Assassination (WoW Talent Tree)  

See Rogue Talent Builds

Assassination is the one remaining talent tree that is best used with daggers in the game. It is also an excellent support tree. Assassination is often referred to as 'the mutilate spec'.

Primary uses

Assassination has had a long and torturous history. It has very rarely been seen as a 'full' talent tree by itself but at the same time, the first few talent tiers in it were seen as invaluable by almost all rogues - taking 10 to 20 points in Assassination, regardless of spec, was a no-brainer. With the Burning Crusade, Blizzard added Mutilate, giving the tree a signature move and bit more of an identity. However, Mutilate proved to be a halfway spec - Weaker then Combat for pve, and weaker then Subtlety for pvp.

Assassination is the tree that has seen the most change with the advent of patch 3.0.2 and Wrath of the Lich King. Among other things, Mutilate has lost it's positional requirement and the tree talents have been streamlined and empowered. The tree now looks even better in pvp and pve, but the consensus hasn't been made yet on its actual worth.

Tier 1

• Improved Eviscerate (3 points) - Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate by 5%/10%/15%.
• Remorseless Attacks (2 points) - Increase the damage caused by your Garotte and Rupture by 10/20%.
• Malice (5 points) - Increases your critical strike chance by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%.

Tier 2

(5 points required)

• Ruthlessness (3) - Gives your melee finishing moves a 20%/40%/60% chance to add a combo point to your target.
• Blood Spatter (2) - Increases all damage caused against Humanoid, Giant, Beast and Dragonkin targets by 1%/2%.
• Puncturing Wounds (3) - Increases the critical strike of your Backstab ability by 10%/20%/30%, and the critical strike chance of your Mutilate ability by 5%/10%/15%.

Tier 3

(10 points required)

• Vigor (1) - Increases your maximum Energy by 10.
• Improved Expose Armor (2) - Reduce the Energy Cost of Expose Armor by 5/10.
• Lethality (5) (Requires 5 points in Malice) - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of all combo moves by 6%/12%/18%/24%/30%.

Tier 4

(15 points required)

• Vile Poisons (3) - Increases the damage dealt by your poisons and Envenom ability by 7%/14%/20% and gives your poisons an additional 10%/20%/30% chance to resist dispel effects.
• Improved Poisons (5) - Increases the chance to apply poisons to your target by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%.

Tier 5

(20 points required)

• Fleet Footed (2) - Increases your chance to resist movement impairing effects by 5%/10% and increases your movement speed by 8%/15%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
• Cold Blood (1) - When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next offensive ability by 100%.
• Improved Kidney Shot (3) - While affected by your Kindey Shot ability, the target receives an additional 3%/6%/9% damage from all sources.

Tier 6

(25 points required)

• Seal Fate (5) (Requires 1 point in Cold Blood) - Your critical strikes from abilities that add combo points have a 20%/40%/60%/80%/100% chance to add an additional combo point.
• Murder (2) - Increase all damage caused against Humanoid, Dragonkins and Giants by 1/2%.

Tier 7

(30 points required)

• Deadened Nerves (3) - Decreases all physical damage taken by 2%/4%/6%.
• Overkill (1) - Abilities used while stealthed and for 6 seconds after cost 10 less energy.
• Deadly Brew (2) - When you apply Mind-Numbing Poison, Wound Poison or Instant Poison, you have a 50/100% change to apply crippling poison.

Tier 8

(35 points required)

• Find Weakness (3) - Offensive ability damage increased by 2/4/6%.
• Focused Attacks (3) - Your melee critical strikes have a 33%/66%/100% chance to give 1/2/3 energy.

Tier 9

(40 points required)

• Mutilate (1) (Requires 1 Overkill) - Instantly attacks with both weapons for an additional 44 with each weapon. Damage is increased by 50% against Poisoned targerts. Must be behind the target. Awards 2 combo points.
• Master Poisoner (3) - Increase the critical chance against any target you have poisoned by 1/2/3% and reduce the duration of poisons effect applied to you by 15/30/50%.
• Turn the Tables (3) - Whenever someone in the raid or party blocks, dodges or parries an attack, your chance to critically hit with any combo moves increase by 2/4/6%.

Tier 10

(45 points required)

• Cut to the Chase (5) - Your Eviscerate and Envenom critical strikes have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to refresh your slice and dice duration to its 5 combo points maximum.

Tier 11

(50 points required)

• Hunger for Blood (1) - Enrages you, increasing all damage dealt by 3%. If used while Bleeding is affecting you, it will attempt to remove it and refund you 15 energy. This effect can be stacked up to 3 times, last 10 seconds.

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