. Spirit;
3. Strength;
4. Stamina.

Agility increases not only your Attack Power but your critical strike chance and dodge rating, Agility is the single largest damage increase per point of any stat and should be your primary focus as it greatly increases your damage output and even slightly helps your survivability thanks to the dodge chance.

Spirit is a powerful tool while leveling as it increases the amount of health you generate out of combat helping to limit the amount of time you spend out of combat regenerating.

Stamina increases your total health by 10 per point, while solo leveling you are consistently taking damage so this will allow you to pull more mobs before having to break to regenerate health, it also helps in group scenarios where unavoidable damage or threat issues may happen.

Strength is pure DPS stat, per point it provides less benefit than Agility as it does not provide the other benefits of increasing your critical strike chance or dodge rating. While this stat is certainly a DPS increase it should never be prioritized over Agility.

At level 16 your class trainer will offer you a quest to unlock the Pick Lock skill. In Season of Discovery this skill is required to unlock some Runes so it is important to get this as soon as you can.

Weapons are a massive part of your leveling journey as a Rogue, while playing Assassination it is typical to expect that you will be using Daggers so constantly be on the lookout for opportunities to equip yourself with the highest DPS daggers you can find, the speed of the weapon is largely irrelevant. At level 20 you will receive a quest from your class trainer to unlock the ability to create poisons, this is a massive damage increase and should be done as quickly as possible.

Leveling Professions while leveling can slow down your time if you are in a rush to max level however, working towards leveling them while you are out in the level appropriate zone will generally save you more time in the long run if you level as you go, this is especially true with Gathering professions such as Herbalism, Skinning and Mining. These can be used both to create supplies for the crafting profession of your choosing or simply to supplement your income by selling the material on the Auction House to help pay for things like new abilities and even a mount at level 40.

First Aid is crucial as a class that has no other self healing you can easily Vanish or disengage in some other way and heal yourself up using bandages while leveling, this will greatly reduce the downtime you may have otherwise spent eating or possibly even running back to your body after dying.