Rogue — Assassination
World of Warcraft: Midnight · Season 1
Use the talent calculator, live meta, macros, and keybind planner for this specialization while its encounter decisions, talent evidence, and patch review are completed. This page is intentionally excluded from search until its complete, source-reviewed guide is published.
Start here
Build a practical Assassination Rogue setup
Use this guide for decisions in combat, then keep the chosen talents, keybinds, macros, and live gear evidence connected in the tools below.
Overview
Assassination is a DoT-heavy melee spec built on poisons and bleeds. You keep Garrote and Rupture rolling and pool combo points for Envenom, then duplicate everything with Deathmark and Kingsbane.
Strengths
- Strong sustained damage and bleed cleave
- Good survivability (Feint, Crimson Vial)
- Excellent control utility (Kick, Blind, Sap)
Weaknesses
- Ramp before full DoT uptime
- Target swaps waste bleed investment
- Complex DoT maintenance
Stat Priority, Races & Consumables
Stat rankings, race notes, enchants, gems, and consumables in one place - the same character-prep flow players expect from modern class guides.
- 1.Item Level / Agility
- 2.Critical Strike
- 3.Haste
- 4.Mastery
- 5.Versatility
Critical Strike feeds Seal Fate Combo Points and Dashing Scoundrel Energy; Haste improves regeneration and DoT rate. Treat close pieces as character-specific rather than following a fixed item-level rule.
Races
Racials are a small optimization. Pick utility racials for the content you play most, then prioritize gear, talents, and execution.
Speeds up casts, attacks, and resource generation, so your whole rotation flows faster and you fit more globals into every cooldown window.
Chance to land a hit for roughly double value. Bursty and RNG-driven; strongest when the spec has effects that scale with or guarantee crits.
A spec-specific multiplier - what it amplifies changes per spec, so hover it on your character sheet. Often your best or worst stat depending on build.
A flat increase to all damage and healing done plus reduced damage taken. The safe, consistent, survivability-friendly stat.
Flasks, food, potions, weapon oils, and runes for this build.
Secondary-stat enchants are not universal. They should move with your current gear, stat breakpoints, and the enemies you are facing in a raid boss, dungeon, 2v2, 3v3, or Blitz match. We will split these into boss-by-boss, dungeon-by-dungeon, and PvP bracket recommendations as the live gear model fills in.
Playstyle & Rotation
This is the practical priority list: how the spec plays moment to moment, when to spend, and where cooldowns belong.
Opener
5 stepsMajor Cooldowns
4 steps- Deathmark duplicates your bleeds and poisons - fire it with all DoTs up and Envenom ready
- Kingsbane for stacking poison damage
- Vanish for Garrote resets (if talented)
- Thistle Tea for an Energy burst
Single-target priority
5 stepsAoE / multi-target priority
5 steps- 1Spread Garrote and Rupture (or Crimson Tempest)
- 2Fan of Knives to build and apply poison
- 3Envenom or Crimson Tempest as finisher
- 4Keep bleeds spread across the pack
- 5Deathmark on the primary
Talents
Pick your hero tree by the fight’s damage profile - single-target on pure bosses, multi-target on cleave and add fights.
Single-target: Deathstalker
Deathstalker adds Deathstalker's Mark and Symbolic Marks for the strongest single-target burst.
- Deathstalker hero tree
- Stat priority: Agility > Critical Strike
- Interrupt: Kick
Multi-target: Fatebound
Fatebound's coin flips reward frequent finishers for stronger sustained cleave.
- Fatebound hero tree
- Prioritize AoE and add-swap talents
- Interrupt: Kick
Loadouts by Content
Talent focus and live gear for each type of content. Copy the picks into the talent calculator to build and share your tree - verified in-game import strings are added as they are theorycrafted, never guessed.
Raid - Deathstalker
Current standard Midnight raid build. It keeps useful AoE tools while retaining strong primary-target damage; pure single target can exchange those for Improved Poisons or Doomblade.
CMQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYmlxsZwAAAAAAzyglZAAAAAAttNzMzMzMGzMzMbzsMzMDzMzMzMMDzMAGYBmxoxsAy2A2MAYmBGAMythic+ - Deathstalker
Key and open-world build with the sustained poison/bleed package and broader AoE support.
CMQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYmlZmNDGAAAAAYWGsNDAAAAAottZmZmZmxYmZmZbmlZG8AzMzMjhZGjBwALwMGNmNQ2GwmxGgZGGDSecondary-stat enchants are flexible. They change with your current gear and the enemy profile in a specific raid boss, dungeon, 2v2, 3v3, or Blitz match. As the live model fills in, this page will show enchants and gear by boss, dungeon, and PvP bracket.
Equipment
Tier set notes, target gear, trinkets, embellishments, and boss-specific gear links.
Treat secondary-stat enchants as matchup-aware recommendations, not permanent rules. Your current gear, raid boss damage profile, dungeon pulls, and arena or Blitz enemies can change whether Haste, Mastery, Critical Strike, Versatility, avoidance, leech, or movement is the right enchant for that slot.
Gearing notes
Use the BiS tables as a target list, then prefer item level and the secondary stats shown in this guide.
Open the 3v3 meta view for the current ladder sample and gear trend.
Open source →Exact gear from the current #1 final-boss parse, not a hand-authored target set or unrelated logout gear.
Open source →Open the Mythic+ meta view for the current top-key sample and gear trend.
Open source →Raid Encounter Gear
Retrieving verified gear from the current top parses. This refreshes automatically.
Mythic+ Dungeon Gear
Loading the verified live dungeon references.
Enchants
Choose enhancements after your equipment is settled. Secondary-stat enchant choices move with your current stat mix and the content you are preparing for.
Gems
Socket into the current stat priority, then re-check after major equipment swaps rather than treating a gem choice as permanent.
Embellishments
Crafted effects are capped at two equipped embellishments. Lock these in only after deciding which crafted slots survive your next raid or Mythic+ upgrades.
Best in Slot by Boss
Gear and talents change per fight. For each boss we surface the current #1 parse as the best-in-slot reference - open any boss to copy that player’s full gear from Warcraft Logs. The recommended hero tree follows the fight’s damage profile.
Utility & Defensives
The Rogue toolkit, shared across every spec - a few entries are talent choices. Landing these on cue is what separates a good Assassination from a great one.
Defensives
Movement
Cloak of Shadows is a magic immunity window that also clears magic debuffs; Shroud skips trash.
Interrupt: Kick - grab a focus-interrupt macro on the Assassination macros page.
Interface & Macros
Start with Midnight’s built-in boss warnings, cooldown manager, damage meter, and raid frames. Then add only the interface pieces that make your decisions clearer.
Focus interrupt
#showtooltip Kick
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] KickTips & Tricks
- Apply all DoTs before Deathmark
- Never let Rupture drop on your primary
- Keep poisons applied at all times
- Pool Energy before your cooldowns
Common Mistakes
- Deathmark with missing bleeds
- Letting Rupture or Garrote fall off
- Envenom under 5 combo points
- Energy capping
FAQ
2 quick answersWhich races are best?
Race damage is close. Mag'har Orc is a strong Horde option for Deathmark burst, while Night Elf provides valuable Shadowmeld utility for Alliance Mythic+ play.
When do I use Vanish?
Use Vanish into Improved Garrote, ideally alongside Deathmark. Do not hold it so long that you lose a meaningful Garrote reset.
Talents by enemy class
Pick an opponent to see the pressure your PvP build must answer. Named picks appear only in reviewed matchup plans; the baseline comes from this spec's current arena build when one is published.
Grip setups, anti-caster pressure, and sustained melee uptime.
Mobility, anti-slow, and physical or magic mitigation.
Keep an answer for grip-based isolation and do not spend movement before the Death Knight commits their control chain.
Comments
Comments load when you reach this section.
Loading comments...