Kiss' Guide to Assuaging Shadows

Heya and welcome!

This is Kiss' Guide to Assuaging Shadows. This guide offers a concise breakdown of the Assuaging Shadows mystic enchant, and is meant to be used in conjunction with the Kiss' Assuaging Shadows build, which you can find in the Hero Architect.

This guide will cover a variety of aspects concerning Assuaging Shadows, including talents, spells and abilities, stat priorities, gear choices, rotation, and more. Feel free to include constructive feedback in the comments below. Reach out with inquiries in-game by sending mail to Kissmyclass.

Overview

Assuaging Shadows is a unique and compelling mystic enchant that utilizes short cooldowns to inflict considerable damage upon your foes. It features a high amount of interplay between several Rogue abilities and talents, and focuses on high-damage burst phases that are quickly recovered. Using only energy to power its core suite of abilities, Assuaging Shadows does not suffer from the typical resource management issues of other mystic enchants. Additionally, Assuaging Shadows is a rather unorthodox enchant for PvE builds, with very low representation in the Hero Architect and on the database. Regardless, this mystic enchant is well-suited for dealing damage in multi-target scenarios, and is reliably consistent at single target and utility. If you like playing a DPS with unique interactions, high burst phases, and low downtime, Assuaging Shadows is the mystic enchant to try.

Strengths of Assuaging Shadows

• Burst damage // Melee AoE

• Short cooldowns

• Low complexity

• Low Ability Essence cost

Weaknesses of Assuaging Shadows

• Little utility

• Lower single target output

• Rigid Epic and Rare mystic enchant requirements

Executing the Shadow Dance

Assuaging Shadows heavily features the Rogue ability Shadow Dance. The mystic enchant provides additional benefits when activating Shadow Dance, and, when executed properly, leads to high amounts of damage output.

Shadow Dance is a Rogue ability, and the capstone talent of the Subtlety tree. It requires 2 Ability Essence and 1 Talent Essence to unlock. It has no cast time and does not incur the global cooldown. When activated, it allows the player to use several spells and abilities from both the Rogue and Druid classes regardless of being stealthed or prowled. When activated, it removes the player from Stealth and Prowl, though it does not impact other stances. The Shadow Dance lasts for 8 seconds and has a 1 minute cooldown.

In addition to the normal effects of activating Shadow Dance, Assuaging Shadows now unleashes a Shadow Nova around the player (up to 8 yards.) Enemy mobs affected by the Shadow Nova are slowed by 80% for 3 seconds, and receive 5 stacks of Shadow Mark. Certain spells from the Rogue and Druid class consume 1 Shadow Mark to grant you additional benefits. The Shadow Mark condition lasts 8 seconds, or until 5 stacks have been consumed, whichever comes first. Note that each target affected by your Shadow Nova receives 5 stacks of Shadow Mark, meaning that, when all stacks of Shadow Mark have been removed from a target, additional targets may still have stacks of Shadow Mark applied.

Hitting an enemy with either Ambush (located in the Assassination Rogue tab of your character advancement screen) or Ravage (located in the Feral Druid tab of your character advancement screen) will consume 1 stack of Shadow Mark and trigger the following effects:

• Unleashes a Shadow of Death around the target, damaging nearby enemies. This damage scales with the triggering spell (either Ambush or Ravage, respectively.)
• Refreshes your Shadowstep spell (located in the Subtlety Rogue tab of your character advancement screen.)
• Grants you Shadow's Embrace, a stacking buff lasting 20 seconds, and that increases your damage done by 5% per stack.

Because of Assuaging Shadows' effects, while under the effects of Shadow's Embrace, your Rogue and Feral Druid finishing moves now trigger the following effects:

• Reduces the cooldown of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds.
• Deals additional Shadow damage.

