Rogue

• Developer’s note: In Guardians of the Dream we are updating all four Rogue talent trees to bring them up to current standards. A sweeping pass was needed to make significant adjustments to address notable concerns, like: moving the first gate from row three to row four to match all other classes; improving pathing and increasing interconnectedness on every tree; removing 3-point nodes; and reducing the percentage of minor DPS talents taken in the Class tree to make room for more flavorful and robust utility options. We also wanted to use the opportunity where so many things are changing to rework or redesign some talents that needed the update, and also just to make some new talents to experience and (hopefully) enjoy. Let us know what you think!
• Many changes have been made to Class talent positions and connections.
• Sap is now a baseline ability.
• Shiv damage increased by 20 percent.
• Shiv now costs 30 Energy (was 20) and has a 30 second cooldown (was 25 seconds).
• New Talent: Featherfoot (Passive) – Sprint increases movement speed by an additional 30 percent, and duration increased by four seconds.
• New Talent: Superior Mixture (Passive) – Crippling Poison reduced movement speed by an additional 10 percent.
• New Talent: Graceful Guile (Passive) – Feint has one additional charge.
• New Talent: Stillshroud (Passive) – Shroud of Concealment has 50 percent reduced cooldown.
• Vigor’s location has changed and is now a two-point talent, increasing max Energy by 50/100 and increasing Energy regeneration by 8/15 percent.
• Deadly Precision is now a one-point talent. Per point value has not changed.
• Nightstalker’s location has changed and now increases damage while Stealth is active by 8/15 percent (was 4/8 percent).
• Reverberation now increases Echoing Reprimand damage by 100 percent (was 75 percent).
• Deadened Nerves now reduces physical damage taken by five percent (was three percent).
• Echoing Reprimand now charges a combo point from 3/4/5 (was 2/3/4).
• Marked for Death has been adjusted:
• Cooldown adjusted to 40 seconds for all specializations (was 30 seconds for Assassination and Subtlety, 60 seconds for Outlaw).
• Grants full combo points (was five).
• Now increases the damage your finishing moves deal to the target by 15 percent.
• Lasts 15 seconds (was 60 seconds) and resets cooldown if the target dies during the effect.
• Nightstalker damage bonus reduced to 5/10 percent (was 8/15 percent).
• Elusiveness now causes Evasion to reduce damage taken by 20 percent (was 10 percent).
• Airborne Irritant has been moved to the class tree (was in Outlaw) and has been adjusted – Blind has 50 percent reduced cooldown, 40 percent reduced duration, and applies to all enemies near the target.
• Marked for Death has been removed.
• Improved Wound Poison, Superior Mixture, and Atrophic/Numbing Poisons have shuffled talent locations.
• Vigor now increases energy regeneration by 5/10 percent. (Was 8/15 percent).
• Subterfuge refreshes duration correctly when broken out of Vanish while another Subterfuge is active.
• Lethality now interacts with Blade Flurry when talented into Deft Maneuvers.
• Grand Melee now increases damage dealt correctly.
• Heavy Hitter now interacts with Blade Flurry if talented into Deft Maneuvers.

