WoW Forever Rogue Guide

Blizzard has not published a Rogue deep dive. These are the Rogue changes from the September 13 deep dive recap and the beta development notes (September 24 and October 1 updates). Each line links to its source.

• Sap now flags you for PvP when used on a PvP-flagged target. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• A missing Expose Armor no longer wipes all your combo points. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]
• Subtlety: Setup only adds combo points to the target whose attack you dodged or whose spell you resisted. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]

What the beta client shows

Our own read of the client tables. Blizzard has not posted these, so treat them as beta data that can change.

• Coup de Grace is a new trainer spell at level 30. Its client tooltip says it raises Eviscerate damage against targets carrying your Deadly Poison, more for each application. Blizzard has not posted it.
• Mutilate is the Assassination 21-point talent and Venom the 31-point one. Hemorrhage is a single rank in the beta (three in Classic Era).
• Subtlety has two 21-point picks in the client, Preparation and Hemorrhage.

The Rogue has three trees and 51 talent points at level 60, one per level from 10. Each tree opens a new row every 5 points. The 1-point picks behind the 10, 15, 20 and 30 point gates are the milestones Blizzard talks about: the 11, 16, 21 and 31 point talents. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026] The text below is the client's own tooltip at full rank, from build 1.60.1.70205. Plan a build in the Rogue talent calculator.

Assassination

The poison and finisher tree. Its milestones are Relentless Strikes, Cold Blood, Mutilate and the new Venom, a finisher that raises poison damage and poison chance. The tree has 17 talents worth 48 ranks; the first row is Improved Gouge, Remorseless Attacks, Malice.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Relentless Strikes	Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per Combo Point to restore 25 Energy.
16	Cold Blood	When activated, increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, Eviscerate, or Mutilate by 100%.
21	Mutilate	Instantly attacks with both weapons for 75% weapon damage plus an additional 17.25 with each weapon. Damage increased by 20% against Poisoned targets. Awards 2 Combo Points.
31	Venom	Finishing move that increases the damage of your Poisons by 30% and your chance to apply Poisons by 10%. Lasts longer per combo point: 1 point : 9 sec 2 points: 12 sec 3 points: 15 sec 4 points: 18 sec 5 points: 21 sec

Combat

The sustained melee tree. Its milestones are Riposte, Flawless Execution (a cheaper Eviscerate), Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush. The tree has 17 talents worth 44 ranks; the first row is Improved Eviscerate, Improved Sinister Strike, Lightning Reflexes.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Riposte	A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent's attack. This attack deals 150% weapon damage and disarms the target.
16	Flawless Execution	Reduces the Energy cost of your Eviscerate ability by 10.
21	Blade Flurry	Increases your melee attack speed by 20% and your melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. Lasts 15 sec.
31	Adrenaline Rush	Increases your Energy regeneration rate by 100% for 15 sec.

Subtlety

The stealth and bleed tree. Its milestones are Ghostly Strike, Premeditation, Preparation and Hemorrhage (both at 21 points) and the new Thousand Cuts, which makes Rupture cheapen your next Hemorrhage or Backstab. The tree has 19 talents worth 47 ranks; the first row is Camouflage, Master of Deception, Opportunity.

Point	Milestone talent	What it does (client text)
11	Ghostly Strike	A strike that deals 125% (180% if a Dagger is equipped in your Main Hand) weapon damage and increases your chance to dodge by 15% for 7 sec. Awards 1 combo points.
16	Premeditation	Adds 2 Combo Points to your target. You must add to or use those combo points within 20 sec or the combo points are lost.
21	Preparation	When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities.
21	Hemorrhage	An instant strike that deals 100% weapon damage (145% if a Dagger is equipped) and causes the target to take 15% increased Rupture damage from the Rogue. Lasts 15 sec. Awards 1 Combo Points.
31	Thousand Cuts	When your Rupture ability deals periodic damage, the Energy cost of your next Hemorrhage or Backstab ability within 10 sec is reduced by 3, stacking up to 5 times.

Changed between beta builds

We hold 5 snapshots of the Rogue trees (70009, 70058, 70124, 70170, 70205). These are the differences, oldest first. Wording-only fixes are left out.

Only wording changed between these builds.

These apply to every class, so they change how you play a Rogue too.

• Talents open at level 10 and use the same number of rows as Classic. The 1-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points in a tree are joined by a new 16-point milestone. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026]
• Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40. Talents, including Legacy talents, are changed at a class trainer in a major city. [Blizzard, September 30, 2026]
• Talents that used to hand out a key group buff are now baseline: Divine Spirit (Priest), Blessing of Kings (Paladin) and Improved Mark of the Wild (Druid). [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Spell, melee and ranged hit chance are one stat now, and so are spell, melee and ranged critical strike chance. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Bonus healing also gives one third as much bonus damage, so healers are not stuck when questing. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Weapon skill works as before, but items give less of it per item. Some items add a new stat that lowers the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried, and caster weapons carry spell damage and healing. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Riding follows the Burning Crusade model: the cost moves into riding training and you get a mount when you learn the skill. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Each race now has two active and two passive racial abilities, tuned to give a similar amount of offensive power. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]

Every Rogue spell rank the beta client (1.60.1.70205) lists from level 1 to 30, the level cap of the beta. Read from the client's SkillLineAbility and SpellLevels tables on the class skill lines. Spells marked talent need the talent first; the level is the level the client requires. Training costs are set on the server and are not in the client.

