As I mentioned in my previous post, I respecced my rogue from combat to assassination. This is because of several blogs, posts and other information on the Web that say that the tree is not only a viable option for raiding, it’s also a lot more fun. I would’ve switched to it earlier had it not been for the fact that I didn’t have any purple daggers. I finally gave in to my curiosity and respecced, buying the SSO daggers as temporary weapons. I then proceeded to do the dailies to check my performance with the build.
Here’s the verdict: I’m not going back.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that assassination is better than combat. Based on what I read, both are good specs for raiding. It’s simply a matter of preference and I have to say that I really like assassination at this point. Note that this is coming from someone who prefers swords over daggers, so I didn’t go into this with high expectations. I just wanted to see what the fuss was about.
So, comparisons. I think I’m going to have to write about the details in a separate post. The short version is that DPS in assassination is a bit harder because I have to maintain Hunger For Blood. By maintain, I mean I have to make sure it’s always stacked at the maximum (3) and then I have to remember to keep it up. The second thing that makes it tougher is the skill rotation. Mutilate is expensive at 60 energy. I have to keep Slice and Dice up while using Mutilate to acquire combo points. I already mentioned that I have to maintain Hunger For Blood too, right? I see this as a temporary problem that I have to overcome. Right now, I think I just need to find the right groove.