Blizzard has published its World of Warcraft: Forever deep dive for Rogues and Warlocks, outlining baseline changes and extensive talent-tree revisions for both classes. The announcement matters to players planning their beta characters: Rogues gain more weapon and poison flexibility, while Warlocks receive new interactions for curses, pets and weapon imbues.
Blizzard cautions that abilities and talents may continue to change during the beta test.
Rogue changes: poisons, control and weapon options
Rogues will be able to apply Poisons alongside temporary weapon enchantments such as Weightstones and Sharpening Stones. Poison charges are also increasing.
Several utility changes could affect group play:
- Sap will no longer break Stealth.
- Expose Armor will no longer prevent Warriors from using Sunder Armor on the same target; Blizzard says Sunder Armor will not overwrite Expose Armor unless Sunder's effect is stronger.
- Rogues can learn to use one-handed axes.
- Distract will reduce affected enemies' Stealth detection for 10 seconds, though enemy players will know a Rogue is nearby.
The talent revisions establish new paths across all three Rogue trees. Assassination gains Mutilate as a 21-point talent and Venom as its 31-point talent, giving the specialization additional support for dagger attacks and Poison-focused finishers.
Combat receives Flawless Execution, which reduces Eviscerate's Energy cost, and Hack and Slash, a replacement for the former Dagger, Mace, Sword and Fist Weapon Specialization talents. Hack and Slash also adds axe support; axes share the sword-style chance for an extra attack, while the mace effect becomes armor penetration rather than a stun chance.
Subtlety adds Quietus, Cutthroat and the 31-point Thousand Cuts talent. Quietus boosts several attacks against targets below 35% health, Cutthroat can let a Backstab enable an Ambush without Stealth, and Thousand Cuts ties Rupture ticks to lower Energy costs for Hemorrhage or Backstab.
Blizzard also corrected its description of Puncturing Wounds after publication. The talent increases Mutilate's critical-strike chance by a lesser percentage and gives Backstab a chance to award an additional Combo Point.
Warlock changes: Banes, pet scaling and imbues
For Warlocks, Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom are becoming Banes. A Warlock can have only one Bane active on a target, while effects that previously interacted with Curses will also work with Banes.
Other baseline changes include:
- Warlock pets will scale with their summoner's stats.
- Firestone and Spellstone become weapon imbues that can stack with temporary enchantments such as Wizard Oil.
- Firestone provides Fire-damage and critical-strike benefits, while Spellstone provides Shadow damage and spell haste.
- Curse of the Elements will apply to all magic damage, and Curse of Shadows is being removed.
- Life Tap will scale with Spirit.
- Drain Soul gains a progressively increasing chance on each tick to grant a Soul Shard until a shard is guaranteed.
The talent update creates new focal points for every Warlock specialization. Affliction gains Wrack, a 31-point talent that deals Shadow damage over time and increases damage taken from the Warlock's other Shadow damage-over-time effects. The tree also adds options including Malediction, Pandemic and Soul Siphon to support periodic damage and drain spells.
Demonology receives new pet-oriented choices such as Demonic Knowledge and the 31-point Demonic Pact. Demonic Pact allows a Warlock to retain a Demonic Sacrifice effect after summoning a different pet, although resummoning the sacrificed pet still cancels that effect.
Destruction gains Bane of Havoc as its 21-point talent and Incinerate as its 31-point talent. Bane of Havoc causes part of damage dealt to other targets to also damage its afflicted target, while Incinerate deals additional damage to targets affected by Immolate.
Talent structure and respecialization
Blizzard says talents in WoW Forever begin at level 10 and retain one-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points. The revised trees also introduce a 16-point milestone. Players can change talents, including Legacy talents, through a class trainer in a major city, and Dual Specialization becomes available at level 40.
The full announcement contains the complete list of talent moves, redesigns and removals for both classes.