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Assassination Rogue: First Impression of the New Assassination Talent Trees in Dragonflight
Dragonflight
Geposted
08.08.2022 um 05:00
von
Whispyr
With the reveal of the Dragonflight Rogue talent trees, our Assassination Rogue writer Whispyr provides initial reactions and thoughts on this revamped system. We break down the Assassination Rogue talent trees, discussing the new talents and providing some sample builds. Join us as we predict how this class could play in Dragonflight!
To learn about the best PvE talent builds in Dragonflight for this class, and export these builds into the game, please check out our Assassination, Outlaw, and Subtlety Rogue class guides:
Assassination Rogue Talent BuildsOutlaw Rogue Talent BuildsSubtlety Rogue Talent Builds
Assassination Rogue Dragonflight Class Tree
Assassination Rogue Dragonflight Talents - What's New?
The Talent Rework coming with Dragonflight fundamentally doesn't change too much for Assassination, however, it adds some very key new additions that are very welcome to a specialization that has remained stagnant for many expansions now. Both the Class and Specialization Tree for Assassination comes down to 3 fairly linear paths, but there still are a lot of choices in those paths to pick from which allows for interesting new combinations. I'm excited to share my thoughts and take you through the trees!
For the Rogue Class Tree, there aren't many new additions, but we see some familiar and old faces I would like to highlight:
Disteltee
, the addicting rogue beverage that sneaks into every expansion has once again found its way into our toolkit. I have very strong personal feelings about it, but it can be very interesting if the effect is fostered and iterated on. On the surface, my opinion is that
Disteltee
is an outdated mechanic that simply does not mesh with the modern gameplay of the specs anymore. It's admirable to try and keep the spirit of it, but I'm very skeptical about its place in the game.
Schattentanz
is on the class tree as well. This was a huge surprise considering
Schattentanz
has always been a very iconic Subtlety spell but brings with it some interesting interactions and rotational changes. On the surface, it's a strong short cooldown damage buff, but it also allows things like improved
Erdrosseln
with no cooldown,
Fieser Trick
, and
Hinterhalt
. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
The last notable talent on the class tree is
Widerhallender Tadel
, the Kyrian covenant ability in Shadowlands. This was also a huge surprise, as the value is currently very reliant on empowering many combo points. It returned on to the class tree slightly nerfed, but the point investment to get the full effect is immense and currently way too expensive to provide any reasonable benefit over other options. Specifically for Assassination, the empowered combo points do close to nothing, which means the entire middle third of the tree is looking quite bad.
Several familiar effects show up on the class tree that are now available, such as
Solarplexus
,
Akrobatische Attacken
, and
Egelgift
. It remains to be seen how the tuning shakes out on
Schattentanz
especially, considering its incredible power right now for all three specializations.
Assassination Rogue Dragonflight Talent Tree - First Impressions
The class tree features a lot of generation-based effects and buffs, which could have a strong interplay for Assassination.
If we consider
Schattentanz
as a strong additional cooldown to be used, I can see a tree similar to this for Assassination:
View on Dragonflight Talent Tree
To note, on the class tree here are the bottom-most nodes we're taking, most notably
Schattentanz
,
Inbrunst
, and
Schicksal besiegeln
.
Schattentanz
as it stands currently is looking to be a fantastic pickup for extra burst damage, and with
Nachtpirscher
, taking the cooldown is a no-brainer. With the rest of the points, we choose the left side of the tree for the various nodes that have a strong interplay with our core rotation. There is an argument to be made for
Verbesserter Hinterhalt
given the
Schattentanz
usage, but I don't think this is worth the investment, as there is nothing of value near that node and we're already running out of points.
Schicksal besiegeln
is also a very reasonable choice, helping out our combo point sustain. You might be asking yourself "why only two points in
Tödlichkeit
and
Inbrunst
?", and there is a reason for this.
