WoW The War Within Beta: Rogue Talent Changes

With The War Within beta build now live, players will get to try out the new upcoming expansion and test many of the new features and changes that were added to World of Warcraft. A lot of improvement and quality-of-life updates were added, coupled with some very exciting balance changes that will certainly shake things up both in PvE and PvP content. 

Having that in mind, we will take a look at all of the talent changes that were added to all three of the Rogue specs so you can decide if you will be rocking a new class in The War Within when it officially launches later this year. 

The War Within Beta: Rogue Talents

Rogue

• Many talents have moved locations or have had their pathing updated.
• New Talent: Shadowheart – Leech increased by 3% while Stealthed.
• Acrobatic Strikes has been redesigned – Auto-attacks increase auto-attack damage and movement speed by 1% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 10%.

Developer’s note: Acrobatic Strikes no longer increases the range of melee attacks. We are revisiting increased melee range talents across the game, and most are being removed. Default melee range has increased since these talents were originally created, allowing specs with increased range to attack from well outside where it appears they should be able to.

• Cut to the Chase moved from Assassination talent tree to baseline all specs, triggering from Envenom/Dispatch/Eviscerate.
• Vanish’s guaranteed stealth duration now 1.5 seconds in PvP combat (base 3 seconds).
• Tight Spender now reduces Energy cost of finishing moves by 6% (was 10%).
• Subterfuge effect duration now 3/6 seconds. Now a 2-point talent.
• Nightstalker has been removed.
• Airborne Irritant now reduces Blind’s duration by 70% (was 40%). This gives it an 18 second duration when applied in an area.

Assassination Rogue

• New Talent: Rapid Injection – Envenom deals 10% increased damage while Envenom’s effect is active.
• New Talent: Sanguine Stratagem – Gain 1 additional max combo point. Your finishing moves that consume 5 or more combo points have increased effects, and your finishing moves deal 5% increased damage.
• Serrated Bone Spike has been redesigned – (Passive) Prepare a Serrated Bone Spike every 30 seconds, stacking up to 3. Rupture spends a stack to embed a bone spike in its target:

  • Deals Physical damage and Bleed damage every 3 seconds until the target dies or leaves combat. Refunds a stack when the target dies.
  • Generates 1 combo point plus 1 additional per active bone spike.
• Serrated Bone Spike initial damage reduced by 24% and damage over time damage reduced by 9%.
• Improved Garrote effect duration increased to 6 seconds (was 3 seconds).
• Indiscriminate Carnage effect duration reduced to 6 seconds (was 10 seconds).
• Kingsbane damage bonus per poison application now has a stated cap at 1000% from 50 stacks (was 1980% at 99 stacks).
• Kingsbane base damage over time increased by 6%.

Developer’s note: Kingsbane was originally intended to be uncapped, but abilities and talents introduced in the Dragonflight expansion allowed players to reach its previously-unreachable hidden cap. Increasing or removing the cap in the current environment would reinforce poor gameplay outcomes and continue to constrain talent options, so a lower cap is being introduced with the intention of having Kingsbane remain a valuable component of any build that includes it, but not by being required as every build’s all-important main character.

• The following talents have been removed:

  • Sepsis
  • Venom Rush

Outlaw Rogue

• Mastery: Main Gauche damage increased by 24%.
• Ace Up Your Sleeve now grants 4 combo points when triggered (was 5).
• Adrenaline Rush has been updated:

  • No longer increases global cooldown recovery rate by 25% while active.
  • Now increases global cooldown recovery rate equal to your Haste while active, up to 25%.
  • Now increases Energy regeneration by 50% (was 60%).
• Count the Odds effect now has base chance 10% (was 8%) and duration 8 seconds (was 5 seconds), but no longer doubled while Stealthed.
• Underhanded Upper Hand no longer affects Slice and Dice duration and no longer grants 3 seconds of Subterfuge duration (Stealth ability use).
• Crackshot’s Dispatch effectiveness reduced to 50% (was 75%).
• Thief’s Versatility now increases Versatility by 3% (was 4%).
• Blade Flurry radius increased to 8 yards (was melee range).
• Sepsis has been removed.

Subtlety Rogue

• Premeditation has been redesigned – After entering Stealth, your next combo point generating ability generates full combo points.
• Invigorating Shadowdust now reduces cooldowns by 10/20 seconds (was 15/30 seconds).
• Shadow Focus now reduces costs by 5%.
• Shadow Dance moved from the Class talent tree to Subtlety talent tree.

And that covers all of the talent changes to Rogues in The War Within beta. Of course, all of these updates are subject to change as players start providing feedback to the devs before the official launch of the expansion later this year.

A lot of interesting design choices this time around, especially with the addition of new talents for players to opt for either increased damage or utility. The War Within is set to be a very promising expansion what with all of the new features, content and overall quality-of-life changes.