Rogue guide

What Forever changed

• Combo points survive a target switch. They are lost only when you start building points on another enemy, so you can Kick or Gouge a second mob and come back to your finisher.
• Energy regenerates continuously instead of in 2-second ticks. Blizzard plans no energy changes.
• Sap no longer breaks Stealth, so you can Sap one mob and still open on another while hidden. It still needs Stealth. Improved Sap was removed because that is now baseline.
• Expose Armor removes 2,250 armor at 5 points, the same as a full Sunder Armor. Improved Expose Armor now saves energy and refunds combo points instead of adding armor reduction.
• Mutilate is Assassination's 21-point talent and needs daggers. Venom, a poison-boosting finisher, is the new Assassination 31-point talent.
• Hack and Slash replaces the four weapon specializations, so Combat takes whatever weapon drops. Rogues can now use one-handed axes.
• Base damage cut: Backstab, Rupture and every poison do a third or more less than Classic. Only rank 6 of Eviscerate changed. Poisons can crit, and carry about 50% more charges.
• Poisons and Lockpicking are separate skill lines with their own spellbook tabs. The client lists Pick Lock at level 1, but Classic's client does too, so its Forever learn level is unconfirmed.
• Hemorrhage and Improved Kidney Shot boost only your own damage now; neither is a group debuff.
• Every tree has a one-point milestone talent at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points; Subtlety has two at 21 (Preparation and Hemorrhage). Blizzard has announced that Death Mark will replace Thousand Cuts as the Subtlety 31-point talent; it isn't in the 70205 client yet.

Every abilitie, new and changed ones marked, by spec: Assassination, Combat, Subtlety.

Strengths

• Kick, plus Sap, Blind, Gouge, Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot: the most control of any melee class, and Forever's dungeons lean on crowd control.
• Stealth past trash to quest objectives and dungeon bosses; Distract now also lowers enemies' Stealth detection.
• No ammo, no shards, no pet. Poisons are the only chore, and they now carry more charges.
• Combat is weapon-agnostic thanks to Hack and Slash, and Blade Flurry gives it a real two-target cleave.
• Blizzard's stated aim: top single-target damage, with no hybrid tax.

Gaps you plan around

• No group buff and no dispel, heal or resurrection. Its old raid debuffs are personal now, and Expose Armor only matches a Warrior's Sunder.
• No self-healing: you eat between pulls, and you need a partner who tanks or heals for groups.
• Until the known issue is fixed, enemies can parry and block from behind at close range, which hurts Backstab and Ambush most.
• Many small nerfs (Mutilate dagger-only at 75% weapon damage, Opportunity halved, Vigor now two points for the same 10 energy) have left beta players lukewarm.