Assassination Rogue DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

Welcome to our Rotation page for Assassination Rogues. Here you will find out more about your rotational priorities in both single-target and multi-target situations, which you will apply in both Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

If you are just starting, you might want to get more comfortable with your Assassination Rogue by using a more simplified yet still effective build and rotation. You can find out more about it in our Easy Mode section.

If you want to find out more about the addition of Hero Talents, you can find more information on our dedicated Hero Talents page.

For information about Mythic+ as an Assassination Rogue and the rotation you need to use in this content type, please refer to our Mythic+ page.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.

Each of the sections below explain the rotation for different environments. Click the boxes to switch to the desired situation.

Assassination Rogue
Rotation Quick Guide Deathstalker (recommended)
Single-Target Rotation Fatebound
Single-Target Rotation Deathstalker (recommended)
Multi-Target Rotation Fatebound
Multi-Target Rotation

2.1.

Simplified Assassination Rotation

This is a simplified version of the Rotation that leaves out some minor min-maxing gameplay.

• Open from Stealth with Ambush if you are playing Deathstalker.
• Use Mutilate as your single-target builder, and Envenom as your single-target spender. Use Ambush instead of Mutilate when available.
• Use Fan of Knives as your AoE builder, and maintain Crimson Tempest as your AoE spender. Use Mutilate or Ambush once every 10 seconds in AoE if talented into Caustic Spatter.
• Maintain Rupture and Garrote at all times.
• Use Vanish, Kingsbane, and Deathmark on cooldown.
• Use Cold Blood (with Fatebound) on cooldown.
• Use Thistle Tea alongside Shiv, and Shiv alongside Kingsbane.

2.1.

Deathstalker Single Target Ability Priority List for Assassination Rogue

This is the general priority list on how to use your abilities. This is NOT a list that should be followed step by step; it simply serves as a good idea of which things to prioritize in your moment-to-moment gameplay, as you will often be faced with multiple choices on which buttons to press. The priority list simply highlights which buttons are more important than others. You can find a sample opener sequence further below on this page.

1. Make sure to open from stealth with Ambush to apply Deathstalker's Mark.
2. Maintain Garrote, casted from Stealth when possible.
3. Maintain Rupture with 5+ Combo Points.
4. Activate Deathmark when available.
5. Use Kingsbane on cooldown. Make sure to sync it with all the other buffs.
6. Activate Vanish on cooldown. Use it to refresh Garrote when it is about to run out, then sync it with your subsequent Deathmark casts.
7. Use one charge of Shiv before Kingsbane and extend it with the second charge to cover the entire duration of Kingsbane.
8. Cast Fan of Knives once if you just re-applied your Deathstalker's Mark.
9. Cast Envenom with 5+ Combo Points. Refresh Envenom in the last second of its duration to benefit from Rapid Injection. Cast it with 7 CP when Darkest Night is active.
10. Cast Ambush to generate Combo Points whenever it is usable.
11. Cast Mutilate to generate Combo Points.
12. Use Thistle Tea alongside Shiv. Make sure to hold at least one charge for each Kingsbane.

2.2.

Fatebound Single Target Ability Priority List for Assassination Rogue

This is the general priority list on how to use your abilities. This is NOT a list that should be followed step by step; it simply serves as a good idea of which things to prioritize in your moment-to-moment gameplay, as you will often be faced with multiple choices on which buttons to press. The priority list simply highlights which buttons are more important than others. You can find a sample opener sequence further below on this page.

1. Maintain Garrote, casted from Stealth when possible.
2. Maintain Rupture with 5+ Combo Points.
3. Use Cold Blood on cooldown.
4. Activate Deathmark when available.
5. Use Kingsbane on cooldown. Make sure to sync it with all the other buffs.
6. Activate Vanish on cooldown. Use it to refresh Garrote when it is about to run out, then sync it with your subsequent Deathmark casts.
7. Use one charge of Shiv before Kingsbane and extend it with the second charge to cover the entire duration of Kingsbane.
8. Cast Envenom with 5+ Combo Points.
9. Cast Ambush to generate Combo Points whenever it is usable.
10. Cast Mutilate to generate Combo Points.
11. Use Thistle Tea alongside Shiv. Make sure to hold at least one charge for each Kingsbane.

2.3.

Deathstalker Multi-Target Ability Priority List for Assassination Rogue

1. Make sure to open from stealth with Ambush to apply Deathstalker's Mark. Skip this if you already have Darkest Night active.
2. Maintain multiple Garrote, casted from Stealth when possible.
3. Maintain at least five Rupture's with 5+ Combo Points.
4. Maintain Crimson Tempest.
5. Maintain Caustic Spatter by using Mutilate once every 10 seconds to generate Combo Points.
6. Activate Deathmark when available.
7. Use Kingsbane on cooldown. Make sure to sync it with all the other buffs.
8. Activate Vanish on cooldown. Use it to refresh Garrote when it is about to run out, then sync it with your subsequent Deathmark casts.
9. Use one charge of Shiv before Kingsbane and extend it with the second charge to cover the entire duration of Kingsbane.
10. Cast Envenom with 5+ Combo Points. Refresh Envenom in the last second of its duration to benefit from Rapid Injection. Cast it with 7 CP when Darkest Night is active.
11. Cast Ambush to generate Combo Points whenever it is usable.
12. Cast Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points on 3+ targets.
13. Use Thistle Tea alongside Shiv. Make sure to hold at least one charge for each Kingsbane.

