Rogue

1. Understand

Official overview (quotes)

• VERIFIED Rogue : Every Advantage Counts [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Rogues excel at creating opportunities and turning them into decisive advantages. These updates give them more ways to prepare for an encounter, adapt once combat begins, and shape a build around the methods that suit them best. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Rogues remain the masters of Stealth, with unique abilities useable from Stealth like Pickpocket, Distract, Sap, and Garrote. They alone have access to Poisons and can now use them alongside temporary weapon enchantments. However, different varieties of Rogues specialize in different weapons and tactics. Assassination specializes in daggers and buffing themselves with Finishing moves.  Combat and Subtlety have support for all weapon types, with Combat focusing on hard hitting direct damage and little bit of cleave damage with Blade Flurry, and Subtlety focusing on combat tricks and Bleeds. Whichever specialization they choose, Rogues are welcome in any party or raid for their Stealth and control abilities, as well as the highest potential single-target melee damage in the game. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Class description (official race & class guide): Rogues are most successful when their deeds never come to light. Fond of poisons and silent projectile weapons, rogues rely on a blend of stealth and minor mysticism. Usually in the employ of rich nobles or local governments, the rogue redistributes wealth or eliminates designated targets. A rogue’s allegiance lasts only as long as the latest contract. [Create the Hero You Want to Be in World of Warcraft: Forever, 2026-09-22]
• VERIFIED Specializations : Assassination, Combat, Subtlety [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]

2. Learn

• VERIFIED Talents become available starting at level 10 and continue using a familiar structure, including one-point milestone talents at 11, 21, and 31 points, now joined by a new 16-point milestone. To change your talents, including Legacy talents, visit a class trainer in one of the major cities. Dual Specialization also becomes available at level 40. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]

Baseline Abilities

• VERIFIED Poisons [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Charges increased on all poisons. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Poisons can now be applied to weapons at the same time as temporary enchantments like Weightstones and Sharpening Stones. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Feint : Threat reduction doubled. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Sap : Using this ability no longer breaks Stealth. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED We want Rogues to have a crowd control benefit they can provide to parties and raids that requires their unique skills to set up (Stealth, Distract, etc.) but which can be used tactically when there are too many monsters in a group to be safely tanked. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Distract : This ability now also causes affected enemies to have reduced Stealth detection for 10 seconds. However, this debuff also means player enemies will now know there is a Rogue nearby to look for. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Expose Armor : Armor reduction increased to match the armor reduction caused by 5 applications of Sunder Armor at approximately the same level. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Expose Armor no longer prevents Sunder Armor from being used on a target, but Sunder Armor will still not overwrite Expose Armor, unless its effect is weaker. This allows Warriors to generate threat from Sunder Armor without Expose Armor interfering. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Axes : Rogues can now learn to equip one-handed axes. This increase in itemization choices lets us make a more diverse offering of weapons and know that Rogues will still benefit. Rogues as an archetype include brigands and outlaws, who often make use of axes in fantasy and medieval storytelling. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]

3. Put into practice

Races confirmed by Forever sources

• VERIFIED Skyborne (Horde & Alliance) [World of Warcraft: Forever What’s Next Panel Recap, 2026-09-12]
• VERIFIED Playable races (official race × class table): Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, Orc, Undead / Forsaken, Troll, Skyborne. [Create the Hero You Want to Be in World of Warcraft: Forever, 2026-09-22]
• VERIFIED Not available per that table: Tauren. [Create the Hero You Want to Be in World of Warcraft: Forever, 2026-09-22]
• All races

Editorial evaluation

EDITORIAL EVALUATION Complexity : ●●○ · Solo comfort : ●●○. 1–3 ratings given by the wiki editors; not official statistics.

• VERIFIED Abilities and talents may continue to evolve throughout the beta test. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Hunter and Druid, 2026-09-30]

4. Progress

Assassination

• VERIFIED Improved Gouge : Moved to row 1 of Assassination from Combat. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Remorseless Attacks : Now also affects Mutilate. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Malice : Now increases your critical strike chance with all attacks and Poisons, instead of just melee attacks. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Murder : Now also applies to Giants but no longer applies to Beasts and Dragonkin. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Improved Expose Armor : (Redesigned.) No longer increases the effectiveness of Expose Armor, instead reduces the Energy cost of Expose Armor and Expose Armor now refunds Combo Points when used with 5 Combo Points. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Lethality : Now also applies to Mutilate. Bonus to critical damage also lowered some. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Cold Blood : Moved from 21-point gold medal talent to 16-point gold medal talent. Now also applies to Mutilate. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Improved Poisons : Now also grants a large chance for Poisons not to consume charges when triggered. We want Assassination to be a Poison-focused playstyle, so this helps their Poisons last much longer without needing to be reapplied. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Vigor : Now a 2-point talent on row 5 instead of the 31-point gold medal talent. Same total effect. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Mutilate : (New 21-point gold medal talent.) This 60 Energy Combo ability strikes with both hands as weapon damage from each weapon, but both must be daggers. This damage is increased against Poisoned targets and awards 2 Combo Points. Each hand has a chance to trigger various procs. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Improved Kidney Shot : The increased damage from this talent now applies only to your own attacks and Poisons. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Seal Fate : No longer requires Cold Blood as a pre-requisite. Note that Mutilate will trigger this exactly once if either or both hands generates a critical strike. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Venom : New 31-point gold medal talent. This new 25 Energy Finisher ability grants 30% increased damage to your Poisons and 10% increased chance to apply Poisons. Duration determined by number of Combo Points spent. Our expectation is that Assassination focuses its finishers on maintaining Venom and Slice and Dice, and damaging finishers like Rupture and Eviscerate are a lower priority. Other Rogue builds would put more emphasis on those damaging Finishers. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]

