WoW Forever Rogue changes: Mutilate and Venom for Assassination, Hack and Slash for Combat, Thousand Cuts for Subtlety — and the Stealth toolkit Blizzard left alone

The baseline list is short and every item on it changes how the class plays from the first levels. Poisons first: 'Charges increased on all poisons,' and 'Poisons can now be applied to weapons at the same time as temporary enchantments like Weightstones and Sharpening Stones.' In Classic a Rogue chose between a Poison and a stone on each weapon; in Forever both go on. Blizzard has not said by how much the charges rise. Feint's 'Threat reduction doubled' is the second item, again without a base value.

Sap is the change with the clearest stated purpose. 'Sap: Using this ability no longer breaks Stealth.' Blizzard explains why: 'We want Rogues to have a crowd control benefit they can provide to parties and raids that requires their unique skills to set up (Stealth, Distract, etc.) but which can be used tactically when there are too many monsters in a group to be safely tanked.' In practice a Rogue can take one monster out of a crowded pull and still be in Stealth afterwards, ready for whatever comes next, which is the party role Blizzard is describing. The old Subtlety talent that did this, Improved Sap, has been rebuilt as something else (see the Subtlety section).

Distract gains a detection debuff with a built-in cost: it 'now also causes affected enemies to have reduced Stealth detection for 10 seconds. However, this debuff also means player enemies will now know there is a Rogue nearby to look for.' That second sentence matters in world PvP and battlegrounds: the tool that helps you slip past a camp also announces you to any player you hit with it.

Expose Armor is brought level with the Warrior's version of the same job. Its 'Armor reduction increased to match the armor reduction caused by 5 applications of Sunder Armor at approximately the same level.' And the two no longer block each other in the old way: 'Expose Armor no longer prevents Sunder Armor from being used on a target, but Sunder Armor will still not overwrite Expose Armor, unless its effect is weaker. This allows Warriors to generate threat from Sunder Armor without Expose Armor interfering.' Anyone grouping with a Protection Warrior should read the WoW Forever Warrior changes page alongside this one; the interaction cuts both ways.

Finally, weapons: 'Rogues can now learn to equip one-handed axes.' Blizzard gives two reasons, one about loot and one about fantasy: 'This increase in itemization choices lets us make a more diverse offering of weapons and know that Rogues will still benefit. Rogues as an archetype include brigands and outlaws, who often make use of axes in fantasy and medieval storytelling.' Axes then get their own line in the Combat talent Hack and Slash.

Blizzard's one-line identity for the spec is in its closing summary: 'Assassination specializes in daggers and buffing themselves with Finishing moves.' The talent list delivers both halves. Mutilate is the new 21-point milestone: 'This 60 Energy Combo ability strikes with both hands as weapon damage from each weapon, but both must be daggers. This damage is increased against Poisoned targets and awards 2 Combo Points. Each hand has a chance to trigger various procs.' Several existing talents are extended to cover it — Remorseless Attacks, Lethality and Cold Blood all 'now also' apply to Mutilate — and Seal Fate is clarified: 'Mutilate will trigger this exactly once if either or both hands generates a critical strike.' Seal Fate also 'No longer requires Cold Blood as a pre-requisite.'

Venom is the new 31-point capstone and the clearest statement of how Blizzard expects the tree to be played. It is 'a 25 Energy Finisher ability [that] grants 30% increased damage to your Poisons and 10% increased chance to apply Poisons. Duration determined by number of Combo Points spent.' Blizzard then spells out the priority itself: 'Our expectation is that Assassination focuses its finishers on maintaining Venom and Slice and Dice, and damaging finishers like Rupture and Eviscerate are a lower priority. Other Rogue builds would put more emphasis on those damaging Finishers.' That is the nearest thing to a rotation note in the whole article, and it is the developer's expectation, not a tested result.

