Rogue and Warlock deep dive: Mutilate, Banes, axes for Rogues and a new 16-point talent tier

Blizzard has published its WoW: Forever class deep dive for the Rogue and the Warlock, and neither class gets off lightly. Rogues can now run poisons alongside weightstones and sharpening stones, Sap no longer breaks Stealth, one-handed axes join the arsenal and Assassination gets Mutilate. Warlocks see Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom turned into a new category called Banes, lose Curse of Shadows entirely, get pets that scale with their own stats and pick up new capstones in Wrack, Demonic Pact and Incinerate.

The forum announcement is a short teaser pointing at the full article, which carries every talent change.

The full write-up is on the official site:

A few general rules apply to both classes, and to everyone else too. Talents become available from level 10 and keep the familiar structure, including one-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points, now joined by a new 16-point milestone. You can see how that shakes out in the Rogue talents and Warlock talents calculators. Changing talents, including Legacy talents, means a visit to a class trainer in one of the major cities, and Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40. Blizzard adds the usual caveat that abilities and talents may keep changing throughout the beta.

The article also went live with a couple of mistakes. Community manager Nethaera first said an incorrectly posted section had been replaced, without naming which one:

She later spelled out two specific corrections: the summary line describing Combat and Subtlety, and the note on Puncturing Wounds. Everything below uses the corrected text.

Rogue

Blizzard's pitch for the Rogue is that every advantage counts: more ways to prepare for a fight, adapt once it starts and build around the methods you prefer. Rogues remain the masters of Stealth, with Stealth-only tools such as Pickpocket, Distract, Sap and Garrote, and they are still the only class with Poisons. The specializations now lean in clearly different directions. Assassination specializes in daggers and buffs itself with Finishing Moves. Combat and Subtlety support every weapon type, with Combat focused on hard-hitting direct damage and a bit of cleave through Blade Flurry, and Subtlety focused on combat tricks and Bleeds. Blizzard also states that Rogues have the highest potential single-target melee damage in the game, which is a bold line to put in writing before launch.

Baseline changes

• Poisons: Charges increased on all poisons. Poisons can now be applied at the same time as temporary weapon enchantments such as Weightstones and Sharpening Stones.
• Feint: Threat reduction doubled.
• Sap: No longer breaks Stealth. Blizzard wants Rogues to bring a crowd control tool to parties and raids that relies on their own setup (Stealth, Distract and so on) and that can be used tactically when a pull has too many monsters to tank safely.
• Distract: Affected enemies also have reduced Stealth detection for 10 seconds. The catch is that the debuff tells enemy players there is a Rogue nearby.
• Expose Armor: Armor reduction raised to match 5 applications of Sunder Armor at roughly the same level. Expose Armor no longer stops Sunder Armor from being used on the target, though Sunder Armor still will not overwrite Expose Armor unless its own effect is weaker. Warriors can therefore keep generating threat with Sunder Armor without the Rogue getting in the way.
• Axes: Rogues can now learn to equip one-handed axes. Blizzard says this gives it room for a more varied weapon lineup, and fits the brigand and outlaw side of the archetype.

The poison and Expose Armor changes are the ones groups will notice. Losing a weapon enchant slot to poisons was a tax on every Rogue, and the old Expose Armor versus Sunder Armor clash was a classic source of raid friction. Both are simply gone.

Assassination

Assassination is now a dagger and poison tree built around two new active abilities, Mutilate at 21 points and Venom at 31.

