Rogue Class Guides Updated for 10.2 Rework - AoE Revamp for Assassination, Outlaw Utility, Shadow Blades Rework

13.11.2023 - 13:03 / wowhead.com / Class

The long-expected rogue rework finally sneaked in with Patch 10.2 and it put rogues in a very auspicious position for Season 3. The rework addressed many of the issues and complaints all three specs had with their Dragonflight talent trees.

Assassination Rogue Rework in Patch 10.2

Assassination Rogues have received many updates going into 10.2 to help with their Cleave and AoE.
In addition to many pathing changes to the tree, here are the major talents to keep an eye on with 10.2:

• Sudden Demise — A powerful tool for open world and mythic+ where heavy bleed damage is prevalent
• Indiscriminate Carnage — An old favorite in mythic+ reworked into a passive effect from stealth
• Sanguine Blades — This redesign of the old Sanguine Blades creates a potent tool for AoE situations where Assassination traditionally has an overflow of energy
• Caustic Spatter — A new talent very similar to Outlaw Rogue's Blade Flurry allows for a new imagining of Assassination's Aoe priorities and cooldowns.
• Path of Blood and Vigor — Together these talents give Assassination the potential for a maximum of 300 Energy. This creates interesting decisions around when to spend your resources, which will be discussed in our Assassination Rogue Rotation Guide
• Crimson Tempest — The instant damage on cast has been removed, simplifying Crimson Tempests usage considerably.
• Shadow Dance — Although not new to the tree, it is a very important talent that has become far more accessible with the changes in 10.2 and earns its spot in our Talent Builds.
• Kingsbane — Also not a new addition, Kingsbane comes back strong in 10.2 due to new accessibility in the spec tree.

Assassination Rogue Season 3 Guide

Outlaw Rogue Rework in Patch 10.2

Outlaw Rogue in season 3 has gotten a reshaping of the tree, but the core gameplay loop has remained fairly similar. When it comes to the class tree the largest focus was on removing bland damage nodes and replacing them with more useful utility that no longer costs damage nodes to gain access to. Some of the standouts include Graceful Guile, Iron Stomach and Nimble Fingers giving us stronger self-sustain and defensive options. Improved Sprint combined with Featherfoot makes you incredibly quick, and thanks to Restless Blades the uptime on Sprint can be near 100%.

When it comes to gameplay if you've played Outlaw before a lot of the fundamentals have remained the same. Fan the Hammer, Audacity with Hidden Opportunity remain the core focus of the gameplay loop bouncing between Pistol Shot and Ambush procs. The main addition and new core focus of the spec is Crackshot causing our usage of Vanish and Shadow Dance to shift. Rather than using these to refill our procs, we are going to use them to try and fit in as many