The Flavor of Rogue: Assassination

Sort of a continuation of “Problems with Rogues: Spec Flavor”, this post is going to be centered around Assassination, what it lacks in spec flavor, and what can be changed to improve both gameplay and the identity of being a poisoner.

Blizzard’s description of Assassination is “A deadly master of poisons who dispatches victims with vicious dagger strikes”. While Mutilate and Dispatch fill the dagger strikes role quite well, the poison theme is a bit more… hidden.

Looking at the spells in Assass’s spellbook, we see a couple of things that immediately stand out;

1. Rupture, as a bleed, seems out of place with the overall theme.
2. While being designated as a largely DoT based spec revolving around poisons, there’s very few spells that immediately bring out the poisoner theme.

Then there are in-practice issues

1. None of the poison mechanics are very active; almost everything related to poison damage is a passive mechanic. The closest the spec feels to being a poisoner while in combat is building your rotation around the Envenom buff, and even that feels rather arbitrary as it doesn’t feel very powerful when trying to stuff as many abilities into Envenom as possible.
2. None of Assass’s utility is unique (this is a problem with all 3 specs, but Assass has a few specific problems due to it’s high energy costs and slower playstyle)

First, poisons need to not only be buffed numerically, but visually. Thus, Venoms. It could get the visual poison-drip effect (if that can be brought back in any way), and gives some flavor to the actual poisons Assass uses.

Then, the problem with Rupture could be fixed by replacing it with Venomous Wounds directly. Venomous Wounds would functionally still be Rupture, but would better fill the role for energy returns over Rupture with a hidden mechanic tacked on, and provides a more poison-oriented icon.

Then there’s the problem of not having any active poison abilities, outside of Envenom. Another somewhat related problem is the lack of any Assass-specific utility. To remedy both of these problems and then some, Shiv could be modified for Assass.

Removes the cooldown, and provides additional benefits through increasing the effect of both Lethal and Non-lethal venoms. This also allows it to fill the void I mentioned in the Problems with Rogues post where Slice and Dice lead to interesting decisions during Assass’s rotation. Having Shiv generate a CP for relatively cheap also allows Assass rogues to generate their 5th combo point without over-investing energy into a Mutilate (also makes Anticipation far less required, considering Shiv itself still can’t crit, thus can’t proc Seal Fate. This is also a solid buff to Assass’s PvP functionality since most players prefer Marked for Death). Shiv also (somewhat) carries the dagger strikes theme.

Concentrated effects:

• Deadly: Your next Envenom or Paralytic Injection (more on that later) will double Deadly Venom’s tick rate for the next 5 ticks.
• Wound: Your next Envenom or Paralytic Injection will reduce the target’s healing received by 35%.
• Crippling: Unchanged (Instantly slows the target by 70% for some time)
• Leeching: Unchanged (Instantly heals the rogue for 5% HP)

Now, you might be asking why not have the Lethal effects begin immediately. My reasoning is that the effects of the Lethal venoms might be OP if they could be maintained through constant shiving. It also gives some real power to Envenom, especially in a PvP setting.

Speaking of PvP settings, a major issue for Assass is that it lacks the capability of pushing out meaningful damage during short CC chains, such as Stuns. This could be remedied, along with providing even more flavor, through Paralytic Injection.

By improving Kidney Shot through providing Envenom’s buff (and activating Lethal venom concentrated effects), Assass is able to perform 100% damage during a stun, allowing it to compete with Combat and Subtlety’s effectiveness during prime burst phases. By using the Injection name, it also goes along nicely with Venomous Injection, providing a completely different finisher flavor than any other spec.

I feel that through changes similar to these, flavor could be brought to all 3 specs. Abilities that are shared across specs need to have some differentiation in their effects and use.

Expect future posts for both Combat and Subtlety in the future.