ASSA ROGUE ADVANCED TIPS

DEATHMARK TIPS

In this next segment of our course, we're going to be meticulously dissecting each and every one of your key offensive cooldowns, which is going to give you a comprehensive breakdown on how they work and the rules behind using them.

And starting off with one of the strongest abilities in the Assassination Rogues toolkit, Deathmark. Deathmark has officially taken over, replacing the longtime favorite, Vendetta, as the primary offensive ability in the Assassination Rogues toolkit.

Now, this ability comes with a two-minute cooldown and works by replicating your bleeds and poisons, which amplifies your damage output significantly. It's important to note that Deathmark only replicates Rupture and Garot.

And unfortunately, any other bleeds, like Crimson Tempest and Internal Bleeding, are not included here. Now, because of this interaction, as you've probably guessed by now, it's crucial to have full bleeds applied to your target before activating Deathmark.

Unlike many other classes, we can't just throw out Deathmark randomly. In fact, you might even let it sit off cooldown for over a minute while you set up the perfect go for it.

So, you might be wondering, what exactly makes the perfect situation to use Deathmark? Now, first, we need to ensure that there's a fresh, empowered Garot on the target.

When Garot is used from stealth or with subterfuge, it deals 50% increased damage, and this bonus damage is the same as the one used in the Assassination Rogues. So, you can use Deathmark to kill the opponent, or use Deathmark to kill the opponent.

This bonus damage is then carried over to the replicated bleed from Deathmark. Next, it's going to be essential to have a full duration Rupture applied to the target as well.

Reapplying bleeds mid-Deathmark is a huge damage loss during your burst window, so we want to avoid this. There are a few other things to consider before committing to Deathmark, depending on the class that you're going to be fighting.

So, starting off, let's talk about Paladins. If your target is under Forbearance, or the Paladin has already used their Bop, If your target is under Forbearance, or the Paladin has already used their Bop, you're free to use Deathmark, assuming your bleeds are already applied.

Why? Most Paladins will instantly respond with Blessing of Protection, as this is going to completely remove Deathmark.

By using it during a Forbearance window, you effectively are going to guarantee your damage is going to land, even without a Kidney Shot set up.

Similarly, Survival Hunters can dispel Deathmark using Mending Bandage, while Dwarves can remove it with Stone Form, and Evokers can clear it with Cauterizing Flame, since Deathmark is treated as a bleed effect.

Now, to make sure Deathmark sticks when facing these classes, you should try to wait until these abilities are on cooldown. Your other option is to focus down these specific classes.

If you can land a Kidney Shot on a Hunter or an Evoker without a Trinket, they're going to have no way to remove Deathmark immediately, which can help you close out the game. Alternatively, you can use this strategy to force a Trinket as well.

Deathmark isn't, a guaranteed win condition. You can play an entire match without using Deathmark, and still secure the win.

And finally, we want to cover a unique and powerful way to use Deathmark as an Execute. This is going to take advantage of Sudden Demise, which as you know is an auto-proc Execute ability that deals lethal damage to targets below 35% HP, as long as our bleed damage would otherwise kill them.

Since Deathmark duplicates existing bleed damage, that means if we use it on a target that is low on HP with both an improved Garo and Rupture already rolling, we can increase the threshold at which Sudden Demise procs, leading to a sudden burst of lethal damage.

VANISH TIPS

Welcome back to another installment in our Assassination Rogue damage course. In this video, we're going to be continuing to break down our offensive cooldowns with Vanish.

It's going to provide you with a comprehensive breakdown on how this ability works and the rules behind using it. Now, Vanish might seem like a pretty straightforward ability, as it simply just lets you get back into stealth every two minutes.

But, it is actually one of your most powerful offensive tools. Now, this is because of Subterfuge, which makes all abilities count as though they were used from stealth for six seconds.

This significantly boosts your Garoat's damage and applies a silence to your target. Additionally, it allows you to spam Cheap Shot, which completely locks down their kill target or setting up triple crowd control on the enemy team, which can easily create game-winning opportunities.

