In this guide, I will talk with you about 3 DPS rogue builds in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. I have ranked them from best to worst. I did the raid with all Rogue DPS specs and here are my opinions. Make sure that you have enough WoW SOD Gold and let's start with Saber Slash.
1. Saber Slash Build
Saber Slash is the best build for the raid. The bleed damage from it is just insane. When I had all the world buffs and the druid's Mangle, the bleed was ticking for 110 damage every 2 seconds. That's 55 DPS just from bleed, not even counting the upfront damage. This build only struggles on the first boss because the boss is immune to bleeds and poisons. Ideally, for the first boss, you just swap to the dagger and Backstab the boss.
For the talents, you should definitely go with 14 assassination and 2 combat. Obviously, the talent choice will be a lot different for the next patch, but there is enough time to talk about that.
2. Mutilate Build
The second-best build and my favorite one for the raid is the Mutilate build. I just love to press mutilate, even though it's a bit clunky since it costs 60 energy and you will always be at 4 combo points. The DPS output is still completely fine. You're running 11/0/5 talents.
There are some fights where this build struggles to keep up with the Saber Slash build, and those are Gamora, since the turtle has too much armor and Saber Slash doesn't care about that armor due to bleed. Let's not forget the first boss where you will just swap to full-on Backstab build since you can't apply poisons. Overall, mutilate falls behind the Saber Slash build but not as much as people thought.
3. Backstab Build
The last build, and in my opinion, the worst one, is the Backstab build. It still has a decent damage output, but it's losing to both mutilate and Saber Slash build just because you don't have Deadly Brew Rune. However, if the boss is immune to poisons and even bleeds, this build currently shines the brightest, which is seen on the first boss.
Considering that the next big raid is filled with Mechanicals and Elementals, which are both immune to bleeds and poisons, this might be our future best build. It will all depend on the new runes which we get, though. Ideally, you want to run this build with 11/0/5 talent build, but for certain bosses, it's better to do 11/2/3 with improved Sinister Strike.
Currently looking at logs, Backstab build actually matches Mutilate build on Gamora and Gelihast, where you can abuse the damage reduction phase to apply 3 stacks of Saber Slash. For the most important note that you can literally play any build with any talent combination in the raid, and you will still do sufficient DPS to topple the bosses. So make sure that you're playing a build which brings you the most joy.
When it comes to dungeons, any build will do. Everything there just falls down almost immediately. I even prefer Mutilate build since I find myself having aggro way too often for Backstab build, and Saber Slash build doesn't ramp up since everything dies too quickly. For open world and dungeon soloing, I have the most success with pure 0/16/0 combat build which includes repost. This build doesn't offer the biggest DPS, but it has the biggest amount of survivability, which is vital for us since we can't heal.
