Assassination Rogue 12.1.5 Guide: Talents, BiS and Rotation

Short answer for people who stop reading after one paragraph. Patch 12.1.5 gave Assassination zero tuning, only a new Mutilate weapon trail and a new Crimson Tempest animation, so this Assassination Rogue 12.1.5 guide runs on 12.1 numbers: Deathstalker for raid and high keys, Fatebound for PvP and for anyone allergic to tracking a debuff, Critical Strike first and Versatility last, the Chosen Bloodslayer’s Hexweave 4-piece before any shiny drop, and your first ten Ascendant Venomstones go into Zatha’tek, Breath of Corruption.

The Promise of Tomorrow went live on October 13, 2026 with one boss, Kith’ix, fought next to Lady Liadrin, the nine chamber Labyrinth of Kindo’jan with Valeera Sanguinar as your babysitter, hourly Aqir Invasions in Eversong Woods and Zul’Aman, and a Venomstone upgrade that unlocks on October 20. The Midnight Season 2 Assassination Rogue sits near the top of Mythic+ by top parses and lands mid pack in raid, so your excuses survive the patch intact.

What Patch 12.1.5 Changes for Assassination

The Promise of Tomorrow rogue patch notes fit on a napkin. Mutilate has a new trail, Crimson Tempest has a new animation, and Shiv stopped playing an impact visual on your own character. Outlaw got a Deft Maneuvers rework and Subtlety got shadow damage fixes. You got prettier daggers and the same damage.

• October 6 started the mid season refresh with extra weekly Nebulous Voidcores from quest chains.
• October 13 brings the patch, the Kith’ix raid and the quest Ancient Depths, Ancient Venom from Orin Straylight near the Catalyst in Silvermoon City.
• October 20 turns on Ascendant Venomstone drops and removes the crest cap.
• Talents, tier set, the Mythic+ pool and the rotation all carry over from 12.1 untouched.

Content	What it hands an Assassination Rogue
The Unbinding of Kith’ix	Leggings of Palpable Terror (leather legs), Twisted Horror’s Tendril (DPS trinket), Band of the Swarmcaller (ring)
Labyrinth of Kindo’jan	Mythic quality gear up to tier 11, weekly vault credit for killing Kindo’jan on tier 8 or higher, a mount for a solo tier 11 kill
Aqir Invasions	Ten minute public events every hour, six scenario types, eight combat affixes, a boss at the end
Ascendant Venomstones	Ten stones push a fully upgraded Season 2 weapon, trinket or necklace past its cap

Kith’ix drops Raid Finder 285, Normal 298, Heroic 311 and Mythic 324 gear after Blizzard cut the original 344 Mythic loot on the PTR. Mythic Kith’ix pieces upgrade to 334, still below the 344 drops from the last two Venomous Abyss bosses. The leather legs carry a Void eruption cantrip that hits 15 percent harder while you wear Venomcursed gear from Ula’tek, and they keep that cantrip when catalyzed into tier.

Hero Talents: Which Tree for Which Content

The Deathstalker vs Fatebound argument has a boring resolution. Method and Wowhead put Deathstalker 2 to 5 percent ahead in every PvE setting, Icy Veins calls Fatebound the easier pick with nearly equal output, and in PvP the question does not exist: all 50 of the top 3v3 Assassination players tracked by Murlok run Fatebound.

Tree	Core mechanic	Raid	Mythic+	PvP
Deathstalker	A 3 stack mark eaten by 5+ combo point finishers, refreshed by a 7 combo point Envenom	First choice	First choice, especially high keys	Not played
Fatebound	Coin flips on every 5+ combo point finisher, plus a large Caustic Spatter buff	Close second, easier	Close second, smoother	First choice

Deathstalker

Deathstalker’s Mark lands on your target from stealth with 3 stacks. Every finisher spent at 5 or more combo points eats a stack and adds a chunk of damage. When the last stack is gone or the target dies, Darkest Night lets your next maximum combo point Envenom put the mark back, which is why Deathstalker players live at 7 combo points.

Mark for Death, added in 12.0.5, moves the mark by hand when the boss leaves or the priority add spawns. Singular Focus copies part of your damage on other targets onto the marked one, Clear the Witnesses turns Fan of Knives into real damage, and Hunt Them Down adds more. The tree is built for raid bosses and for priority targets in high keys, and it punishes lazy mark management with lower numbers than Fatebound.

Fatebound

Hand of Fate flips a coin every time you spend a finisher at 5 or more combo points, landing Heads or Tails, and streaks build up bonus damage. Edge Case smooths the randomness, Fate Intertwined massively boosts Caustic Spatter so Fatebound keeps up in AoE, and Deal Fate turns Seal Fate crits into a chance for an extra combo point.

Nothing needs tracking, nothing needs a macro, and nothing falls off when a boss runs away. Fatebound is the PvP tree, the comfortable PvE tree and the tree for anyone still learning which bleed is which, at the cost of a few percent in raid and lower priority damage in keys.

Talent Builds Per Hero Tree

Every WoW 12.1.5 Assassination Rogue build shares one spine because the patch did not touch a single node. The apex goes into Implacable, where the first point makes Envenom hit 10 percent harder and refund 2 Energy per combo point, and later points add bleed and Nature damage plus passive combo points after Kingsbane. Unstable Toxin, the 12.1 node that adds 18 percent Envenom damage, is not optional.

• Deathmark and Kingsbane go in every build and get pressed together every two minutes.
• Thistle Tea now fires on its own below 30 Energy, so it costs a point and zero keybinds.
• Cold Blooded Killer and Deeper Stratagem stay because Envenom crits and the extra combo point both feed the finisher you spam.
• Swift Slasher turns Haste into attack speed and stays in every PvE build.
• Venomous Wounds lost Energy in Midnight and Motivated Murderer exists to patch that hole.
• Regicide’s Reward and Rapid Injection carry single target Envenom chains.
• Caustic Spatter, Crimson Tempest, Indiscriminate Carnage and Thrown Precision form the cleave package.

Deathstalker Talents

The Deathstalker raid build is the shared spine with the full cleave package, Cheat Death for the mistakes you will make, and Bait and Switch so Evasion does something in a raid. For pure single target bosses, pull points out of Thrown Precision and Indiscriminate Carnage and move them into Zoldyck Recipe for the execute window.

The Deathstalker Mythic+ build uses the same import plus Iron Wire, which turns stealth Garrote into a 5 second silence. Blackjack and Airborne Irritant make Blind a short cooldown AoE disorient that also cuts damage on your tank. Scent of Blood wants Rupture on at least five targets, so spread bleeds before you spend. Drop Iron Wire for Lightweight Shiv on weeks where nothing needs silencing.

The Deathstalker PvP build exists only on paper. If you insist, take Smoke Bomb, Preemptive Maneuver and Dismantle, keep Iron Wire and Cheat Death, and accept that babysitting a mark while a healer peels you loses to Fatebound’s free coin damage every time.

• Swap Iron Wire for Lightweight Shiv when a dungeon has no silence worthy casters.
• Swap Thrown Precision for Zoldyck Recipe on single target raid bosses.
• Swap Bait and Switch for Cheat Death redundancy only in Labyrinth runs where dying ends the attempt.

Fatebound Talents

The Fatebound raid build is the shared spine with Caustic Spatter, Crimson Tempest, Indiscriminate Carnage and Thrown Precision, plus Cheat Death and Bait and Switch for survival. On pure single target bosses, move points from Thrown Precision and Indiscriminate Carnage into Zoldyck Recipe, exactly like the other tree.

The Fatebound Mythic+ build keeps the whole cleave package because Fate Intertwined scales Caustic Spatter, so cutting AoE nodes cuts the reason to play this tree. Iron Wire, Blackjack and Airborne Irritant stay for silences and Blind packs, and Scent of Blood still wants five Ruptures rolling before you start spending.

The Fatebound PvP build is what top rated players actually run: Smoke Bomb on nearly every rogue, Preemptive Maneuver on most, and Dismantle against melee. Iron Wire stays for the Garrote silence in kill setups, Cheat Death stays because arenas are short and you are not, and the Seal Fate extra combo point chance from Deal Fate does more work in PvP bursts than any mark ever will.

• Swap Dismantle out for a defensive PvP talent when the enemy team has no melee worth disarming.
• Swap Thrown Precision for Zoldyck Recipe on single target raid bosses.
• Swap Iron Wire for Lightweight Shiv in keys without dangerous casters.

Rotation and Priority Per Hero Tree

The Assassination Rogue rotation 12.1.5 is two bleeds, a poison stack and a two minute window you are not allowed to waste. Lethal poisons are Amplifying Poison plus Deadly Poison. Non lethal is Atrophic Poison in raid, and Numbing Poison, Crippling Poison or Atrophic in keys depending on what your tank begs for.

• Pandemic lets you refresh Rupture and Garrote with up to 30 percent of base duration left, so a 24 second Rupture refreshes safely at 7.2 seconds.
• Never overwrite an Improved Garrote with a plain Garrote, because you throw away the empowered snapshot.
• Envenom chains reward you for refreshing the buff late, not early, so stop clipping it at 4 seconds left.
• Deathmark copies bleeds active when cast or reapplied during it, so bleeds go up first and the button goes second.
• Kingsbane goes on cooldown and lines up with Deathmark, and it wants 100 percent melee and Envenom uptime while it ticks.
• Pool Energy before Deathmark, before adds spawn and before damage amp phases, because the spec has no other way to front load.

Deathstalker Rotation

Deathstalker opener from stealth with both lethal poisons applied:

1. Open with Garrote, which applies Deathstalker’s Mark.
2. Mutilate until you have 5 or more combo points.
3. Apply Rupture at 5 or more combo points.
4. Garrote again while Improved Garrote is still active.
5. Mutilate back to 5 or more combo points and cast Envenom.
6. Press Deathmark together with potion, trinket and racial.
7. Cast Kingsbane.
8. Spend on Envenom at 5 or more combo points and at 7 when Darkest Night is up, using Shiv or Fan of Knives at exactly 6 to reach 7.

Deathstalker single target priority:

1. Keep Deathstalker’s Mark on the target and move it with Mark for Death if several finishers remain before Darkest Night.
2. Use Garrote from Vanish when possible.
3. Keep Rupture up at 5 or more combo points.
4. Press Deathmark on cooldown and Kingsbane with it.
5. Cast Shiv on cooldown.
6. Cast Envenom at 5 or more combo points, and only at 7 when Darkest Night is active.
7. Cast Ambush when it is usable.
8. Build with Mutilate, or with Fan of Knives on 2 or more targets.

Deathstalker AoE: Garrote twice from stealth for pandemic value, build with Fan of Knives, Rupture at 5 or more, then Deathmark and Kingsbane. Use Crimson Tempest repeatedly until every target bleeds, then Fan of Knives for combo points, Envenom at 5 or more and at 7 under Darkest Night. Keep the mark on the priority target, because Singular Focus funnels pack damage into it and that is the whole reason this tree wins high keys.

What Deathstalker changes about the core loop: you stop spending at 5 the moment Darkest Night lights up, you track mark stacks like a debuff on a boss, and losing the mark when a target dies costs more than any single mistake in the base rotation.

Fatebound Rotation

Fatebound opener from stealth with both lethal poisons applied:

1. Open with Garrote.
2. Mutilate until you have 5 or more combo points.
3. Apply Rupture at 5 or more combo points.
4. Garrote again while Improved Garrote is still active.
5. Mutilate back to 5 or more combo points and cast Envenom.
6. Press Deathmark together with potion, trinket and racial.
7. Cast Kingsbane.
8. Keep spending Envenom at 5 or more combo points with Mutilate as the builder.

Fatebound single target priority:

1. Use Garrote from Vanish before Deathmark.
2. Keep Rupture up at 5 or more combo points.
3. Press Deathmark when it is available.
4. Use Kingsbane on cooldown and sync it with Deathmark.
5. Cast Envenom at 5 or more combo points.
6. Cast Ambush when it is usable.
7. Build with Mutilate, or Fan of Knives on 2 or more targets.
8. Let Thistle Tea fire when Energy runs dry.

