Rogue Raid Role in WoW: Forever — What Assassination…

Our earlier Rogue guides cover the starter basics, Combat leveling, Subtlety leveling, Assassination 10–60 and level 60 gearing. This one is about raid night: what every Rogue brings, what each spec adds, how to split the jobs when you have several Rogues, and what Blizzard's final pre-launch notes changed. Several of those changes landed after our earlier guides, so where they disagree, this post is the newer one.

Key dates (Blizzard): the game launched Nov 4, 2026. Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20 players) and Onyxia's Lair (40 players) open on Dec 9.

Read this first: the beta stopped at level 30 and had no raids. Blizzard hasn't revealed boss mechanics for Barrow Deeps or Hyjal Summit; for Onyxia it has said to expect powerful fire attacks and to build fire resistance. Numbers below come from Blizzard's Nov 2 notes and from beta client data shown on community sites. The draft builds assume 51 talent points at 60, which Blizzard hasn't confirmed, and Forever's hit cap and dual-wield penalty are still unknown. Nothing here has been tested at level 60.

What changed on Nov 2 (official)

From Blizzard's "Beta Development Notes – Updated November 2" (posted the evening of Nov 2, Pacific). Endgame Tools reports the Rogue changes reached the game files in the Nov 4 build. Blizzard says that apart from bugs and serious outliers, it doesn't plan big tuning changes before the raids open.

Shank (new, level 24): an off-hand strike for 5 Energy that deals 50% weapon damage, can't miss and gives back 15 Energy on a 10-second cooldown. Rank 2 at level 44 gives back 25.

Poised (new passive, level 18): out of combat at full Energy, your next Energy ability costs 10 less. That's a cheaper opener on every pull.

Deadly Poison and Instant Poison take twice as much of your attack power as before.

Assassination: Murder is removed. Lethality is 2 points (20% crit damage), Relentless Strikes 5 points, Seal Fate 3 points (up to 100%). Venom is now a passive tied to Shank, and Mutilate moves to row 7 at 90% weapon damage. New talent: Blood Splatter.

Combat: Improved Eviscerate is renamed Coup de Grace, Improved Sinister Strike becomes Efficient Strikes, Flawless Execution saves 15 Energy, Aggression raises Sinister Strike and Eviscerate by 5–15%, and Dual Wield Specialization is 2 points for 25/50% off-hand damage. New talents: Composure and Flash of Steel, both built on Poised and Shank.

Subtlety: Improved Distract, Quietus, Cutthroat and Thousand Cuts are removed. Ghostly Strike now lets your next Ambush or Garrote within 7 seconds skip the Stealth requirement. New talents: Quick Getaway, Boot Knife and Death Mark.

Every class: Salvation is gone for everyone, and Bear Form and Defensive Stance generate much more threat to make up for it. Leader of the Pack and Moonkin Aura give 3% to every kind of crit again but don't stack with each other.

Races: Human Ruthless drops to 1% crit; Dwarf gets Artisan's Precision (1% hit); Orc Savage is removed and Blood Fury is on a 2-minute cooldown; Troll Berserking lasts 15 seconds.

What every Rogue brings

From the spellbook in the beta client data (wowforeverprogress), so every spec has these:

Expose Armor: a finisher that removes 2,250 armor at 5 combo points for 30 seconds. In Classic it didn't stack with Sunder Armor; how it works in Forever is unclear, so agree with your Warriors and raid leader on who applies it.

Kick: 25 Energy, 10-second cooldown, interrupts and locks that spell school for 5 seconds. Your most valuable raid button on caster adds.

Mind-numbing Poison: 20% chance per hit to raise the target's cast time by 60% for 14 seconds. You may be asked to put it on your off-hand for caster packs.

Sap and Blind: Sap holds an out-of-combat humanoid for up to 45 seconds without breaking Stealth; Blind works on any type for up to 10 seconds. Since Oct 15, using Sap flags you for PvP.

Feint and Vanish: your threat tools. Feint (20 Energy, 10-second cooldown) drops your threat by a large amount, and Vanish is the emergency exit.

Shank for everyone, plus Kidney Shot, Gouge and Evasion for trash.

Different in Forever: Hemorrhage no longer raises everyone's physical damage — it only boosts your own Rupture and Garrote. Tricks of the Trade isn't in the Forever data.

What each spec adds

Assassination: poisons and crits. wowforeverprogress's draft build is 39/12/0: Mutilate (daggers in both hands), Seal Fate, Cold Blood, Relentless Strikes and Venom — for 6 seconds after a Shank, your poison damage is 30% higher and your poison application chance 20% higher. Use Shank on cooldown or Venom does nothing. If your raid wants Expose Armor from you, the guide suggests moving the 2 points from Remorseless Attacks into Improved Expose Armor (10 Energy cheaper and refunds 2 combo points at 5).

