WotLK Classic Assassination Rogue Stat Priority

1. Hit Rating (to cap);
2. Expertise Rating (to cap);
3. Agility;
4. Strength and Attack Power;
5. Haste;
6. Critical Strike Rating;
7. Armor Penetration.

Hit Rating is massively important for all Rogue specs as it increases your chance to hit with both your normal Physical attacks, as well as your Poisons.

Unlike other classes, Rogues have two different "forms" of Hit Rating — your chance to hit with auto attacks and abilities and your chance to hit with Poisons. You must hit the 8% hit rating cap to ensure that your abilities do not miss, but it is also heavily recommended that you also hit the 17% hit rating cap, which makes it so that your Poisons cannot miss either.

Unlike Expertise, Hit Rating is still useful beyond the 17% cap, albeit slightly less desirable, as your auto attacks still have a chance to miss at 17%.

Note that there are buffs and talents that can affect your Hit Rating which need to be taken into account when pushing for the caps.

Buff Name	Effect	Physical Hit	Poison Hit
Precision	Increases hit chance by 5% with 5/5 talent points in it.	Yes	Yes
Heroic Presence	Having a Draenei in your party gives you 1% extra hit rating.	Yes	Yes
Improved Faerie Fire or Misery	Increases spell hit chance by 3%.	No	Yes

Expertise reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried and, as with Hit Rating, has a cap you should aim for. Your Expertise Rating to ensure that a boss cannot dodge or parry your attacks is 214 and, unlike Hit Rating, once you have reached the Expertise cap, the stat becomes completely worthless beyond that. There is no additional benefit to more Expertise Rating whatsoever.

Note that there are racials and talents that can affect your expertise rating which need to be taken into account when pushing for the cap.

• Sword Specialization — Human
• Mace Specialization — Human
• Mace Specialization — Dwarf
• Axe Specialization — Orc
• Weapon Expertise — Combat talent

Agility provides Rogues with Attack Power, Critical Strike chance, Armor, and Dodge chance.

Strength provides Rogues with Attack Power.

Haste increases the rate at which you can attack with your auto attacks, thereby increasing damage done.

Critical Strike Chance gives attacks a chance to deal double their damage as a critical strike and your Poisons a chance to deal 150% of their normal damage.

Armor Penetration allows your attacks to ignore a portion of your enemy's Armor, thereby increasing your damage via the increased damage taken by your target.

Given the large amount of damage dealt by Poisons for Assassination, Armor Penetration is not particularly important to them.