Cataclysm Classic Assassination Rogue Stat Priority

The stat priority for Assassination Rogue is as follows:

1. Agility
2. Hit Rating (17% Spell Hit Cap)
3. Mastery Rating
4. Haste Rating
5. Expertise Rating (6.5% – 26 Expertise Cap)
6. Critical Strike Rating
7. Hit Rating (27% Hard Melee Hit Cap)

Agility is the primary stat for all three Rogue specializations, including Assassination Rogues. Agility is now the main source of Attack Power, converting 1 Agility into 2 Attack Power and a very small amount of Critical Strike rating, 83 Agility will grant you 1% Critical Strike chance. Due to the nature of how your abilities scale off of primarily Attack Power, this will be by far your most valuable DPS stat and also scales incredibly with buffs like Blessing of Kings, making it even more important.

Your second stat priority will be to reach the Hit cap of 17% which only comes from the Hit Rating stat we can find on Gear, with Gems or even talents like Precision. We seek out the full 17% Spell Hit cap as Assassination due to the shear amount of damage dealt by our Poisons so increasing the likelihood they are able to afflict the target should be your priority.

At Level 85:

• 120.1 Hit Rating = 1% Hit Chance

Mastery is the new stat added in during Cataclysm and provides a different, unique benefit for every single specialization in the game. For Assassination Rogues, Mastery gives Potent Poisons, which increases the damage dealt by your Poisons based on the amount of Mastery Rating you have. Poisons are a massive part of our DPS as Assassination so making them more potent is an obvious choice.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1% Mastery

Haste rating is a great stat as an Assassination Rogue for a number of reasons but most importantly the quicker you are able to auto-attack the more you are able to apply Poisons to the target. Haste Rating also causes your Energy to regenerate faster allowing you to use more abilities like Mutilate to generate Combo Points for finishing abilities.

At Level 85:

• 128.05 Haste Rating = 1% Haste
• 310 Haste Rating = 1 additional Energy recovered every second

Expertise rating prevents bosses from being able to Dodge your attacks even when attacking from behind. Similar to missing, if an attack is dodged it deals zero damaging making Expertise quite valuable.6.5% Expertise Cap, or 26 total Expertise is our goal. Any expertise beyond this will likely be wasted as Bosses are not able to parry from behind and especially as a Rogue you will be spending the majority of your time behind the boss to be able to utilize abilities like Backstab.

Rating	Skill	Percent	Information
30.02	1	0.25%	1 Expertise Skill
691	23	5.75%	Dodge cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization, or Shortblade Specialization.
781	26	6.5%	Dodge cap on bosses without racial
1592	53	13.25%	Parry cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization, or Shortblade Specialization.
1682	56	14%	Parry cap on bosses without racial

Critical Strike Rating is our lowest rated secondary stat due to the amount of Critical Strike multipliers we will already find in the Assassination talent tree like Cold Blood and Puncturing Wounds making reaching the Critical Strike cap a real concern. Consider Reforge this stat into a higher priority stat like Mastery or Hit Rating.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Crit Rating = 1% Crit

At 27% Hit rating you guarantee a hit every time with your off-hand weapon, this is a relatively small damage increase compared to other options found with our secondary stats but if you find yourself in a situation where you are able to add hit rating without sacrificing stats elsewhere then it is something to consider.