WoW Forever Rogue Talents and Changes: Assassination, Combat, Subtlety

• Poisons

  Changed

  More charges on every poison, and they can sit beside temporary enchants like Weightstones and Sharpening Stones.

• Sap

  Changed

  No longer breaks Stealth, giving Rogues a crowd-control tool for packs that cannot be tanked safely.

• Distract

  Changed

  Affected enemies also detect Stealth less well for 10 seconds, but player enemies learn a Rogue is near.

• Feint

  Changed

  Threat reduction doubled.

• Expose Armor

  Changed

  Armor reduction matches 5 Sunder Armors at similar level, and no longer blocks Sunder Armor from being used (Sunder will not overwrite a stronger Expose Armor).

• One-handed Axes

  New

  Rogues can learn to equip one-handed axes.

• 1111 points

  Assassination

  —

  Combat

  —

  Subtlety

  —

• 1616 points

  Assassination

  Cold Blood

  Combat

  Flawless Execution

  Subtlety

  Premeditation

• 2121 points

  Assassination

  Mutilate

  Combat

  —

  Subtlety

  —

• 3131 points

  Assassination

  Venom

  Combat

  —

  Subtlety

  Thousand Cuts

A dash means the Deep Dive names no talent at that milestone for the tree, not that none exists.

• Improved Gouge

  MovedRow 1

  Moved from Combat to row 1.

• Remorseless Attacks, Lethality, Opportunity

  Changed

  Now also apply to Mutilate.

• Malice

  Changed

  Crit chance with all attacks and Poisons.

• Murder

  Changed

  Now also hits Giants, no longer Beasts and Dragonkin.

• Improved Expose Armor

  Redesigned

  Cheaper Expose Armor, and it refunds Combo Points at 5 Combo Points.

• Cold Blood

  Moved16-point talent

  Moved to the 16-point gold medal; also applies to Mutilate.

• Improved Poisons

  Changed

  A large chance for Poisons not to consume charges.

• Vigor

  MovedRow 5

  Now a 2-point row 5 talent, same total effect.

• Mutilate

  New21-point talent

  60 Energy: strikes with both hands (both must be daggers), more damage vs Poisoned targets, 2 Combo Points.

• Seal Fate

  Changed

  No longer needs Cold Blood; Mutilate triggers it once.

• Venom

  New31-point talent

  25-Energy Finisher: +30% Poison damage, +10% chance to apply Poisons; duration by Combo Points spent.

Removed or merged: None named; Improved Gouge moved out of Combat.

• Improved Eviscerate

  MovedRow 1

  Moved from Assassination to row 1; more damage.

• Puncturing Wounds

  Changed

  Formerly Improved Backstab; helps Mutilate; Backstab can grant an extra Combo Point.

• Deflection

  Changed

  Twice the Parry per point.

• Precision

  Changed

  Hit chance for all spells and attacks, Poisons included.

• Endurance

  Changed

  Percentage shorter Sprint and Evasion cooldowns.

• Flawless Execution

  New16-point talent

  Eviscerate costs 10 less Energy.

• Dual Wield Specialization

  Changed

  Off-hand damage increase reduced.

• Hack and Slash

  NewRow 5

  Merges the Dagger, Mace, Sword and Fist Weapon specializations and adds Axes (Axes = Swords extra attack; Maces ignore some armor instead of Stun).

• Weapon Expertise

  Redesigned

  Lowers the target's chance to Dodge or Parry you.

• Aggression

  Changed

  Also adds Backstab damage.

Removed or merged: Dagger, Mace, Sword and Fist Weapon Specialization (into Hack and Slash).

• Camouflage

  MovedRow 1

  Moved up to row 1.

• Master of Deception

  Changed

  3 points instead of 5.

• Setup and Initiative

  Changed

  100% chance at 3 points.

• Dirty Tricks

  RedesignedRow 2

  Formerly Improved Sap; row 2; cheaper Sap and Blind.

• Improved Ambush

  MovedRow 2

  Moved to row 2.

• Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage

  Changed

  More damage with a Dagger; Hemorrhage also raises your Rupture damage.

• Improved Distract

  NewRow 3

  Bigger Distract radius and detection penalty.

• Heightened Senses

  MovedRow 4

  Moved up to row 4.

• Premeditation

  Moved16-point talent

  Now the 16-point gold medal; 20 seconds.

• Serrated Blades

  Changed

  Ignores a percentage of target armor.

• Dirty Deeds

  Changed

  Garrote also works when not behind the target.

• Quietus

  NewRow 6

  Needs Dirty Deeds: Sinister Strike, Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage do more below 35% health.

• Cutthroat

  NewRow 6

  Backstab can make your next Ambush work without Stealth.

• Thousand Cuts

  New31-point talent

  Each Rupture damage tick lowers the Energy cost of Hemorrhage or Backstab by 3, stacking 5 times.

Removed or merged: Sleight of Hand and Deadliness.

• Sap broke Stealth.

  Sap never breaks Stealth; Dirty Tricks makes it and Blind cheaper.

• Poisons could not share a weapon with temporary enchants.

  They can.

• Four separate weapon specializations.

  One Combat talent, Hack and Slash (plus Axes).

• Weapon Skill on gear.

  Weapon Skill items are severely cut and racials no longer give weapon skill; Expertise, as in The Burning Crusade, takes over.

• Hit and Critical Strike were separate for melee, ranged and spells.

  They apply to melee, ranged and spell alike.

• DwarfPlayable
• GnomePlayable
• HumanPlayable
• Night ElfPlayable
• OrcPlayable
• TrollPlayable
• UndeadPlayable
• SkyborneSkyborne, both factions

• Druid
• Hunter
• Mage
• Paladin
• Priest
• Rogue
• Shaman
• Warlock
• Warrior

• Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock · opened 2026-10-22
• Blizzard forums: WoW Forever Beta Development Notes · opened 2026-10-22
• Method: itemization updates in WoW Forever (Kris Zierhut) · opened 2026-10-22
• Class Deep Dives — Priest and Warrior · opened 2026-10-22
• Class Deep Dives — Hunter and Druid · opened 2026-10-22

Lines are our paraphrase of Blizzard's Class Deep Dives and the Beta development notes; Method's itemization post is reported as what Method says. Race access is from Warcraft Wiki (CC BY-SA 4.0, warcraft.wiki.gg) via our races page. No Blizzard icon, render or screenshot is used, and nothing is read from the client.