I have played my rogue (only char) since 2006 and had chance to see a lot of changes we have been through.
Had loved the first iteration of the assassination tree when Mutilate talent was released and it was great in my opinion. Ability cost very high energy but rewarded the control and positioning handsomely with the solid high dmg it dealed.
Those days are long gone.
Objective of this brainstorm is to lower the white dmg of the spec and rise the on demand dmg. This is more fitting to the idea of the spec than the current “killing little by little” approach since an assassin is required to make a short work of its target.
Some of the following offers are of old talents, some are ideas I read on other posts, some are my own.
Nothing is listed as “I want all” . A good combination would smooth a lot of aspects of the spec and add flavor; plus reward planning more with complexity.
Please be constructive.
Cheers
Here it goes:
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Slice and Dice : Removed from the spec.
- Adjust the auto attack speed to the current yet half the dmg done by auto attacks.
- Attack speed doesn’t change but the dmg is halved. This will be compensated by moving the dmg to abilities.
-
Mutilate : Buffed
- Damage is buffed to its old iteration hard hitting version.
- Extra crit modifier is introduced to the ability itself (4-6%?). Smooths rotation, conserves energy, ups the finisher rate and apm.
-
Relentless Strikes is back
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Master Assassin : Replaced by “Serrated Blades”
- Buffs Rupture dmg by 40% and all attacks gain armor penetration.
-
Venomous Wounds : Buffed
- Critical bleed tics generate double energy return.
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Abilities deal 1,5x dmg if attacks are from the back of the target.
- I understand many will oppose to reintroduce positional requirements. But removal of it was one of the biggest factors that transformed the spec in to its current brain dead state. Spec would still be raid, m+ and pvp viable. This would introduce depth, thinking and planning back and reward handsomely.
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Exsanguinate : Change talent to permanently hasten all bleeds by 30%.
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Poison Bomb : Melee range proximity modifier to proc chance is introduced.
- Talent will become prone to proc more the more enemies are in melee range. Thus the chance to proc on killing envenom on the last mob of the pack is relatively minimized.
-
Hidden Blades : Current stack building speed of 20 does not work with the content. Any time we spend stealthed more than 10 seconds is when we are skipping packs. The talent is useless considering the pull speed in dungeons.
- Gaining stealth may grant 10 stacks instantly.
- Fok may consume stacks in 5s instead of consuming all 20 stacks in once.
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Crimson Tempest : Ticks on poisoned enemies generate 2 energy. This would shorten the dmg setup required on packs. 3 garrotes, 4 ruptures, fok, fok, Ct is the general opener on a pack at the moment; which takes so long that if the mobs die fast enough; assassination rogue can’t even reach CT cast cycle.
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Envenom : Critical envenoms give 2 secs longer envenom buff and modify poison application rate by 15% more. This would add a complexity to monitor and would reward energy pooling in said windows.
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Gouge is Back!
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Swift Blade’s Cunning is Back!
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Assassination rogues may pool 5 more cps. This is an old one also, I forgot the name of the ability.
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Vendetta additionally to the current state, grants 5 cps and teleports the rogue behind the target in stealth for 3 seconds. Cool down’s commitment maybe rewarded better this way.