Improved Poisons supports the same goal from the other side. It 'Now also grants a large chance for Poisons not to consume charges when triggered,' and Blizzard says why: 'We want Assassination to be a Poison-focused playstyle, so this helps their Poisons last much longer without needing to be reapplied.' Malice is widened to cover Poisons too, so crit investment now reaches the Poison damage the spec leans on.

Two Classic milestones move. Cold Blood drops from the 21-point slot to the new 16-point slot. Vigor, Classic's 31-point capstone, becomes 'a 2-point talent on row 5 instead of the 31-point gold medal talent. Same total effect.' Improved Gouge arrives on row 1 from the Combat tree.

Blizzard describes Combat as 'focusing on hard hitting direct damage and little bit of cleave damage with Blade Flurry,' with 'support for all weapon types.' The single biggest change is consolidation. Dagger Specialization, Mace Specialization, Sword Specialization and Fist Weapon Specialization are removed and 'subsumed into the new talent Hack and Slash', a row 5 talent that 'combines the benefits of the removed talents' and 'also adds a bonus for Axes. Axes gain the same benefit as Swords, a chance to make an extra attack. The bonus for Maces causes attacks to ignore some of the target's armor, rather than provide a chance to Stun.' The practical effect is that a Combat Rogue no longer spends points on one weapon type and is locked out of the others; the same talent covers whatever drops.

The second theme is Backstab. 'We wanted the Combat specialization to support a Backstab-oriented build as well as a Sinister Strike-oriented build. So, this and several other talents gained more Backstab support.' Aggression now also increases Backstab damage, and Puncturing Wounds (the renamed Improved Backstab) gives 'Backstab a chance to grant an additional Combo Point' as well as a smaller crit bonus to Mutilate. Improved Eviscerate moves to row 1 with a higher damage bonus, and the new 16-point milestone, Flawless Execution, is plain: 'Reduces the Energy cost of Eviscerate by 10.'

The defensive and accuracy talents are reshaped rather than removed. Deflection gives twice the Parry per point. Precision now covers 'all spells and attacks, including Poisons'. Weapon Expertise is redesigned to reduce 'the chance for a target to Dodge or Parry your attacks', which pairs with the Deep Dive recap's note that some items can now reduce the chance for attacks to be parried or dodged. Endurance now cuts Sprint and Evasion cooldowns by a percentage, 'resulting in a larger total reduction for both.' The one reduction in the tree is Dual Wield Specialization, whose 'Increase to off-hand damage' is lowered.

Subtlety, in Blizzard's summary, focuses 'on combat tricks and Bleeds' and, like Combat, supports all weapon types. The tree is reorganised so its signature talents arrive earlier. Camouflage moves to row 1; Dirty Tricks and Improved Ambush move to row 2; Heightened Senses moves up to row 4; Master of Deception falls from 5 points to 3 'for the same effect', with a tooltip that now states the exact Stealth improvement. Setup and Initiative both now reach a 100% chance at 3 points. Premeditation leaves the 31-point slot for the new 16-point slot, and its duration rises to 20 seconds.

Dirty Tricks is the old Improved Sap, renamed and redesigned because its job became baseline: 'Sap never breaks Stealth now baseline. Instead, this talent reduces the Energy cost of Sap and Blind by a substantial amount.' A new row 3 talent, Improved Distract, widens Distract's radius and deepens the Stealth-detection penalty that the baseline change introduced.

Like Combat, Subtlety is built for both Sinister Strike and Backstab. Quietus, a new row 6 talent behind Dirty Deeds, makes 'Sinister Strike, Ghostly Strike, and Hemorrhage abilities cause more damage to targets below 35% health', and Blizzard says it 'supports the Sinister Strike oriented build.' Cutthroat, also row 6, gives Backstab 'a chance to cause your next Ambush to not require Stealth', which Blizzard describes as 'an exciting alternate flow where Ambush can be used during combat.' Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage both hit harder with a Dagger than with other weapons, and Hemorrhage now also raises your Rupture damage on the target for 15 seconds.

