Assassination Rogue in WoW: Forever — Complete Level 10–60 Guide: Talent Order, Mutilate, Poisons, Venom & the Level-60 Build

This is the complete level 10–60 guide for Assassination, the poison and burst tree. Until now it was the one Rogue spec without its own post. It follows our Rogue starter guide and sits next to our Combat and Subtlety guides. Assassination is the alternative to Combat for leveling: stillsixty levels it on Sinister Strike to 30, then Mutilate takes over. The leveling order is from TopBuilds (updated Oct 24), cross-checked against Elitistgaming (updated Oct 18, client build 70338), stillsixty and Blizzard's beta notes through the Oct 15–16 builds. Forever launches Nov 4, 2026. The beta is over, and it never went above level 30. Everything from 31 to 60 below comes from the client's talent data, trainer lists and guide authors' theorycraft, not from anyone playing it, and we flag where sources disagree.

Why Assassination, and what it costs

• Fast finishers. Mutilate hits with both weapons for 2 combo points, so you reach a 5-point Eviscerate in three presses. From 35 Seal Fate turns crits into extra points, and Venom arrives at 40.

• You need two daggers by 30. Mutilate requires daggers and uses both weapons' damage. Backstab and Ambush need a main-hand dagger. Before 30, one strong weapon of any type beats two weak daggers, so keep your best main hand and have the two daggers ready by the time you take Mutilate.

• No Endurance for a long time. stillsixty's route doesn't take it, so Evasion and Sprint stay on 5-minute cooldowns. TopBuilds and Elitistgaming take it in the 50s. Plan pulls more carefully than a Combat Rogue would, and use Vanish (from 22) as your reset.

• Poisons are the damage. Mutilate deals 20% more to a Poisoned target, but only a poison that stays on the target counts. Instant Poison leaves nothing behind. Deadly Poison does. Venom adds 30% to your poison damage once you have it.

What's new in the tree

• Two new talents: Mutilate (21 points) and Venom (31 points). Elitistgaming counts 2 of 17 Assassination talents as new, with 13 more changed in rank, position or numbers.

• Cold Blood is a row-4 talent and works on Mutilate. It has a 3-minute cooldown (stillsixty). Oct 15 fix: Cold Blood is now consumed when Mutilate crits (Blizzard's notes, after players reported the bug).

• Malice also boosts poison crit. Lethality is +20% crit damage at 5/5 on your builders, Mutilate included. Murder is +4% damage against Humanoids and Giants at 2/2.

• Puncturing Wounds (a Combat talent) gives Mutilate +15% crit chance, which is why every Assassination build takes some Combat points.

• Coup de Grace is a passive every Rogue learns at 30: Eviscerate deals +2% per Deadly Poison stack on the target (+10% at five).

Talent order by level (TopBuilds, 10–60)

TopBuilds finishes at 36 Assassination / 15 Combat. All the Assassination points that matter are in by level 45, then the Combat points buy survival.

Source: TopBuilds' Assassination Rogue order, updated Oct 24, 2026. It takes Mutilate at 30 and Venom at 40. Levels 31–60 are planned from talent text.

Where the other guides differ

• Elitistgaming's leveling order ends at 31/20/0 and runs: Malice 10–14, Ruthlessness 15–17, Murder 18–19, Relentless Strikes 20, Lethality 21–25, Cold Blood 26, Vile Poisons 27–29, Mutilate 30, Vigor 31–32, Improved Kidney Shot 33–34, Seal Fate 35–39, Venom 40, then Combat: Improved Eviscerate 41–43, Lightning Reflexes 44–45, Precision 46–48, Puncturing Wounds 49–51, Endurance 52–53, Deflection 54–55 and Dual Wield Specialization 56–60.

• TopBuilds takes Improved Slice and Dice, Remorseless Attacks and Vile Poisons instead of Murder and Improved Kidney Shot early on, and has no Puncturing Wounds or Dual Wield Specialization. It finishes with Endurance and Improved Sprint.

• Level 30 build (stillsixty): 21/0/0 with Mutilate at 30. Its level-60 raid build is 39 Assassination / 12 Combat. Elitistgaming's raid build is 32/19/0 ("a Forever sim preset build") and its PvP build is 34/17/0. These disagree by seven Assassination points. We haven't seen either author explain the gap. Level with the order above, and check the raid build again in launch week.

• Elitistgaming's raid build takes Precision, four points of Dual Wield Specialization and Puncturing Wounds from Combat, which is the most common shape across guides.

• Dating: stillsixty's page was published Sep 29 and Elitistgaming's was updated Oct 18, so neither reflects anything Blizzard changed in the Oct 22–23 hotfixes. Treat tooltip numbers as the Oct 18 client.

