Blizzard's third class deep dive covers the Rogue and the Warlock. The talent framework matches the first two batches: talents at level 10, gold-medal milestones at 11, 21 and 31 plus the new 16-point row, Dual Specialization at 40. Six classes now have full breakdowns — the series is past halfway.

Rogue: every advantage counts

Three baseline changes matter most:

  • Poisons gain more charges, and they can now be applied alongside temporary weapon enchants like weightstones and sharpening stones — the two buff families no longer fight for the weapon.
  • Sap no longer breaks Stealth (now baseline), and Distract lowers its targets' Stealth detection for 10 seconds — though in PvP that debuff tells the other team a Rogue is nearby.
  • Expose Armor now reduces armor by roughly as much as 5 stacks of Sunder Armor without blocking Warriors' Sunder threat; and Rogues can now learn one-handed axes, widening weapon options.

Gold-medal moves by spec:

  • Assassination: Cold Blood moves down to the 16-point slot; Mutilate becomes the new 21-point gold talent (dual-dagger, 60 Energy, bonus against poisoned targets); the new 31-point gold talent is Venom (+30% poison damage, +10% apply chance). The design note is explicit: Assassination finishers keep Venom and Slice and Dice rolling — damaging finishers take a back seat.
  • Combat: the new 16-point gold talent is Flawless Execution (Eviscerate costs 10 less); the four weapon specializations merge into Hack and Slash, with axes added (axe bonus mirrors swords' extra-attack chance).
  • Subtlety: Premeditation is now the 16-point gold talent at 20 seconds; the new 31-point gold talent is Thousand Cuts — each Rupture tick makes your next Hemorrhage or Backstab 3 Energy cheaper, stacking to 5. Quietus (sub-35% execute damage) and Cutthroat (Backstab procs a Stealth-free Ambush) support the Sinister Strike and Backstab playstyles respectively.

Warlock: power at any price

The baseline changes are the most systematic of this batch:

  • Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom become "Banes" — one Bane per Warlock per target; Curse of the Elements now applies to all magic damage; Curse of Shadows is removed.
  • Firestone and Spellstone become weapon imbues that stack with Wizard Oil: fire damage and crit for the former, shadow damage and haste for the latter.
  • Life Tap scales with Spirit; Drain Soul gets a progressive, guaranteed-eventually Soul Shard chance per tick; and pets now scale with their summoner's stats — the same philosophy as the Hunter pet changes.

Talent highlights:

  • Demonology: Demonic Sacrifice drops to the 11-point gold slot and lasts 2 hours (Imp = shadow damage, Voidwalker = mana, Succubus/Incubus = fire damage, Felhunter = health); the new 31-point gold talent Demonic Pact means summoning a different pet no longer cancels the sacrifice — Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist stack for the first time, and how you combine them is a whole new build puzzle.
  • Destruction: the new 21-point gold talent Bane of Havoc mirrors 15% of your damage to other targets onto the cursed target for 5 minutes; the new 31-point gold talent is Incinerate (2.5-second cast, +25% against Immolated targets); Conflagrate moves up to the 16-point gold slot.
  • Affliction, per the official intro, leans into damage-over-time and drain playstyles with full critical-strike viability — the talent detail runs long on Blizzard's page and isn't itemized here.

The full list-by-list breakdown lives on our class changes page; catch up with the Hunter & Druid and Priest & Warrior deep dives, and try the new trees in the talent library.

Source: Wowhead carrying Blizzard's official deep dive (official confirmation), published 2026-10-08. Subject to further Beta changes.