Rogues in WoW: Forever are still the stealthy melee damage class with exclusive poisons, but Blizzard gave each tree a clearer identity: Assassination is about daggers and poisons, Combat about direct damage, and Subtlety about tricks and bleeds. Sap no longer breaks Stealth, poisons last longer, and Rogues can now use one-handed axes. This page summarizes Blizzard’s official class deep dive.
| Specializations | Assassination, Combat, Subtlety |
|---|---|
| Roles | Melee damage |
| Horde races | Orc, Troll, Undead (Forsaken), Windshaper Skyborne |
| Alliance races | Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, High Order Skyborne |
| Talents | From level 10; respec at a class trainer in a major city; Dual Specialization at level 40 |
Race list from Blizzard's official race and class tables. See every race and class combination.
Plan your build: the WoW Forever Rogue talent calculator uses the full talent trees from the game client’s own data, with every rank, row requirement and tooltip.
Every race except Tauren can be a Rogue in Forever, including both Skyborne factions.
Baseline changes every Rogue gets
- Poisons have more charges and can be applied alongside temporary enchants such as weightstones and sharpening stones.
- Sap no longer breaks Stealth. Blizzard wants Rogues to bring a crowd control option that uses their unique setup tools when a pull has too many enemies to tank safely.
- Distract also lowers affected enemies’ Stealth detection for 10 seconds, but it tells enemy players a Rogue is nearby.
- Expose Armor now reduces armor about as much as 5 stacks of Sunder Armor at a similar level, and it no longer stops Warriors from using Sunder Armor.
- Feint removes twice as much threat.
- One-handed axes: Rogues can now learn to use them.
Talent structure
Talents start at level 10 with gold medal talents at 11, 16 (new), 21 and 31 points. Respec at a class trainer in a major city; Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40.
Assassination
- Mutilate (new 21-point gold medal): a 60-Energy strike with both weapons (both must be daggers) that deals more to poisoned targets and awards 2 combo points.
- Venom (new 31-point gold medal): a 25-Energy finisher that increases your poison damage by 30% and poison application chance by 10%. Blizzard expects Assassination to spend finishers mostly on Venom and Slice and Dice.
- Cold Blood moves down to the 16-point gold medal and works with Mutilate. Vigor becomes a 2-point row 5 talent.
- Improved Poisons gives poisons a large chance not to use a charge. Malice adds crit to all attacks and poisons.
- Improved Expose Armor now makes it cheaper and refunds combo points at 5 points. Murder now affects Giants instead of Beasts and Dragonkin.
- Seal Fate no longer requires Cold Blood and triggers once per Mutilate if either hand crits.
Combat
- Hack and Slash (new): replaces the dagger, mace, sword and fist weapon specializations and adds an axe bonus. Axes and swords can grant an extra attack; maces ignore some armor instead of stunning.
- Flawless Execution (new 16-point gold medal): Eviscerate costs 10 less Energy.
- Weapon Expertise now reduces the target’s chance to dodge or parry. Precision adds hit to all attacks and poisons.
- Puncturing Wounds (formerly Improved Backstab) and Aggression now support a Backstab-based Combat build as well as Sinister Strike.
- Endurance shortens Sprint and Evasion by a percentage; Deflection gives twice the parry per point.
Subtlety
- Premeditation moves down to the 16-point gold medal and lasts 20 seconds.
- Thousand Cuts (new 31-point gold medal): each Rupture tick makes your next Hemorrhage or Backstab cheaper, stacking up to 5 times.
- Cutthroat (new): Backstab can let your next Ambush be used without Stealth.
- Quietus (new): Sinister Strike, Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage hit harder below 35% health.
- Dirty Tricks (formerly Improved Sap) makes Sap and Blind much cheaper. Improved Distract (new) widens Distract and weakens Stealth detection further.
- Hemorrhage and Ghostly Strike deal more with a dagger; Hemorrhage also boosts your Rupture. Dirty Deeds lets Garrote be used from the front.
- Setup and Initiative reach 100% with 3 points. Master of Deception costs 3 points. Removed: Sleight of Hand, Deadliness.
Strengths and weaknesses, according to Blizzard
Rogues remain the masters of Stealth, with abilities only usable from Stealth such as Pick Pocket, Distract, Sap and Garrote, and they alone have poisons. Assassination specializes in daggers and self-buffing finishers, Combat in hard-hitting direct damage with some cleave from Blade Flurry, and Subtlety in combat tricks and bleeds. Blizzard says Rogues have the highest potential single-target melee damage in the game.
What is not confirmed yet
- Exact per-level damage and healing numbers in some talent tooltips; these scale with your character, so our Rogue talent calculator shows them as formulas or dashes.
- Which one-handed axes are worth using; item lists come after launch.
- Poison vendor and quest details in Forever; we will add them once they can be checked in game.
Related guides
Other WoW Forever class guides
Every class was reworked for Forever. Compare them on the WoW Forever classes page, or see everything else that changed in WoW Forever vs Classic.
Sources
Facts on this page come from the sources below: official Blizzard posts unless marked as a secondary source. If Blizzard changes something, we update the page and the date above.
- Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock (2026-10)
- World of Warcraft: Forever Deep Dive Panel Recap (2026-09-14)
- Create the Hero You Want to Be in World of Warcraft: Forever (2026-09-23)