Outlaw Rogue Guide for The War Within (2025)

Last updated on Jun 18, 2024 at 21:10by Seliathan98 comments

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Outlaw Rogue.Prior to the expansion's launch, this page will detail everything you need toknow about Outlaw Rogue in the upcoming The War Withinexpansion, including class and spec changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some verylight predictions on the state of the spec.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, as there willlikely be regular changes to parts of the spec's kit, talents and abilitiesthroughout the TWW Beta process. This is not meant to be a launch guidefor Outlaw Rogue. The purpose of this page is to serves as aresource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, andwhat you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

Outlaw Rogue has received a number of changes to it's talenttrees, which includes the shuffling of some talents, as well as changes toa handful of talents and abilities throughout. The most impactful ones in theclass tree are:

• Acrobatic Strikes no longer grants increased melee attack range. Itwas reworked to now grant additional auto-attack damage, and movement speed.
• Cut to the Chase is now baseline for all Rogue specs.
• Subterfuge now lasts 6 seconds, and is a 2-point talent rightbefore the right-most capstone in the class tree.
• Shadow Dance was moved into the Subtlety spec tree, and replacedwith a new capstone that grants an additional charge of Vanish instead.
• Nightstalker was removed.

There have also been many changes in the spec tree. The most notable onesinclude:

• Adrenaline Rush no longer grants a reduced GCD by itself, but insteadreduces your GCD based on your Haste value. This finally makes Haste a valuablestat for Outlaw.
• Count the Odds now provides the same benefits inside and outside ofstealth.
• Underhanded Upper Hand no longer affects Slice and Dice, whichnow auto-extends via Cut to the Chase already, and no longer grants Subterfuge.
• Sepsis was removed.

Outlaw's reliance on stealth-based benefits was lessened slightly, but with Crackshot still being as strong as it is, the removal of Shadow Dancehad no bearing on the choices in the class tree. Gaining a second charge of Vanish makes the spec slightly less punishing to play, and adding Hasteas a valuable stat for the spec gives a little more variety in gearing choices.

The War Within has major implications for all specs thanks to the HeroTalent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondarystats when entering a new expansion.

Outlaw Rogue gets to choose between the Tricksterand Fatebound Hero Talent Trees. In the sections below, we will takea small dive into the design and benefits of these Hero Talent Trees forthe spec, and offer some thoughts on their potential performance and gameplayimplications.

The Fatebound Hero Tree Talents are largely centered around the idea offlipping coins through Hand of Fate, offering either a percentage-baseddamage increase or a cosmic damage proc. Everytime you spend 5+ Combo Pointson a finishing move, you either add a stack to the already existing buff, or haveit swap over to the opposite one instead. Monitoring and managing the buffs willbe key to optimizing the benefits of the Fatebound Hero Talents.

Gameplay-wise, Fatebound is very much a passive kit that offers only very fewskill expression opportunities. This is not a bad thing at all, as it allowsfor a very predictable damage increase to the Outlaw damage profile.While the entire concept is very much centered on RNG, many talents offer additionalcontrol over the outcome of these Hand of Fate rolls, which will help you buildhigher stacks on either of the buffs throughout the fight. Due to how many finisherswe end up casting during a 5+ minute encounter, the RNG will even out fairlyreliably, so there is no need to worry about this Hero Talent tree adding a lotof DPS variance.

Power-wise, Fatebound needs some major adjustments to be competitive withthe DPS gain other classes get right now, which is an easy task once classtuning goes into full motion in the TWW Beta. There are a few bugs that stillneed ironing out as well, but Fatebound looks to be in a very comfortableposition right now with many of the talents offering small DPS increases ormaking the rotation slightly more fluid, like Deal Fate. While it is notthe most interesting, flashy or exciting Hero Talent theme, it is a solid choicefor anyone who wants to focus on learning the ins and outs of their chosen specfirst without the choice of Hero Talents overcomplicating things.

Defensively, Fatebound adds further bonuses to the already strong toolkit wehave. Death's Arrival will allow us to cast Shadowstep a secondtime within quick succession, which could be used to stick to the boss just alittle longer before having to run away from it for a mechanic, as you could juststep to a friendly player who is already in a save position, and then immediatelyjump back to the boss a second or two later. It also offers some minor defensivebenefits, with Chosen's Revelry giving you some additional Leech, while Tempted Fate has a chance to make you take less damage. Neither of thesechoices are incredible, but with how strong our mobility and survivabilityalready are, they don't have to be.

The Trickster Hero Tree Talents are centered around Unseen Blade, aproc that applies after using Sinister Strike and Ambush.Initially, this only applies a damage increase to your target in the form ofa debuff, with many talents further improving these benefits or granting differentones entirely. You also gain more control over proccing Unseen blades as youallocate more talent points in this tree.

Gameplay-wise, Trickster is a very passive tree, with the capstone puttingyou into an animation lock that heavily disrupts gameplay flow. As a result,this hero talent tree is a bit awkward to play, and the Unseen Blades debufffurther locks you onto a singular target -- something we just moved away from byhaving Between the Eyes grant you crit-chance globally, and not justagainst a single target.

Power-wise, Trickster seems to perform slightly better in low-cleave environmentsbut it is currently trailing behind Fatebound on pure-single-target or largerAoE fights. The difference is very minor, however, so feel free to play aroundand enjoy the Trickster theme. It bears mentioning, that any of the currentpredictions are based on the idea that the animation lock of Coup de Gracewill be removed. If it does not, Trickster will become noticeably worsethan Fatebound.

Defensively, Trickster is very potent, giving a damage reduction againstenemies affected by your Unseen Blade, or improving the efficacy of Feint.It also offers some great utility, with a permanent Tricks of the Trade ora reduced cooldown for Blind which will be very useful in Mythic+.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Outlaw Rogue in The WarWithin.

• Rogue Outlaw Season 1 2pc — Your Sinister Strike, Pistol Shot, and Ambush have a 20% chance to Ethereal Rampage,dealing 15% increased damage as Shadow.
• Rogue Outlaw Season 1 4pc — Ethereal Rampage additionallyincreases the damage of your next Between the Eyes by 6%, stacking up to 3 times.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected to have anygameplay impact. We expect some numerical changes to the tier set, but in itscurrent form, the bonus seems to provide roughly the same amount of DPS asother classes.