2.4.

Fatebound Multi-Target Ability Priority List for Assassination Rogue

1. Maintain Garrote, casted from Stealth when possible.
2. Maintain at least five Rupture's with 5+ Combo Points.
3. Maintain Crimson Tempest.
4. Maintain Caustic Spatter by using Mutilate once every 10 seconds to generate Combo Points.
5. Use Cold Blood on cooldown.
6. Activate Deathmark when available.
7. Use Kingsbane on cooldown. Make sure to sync it with all the other buffs.
8. Activate Vanish on cooldown. Use it to refresh Garrote when it is about to run out, then sync it with your subsequent Deathmark casts.
9. Use one charge of Shiv before Kingsbane and extend it with the second charge to cover the entire duration of Kingsbane.
10. Cast Envenom with 5+ Combo Points. Refresh Envenom in the last second of its duration to benefit from Rapid Injection. Cast it with 7 CP when Darkest Night is active.
11. Cast Ambush to generate Combo Points whenever it is usable.
12. Cast Fan of Knives to generate Combo Points on 3+ targets.
13. Use Thistle Tea alongside Shiv. Make sure to hold at least one charge for each Kingsbane.

Assassination has a fairly long opener sequence that aims to maximize its 2-minute burst potential. It differs ever so slightly between Deathstalker and Fatebound.

Hero Talent
Deathstalker	Fatebound

1. Start from Stealth.
2. Cast Ambush.
3. Cast Garrote.
4. Cast Rupture.
5. Cast Fan of Knives.
6. Cast Mutilate until 5+ CP.
7. Cast Envenom.

1. Start from Stealth.
2. Cast Garrote.
3. Cast Mutilate.
4. Cast Rupture.
5. Cast Mutilate up to 5+ CP.
6. Cast Envenom.

This is your set-up, followed by your cooldowns.

1. Cast Deathmark together with your DPS potion and your on-use trinket, if you have one. If you are the recipient of Power Infusion, ask for it here.
2. Cast Shiv.
3. Cast Kingsbane and Thistle Tea.
4. Use Mutilate and Ambush as builders.
5. Use Envenom with 7 CP when Darkest Night triggers.
6. Use Fan of Knives after triggering Darkest Night.
7. Spam Envenom with 5+ CP.
8. Use Vanish to re-apply empowered Garrote once it is 5.4 sec or lower duration.
9. Use Cold Blood after Vanish to empower your next Envenom.
10. Refresh Shiv when the first one ran out.

After your Kingsbane expires, your opener is finished, and you continue with your regular rotation until the next Kingsbane window, a minute later.

• You will never cast Slice and Dice manually. You will naturally maintain it whenever you cast Envenom as a regular part of your rotation, thanks to Cut to the Chase.
• Optimal usage of finishers is at 5+ Combo Points, even with Deeper Stratagem and Sanguine Stratagem.
• If Rupture is about to fall off, it can be reapplied with any number of Combo Points to maintain uptime. It is best to apply it with 5+ Combo Points, however, for maximum Energy efficiency and rotational fluidity.
• You will always want to sync Deathmark and Vanish on single-target, granting Improved Garrote damage bonuses to your Garrote during Deathmark.
• Always hold and chain both charges of Shiv with Kingsbane when talented into it, to ensure the entire Kingsbane receives the bonus damage.
• When talented into Indiscriminate Carnage, you will want to make sure to use Improved Garrote empowered Garrotes to spread it to all targets, and using maximum Combo Point Rupture as well.
• When talented into Deathstalker, make sure to use Fan of Knives on single-target after (re)applying Deathstalker's Mark to proc Clear the Witnesses.

The Tier Set from Nerub-ar Palace has no bearing on our rotation whatsoever; it simply provides passive damage bonuses.

Your Lethal Poison should always be Deadly Poison and Amplifying Poison.

You have three choices for your non-lethal Poison, Crippling Poison, Atrophic Poison, and Numbing Poison. For raiding, you will want to use Atrophic Poison unless your raid wants you to slow a specific group of targets. For Mythic+, you will want to use the Poison that best suits your tank's needs. Crippling Poison allows your tank to more easily kite enemies, whereas Numbing Poison slows their attack speed instead, while Atrophic Poison reduces the damage the group takes from enemy attacks and spells.

The damage buff from Improved Garrote is removed when you overwrite the bleed you empowered by re-applying an unempowered bleed. Therefore, it is best to let the DoT run its full duration before refreshing it. This bonus damage gets duplicated during Deathmark. Consequently, you will want to use Vanish before Deathmark except during your opener.

