World of Warcraft

Updated for patch 4.3

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1. Introduction
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This guide is meant to help new players get some knowledge about the spec, and to give some advice to anyone new to this specific spec. I noticed many people keep asking the same questions on these forums, so I decided to write a guide to sum it all up in one thread. It will hopefully answer any questions you could ask about the mutilate spec, and if your question isn’t answered in here, please give me a reply and I will add it as soon as possible.

I will start with the more commonly known facts, and will later move on to the less obvious facts etc. If you already know much about the rogue class, for example if you always used to play sub, you could probably skip a few parts of the guide.

Contents:

2. Stats
-2.1 Primary Stats
-2.2 Secondary Stats
3. Gems, Enchants and Reforging
-3.1 Gems
-3.2 Enchants
-3.3 Reforging
4. Talents and Glyphs
-4.1 PvP Talents and Glyphs
-4.2 PvE Talents and Glyphs
5. Rotations
-5.1 PvP Rotation
-5.2 PvE Rotation
6. Additional Edits

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2. Stats
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As I said in the introduction some parts might be already known, in this case the primary stats (attributes). The secondary stats might be more interesting for the more advanced players.

2.1 Primary Stats

There are 5 different primary stats. Some are useful, some are less useful, and some are completely useless:

-Agility: This is your main stat and you will need as much of it as possible. Every rogue item, with the exception of a few trinkets, has agility on it. If the item doesn’t have agility, it will usually not be useful for a rogue.
Agility adds 3 stats in cataclysm: Attack Power, Dodge and Crit rating. They are all useful stats, so it’s good to stack agility as much as possible. Some facts: Agility adds 2 Attack Power, 0,004 dodge chance and 0,003 crit chance each point at level 85. It might not sound huge, but you will have a lot more than 1 agility in the end

-Stamina: Stamina is important, because without it you’ll end up with very low hp, making you too easy to kill (both in PvE and PvP). However, you shouldn’t stack this stat. You will find Stamina on almost every gear piece, which is enough to survive. I will discuss this further in the gemming/enchanting part.

-Strength: Strength adds 1 Attack Power. It’s not completely useless, but not worth it either, Only if your current stats on an item are really horrible, you might consider a strength item. But once you got more than “very bad gear” you will not want any more than the base amount.

-Intellect/spirit: Very simple to explain: Useless. In combat these stats will give you literally nothing.


2.2 Secondary Stats

There are 6 relevant Secondary Stats listed in order of importance (approximately).

-Hit: Hit is a very important stat. Both in PvP and PvE it is very important to be “capped”. The cap is the moment your hits won’t ever miss the target, which is different for each ability and spec (PvE/PvP).

For PvP it’s very straightforward: You need 5% increased chance to hit to always hit the target with your special attacks. You will still see “miss” coming up in your combat log, but these are not important, since it will cost too much damage to remove these misses. (this will be discussed more in the PvE part). In cataclysm you need 120.1 hit rating to add 1% of chance to hit to your special attacks. So that means you need 5x120.1=600.5 hit rating to be capped for PvP. This is very important because you don’t want your Blind ability to miss when bursting down a target.

For PvE it’s a bit more complicated, and because of the maximum amount of characters in a post I wasn't able to edit this properly. Therefore I edited this into the additional info, on the bottom of this guide. This is a very complicated, but also very important part, so be sure to read it.

-Expertise: This is a shorter story. For PvE the cap is 6,5%, and for PvP it's 5%. However, right now it is usually better to reforge/gem for mastery, instead of expertise.

-Mastery: This is the most important secondary stat for Muti Rogues. In the Muti spec, each point (point is not the same as rating) of mastery adds 3% poison damage. I’m not sure about the maths that show how much mastery rating you need to gain 1 mastery point, but mastery is the best way to go for dealing damage because it scales with both your normal poisons and your envenom ability.

-Haste: Haste is a good stat for rogues, but not that great for the Mutilate spec. It certainly beats crit rating, but right now Mastery is just stronger. However, haste is not a bad stat. You shouldn’t try to avoid it, although it might be useful to reforge some of it.

Crit: Unlike Haste, this is a stats you should avoid. Crit isn’t useless, but compared to Haste and Mastery, it just isn’t really worth it. Besides that rogues gain quite some crit chance through Agility, so it isn’t necessary to get much more of it.

Resilience: Resilience is ONLY useable in PvP. For PvE it adds absolutely nothing, because it only reduces damage taken by Players, and not Raid/Dungeon NPCs. In PvP it’s very important to have a good amount of resilience, preferably 3500 or more, although this depends on your gear. Gemming/enchanting for Resilience won't be necessary, but it's good to have a decent amount of it

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3. Gems, Enchants and Reforging
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I won’t list which items what to do with exactly, because you should figure out some things by yourself. But I will mention a few specific things that might be useful for making your choice.

3.1 Gems

This is very straightforward after the stats part described above. Basically you will always pick a gem with Agility on it. For Blue gems you will have to pick a purple gem with Agility/something else and for yellow slots you will need an orange gem with Agility/something else. Socket bonuses are important because they add quite a few stats, so always try to make use of them
And I would also advice not to use Stamina gems. It might look better to have more hp, and you might think you will stay alive for longer, but both aren’t true. It looks much better to have the right gems and enchants, and 400 hp will not make you last longer than the extra damage you put out with 40 agility.
Finally, make sure you pick a Meta gem that actually works. Every meta gem has a requirement, and a requirement that involves several blue gems being needed, will not work great for a Muti Rogue.

3.2 Enchants

As I mentioned above I won’t give you a list of enchants you should pick, because that would make it too easy. I don’t want this guide to transform readers into mindless followers who copy exactly what I write down.
However, I will list a few specific enchants that really are required, and some which may require an explanation.

Most enchants are quite easy to chose with the info you have about stats, but mostly weapon enchants are an exception. The weapon enchants are not the usual +… agility enchants. They are usually proc enchants that give a buff or add damage once in a while. Right now there are 3 weapon enchants that increase damage which can be discusses:


-Pyrium Weapon Chain: Can't do PvP without this on your OH, but for PvE it's useless

-Hurricane: Enchant weapon hurricane is the best, low prices, weapon enchant there is. It has a chance on hit to add 450 haste rating, and can proc from both white damage, poison damage and special attack damage separately. So basically, you can have 3x 450 haste by just enchanting one weapon. It was nerfed a little in patch 4.0.6, but it still isn't a bad enchant if you can't afford the next one, Landslide:

-Landslide: This is by far the best weapon enchant in game right now. The only problem is the cost. The mats cost is not even comparable to what it used to be at the start of the expansion, but it still isn't incredibly cheap. It's definitely worth the money though, but if you're not that rich, and especially if the weapon you want to enchant isn't that great, you might want to pass this one.
If you can afford it though, or if you have a very good weapon you won't be replacing for a while, it's definitely worth the money.

-Avalanche: Avalanche has as approximate proc chance of 12,5% to deal about 500 damage. This is not a strong enchant, and although it's cheap, I would personally say that it isn't worth it. The damage gain is weak, so it can easily be replaced by Hurricane.

3.3 Reforging

Reforging can be done with all the secondary stats. I can’t tell you much more about this, since everything was already mentioned in chapter 2. A short summary: try to reforge into hit until the cap, then reforge into Mastery. You mostly want to get rid of the crit rating.

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4. Talents and Glyphs
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There is not one specific spec that should always be used, but I will give a few examples and explanations. For glyphs you will have less choice though, which does make it quite easy to chose.
Please note that the first paragraph is PvP, and the second is PvE.

4.1 PvP Talents and Glyphs

As mentioned there are multiple viable Assasination PvP specs. On the other hand, some talents are really needed, and you can’t go without them. I will list the talents you shouldn’t put any points in, or that could be discusses. Any talent not listed and in the Assassination talent tree is required without discussion.

-Deadly Momentum: 0 points without a doubt

-Ruthlessness: This is a good talent, and you will probably want to put a few points in this. 0/3 is probably a bad idea, but 3/3 is not obligated.

