PvE Assassination Rogue DPS Stat Priority & Reforging

Assassination Rogues in Mists of Pandaria prioritize Hit, Expertise, Agility, Mastery, Haste, and Critical Strike Chance as their best stats to improve their performance. Besides Agility, Mastery is their strongest stat, generating the best performance through the Mastery: Potent Poisons effect.

Stat Priority

1. Hit (7.5% Cap)
2. Expertise (7.5% Cap)
3. Agility
4. Mastery
5. Haste
6. Critical Strike Chance

Hit or Hit Chance is a secondary stat that ensures your attacks land against higher-level mobs. As an Assassination Rogue, you will need 7.5% Hit Chance to ensure that your attacks never miss against a target. Each 340 Hit grants you 1% Hit Chance. Poisons fall under the Spell Hit Chance category, which you will acquire from Expertise.

Expertise is a secondary stat in Mists of Pandaria that increases Spell Hit Chance and reduces the chance of your attacks being dodged or parried. You need 7.5% Expertise to ensure your attacks can’t be dodged and 15% Expertise to avoid being parried. The 7.5% Expertise also ensures that your Poison Damage never misses a target! 340 Expertise results in 1% Expertise. Since you’ll always be behind the target, you only need to aim for the 7.5% Soft Cap!

Agility is a primary stat that increases your Attack Power and Critical Strike Chance as an Assassination Rogue. This stat is inherent to all your gear and, by default, the strongest damage amplifier that you can obtain besides Mastery! You will use gems, enchants, and consumables that amplify your Agility. There is no specific Agility cap that you should be worried about.

Mastery is a stat that enhances your Mastery: Potent Poisons effect, directly amplifying all Poison Damage you deal by a percentage. Besides Agility, this stat gives Assassination Rogue the highest value. There is no specific cap to aim for in Mastery; however, you should stack as much Mastery as possible. This will be achieved through reforging and itemization. Every 300 points of Mastery results in a 1% increase in the Mastery: Potent Poisons effect!

Haste is a stat that increases your Attack Speed and Energy Regeneration, with each 425 Haste granting 1% Haste. As an Assassination Rogue, you will want to maintain around 15-22% Haste throughout the expansion to maintain a healthy Energy Regeneration. Stacking more Haste will result in your Energy Capping due to the Relentless Strikes passive effect, which will always result in a DPS loss.

Anything lower than 15% Haste will reduce your Energy Regeneration to a point where your rotation will feel sluggish!

Critical Strike Chance is the least important stat for Assassination Rogues! While the stat makes both your attacks and poisons deal extra damage through critical strikes, stacking high amounts of Critical Strike Chance will result in lower overall DPS output when compared to stacking Mastery. The stat does, however, interact with the Seal Fate effect, which produces one additional Combo Point upon landing a critical strike with one of your Single-Target Combo Point generators, meaning that a value between 12%-18% is advised to maintain the Seal Fate effect.

Every 600 Critical Strike results in a 1% Critical Strike Chance!

Reforging

Reforging can only be done on secondary stats, meaning you can’t acquire more Agility through it! Assassination Rogues will primarily want to reforge their stats into Hit & Expertise until they reach their stats, then acquire as much Mastery as possible to empower the Mastery: Potent Poisons effect.

1. Hit (7.5%)
2. Expertise (7.5%)
3. Mastery (As much as possible)