RSS 2.0DAGGER BUILDS
The staple of almost any dagger build is the inclusion of the talents “Improved Backstab,†which increases Backstab critical chance by 30%, “Malice,†which increases your critical chance by 5%, and “Lethality,†which increases critical strike bonus damage of most Rogue abilities by 30%. Notice that the talents improved backstab and Lethality are a necessity, as the dagger build gets its damage from consistent backstab criticals, on which Lethality improves the damage bonus by 30%, a very large amount. The issue with this is then that any Rogue build which relies on critical damage MUST have Lethality to be effective, thus limiting your options as you stray from the assassination tree.
SEAL FATE BUILD (often known as 31/8/12 or 30/8/13)
One of the most common dagger specs, seal fate is characterized by the 25 point talent in assassination called “Seal Fate.†This build is the best talent build for maximum output burst damage. With the combo point build up generated by Seal Fate and talent “Cold Blood†a smart Rogue can possibly dish out a 4k damage combo in the space of 4-5 seconds.
The important end talents to note are Seal Fate in assassination, improved backstab in Combat, and improved ambush in subtlety. The interchangeable end talent points are either 1 point in vigor in assassination, and extra 10 max energy, or a third point in improved ambush in subtlety, yielding 45% extra critical chance instead of 30%. Many Rogues prefer vigor, as with careful timing of energy ticks an extra 10 energy can make the difference in a pure stun lock, or efficient opener combo. Whereas with only 2 points in improved ambush it still has the same critical strike chance as improved backstab.
Besides these end points there are several interchangeable points in the build, though many are preferred as one talent or another there are several that are purely preferential.
The assassination tree starts with 5 points in Malice (+5% critical rate), a requirement for this build, and usually 3 points in improved eviscerate (+15% eviscerate damage). Abilities that improve damage done are essential to the dagger Rogue as they prefer to damage as quick as possible, leaving the enemy little to no time to react. Ruthlessness (60% chance to add a combo point on finisher) and relentless strikes (20% chance per combo point on finisher to add 25 energy) is also preferred, as the 25 energy bonuses from using a 5 point kidney shot can help you get the necessary backstabs off quickly, and possibly even have enough energy to continue the lock with a gouge when kidney shot wears off. Once points are placed in Lethality (30% critical damage bonus for most Rogue specials) you have more leeway with your choices to customize to your preference. At this point the goal is to reach Seal Fate (ability criticals have 100% chance to add an extra combo point) and maybe Vigor (+10 Max energy), depending on your preference. At this point you can either put points into vile poisons (+15% poison damage), improved instant poison (instant poison proc chance increased 10%), or you can take talents from earlier in the tree. You now have 3 points to use before you get to cold blood, and so here is where many Rogues’ preferences come into play. You have murder (+3% chance to hit on openers and sap), Remorseless attacks (after killing a mob or player, 40% extra critical chance on most Rogue abilities for the next 20 seconds), improved expose armor (+45% additional armor reduction from expose armor) and improved slice and dice (+45% duration on the slice and dice ability).
There’s a lot of division on preference here just because these talents here have very different uses and at times can dictate what you do better against and what you don’t. For instance, improved slice and dice gives you higher white damage output for a longer period of time than usual. What this really means is that you get the original effect for less combo points. This talent is more noticeable as a PVE benefit, however. Murder is good for the Rogue that hates missing, that needs that crucial sap/opener/damage. For a Rogue with a decent amount of +hit% stat, it’s a noticeable benefit. Remorseless attacks is interesting, and very debatable. It requires the killing of a mob that either gives experience or honor, so at level 60 is not exploitable to guarantee a critical opener, but in a hectic PVP battleground or chain pulling an instance this talent may come into play substantially to basically hop from victim to victim, though the spree is not likely to last long if the Rogue is without heals. Finally expose armor is a favorite among dagger Rogues that like to duke it out with Warriors and Paladins. Considering the damage mitigation from armor they get having expose armor on them is like extra damage waiting to happen, and is a nice advantage considering that a plate wearer can be a tough nut to crack for a Rogue.
Back to the talent build, assuming you’ve picked your 3 points you now have enough points in the assassination tree to pick the cold blood (100% of Rogue abilities when activated) talent. At this point you still need 4 more points in order to put points into seal fate. So you have your choice of earlier talents, improved deadly poison (15% increase chance to apply deadly poison), and improved kidney shot (reduce cooldown on kidney shot by 5 seconds). Improved kidney shot is preferred because it is almost essential in order to carry off an extended stun lock. However, many seal fate build Rogues will take other options, relying on brute force or mitigation to make up for the lack of stuns. Improved deadly poison is generally not preferred, because deadly poison will impair your ability to gouge your opponent and stun them for an easy backstab. After those points are chosen 5 points in seal fate completes the assassination tree, unless vigor is desired.
The combat tree is the easiest to allocate for, as you only put 8 points into it in general for this build. The first 2 points should always be improved sinister strike (reduce the energy cost of sinister strike by 5). Even though backstab is the primary damager you will always need an attack for when you can’t get behind your enemy or just need that one last combo point. Decreasing the energy cost of this attack is vital for efficient combos. After that you can get a little choosy. Most seal fate Rogues prefer improved gouge (increase gouge effect duration by 1.5 seconds) because with this talent, the total gouge time is 5.5 seconds, enough time to get out of combat and restealth, a very tricky move that some Rogues live and die by, not to mention its obvious benefit in prolonging stun locks, and the fact that with 5.5 seconds you can regenerate the 45 energy cost of the move and more before it wears off. The alternative is putting points into lightning reflexes (increases dodge chance by 5%). Most Rogues prefer to have less dodge than normal simply because of the Warrior ability overpower, which almost guarantees them a critical against you if you dodge them. However, some Rogues are of the opposite opinion on this, preferring to only get hit by overpower by having as much dodge as possible, and dodge normal attacks. After you have allocated your first 5 points, the rest is very simple. 3 points in improved backstab (+30% critical chance on backstab) finishes the combat tree.
Finally, the subtlety tree at this point isn’t that hard to allocate either, as you only have 12 or 13 points to use here. First will be your choice between rapid concealment (5 seconds reduction on stealth cooldown), master of deception (reduce chance of enemy to detect the Rogue in stealth), and camouflage (increase stealthed movement speed by 15%). It is virtually a toss up between camouflage and master of deception, as many Rogues will swear by both. Rapid concealment is preferred for farming, as you can restealth immediately after killing monsters quickly. It also has a PVP use in much the same manner, for a quick kill and restealth. Beyond the tier one talents, if you are planning to go improved ambush as most do you will have to put your remaining points first in Opportunity Increase damage with backstab, garrote or ambush by 20%) and then either 2 or 3 points, depending on whether you took vigor, in improved ambush (+45% chance to critical with ambush). Notice that opportunity improves backstab critical damage as well as ambush damage, therefore it is a very detrimental talent to be without, though you may forgo improved ambush and opportunity altogether for other talents.
Related Topics: