Playstyle & Rotation
General Rotation
- Maintain Garrote
- Maintain Rupture
- Spread Bleeds to all targets with Crimson Tempest in AoE
- Build Combo Points with Mutilate and Ambush in single-target encounters
- Build Combo Points with Fan of Knives in 2+ target encounters
- At 5 or more combo points, Envenom
- Cast Deathmark and Kingsbane on cooldown, syncing with each other
- Cast Vanish, then follow up with Improved Garrote, ideally lining it up with Deathmark. If you can’t line it up, that’s okay too.
Openers
Single Target:
- Garrote
- Mutilate until reaching 5 combo points
- Rupture
- Deathmark + trinkets + potion
- Kingsbane
- Garrote to extend Improved Garrote
- Mutilate until 5 combo points
- Envenom
AoE:
- Vanish if you did not get to Stealth
- Garrote
- Garrote to extend Improved Garrote
- Rupture
- Deathmark + trinkets + potion
- Kingsbane
- Cast Crimson Tempest until 5 combo points or all targets have bleeds
- Cast Fan of Knives if all targets have bleeds and you do not have 5 combo points
- Spend Combo Points on Envenom
General Playstyle
Generally, the Assassination playstyle will require you to maintain Garrote and Rupture on your main target, then maximize the uptime of Envenom’s Buff. This is incredibly straight forward, and for the most part, Assassination is a simple process of generate combo points, then spend on envenom.
Cooldowns
Deathmark is our main 2 minute cooldown, granting energy and doubling the effects of poisons and bleeds. On its own, it’s quite potent, but the synergy with Kingsbane is where Deathmark really shines.
Kingsbane is our 1 minute cooldown, and should be synced with Deathmark every 2 minutes. Kingsbane is a damage over time effect, which gains damage with every poison applied during its effect. During Deathmark, poison applications are doubled, causing Kingsbane to ramp twice as fast.
Vanish is our last cooldown. It’s also a 2 minutes, but its only purpose is to apply Improved Garrote. In AoE/Mythic+, this can be held for a chain pull where you do not manage to get a stealth beforehand. In Single Target, this can be cast on cooldown, ideally synced with Deathmark when possible to get the doubling effect.
Defensives
The bread-and-butter defense for Assassination is Feint. Feint provides a powerful reduction against all area-of-effect attacks. This can be further augmented with Elusiveness on the class tree, allowing it to work against all damage. Generally, this is only recommended for experienced players who know the mechanics coming out.
The alternative to Elusiveness is Cheat Death, the recommended option for new players. This will save your life when you least expect it, allowing for a death-free experience in most situations.
Assassination also has access to two pseudo-immunes. Cloak of Shadows is a two-part cooldown, with the first second providing a true magic immunity, and the following seconds providing a magic immunity that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Evasion likewise is a dodge effect, rather than a physical immunity. This can be used on charges to often immune them, but is also unreliable.