• Improved Gouge: Moved from Combat to row 1 of Assassination.
• Remorseless Attacks: Now also affects Mutilate.
• Malice: Now increases critical strike chance with all attacks and Poisons, not just melee attacks.
• Murder: Now also applies to Giants, but no longer applies to Beasts and Dragonkin.
• Improved Expose Armor: Redesigned. It no longer increases the effectiveness of Expose Armor; instead it reduces the Energy cost of Expose Armor, and Expose Armor refunds Combo Points when used with 5 Combo Points.
• Lethality: Now also applies to Mutilate. Its critical damage bonus has been lowered somewhat.
• Cold Blood: Moved from the 21-point gold medal talent to the 16-point gold medal talent. Now also applies to Mutilate.
• Improved Poisons: Now also grants a large chance for Poisons not to consume charges when they trigger. Blizzard wants Assassination to be poison-focused, and this keeps poisons running much longer between applications.
• Vigor: Now a 2-point talent on row 5 rather than the 31-point gold medal talent, with the same total effect.
• Mutilate: New 21-point gold medal talent. A 60 Energy combo ability that strikes with both hands for weapon damage from each weapon; both weapons must be daggers. Damage is increased against Poisoned targets, it awards 2 Combo Points, and each hand can trigger procs.
• Improved Kidney Shot: The increased damage now applies only to your own attacks and Poisons.
• Seal Fate: No longer requires Cold Blood. Mutilate triggers it exactly once if either or both hands crit.
• Venom: New 31-point gold medal talent. A 25 Energy finisher that grants 30% increased Poison damage and 10% increased chance to apply Poisons, with duration set by the Combo Points spent.

Blizzard expects Assassination to spend its finishers keeping Venom and Slice and Dice up, with damaging finishers like Rupture and Eviscerate as a lower priority. That is a real departure from the old Eviscerate-heavy rotation, and it ties the spec's damage tightly to poisons, which is why the extra charges and Improved Poisons matter so much here. The dagger-only requirement on Mutilate also means Assassination Rogues will be competing hard for the same weapons.

Combat

Combat becomes the weapon-agnostic damage tree, and Blizzard deliberately added support for a Backstab build alongside the traditional Sinister Strike one.

• Improved Eviscerate: Moved from Assassination to row 1. Damage bonus increased.
• Puncturing Wounds: Formerly Improved Backstab. Now also increases Mutilate's crit chance by a smaller percentage, and gives Backstab a chance to grant an additional Combo Point. (This is the corrected wording.)
• Deflection: Now grants twice as much Parry chance per point.
• Precision: Now increases chance to hit with all spells and attacks, including Poisons, instead of only melee weapon attacks.
• Endurance: Now reduces the cooldowns of Sprint and Evasion by a percentage, for a larger total reduction on both.
• Flawless Execution: New 16-point gold medal talent. Reduces the Energy cost of Eviscerate by 10.
• Dual Wield Specialization: Off-hand damage increase reduced.
• Hack and Slash: New row 5 talent that rolls the removed Dagger, Mace, Sword and Fist Weapon Specializations into one and adds an Axe bonus. Axes get the same benefit as Swords, a chance for an extra attack. The Mace bonus now makes attacks ignore some of the target's armor instead of offering a chance to Stun.
• Weapon Expertise: Redesigned. Now reduces the chance for the target to Dodge or Parry your attacks.
• Aggression: Now also increases Backstab damage. Blizzard says this and several other talents gained Backstab support so Combat can run either a Backstab or a Sinister Strike build.

Removed talents: Dagger Specialization, Mace Specialization, Sword Specialization and Fist Weapon Specialization, all folded into Hack and Slash.

Hack and Slash is the quietly important one. Under the old system, a Combat Rogue's talent points were tied to whatever weapon dropped, and a respec followed every upgrade. One talent covering everything means you can just equip the best weapon you have.

Subtlety

Subtlety gets the most reshuffling, with a lot of talents pulled higher up the tree and new options for both Sinister Strike and Backstab players.