"Dance With the One Who Brung Ya"

With knowledge of how the added effects to Shadow Dance provided by Assuaging Shadows operate, it's clear that your objective in any fight is to consume as many Shadow Marks from targets as possible. The duration of the Shadow Marks perfectly aligns with the duration of Shadow Dance, meaning your targets lose their Shadow Marks at the same time that you lose access to either Ambush or Ravage outside of Stealth or Prowl.

This guide assumes that you are using the Kiss' Assuaging Shadows build from the Hero Architect; as such, this guide will prioritize using Ambush and other Rogue abilities in favor over the relevant Feral Druid spells. This assumes you are always attempting to meet the requirements for using Ambush:

• You are wielding a dagger in the main hand.
• You are positioned behind your target.

Since enemies are not target dummies - and thus are mobile and prone to changing position - you may have to work to hold a position behind your target. Thankfully, the added effects of Shadow Marks from Assuaging Shadows make you a highly mobile character by refreshing your Shadowstep spell. If you have activated Shadow Dance and have viable targets to hit, you will reliably have the ability to use Shadowstep to maintain your positioning. Do this when necessary to maximize your burst phase.

Ideally, your opening burst phase (and subsequent burst phases) follows a rather simple procedure:

1. Position yourself behind your target by moving, or by activating Shadowstep.
2. Ambush the target until all stacks of Shadow Mark are consumed.
3. Swap targets to another enemy affected by Shadow Mark.
4. Repeat.

Within the 8 second window of Shadow Dance, you should (at minimum) be capable of executing your Ambush ability against an enemy enough to consume 5 stacks of Shadow Mark. If you have the reaction time to continue casting Ambush and consuming Shadow Marks, you are limited only by the global cooldown during Shadow Dance.

Additional Mystic Enchants

The weakest trait of Assuaging Shadows is the lack of flexibility in your Epic, Rare, and Common mystic enchants.

Because the build focuses on boosting the output of Ambush (which, in turn, boosts the output of Shadow of Death,) we want to have access to Ambush without the need for Stealth or Shadow Dance. The Rush of Blood mystic enchant increases the critical strike chance of Hemorrhage (located in the Subtlety Rogue tab of your character advancement screen,) and makes your critical strikes with Hemorrhage grant Rush of Blood, which allows you to use Ambush without meeting most of its inherent conditions. This means you do not need to be in Stealth or Shadow Dance to cast Ambush, and you also do not have to maintain positioning behind the target. You do still need to have a dagger in the main hand. As a bonus, Ambush through Rush of Blood costs 20 less energy.

Methodical Approach is another Epic quality mystic enchant you will want active. This can seem counterintuitive, as Methodical Approach actually lowers your critical strike chance with Ambush by 10%. However, with the proper talent selections and some select Rare quality mystic enchants, your critical strike chance with Ambush should be pushing above 100%, even with the reduction from Methodical Approach. This effectively counterbalances the drawback of Methodical Approach and gives Ambush the ability to bypass a large chunk of your target's armor.

The last Epic quality mystic enchant this guide suggests is Blade Vortex. This is a popular enchant for many melee builds that incorporate Blade Flurry (located in the Combat Rogue tab of your character advancement screen) in their build. Blade Flurry provides some additional multi-target damage output and a slight attack speed increase. It is a cooldown best reserved for instances between burst phases; a macro tying Blade Flurry to Hemorrhage allows you to have uptime whenever you would not be activating your Shadow Dance.

Dancing Queen, Only Seventeen

There is more flexibility in choosing your remaining Rare and Uncommon mystic enchants, though the list below includes the most desirable enchants for the build:

• Improved Ambush x3 - Increases the critical strike chance of your Ambush by 5% / 10% / 15%, and its damage by 3% / 6% / 9%. This should be considered a required mystic enchant, as it negates the penalties of Methodical Approach without needing external support. Additionally, the damage of Shadow of Death scales with Ambush damage.
• Honor Among Thieves x3 - Reduces the internal cooldown of Honor Among Thieves (located in the Subtlety Rogue tab of your character advancement screen) by 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 seconds, bringing the internal cooldown from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. For maximum output, you want to spend 5 combo points on finishers consistently.
• Vigor x1 - Increases your maximum energy by 20.
• Dual Wield Specialization x1 - Increases your critical strike chance by 2%.
• Hasty Shadow Dance x3 - Reduces the cooldown of Shadow Dance by 3 / 6 / 9 seconds.

