Dual Assassination

Other than the obviousness of the title there is good reason for being dual Assassination spec in my opinion, especially if you're main spec is Assassination anyway. There is a less obvious difference in my main spec from most traditional Assassination specs, but I'm sure if you looked for a minute you'd see it.

I was browsing Elitist Jerks a while back and checking some work of mine with their Assassination guide, and it turns out they have very little math actually shown on their reasoning for choosing certain aspects to a spec or BiS list. I've said before and I'll say again I appreciate Aldriana and Antiarc's theorycrafting and I think they're very good, and great with mods and math. As for other people who post guides on Ej, I find them less credible and less reliable. An IRL friend of mine who is a highly skilled rogue (in both theory and execution) also used to do some major theorycrafting with his own spreadsheets and math told me that one of the guide writers was not very good and to not really trust his word without my own testing. Most of the time I do my own testing, but since Cataclysm I've had/put in less time doing my own testing. I do still test a decent amount, but nothing like I once did. My friend hasn't been playing in t13 so I can't really bounce anything off of him anymore either. With that, I'll get back into my Assassination dual speccing with reasoning you will probably not find elsewhere.

There are two fairly common Assassination specs, one is 31/2/8 the other is 31/3/7. For my "main" raiding spec I do the 31/2/8. The adjustment in my main spec is that I use the Vendetta Glyph ever since I obtained 4pc t13, and I drop the Backstab Glyph in its place since it is the least valuable. For those who don't know, the Vendetta glyph's 20% bonus is factored after the 4pc so you may think it is 30 (base) x1.2 = 36 + 9 (4pc bonus) = 45 seconds, however it is 30 (base) + 9 = 39 x 1.2 = 47.8s; so roughly a 20% damage bonus for 48 seconds.

The alternate spec I use is specifically for Ultraxion, and it would be great for heroic Ultraxion if I were doing that in my 1-night-a-week semi-pug group. Since you cannot Backstab on Ultraxion anyway, there is no point to have the Backstab Glyph or Murderous Intent. When you drop the 2 talent points you need to typically put into Murderous Intent you can also drop the 1 point in Deadly Brew (a typical filler talent people take), and use all 3 of those now available talent points into Deadened Nerves x3 which reduces all damage you take by 10%. Now you might be thinking, "Well Sub gets Enveloping Shadows alternatively which is 30% reduction in AoE + feint and that is 80% reduction every third Hour." True, except you get the debuff each time you stay out on an Hour in heroic so you have to Heroic Will two of every three anyway. Sub also loses FAR more damage with the inability to Ambush during Shadowdance, and losing Backstab in their main rotation, so that isn't a positive at all for a fight with such a severe DPS requirement and enrage timer.

While you're alternating Cloak/Feint and staying out every third hour you take 135k instead of 150k each Feint and of course nothing when you Cloak. I was hoping the incoming damage would only be 120k instead of 135k, however the damage reduction is of course of the original value of 300k making it 270k/2, 135k. The frontal damage of Assassination is quite high due to the current value weight on Expertise; and most rogues of all specs shouldn't have trouble getting close to the Expertise cap. Additionally having Vendetta glyph instead of the "normal" Backstab glyph improves the frontal/single target damage by even more. Something less-experienced Assassination rogues also might not know is that once you're 2pc t13 and a boss is below 35% you need to weave Mutilates with Backstabs depending on your energy generation. When you have Heroism, or Overkill, or Tricks of the Trade active (6s every 30s) you will need to weave, drastically lowering the bonus you get from Murderous Intent anyway. As as side note: fights like Zon'ozz where you need to be in "front" during black phase for AoE heals and damage reduction it also helps possibly dropping Murderous Intent for the damage reduction, since you need to be in frontal below 35% quite a bit anyway, and of course....the weaving issues.

Quick Recovery is something that a lot of people forget about. When you're pushing heroics or in a progression oriented guild it helps quite a bit to have some of these things that are standard in Assassination, but unavailable in other specs. People often, especially lately, think Assassination is a poor quality spec, hopefully this post will change some peoples minds about the benefits it has.

Now I'm only 396 item level (as of tonight) and I hadn't put my Synapse Springs on my newly turned in 397 vanq gloves, but for people who think Assassination damage is low...this is for you.

Now in fairness World of Logs has Combat and Sub still parsing higher, even on Ultrax, but those guys are all 400il+ and 4-5 item levels can make a pretty massive difference.

Edit: changed link colors.