The World of Warcraft Dragonflight Rogue class is set to get an overhaul when the expansion hits, with talent trees returning to the MMO game for the first time in several years.
When a game has as long a pedigree as World of Warcraft, development is often somewhat cyclical. A feature is removed, fans feel nostalgic for it, and it’s reintroduced in some revamped form. Talent trees were removed way back during Mists of Panderia, replaced by a more simplistic pick-from-three system. Some diehard fan have clamoured for the return of the full tree, and for Dragonflight, Blizzard has acquiesced.
For Rogues, much like for the Priest and Hunter overhauls, there is now a core class tree and separate specialisation trees, with talent points for each alternating each level from 10. Many previously covenant-only skills are being folded into the main tree, and many previously unavailable abilities are being made available for all three specialisations.
For all three specs, the number of tricks up sneaky sleeves has increased. All three Rogue types can now use Gouge and Garrote Silence, improving crowd control and PvP options. Shadowstep, Shadow Dance, and Acrobatic Strikes are also in the main Rogue tree, giving valuable utility to all specs. The covenant ability Echoing Reprimand is now a basic talent, and the energy-boosting Thistle Tea is now a universal talent ability rather than an item.
Subtlety Rogues have gained the previous covenant ability Flagellation as a talent, and also have new talent buffs to Shroud of Concealment and Vanish. Shadow Mist is a fun-looking ability that causes your stealth abilities to generate a mist that refreshes the cooldown of Shadowstep and grants combo points.
Assassination Rogues have had the cooldown Vendetta removed and replaced by Deathmark – a new DPS cooldown that deals bleed and duplicates any Garrote, Rupture, and poisons applied to the target. They’ve also gained access to new poisons: Atrophic Poison, which reduces the damage the target inflicts – which is sure to be valuable in raid and mythic+ environments – and Amplifying Poison, which causes the target to take more damage from all sources. In addition, the bottom row talent Dragon-Tempered Blades allows an additional poison to be applied to your weapons.
Outlaw Rogues have had their multitarget abilities improved, with Dancing Steel and Precise Cuts improving the baseline ability, Blade Flurry, by increasing the number of targets and increasing damage respectively. The row eight ability Restless Crew also spreads the ability to nearby party members, greatly increasing the raid utility of the spec.
It all sounds pretty exciting and it’ll make the wait for the WoW Dragonflight release date even harder. For more info on the upcoming revamp of the crafting system in Dragonflight, check out that link.