Fatebound AoE: put Garrote and a 5 combo point Rupture on everything, use Crimson Tempest as an AoE builder to spread bleeds, then switch to Fan of Knives once every target bleeds. Press Deathmark when ready, Kingsbane on cooldown, Envenom at 5 or more, and Vanish into fresh empowered Garrotes only if the pack lives longer than 20 seconds. Caustic Spatter does the heavy lifting here, so keep Mutilate going on the main target to keep it active.

What Fatebound changes about the core loop: almost nothing, which is the point. Every 5+ finisher flips a coin automatically, there is no mark to babysit and no 7 combo point rule, so all your attention goes to bleed uptime and Envenom timing.

Stat Priority Per Hero Tree

The Assassination Rogue stat priority 12.1.5 is item level first, then Agility, then Critical Strike, Haste, Mastery, with Versatility far behind. Crit feeds Seal Fate combo points and Energy through Dashing Scoundrel, Haste speeds Energy and bleed ticks, Mastery buffs poisons and bleeds, and Versatility just makes you slightly harder to kill while dealing less damage.

Stat	10% diminishing returns	20% diminishing returns	30% diminishing returns
Critical Strike	1380	1840	2300
Mastery	1380	1840	2300
Haste	1320	1760	2200
Versatility	1620	2160	2700

There are no hard caps. Rings and neck carry no Agility, so secondary stats decide those slots, and a higher item level piece beats a better stat split almost every time.

Deathstalker Stats

Deathstalker runs Critical Strike, then Haste, then Mastery, then Versatility in raid and keys. Crit matters more than usual here because Seal Fate combo points are how you reach 7 for Darkest Night without wasting a global. Top Mythic+ logs land around 1250 Crit, 920 Haste and 740 Mastery with almost no Versatility.

Fatebound Stats

Fatebound PvE runs the same Critical Strike, Haste, Mastery, Versatility order, since Deal Fate turns Seal Fate crits into extra combo points. Fatebound PvP flips it to Versatility, then Mastery, then Critical Strike, then Haste, because staying alive through a go and amplifying bleed and poison damage beats crit rolls in arena.

Tier Set Bonuses and the Fastest 4-Piece

The Assassination Rogue tier set Season 2 is Chosen Bloodslayer’s Hexweave, and Method sums it up correctly: it buffs essentially every damage source and changes nothing about how you play.

• The 2-piece bonus increases Envenom damage by 10 percent and makes Envenom increase all your damage dealt by 3 percent.
• The 4-piece bonus makes Deadly Poison increase your bleed damage on the target by 10 percent, gives auto attacks 3 percent more damage per Amplifying Poison stack on the target, and makes Wound Poison hit a second time.

Venomous Abyss boss	Token slot	Tier piece
Entombed Sentinels	Hands	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Fanged Grips
The Lost Explorers	Shoulders	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Voodoo Guards
Vashnik the Malignant	Chest	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Banded Poncho
Sszorak	Legs	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Reinforced Pants
The Twin Fangs	Head	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Spirit Shroud

1. Clear bosses two through six every week on the highest difficulty you can stomach, since they drop every token you need.
2. Kill Ula’tek for the Slumbering Coil Curio, which trades for any tier slot you are missing.
3. Catalyze off pieces from Mythic+ and the raid into the missing slots, starting with shoulders, chest, legs and hands.
4. Catalyze Leggings of Palpable Terror from Kith’ix into tier legs to keep the Void eruption cantrip on top of the set bonus.
5. Check the Great Vault raid row for tier before picking a trinket you already own.

The helm is the fifth piece, not the fourth. Icy Veins and Method both build 4-piece from shoulders, chest, legs and hands, then treat the helm as a free catalyst slot. Wasting your first catalyst charge on a helm while your legs are still off set is the most common way Assassination players delay their 4-piece by a full week.