Before using Vanish, you want to make sure that the enemy team isn't on silence or stunned DRs. The greatest... value of Vanish comes from the crowd control it provides.

Using it randomly while DRs are still active limits its effectiveness, and it reduces the impact this cooldown can really have on the game. Here, we can see the entire enemy team is coming off silence DR, and there are no stunned DRs.

This is the perfect time to use Vanish, and that is exactly what our Rogue does. What makes this even better is that silence bypasses Nullifying Shroud, allowing the Rogue to get full Vanish, and that allows you to use Vanish to get full damage from this cooldown.

Vanish can also be used to refresh your empowered Garoat during a kill window. Ideally, you want the enemy team to be off DRs, but if you're confident that Garoat's damage is going to secure the kill, then Vanish becomes the perfect tool to close out the game.

USING SHIV

Welcome back to another video in our Assassination Rogue damage course. Today we're going to be taking a closer look at Shiv, and we're going to walk you through how exactly this works, when to use it, and the strategies to ensure that you are going to be getting the most out of this ability.

Now by itself, Shiv might not seem all that impressive. It has a 30 second cooldown and it dispels an enrage effect.

But don't let that fool you. Shiv has some of the most impactful modifiers in our talent tree, making it one of our standout abilities.

Now what really sets Shiv apart are three key talents. First, we have Improved Shiv, which boosts the target's nature damage taken by a massive 30% for 8 seconds.

Next is Tiny Toxic Blade. This talent increases its damage by 200% and completely removes its energy cost.

And finally, there's Arterial Precision. This talent transforms Shiv into an AoE ability, while also increasing, reducing your bleed damage by 30% on every target hit.

Even better, we can take the Hematoxin PvP talent to make Shiv reduce healing by 30% for 8 seconds. Individually, these talents are strong, but together, they elevate Shiv from a useless ability to a must-have cooldown.

Before we even consider using Shiv, it's crucial to make sure all of your bleeds and poisons are on the target. Unlike Death Mark, Shiv doesn't just boost a select few bleeds, it enhances the damage of all bleeds, including Crimson Tempest.

This means you're going to want to have every bleed active before you use Shiv to get the full benefit. Once your bleeds are out, preferably the next step is to ensure your target is in a kidney shot before you commit to using Shiv.

Just like with Death Mark, it's essential to lock down the target first. This way, you can start applying your damage without worrying about getting crowd controlled or peeled on your go.

We can see this in action right here. The Rogue has full bleeds on the enemy team and uses Kidney Shot on the Shaman.

Once that the Shaman is locked down, they use Shiv. Since Kidney Shot and Shiv both share a 30 second cooldown, they're a perfect combo.

By combining them, you ensure that your damage lands, squeezing every bit of value out of your cooldowns.

USING DEFENSIVES OFFENSIVELY

Defensives are meant for living, right? Well, what if I told you that Evasion and Cloak of Shadows can be game-winning tools when they're used offensively?

Well, let's find out how. Now, you might be thinking, how in the heck can a defensive cooldown help me win the game when it doesn't even deal any damage?

Well, that's true, but it's not about the damage they deal, it's about how you use them. Evasion can be an absolute game-changer.

The most common tactic is using Evasion to prevent physical crowd control when you're confident you're about to secure the win. It can stop abilities like Bash, Scattershot, or even Disarm to ensure that you maintain pressure to close out the game.

Evasion can also be a powerful tool to stop healing. It's particularly effective against Fury Warriors during Enraged Regeneration, as it can prevent them from getting killed.

Evasion can also be a powerful tool to stop healing. It's particularly effective against Fury Warriors during Enraged Regeneration, as it can prevent them from getting killed.

Evasion can also be a powerful tool to stop healing. It's particularly effective against landing Bloodthirst, which they rely on to heal.

Similarly, it works against Death Knights by denying their Death Strikes. Using Evasion this way not only disrupts their healing, but can help you secure the win.

