Contents
Overview
Rogue keeps its Stealth, Energy, and combo point identity in Forever, with updates built around Poisons, daggers, and finishing moves. Poisons gain more charges and can run alongside temporary weapon enchantments, 
Mutilate arrives from a later expansion, Combat swaps its weapon specializations for one flexible talent, and Rogues can now equip one handed axes.
What Changed From Classic
Talent Trees
Structure stays Classic minded: three trees (Assassination, Combat, Subtlety) and 51 points at level 60, now with a 16-point gold-medal tier. 
Cold Blood moves down to 16 points in Assassination, 
Premeditation moves down to 16 in Subtlety, and 
Flawless Execution is a new 16-point talent in Combat. Mutilate is a new 21-point talent, while 
Venom and 
Thousand Cuts are new 31-point talents. Blizzard designed Subtlety to support both 
Sinister Strike and 
Backstab builds, and Combat gained Backstab support too. 
Sleight of Hand and 
Deadliness are removed, 
Improved Gouge now sits in Assassination, and the four weapon specializations are folded into 
Hack and Slash.
New and Changed Talents
Don’t mistake a renamed talent for a new one. Puncturing Wounds is the former Improved Backstab, and 
Dirty Tricks is the former Improved Sap. Both are existing Classic talents that were renamed and redesigned.
Hack and Slash combines the Dagger, Mace, Sword, and Fist Weapon Specialization talents and adds an Axe bonus. Axes and Swords give a chance to make an extra attack, while Maces ignore some of the target’s armor instead of offering a chance to stun.
Quietus makes Sinister Strike, 
Ghostly Strike, and 
Hemorrhage hit harder against targets below 35% health, and 
Cutthroat gives Backstab a chance to let your next 
Ambush work without Stealth. Thousand Cuts rewards Rupture: each time it deals damage, the Energy cost of your next Hemorrhage or Backstab drops by 3, stacking up to 5 times.
New and Changed Abilities
Mutilate is the headline addition. It’s a well-known Assassination attack from a later WoW expansion, brought into Classic Era for the first time here. It costs 60 Energy and strikes with both hands, and both weapons must be daggers. It deals extra damage to Poisoned targets and awards 2 combo points, and several existing talents now apply to it too.
Venom is a new 25 Energy finisher that increases your Poison damage by 30% and your chance to apply Poisons by 10%, lasting longer the more combo points you spend. Blizzard expects Assassination to focus its finishers on keeping up Venom and 
Slice and Dice, with damaging finishers like Rupture and 
Eviscerate a lower priority, while other builds lean harder on those.
Poisons themselves also changed: charges are increased across the board, and they can be applied alongside temporary weapon enchantments. 
Improved Poisons goes further, giving Poisons a large chance not to consume charges when they trigger, so Assassination’s Poisons last much longer without being reapplied.
Race Options
Rogue is playable by eight races in Forever: Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Night Elf, Orc, Forsaken, Troll, and the new Skyborne, who can be either faction. Skyborne are the only addition, and none of the six new race/class combinations involve Rogue. See our Race and Class Combinations guide for the full list.
Level 30 Beta Observations
The beta cap rose from 20 to 30 on October 1, and that’s a real milestone for Rogue testing: level 30 gives you 21 talent points. That’s enough for Combat to reach 
Blade Flurry, Assassination to reach Mutilate, and Subtlety to reach Hemorrhage. Both new 31-point capstones, Venom and Thousand Cuts, sit beyond the current cap, so full capstone builds can’t be tested yet.
Talent names, tooltip text, and rank counts in this guide come from reading the beta client directly, not footage or guesswork — but this is still beta data. Expect some specifics to shift before the November 4 launch.
Tips & Tricks
Don’t copy a Classic Rogue build point for point. Cold Blood and Premeditation now sit at 16 points, Improved Gouge has changed trees, and Sleight of Hand and Deadliness are gone. Rebuild your tree from the new layout instead of from memory.
Stop hunting for weapon specializations, and try axes. Hack and Slash replaces them, and Rogues can now equip one-handed axes, so you can use whatever weapon drops and still get a bonus tied to its type.
Build Assassination around Poisons and Venom. Keep Venom and Slice and Dice up, and treat Rupture and Eviscerate as lower priority, which is how Blizzard expects the tree to be played.
Use Sap tactically. It no longer breaks Stealth, so it’s a way to control a mob without giving up your opener when a group is too large for the tank to handle safely.
Daggers are rewarded. Mutilate needs a dagger in each hand, and Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage hit harder with a dagger equipped.
Related Guides
- Every Class Change in WoW Forever — the universal talent changes affecting every class
- Race and Class Combinations — every new race and class option
- WoW Classic Plus / Forever Announcement Roundup — the full reveal and headline facts