ForeverDB

Rogue in WoW Forever: what the datamine says is coming

Rogue talent tree paintings from the WoW Forever client

· updated · ForeverDB

The WoW Forever client and Blizzard's posts show 2 new abilities and 39 new class items for Rogues. We list them all and give our read on the class.

Speculation. This outlook is built from datamined WoW Forever client data (build 1.60.1.70862) and official Blizzard posts. Level 60 is the launch cap: everything here is playable, and Blizzard can still change it.

What Blizzard's notes changed

Kaivax posted these Rogue changes in WoW Forever Beta Development Notes – Updated November 2 on 3 November 2026:

  • Casting Slice and Dice no longer causes the target to stand up if sitting.
  • Poised: New passive ability learned at level 18. “When you are not in combat and have your maximum Energy, you will gain Poised. Poised reduces the Energy cost of your next Energy ability by 10.”
  • New Spell Added: Shank. Learned at level 24. 5 Energy cost. 10 second cooldown. Melee range. Instantly strike with your off-hand weapon, dealing 50% weapon damage and generating 15 Energy. Shank cannot Miss. Rank 2 learned at level 44 and generates 25 Energy.
  • Deadly Poison Attack Power coefficient increased to 0.009 (Was 0.0045)
  • Instant Poison Attack Power coefficient increased to 0.01 (Was 0.005)

Assassination

  • The Ruthlessness talent activating no longer causes the target to stand up if sitting.
  • Improved Expose Armor moved to Row 2 (Was Row 3).
  • Murder has been removed.
  • Lethality changed to a 2-point talent granting 10/20% increased Critical Strike damage to the abilities listed (Was a 5-point talent granting 4/8/12/16/20%).
  • Vigor moved to Row 3 (Was Row 5).
  • New Talent: Blood Splatter. Passive. 1 point talent in Row 3. Increases the duration of your Rupture ability by 6 seconds and your Garrote ability by 9 seconds.
  • Relentless Strikes moved to Row 5 (was Row 3).
  • Relentless Strikes change to a 5-point talent granting a 4/8/12/16/20% chance per Combo Point to restore 25 Energy (was 1 point granting 20% per combo point).
  • Venom moved to Row 5 (was Row 7).
  • Venom is now a Passive that causes your Shank ability to increase your Poison damage by 30% and your chance to apply Poisons by 20% for 6 seconds.
  • Seal Fate changed to a 3-point talent granting your critical strikes from abilities that add Combo Points a 33/66/100% chance to add an additional Combo Point.
  • Mutilate moved to Row 7 (was Row 9).
  • Mutilates damage increased to 90% of weapon damage plus an additional amount that was also increased (was 75% weapon damage and a lower amount).

Combat

  • Improved Eviscerate has been renamed Coup de Grace, Increasing the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 7/13/20%, and the damage and storage rate of your Death Mark ability by 7/13/20%.
  • Improved Sinister Strike renamed to Efficient Strikes and now reduces the Energy costs of Sinister Strike and Hemorrhage by 3/5 (was just Sinister Strike discounted).
  • Improved Sprint moved to Row 2 (was Row 3).
  • New Talent: Composure. Passive. 2-point talent in Row 3. Increases the Energy cost reduction of your Poised ability by 5/10.
  • Flawless Execution energy cost reduction increased to 15 (was 10).
  • Weapon Expertise moved to Row 4 (was Row 6).
  • Aggression moved to Row 4 (was Row 6).
  • Aggression changed to increasing the damage of Sinister Strike and Eviscerate by 5/10/15% (was Sinister Strike, Eviscerate, and Backstab by 2/4/6%).
  • Dual Wield Specialization moved to Row 5 (was Row 4).
  • Dual Wield Specialization changed to a 2-point talent granting 25/50% increased off-hand weapon damage (was 5 a points granting 5/10/15/20/25% off-hand weapon damage).
  • New Talent: Flash of Steel. Passive. 5-point talent in Row 6. Increases the energy generated by your Shank ability by 3/6/9/12/15 and reduces its cooldown by 0.4/0.8/1.2/1.6/2.0 seconds.