Cloak works in a similar way when dealing with casters, too. If you need to remove crowd control effects like Roots, you can activate Cloak of Shadows.

Alternatively, you can use it preemptively during a go when you're confident that you're going to win. Strategically using Cloak can help you maintain pressure and ultimately close out the game.

INDISCRIMINATE CARNAGE

Wouldn't it be nice if you could bleed all your enemies with just one global? Well, Blizzard has you covered.

That's exactly why they introduced Indiscriminate Carnage. When you're in stealth, or within 6 seconds of breaking it, your garrote and rupture abilities will hit up to 3 targets.

And guess how many opponents you're going to typically find in the arena? Well, that's right.

3. Perfect, isn't it?

Before opening and even before using Vanish, it's important to consider whether the targets will be stacked together.

If you can minimize the number of globals spent applying garrote to each individual target, you free up more globals for stunning and dealing damage, which is exactly what we want as an assassination row. This also makes the silence from Iron Wire AoE.

If you have multiple casters stacked together, it becomes nearly impossible for them to do any sort of counterplay or respawn. So, be sure to be prepared for the garrote's attack.

This can be especially effective when a Warlock or a Monk ports back to their healer. By timing it right, you can silence both players and apply an empowered garrote.

If the target is already low on health when they port, this can potentially close out the game by making it difficult for the healer to recover. This makes assassination incredibly powerful against melee cleaves, so do be sure to pick up this talent when facing any composition likely to stack throughout the match.

Some rogues may opt for countercats. Some may opt for Kingsbane against comps that you believe won't stack, but you're definitely going to regret not having this talent every time the enemy does stack.

MULTI-DOTTING IS A MUST!

Assassination Rogues could almost be called the Affliction Warlocks of Melee. You bring massive rot pressure throughout the game, relying heavily on bleeds and poisons, rather than the direct damage style of traditional melee classes like Warriors and Monks.

Indeed, it's pretty common to see teams fighting against Assassination Rogues slowly bleeding out as the damage overwhelms the healer. And yet, a very common mistake many Assassination Rogues make is tunneling too hard into a single target.

As Assassination, you can't afford to focus on just one person. The key to success lies in multi-dotting throughout the entire match.

Multi-dotting really isn't as simple as throwing a single bleed on each and every target and calling it a day. Instead, you need to apply full bleeds to every target and actively rotate between them to maintain pressure.

Assassination really isn't your typical game. You can't just throw a single bleed on every single target and call it a day.

You need to be able to control the enemy's attack and the enemy's movement. You don't have the insane burst of subtlety or the same level of control as Outlaw.

Your ability to win relies solely on generating relentless pressure. Of course, multi-dotting isn't just about opening up kill opportunities.

It does have other benefits as well. Thanks to Venomous Wounds, you gain energy every time Garo and Rupture deal damage to a poisoned target.

This energy regeneration allows you to deal more damage. You can also use the ability to use the ability to use the ability to use the ability to use the ability to use the ability to kill.

In fact, if you neglect multi-dotting, you may find yourself running out of energy and struggling to keep up any sort of pressure. The Scent of Blood talent is another incredibly powerful tool.

Every Rupture you have active increases your agility by 2%, stacking up to a maximum of 20% bonus agility. By default, if you maintain Rupture on 3 players, this translates to a consistent 6% bonus agility which will boost your overall damage.

I'm not sure which is more important. But that's for sure. avoid dotting a target though, such as when you need to use Blind to CC.

Blind does remove your bleeds however, so you don't need to wait for them to expire. This will typically be the exception, as we don't want to completely avoid bleeding a target.

You also want to be mindful of breaking crowd control like Polymorph or even your own Blind. While it removes your bleeds, it's crucial not to reapply them until after the CC expires to avoid disrupting your teammates setup.

SMOKE BOMB

At first glance, you might think Smoke Bomb is a pretty dang useless talent for an assassination rogue. I mean, after all, you're a dot class.

Why would you need something typically associated with a more setup-based gameplay spec? But just because you don't have the burst of a subtlety rogue doesn't mean Smoke Bomb isn't valuable.