The first thing to note is that points in
Inbrunst
only increase the proc chance, not the haste itself. This means that you can sustain
Inbrunst
very reasonably with only two points. With the two remaining points,
Tödlichkeit
is the most obvious choice to dump the rest. But let's back up and consider those last couple of points. After taking our points in
Schicksal besiegeln
and
Schattentanz
, we are left with 4-5 points (depending on how much you value
Solarplexus
). The options for those 5 points are pretty far and wide, but I'm going to instantly dismiss
Verbesserter Hinterhalt
since it would be using all of our points for a single node. Then we have
Inbrunst
into
Meisterlicher Stratege
, for a total of 4 points. The only issue is that the finisher damage portion of
Meisterlicher Stratege
has been removed, essentially just adding the slot for the sixth combo point. On top of that, we just determined that the third point in
Inbrunst
is essentially wasted. That makes it a very hard sell for me, and we'll have to wait and see how the combo point generation ends up to consider this. Then there's
Disteltee
. In theory, it might be usable, but it's a very odd talent in my opinion. The idea seems to be to use it as a way to enable quicker burst windows, but the burst window on the trees exist in the form of
Todesmal
and
Blutige Klingen
, both of which are indirectly energy buffs. That leaves
Disteltee
in an awkward spot of just being used on cooldown during energy-starved moments. I'm pretty skeptical about how
Disteltee
in its current form is supposed to fit into the spec.
Lebenskraft
is another option, but it's again four points, leaving only one for
Inbrunst
; and while
Inbrunst
doesn't need all three points, one is probably not enough. We have to see simulations and numbers to fully assess it, but at the moment, splitting those points makes the most sense to me.
I also want to highlight some choices that could impact the tree.
Meister der Gifte
being on the class tree is an interesting pick, specifically for assassination and the new
Atrophisches Gift
. We're not sure how tuning will leave the interactions between
Atrophisches Gift
,
Tückische Klinge
, and
Meister der Gifte
, but if they do interact you will want to be picking up
Meister der Gifte
, requiring a point away from something else (most likely
Solarplexus
). On the right side of the tree,
Schattenläufer
and
Trickbetrug
seem to be pretty dead picks. The added
Erdrosseln
damage from
Trickbetrug
on assassination currently has been moved out of the class tree and into the spec tree, leaving
Trickbetrug
quite dry in terms of effects.
Schattentanz
also encroaches on the design space a fair amount, making
Trickbetrug
hard to justify for two points into a dead end. Maybe it will serve its purpose as a PVP talent option, but I'd like to see something change to make the choice more interesting for those two points, as this can fundamentally shift the points on our tree.
Assassination Spec Tree
Assassination Rogue Talents for Raiding - What's New?
The spec-specific tree contains some completely new spells, as well as a couple of returning ones.
In terms of completely new effects, there are some stand-outs, like these new poisons and poison-related effects coming for Assassination Specifically in the form of:
Verstärkendes Gift
, a new lethal poison that passively buffs
Vergiften
s after being applied to a target 15 times.
Atrophisches Gift
, a new non-lethal poison that functions as our raid utility effect. It's important to note that since this is still a poison, this
does not work on any non-unit damage sources
. There has been a strong trend toward environmental and debuff-based damage, which would not count as direct damage from a poisoned target. Be careful comparing this to something like
Aura der Hingabe
, which reduces
all
damage the raid takes.
Drachengehärtete Klingen
allows more poisons to be applied at the same time (allowing the above new ones in addition to the familiar poisons from shadowlands). This is one of the capstone talents.
Alongside the new poison effects, there are some additions for bleeds as well!
Willkürliches Gemetzel
is the most interesting new addition, giving Assassination some much-wanted help in AoE. This talent is honestly so exciting to me and I can't wait to play with it in Dragonflight. There however is a
very
large concern about the range of it currently on alpha. While testing the ability, it's very common for monsters to simply be out of range of the effect, and it makes the ability lose a
huge
portion of its effective dps. During my dungeons, it was very common to use
Willkürliches Gemetzel
on a boss with adds, only to have the adds be slightly further out of range.
