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Assassination Rogue: First Impression of the New Assassination Talent Trees in Dragonflight
Dragonflight
Опубликовано
08.08.2022 в 05:00
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:
Скорополоховый чай
, 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
Скорополоховый чай
is an outdated mechanic that simply does not mesh with the modern gameplay of the specs anymore.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.
Танец теней
is on the class tree as well. This was a huge surprise considering
Танец теней
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
Гаррота
with no cooldown,
Подлый трюк
, and
Внезапный удар
. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
The last notable talent on the class tree is
Продолжительная отповедь
, 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
Парализующий удар
,
Акробатические удары
, and
Похищающий жизнь яд
. It remains to be seen how the tuning shakes out on
Танец теней
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
Танец теней
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
Танец теней
,
Расторопность
, and
Предрешенность
.
Танец теней
as it stands currently is looking to be a fantastic pickup for extra burst damage, and with
Ночной ловец
, 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
Улучшенный внезапный удар
given the
Танец теней
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.
Предрешенность
is also a very reasonable choice, helping out our combo point sustain. You might be asking yourself "why only two points in
Смертоносность
and
Расторопность
?", and there is a reason for this.
The first thing to note is that points in
Расторопность
only increase the proc chance, not the haste itself. This means that you can sustain
Расторопность
very reasonably with only two points. With the two remaining points,
Смертоносность
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
Предрешенность
and
Танец теней
, we are left with 4-5 points (depending on how much you value
Парализующий удар
). The options for those 5 points are pretty far and wide, but I'm going to instantly dismiss
Улучшенный внезапный удар
since it would be using all of our points for a single node. Then we have
Расторопность
into
Расчетливость
, for a total of 4 points. The only issue is that the finisher damage portion of
Расчетливость
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
Расторопность
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
Скорополоховый чай
. 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
Знак смерти
and
Окровавленные клинки
, both of which are indirectly energy buffs. That leaves
Скорополоховый чай
in an awkward spot of just being used on cooldown during energy-starved moments. I'm pretty skeptical about how
Скорополоховый чай
in its current form is supposed to fit into the spec.
Неутомимость
is another option, but it's again four points, leaving only one for
Расторопность
; and while
Расторопность
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.
Мастер ядоварения
being on the class tree is an interesting pick, specifically for assassination and the new
Атрофический яд
. We're not sure how tuning will leave the interactions between
Атрофический яд
,
Отравляющий укол
, and
Мастер ядоварения
, but if they do interact you will want to be picking up
Мастер ядоварения
, requiring a point away from something else (most likely
Парализующий удар
). On the right side of the tree,
Бегущая тень
and
Увертка
seem to be pretty dead picks. The added
Гаррота
damage from
Увертка
on assassination currently has been moved out of the class tree and into the spec tree, leaving
Увертка
quite dry in terms of effects.
Танец теней
also encroaches on the design space a fair amount, making
Увертка
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:
Усиление яда
, a new lethal poison that passively buffs
Отравление
s after being applied to a target 15 times.
Атрофический яд
, 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
Аура благочестия
, which reduces
all
damage the raid takes.
Закалка в огне драконов
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!
Тотальная бойня
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
Тотальная бойня
on a boss with adds, only to have the adds be slightly further out of range.
Веер клинков
is also 10 yards, but you can control where you stand.
Тотальная бойня
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.
Тотальная бойня
desperately needs to have its range increased to at minimum 15, but most likely 20 yards in order to function in a realistic setting.
Знак смерти
completely replaces
Вендетта
as our 2-minute cooldown. This is also a welcome addition, as
Вендетта
is starting to show its age as a very boring damage multiplier. I think
Знак смерти
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
Погибель королей
and a choice option between
Зазубренный костяной шип
and
Сепсис
. 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.
Тотальная бойня
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
Танец теней
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.
Коварный план
is a classic spell that looks to continue to be a nice passive increase to damage.