Deathstalker and the Tier Set

Deathstalker gets the most out of the 2-piece because its biggest hit is the 7 combo point Envenom under Darkest Night, and the 3 percent damage buff rides on Envenom uptime you already maintain. The 4-piece works through Deadly Poison and Amplifying Poison, the lethal poisons every PvE Deathstalker already runs, so it is a pure damage increase with no rotation change. Expect the 4-piece to be the single largest gear upgrade until Mythic Ula’tek loot and Venomstones show up.

Fatebound and the Tier Set

Fatebound PvE uses the set exactly like Deathstalker: 2-piece on Envenom uptime, 4-piece on Deadly and Amplifying Poison, no gameplay change, and the largest upgrade available until Mythic Ula’tek weapons and trinkets. Fatebound PvP is the only place where the Wound Poison line matters, since a second Wound Poison hit adds damage while you already apply healing reduction, so arena rogues running Wound get value from a line PvE players ignore.

Best in Slot Gear Per Hero Tree

The Assassination Rogue BiS 12.1.5 list is the 12.1 list plus three Kith’ix items, because the patch added one boss and no Mythic+ dungeons. Ula’tek owns your weapon, both trinkets and the neck, so plan on wiping there for a while.

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Spirit Shroud	The Twin Fangs or catalyst
Neck	Aqirbane Reliquary	Ula’tek
Shoulders	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Voodoo Guards	Catalyst from a Voidscar Arena drop
Back	Silken Voodoo Drape	The Coiled Altar
Chest	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Banded Poncho	Catalyst from a Den of Nalorakk drop
Wrist	Silvermoon Agent’s Deflectors	Leatherworking
Hands	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Fanged Grips	Entombed Sentinels
Waist	Sash of the Forlorn Vessel	The Coiled Altar
Legs	Chosen Bloodslayer’s Reinforced Pants	Catalyst from The Coiled Altar or Kith’ix
Feet	Arctic Explorer’s Legwraps	Den of Nalorakk
Ring	Vile Alchemist’s Band	Vashnik the Malignant
Ring	Apex Brute’s Claw Ring or Band of the Amani Warlord	Sszorak or Altar of Fangs
Trinket	Voracious Heart of Ula’tek	Ula’tek
Trinket	Font of Venomous Rage or Gebbo’s Bottomless Bag	Ula’tek or The Lost Explorers
Main Hand	Zatha’tek, Breath of Corruption	Ula’tek
Off Hand	Farstrider’s Mercy	Blacksmithing

Deathstalker BiS by Source

Source	What Deathstalker takes from it
Venomous Abyss	Zatha’tek, Voracious Heart of Ula’tek, Font of Venomous Rage, Aqirbane Reliquary, Silken Voodoo Drape, Sash of the Forlorn Vessel, both rings, tier tokens
Season 2 Mythic+	Arctic Explorer’s Legwraps, Band of the Amani Warlord, catalyst bases from Voidscar Arena and Den of Nalorakk
Great Vault	Myth track Ula’tek trinkets or weapon, the fastest way to dodge a bad loot table
Crafted	Farstrider’s Mercy with Hunter’s Ritual Stone, Silvermoon Agent’s Deflectors with Arcanoweave Lining
Kith’ix	Leggings of Palpable Terror for catalyzed tier legs

Voracious Heart of Ula’tek is the on use trinket you macro to Deathmark, and Deathstalker’s single target bias makes Font of Venomous Rage the stronger partner in raid. In Mythic+ top Deathstalkers pair the Heart with Keeper’s Seething Core. If you are behind, Gebbo’s Bottomless Bag, Zul’jin’s Guillotine Technique and Twisted Horror’s Tendril cover the second trinket slot, and the Mythic+ list swaps in Spare Speaker’s Hood, Strand of Warding Fangs, Primal Dinomancer’s Belt, Fireproof Drape and Sharpened Lightwood Slasher while raid loot stays stubborn.