Dolchfächer
is also 10 yards, but you can control where you stand.
Willkürliches Gemetzel
is based on the targets position instead, causing you to lose out on a lot of range you would otherwise have with similar AoE abilities.
Willkürliches Gemetzel
desperately needs to have its range increased to at minimum 15, but most likely 20 yards in order to function in a realistic setting.
Todesmal
completely replaces
Vendetta
as our 2-minute cooldown. This is also a welcome addition, as
Vendetta
is starting to show its age as a very boring damage multiplier. I think
Todesmal
is a much more interesting cooldown, which achieves a similar effect but also has more synergy and interplay with the rest of the spec.
In the most recent alpha build, we also see some familiar friends returning, including
Königsmord
and a choice option between
Gezackter Knochenstachel
and
Sepsis
. These are amazing additions and I can't wait to play with them. The new bleed talents especially have me insanely hype for Dragonflight. I think they're both so cool and have strong interactions.
Willkürliches Gemetzel
especially has the potential to be a new iconic Assassination ability going forward.
Assassination Rogue Dragonflight Talent Tree - First Impressions
There is a strong shift towards poison damage on the trees, but there are interesting choices and alternatives to consider. I'm very happy with how the trees turned out. I honestly have very few complaints about the spec tree after the newest build, most of it being really nit-picky or just opinionated differences with Blizzard.
Example Builds
View on Dragonflight Talent Tree
This build is a very single-target-oriented build, trying to capitalize on strong burst windows synergizing with
Schattentanz
in the class tree. Because of the linearity of the tree, most of these points are "must pick", but I want to highlight some reasons for going down the path we do.
Minuziöse Planung
is a classic spell that looks to continue to be a nice passive increase to damage.
In Stücke schneiden
might see a return but for now, we need to wait until we see more tuning to make a better decision. We then travel down the middle of the tree for
Todesmal
, the replacement to
Vendetta
, while also picking up a boost to our
Vergiften
uptime through
Das Messer drehen
. On the left side of the tree, we travel down to pick up
Königsmord
for the on-demand burst. This lines up perfectly with
Schattentanz
. With that core foundation laid, we then put our remaining points into
Sepsis
(or the freshly buffed
Giftbombe
if you want something passive) and
Verborgenes Ersticken
for a little bit of extra bleed damage.
Blutige Klingen
rounds off the entire build, giving us a big stack of cooldowns between
Königsmord
,
Schattentanz
,
Todesmal
,
Tückische Klinge
, and
Blutige Klingen
.
Some changes to consider with this while still maintaining the burst idea could be taking
Verstärkendes Gift
over
Das Messer drehen
for extra
Vergiften
damage. This comes down to tuning, with neither option adding anything major.
Sepsis
and
Gezackter Knochenstachel
are now sharing a choice node, but also indirectly compete with a point in
Giftbombe
, or going to take
Wunder Punkt
instead (more on this later). I think this is one of the bigger decisions possible with the current tree.
With
Giftbombe
being changed to a two-point talent, it's now no longer possible to take
Drachengehärtete Klingen
alongside another capstone. I do want to still highlight what that would look like for single target, as double poisons can be very powerful. Let's take a look at what that would look like:
View on Dragonflight Talent Tree
This would take the form of a more sustained damage profile, rather than the burst of the previous tree with
Blutige Klingen
and
Schattentanz
. I am a huge fan of running multiple poisons, and it might also be able to act as a hybrid build for raid and mythic+, spreading the poisons in AoE situations and still having the strong single target damage rather than relying on entirely AoE talents.
Another stand-out of this build is the focus on
Wunder Punkt
.
Wunder Punkt
has always been one of the more interactive talents available to Assassination, and its placement here is no exception. For two points, it competes with the combo of
Verdammnisklinge
into a choice between
Sepsis
and
Gezackter Knochenstachel
. That's a very difficult decision to make honestly, but I think
Wunder Punkt
is in a bit of trouble here tuning-wise.
