Rogue Dagger Talent 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.

PREPARATION BUILD (known as 21/8/22)

The very basic concept of this build is exactly the same as the seal fate build, which is maximum burst damage through backstab. However, while seal fate relies on the combo point generation of the talent to make stun locks and additional eviscerate damage easier, preparation works to give the Rogue a little more versatility in his cooldown usage. I’m going to use the start of the Seal Fate build as a template and say that the talents are roughly the same in assassination up until cold blood, and that is the last talent you will take from assassination, spending only 21 points. Combat is exactly the same as in seal fate, although without improved kidney shot you may feel inclined to take lightning reflexes instead, although improved gouge is still useful in most situations. Going into subtlety, you have a lot of options once you’ve put points into opportunity. Elusiveness (reduced cooldown on evasion, vanish, and blind by 1.3 minutes) is useful but considering the goal is the talent preparation (ability that finishes cooldowns on all Rogue abilities when used) the talent points are better spent elsewhere.

It is recommended that you base your template after opportunity around initiative (75% chance to add an extra combo point using ambush, garrote, or cheap shot.) As without seal fate you have to be a lot more sparing with your combo points. After initiative you have several options. The recommended one is improved ambush, as ambush is a significant source of burst damage against most classes, and a critical opener can be the difference between win or lose for some. Some alternative are ghostly strike (instant attack that deals 125% weapon damage and increases chance to dodge by 15% for 7 seconds) and improved vanish (movement speed during vanish increased by 30%). Ghostly strike uses a lot of energy but the damage output isn’t that high. This talent is really only suggestible if you’ve put points into lightning reflexes or have an otherwise high dodge rate. Improved vanish can be called a leveling talent, because while it may help you escape an enemy that tries to gank you it has no direct effect on your damage output or defense. Improved garrote (increase duration of garrote by 6 seconds but decreases the damage done by 10%) is often considered a “joke” talent, as this talent would seem to be seldom used. It would seem to have a practical application fighting a Rogue that’s sure to try and run away, but beyond that garrote’s use is altogether limited, and the fact that this talent reduces the damage done doesn’t work in its favor. The next talents to look at are improved rupture (increases rupture damage by 30%) and improved sap (gives 90% chance to return to stealth after using sap). Improved sap has a lot of PVE and PVP utility, though in both it is often outweighed by polymorph when it is readily available. Rupture is an extremely useful ability when coupled with deadly poison and the vile poisons talent, as damage over time effects ignore armor. As long as the Rogue can outlast his own DOTs they can deal significant damage to the enemy. The goal in this tree is simply to reach preparation, and after having put 5 points into opportunity it's mostly preference as to which talents you take. The strength of the preparation build is the ability to bring all your cooldowns to bear on your opponent, including cold blood, and do it again in the same fight. It is one of the most powerful specs for one on one fighting simply because of that reliance. But at the same time it can be said that a prep Rogue is relatively weak whenever preparation itself isn’t up.