Cataclysm Classic Assassination Rogue Spell Summary

Rogue has two primary resources to deal damage; Energy and Combo Points. Abilities that cost Energy will often generate Combo Points.

Listed below are the primary Energy spending Combo Point generating abilities.

• Mutilate — serves as your primary Combo Point generator.
• Backstab — takes the place of Mutilate below 35% thanks to Murderous Intent
• Fan of Knives — while only used against a large number of enemies Fan of Knives is our only source of spammable AoE damage. On top of dealing damage it will also apply any Poisons you have applied to your thrown weapon.

Unlike the abilities mentioned above, the abilities on this list are Combo Point spenders, these abilities are generally more powerful than generating abilities as they will often cost both Energy and Combo Points to use.

• Envenom — this will act as your primary way to spend Combo Points, assuming Slice and Dice and Rupture are already active on the target. This ability is best used with 5 Combo Points.
• Slice and Dice — increases your attack speed and should be maintained at all times. This is the highest priority of to maintain of all of your Combo Point spending abilities. Thanks to Cut to the Chase your Envenom ability will automatically refresh Slice and Dice to its max duration each time Envenom is cast.
• Rupture — is a powerful bleed that should be maintained at all times. Talents like Venomous Wounds cause this ability to deal a considerable amount of damage as well as restoring a considerable amount of Energy as each tick of Rupture will have a 60% chance to refund ten Energy.
• Recuperate — is a heal-over-time effect that allows you to convert Combo Points to healing. The strength of the heal does not scale with the amount of Combo Points, only the duration so feel free to use this as you feel it is needed with any amount of Combo Points.
• Kidney Shot — is an instant cast stun that's duration scales with the amount of Combo Points spent. While this is not a true DPS ability it has many great uses in a situation where the mob is able to be stunned it can be used as an impromptu interrupt in a situation where your Kick is unavailable or to stop all outgoing damage from a target for a short period.
• Expose Armor — reduces the targets armor by 12%. The amount of Combo Points spent only increases the duration of this debuff not its effectiveness. While this can be used in an emergency it is generally not recommended to use.
• Deadly Throw — reduces the targets movement speed by 50% and deals damage based on the amount of Combo Points spent. This ability is generally not recommended unless you will be out of range of the target for a considerable amount of time.

In Cataclysm, Rogue cooldowns are just as strong as ever with even more incredible tools to both deal damage, mitigate incoming damage or turn the tables with an overwhelming amount of crowd control.

• Combat Readiness — reduces incoming damage by 10% stacking up to five times leading to a total of 50% reduced damage. Combat Insight stacks are gained by taking melee or ranged physical attacks so while this is an incredibly powerful defensive cooldown, it can be underwhelming if you are not consistently taking incoming damage.
• Cloak of Shadows — instantly removes all harmful magic effects and grants immunity to all magic damage and effects for five seconds. This is an incredibly strong defensive cooldown that can be used proactively and reactively. Many encounters have mechanics that can be entirely trivialized by a well timed Cloak of Shadows or if you find yourself in a situation where you would otherwise not survive a large burst of incoming magic Damage never hesitate to use your Cloak of Shadows.
• Smoke Bomb — summons a eight yard radius cloud of smoke that prevents enemies attacks from coming into or leaving the shrouded area. While not a direct damage reduction this ability can be used to stop incoming spells and is an incredible tool especially in raids to avoid otherwise unavoidable incoming spells.
• Tricks of the Trade — redirects all threat generated by the Rogue for six seconds to the target of Tricks of the Trade as well as increasing their damage dealt by 15% for its duration. This is a great tool to bolster your tanks threat early into a pull and can be used on another damage dealer once threat is established to allow them to deal more damage. This is especially powerful for classes that benefit from snapshotting like Warlocks.
• Blind — is an instant cast disorient that will cause the target to wander for one minute. Any damage will instantly break this effect.
• Vanish — instantly sends the Rogue back into stealth allowing for the usage of Stealth-only abilities. As Assassination this ability is even more powerful thanks to the additional Energy we will be regenerating from Overkill which increases Energy regeneration in stealth and within 20 seconds of leaving it by 30%. While this cooldown is used in your rotation to do damage it is also an incredible threat drop if you find yourself nearing the point where you will pull aggro do not hesitate to use it.
• Vendetta — marks an enemy for death causing you to deal 20% more damage to the target for thirty seconds. This is an incredible damage increase but make sure to use it when you will have thirty seconds of ininterrupted uptime on the target.
• Cold Blood — instantly restores 25 Energy and causes your next attack to critically strike. This is best paired with Envenom.
• Evasion — Increases the Rogue's dodge rating by 50% and reduces the chance to be hit by ranged attacks by 25%. This is a great tool should you find yourself with aggro or being targeted by an enemy dealing physical damage.
• Dismantle — disarms the enemy for ten seconds. While this has limited usage in raids it can be an incredible tool to reduce incoming damage in Dungeons and in PvP.

Rogue has a number of abilities that can only be used while in Stealth, these abilities range from large bursts of damage, lengthy crowd controlling effects or even a brief silence with a damage over time component.

• Garrote — is a damage over time effect that will act as our primary stealth leaving ability thanks to its synergy with Venomous Wounds. On top of being a considerable amount of bleed damage this will also silence any targets able to be silenced for 3 seconds.
• Ambush — is a massive burst of damage. While tempting to deal a large burst of damage especially paired with Cold Blood and Tricks of the Trade it is almost exclusively better to use Garrote if the target will survive Garrotes full duration. Otherwise cast Ambush.
• Sap — is a minute long incapacitate that can only be used on Humanoids, Beasts, Dragonkin and Demons that are not in combat. Any damage will immediately break this effect.
• Cheap Shot — stuns the target for 4 seconds. While not a direct DPS increase this ability can be used as an impromptu interrupt or just a way to stop all outgoing damage against any enemy that can be stunned.

Rogue is truly a master of tricks with a number of utility spells that can help you deal with all types of situations.

• Kick — is an instant, melee ranged interrupt. While Kick does have an Energy cost it is often one of the most reliable ways to interrupt spell casting in the game.
• Distract — attracts the attention of enemies for 10 seconds. While this has very limited use in PvE it can be used to get closer to mobs in stealth you would otherwise not have been able to.
• Shiv — instantly applies the poison found on your off-hand and dispels any enraging effects on the target. While there are several other ways to remove enraging effects they can be difficult to use in comparison to Shiv which is an instant cast in melee range.
• Redirect — instantly transfers all of your Combo Points onto your current target, allowing for much easier target swapping.
• Feint — lowers your threat by 5% and reduces all incoming damage from AoE effects by 50%. This is an incredibly powerful defensive ability that is literally free thanks to the Glyph of Feint. There is almost no excuse to not have this active for every incoming source of AoE damage.
• Gouge — is an instant cast melee ranged incapacitate that can only be used against enemies that you are currently in front of. Any damage will break this incapacitating effect.

Rogue is able to augment their weapon with vile poisons that can greatly increase your damage, mitigate an enemies ability to deal damage or even act as a healing reduction or slow.

• Deadly Poison — is a stacking poison that deals more Nature damage with each stack. This will be the primary poison you use on your off-hand weapon and your thrown weapon in a situation where the mobs you are AoEing with Fan of Knives will survive to be able to stack five times.
• Instant Poison — is the primary poison that will be used on your main-hand weapon. It instantly deals Nature damage to your target.
• Wound Poison — reduces the healing the target is able to receive and deals a Nature damage. This is will also deal more damage than Deadly Poison in an AoE situation if your Deadly Poison is not able to stack fully.
• Crippling Poison — slows the target, while not used often this is an incredible potent slow and can be used on your thrown weapon in a situation where you need to slow multiple targets at once.
• Mind-Numbing Poison — increases the cast speed of the target lessening the amount of casts the target would otherwise be able to cast. While not used often this can be a great tool to make interrupting easier with abilities like Kick.