Assassination Rogue leveling guide
Bursty and poison-heavy. Pick this if you like big finishing moves. How the Assassination talents play from level 10 to 60.
On this page7 sections
At a glanceOur pickOpinion, not confirmed by BlizzardOur reading of the Assassination talent text, not a tested rotation.
- Build at level 60
- 39/12/0 (39 Assassination, 12 Combat)
- 16-point milestone
- Cold Blood, level 25
- Last Assassination talent
- Mutilate, level 40
- In a group
- Damage
- Our first choice for leveling a Rogue
- Combat
How Assassination plays
- Assassination is about Combo Points that arrive faster than usual and finishing moves that pay you back.
- Ruthlessness gives a finishing move a 60% chance to leave a Combo Point on the target, and Relentless Strikes gives it a 20% chance per Combo Point to restore 25 Energy.
- Seal Fate adds a Combo Point whenever a Combo Point ability lands a critical strike.
- Critical strikes drive all of it. Malice adds 5% to the chance, Lethality adds 30% to the critical strike damage bonus of Sinister Strike, Backstab, Mutilate and others, and Cold Blood makes the next one certain.
- Poisons are the second half. Venom is a finishing move that raises the damage of your Poisons by 30% and your chance to apply them by 10%, and Mutilate, the last talent, hits 20% harder against Poisoned targets and awards 2 Combo Points.
What to press first
Most important first. Not a rotation.
- 1
Finish with more Combo Points, not fewer
Relentless Strikes has a 20% chance per Combo Point to restore 25 Energy.
- 2
Keep Poisons on your weapons
Malice raises the critical strike chance of Poisons too, and Improved Poisons and Vile Poisons build on them later.
- 3
Use Venom before a long fight
Venom lasts longer per combo point: 9 seconds at one, 21 seconds at five.
- 4
Pair Cold Blood with a big strike
Cold Blood makes your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, Eviscerate or Mutilate a certain critical strike.
- 5
Go from one kill straight into the next
Remorseless Attacks gives your next strike a 40% increased critical strike chance, for 20 sec after a kill.
- 6
Build with Mutilate on Poisoned targets
Mutilate deals 20% more to them.
Talents that change how you play · 9
From Malice at level 10 to Vile Poisons at 44.
The level is when our build first takes the talent.
- Levels 10–14
More critical strikes, from the first point.
- Levels 15–17
A finishing move often leaves a Combo Point behind for the next one.
- Level 20
Finishing moves start returning Energy.
- Level 25
Cold Blood16-point milestone
A certain critical strike on demand.
- Level 30
A new finishing move, for Poisons.
- Levels 31–32
A larger Energy pool: 10 more at two points.
- Levels 35–39
Critical strikes start adding Combo Points, which is where the build's pace comes from.
- Level 40
Mutilate becomes the Combo Point builder.
- Levels 44–48
Poisons hit harder.
Groups and dungeons
In a group: damage. New group talents before 4 dungeons.
In a group these talents support damage.
- Murder adds 4% damage against Humanoid and Giant targets.
- The tree's two group-minded talents, Improved Expose Armor and Improved Kidney Shot, are not in this build.
New group talents by the time each dungeon opens
Strengths and trade-offs
2 strengths, 2 trade-offs.
Strengths
- Energy and Combo Points come back to you, so there is less waiting between abilities.
- Burst when you want it, through Cold Blood.
Trade-offs
- Nothing here is defensive: none of the Assassination talents in the build mentions dodging, parrying or damage taken.
- The Poison talents come late in this order. Vile Poisons is not full until level 48.
Compare this build
Keep reading
Sources and what isn't confirmed
Not announced
- Item names and stat weights
- A leveling talent order from Blizzard
Sources
- Beta 1.60.1 talent data: every claim on this page is read from the Assassination talent text. Nothing here is a published guide or a tested rotation
Updated . Talent data: beta 1.60.1. Details can change in any later build or patch.