Combat: steady damage and cleave. The draft build is 16/35/0: Hack and Slash (a 5% extra-attack chance with swords and axes, or 5% crit with daggers and fist weapons), Flash of Steel (Shank every 8 seconds for 15 more Energy), Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush. It's the most comfortable spec on multi-target fights thanks to Blade Flurry. Improved Kick (a 2-second silence on Kick) sits in this tree but isn't in the draft build; take it if your raid needs a hard silence.

Subtlety: bleeds and Death Mark. The draft build is 20/0/31: Death Mark (a 25 Energy, 20-yard finisher on a 10-second cooldown that stores damage from your attacks and releases it after 6 seconds, with Garrote and Rupture stored at twice the rate), Boot Knife (Shank adds 2 combo points), Hemorrhage, Ghostly Strike into Garrote, and Elusiveness, which brings Vanish and Blind back 90 seconds sooner — handy for threat and CC. The tooltip gives no storage rate or cap, so Death Mark's real strength will only show in logs.

See our gearing guide for stats. Note that it was written before the Nov 2 changes, so the poison and Shank changes may shift weights a little.

Splitting jobs with several Rogues

Based on the abilities above (our suggestion, not an official rule):

Expose Armor: one Rogue owns it per boss, ideally an Assassination Rogue with Improved Expose Armor. Agree with the Warriors whether Sunder or Expose goes up until someone tests stacking.

Kick rotation: on caster adds, pair Rogues so a Kick is always ready (10-second cooldown each). Combat with Improved Kick gets the silence assignment.

Mind-numbing Poison: one or two Rogues swap their off-hand poison on caster-heavy pulls.

CC: Sap before the pull for humanoid packs (Quick Getaway lets a Subtlety Rogue hold two), Blind as the emergency answer for anything loose.

Cleave vs single target: Combat takes the Blade Flurry jobs on add fights; Assassination and Subtlety stay on the boss.

Threat without Salvation

There's no Salvation in Forever any more. Tank stances and Bear Form generate more threat now, but tanks still need a few seconds at the start. Poised makes your opener 10 Energy cheaper, so it's tempting to unload right away — don't. Let the tank get going, watch a threat meter, Feint on cooldown when you're close to the top, and keep Vanish for real emergencies. There's no Tricks of the Trade to hand your threat to the tank.

Buffs to ask for

From the wowforeverprogress raid guides: Blessing of Kings, Blessing of Might, Gift of the Wild, Battle Shout, Leader of the Pack, Windfury Totem and Grace of Air. Leader of the Pack and Moonkin Aura don't stack with each other (one is enough), and Windfury and Flametongue Totem don't stack either.

Before Dec 9

Get to 60, train Shank rank 2 (level 44) and every poison rank, and stock up on poison reagents and Blinding Powder.

Re-check your talents after the Nov 2 rework: Murder, Quietus, Cutthroat and Thousand Cuts are gone, Venom is passive, Mutilate is on row 7.

Bind Kick, Feint, Vanish, Blind and Expose Armor where you can hit them fast.

Plan an Expose Armor owner and a Kick rotation with your raid leader, think about fire-resist gear for Onyxia's Lair, and get the Drakefire Amulet to enter.

Assassination: practice keeping Shank on cooldown for Venom. Combat: practice Blade Flurry timing on packs. Subtlety: practice Ghostly Strike into Garrote and Death Mark at 5 combo points.

What's still unknown: boss mechanics, which bosses have interruptible casts, whether Expose Armor stacks with Sunder Armor, the boss hit cap and dual-wield penalty, the debuff limit, Death Mark's storage rate and cap, and how the three specs compare once real logs exist. We'll update when raids open.

Sources

Blizzard: Beta Development Notes – Updated November 2, raid overview (raid sizes, Onyxia fire resistance, Drakefire Amulet)

Endgame Tools: Nov 2 launch class changes (Rogue, race and every-class changes, and which build carries them)

Beta client data and draft raid builds: wowforeverprogress Rogue overview, Assassination, Combat and Subtlety guides (data from talentsforever.com, CC BY 4.0)

Images: header and raid utility cheat-sheet by Systematic, made for this post using the Systematic wallpaper and brand colours. Spell icons on the card © Blizzard Entertainment via Wowhead (Classic icons used as stand-ins; Forever's may differ). Card numbers from Blizzard's Nov 2 notes and beta client data (wowforeverprogress).