Spells & Abilities

Assuaging Shadows requires Shadow Dance be known in order for the enchant to operate. Both Assuaging Shadows and Rush of Blood affect your Ambush ability, and Rush of Blood requires Hemorrhage to operate. Depending on your selection for the remaining Epic enchant, either Blade Flurry or Haunt is required for their respective enchant to operate. These are your essential spells. Shadowstep, though not required by any mystic enchant, has a high amount of interplay with other aspects of the build, and is also included among your essential spells.

You will also need finishing moves to spend your combo points on, and to reduce the cooldown of Shadow Dance (even if you chose the Wraith mystic enchant.) Only damaging finishing moves reduce the cooldown of Shadow Dance through Assuaging Shadows. The damaging finishing moves available from the Rogue class are featured below:Aside from Deadly Throw - which requires you to have available Rare slots when spending Ability Essence - you are free to be flexible with your finishing move selections. Dispatch is strongly recommended strictly for the cooldown reduction on Shadow Dance. Crimson Tempest deals considerable AoE damage, and Rupture deals damage over time (requiring little upkeep.) Deadly Throw isn't worth sacrificing spells elsewhere due to the Ability Essence requirements. Eviscerate is your last option to fill out the finishing moves; it will, on average, do more damage to a single target than Crimson Tempest, but the build does not encourage taking talents, mystic enchants, or abilities that boost its output, relegating it to nothing more than a filler spell (albeit, one that demands no investment beyond Ability Essence.)

Envenom is unique among the finishing moves. Though it's not worth losing other spells to make room for Deadly Throw, it is worth considering Poisons (located in the Assassination Rogue tab of your character advancement screen) in place of a different Rare quality spell. If you are following the Kiss' Assuaging Shadows build on the Hero Architect, replacing Rockbiter Weapon with Poisons would allow you to include Envenom. This is largely preference. Poisons are damage with a distinct damage type, being affected by resistance, but also overcoming the standard defenses. The choice is yours.

Additional Spells & Abilities

Outside of the requisite spells and abilities necessary to satisfy your mystic enchants, the Assuaging Shadows build is largely customizable. Rather than detail the entire selection of spells you have access to, this guide will instead highlight several spells and abilities included in the Kiss' Assuaging Shadows build, and justify their position above other available options.Don't forget to grab a dispel effect, like Cleanse Spirit (located in the Restoration Shaman tab of your character advancement screen.) Real Rogues don't feint...but they still die to mechanics.

Talents

Each of the talent selections for the Assuaging Shadows build can be loosely categorized into one of the following roles:

1. Talents that boost the output of Ambush or Hemorrhage.
2. Talents that either impact, or are impacted by, Shadow Dance.
3. Talents that boost stats.

Generally, the talents feature some interplay with other spells and abilities in the build, but those effects are largely secondary to boosting your core spells (those being Ambush, Hemorrhage, and Shadow Dance.) The few talent choices that are not directly affecting your critical strike chance, damage dealt, or cooldowns, are necessary for reaching hit cap and/or managing energy expenditure. While there is no traditional "ranking" for these talents, as none of them are dead or wasted here, this guide will still highlight the talents that you should most familiarize yourself with. Check them out below:

Rotation

Rotation was covered briefly in a previous section of this guide, but this will expand on it slightly and make sure you are maximizing your cooldowns and resources. Obviously, the primary intent of the build is to capitalize on Shadow Dance through Assuaging Shadows. As you experience the interactions of the build more, you should start to automatically recognize the ideal times to use Shadow Dance, typically aiming to achieve the most Shadow Marks on targets, or for capitalizing on Shadow of Death damage. Since Shadow Dance refreshes relatively quickly, however, opportunities for using it will be plentiful. The "standard" rotation is below.

