2020- Instant Poison
- Classes: Rogue
- Use: Coats a weapon with poison that lasts for 1 hour.
Each strike has a chance of poisoning the enemy which instantly inflicts X Nature damage.
- "This may sting a bit..."
Instant Poison is the first damaging poison that can can purchased and applied to a rogue's weapon. Once applied, each successful weapon hit has a chance (modified by the speed of the weapon) to instantly inflict nature damage.
Proc Chances Under the PPM Model
As of patch 3.1., the proc chance of Instant Poison (along with 
[Wound Poison] was changed to a PPM model, normalized for 1.4 speed weapons. This results in the following proc chances per weapon speed per attack:
| Weapon Speed | Proc Chance (0/5 IP) | Proc Chance (4/5 IP) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.3 | 18.57% | 26% | |
| 1.4 | 20% | 28% | |
| 1.5 | 21.43% | 30% | |
| 1.6 | 22.86% | 32% | |
| 1.7 | 24.29% | 34% | |
| 1.8 | 25.71% | 36% | |
| 1.9 | 27.14% | 38% | |
| 2.0 | 28.57% | 40% | |
| 2.1 | 30% | 42% | |
| 2.2 | 31.43% | 44% | |
| 2.3 | 32.86% | 46% | |
| 2.4 | 34.29% | 48% | |
| 2.5 | 35.71% | 50% | |
| 2.6 | 37.14% | 52% | |
| 2.7 | 38.57% | 54% | |
| 2.8 | 40% | 56% |
The chance of applying a PPM poison is normalized to a 1.4 weapon speed:
- PPM = Base Proc Rate * 60 / Weapon Speed = 0.20p/hit * 60s/min / 1.4s/hit = 8.57 p/min
After normalization, slow weapons will have a higher PPH rate than fast ones. Working backwards:
- PPH (for a 2.8 weapon) = Normalized Proc Rate * Weapon Speed / 60 = 8.57p/min * 2.8s/hit / 60s/min = 40% proc/hit
The Assassination talent 
[Improved Poisons] increases the Base Proc Rate for Instant Poison.
Instant Poison Ranks
| Rank | Level Required |
Damage |
|---|---|---|
| I | 20 | 13-17 |
| II | 28 | 21-25 |
| III | 36 | 30-38 |
| IV | 44 | 45-57 |
| V | 52 | 62-80 |
| VI | 60 | 76-100 |
| VII | 68 | 161-215 |
| VIII | 73 | 245-327 |
| IX | 79 | 300-400 |
Every rank of Instant Poison does an additional 0.1 * AP damage.
Instant Poison v. Wound Poison
It is generally accepted that PVE Mutilate specced rogues should use Instant Poison on their MH, since they will have 3/3 
[Vile Poisons] and 5/5 [Improved Poisons].
For PVE Combat rogues, hoewever, depending on gear and talents, Wound Poison may provide more poison damage than Instant Poison on the MH. The choice considered here is between Wound Poison and 3/3 [Vile Poisons] plus two other utility talents, versus Instant Poison, 4/5 [Improved Poisons], and 1/3 [Vile Poisons].
At low AP levels, Wound Poison's higher PPM rate will make the first option (WP + 3/3VP) produce more poison damage than the latter (IP etc). However, higher gear levels will provide enough AP for Instant Poison to scale up and overcome its low proc rate.
The AP point at which WP + 3/3VP loses out to IP + 4/5IP + 1/3VP can be theorycrafted:
Poison Damage per minute = Proc Damage * PPM (this is based on white weapon swings, but will scale evenly for yellow swings as well)
At level 80, given the two options above:
- Wound Poison DPM = (1.20 * (231 + 0.04 * AP)) * (21.4)
- Instant Poison DPM = (1.07 * (300 + 0.10 * AP)) * (1.4 * 8.56)
These two options will yield equal DPM at about 8,000 AP. Beyond that, the IP option yields more main-hand poison DPM (other things being equal).
It should be noted that this does not take into account the effect of [Improved Poisons] on off-hand application of 
[Deadly Poison]. Each Deadly Poison hit on a target fully stacked with Deadly Poison refreshes DP and applies the other weapon's poison. For this reason, the harder hitting Instant Poison should almost always be paired with Deadly Poison for long, steady state fights.
Notes
- Instant Poison and
[Crippling Poison] are the first poisons a rogue may use and is bought from poison vendors at level 20. A quest to gain access to poisons is no longer required and the ability to make poisons yourself with a profession-like skill has been removed even longer ago. Additional ranks may be used at appropriate levels. - Safe to use in any situation, as it has no CC-breaking DoTs.
- Nature damage is not reduced by armor, so it is more effective against heavily armored opponents.
- Shiv can be used to automatically apply the poison, effectively increasing flat damage of the attack. Shiv however can never crit and neither can the poison it applies so it's use is in this way is limited.
