I’ve kinda fallen back in love with Assassination Rogue this season. I haven’t mained a Rogue since early Cataclysm, so it’s very different now, etc., but–my point is that I’m super new back to the spec and I am very confused.
Thistle Tea procs automatically, which means I have absolutely no control over it other than never dipping below 30.
Edited to add: It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out. I was going to change the keybind because for a while I thought I must just be pressing it by accident.
I do not want to have to watch my energy bar like that just to make sure I have one of my primary cooldowns available on a single-target fight.
I haven’t even begun group content on this character, yet, but just from delves, I can see the issue very clearly. Is there some way to toggle this off? Is there a workaround I’m missing, or are sin rogues actually using weakauras to blow a horn for full stop when they hit 40 energy or something?
How is this even worth taking? Please explain it to me, because I’m doing something wrong here.
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Well lets break it down.
Unlike Outlaw and Subtlety specs Assassination needs to watch their energy. Generally you’re going to need to pool your energy (a few seconds before it comes off CD) and use a Thistle Tea for Kingsbane’s window. So you’re generally always going to have at least 1 charge available for each window.
You can manually activate Thistle Tea (most macro it to Shiv or Kingsbane).
Because of the 100 energy (since Assassination has slower energy regen) for your burst window and the boatload of Mastery which increases the damage of your Bleeds and Poisons which get doubled with Deathmark.
On AoE you won’t notice it much because your energy regen from multi-doting bleeds help alot. But for Single Target there will be some downtime.
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Thank you! That makes SO much sense. I was hung up on not being able to just hold it and use it manually, but I can definitely do that for kingsbane.
I did my first two dungeons this evening–baby +2’s with my guild–and while I’m not doing as much damage as I will once I’m no longer having to think too hard about it, it was nice.
This will help a lot because I simply hadn’t thought of just starting to look at it around kingsbane.
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You’re welcome. I do want to note that some no kingsbane builds come up from time to time so for Thistle Tea you will still want to have 1 charge available for Deathmark (2 min CD) and otherwise use it when you need to burst down some targets because of the mastery buff.
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I really enjoy the Deathmark/Kingsbane combo for cooldown, and so far it seems to be working. I’m just still very new (roughly at week at level 80 with nothing but delves and two short baby keys), and at 642 ilvl, I still only put out about 1.5m on regular dungeon packs and I noted between 900k and 1.2 on single-target depending on whether I got a Thistle Tea off for the boss fight at the right time.
I’m still really working out how all the rotational things go.
I’m still not spreading my bleeds perfectly, and I need more practice at that.
I still have difficulty tracking my Deathstalker’s Mark target after spreading bleeds, and I haven’t found the right /focus method for myself, yet.
BUT…I like Kingsbane and don’t really want to drop it. My big talent quandary right now is whether to go with Dragon-Tempered Blades or Sudden Demise. I’ve looked at both of them, and listened to people discuss both of them, and I honestly can’t tell which one is best or best for me.
I’m still watching videos and trying to get a grip on it because I’m having fun on a rogue for the first time since (seriously) Cataclysm, and I really want to spend some time with Assassination and see if I can get good again.
Any advice is appreciated.
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I recommend taking the builds off WoWhead.
If you really want to play with Kingsbane for M+/AoE builds you can go with the Hybrid Build over Bleed, it’s a bit more complex but it has the talents you enjoy.
In regards to Single Target only Sudden Demise isn’t worth it. (as currently is)
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Just wanted to pop in and say thanks again. I looked into the bleed build, and even though I don’t have any tier pieces, yet, I was able to pull better numbers on the dummies than I did in the kingsbane build. I can’t wait to try it in a dungeon.
It’s also really satisfying to use the free ambushes and not be so cooldown dependent.
I play this better than I play the kingsbane build (hardly surprising as I’m a complete rogue noob at this point).
Anyway. Thanks. 
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