I ran a short test on the target dummies in Silvermoon. One build was Assassination, the other Subtlety, both 4.0. The Assassination build is ElitistJerk’s DPS build, and the Sub is more PvP oriented. Just a short test along the lines of getting the rust polished off.
Note that you need 31 points to grab talents from the other trees, but you do not need to have the top talent in whichever tree. Mastery happens at 80.
Sub. did about 24-2500 DPS on the 83 target dummy and Assassination was close to 4k.I’m not claiming to be an expert anything, but that’s a pretty big difference. I didn’t even have Vendetta up on the Assassination test, showing what a nub I am. Before 4.0 it was about 2k DPS or so with an Assassination build and the same gear.
- Mongoose on both daggers
- Instant poison on the MH, Deadly on the OH
- No other buffs
- About 4562 Gearscore (I know, it sucks.)
Assassination build (4.0:)
- 3/3 Coup de Grace
- 3/3 Lethality
- 3/3 Ruthlessness
- 2/2 Quickening
- 3/3 Puncturing Wounds
- 1/2 Deadly Brew
- 1/1 Cold Blood
- 3/3 Vile Poisons
- 2/2 Seal Fate
- 2/2 Murderous Intent
- Overkill
- Master Poisoner
- 3/3 Cut to the Chase
- 2/2 Venomous Wounds
- Vendetta
- 2/3 Precision
- 3/3 Relentless Strikes
Prime glyphs: Mutilate, Backstab, Rupture
Major Glyphs: Feint, Garrote, Fan of Knives
Minor Glyphs: Whatever. I have Pick Lock, Poisons, Safe Fall
Subtlety Build for 4.0
- 2/2 Nightstalker
- 3/3 Improved Ambush
- 3/3 Relentless Strikes
- 1/3 Elusiveness
- 2/2 Waylay
- 3/3 Opportunity
- 2/2 Initiative
- 2/2 Find Weakness
- Hemorrhage
- 3/3 Honor Among Thieves (will probably lose this. Your group gets the extra crit rating, so it’s useful for group fights, but it seems to be bugged right now.)
- Premeditation
- 2/3 Cheat Death
- Preparation
- 2/2 Sanguinary Vein
- 3/3 Slaughter from the Shadows
- Shadowdance
- 3/3 Precision
- 1/3 Coup de Grace
More DPS?
- Drop Nightstalker and Elusiveness for 3/3 Energetic Recovery (more energy)
- Drop Cheat Death for 2/2 Serrated Blades
Glyphs:
- Prime: Hemo, Evisc, Backstab
- Major: Ambush, Garrote, Cloak of Shadows
- Minor: Safe Fall, Blurred Speed, Poisons
Macros:
Opener macro, since I can never remember to hit that Premeditation button. The pickpocket is in there for when you’re not fighting players:
#showtooltip Ambush
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast Premeditation
/cast Ambush#showtooltip Eviscerate (or change to Envenom)
/cast Cold Blood
/cast Eviscerate (or change to Envenom)
Ambush is looking really brutal in PvP. Glyph for Ambush (adds range) and Eviscerate (adds crit chance to Ev.) Ambush gives 5 combo points with the above build, then Evisc/Rupture
Leveling
At this moment in time all the trees are good for leveling. Combat has better consistent DPS than the others and Subtlety has the huge opener. I haven’t leveled Assassination yet, but it should be between the two, at first guess.
If you’re leveling a Rogue then take a glance at our Rogue leveling page.