-Blackjack: Personally I think this is a good talent, but some people might prefer other ones. This is a personal choice you can make

-Deadened nerves: This is a very good talent for PvP because 10% damage reduction is a lot of resilience. But in some variations in the tree this might be a talent you can skip 1 point in.

-Murderous Intent: PvE only

-Improved Expose Armor: Not a great plan. 0/2 would be best.

-Cut to the Chase: This is the hardest one to decide. On one hand it’s very good because SnD adds a lot of dps, but on the other hand it might be hard to maintain. This depends mostly on your playstyle and your setup in arenas. If you like tunnelling a target in BGs or if you play2v2 with a disc priest, this might be quite useful. But if the enemy keeps you CCd for a short while, the SnD is gone and you wasted your energy, and with that these talent points. Personally I think it’s not worth it, but some would disagree

Non-muti talents:
-Improved Recuperate: Although it doesn't add that much healing any more, it would still be worth the points, especially in setups where you get nuked a lot, have no healer, or in battlegrounds, because the extra healing and damage reduction is very useful.

-Precision. Not good enough to compete with the tier 2 sub talents

-Nightstalker: 2/2. Stealth speed is important in BGs and any arena bracket.

-Relentless Strikes: 3/3 because you don’t use ambush and you need to reach tier 2.

-Elusiveness: 2/2

-Opportunity: Not necessary but if you got a point left, this might be a good place.

Then towards the glyphs. I can’t really say much special about glyphs, because there isn’t much to discuss. You don’t have much choice, so I will simple list the glyphs you need:

Prime: Mutilate, Rupture and Vendetta
Major: Blind, Sprint and Garrote
Minor: Whichever you like the sound of

4.2 PvE Talents and Glyphs

The PvE spec is much simpler than the PvP spec. Once again I will list the non-mutilate tree talents and the talents that could be discusses from the mutilate tree.

-Deadly Momentum: I wonder why this talent was ever created. It is completely useless

-Blackjack: 0/2. This is a PvP talent.

-Deadly Brew. One point might be nice in this one for trash fights and dungeons. Otherwise you can spend it in Deadened Nerves.

- Deadened Nerves: Not worth it besides for spending that last spare talent point.

-Improved Expose Armor. The ability for it isn’t great, so the talent isn’t useful either.

-Precision: This will help a lot with reaching your poison cap and getting some more white damage. 2/3 is best here as mentioned later as well.

-Nightstalker: Because run speed is nice and we don’t use ambush

-Relentless Strikes: Same as Nightstalker really, although the bonus is nice.

-Opportunity: Insert the rest of your points here. Usually 3.

Glyphs:
Prime: You always need to use the Rupture and Mutilate glyphs. However, there are 3 other glyphs that might be useful: Slice and Dice, Backstab and Vendetta. Backstab is probably the best choice here for raid boss fights, and for heroics Vendetta would be better. SnD would only be usable if it keeps running out, but that should not be the case.
Major: For boss fights Feint, ToT and Sprint would be the best. For trash you could try switching one of them for Fan of Knives, since it really increases your AoE damage. This will cost some money though
Minor: Whichever you think sounds funniest.

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5. Rotations
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The PvE and PvP rotations are quite similar. The general idea is: Always keep a bleed on the target.
Once again note that the first paragraph is for PvP, and the second for PvE.

5.1 PvP Rotation

In a Mutilate spec you always open with Garrote. You might think ambush is better for burst damage, or Cheap Shot is better for stunlocking, but it isn’t true. Ambush is an ability you will never use, and you might as well remove it from your action bar. Unless ofcourse you run into a Warrior at 5% hp.
Cheap shot is nice for the stun, but after 3 seconds it is gone. It can be very good for peeling though when your teammates are in trouble.
Garrote is different. Garrote adds a bleed to the target which does huge damage, adding a lot of burst. Besides that, it will tick for extra damage due to one of your talents that adds poison damage. Thirdly, it adds energy regen. And this is very important, because it will increase your burst by a lot. So even against a warrior, Garrote is the way to go.