Open & Burst Phase

Open with Shadow Dance and high damage burst phase. Save your remaining cooldowns for the space between burst phases. Here's what that should look like:

1. Shadowstep to primary target.
2. Activate Shadow Dance. Always attempt to maximize your number of targets, unless a specific target needs to be focused down.
3. Ambush your target. Optional: Assuming you have the max rank of both the Dirty Deeds talent and the Filthy Tricks talent, your Shadowstep increases the damage of your next non-periodic melee ability and has a chance to restore 30 energy. Shadowstep does not use the global cooldown and is refreshed through Assuaging Shadows each time you cast Ambush. To maximize your damage, you can cast Shadowstep after each Ambush during Shadow Dance. This is absolutely not required to achieve high DPS with the build. If you are looking to realize the build's full potential, this is a more advanced tactic to push the meters.
4. Continue to Ambush any targets affected by Shadow Mark until you have exhausted all stacks of Shadow Mark, or until the duration of Shadow Dance expires.

That's it for your burst phase. Don't waste your global cooldown on any spell except Ambush. You have 8 seconds of Shadow Dance to try and achieve as much damage as possible.

Cooldown Phase

While your primary ability (Shadow Dance) is on cooldown and waiting to refresh, your other cooldowns will come in to make up for your drop in DPS. You will drop DPS. Shadow of Death is your highest damage ability after Ambush, and is typically higher when fighting multiple mobs. You only have access to Shadow of Death for a brief window, so you will see your damage spike heavily, then fall back to reasonable levels. To make up for this, the build recommends Blade Flurry and Hunger For Blood be managed between burst phases. Hunger For Blood has a naturally short cooldown, and the bonuses from Blade Vortex reducing the cooldown on Blade Flurry pretty much guarantees you access to both cooldowns while waiting for Shadow Dance to refresh.

Tip: Macro Blade Flurry onto Hemorrhage. It doesn't use a global, and you don't want to be casting Hemorrhage until after your burst phase, anyway. You will cast Hemorrhage a great deal during the cooldown phase, so a macro here will save you key presses and resolve potentially missed activations. Hunger For Blood, however, will need to remain separate from any macros.

• If you are coming out of your burst phase, you should have generated 5 combo points already. Immediately lead with your finishing moves, following the priority below (i.e., starting with step 2.)

1. If you are not at 5 combo points, cast Hemorrhage, immediately followed by Ambush. This should put you at 5 combo points. Rush of Blood should trigger 100% of the time when casting Hemorrhage, and the buff of the same name (which allows you to cast Ambush without needing to meet most of its prerequisites) should never be active when casting Hemorrhage again. If, at any time during your cooldown phase, you are not at 5 combo points, repeat step 1.
2. If you are at 5 combo points and Dispatch is not on cooldown, cast Dispatch. This hastens the cooldown of Shadow Dance. You remain at 5 combo points. Proceed to step 3. If, at any time during your cooldown phase, while you are at 5 combo points and Dispatch is not on cooldown, repeat step 2.
3. If you are at 5 combo points, and Dispatch is on cooldown, and your primary target is not affected by a bleed effect from your Rupture, cast Rupture. Otherwise, move to step 4.
4. If you are at 5 combo points, and Dispatch is on cooldown, and your primary target is bleeding from Rupture, but not affected by a bleed effect from your Crimson Tempest, cast Crimson Tempest. Otherwise, move to step 5.
5. If you followed the previous steps, these conditions should be true:

   • Dispatch is on cooldown.
   • The target is bleeding from Rupture.
   • The target is bleeding from Crimson Tempest.

   While these conditions are true, perform one of the following actions:

   • When fighting a single enemy: Cast Eviscerate.
   • When fighting two or more enemies: Cast Crimson Tempest.