Subtlety

  • Fixed an issue where Hemorrhage and Ghostly Strike were dealing much more damage than intended when using a Dagger.
  • Setup moved to Row 1 (was Row 2).
  • Setup changed to a 15/30/45% chance to add a Combo Point to your target after Dodging their attack or fully resisting one of their spells (was 33/66/100% chance).
  • Opportunity changed to a 5-point talent granting 4/8/12/16/20% increased damage to Backstab, Garrote, Ambush, and Mutilate (was 2 points granting 5/10%).
  • Dirty Deeds moved to Row 2 (was Row 5).
  • Camouflage moved to Row 2 (was Row 1).
  • Camouflage changed to a 3-point talent granting 5/10/15% increased movement speed in stealth and reduces stealth’s cooldown by 2/4/6 seconds (was 5 points granting 3/6/9/12/15% and 2/3/4/5/6).
  • Premeditation moved to Row 3 (was Row 4).
  • Serrated Blades moved to Row 3 (was Row 4).
  • Elusiveness moved to Row 4 (was Row 2).
  • Ghostly Strike moved to Row 4 (was Row 3).
  • Ghostly Strike now also causes your next Ambush or Garrote cast within 7 seconds to not require Stealth.
  • Improved Distract removed.
  • New Talent: Quick Getaway. Passive. 2-point talent in Row 4. Increases the maximum number of targets you may have Sapped by 1/1 and increases your movement speed by 15/30% for 3 seconds after sapping a target.
  • Heightened Senses moved to Row 5 (was Row 4).
  • Hemorrhage changed to increase the damage of the caster’s Rupture and Garrote abilities by 15% (was only increasing Rupture by 15%).
  • Quietus has been removed.
  • Cutthroat has been removed.
  • New Talent: Boot Knife. Passive. 5-point talent in Row 6. Gives your Shank ability a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to add 2 Combo Points to the target.
  • Thousand Cuts has been removed.
  • New Talent: Death Mark. Active. 1 point talent in Row 7. 25 Energy cost. 20-yard range. 10 second cooldown. Curse. Finishing move that marks the target, storing a portion of the damage dealt by your attacks per Combo Point. Garrote and Rupture damage is stored at twice the rate. After 6 sec, the stored damage is dealt up to a maximum increased by Attack Power and Critical Strike chance.

New abilities in the client

These 2 Rogue abilities are in the Forever client but not in Classic Era, with what rank 1 does:

  • Poised (level 18). Rank 1: While at maximum Energy, and out of combat, reduce the Energy cost of your next ability by 10.
  • Shank (level 24). Rank 1: Instantly strike with your off-hand weapon, dealing 50% weapon damage and generating 15 Energy. It has 2 ranks, the last at level 44.

Talent trees

Talents that are new in Forever, by tree:

Rogue-only gear that's new in Forever

Weapon and armour skills

Rogues can now use One-Handed Axes, which they couldn't in Classic Era.

Our read (speculation)

Blizzard's 24 September notes only fixed Sap's PvP flagging, so the Rogue picture comes almost entirely from the client, and it points to an Assassination style built on poisons and Eviscerate. Coup de Grace at 30 makes Eviscerate hit harder for each application of your Deadly Poison on the target. Venom, the Assassination capstone talent at 40, is a finisher that raises poison damage and application chance. Flawless Execution, a Combat talent, trims Eviscerate's Energy cost. Mutilate, a former Season of Discovery rune, is now a tier 5 Assassination talent you can take at level 30, with higher ranks from the trainer from 40, and Puncturing Wounds, a Combat talent, boosts both it and Backstab. The Deep Dive recap adds that merged hit chance helps Rogues land Poisons.

In the beta, which stopped at level 30 from 1 October until it closed on 23 October, Rogues picked up Vanish, Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot, and 21 talent points reached tier 5, where Mutilate, Blade Flurry, Preparation and Hemorrhage sit; Cold Blood and Premeditation are in tier 4, at level 25. At launch the cap is 60, with 51 talent points, enough for any tree's tier 7 capstone, which opens at level 40: Venom, Adrenaline Rush or Thousand Cuts. Rogues can now use One-Handed Axes, and the client's Combat tree has a Hack and Slash talent whose bonus depends on weapon type, with axes and swords grouped together, which suggests axes are meant as a real Combat option. Combat's second tier also holds Puncturing Wounds, so the dagger Backstab build now lives in Combat rather than Assassination, and every Combat build starts with Improved Eviscerate, which moved over from Assassination.

Rogue-only gear includes a few levelling pieces alongside PvP-rank sets at 55 and 60: Pyrewood Signet Ring at level 20, Ruby-Adorned Blade at 31 and Field Researcher's Loop at 35. (Update, 2 October: build 1.60.1.70170 opened Field Researcher's Loop to every class and cut it to item level 35; it is the reward for handing in 20 library books.) We don't know where the other two come from, but class-specific items in that range would fit the Deep Dive recap's note that quest rewards were expanded to support more classes and roles. If Coup de Grace and Venom play the way their tooltips read, keeping Deadly Poison on the target could become the core of Assassination.

Sources

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