Hinterhalt
has been an awkward ability on Assassination for all of Shadowlands, either not being worth casting at all or only being a minor gain over
Verstümmeln
. While the energy cost is waived with a proc from
Wunder Punkt
, that underlying struggle for relevancy still exists. There very well could be a world where
Bestechender Halunke
paired with two poisons, alongside
Vergiftende Wunden
carries the energy hard enough to where free
Hinterhalt
casts will sulk back to irrelevancy. But that's just the internal struggle of
Wunder Punkt
. It still competes with other very strong talents like
Sepsis
and
Gezackter Knochenstachel
. These are both powerful abilities on their own and don't have an internal generator-power-struggle as
Hinterhalt
does. I remain hopeful that a balance can be reached and buffing generators can stand as a viable build.
For me, the most interesting build however in my opinion is for Mythic+ with the new talent
Willkürliches Gemetzel
. Let's take a second to look at what a mythic+ tree might look like.
View on Dragonflight Talent Tree
This tree is fairly controversial in my opinion. I built the tree with a
heavy
AoE focus here, taking everything possible to boost our AoE damage. Let me explain the decisions from top to bottom, starting with
In Stücke schneiden
and
Minuziöse Planung
. Normally, I would just take
Minuziöse Planung
and move on, but with
Wurfpräzision
being locked behind
In Stücke schneiden
, the decision is a little more difficult to make. On live currently,
Wurfpräzision
is just a terrible potency conduit, but I think with the right tuning, it should not be underestimated. The extra chance to Critically Strike alone makes this an interesting option in combination with
Schicksal besiegeln
. The current 5% increase is honestly pretty pathetic, but I have hope that with some attention, this could be a competitive option. Traveling down that side,
Blutroter Sturm
is a must-take and is not optional for mythic+. It is your only AoE finishing move. I would like to see maybe another option in that design that could maybe make
Blutroter Sturm
a decision, and not a required talent, but that's a fairly minor concern. After taking
Todesmal
, we're left with another curious choice.
Toxischer Rausch
and
Fliegende Dolche
are both on the surface, not great talents, with
Fliegende Dolche
being
even worse
than the previously mentioned
Wurfpräzision
(an already very weak talent), I once again am putting my faith into tuning and praying that this becomes viable. Similar to the
Wunder Punkt
build earlier, there are a lot of generic generator talents in the class tree which can help push
Dolchfächer
a good amount. I think it's not
quite
there yet, but with some looking at the
Dolchfächer
talents, I think it could get to a good spot.
Shifting over to the right side of the tree, this is the bread and butter we're all familiar with, now with 100% more spice.
Verbessertes Erdrosseln
in combination with
Verborgenes Ersticken
provides a well-known "open with
Erdrosseln
, vanish into
Erdrosseln
, big stealth
Erdrosseln
" gameplay Assassination players have enjoyed for multiple expansions now. The real secret sauce here however is the nearby effects,
Gezackter Knochenstachel
,
Willkürliches Gemetzel
, and
Blutgeruch
.
Gezackter Knochenstachel
is a great tool for cleave and aoe, feeding us with cheap combo points. The damage is also great, it's a crowd favorite ability, an absolute home run. Then we get into the crazy stuff with
Willkürliches Gemetzel
, and
Blutgeruch
. In 10 target AoE, you can easily have 10 ruptures out during
Willkürliches Gemetzel
. This leads to immense value from
Blutgeruch
, which can be a lot of fun. You can use that extra agility to either
Todesmal
into a single target and have some funnel/priority damage, or just use it for more AoE. I think that's a great addition to the Assassination toolkit and a cool interaction.
