DoT Rogue Build
This build is designed to apply as many DoTs as possible. This build would work best in PvE situations where the idea is to remove large amounts of health from Elite mobs. DoTs ignore target armor for damage purposes.
Assassination Talents (25 points)
Malice - 5/5 points
Increases your critical strike chance by 3%.
Gets you up the tree. Crits are nice but not central to this build. Allows access to Lethality.
Murder - 2/2 points
Increases your chance to hit while using your Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot abilities by 5%.
Nice to be able to hit your Garrotes somewhat more consistently. gets you up the tree.
Ruthlessness - 3/3 points
Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target.
Ruptures spawning combo points so you can always have another Rupture? Pure rapture. Given that this build does not have Imp Sinister Strike you'll need a way to generate combo points more rapidly, this will help.
Improved Slice and Dice - 3/3 points
Increases the duration of your Slice and Dice ability by 45%.
Increased attack speed is just like a DoT.
Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point
Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy.
More energy! Gets you up the tree.
Lethality - 2/5 points
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage ability by 12%.
More Hemorrhage damage. Gets you up the tree.
Vile Poisons - 4/5 points
Increases the damage dealt by your poisons by 15%.
More poison DoT damage.
Improved Deadly Poison - 5/5 points
Increases the chance to apply Deadly Poison to your target by 12%.
Get those DoTs on the target faster.
Combat Talents (0 points)
None
No Imp Sinister Strike. No Imp Backstab. Those DoTs better work.
Subtlety Talents (26 points)
Master of Deception - 5/5 points
Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while in Stealth mode. More effective than Master of Deception (Rank 4)
Default Rogue Talent. Gets you up the tree.
Elusiveness - 2/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Evasion, Vanish, and Blind abilities by 30 seconds.
Gets you up the tree and lets you use your Rogue abilties more often. Could easily take a point from this for Preparation if desired.
Opportunity - 5/5 points
Increases the damage dealt when striking from behind with your Backstab, Garrote, or Ambush abilities by 20%.
More Garrote damage.
Improved Garrote - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Garrote ability by 6 seconds, but reduces the damage by 10%.
More Garrote damage.
Initiative - 5/5 points
Gives you a 75% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot ability.
More combo points for faster Rupture/SnD. The faster you get the DoTs on the target the better.
Improved Rupture - 3/3 points
Increases the damage of dealt by your Rupture ability by 30%.
More damage!
Improved Sap - 3/3 points
Adds a 90% chance to return to stealth mode after using your Sap ability.
While we're climbing the tree you might as well be useful taking out more than one target at a time.
Hemorrhage - 1/1 point
An instant strike that damages the opponent and causes the target to hermorrhage, increasing any Physical damage dealt to the target by up to 3. Lasts 30 charges or 15 seconds. Awards 1 combo point.
The defining DoT ability. Very few Rogues will have this as it has a high Talent point cost. It will stack very well in a melee group.