Assassination

• Developers’ note: Assassination is known for having strong single target damage, but has two areas of concern we hope to address in Guardians of the Dream. First and foremost, their AoE has been notably weak and left them far behind the pack for M+ and certain raid encounter types. Secondly, Assassination’s damage performance does not improve at a similar rate compared to most specs when players improve their play and coordination to take on bigger challenges, like when moving from Heroic to Mythic level raiding. We hope the changes here will raise the floor of Assassination’s AoE, especially before reaching and needing capstone talents to do so, and that it will feel like a distinct Assassination-like way to deliver AoE damage and not just copy/paste of another spec’s gameplay. As for the second concern, it’s very important to us that we not completely rewrite the book and threaten to undermine what makes Assassination appealing for so many players from both fantasy and gameplay perspectives. That said, the changes aimed at addressing this issue are more subtle. We intend to create more room for players tackling high-end content to use their resources and encounter knowledge to get improved performance outcomes, while not increasing the number of hoops players at all levels need to jump through to get results similar to the past.
• Many changes have been made to Assassination talent positions and connections.
• Shadowstep is now a baseline ability.
• New Talent: Sudden Demise (Passive) – Your Bleed damage increased by 10 percent. Targets below 35 percent health instantly bleed out and take fatal damage when the remaining Bleed damage you would deal to them exceeds 200 percent of their remaining health.
• New Talent: Caustic Spatter (Passive) – Using Mutilate on a target afflicted by your Rupture and Lethal Poison applies Caustic Spatter for 10 seconds. Caustic Spatter causes 30 percent of Poison damage dealt to splash onto other nearby enemies, reduced beyond five targets. Limit one.
• New Talent: Path of Blood (Passive) – Increases max Energy by 100.
• Envenom duration reduced by one second.
• Improved Shiv now increases Nature damage by 30 percent (was 20 percent).
• Venomous Wounds’ effect now restores eight Energy (was seven).
• Elaborate Planning is now a one-point talent, and its effect now increases damage by five percent (was 4/8 percent).
• Improved Poisons is now a one-point talent. Per point value has not changed.
• Bloody Mess is now a one-point talent. Per point value has not changed.
• Thrown Precision has been adjusted:
• No longer increases Fan of Knives damage by 15 percent.
• Now increases Fan of Knives critical strike chance by 10 percent (was five percent).
• Now causes Fan of Knives critical strikes to always apply your weapon poisons.
• Seal Fate has changed:
• Moved from Class talent tree to Assassination.
• Now a one-point talent.
• Effect now always triggers from critical strikes (was 50/100 percent chance).
• Internal Bleeding’s effect is now also applied by Rupture.
• Crimson Tempest has been adjusted:
• No longer has an instant damage component.
• Now has an initial damage over time tick on application.
• Damage per tick reduced by 25 percent.
• Duration increased by two seconds.
• Now deals bonus damage when multiple enemies are afflicted, increased by 20 percent per target, up to 100 percent.
• Now deals reduced damage beyond five targets (was eight).
• Lightweight Shiv now increases Shiv damage by 100 percent in addition to its previous effect.
• Exsanguinate has been redesigned:
• Active version: One minute cooldown. Garrote, Rupture, and Crimson Tempest consume 10 Energy to duplicate 100 percent of any damage dealt. Lasts 10 seconds.
• Passive version: While above 100 Energy your Garrote, Rupture, and Crimson Tempest consume eight Energy to duplicate 40 percent of any damage dealt.
  • Developers’ note: There are two updated versions of Exsanguinate available to test on PTR, located on the talent tree as a choice node with one being active and one being passive. Based on testing, feedback, and possible iteration, we will likely keep one to continue on for patch release and discard the other.
• Flying Daggers now increases Fan of Knives damage by 15 percent, in addition to its previous effects.
• Venom Rush’s effect now refunds six Energy (was seven).
• Vicious Venoms has been adjusted:
• Bonus damage effect increased to 35/70 percent (was 10/20 percent).
• Now increases Ambush and Mutilate energy costs by 5/10.
• Poison Bomb now affects an area within eight yards (was six yards).
• Zoldyck Recipe is now a two-point talent. Per point values have not changed.
• Dashing Scoundrel effect now generates 1/2 Energy (was 1 Energy at both ranks).
• Scent of Blood is now a two-point talent, and its effect now increases Agility by 1.5/3 percent (was 1/2/3 percent).
• Arterial Precision’s effect now increases Bleed damage by 30 percent (was 20 percent).
• Dragon-Tempered Blades now causes your weapon poisons to apply 30 percent less frequently, in addition to its previous effect.
• Indiscriminate Carnage has been redesigned – Garrote and Rupture apply to two additional nearby enemies when used from Stealth and for three seconds after breaking Stealth. Passive Talent.
• Venom Rush’s Energy return reduced to five (was six).
• Kingsbane damage reduced by 10 percent.
• Internal Bleeding damage reduced by 20 percent
• Exsanguinate (Passive) now has an Energy threshold of 150 (was 100) and consumes four Energy (was eight) to duplicate 25 percent damage (was 40 percent).
• Exsanguinate (Active) now consumed eight Energy (was 10) to duplicate 75 percent of damage (was 100 percent) during effect.
• Elaborate Planning has been removed.
• Caustic Spatter damage increased to 35 percent (was 30 percent).
• Dashing Scoundrel is now a one-point talent (was two).
• Indiscriminate Carnage duration is now 10 seconds (was three seconds).
• Scent of Blood now increases Agility by 2/4 percent per target Ruptured (was 1.5/3 percent), to a max of 20 percent (was 24 percent).
• Exsanguinate (Active) has been removed.
• Exsanguinate (Passive) – Energy threshold changed to 50 percent of max Energy (was flat 150), Energy consumed reduced to three (was four) and damage duplicated reduced to 20 percent (was 25 percent)
• Sudden Demise’s Bleed damage trigger value reduced to 150 percent of remaining health (was 200 percent) and now benefits correctly from Zoldyck Recipe bonus.
• Indiscriminate Carnage now prioritizes targets without Rupture and Garrote.
• Exsanguinate renamed to Sanguine Blades.
• Envenom damage increased by eight percent.
• Kingsbane damage reduced by five percent.
• Indiscriminate Carnage secondary targets now prioritize enemies that are not afflicted by Garrote and Rupture.
• Leeching Poison now grants 10 percent Leech (was five percent). Does not apply in PvP combat.
• Crimson Tempest damage reduced by five percent.
• Blindside now causes Ambush to replace Mutilate when the effect is triggered.
• Sanguine Blades energy consumed per tick reduced to two (was three) and damage duplicated increased to 25 percent (was 20 percent).
• Sudden Demise now has a 10 second delay after triggering before being able to trigger again on the same target.
• Indiscriminate Carnage distance to nearby targets is now calculated from the caster player rather than the affected target.
• Poison Bomb now works with Caustic Spatter.
• Kingsbane initial damage now critically strikes when used with Cold Blood.
• Internal Bleeding applies to mouseover target if used from a mouseover macro.
• Dragon Tempered Blades now correctly applies to Numbing Poison.