In fact, there are several ways to utilize it to your advantage. The first and most obvious way to use Smoke Bomb is to close out a game.

Unlike subtlety rogues, you won't typically drop Smoke Bomb on a full health target to burst them down in a setup. Instead, you want to use Smoke Bomb when the target is already low on health.

You're going to want to typically pair it with abilities like Death Mark, Kidney Shot, and Shiv when the target has no trinket available. Now let's not forget that Arena is a team-based game, which means you can use Smoke Bomb to set up your teammate for the win.

Even if you don't have insane burst, your teammate just might. Dropping a Smoke Bomb during your teammate's cooldowns can definitely create the perfect opportunity to secure a kill.

But it really doesn't stop there. Smoke Bomb can also be an incredibly powerful defensive tool.

If you're up against casters, you can use Smoke Bomb to interrupt any cast on you or your teammates. Alternatively, you can drop it to prevent crowd control on your healer.

This versatility really makes Smoke Bomb a solid pick in nearly every game, giving you both offensive and defensive options. Thanks for watching!

ELUSIVENESS VS CHEAT DEATH

So you might be scratching your head wondering why anyone would ever not take Cheat Death. But if you start looking around, you're going to notice many rogues opting for elusiveness.

So what the heck is going on here? The answer isn't as clear cut as you might think.

So let's break down when it's better to choose elusiveness over Cheat Death. Cheat Death might seem like an absolute no-brainer on paper.

You get to Cheat Death and avoid dying when you should have. Pretty dang simple.

Now in most cases, it works just as you'd expect. However, it's not quite as good as it seems.

Cheat Death can fail into certain classes. If you watch top rogue streamers, you're going to often see them proc Cheat Death and die in the exact same second.

The reason for this is that Cheat Death doesn't stop incoming damage. It just has a small delay before it activates, which can sometimes be enough for you to die in the exact same second.

You can either die before it kicks in, or you just die shortly after it procs. What this means is that Cheat Death isn't particularly effective against classes that deal a lot of small hits at once, like certain dots classes or demo warlocks.

This is where elusiveness really becomes a solid option. When you activate Feint, it reduces all damage taken by 20%, providing you with an additional wall you can use throughout the game.

Elusiveness also has the added benefit of giving a 20% damage reduction to Evasion. This can stack with the bait and switch talent from the Deathstalker tree, which causes Evasion to reduce magical damage taken by an additional 20%.

When you combine this with Feint, you can survive almost any and every situation. If you're really struggling to survive, consider taking the Preemptive Maneuver talent along with Elusiveness.

This combination makes Feint reduce your damage taken by an additional 40% while stunned, while also reducing your damage taken by an additional 20%. If you're really struggling to survive, consider taking the Preemptive Maneuver talent along with Elusiveness.

This combination makes Feint reduce your damage taken by an additional 40% while also reducing your damage taken by an additional 40% while also lowering its energy cost by 30%. Now, with this combo, you can consistently use Feint, which makes you extremely difficult to kill during stun setups.

Preemptive Maneuver is a bit more advanced, but worth mastering because of how life-saving it really is against bursty compositions. Your goal is going to be to try and pre-feint every single stun.

To do this, you have to know two things. Whether the enemy team has a stun available, and whether you're off stun DR.

If both of these things are true, and you're the kill target, you should proactively press Feint, which at the very least will deter the enemy team from committing their stun. And if you do manage to pre-feint their go, you will have massive damage reduction.

EVASION DEFENSIVE TIPS AS ASSA

Hello everyone and welcome to this course video guide on Assassination Rogue defensive plays. In this course, we're going to be discussing in detail all the important defensive spells for you to use in situations where you need to survive or peel for your teammates.

Today's topic, we're going to be going over Evasion, being an essential defensive cooldown that you have to know how to use. So let's get right into it.

Evasion is a powerful defensive on a two-minute cooldown, increasing your dodge chance by 100% for 10 seconds. Now as such, this defensive cooldown is typically used to trade with enemy offensive cooldowns.