After that you hit a mutilate up to 4 combo points (CP), and then rupture. Rupture is your most important ability and you should always keep it on your target. Any second without rupture is less damage done.
After that you use mutilate again until you reach 4-5 CP, followed by either envenom or recuperate, depending on the situation. If you want some burst damage, use vendetta before opening, then Garrotte, Mutilate, Rupture, Mutilate, Mutilate, Cold Blood and Envenom. A sap before all that would be even better.
Also try to use Shiv once in a while. Especially against players with high avoidance (Rogues with Evasion) or players with Enrage effects (Fury Warriors) this is a very useful, sometimes forgotten attack. Shiv cannot be dodged and dispels an enrage effect.

Another ability that is very strong, especially in arena, is Smoke Bomb. It doesn't only make sure ranged can't hit you while inside, but it also makes sure enemy healers can't heal their team-mate. This is very effective for killing a target at low hp.

5.2 PvE Rotation

In PvE you got less things to worry about. Generally it’s just opening with Garrote, Mutilate, Rupture, SnD (Slice and Dice), mutilate, envenom. Then you repeat this process, keeping rupture up at all times and using Envenom once rupture doesn’t need to be refreshed. Make sure you always have 4-5 CP up when you use a new ability, with the exception of SnD.

If you would open with Garrote and then SnD, Mutilate, Rupture and envenom asap to refresh SnD, you'll get more dps, but it might be quite close to keep the SnD up, mainly depending on your latency. This is the best option for maximising your dps, even though the difference is of course quite slight.

Once the boss reaches 35% or less, the rotation changes, Instead of using Mutilate, you will now use Backstab (make sure you have the talent). With the talent a lot of energy will be refunded, increasing your dps by quite a big amount.

The rest of the rotation stays similar: Keep Rupture up, don't let SnD fade and don't stand in the fire.

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I hope this guide helped and answered your questions. If it didn’t please ask your question in a reply and I will happily answer it as soon as possible (which is usually very soon since I read these forums like the average person uses his watch). It could also be a useful question to add to the guide.
Also, if you have anything to add, any feedback or criticism, it would be very welcome. I’m also open for any advice on grammar/spelling etc, because I know my English isn’t perfect, and it can only improve the guide.
If you liked the guide, please press the thumb up button ;)

Lastly, I copied the layout Martenus – Blade’s Edge made on the PvP forums. I copied this layout before, but I would like to thank him again.

Good luck with the best spec and class in game ;)

Canttouchmé/Dalrian

6. Additional edits:

These edits come mostly from posts below. This might become a bit messy after a while, but I'll try to keep it organised.

-Poisons
Since anesthetic poison was removed and Shiv was changed, Rogue poisons have become quite simple.
For PvP you should have Wound Poison on your mainhand, and Deadly Poison on your offhand. (check post #16 for more info)
Note that once you get 5 stacks of deadly poison, each new application will add an extra attack from your mainhand, in this case Wound Poison.
On your throw weapon it's best to use Instant Poison. The reason for this is that it has a 100% chance to apply crippling poison, and it will deal good damage.

In PvE You should coat your mainhand with Instant poison, and your offhand with Deadly Poison, for the same reason as PvP. The only difference is that healing reducing effects won't be useful in PvE, making Instant poison better.
On your throw weapon it is best to apply Deadly Poison for stacking the DoT on multiple targets. Rogue AoE damage is not burst like you would think, but it is a building up effect that increases by time.

-Cooldowns
It is best to use your cooldowns at times where your dps would have been the greatest, even without cooldowns. So this is usually during times like Heroism/Bloodlust etc, or any other damage increasing effect.
On some boss fights you might want to wait with your cooldowns until a certain phase, like Synek described below. His examples were Magmaw, where you should use Vendetta at the start because the cooldown fits in perfectly with the first important phase, and fights where you take damage taken equal to your own damage, which means you have to find a right balance

From my experience that nice balance can only be achieved through practise. That is what progression is made for. You try a few times and after a while you will find out the optimal time to use your cooldowns etc. That is how you transform a hard boss into a farm boss, and that is pretty much what PvE is all about.

