WoW: ForeverCGN planner & guide
Rogue class art

Class guide

Rogue

Stealth, combo points, poisons and burst. Every race except Tauren can play one.

Blizzard Confirmed Beta BuildCGN checked October 7, 2026

Races that can play Rogue

Horde

  • Orc
  • Troll
  • Undead
  • Skyborne (Windshaper)

Alliance

  • Dwarf
  • Gnome
  • Human
  • Night Elf
  • Skyborne (High Order)

Skyborne: Windshaper (Horde), High Order (Alliance). Skyborne guide →

CGN does not rank races for this class yet. Every race has two active and two passive racials in Forever, and Blizzard reworked most of them.

Full race and class table →

Blizzard Confirmed Blizzard, Sep 22, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Sep 22, 2026 ↗

What changed from Classic

Poisons hold more charges and work alongside Sharpening and Weight Stones, Sap no longer breaks Stealth, and Rogues can use one-handed axes. Assassination gains Mutilate (daggers only) and Venom, Combat folds its weapon specializations into Hack and Slash, and Subtlety gains Quietus, Cutthroat and Thousand Cuts. Blizzard still pitches Rogues as having the highest single-target melee damage potential.

Baseline changes

  • Every poison has more charges and can go on a weapon together with a temporary enchantment such as a Weightstone or Sharpening Stone.
  • Sap no longer breaks Stealth, which Blizzard wants as a crowd-control tool that needs a Rogue's own setup. Distract also lowers enemies' Stealth detection for 10 seconds, which warns player enemies that a Rogue is near.
  • Expose Armor takes off as much armor as five Sunder Armors and no longer blocks Sunder Armor (a weaker Sunder still cannot overwrite it). Feint's threat reduction is doubled.
  • Rogues can learn to equip one-handed axes.

By talent tree

Assassination

  • Mutilate (new, 21 points): a 60-Energy combo move that hits with both weapons (both must be daggers), does more to Poisoned targets and gives 2 combo points. Venom (new, 31 points): a 25-Energy finisher for 30% more Poison damage and a 10% better chance to apply Poisons. Blizzard expects Assassination to spend finishers on Venom and Slice and Dice.
  • Improved Poisons can stop Poisons from using a charge. Cold Blood moved to the 16-point slot and Vigor became a 2-point row 5 talent. Improved Expose Armor now cuts the Energy cost and refunds combo points when used with 5, and Improved Gouge moved here from Combat.
  • Mutilate was added to several talents (Remorseless Attacks, Lethality, Opportunity, Cold Blood, Seal Fate). Malice's crit bonus now covers all attacks and Poisons.

Combat

  • Hack and Slash (new, row 5) replaces Dagger, Mace, Sword and Fist Weapon Specialization and adds Axes. Axes and Swords get a chance for an extra attack, and Maces ignore some of the target's armor instead of stunning. Flawless Execution (new, 16 points) cuts Eviscerate's Energy cost by 10.
  • Precision now adds hit chance for all spells and attacks, Poisons included. Weapon Expertise is redesigned to cut a target's Dodge and Parry. Aggression and Puncturing Wounds (formerly Improved Backstab) back a Backstab build next to the Sinister Strike one.
  • Deflection gives twice the Parry, Endurance shortens Sprint and Evasion, Dual Wield Specialization gives less off-hand damage and Improved Eviscerate moved to row 1.

Subtlety

  • Quietus (new, row 6) adds damage from Sinister Strike, Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage against targets under 35% health. Cutthroat (new, row 6) lets Backstab give a chance for your next Ambush to work without Stealth. Thousand Cuts (new, 31 points): each Rupture damage tick cuts the Energy cost of your next Hemorrhage or Backstab by 3, up to 5 times.
  • Premeditation is the 16-point talent with a 20-second duration. Dirty Tricks (formerly Improved Sap, redesigned) lowers the Energy cost of Sap and Blind, Improved Distract is new, and Dirty Deeds lets Garrote work from the front.
  • Setup and Initiative reach 100% chance with 3 points. Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage do more with a dagger, and Hemorrhage also adds Rupture damage for 15 seconds. Sleight of Hand and Deadliness were removed.