This is going to make a much more lackluster, denying the enemy from a lot of pressure. A good example is when facing Feral Druids, using it against their Incarnation cooldown.

It shares the exact same cooldown with your Evasion and it's a powerful offensive, so reducing its pressure with Evasion is an excellent trade for yourself. One big downside with Evasion is that it's a powerful offensive, so reducing its pressure with Evasion is a great advantage.

If you're stunned during it, then your dodge effect will no longer work, basically making it useless. So if you can help it, try to avoid being stunned on it, or possibly save your trinket for the stuns to make sure your Evasion works well.

Also, some spells work through Evasion, so you're going to want to be careful of them when facing certain classes. For example, Cheap Shot can land during your Evasion, which makes it useless and allows the enemy team to keep pressuring you.

If this happens, you may need to use more defensive cooldowns in order to survive. If you're not sure what to do, then you can use Evasion to reduce the damage you're dealing.

Note that if you play with the Deathstalker hero talents, you get access to Bait and Switch, and what this means is your Evasion could be used for spell damage as well, but only in situations where you don't need it for melee.

So this would typically be against double wizard comps, using your Evasion as a damage reduction in these situations, benefiting from 20% reduced spell damage.

CLOAK OF SHADOWS DEFENSIVE TIPS AS ASSA

Welcome back to another video on Rogue Defensive Plays. Today we're going to be going over Cloak of Shadows, being a key defensive cooldown for any Rogue spec.

We're also going to discuss this defensive in detail on how to best use this for defensive situations. Cloak of Shadows gives Rogue an immunity to all spell effects as well as removing current magic debuffs on themselves.

It's incredibly powerful against casters as it can immune all of their damage, denying all of their pressure. You should ideally trade Cloak of Shadows for offensive cooldowns, keeping yourself aggro and denying the enemy from any spell pressure.

You could also use it as a lifesaver cooldown if you ever drop too low on HP and need to survive caster pressure. This is the backup way to use it, where you're better safe than sorry in these certain circumstances.

You could potentially use Cloak to remove CC from yourself if you know that it could be deadly. If you know big spell damage is coming and you're in CC, then using Cloak to stay aggro and keep yourself safe is going to be useful if the trade-off is good.

So make sure you know the matchup that you're in, expecting to trade Cloak of Shadows well against heavy magic offensive cooldowns. Again, if you play as Deathstalker, you're going to have access to bait and switch, which means your Cloak could be useful against physical damage if you don't have evasion.

Having that extra damage reduction could be needed if there's no other spell damage in the game, reducing physical pressure by a bit, which could help you survive.

VANISH DEFENSIVE TIPS AS ASSA

Welcome back everyone to another video on Rogue Defensive Plays. Today's topic is going to be on Vanish, being an important cooldown that you have to know to use in defensive situations.

So without further ado, let's get into it. Many players believe that Cloak of Shadows or Evasion is your best defensive cooldown, but in fact, it's actually Vanish.

This cooldown allows you to go back into stealth while in combat, preventing enemy players from being able to hit you for at least 3 seconds. Now it doesn't sound powerful, I get that, but think of it as having a divine shield for 3 seconds.

Makes it an excellent lifesaver cooldown in any situation. Rogues can be vulnerable without other defensive cooldowns ready, and if you're a main kill target, you may need Vanish defensively in order to live.

In matchups where this is the case, using your Medallion Trinket in combination with Vanish may be warranted. This is going to be your safety net to always being able to get out of trouble when you're low on health.

You want to use Vanish to get out of trouble when you're low on health. You want to use Vanish to get out of trouble when you're low on health.

You want to use Vanish to get out of trouble when you're low on health. You want to use Vanish to get out of trouble when you're low on health.

You want to use Vanish to get out of trouble when you're low on health. You want to use Vanish defensively whenever you're on the brink of death and you need to keep yourself alive.