-Weapons
This is a very short part: Always try to get a 1.8 speed dagger in MH and 1.4 in OH. This should only be changed when there's really a huge difference in stats between 2 daggers.

-Hit: As promised here is the PvE part for hit caps:

For PvE it’s a bit more complicated, since you have to fight raid bosses, who are not level 85 like us. Raid bosses are level 88, so you will not need 5%, but 8% hit chance increase to always hit them with special attacks. This is a very important cap, and you can’t really do it without this cap. Once again: 120.1x8=960.8 hit rating. Note that it is spell hit that matters, and not the hit displayed under “melee”.
However, Rogues have 3 different caps. The second one is Poison, which scales in a different way. Without any hit talents you need 17% hit chance for this, which is equal to 17x102.5=1742. This is also a very important cap, and you will need to reach it before starting with raids. Keep in mind that 2/3 in precision is recommended, so you will only need 13% to get this capped (1332). The spell cap will display 17% because the talent is automatically edited into that number.
The final cap is the so called “white cap”. This one is practically impossible to reach, and trying to would ruin your dps. For raid bosses this cap is at 27% which would be equal to 3458 (melee) hit rating. You should not try to even come close to this one.
So basically in the ideal situation you’ll have precisely 17% spell hit displayed in your character info.

actually, 3 points here and 2 in precision yields more dps. the gap is almost negligable, however there is a gap.

Oh yeah, I missed that one
I had it like that in my own spec too, corrected now

Thanks ;)

16/02/2011 2:37 PMPosted by Anthoron

looking over the glyphs section, perhaps it would be worth noting the viability of some of the other glyphs, such as feint, tott, backstab etc?

I will add it to the additional info and might put it in the original post too

Edit: I noticed I also forgot to add backstab for the last 35% and only said you had to put 2/2 in that talent, so I guess I got a few edits to make

Thanks for the feedback ;)

Edit to the edit of Synek: I already mentioned I forgot the backstab part. Ofcourse I did know about it, I just didn't think of it ;)
About the optimal Vendetta times: I think this greatly depends on the fight and the situation. If you mean Vendetta should be used during Hero/BL etc, I just assumed this would be quite logical. Always use CDs when your damage is the highest.

Mastery adds 3.5 per point, by the way. Unless I've completely lost it.

Yeah, in this case with "points" I ment the "points" you got on the gear. So "this and that adds 120 mastery" etc.

Then that number becomes a smaller number like 25.40
Those 25.40 add 3% each point

I'll get the facts of that one right later, but I won't have time for that today. It's not a big problem anyway.

Edit: You were right, Mastery is actually worth more than expertise
@Synek below this one: I put it in the Additional info part now.

Isn't instant better than wound on mainhand?

The answer given here used to be entirely different, but since the buff to Wound Poison in 4.3, the correct answer to this question has changed.

I did some new testing today, granted I was in Subtlety gear and Subtlety glyphs, but I had an Assassination spec, and this gave the following results:

Instant Poison, no cooldowns used, normal rotation: 10850 dps, with IP as 24,4% of total damage done
Wound Poison, no cooldowns used, normal rotation: 9810 dps, with WP as 16,5% of total damage done.

These are very rough numbers as the situation wasn't optimal the test wasn;t as accurate as it could have been etc etc, but the difference between these Poisons is huge, so regardless of whether the circumstances were perfect or not, the conclusion is clear and easy:

Wound Poison is better for PvP in most situations, unless you play with someone else who can provide a healing debuff. The damage difference between the 2 is approximately 10% (very roughly said), meaning that the 25% healing debuff will simply be a lot more important than the slight damage increase.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean to say Maboez, but I think you are asking something about when targets can dodge/parry etc.

Just so you know, raid bosses can only dodge from behind, so that's why expertise isn't that important anymore. 0 expertise is practically impossible, but what I tried to say is that the 6,5% isn't something you should focus on too much.
But usually 4% is easily reached without gems/reforging.

Fixed. It was early in the morning for me, so I wasn't fully awake yet :P

I also edited the Poison part as a result of some new testing