Overall Thoughts - The Elephant in the room
I love the Assassination Tree. It might be one of the best trees they're released so far. That being said, however, there is something I want to bring up that concerns me. The biggest problem in my opinion with the tree is that the paths are very rigid, and I want more talents. Yes, I am incredibly greedy. Looking at the shaman trees, the freedom of movement is amazing, being able to go from left to right picking up whatever you'd like. The outlaw tree has a full five extra talents compared to the Assassination Tree. While again, the tree is fantastic, I look at the builds and for raiding at least, it looks like "take the left path or the middle path down, then drop the last couple of points into the right side". For mythic+ it's similar: "take
Willkürliches Gemetzel
, then go left path. The choices available feel more like you're getting to pick between the three possible capstones, and then putting the finishing touches onto the tree with whatever is left. That might be intentional, and I'm all for it, but it does fall a little flat for the original grandeur of the talent tree revamp, doesn't it? We went from 7 rows of picking between 3 choices to picking 3 choices, taking some nodes along the way, and then having 5 or 6 points to pick between a handful of effects. In that regard is this tree
really
that different from what we have? There are loads of neat interactions, but fundamentally I don't think there's much of a difference between having
Königsmord
,
Drachengehärtete Klingen
, and
Willkürliches Gemetzel
in one row to pick from or having them be the capstones at the end of a series of talents.
To point this out, take
Winzige vergiftete Klinge
. It used to be a capstone talent, where
Königsmord
is now. I didn't like that as a final talent, as I'm not much of a fan of the effect to begin with. But then
Königsmord
replaced it, and it moved up in the tree. The talent is still there, the same as it was. I still don't like the effect, but something changed.
I had stopped caring about it.
Its position now is not a goal, it's a means to an end. The talent we have to take to get to the talent we want. Now I started looking at the rest of the tree.
Toxischer Rausch
, same thing. It got moved to not impede anything, and now it's just a "travel talent", something we have to take regardless of our desire for it. It might be powerful on its own, but that feeling of choice isn't there. Maybe it's just me, and spending hours staring at the trees have made me numb, but the rigidity of movement is something many people have brought up, and it certainly isn't helping matters.
I do want to reiterate, many times over, that I still adore this tree. There is something there for every situation, and aside from some things I will agree to disagree on
(such as
Winzige vergiftete Klinge
,
Blutige Klingen
, and
Disteltee
, all of which should be reworked or removed in my opinion)
, I would be overjoyed to see this tree go live. The choices we do have are very thematic and give a sense of power and control. I love that feeling so much, I hunger for more of it. More talents, more connectors, more choices. This is the first time in a very long time that I'm excited about a rework, during alpha no less.
Assassination Rogue Dragonflight Talents for Raiding - How Strong is it?
There are a lot of things to be excited about for raiding. Currently, it seems like there might be room for two major builds in raids, one being burst oriented and the other being more sustained damage. I think having the option to switch between those damage profiles can be very interesting and fun during progression. Being able to fill the role most needed in your raid group, on a specific fight, and having the knowledge to swap into a build that works for that situation is an amazing gameplay moment to have as a player.
Atrophisches Gift
has the potential to be a game changer and a required raid utility for some encounters, while also being very poor on other encounters. Having the foresight to swap in and out of raid utility for more damage is a very cool concept that I hope is leaned into. Niche bonuses that can be activated or deactivated based on the situation are just another source of player agency, which I'm always a fan of. Additionally,
Willkürliches Gemetzel
adds a layer of aoe in mythic+ that assassination has craved for a long time, and all the individual talents have their place and reason to exist. While the spec is still the same old Assassination, and no major changes coming our way, I think it's great to see something fresh and new after all of these years.
Final Thoughts on the Assassination Rogue Talent Trees
Blizzard has honestly done an amazing job with these talent trees. I don't want to make it out that I'm being negative or complaining about the talent trees. While I am critical of some decisions and question the designs of others, I am more than pleased with the trees as they stand currently. I'm super excited for Dragonflight and can't wait to see these trees built upon and iterated over in the coming years.
Interested in playing Assassination Rogue now? Check our out live guide for this spec!
Assassination Rogue Guide
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