Where are Assasination Rogues? Are they any good in Shadowlands? – WoW: Shadowlands 9.0

The Shadowlands expansion has brought us amazing experiences! Let us put the spotlight on the Assassination Rogue and find out how it’s doing in Shadowlands. 

A lot has selected Subtlety Rogue and definitely did not disappoint as they dominate in skirmishes and battlegrounds. Outlaw rogues are still relevant and are very strong contenders for mythic plus. It is going to be very interesting to see Subtlety and Outlaw rogues clashing against one another just like how it was between Outlaws and Assasination Rogues in battle for Azeroth. Why have we not seen much of the Assasination Rogue? Is it a bad spec? It is true not a lot are playing the Assasination Rogue and it seems like it is left behind. 

Best Covenant For Assassination Rogue In Shadowlands - Shadowlands 9.0.2 -  Guides - Wowhead

In previous expansions, Assasination has been a spec that ends up scaling at a later time. Sometimes, Assasination has a really strong start- in Legion it ended up being a strong spec for pve and pvp. By the second rate tier, it starts flourishing with a powerful tier set bonus and has been a strong spec since then. In battle for Azeroth, it started out as a very strong spec, a little bit behind Outlaws for mythic pluses, but instead of race there was nothing to compare with vendetta. When you play Subtlety as a spec in BFA, the only thing it could do essentially is for funnelling in terms of using AOE abilities to build up calm points for each animated hit. Funnelling those combo points into massive eviscerate which worked for a few fights allowing Subtlety a spotlight for a month or two before. All that completely got stripped where the spec became a meme for pvp. Potentially, Assasination is a spec that is going to scale at a later time, it will have enough stats in terms of secondaries in order to shine. 

Tuning could be the downfall of the spec, for now. We will all get to see which specs are performing well and which are not. Blizzard is going to adjust by taking specs that are over performing and constrain them down to become more in line with everyone. Those who are doing poorly, are going to get tuned up thus it could be a simple question of tuning. Subtlety as a spec suddenly became practical and Blizzard made stirring changes for it thus of course a lot of rogues were rolled from one spec into another with this powerful new spec. There is no point of testing a lot of Assasination, most just wanted to see results oriented gameplay and play what is favored. So there are not a lot of people in Beta who really tried to play Assasination and give it a lot of feedback. It did get much needed changes, for example slicing is giving you energy which amplifies the play style. However, it could be one of the downfalls of the spec because a more  admired character is around. If it’s not an issue of tuning, gear is definitely going to help the spec- higher haste numbers, higher mastery numbers, higher critical strike numbers are all going to make it better. Haste will give you more energy and attack so that is more auto attacks, poison application on the enemy and also more ticks of your dots which reverses back into energy. Critical strikes allow you more common points to build up, as you get more crit compared to the end of battle for Azeroth where we had insane crit numbers especially blood of the enemy. Might be able to take advantage at a later time with a massive con point building that the spec can grow off of. There is mastery for big punchy, big poison damage or massive bleeds. All those stats are going to help the spec and that can only be done with better gear once we get into arenas, raids and mythic pluses where the spec could potentially shine. 

Assassination Rogue in Shadowlands - DPS Strengths, Best Covenants,  Soulbinds and Legendaries - Wowhead News

Not everybody is playing Assasination but that does not mean it is completely hopeless. Assasination effect does have advantages that could be very helpful going into the next raid tier. This is a spec about bleeds and poisons, which have a damage over time aspect. This means it has probably the least amount of impact when it comes to not always being able to hit the boss. Outlaw needs uptime but with uptime you also need to be able to dance around the mechanics. If there are a lot of mechanics where you can’t even tag the boss for long periods of time, you lose out on damage. Subtlety is a little bit less, as long as you get your burst, you’ll get the majority of the damage out. If you are not able to get the sustained damage out, you are also going to lose an important portion of the damage. As Assasination, you put dots on the enemy and if you need to get behind the wall for a line of sight mechanic your dots continue on the enemy. You can play mechanics and pay attention to mechanics as long as your dots are pre-set on the boss, you have a good portion of your damage on them. We can also talk about cleave potential when it comes to damage over time. When enemies are quite a distance from each other, Outlaw needs enemies to be next to each other for blade furry cleaving. Subtlety also likes enemies closely compressed. However, when it comes to enemies that are distanced apart, not far and not close enough where you can get the value of AOE- this is where Assasination also shines. It is another thing you are going to see in the mechanics, so if you need that affliction warlock style of doing dots on two enemies that are apart, assasination does have that advantage over the other two specs. 

Assasination is also a spec that is good at AOE. It is not like Outlaw in terms of the burst but in terms of sustain because Outlaw has to play off of cooldowns in order to maintain their AOE. Assasination can spam phantom knives, dot up enemies, crimson tempest all over them. With the right set up, you will have great sustain in the closely packed scenario. Vendetta continues to be a strong cooldown either way. Overall, Assasiantion is not really a bad spec but it does feel like something is missing. It could be the tuning from Blizzard’s end and the Assassination is back just a little under-tuned. It could be the lack of endgame gear or maybe it is going to be scaling at a later time.  Maybe not with this mythic last season you are going to see the spec shine but in a raid or two you will see the spec evolve and dominate the charts. 

Blizzard explains potential changes to AoE damage in World of Warcraft:  Shadowlands | Dot Esports

The spec is not in a bad place but not in a perfect place either. It needs something extra in order to realize its full potential. If you are enjoying assasination, you can still get a lot of value out of it. Choice of covenant is going to make a big difference as well.  

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