Level	Spells and ranks
1	Eviscerate (Rank 1), Sinister Strike (Rank 1), Stealth (Rank 1)
4	Backstab (Rank 1), Pick Pocket
6	Gouge (Rank 1), Sinister Strike (Rank 2)
8	Evasion, Eviscerate (Rank 2)
10	Sap (Rank 1), Slice and Dice (Rank 1), Sprint (Rank 1)
12	Backstab (Rank 2), Kick (Rank 1)
14	Expose Armor (Rank 1), Garrote (Rank 1), Sinister Strike (Rank 3)
16	Eviscerate (Rank 3), Feint (Rank 1)
18	Ambush (Rank 1), Gouge (Rank 2)
20	Backstab (Rank 3), Crippling Poison (Rank 1), Poisons, Premeditation (talent), Rupture (Rank 1), Stealth (Rank 2)
22	Distract, Garrote (Rank 2), Sinister Strike (Rank 4), Vanish (Rank 1)
24	Eviscerate (Rank 4), Mind-numbing Poison (Rank 1)
26	Ambush (Rank 2), Cheap Shot, Expose Armor (Rank 2), Kick (Rank 2)
28	Backstab (Rank 4), Feint (Rank 2), Instant Poison II (Rank 2), Rupture (Rank 2), Sap (Rank 2)
30	Coup de Grace, Deadly Poison (Rank 1), Disarm Trap, Garrote (Rank 3), Hemorrhage (talent), Kidney Shot (Rank 1), Mutilate (Rank 1) (talent), Sinister Strike (Rank 5)

The beta class spell list (1.60.1.70205) compared with Classic Era (1.15.9.70003), levels 2 to 60, matched by spell name. A renamed spell shows up once as removed and once as new. Passive form auras and helper records are left out.

New in Forever

Spell	First level	Ranks	Type
Coup de Grace	30	1	Trainer
Mutilate	30	4	Talent
Venom	40	1	Talent

Different number of ranks

Spell	Classic Era ranks (levels)	Forever beta ranks (levels)
Hemorrhage	3 (30, 46, 58)	1 (30)

Field by field changes to every Rogue spell (damage, costs, cooldowns) are on the Rogue spell changes page.

The beta client (1.60.1.70170) allows 9 races to be a Rogue. "New" means the pair is not in the Classic Era client (1.15.9.69722). Blizzard can still switch a pair off on its servers. All pairs are on the races and classes page.

Racial notes from Blizzard

Every race has two active and two passive racials in Forever. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026] Blizzard has described these so far:

• Dwarf: Stoneform focuses on removing and blocking Bleeds, Poisons and Diseases, and its defensive bonus now lowers physical damage taken. Find Treasure can stay on with other tracking. Mace Specialization raises critical strike chance with all spells and abilities while a mace is equipped. Big Game Hunter adds damage against Beasts. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Gnome: Eureka became a 10% discount on Mana, Rage or Energy abilities. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Gnome: Eureka no longer applies to periodic effects; channeled spells do not count as periodic. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]
• Human: Will to Survive got a new visual, matching Dispel Magic. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Undead: Will of the Forsaken still removes Charm, Fear and Sleep but no longer grants immunity. Cannibalize restores Mana as well as Health. Touch of the Grave is a new damage racial. [Blizzard, September 13, 2026]
• Undead: Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control and no longer fires from spells without a damage part. [Blizzard blue post, September 24, 2026]
• Undead: Cannibalize cannot be used while you are immune to Physical damage. [Blizzard blue post, October 1, 2026]

We do not publish guesses. These wait for launch or for Blizzard to say more:

• Stat priorities. Itemization is still moving in the beta, and Blizzard has posted no stat weights.
• Best in slot lists. The two new raids in the client (Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps) have encounter names but no loot data yet.
• Raid roles and group makeup at 60. The beta stops at level 30.
• Training costs. Trainer prices are set on the server and are not in the client files.
• Poison changes. The client changes poison records, but Blizzard has posted nothing about poisons.

Blizzard

• Blizzard: WoW Forever launches November 4, September 12, 2026
• Blizzard: World of Warcraft: Forever deep dive panel recap, September 13, 2026
• Blizzard: Class Deep Dives, Priest and Warrior, September 30, 2026
• Blizzard: The WoW Forever beta is live, September 17, 2026
• Blizzard blue post: Beta development notes, September 24 update, September 24, 2026
• Blizzard blue post: Beta development notes, October 1 update, October 1, 2026

Beta client data

• Talent trees: the beta client's Trait tables, build 1.60.1.70205, decoded into our talent snapshots (beta builds compared: 70009, 70058, 70124, 70170, 70205).
• Spells by level and the Classic Era comparison: SkillLineAbility, Spell and SpellLevels for build 1.60.1.70205 against Classic Era 1.15.9.70003, read from our datamine on October 5, 2026.
• Races: the client's character creation table, build 1.60.1.70170, against Classic Era 1.15.9.69722.

How we work: Blizzard statements are quoted in our own words and linked with their date. Client data is shown as the client stores it, with its build number, and is not a promise about the live game. Press reports and datamining rumors are not used on this page.