We also have some important information about this list including stat priority, reasons behind each item choice, and how to simulate your gear to truly find the best item depending on your current stats in the game.
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Assassination Rogue Best in Slot Stat Priority
The Best In Slot suggestions in this guide are based on whether the item has the two most important secondary stats to maximize damage. Sometimes, however, there isn’t a piece of gear that has both of the top two stats, in this case, choosing the first and third stat or second and third stat is also usually acceptable.
In the case of the Assassination Rogue, for items near equal ilvl consider the following priority:
Stat Priority
Agility Critical Strike Mastery Haste Versatility
Agility is the Primary stat and is usually the best indicator for an item upgrade. Critical Strikes is important for Seal Fate, Deadly Precision, and Lethality. Mastery is roughly just as important as Crit due to a large portion of damage coming from poisons and bleeds, Mastery: Potent Assassin. Haste improves attack speed, damage over time tick rates from bleeds and poisons, and adds passively improves energy regeneration, it’s less important than the other stats. Versatility is a passive stat booster, the reduced damage taken is helpful in high-level Mythic+ where survivability becomes more important.
Important Notes For BiS Lists
It is important to note that any jump in ilvl by more than 10 points almost always results in the higher ilvl item being better. If you have an upgrade of 5 ilvl or less, compare the stats based on the stat priorities to decide on the better item.
Keep in mind that secondary stats eventually have diminishing returns. The calculations for diminishing returns are as follows:
0 to 30% in a stat - no penalty. 30% to 39% in a stat - 10% penalty. 39% to 47% in a stat - 20% penalty. 47% to 54% in a stat - 30% penalty. 54% to 66% in a stat - 40% penalty. 66% to 126% in a stat - 50% penalty.
In the case where you have reached 30% in a secondary stat, an item that has a secondary stat that is lower on priority may be a better upgrade. This is why it is always important to sim your gear. For simplicity, we offer the best per slot assuming you have not capped out these stats.
The amount that is optimal always depends on the situation. You can also use a simulator, such as RaidBots, to see what you specifically should focus on. We have a section at the end of this guide to learn how to sim your gear.
Assassination Rogue BiS Gear
The items appearing in these lists may come from Mythic+, Raids, or The Vault. Their item level will depend on the instance’s level of difficulty (Normal, Heroic, Mythic, Mythic+ 1-20). This list does not include Renown or Crafting items as it is meant as a guide on what dungeons or raids to attend to get your best gear from these sources.
For easy comparison, the item tooltips show Mythic level 9 or Normal Difficulty for Raid item level version of the item.
Best Head
In the case of the head slot, there is really only one option that maximizes the best secondary stats. The Tier piece does have mastery, so we’ll include it here if you don’t want to break the set bonus.
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Best Neck
The crafted necklace, Elemental Lariat, is shaping up to be the best in slot neck for almost all classes, so make sure to have it crafted with the right stats for your spec. There are multiple options for neck, however, none of them have the Crit/Mastery combo.
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Best Shoulders
Unfortunately, the tier shoulders aren’t well optimized for Assassination, the set bonus is important though, but both of these options have Crit/Mastery.
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Best Back
A lot of great options with varying amounts of Crit and Mastery for optimizing and simulating the stats.
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Best Chest
The tier piece is the best choice here to be the foundation of the set bonus.
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Best Wrist
Two good options for Bracers that both have Crit/Mastery.
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Best Hands
Tier gloves do have crit on them so they are also a good candidate for keeping the set bonus. There are gloves that have Crit/Mastery however if you are able to keep the set bonus.
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Best Waist
There are a number of options with either Crit or Mastery but these are the only ones with both.
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Best Legs
Tier legs are a good option as they have high Crit, but only versatility as the second stat. Two options with Crit/Mastery are available as well.
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Best Feet
All the boots from Mythic+ are great options with varying amounts of Crit vs Mastery.
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Best Rings
Some good Crit/Mastery options for Rings, the last one is also a good option for the benefit to Auto-Attack Damage.
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Best Trinkets
For Trinkets, Bloodmallet has good rankings for trinkets. Because competition is going to be very intense for these trinkets we’ve provided multiple options for all types of encounters.
For Single Target the best options are Manic Grieftorch and Controlled Current Technique For Cleave the best options are Storm-Eater’s Boon and Controlled Current Technique For AoE the best options are Storm-Eater’s Boon and Whispering Incarnate Icon
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Best Weapons
Getting 2 of the first option is the best option as the other two options have low crit or mastery and a worse second stat.
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How To Simulate To Determine Your Best Gear
Raidbots is a tool that World of Warcraft players can use to figure out if the gear they just looted is an upgrade. As mentioned earlier, there are so many nuances and diminishing returns as certain points in the game, that determining an exact set of bis gear is impossible. With the ilvl scaling of Mythic+ loot on higher keys and utility different gear has for different fights, there just isn’t a pure “this is the absolute best for the entire Season” list. It’s even something that certain classes have come across in Classic Wrath!
Don’t worry, because we’re still here to help. We highly recommend using raidbots to determine if an item you just acquired is an upgrade. Here’s a quick guide to help you run simulations to see if your new item is an upgrade:
Make sure you have the Simulationcraft add-on installed. With your new loot in your inventory, open your chatbox and type /simc. A window will open up. Copy the entire text and paste it on the Raidbots Top Gear page.
This step is important. On the Top Gear page, scroll down and make sure you’re selecting the gear you want simmed. If you do not select the gear you’re wearing, as well as the gear in your inventory you just acquired, you won’t know if you picked up an upgrade. Raidbots will then let you know which items allow you to maximize your DPS!
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