Fatebound BiS by Source

Source	What Fatebound takes from it
Venomous Abyss	Zatha’tek, Voracious Heart of Ula’tek, Font of Venomous Rage, Aqirbane Reliquary, Silken Voodoo Drape, Sash of the Forlorn Vessel, both rings, tier tokens
Season 2 Mythic+	Arctic Explorer’s Legwraps, Band of the Amani Warlord, catalyst bases from Voidscar Arena and Den of Nalorakk
Great Vault	Myth track Ula’tek trinkets or weapon
Crafted	Farstrider’s Mercy with Hunter’s Ritual Stone, Silvermoon Agent’s Deflectors with Arcanoweave Lining
Kith’ix	Leggings of Palpable Terror for catalyzed tier legs

Fatebound PvE wears the exact same list, with Voracious Heart of Ula’tek as the on use and Font of Venomous Rage or Keeper’s Seething Core next to it. Behind on gear, the alternatives are Gebbo’s Bottomless Bag, Zul’jin’s Guillotine Technique, Twisted Horror’s Tendril and Lustrous Golden Plumage, the best on use trinket from Mythic+. Fatebound PvP drops all of it for Venomous Gladiator gear, with Venomous Aspirant’s Medallion and Venomous Gladiator’s Badge of Ferocity as the most used trinkets among top arena rogues.

Ascendant Venomstones Per Hero Tree

Venomstones drop from Heroic and Mythic raid bosses, Mythic+ at +10 and above, tier 11 Bountiful Delves and Nightmare Prey hunts, starting October 20 once you finish Ancient Depths, Ancient Venom. Ten stones buy one upgrade on a fully upgraded Hero 6/6, Myth 6/6 or top quality crafted weapon, trinket or necklace. Blizzard has not published the exact item level gain, and PTR data points at roughly three extra upgrade steps, so do not spend stones on anything you expect to replace next reset.

Deathstalker Venomstone Order

1. Spend the first 10 stones on Zatha’tek, because main hand weapon damage drives Mutilate, auto attacks and every poison proc riding on them.
2. Spend the next 10 on Voracious Heart of Ula’tek, since it lines up with every Deathmark and the extra item level lands inside your burst window.
3. Spend the third batch on Aqirbane Reliquary, the necklace you will never replace this season.

If Zatha’tek has not dropped yet, put the first stones into Farstrider’s Mercy only if it is a top quality craft, otherwise go straight to the Heart and wait for the weapon.

Fatebound Venomstone Order

1. Spend the first 10 stones on Zatha’tek, because weapon damage feeds Mutilate and the Caustic Spatter cleave that Fate Intertwined scales.
2. Spend the next 10 on Voracious Heart of Ula’tek for higher burst under Deathmark.
3. Spend the third batch on Aqirbane Reliquary.

Fatebound PvP players get nothing out of stones on their arena gear, so they only invest in PvE pieces they also wear in Labyrinths and keys, usually the weapon first and the necklace second.

Consumables, Enchants, Gems and Embellishments

Slot or type	PvE choice	Note
Flask	Flask of the Blood Knights	Haste flask, same for both trees
Combat potion	Light’s Potential	Use with Deathmark and Kingsbane
Health potion	Silvermoon Health Potion	Press before Cheat Death procs, not after
Weapon oil	Thalassian Phoenix Oil	On both daggers
Augment rune	Void-Touched Augment Rune	Progression pulls only
Food	Silvermoon Parade or Royal Roast	Any primary stat feast works
Weapons	Berserker’s Rage or Jan’alai’s Precision	Top Mythic+ logs also run Rite of the Hash’ey
Helm	Empowered Blessing of Speed
Shoulders	Silvermoon’s Mending
Chest	Mark of the Worldsoul
Legs	Forest Hunter’s Armor Kit
Boots	Farstrider’s Hunt or Shaladrassil’s Roots
Rings	Eyes of the Eagle	PvP swaps to Zul’jin’s Mastery
Unique gem	Indecipherable Eversong Diamond or Powerful Eversong Diamond	One per character
Other gems	Flawless Deadly Peridot or Flawless Quick Garnet	Crit or Haste