The new 31-point capstone ties the Bleed theme together: 'Each time Rupture deals damage, the Energy cost of your next Hemorrhage or Backstab ability is reduced by 3 Energy, stacking up to 5 times.' Read with the Hemorrhage change, Rupture becomes the engine of the spec rather than a finisher you use when nothing else is better. Sleight of Hand and Deadliness are removed.

Every Forever tree keeps Classic's one-point milestones at 11, 21 and 31 and adds a new one at 16; Blizzard repeats that framing at the top of this article. The Rogue article names what fills three of the new 16-point slots and all three 31-point slots, and one of the 21-point slots. Assassination: Cold Blood at 16, Mutilate at 21, Venom at 31. Combat: Flawless Execution at 16. Subtlety: Premeditation at 16, Thousand Cuts at 31. Combat's 21 and 31 slots, and the 11-point slots in all three trees, are not named in the article, so this page does not fill them in.

The same article confirms the access rules. 'Talents become available starting at level 10,' changing talents 'including Legacy talents' is done at 'a class trainer in one of the major cities', and 'Dual Specialization also becomes available at level 40.' For a Rogue that last point matters more than usual, because the article itself sets up two builds inside Combat and two inside Subtlety; Dual Specialization gives a player room to keep two of those builds, for example a Backstab set and a Sinister Strike set. The full talent rules, including the Legacy trees, are on the WoW Forever talents page.

Blizzard also adds the standard warning: 'Please note that class abilities and talents may continue to evolve throughout the beta test and are subject to additional changes.' Treat every row number and point cost here as the 7 October state of the design.

Rogue is one of the classes open to the new Skyborne race on both factions. The What's Next panel recap says Horde Skyborne gain Shaman and Alliance Skyborne gain Mage, and that 'Both factions can also play Warriors, Hunters, Rogues, and Druids.' The Skyborne racials and faction choice are covered on the WoW Forever Skyborne page; Blizzard has not published anything Rogue-specific about the race beyond that list.

The Deep Dive recap's itemization changes touch Rogues directly. 'Spell, melee, and ranged hit chance are combined, as are spell, melee, and ranged critical chance,' which Blizzard says helps classes including Rogues 'when improving the reliability of tools such as Taunts, Poisons, and Traps.' That lines up with two talent changes on this page: Precision now improves hit for Poisons, and Malice now improves Poison crit. Weapon skill 'still works as it always has, but items with weapon skill offer less of it per item', and 'Some items can reduce the chance for attacks to be parried or dodged', which is the same effect the redesigned Weapon Expertise gives.

None of this comes with stat weights or values. Blizzard has published the categories, not the numbers.

The article lists changes, so anything it does not mention is either unchanged or unpublished. Stealth itself, Vanish, Kick, Kidney Shot as an ability, Blind, Gouge, Evasion, Sprint, Pickpocket, lockpicking and Slice and Dice are not described as changing. Blade Flurry is named only in the summary. That is consistent with the intro's point: the class is meant to feel like the Classic Rogue with more ways to build it.

Numbers are mostly missing too. The article gives Distract's 10 seconds, the 5-Sunder Expose Armor benchmark, Mutilate's 60 Energy and 2 Combo Points, Venom's 25 Energy, 30% and 10%, Flawless Execution's 10 Energy, Premeditation's 20 seconds, Hemorrhage's 15 seconds, Quietus's 35% threshold and Thousand Cuts' 3 Energy and 5 stacks. It does not give Poison charge counts, Feint's base threat value, Mutilate's damage, Hack and Slash's proc rates, Cold Blood or Vigor values, or any damage coefficients. Any guide quoting those is working from somewhere other than Blizzard.

There is also no ranking. Blizzard's closing line claims 'the highest potential single-target melee damage in the game' for the class as a whole, but says nothing about which specialization does the most damage, and the article itself frames Assassination's finisher plan as an 'expectation'. For the other classes' passes, the WoW Forever class changes overview groups every published deep dive in one place.