The pull loop

Before 30 (any weapon): level on Sinister Strike and Eviscerate like any Rogue. Keep Slice and Dice up on anything that takes more than a few seconds to kill. From 20, put Instant Poison on both weapons. At 30, move Deadly Poison onto your off hand the day you take Mutilate.

From 30 (two daggers):

1. Open from Stealth. Both weapons are daggers, so Ambush from behind hits hardest. If you can't get behind the target, open with Cheap Shot for 2 combo points and a 4-sec stun.

1. Mutilate until you have 2 or more points, then a short Slice and Dice.

1. Mutilate to 4 or 5 points, then Eviscerate. Relentless Strikes refunds 25 Energy on a 5-point finisher.

1. On a mob with lots of health, use a 5-point Eviscerate with Cold Blood first. That's your largest hit. stillsixty also likes a Cold Blood Mutilate as an opener on a mob you want dead fast.

1. Remorseless Attacks procs after every kill. Open the next mob with Mutilate while the buff lasts.

1. A second mob joins: Gouge it, kill the first, then pick it up. Kick casters. Evasion if you're losing, and Vanish if Evasion isn't enough.

1. Instant Poison deals its damage and is gone, so it never leaves the target Poisoned. Deadly Poison sits on the target for 12 sec and gives every Mutilate its 20% bonus. With five Deadly stacks, Coup de Grace adds 10% to every Eviscerate.

From 40 (stillsixty's 60 rotation): poisons on (Instant on the main hand, Deadly on the off hand). Open with Ambush from behind, or Garrote if you want the bleed first. One Mutilate, then Slice and Dice. Mutilate to 4 or 5 points, then Venom (18 or 21 sec at 4 or 5 points). From then on keep Slice and Dice and Venom up, and with both up and 5 points, Eviscerate. Otherwise Mutilate. Seal Fate means you often jump from 3 to 5 points in one Mutilate, so don't press a finisher at 4 when you know the next Mutilate will overshoot. Cold Blood on a 5-point Eviscerate every 3 minutes.

Energy: Relentless Strikes refunds 25 Energy on a 5-point finisher and Vigor adds 10 to your maximum. Pool Energy before Venom and Slice and Dice expire, so you never wait on a buff. Thistle Tea restores Energy for burst windows (stillsixty).

Reapply poisons before you leave town: a coating lasts 30 minutes, and an unpoisoned weapon loses you the Mutilate bonus and Coup de Grace at once.

Poison ranks (stillsixty)

Instant Poison gets a new rank at 20, 28, 36, 44, 52 and 60, and Deadly Poison at 30, 38, 46, 54 and 60. Wound Poison comes at 32. Mind-numbing Poison II is at 38 and III at 52. Crippling Poison II is at 50. Check your poison charges before a boss: a poison that runs out mid-fight is lost damage and a lost Mutilate bonus.

Levels 31–60: what you train

The Rogue trainer milestones are the same for every spec (see our Combat guide's table). Assassination cares most about Mutilate ranks at 40, 50 and 60, Eviscerate ranks on the 8s (32, 40, 48 and 56), Kidney Shot rank 2 at 50 (a 6-second stun at 5 points), Slice and Dice rank 2 at 42, Sap rank 3 at 48, Blind at 34 and Kick ranks at 42 and 58. From level 4 every even level brings something new, so visit the trainer at every even level.

The level-60 build and gear

• Raid: stillsixty 39/12/0, Elitistgaming 32/19/0. See the disagreement above.

• Stat priority at 60 (stillsixty): Hit, then Agility, then Crit, then Attack Power, then dodge and parry reduction, then Haste. A missed Mutilate wastes 60 Energy and the two combo points. In Forever Hit applies to your attacks and your poisons, so it also stops poison applications from missing. Crit ranks above raw Attack Power because every Mutilate crit is a Seal Fate point and Malice gives poisons crit too.

• Leveling stat priority: Agility, then Attack Power, then Crit, then Stamina, then Hit.

• Weapons: Mutilate requires daggers, so both of your weapons are daggers. Hit until your attacks stop missing bosses, then Agility and Crit. Leatherworkers make the Devilsaur Leggings and Gauntlets: Attack Power and Crit on each piece, and 2% Hit when you wear both.

• Consumables (stillsixty): Elixir of the Mongoose (+25 Agility and +2% crit), Winterfall Firewater (+35 Attack Power), Juju Power (+30 Strength), Elemental Sharpening Stone on both weapons (+2% crit), Thistle Tea for the Energy on burst windows, Major Healing Potion and Flask of the Titans for progression bosses.