• Camouflage: Moved from row 2 to row 1.
• Master of Deception: Cut from 5 points to 3 for the same effect. The tooltip now states the exact Stealth improvement.
• Opportunity: Now also affects Mutilate.
• Setup: Trigger chance increased so 3 points gives a 100% chance.
• Dirty Tricks: Formerly Improved Sap, moved from row 4 to row 2 and redesigned. Since Sap never breaks Stealth baseline now, this talent instead substantially reduces the Energy cost of Sap and Blind.
• Improved Ambush: Moved from row 3 to row 2.
• Initiative: Activation chance increased so 3 points gives a 100% chance.
• Ghostly Strike: Percentage damage increased while a Dagger is equipped instead of another weapon.
• Improved Distract: New row 3 talent. Increases the radius of Distract, and Distracted enemies suffer a bigger penalty to Stealth detection.
• Heightened Senses: Moved from row 5 to row 4. Tooltip now describes the exact Stealth detection increase.
• Premeditation: Moved from the 31-point gold medal talent to the 16-point gold medal talent. Duration increased to 20 seconds.
• Serrated Blades: Now ignores a percentage of the target's armor that rises per level, instead of a flat value.
• Dirty Deeds: Now also lets Garrote be used when you are not behind the target.
• Hemorrhage: Percentage damage increased while a Dagger is equipped instead of another weapon. Now also increases your Rupture damage to the target for 15 seconds.
• Quietus: New row 6 talent, requires Dirty Deeds. Sinister Strike, Ghostly Strike and Hemorrhage deal more damage to targets below 35% health. This is the Sinister Strike build's support talent.
• Cutthroat: New row 6 talent. Backstab has a chance to make your next Ambush usable without Stealth, giving the Backstab build an in-combat Ambush flow.
• Thousand Cuts: New 31-point gold medal talent. Each time Rupture deals damage, the next Hemorrhage or Backstab costs 3 less Energy, stacking up to 5 times.

Removed talents: Sleight of Hand and Deadliness.

Thousand Cuts finally gives Subtlety a reason to keep Rupture rolling, which fits the article's description of the tree as the home of Bleeds. Cutthroat is the fun one: Ambush mid-fight has never been part of the Rogue toolkit in classic, and it should make Backstab Subtlety feel quite different from Combat.

Warlock

The Warlock section is titled Power at Any Price, and the changes are about connecting spells, pets and tools more tightly. Blizzard's summary: Affliction concentrates on damage over time and drains, now viable with critical strikes, competitive in damage and able to sustain its own health through draining. Demonology empowers both the Warlock and the pet in new ways through Demonic Brand, Demonic Knowledge and Demonic Pact, keeping foes on the pet while the Warlock fires off Soul Fire. Destruction mixes Shadowburn and Conflagrate with the new Incinerate, and uses Bane of Havoc to keep hurting a primary target while handling smaller enemies. Warlocks are still physically fragile and lean on their demons for protection, but Blizzard says they now do damage to compete with any other caster in three distinct styles.

Baseline changes

• Banes: Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom are now Banes (Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom). Each Warlock can have only one Bane active on a given target. Every effect that interacted with Curses now interacts with Banes too.
• Curse of the Elements: Now applies to all magic damage.
• Curse of Shadows: Removed.
• Firestone and Spellstone: Now apply Weapon Imbues that stack with other temporary enchantments such as Wizard Oil. Firestone grants increased Fire damage and critical strike chance; Spellstone grants increased Shadow damage and spell haste.
• Life Tap: Now scales with Spirit, and its tooltip correctly states the Mana gained from Spirit.
• Drain Soul: Now has a progressive chance per tick to grant a Soul Shard, increasing each time it fails until it is guaranteed.
• Pets: Now scale from their summoner's stats.

The Bane split is the structural change here. Damage and utility no longer compete for the same slot, so a Warlock can keep Bane of Agony ticking while still putting Curse of the Elements or another utility curse on the boss. With Curse of the Elements now covering all magic damage and Curse of Shadows gone, raids should only need one Warlock on curse duty for the casters. Pet scaling also matters more than it sounds: a demon that grows with your gear is a demon worth building around, which Demonology leans on heavily.

Affliction

Affliction now has a proper filler spell in Wrack and a lot more crit support for damage over time.