This is common when you have no Cloak of Shadows or Evasion ready, and you need that extra defensive to survive when low on HP. Sometimes you may even need to use it during Evasion or Cloak of Shadows if the enemy pressure is overwhelming.

This can absolutely be common against melee plus caster matchups or when the enemy team has a ton of pressure, so don't be afraid to Vanish even with your other defensives up if it's necessary for you to stay alive.

FEINT DEFENSIVE TIPS AS ASSA

Welcome back everyone to another skill-capped guide on Rogue Defensive Plays. In this course, we're going to be discussing all the important spells to keep you and your teammates alive.

For today's video, we're going to be going over Feint and how to use this spell properly to survive well in any game. The reason why Feint is so powerful is that there's multiple talents that bolster its effect, being Elusiveness, Graceful Guile, and Preemptive Maneuver.

Combined together, you have a 15 second cooldown Feint with two charges that'll reduce all damage taken by 20% while it's active. With Preemptive Maneuver, this gets buffed by an additional 40% if you have Feint up while you're under a stun effect.

Now as you can imagine, this is absurdly powerful as you're basically unkillable if you can get Feint off before your stun. That means the best use of your Feint is just before a stun lands, reducing all incoming damage by a ton saving you the need to use any other defensive cooldowns.

Even if you don't do it directly on the stun, it can delay a stun go on yourself, buying you time to either kite away or for your healer to keep you alive if need be. They can also be more prepared to use defensive cooldowns knowing that you won't have Feint ready for the next go.

Even during Feint, without being stunned, you still take 20% less damage, making you much more durable to constant pressure. Now due to its low cooldown and two charges, you definitely want to abuse this as often as possible to reduce pressure on yourself.

However, you still want to try and time your Feint properly to do it preemptively on stuns when you expect them. Doing this well is going to keep you in the fight for much longer, making it very difficult for enemy players to take you down.

It's the essence of survival for rogues at the moment, so keep practicing to use it well and become nearly unkillable for your team, making it much more likely for you to win a game.

GOUGE DEFENSIVE TIPS AS ASSA

Welcome back to another video guide in this course on Rogue Defensive Place. Today's topic is going to be based on Gouge and how using this peeling tool can be vital in certain defensive situations.

We're going to go in-depth on the best way to use this to help your team live. Now even though Gouge is usually used offensively, there can definitely be times where it's vital to use for defensive measures.

It incapacitates the enemy target for 4 seconds, preventing them from using any spells during this time. Now one reason for this is that Rogue Mage is usually a popular composition, and Gouge shares diminishing returns with Polymorph.

Usually sheeps are used commonly on DPS targets, meaning that defensive Gouge is rarely used when playing with mages. However, in times of need, or when you're playing with other DPS partners, you can look to use Gouge as a way to peel pressure from the enemy team.

This can be good during offensive cooldowns, or whenever your team needs extra peeling in order to live. Just make sure you don't always do this, as it is commonly used on healers in the game.

Now, let's talk about how to use Gouge to peel pressure from the enemy team. So don't overuse it defensively, but know that the option is definitely there for whenever you need extra peeling.

BLIND DEFENSIVE TIPS AS ASSA

Hello everyone and welcome to another video guide on Rogue Defensive Plays. Today we're going to be going over Blind, discussing how to use this for defensive measures when needed.

We're going to go over it in detail, when exactly to use it defensively, and how it can help your team stay alive. Blind is usually another ability that's used for offensive measures, typically on healers, so you can chain it with other CC, gaining huge pressure on DPS players.

It disorients a target for 6 seconds, denying them from being able to use any spells at their disposal. It's also undispellable, making it easy to apply as long as people aren't on the same diminishing returns as fear spells.

Using Blind defensively can happen during times of desperation, when you or your partners don't have a great answer to deal with powerful offensive CDs. You can use Blind on them in these situations, preventing them from getting off their big pressure.

Sometimes they may have the Medallion Trinket to get rid of this, but don't worry, they're not going to be able to get rid of it. Doing so opens them up to your stun windows or other forms of CC, which you could absolutely control them with.