Blizzard Confirmed Blizzard, Oct 7, 2026 ↗ (summarized in CGN's words; the Blizzard article has the full list)

Blizzard says class abilities and talents may keep changing during the beta. Where a later beta build changed something, the beta section below has it.

How talents work: Talents start at level 10 and keep Classic's rows. One-point milestone talents sit at 11, 21 and 31 points spent, and a new 16-point milestone was added. Some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12, some are changed, and some class buffs that used to be talents (Blessing of Kings, Improved Mark of the Wild, Divine Spirit) are now baseline. To respec, including Legacy talents, visit a class trainer in a major city. Dual Specialization arrives at level 40.

Talent trees and milestone talents

Each tree has one-point milestone talents. This table is built from the same beta talent data as the planner (October 1 build, with Blizzard's October 8 talent changes). A level 30 character has 21 talent points (one per level from 10 to 30), so the 31-point talents are out of reach at the beta cap. The Legacy perk Talented can unlock talent points up to five levels earlier.

Rogue milestone talents
Tree11 points16 points (new)21 points31 points
AssassinationRelentless StrikesCold BloodMutilateVenomOut of reach at level 30
CombatRiposteFlawless ExecutionBlade FlurryAdrenaline RushOut of reach at level 30
SubtletyGhostly StrikePremeditationHemorrhageThousand CutsOut of reach at level 30

Open Rogue in the planner

Beta Data Blizzard, Oct 1, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 8, 2026 ↗ (talent data is Icy Veins' calculator data for the October 1 build, with the October 8 talent changes from Blizzard's notes)

Tier placement at level 30

These are Wowhead's October 6 level-30 beta placements, verified on October 7 and shown on CGN's tier lists. Wowhead groups several DPS classes at this level bracket, and CGN expands those class placements across the applicable DPS trees. Level-30 Beta Rankings: not level-60 launch or raid rankings.

Rogue tier placement at level 30
SpecDPSHealerTank
Assassination RogueADPS listNot rankedNot ranked
Combat RogueADPS listNot rankedNot ranked
Subtlety RogueADPS listNot rankedNot ranked

Community Observation Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ · Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ · Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ (Wowhead's terms bar automated reading; see the tier lists page for how CGN handles that)

Level-30 builds

CGN publishes one 21-point level-30 build per role-spec, each decoded from Icy Veins' level-30 guides and validated against the planner data.

Rogue level-30 builds
SpecRoleSummary
Assassination RogueDPSCrit and combo points: Malice, Ruthlessness, Lethality and Mutilate at 30.See the build →
Combat RogueDPSCheaper Sinister Strike, harder Eviscerate, Riposte and Blade Flurry at 30; the sturdiest Rogue to level.See the build →
Subtlety RogueDPSStealth openers: Improved Ambush, Initiative, Premeditation, and Hemorrhage at 30.See the build →

A build here is not "best in slot": CGN has not validated a full item pool at the beta cap.

Beta changes so far

October 1 build (updated October 2) (Oct 1, 2026)

  • Fixed Expose Armor missing and costing you all your combo points.
  • Subtlety: Setup only adds combo points to your current target if it is the one that dodged or resisted you.

September 24 build (Sep 24, 2026)

  • Sap now flags the Rogue for PvP when used on a PvP-flagged target.

Every change, by build → · Known issues →

Beta Build Blizzard, Sep 24, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 1, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 8, 2026 ↗

Open or promised beta issues that mention Rogue

  • The Cooldown Manager is still a work in progress, and how complete it is varies by class. Banes and curses do not track after you drop and re-acquire a target, Healthstone, Arcane Blast, pet cooldowns and item enhancements (Windfury, rogue poisons) cannot be tracked, a Mana gem needs another spell cast to start tracking, and Priest tracks all spells by default.

What we don't know yet

  • How Rogue compares at level 60: the beta cap is 30 and the 31-point talents cannot be tested yet.
  • Final abilities and talents, which Blizzard says may change during the beta.

Sources on this page

Labels: Blizzard Confirmed Beta Build Beta Data Developer Interview Press Report Community Observation Survey / Concept Only Not Yet Known