• Improved Life Tap: Moved from row 2 to row 1.
• Suppression: Redesigned. Improves your chance to hit by up to 5% and decreases your threat by up to 20%.
• Improved Corruption: Now also increases Corruption's damage, to a maximum of 10%.
• Malediction: New row 2 talent. Increases all periodic damage from your Warlock spells by up to 5%.
• Soul Harvest: The new name for Improved Drain Soul.
• Improved Drains: New row 2 talent. Increases the Health drained or damage done by Drain Life, Drain Soul and Wrack by up to 20%.
• Improved Bane of Agony: Previously Improved Curse of Agony. Damage increased, and it now costs 2 points instead of 3.
• Fel Concentration: Now 3 points instead of 5, and also applies to Wrack.
• Pandemic: New row 3 talent. Increases the critical strike damage bonus of Corruption, Bane of Agony, Bane of Doom, Drain Soul, Drain Life, Siphon Life and Wrack by up to 100%.
• Nightfall: Row 4 talent. Now also triggered by Drain Soul and Wrack.
• Curse of Exhaustion: Moved from row 5 to row 4 and is now the 16-point gold medal talent. Reduces movement speed by 30%.
• Malevolence: New row 4 talent. Increases the critical effect chance of your Shadow spells by up to 5%.
• Soul Siphon: New row 5 talent. Increases damage or Health drained by Drain Life, Drain Soul and Wrack by up to 12% for each of your other Affliction spells on the target, to a maximum of 36%.
• Shadow Mastery: Damage bonus reduced.
• Wrack: New 31-point gold medal talent. Tears the target apart from within, dealing Shadow damage every second and increasing the damage the target takes from your other Shadow damage-over-time effects by 10% for 6 seconds. Blizzard describes it as Affliction's main spell between refreshing DoTs and casting instant Shadow Bolts from Nightfall.

Removed talents: Improved Curse of Weakness, Improved Drain Life, Improved Drain Mana, Improved Curse of Exhaustion, Grim Reach and Dark Pact.

Pandemic plus Malevolence is the headline for anyone who remembers classic DoTs being unable to crit at all. Wrack also fixes Affliction's old problem of having nothing good to cast once everything was ticking, and Soul Siphon rewards stacking as many of your spells on one target as you can.

Demonology

Demonology is the most rebuilt tree in the article, and its new capstone changes how the whole spec works.

• Improved Imp: No longer affects the Imp's Blood Pact.
• Demonic Embrace: No longer reduces your Spirit.
• Unholy Power: Moved from row 4 to row 1. Damage bonus to pets decreased.
• Improved Health Funnel: Moved from row 2 to row 1. Health transfer bonus increased, it now reduces the threat generated by Health Funnel by up to 100%, and Health Funnel can be used regardless of your demon's health.
• Demonic Aegis: New row 2 talent. Increases the effectiveness of Demon Skin and Demon Armor by up to 30%.
• Fel Vitality: New row 2 talent. Increases the maximum health and Mana of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Incubus and Felhunter by up to 15%, and your own maximum Mana by up to 15%.
• Demonic Energies: New row 2 talent. You heal your pet for up to 15% of all spell damage you deal, and when Life Tap gives you Mana, your demon gains up to 100% of that amount.
• Fel Domination: Now the 16-point gold medal talent, and requires Master Summoner.
• Master Summoner: Moved from row 4 to row 3.
• Demonic Sacrifice: Redesigned and now the 11-point gold medal talent. Sacrifice effects last 2 hours, and the effects have shifted: Imp increases Shadow damage, Voidwalker restores mana, Succubus or Incubus increase Fire damage, and Felhunter restores Health.
• Decimation: New row 4 talent. Reduces the cooldown of Soul Fire by up to 90%. Casting Shadow Bolt or Searing Pain on an enemy below 35% health makes them deal increased damage, and for the next 10 seconds Soul Fire has its cast time reduced by up to 40% and costs no Soul Shards.
• Demonic Brand: New row 4 talent. Searing Pain generates less threat and brands the target, so your pet's next 2 attacks deal Fire or Shadow damage depending on the pet. Shadow damage from the brand is high threat. A recent change means non-tanking pets like the Imp do not gain the extra threat, while tanking pets like the Voidwalker do.
• Soul Link: Moved from row 7 to row 5, and is now the 21-point gold medal talent instead of the 31-point one.
• Improved Felhunter: New row 5 talent. Increases the Attack Power reduction of the Felhunter's Tainted Blood, the healing from its Devour Magic and the detection level of its Paranoia by 10%, and reduces the cooldown of its Spell Lock by 2 seconds.
• Demonic Knowledge: New row 5 talent. While you have a Demon pet summoned, increases your spell damage and your pet's spell damage by up to 33% of your level.
• Master Demonologist: Redesigned with new pet bonuses. Imp increases Fire damage done, Voidwalker reduces Physical damage taken, Succubus or Incubus increase Shadow damage done, and Felhunter reduces Magic damage taken.
• Demonic Pact: New 31-point gold medal talent, requires Soul Link. Summoning a different pet no longer cancels your Demonic Sacrifice effect, although resummoning the sacrificed pet still does.

