One Rogue's Journey

The Wrath of the Lich King Wiki has posted the leaked alpha talents for Wrath and even though most(all) of this is subject to a little(lot) of change, I figured it be fun to talk about.

Assassination

• Blood Splatter:

Increases the damage caused by your Garrote and Rupture abilities by 10/20%.
Pretty straight forward and solid talent here as Rupture is a stable of any rogue’s rotation. Unfortunately being a 41 point talent puts it out of reach of all but the Mutilate specced among us.

• Focused Attacks

Your melee critical strikes have a 30% chance to give you 1/2/3 energy
Very cool ability and another 41 point talent. Seems like they are looking to make Mutilate a more viable raid spec. Mutilate rogues are focused on high crit and combo point generate and more energy is nothing to sneeze at. While the amount of energy seems a bit low I have a feeling this will get some tweaks and fall into a nice balance.

• Turn the tables

You have a 5/10/15% chance of reflecting physical effects back on the attacker
This seems like an odd ability to be so deep in the assassination tree (requiring 35 points to begin picking up), what with it being a talent that is only useful in PvP. It seems like Blizz is trying to make sure that subtlety isn’t the only PvP game in town.

• Cut to the Chase

Your Eviscerate and Envenom critical strikes have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to refresh your Slice and Dice duration to its 5 combo point maximum.
Woo boy, a 46 point talent, this one is crazy and could completely change the way Mutilate rogues’ rotations are done. Mutilate rogues are already high crit, high combo point generation and this ability alone could put Eviscerate back on their bars if only as a way to keep slice and dice going. I expect to see more daggers with high crit ratings come Wrath.

• Devious Poisons

Increases the damage caused by your Instant Poison and Deadly Poison by 10%/20%. In addition, when a target you’ve poisoned is healed or cured, there is a 50%/100% chance the poison afflicts the healer.
Another PvP orientated one. Seems neat, spread the poison around.

• Deadly Brew

When you apply Instant, Wounding or Mind-Numbing poison to a target, you have a 50%/100% chance to apply a second poison:

* Instant -> Deadly
* Wounding -> Crippling
* Mind Numbing-> Crippling
Interesting idea. Deadly poison is the current off-hand poison of choice and it’s nice to get the Instant damage in there for free. I wonder if you could combine with Devious Poisons and send two poisons the healer’s way.

• Hunter for Blood

Enrages you, increasing all damage caused by 5%. If used while a Bleeding or Magic effect is afflicting you, it will remove one Bleed and one Magic effect and refund the energy cost. This effect can be stacked up to 3 times. Lasts up to 10 sec.
Not so sure about Assassination’s 51 point talent. 5% increase, yes please, but I don’t really understand the stacking up to 3 times part…

Combat

• Unfair Advantage

Whenever you dodge and attack you gain an Unfair Advantage, increasing your chance to hit by 2/4% and the chance that attacks will miss you by 2/4% for 8 sec.
Seems like a good talent overall but for 41 points in the Combat tree which is known as the raiding tree? In PvE you shouldn’t be getting attacked at all.

• Throwing Specialization

Increases the range of Throw and Deadly Throw by 2/4 yards and gives your Deadly Throw a 50/100% chance to interrupt the target for 3 sec.
Cool PvP talent but way too deep in the Combat tree at 36 points.

• Stay of Execution

When you have less than 35% health, all damage taken is reduced by 5/10/15% and you are treated as if you are at full health.
Seems like a poor man’s cheat death for 41 points in Combat. As of right now, I’d pass, but I don’t know what “you are treated as if you are at full health” means.

• Prey on the Weak

Your normal melee critical strike damage is increased by 5/10/15/20/25% when the target has less health than you (as a percentage of total health).
This one is sweet. You should always have more health (percentage wise) than that big old raid boss. Most of a rogue’s damage comes from melee swings and 25% increase to crit damage for 46 points in is just awesome.

• Murder Spree

Step through the shadows from enemy to enemy within 10 yards, attacking an enemy every .5 secs with both weapons until 5 assaults are made. Can hit the same target multiple times
The 51 point Combat talent is just plain WOW! 5 attacks with both weapons in 2.5 seconds on a two minute cooldown! Yes, please. Seems like it could be a big threat builder but that’s what Vanish is for.

Subtlety

• Slaughter from the Shadows

Reduces the energy cost of your Backstab and Ambush abilities by 3/6/9/12/15.
How I wish I could grab a hold of this for a Combat Daggers build, but alas is it buried at a 46 point Subtlety talent. Still quite good though.

• Honor Among Thieves

When anyone in your group critically hits with a damage or healing spell or ability you have a 10%/20%/30% chance to gain a combo point on your current target.
This 41 point Subtlety talent begs to be in the Combat or Assassination tree (or maybe that’s just blind hope from me). I doubt Subtlety will make a raiding comeback but you never know. Could be useful in a 5v5 arena.

• Waylay

Your Ambush critical hits have a 50%/100% chance to reduce the target’s melee and ranged attack speed by 30%, movement speed by 70% and prevent item use for 8 sec.
PvP-tastic. I love this 41 point talent. Arena players continue to hate the rogue.

• Wrongfully Accused

Whenever an attack is made against you, if the target is not your current target or has not already been attacking you they cause 50% less damage for 3/6 sec.
More arena-y goodness here. Combine this with the 51 point talent and you’ll have a lot of frustrated opponents.

• Shadow Dance

Instantly enter stealth and begin the Shadow Dance. For 9 sec you will reenter stealth every 3 secs. (2 min CD)
In and out of stealth 4 times? That’s 4 ambushes (maybe not with energy issues, some math will have to be done). Combined with Waylay and you have a whole opposing team slowed. Add in Wrongfully Accused and they’re all doing less damage to you. Follow it up with Vanish/Shadowstep/Premeditation for extra annoyance.

Overall, lots of neat stuff with little to no change in the way each individual spec actually plays. Once again, this is all subject to change or complete removal but as a whole I’m excited amount the future of my favorite sneaky class.