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Welcome to my quick and comprehensive guide to Assassination rogues and how to maximise your DPS as a Mutilate rogue in patch 3.3.5. You may often find Assassination rogues referred to as Mutilate rogues instead, this is because the main combo point generating ability for an Assassination rogue is called Mutilate. Therefore Assassination rogues and Mutilate rogues are one and the same.

If you are looking to enter into PVE content in the World of Warcraft you will be competing with many other players who all have the best gear, the builds and the best rotations. Your gear upgrades will come in time through raiding Icecrown but everything else you need to sort out yourself before you begin serious raiding. This is a quick guide to Mutilate rogues in Wrath and includes everything you need to know to get you started and to ensure you maximise your DPS.

Talent Build

Mutilate Talent Build – 51/18/2 (Up to date with Patch 3.3.5)

This build has a strong focus on your key abilities as a Mutilate rogue. This includes poison damage, Mutilate and Envenom. Mutilate rogues no longer use Rupture in their rotation so the ability [Blood Spatter] is not included. The two talent points found in [Fleet Footed] are somewhat interchangeable but most rogues will keep them here for added damage up time on bosses where a lot of movement is required. At lower gear levels you may see less  benefits from [Lightning Reflexes] and more from 5 points into [Relentless Strikes] instead. This is because at lower gear levels you may not have the desired amount of haste for this build. As you gear up however, Lightning Reflexes becomes more and more powerful.

Rotation

For a single target the Mutilate rotation is pretty straight forward.

1. Enter Stealth
2. Break Stealth
3. Begin auto attacks
4. 1 x Mutilate
5. SnD
6. HfB (Refresh before it drops off)
7. 2 x Mutilate
8. Envenom
9. Repeat from point 7

Some mutilate rogues may prefer to stealth over to their target and use Garrote instead. This has however come under dispute recently and most rogues now no longer do this in a raid environment. This is because the downtime received from stealthing over to your target is considered too large overall so that you lose too much damage up time. You should also remember to cast [Vanish] on every cool down and immediately break stealth by using an ability such as garrote in order to activate your [Overkill] ability.

It is also vitally important that you maximise the use of your [Tricks of the Trade] ability. This improves raid DPS considerably and also helps you to easily manage your threat without holding back on your attacks. Finally, use [Cold Blood] when you have 5 combo points before you use [Envenom] on every cool down as much as possible.

Glyphs

The following Major Glyphs can be used for a Mutilate rogue:

1. [Glyph of Hunger for Blood]
2. [Glyph of Mutilate]
3. [Glyph of Tricks of the Trade]
4. [Glyph of Fan of Knives]

The first two glyphs are a strict requirement for a raiding Mutilate rogue. The third and final glyphs however are often interchangeable. It is generally accepted that raiding rogues use the  [Glyph of Tricks of the Trade] as their third and final Major Glyph. This is because while it does not generate any personal DPS is does generate extra DPS for your raid. For a well organised raid group with at least 2 rogues present, rogues will often exchange Tricks of the Trade on each other to maximise DPS. The fourth Glyph is for personal DPS only and is not as beneficial for a raiding environment. However it can be used effectively for heroics and trash.

You will also need to ensure you at least have the following two minor glyphs for raiding:

• [Glyph of Safe Fall]
• [Glyph of Vanish]

These will help you reduce damage when thrown around  (for example Eye of Eternity for those that have been there) as well as increase damage up time when you make use of your Vanish ability and your target moves.

Poisons

Mutilate rogues will use only two poisons (one on each weapon), these are [Instant Poison] and [Deadly Poison]. Many mutilate rogues get easily confused by poisons and what weapons to place them on. There is only one solid rule of thumb for Mutilate rogues but it can mean some rogues will have Deadly Poison on their off hand and other on their main hand. Follow these guidelines to find out which is which for you:

1. Deadly Poison will always go on your fastest weapon.
2. If your weapons are the same speed, Deadly Poison will then go on the weapon with the highest DPS average.
3. Your fastest Weapon will always go in your main hand.
4. If your weapons are the same speed, the weapon with the highest DPS will go in your main hand.

This will maximise your poison proc damage first and foremost which provides more DPS than the extra mutilate damage from a high DPS weapon in the main hand. If weapon speed is the same it will then factor in Mutilate damage.  Make sure you look at your weapons carefully and follow these steps to find out where your weapons and poisons should be. For high gear level weapons you will often find a high DPS, fast weapon in your MH with deadly poison. For lower gear levels it is often (but not always) the other way around.

Gems

Mutilate rogue gemming is pretty straight forward when compared to combat rogues. Mutilate rogues will never use Armor Penetration gems so the focus is always on Attack Power and Haste. At lower gear levels you will start off by gemming Agility until you critical strike rating is at a reasonable level (something like 35-40%). Once you reach Emblem of Triumph gear and above (ilevel 245+) you should begin changing your gems. As a general rule of thumb you should gem:

Red Sockets: Bright Cardinal Ruby (40 Attack Power)
Yellow Sockets: Stark Ametrine (20 Attack Power & 10 Haste)
Blue Sockets: 1 x Nightmare Tear (+10 to all stats), then Bright Cardinal Ruby in all others (40 Attack Power)
Meta Gem: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (21 Agility & 3% Critical Damage)

Make sure you place the nightmare tear into the item of gear with the best socket bonus. For any other gear with blue sockets in you can ignore the socket bonuses and gem for pure attack power. You will also need to keep an eye on your hit rating and crit rating, to do so use a Crit Cap Calculator program. If you are in need of more hit to become hit capped or to avoid wasting crit, replace your yellow gems with Pristine Ametrine (20 Attack Power & 10 Hit).

Enchants

Excluding special enchants from professions you will need:

Head - [Arcanum of Torment]: Requires Revered with the faction Ebon Hold
Shoulder – [Greater Inscription of the Axe]: Requires Exalted with the faction Sons of Hodir
Back – [Major  Agility]
Chest – [Powerful Stats]
Wrists – [Greater Assault]
Hands – [Crusher]
Waist – [Eternal Belt Buckle]
Legs – [Icescale Leg Armor]
Feet – [Greater Assault]
Weapon 1 & 2 – [Berserking]

Ideal Raid Situations

Now you have everything you need to get started maximising your DPS and being the best rogue you can be. However, I will leave you with one last word of advice. Mutilate talent builds are for tank and spank fights, they are designed to maximise DPS on a fight where you stand still and nuke. This means you may not be performing optimally in all raid situations. Many rogues will have two talent builds for different raid situations, typically one Mutilate build and one Combat build. Mutilate rogues will excel in fights such as: Deathbringer Saurfang (ICC), Toravon (VOA), Festergut (ICC). However for other fights such as Marrowgar (ICC), Anub (TOC) and The Lich King (ICC) where movement and target switching is necessary throughout the boss encounter you may find your DPS is lower. Similarly combat rogues will struggle more on Saurfang and excel on The Lich King encounter. This is because they perform well in these types of fights because their build is designed to do so. To fully maximise your DPS in Wrath raids, it is always recommended you have both a PVE mutilate build and a PVE combat build to change according to the boss you are about to fight.