• Professions: Leatherworking and Skinning is the Rogue pair. At 60, Alchemy is the best second profession if you raid, because you make your own Mongoose, Free Action Potions and Flasks of the Titans. In Forever, Major Healing Potions come from First Aid, so train it on the side. Skinning and Mining or Herbalism works for gold.

In groups (stillsixty): your job is single-target damage, interrupts and crowd control, in that order. Kick every cast that matters (it locks the school for 5 sec). Sap a Humanoid before the pull (up to 45 sec at max rank, and it doesn't break Stealth). Blind a runner or second caster (10 sec). Feint before you pull threat, since Seal Fate crits and Cold Blood Eviscerates spike it. Leave cleave work to Combat Rogues and casters. Pick Lock and Disarm Trap are yours.

PvP (stillsixty): Mutilate needs no positioning and Cold Blood turns a stun into a kill. Open with Cheap Shot for 2 points, Mutilate once or twice, then Kidney Shot at 4 or 5 points, then Cold Blood and a 5-point Eviscerate. Crippling Poison II on the off hand against runners (70% slow for 12 sec), Wound Poison IV on the main hand against healers (stacks to 5, −165 healing per stack). Elitistgaming's PvP build is 34/17/0 and is theorycraft, since the beta had no battlegrounds.

Dungeons from 30 to 60.

Dungeons you can run from 24 to 60

The new-dungeon ranges and locations are from Blizzard's dungeon overview. The Classic ranges are from stillsixty's dungeon page. Forever's ranges are wide and several start later than in Classic, so plan from this list and not from memory. Blizzard's overview doesn't say which dungeons open on day one. Third-party trackers (wowforever.ninja, LFCarry) list all nine new dungeons as available from Nov 4, but we haven't seen that from Blizzard itself, so treat it as likely and not confirmed.

What comes after 60. Launch dates (Blizzard): character creation and name reservation opens Oct 27, the game launches Nov 4, 2026 (3:00 p.m. Pacific per Blizzard's announcement), and the first raids (Barrow Deeps for 10, Hyjal Summit for 20 and Onyxia's Lair for 40, which needs the Drakefire attunement) unlock on Dec 9.

Macros (stillsixty)

• Ambush or Mutilate: #showtooltip then /cast [stealth] Ambush; Mutilate

• Cold Blood Eviscerate: #showtooltip Eviscerate, /cast Cold Blood, /cast Eviscerate

• Focus Kick: #showtooltip Kick, /cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Kick

• Clean Vanish: #showtooltip Vanish, /stopattack, /cast Vanish

Common mistakes

• Taking Mutilate without two daggers.

• Letting Venom drop. A single dropped Venom costs more than a skipped Eviscerate (stillsixty).

• Burning Cold Blood on a Mutilate at 60. Save it for a 5-point Eviscerate. On the way up a Cold Blood Mutilate opener is fine.

• Using Instant Poison as your Mutilate poison. Only a poison that stays on the target counts.

• Following the pre-Oct-15 race notes. The racials were retuned in the Oct 15–16 builds.

Still unclear

• Everything past 30 is client data and theory. Seal Fate at 5/5, Venom and the Combat points have never been played in a real fight.

• Which level 60 build is right. 39/12/0 vs 32/19/0.

• Post-Oct 15 racials. stillsixty's race notes predate the rework. Check the Combat guide's table.

• The Energy regeneration rate. Blizzard hasn't published one.

• Respec cost at launch. The beta used a flat 1 silver, and nobody has said what launch costs.

Sources

• TopBuilds: Assassination Rogue Leveling Build & Talents (order updated Oct 24, 2026)

• stillsixty: Assassination Rogue spec page (published Sep 29, before the Oct 15–16 changes) and Rogue leveling guide

• Elitistgaming: Assassination Rogue talents (updated Oct 18, client build 70338, theorycraft)

• Blizzard: World of Warcraft: Forever Raid Overview (Dec 9 raid unlock) and Carve a New Path with World of Warcraft: Forever (launch Nov 4)

• Blizzard forums: WoW Forever Beta Development Notes (Oct 1, Oct 8, Oct 15 and Oct 16 builds)

• Blizzard: Explore the New Dungeons of World of Warcraft: Forever (levels, locations and attunement for the nine new dungeons)

• stillsixty: Dungeons and Raids by Level (Classic dungeon ranges)

• Our other posts: Rogue starter guide, Combat and Subtlety guides

Images: header and talent card by Systematic, using the Systematic wallpaper and brand colours. Ability icons on the card © Blizzard Entertainment via Wowhead (Classic-era icons used as stand-ins; Forever's may differ).

Fan community guide by Systematic. World of Warcraft © Blizzard Entertainment; we're not affiliated with Blizzard. Running Assassination? Share your build and what you'd change below!