• Deathstalker and Fatebound PvE use identical consumables, enchants and gems because both trees share the same stat priority.
• Fatebound PvP swaps the weapon enchant to Acuity of the Ren’dorei, ring enchants to Zul’jin’s Mastery and gems to Flawless Versatile Amethyst.
• Hunter’s Ritual Stone goes on Farstrider’s Mercy for both trees and is a large damage gain once upgraded.
• Arcanoweave Lining on Silvermoon Agent’s Deflectors is the most used second embellishment, with Adorned Fang as the alternative.
• The Omnium Folio adds roughly 4 percent damage with Rune of Unleashed Fire, Rune of Self-Mending, Rune of Lingering, Rune of Masterful Cunning and Rune of Overload, and most of that comes from the fourth row stat proc.
• Night Elf for Shadowmeld, Mag’har Orc and Dwarf are the strongest races, though the gap is small enough to pick on looks.

Macros, Addons and the WeakAuras Funeral

WeakAuras ended support in Midnight because of the combat addon restrictions, so stop searching for a working Assassination pack. Blizzard’s Cooldown Manager and a nameplate addon now do what your 40 auras used to do, slightly worse and with fewer opportunities to break your UI.

Deathmark with your on use trinket in slot 13:

#showtooltip Deathmark
/cast Deathmark
/use 13

Kick on focus, falling back to target:

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus,exists,nodead] [] Kick

Tricks of the Trade on focus, set your tank as focus:

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,help,nodead] [help,nodead] [@targettarget,help] Tricks of the Trade

Mark for Death on mouseover, Deathstalker only:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead] [] Mark for Death

• BigWigs with LittleWigs, or Deadly Boss Mods, covers Kith’ix and every Mythic+ boss.
• Plater or Platynator shows bleed and poison debuffs on nameplates, which is mandatory for Deathstalker mark tracking and merely useful for Fatebound.
• Details tracks damage so you can watch Caustic Spatter carry Fatebound pulls.
• TankMD sends Tricks of the Trade to the tank without a focus macro.
• The Mark for Death macro only matters for Deathstalker, and Fatebound needs no tree specific addon at all.

Kindo’jan and Aqir Invasions as an Assassination Rogue

The Labyrinth is nine chambers in sets of three, with rewards and vault progress after every third chamber and a separate weekly vault credit for killing Kindo’jan on tier 8 or higher. Valeera fights with you, and your Delve curios and poisons carry over. A solo tier 11 kill pays out the Loa-Blessed Wayfarer mount, and doing it without losing a life is the One-Champion Army achievement.

• Take Cheat Death and keep Crimson Vial, Feint, Evasion and Cloak of Shadows on bars, because nobody resurrects you in a solo tier 11 run.
• Fatebound is the safer Labyrinth tree because there is no mark to lose when a chamber spawns adds behind the boss.
• Stealth, Shroud of Concealment and Shadowstep skip every chamber pack that does not block the path, and skipped packs cannot kill you.
• Aqir Invasions run ten minutes every hour, so park in Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman before the timer and use Crimson Tempest with Fan of Knives on the swarm scenarios.

Where Assassination Stands in 12.1.5

The Assassination Rogue Mythic+ 12.1.5 picture is excellent, with the spec at number 2 by top parses across Season 2 dungeons, and the raid picture is merely fine. PvP sits around A+ overall per Skill Capped, S in Solo Shuffle and 2v2, A in 3v3. 12.1 already handed the spec a 20 percent damage buff and the August pass added 4 percent more, and 12.1.5 changed nothing, so these ratings hold for the rest of the season.

Hero tree	Raid	Mythic+	PvP
Deathstalker	B, best Assassination option	S, best for priority damage	D, unplayed
Fatebound	B minus, easier and slightly lower	A, smooth and close behind	A, the only real choice

Deathstalker Verdict

Deathstalker is the tree to main if you push keys or parse in raid and you are willing to track a debuff for a few percent. It is worth maining into 12.1.5 for Mythic+, acceptable in raid and a waste of time in arena.

Fatebound Verdict

Fatebound is the tree to main if you play arena, learn the spec or simply refuse to macro a mark. It is worth maining into 12.1.5 for PvP and comfortable PvE, and it loses only a few percent while never punishing you for a boss running away.