Дух погони
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
Знак смерти
, the replacement to
Вендетта
, while also picking up a boost to our
Отравление
uptime through
Поворот кинжала
. On the left side of the tree, we travel down to pick up
Погибель королей
for the on-demand burst. This lines up perfectly with
Танец теней
. With that core foundation laid, we then put our remaining points into
Сепсис
(or the freshly buffed
Ядовитая бомба
if you want something passive) and
Внезапное удушье
for a little bit of extra bleed damage.
Окровавленные клинки
rounds off the entire build, giving us a big stack of cooldowns between
Погибель королей
,
Танец теней
,
Знак смерти
,
Отравляющий укол
, and
Окровавленные клинки
.
Some changes to consider with this while still maintaining the burst idea could be taking
Усиление яда
over
Поворот кинжала
for extra
Отравление
damage. This comes down to tuning, with neither option adding anything major.
Сепсис
and
Зазубренный костяной шип
are now sharing a choice node, but also indirectly compete with a point in
Ядовитая бомба
, or going to take
Слепая зона
instead (more on this later). I think this is one of the bigger decisions possible with the current tree.
With
Ядовитая бомба
being changed to a two-point talent, it's now no longer possible to take
Закалка в огне драконов
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
Окровавленные клинки
and
Танец теней
. 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
Слепая зона
.
Слепая зона
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
Роковой клинок
into a choice between
Сепсис
and
Зазубренный костяной шип
. That's a very difficult decision to make honestly, but I think
Слепая зона
is in a bit of trouble here tuning-wise.
Внезапный удар
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
Расправа
. While the energy cost is waived with a proc from
Слепая зона
, that underlying struggle for relevancy still exists. There very well could be a world where
Лихой негодяй
paired with two poisons, alongside
Отравленные раны
carries the energy hard enough to where free
Внезапный удар
casts will sulk back to irrelevancy. But that's just the internal struggle of
Слепая зона
. It still competes with other very strong talents like
Сепсис
and
Зазубренный костяной шип
. These are both powerful abilities on their own and don't have an internal generator-power-struggle as
Внезапный удар
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
Тотальная бойня
. 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
Дух погони
and
Коварный план
. Normally, I would just take
Коварный план
and move on, but with
Меткие броски
being locked behind
Дух погони
, the decision is a little more difficult to make. On live currently,
Меткие броски
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
Предрешенность
. 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,
Кровавый вихрь
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
Кровавый вихрь
a decision, and not a required talent, but that's a fairly minor concern. After taking
Знак смерти
, we're left with another curious choice.
Сила отравителя
and
Летящие кинжалы
are both on the surface, not great talents, with
Летящие кинжалы
being
even worse
than the previously mentioned
Меткие броски
(an already very weak talent), I once again am putting my faith into tuning and praying that this becomes viable. Similar to the
Слепая зона
build earlier, there are a lot of generic generator talents in the class tree which can help push
Веер клинков
a good amount. I think it's not
quite
there yet, but with some looking at the
Веер клинков
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.
Улучшенная гаррота
in combination with
Внезапное удушье
provides a well-known "open with
Гаррота
, vanish into
Гаррота
, big stealth
Гаррота
" gameplay Assassination players have enjoyed for multiple expansions now. The real secret sauce here however is the nearby effects,
Зазубренный костяной шип
,
Тотальная бойня
, and
Запах крови
.
Зазубренный костяной шип
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
Тотальная бойня
, and
Запах крови
. In 10 target AoE, you can easily have 10 ruptures out during
Тотальная бойня
. This leads to immense value from
Запах крови
, which can be a lot of fun. You can use that extra agility to either
Знак смерти
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
Тотальная бойня
, 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
Погибель королей
,
Закалка в огне драконов
, and
Тотальная бойня
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
Миниатюрный ядовитый клинок
. It used to be a capstone talent, where
Погибель королей
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
Погибель королей
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.
Сила отравителя
, 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
Миниатюрный ядовитый клинок
,
Окровавленные клинки
, and
Скорополоховый чай
, 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.
Атрофический яд
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,
Тотальная бойня
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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