When you refresh Rupture, Garrote, Crimson Tempest, Envenom or Slice and Dice before they expire, the remaining duration is added to the newly applied effect, up to 30% of the newly applied base duration. This mechanic is called "Pandemic."

Example — You can safely refresh a 5-Combo Point Rupture when it has 7.2 seconds or less remaining because its base duration is 24 seconds. Deeper Stratagem allows for 6 Combo Point Ruptures, which last 28 seconds. 6-Combo Point Ruptures can be refreshed safely when they have 8.4 seconds or less remaining. With Sanguine Stratagem and 7 maximum Combo Points, this changes to 9.6 seconds.

Safe Pandemic refresh timing is based on the newly applied base duration and not the original length of the effect. Therefore, a 2 Combo Point Rupture can benefit from full Pandemic if it is refreshed by a 5-7 Combo Point Rupture.

As an Assassination Rogue, many of your abilities require Energy to be utilized. Your baseline rate of Energy regeneration is 10 Energy per second. However, you can generate more Energy by:

• current Haste rating (Haste and Haste-enhancing buffs);
• the Venomous Wounds talent;
• the Venom Rush talent;
• the Dashing Scoundrel talent;
• the Thistle Tea active ability talent;
• the Darkest Night proc from Deathstalker;
• the passive regeneration increase of Vigor.

Higher Energy generation allows for higher uptimes on Envenom, which awards much higher DPS over an extended encounter.

It is very important to avoid resource overflow. Capping Energy and overcapping Combo Points (unless caused by Seal Fate procs) is an egregious error. Special care should be taken to avoid wasting precious resources. "Pooling" higher levels of Energy, however, can be very beneficial (provided you do not overcap), as it allows you to store resources in anticipation of a window of burst damage. This can help reduce the patchiness of your debuff/buff uptimes, which will result in more consistent and smoother damage output.

Combo Point generation is increased by Seal Fate, which causes your critical hits with melee Combo generators to add Combo Points to your target per critical hit. This means Mutilate can generate up to 4 Combo Points (5 as Fatebound) if the main hand and the off-hand both critically strike. Fan of Knives can generate the maximum number of Combo Points with a single cast if it critically strikes 6 or more targets. You should never cast a Combo Point generator at or above 5 Combo Points, unless it is Garrote or Poisoned Knife (as neither of these benefits from Seal Fate), or if you need to hit 7 Combo Points to trigger Darkest Night. Do not use Poisoned Knife to reach maximum Combo Points unless you are out of range of the boss and in danger of hitting the Energy cap.

It can be very beneficial to "pool" your Energy and Combo Points, which involves auto-attacking while your Energy regenerates. The advantage this provides is variable, meaning that pooling does not always result in damage gained. Situations where pooling Energy and Combo Points is beneficial include:

• before the cooldown on Shiv recharges, to allow for immediate use and optimized burst;
• before an important add spawns so that you can apply as much instant pressure as possible;
• to assist with Envenom uptime by clipping two Envenoms or finishers so that the buff does not drop;
• An encounter-specific buff or damage phase is imminent.

Pooling Energy is not a magical DPS gain by itself. It allows you to slightly adjust the timing of your abilities so that you fit more attacks during periods of increased damage (provided you can properly identify when such periods are going to happen).

Kingsbane is a talent that applies a DoT effect that increases in strength for every lethal poison application. It is incredibly powerful, and large parts of our burst will rely on maximizing its damage output.

Try to maintain a 100% Envenom and Shiv uptime during its entire debuff duration.

All Rogues have a solid number of defensive cooldowns, making them the best candidate for soaking required mechanics and dealing with heavy incoming damage.

• Feint reduces AoE damage taken by 40% for 6 seconds for only 35 Energy. When talented into Elusiveness, it also reduces all other damage by 20% and grants Evasion a 20% damage mitigation. This is one of the most overpowered abilities in the game and a huge asset in fights with heavy raid damage.
• Cloak of Shadows provides magic immunity for 1 second, followed by 4 seconds where all spells will miss you. Cloak of Shadows has a variety of uses, both pre-emptive and reactive, such as solo soaking mechanics or clearing debuffs that would force you out of melee range.
• Evasion increases your Dodge chance by 100% for 10 seconds. This can be useful if you have to tank some adds or the boss for a few seconds. In rare cases, it can be used to negate physical ranged attacks or spells.
• Cheat Death is a talent that allows you to escape lethal damage once every 6 minutes. The damage cannot exceed more than twice your maximum health. Cheat Death is great for soaking mechanics that pierce immunities and damage reductions, as it guarantees your survival. It is also great for encounters with bursty damage that might take you by surprise, as you get a free get-out-of-jail-free card at least once in the encounter.
• Crimson Vial provides a respectable amount of healing on a 30-second cooldown.

Do not forget about this defensive toolkit, as it can be a major asset for both individual and raid-wide survivability.