I wrote a guide for that!

Grubi was trolling hard, but basically he was arguing for a fast/fast weapon setup for an assassination rogue (using two 1.4-second daggers instead of a 1.8-second in the mainhand and a 1.4-second in the offhand). This was actually viable for awhile back in Wrath of the Lich King, when most of our damage came from weapon attacks and when those attacks had a chance to refund energy (which rogues use to make more attacks).

In Cataclysm though, most of our damage comes from poisons, and regular attacks no longer have a chance to refund energy. We use two different poisons, each with a different proc mechanic. Instant poison works best on a slower weapon, hence the 1.8-second mainhand. Also, slower weapons hit harder when used for special attacks like mutilate/backstab. Deadly poison's best on a faster weapon, hence the 1.4-second offhand. For assassination, the offhand also has a 50% damage penalty, so it makes sense to put the weaker dagger there.

You can't get a ruthlessness proc off SnD, switch SnD with rupture and you're golden.

Garrote is an opening bleed attack that deals damage every two seconds and has a chance to trigger venomous wounds, a deep assassination talent that can deal significant poison damage. Bleeds also refund energy for assassination rogues. You have to use it from stealth and from behind your target though, so if that's impossible for any given reason you open with mutilate, which is assassination's primary combo-point builder on targets between 100-35% health (combo points are used for finisher abilities, you can build up between 1-5 and the more combo points you have on a target the more effective your finishers are).

You get one combo point from garrote which you should immediately put into rupture, another bleed that does everything garrote does, basically, but as a finisher (consumed combo points on the target). Actual rupture damage is extremely minor (like 1-2% of overall damage, minor) so you don't use many combo points keeping it running. The main effect is energy regeneration and venomous wound procs.

If you're lucky, you've got a 60% chance to generate a combo point when you use a melee finisher like rupture. If you get one, get slice and dice rolling. That increases your attack speed by 40%. Not haste, just attack speed. Haste is actually tied into energy regeneration in Cataclysm. In patch 4.0.6 apparently slice and dice directly increases haste, so if that goes on to live servers from the PTR I will be a very happy player.

If you didn't get a ruthlessness proc, use a mutilate to get combo points and then get slice and dice up. Next start mutilating until you're at 4-5 combo points, then hit envenom. Envenom refreshes the full duration of slice and dice, so frequent envenoms should keep it running for the entire fight without actually having to use the ability itself again. After that, keep using mutilate to generate combo points, alternating between rupture and envenom as your finisher to try and keep rupture uptime close to 100%.

At 35% health another deep assassination talent kicks in, which is murderous intent. This drops the energy cost of backstab significantly, so it now replaces mutilate as the primary combo point builder. Assassination damage escalates towards the end of the fight because of this; this mechanic was added in Cataclysm, and because it's similar to a warrior mechanic called execution that also kicks in at 35%, 35-0% is usually referred to as the execution phase.

Shorthand, it looks like this (this part is done in 5-7 seconds):
Stealth > Garrote > Rupture > Ruth/Mut > SnD > Mut 4-5cps > Envenom > Etc.

... get why we kind of view RuneScape talk a little bit depreciatively on this thread?

It's not really hard, but there is a learning curve involved.

// edit //

Oh yeah, the reason I was here. Has anyone else watched Paragon's world first hardmode Nefarian kill yet? The end made me chuckle (and holy feral crits Batman, saw a few +800K).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MQyH78aqT4
 
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Pretty much agree with you there. The meowing soundtrack was hilarious though.
 
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http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2259389

Did I call that or what!

// edit //

25m Al'akir is down, so we can finally start some serious undistracted hardmode attempts.

// edit //

RIFT is such a WoW-mimic it's disgusting.
 
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Going to take this back, it's more of an incredible improvement on the WoW rogue model.

Wish Rift was cheaper so I could do dual-subscriptions.

Also, 350 stacks of pyrite ore stored away for a rainy day. And all the guild JCs are stockpiling tokens, we're already over 120 collectively just counting four of us. Should be able to basically own the AH for a week unless... you know... every other guild has had the same idea.
 
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