WotLK Classic Assassination Rogue Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Assassination Rogue in both single-target and multiple-target PvE situations in WotLK Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS.
Overview of Assassination Rogue Rotation
If you have not already, please read the Spell Summary page. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.
Your main role as an Assassination Rogue is to simply put out as much damage
as you can for the most part, with the main exception being when there is no
Warrior in your group, in which case you will be applying the Armor debuff with
Expose Armor.
For the most part, the rotation is fairly simply and revolves around the
building and spending of Combo Points with Mutilate and
Envenom.
Single-Target Rotations for Assassination Rogue
Your rotation will vary slightly depending on whether you have a Warrior in your group or not.
If there is a Warrior in your group or another Rogue
applying Expose Armor, then you will not need to use it yourself.
In this case, your rotation will simply be jumping between uses of Envenom
and
Mutilate after your opener.
You should aim to use Envenom when you have 4 or 5 Combo Points and
Mutilate when you have 1, 2, or 3 Combo Points.
Expose Armor
If you do not have anyone else to apply the Armor debuff, you will need to simply
maintain the buff and use your Combo Points on it rather than Envenom if it
is going to fall off. Ideally, you should use it and maintain it with 4 or 5
Combo Points, but if the buff is about to drop and you have fewer, you should use
it anyway.
Multi-Target (AoE) Rotations for Assassination Rogues
Multi-target combat for Assassination is fairly simple — you will, for the
most part, just spam Fan of Knives during any mass-AoE phases (6+ targets).
Below 6 targets, you will just continue doing your single-target rotation.
Opener for Assassination Rogues
The opener for Assassination varies depending on whether you have someone else
in your party or raid to apply a bleed effect for your Hunger For Blood.
If someone else is applying bleeds, you will open using:
Mutilate
Slice and Dice
Hunger For Blood
Mutilate
- You may have to use 2 Mutilates, depending on the number of CPs generated
Envenom
If you have to apply the bleeds yourself, you will open using:
Mutilate
Slice and Dice
Mutilate if you did not get a combo point from
Ruthlessness
Rupture
Hunger For Blood
Mutilate
- You may have to use 2 Mutilates, depending on the number of CPs generated
Envenom
Cooldowns for Assassination Rogues
There are not many impactful cooldowns for Assassination beyond Vanish
and
Cold Blood.
Vanish should be used when you need a boost of Energy from
Overkill.
Cold Blood should be used on your
Envenom.
Changelog
- 18 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 22 Sep. 2022: Page added.
This guide was written by Sellin and reviewed by Simonize.
This guide has been written by Sellin, a former top 10 US raider and several time Gladiator, long time WoW Player and passionate about all things Warcraft and Theorycrafting. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him on Twitch.
Simonize is a long time rogue player and WoW Classic enjoyer focused on PvE content. He has developed spreadsheets and gear analysis tools for Vanilla, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King PvE rogues.
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