Removed talents: Improved Healthstone, Fel Intellect, Fel Stamina, Improved Subjugate Demon, Improved Firestone and Improved Spellstone.

Demonic Pact lets a Warlock benefit from Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist at the same time for the first time, and Blizzard says how you combine the two will have a large impact on your combat abilities. Note how the elements cross over: sacrificing an Imp boosts Shadow while an active Imp under Master Demonologist boosts Fire, and the Succubus does the reverse. A Shadow Warlock could sacrifice the Imp and then fight with a Succubus out for double Shadow, or take the defensive route with a Voidwalker or Felhunter. With Decimation turning Soul Fire into an execute spell and Demonic Brand keeping enemies glued to a Voidwalker, Demonology finally looks like a spec people will raid with rather than level with.

Destruction

Destruction now combines Shadow and Fire rather than choosing one, and gets Incinerate as its capstone.

• Destructive Reach: Moved from row 4 to row 1 and now applies to all damaging spells, not just Destruction spells. Every Warlock spec can now grab it.
• Improved Shadow Bolt: Now applies only to your own Shadow damage, but no longer has charges to consume.
• Bane: Moved from row 2 to row 1. Now also applies to Incinerate.
• Cataclysm: Moved from row 1 down to row 2, and now reduces the mana cost of your Destruction spells by up to 10%.
• Molten Skin: New row 2 talent. Reduces all damage taken by up to 10%.
• Aftermath: Redesigned. Increases the initial damage of Immolate by up to 50%, and gives Conflagrate up to a 100% chance to Daze the target, reducing its movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds.
• Ruin: Moved from row 5 to row 3 and is now a 5-point talent with the same effect, which Blizzard says makes it more reachable for Demonology and hybrid builds.
• Agonizing Flames: Formerly Improved Searing Pain, now only 3 points. Increases the damage of all your Destruction spells as well as the critical strike chance of Searing Pain.
• Conflagrate: Moved from row 7 to row 4 and is now the 16-point gold medal talent.
• Intensity: Now a 3-point talent instead of 2, and its resistance to cast time loss from taking damage applies to all Destruction spells, not just Rain of Fire, Hellfire and Soul Fire.
• Pyroclasm: Wording improved to make the effect clearer.
• Fire and Brimstone: New row 5 talent, requires Conflagrate. Increases Conflagrate's critical strike chance.
• Bane of Havoc: New 21-point gold medal talent. Afflicts the target for 5 minutes, causing 15% of all damage the Warlock deals to other targets to also hit the cursed target. Limited to 1 target, and still bound by the one-Bane-per-Warlock rule.
• Shadow and Flame: New row 6 talent. Hitting an enemy with Conflagrate increases all your Shadow damage for 20 seconds, and hitting one with Shadowburn increases all your Fire damage for 20 seconds. Conflagrate also has up to a 100% chance not to consume Immolate, and Shadowburn has up to a 100% chance to instantly refund a Soul Shard.
• Incinerate: New 31-point gold medal talent, requires Bane of Havoc. Deals Fire damage plus an additional 25% if the target is afflicted by Immolate. 2.5 second cast, 30-yard range.

Removed talents: Improved Firebolt, Improved Lash of Pain, Devastation, Improved Immolate and Emberstorm.

Shadow and Flame is the talent that defines the tree: alternate Conflagrate and Shadowburn and both schools stay buffed, while the Immolate and Soul Shard refunds keep the cycle cheap. Bane of Havoc is the interesting trade-off. Because it occupies your Bane slot on that target, putting it on a boss means giving up Bane of Agony or Bane of Doom there, so it reads as a tool for fights with adds rather than something you keep up everywhere. The removal of Improved Shadow Bolt's charges, on the other hand, is pure quality of life: no more Shadow Priests or other Warlocks eating your debuff.