Combat

• VERIFIED Improved Eviscerate : Moved to row 1 from Assassination . Damage bonus increased. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Puncturing Wounds : (Formerly Improved Backstab.) Now also increases Mutilate crit chance by a lesser percentage, and gives Backstab a chance to grant an additional Combo Point. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Deflection : Now grants twice as much Parry chance per point. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Precision : Now increases chance to hit with all spells and attacks, including Poisons, instead of just melee weapon attacks. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Endurance : Now reduces Sprint and Evasion cooldown by a percentage, resulting in a larger total reduction for both. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Flawless Execution : New 16-point gold medal talent. Reduces the Energy cost of Eviscerate by 10. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Dual Wield Specialization : Increase to off-hand damage reduced. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Hack and Slash : This new row 5 talent combines the benefits of the removed talents Dagger Specialization, Mace Specialization, Sword Specialization, and Fist Weapon Specialization, and also adds a bonus for Axes. Axes gain the same benefit as Swords, a chance to make an extra attack. The bonus for Maces causes attacks to ignore some of the target’s armor, rather than provide a chance to Stun. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Weapon Expertise : (Redesigned.) Now reduces the chance for a target to Dodge or Parry your attacks. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Aggression : Now also increases Backstab damage. We wanted the Combat specialization to support a Backstab-oriented build as well as a Sinister Strike-oriented build. So, this and several other talents gained more Backstab support. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Removed talents : Dagger Specializaton, Mace Specialization, Sword Specialization, Fist Weapon Specialization have all been subsumed into the new talent Hack and Slash. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]

Subtlety

• VERIFIED Camouflage : Moved from row 2 up to row 1. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Master of Deception : Reduced from 5 talent points to 3 talent points for the same effect. The tooltip has been clarified to state the exact impact of the improvement to Stealth. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Opportunity : Now also affects Mutilate. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Setup : Chance to trigger increased so that 3 points grants 100% chance. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Dirty Tricks : Formerly Improved Sap. Moved from row 4 up to row 2. (Redesigned.) Sap never breaks Stealth now baseline. Instead, this talent reduces the Energy cost of Sap and Blind by a substantial amount. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Improved Ambush : Moved from row 3 to row 2. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Initiative : Chance for this to activate increased so that it has a 100% chance with 3 talent points. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Ghostly Strike : Percentage damage done increased while a Dagger is equipped instead of another weapon. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Improved Distract : (New row 3 talent.) Increases the radius of effect of your Distract, and Distracted enemies now suffer an increased penalty to their Stealth detection. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Heightened Senses : Moved from row 5 up to row 4. Tooltip clarified to describe the exact effect of the increased Stealth detection. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Premeditation : Moved from 31-point gold medal talent to 16-point gold medal talent. Duration increased to 20 seconds. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Serrated Blades : Now ignores a specific percentage of your target’s armor, instead of a flat value—rising per level. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Dirty Deeds : Now also allows Garrote to be used when not behind your target. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Hemorrhage : Percentage damage done increased while a Dagger is equipped instead of another weapon. Now also increases your Rupture damage to the target for 15 seconds. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Quietus : (New row 6 talent.) Pre-requisite Dirty Deeds. Your Sinister Strike, Ghostly Strike, and Hemorrhage abilities cause more damage to targets below 35% health. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED We wanted the Subtlety tree to support playstyles with both Sinister Strike and Backstab, so this talent supports the Sinister Strike oriented build. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Cutthroat : (New row 6 talent.) Your Backstab has a chance to cause your next Ambush to not require Stealth. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED This talent supports the Backstab oriented build as well as creating an exciting alternate flow where Ambush can be used during combat. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Thousand Cuts : New 31-point gold medal talent. Each time Rupture deals damage, the Energy cost of your next Hemorrhage or Backstab ability is reduced by 3 Energy, stacking up to 5 times. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]
• VERIFIED Removed talents : Sleight of Hand, Deadliness. [World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Rogue and Warlock, 2026-10-07]

5. Optimize

EDITORIAL EVALUATION No official optimization data (numeric rotations, best-in-slot gear, reference builds) has been published; this section will only be filled from verified sources.

Class comparison tool

Spec guides (community)

These links point to guides written by fan sites specifically for WoW: Forever. They are not official, and guides written during the beta may change at any time. Nothing below is verified by this wiki.

Assassination

• COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION World of Warcraft: Forever Assassination Rogue Guide - WoW Forever - Icy Veins — Icy Veins guide by Sellin — last changelog entry 2026-10-05, beta (level 30 cap). Per its table of contents it covers: leveling, a level 30 talent build, spells and rotation, gear/stats/consumables. [World of Warcraft: Forever Assassination Rogue Guide - WoW Forever - Icy Veins]

Combat

• COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION World of Warcraft: Forever Combat Rogue Guide - WoW Forever - Icy Veins — Icy Veins guide by Sellin — last changelog entry 2026-10-05, beta (level 30 cap). Per its table of contents it covers: leveling, a level 30 talent build, spells and rotation, gear/stats/consumables. [World of Warcraft: Forever Combat Rogue Guide - WoW Forever - Icy Veins]

Subtlety

• COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION World of Warcraft: Forever Subtlety Rogue Guide - WoW Forever - Icy Veins — Icy Veins guide by Seliathan — last changelog entry 2026-10-08, beta (level 30 cap). Per its table of contents it covers: leveling, a level 30 talent build, spells and rotation, gear/stats/consumables. [World of Warcraft: Forever Subtlety Rogue Guide - WoW Forever - Icy Veins]

6. Go further

All classes · Leveling 1–60