Tip: If, at any time during your cooldown phase, your primary target is affected by one or more of your bleed effects, and Hunger For Blood is not on cooldown, activate Hunger For Blood. Ideally, activate Hunger For Blood when all three of the following bleed effects are active on your primary target: Rupture; Crimson Tempest; Deep Wounds.

Stats & Equipment

When prompted to select your Primary Stat in the character advancement screen, select Primary Stat: Agility.
Your stat priority for Assuaging Shadows should be as follows:

Agility > Hit Rating (17% cap to hit with abilities and spells) > Attack Power = Critical Strike Rating > Armor Penetration

• Agility should be your highest priority. It raises your Attack Power, Critical Strike Chance, and Critical Strike Damage from Primary Stat: Agility.

• Hit Rating is essential for landing your spells and attacks. You need 17% Hit Rating to never miss with your spells and abilities. Anything greater than 17% Hit Rating is redundant. You will not reach the hit cap for Off-Hand Hit Rating, nor should you try (the Off-Hand Hit Rating cap is 34%.)

• Attack Power and Critical Strike Rating are of roughly equal value, with Critical Strike Rating being slightly ahead. Specifically, you want to ensure your Critical Strike Rating is high enough that Ambush and Hemorrhage always crit. With the right selection of talents and mystic enchants, this should not be difficult to achieve. Here is a breakdown of the preexisting bonuses (or appropriate penalties) that affect your critical strike chance with Ambush and Hemorrhage:

  Ambush

  • Berserker Stance (Fury Warrior) = +3%
  • Close Quarters Combat (Combat Rogue) = +10%
  • Dual Wield Specialization (Combat Rogue) = +5%
  • Dual Wield Specialization (Rare mystic enchant) = +2%
  • Honor Among Thieves (Subtlety Rogue) = +3%
  • Improved Ambush (Rare mystic enchant) = +15%
  • Out of Nowhere (Subtlety Rogue) = +50%
  • Rampage (Fury Warrior) = +5%
  • Methodical Approach (Epic mystic enchant) = -10%

  Critical strike chance: 83%

  Hemorrhage

  • Berserker Stance (Fury Warrior) = +3%
  • Close Quarters Combat (Combat Rogue = +10%
  • Dual Wield Specialization (Combat Rogue) = +5%
  • Dual Wield Specialization (Rare mystic enchant) = +2%
  • Honor Among Thieves (Subtlety Rogue) = +3%
  • Out of Nowhere (Subtlety Rogue) = +15%
  • Rampage (Fury Warrior) = +5%
  • Rush of Blood (Epic mystic enchant) = +20%

  Critical strike chance: 63%

  Once you've raised your Critical Strike Rating enough to guarantee crits from Ambush and Hemorrhage, you should switch to prioritizing Attack Power. Additional bonuses to Critical Strike Rating isn't wasted, however, as it will still apply to your other spells and abilities.

• Armor Penetration is useful when you are honing the finer details of your equipment, but it's not recommended to prioritize it over the aforementioned stats.

Leather and Mail armor are most likely to prioritize these stats. Rogue, Druid, and Hunter tier sets also tend to prioritize these stats. Stamina typically appears on all armor, and occasionally appears on weapons and trinkets. Stamina directly contributes to your maximum health, keeping you alive long enough to style Shadow Dance all over your opponents.

Macros & WeakAuras

Macros

The build does not rely heavily on macros, but you should craft whatever macros feel comfortable for you in your experience. It is recommended to have a macro tying Blade Flurry to Hemorrhage to remove one unnecessary key press. Targeting macros can help you better manage your targeting when using Shadowstep.

WeakAuras

There are no suggested WeakAuras specific to Assuaging Shadows, currently. This guide may be updated at a future date with a more comprehensive list of possible recommended WeakAuras. WeakAuras that manage one of the following elements may be a good place to start:

• Combo points
• Cooldowns (Shadow Dance / Hunger For Blood / Blade Flurry)
• Triggers (Rush of Blood)