Rogue Talents

This page is formatted with Rogue talents listed by skill and tier. Comments follow talents in italics.

Assassination

Tier 1 - Improved Eviscerate/Malice/Remorseless Attacks

Improved Eviscerate

Increases Eviscerate damage by 5% per rank for up to 3 ranks
This talent has been through ups and downs. It was seen as excellent early on, lost popularity as raiding got more popular due to its previously non scaling nature, and is gaining popularity again. 15% more damage to a well-used finisher is not a bad thing. Eviscerate damage is rarely as listed in the description due to Armor absorption, and so this talent can be used to offset some of that.

Currently, Eviscerate does scale according to your Attack Power. In addition, the changes in rogue talents have made combo point gain much stronger than when the game first came out, especially with Mutilate rogues, so Eviscerate is gaining popularity again with the PvE crowd.

Malice

Increases your critical strike chance by 1% per rank for each of 5 ranks
This is a great Talent for builds where critical hits are important.
If you're considering Dagger Spec, get this first - it does the same thing, but isn't restricted to daggers - Malaclypse

Remorseless Attacks

After killing an opponent that yields experience, gives 8% critical strike chance per rank for each of 5 ranks on your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Ghostly Strike
This is useful when you are killing a large number of relatively weak enemies. This talent does work in PvP, however you must deliver the killing blow. Practical use when soloing is limited to greens and low yellows since anything higher usually means you need to bandage/eat before the next mob, and so your 20second effect timer runs out. In groups, again you must deliver the killing blow to receive this effect.

Tier 2 - Improved Slice and Dice/Murder/Ruthlessness

Improved Slice and Dice

Prereq: 5 pts in Assassination

Increases duration of Slice and Dice by 15% per rank for each of 3 ranks
This is of very limited use. The default duration of Slice and Dice seems to be just fine. This talent, coupled with Blade Furry and Adrenaline Rush, is a favourite of Combat Tree rogues.

Murder

Prereq: 5 pts in Assassination

Increases chance to hit with Sap, Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot by 3% for 1 rank or 5% for 2 ranks
This is quite useful. You want a high chance of your openers hitting.

Ruthlessness

Prereq: 5 pts in Assassination

Gives your finishing moves a 20% chance per rank for each of 5 ranks to add a combo point to your target.
Another good one. More combo points means faster finishers for more damage. There are bugs with this however, Evis, rupture and Expose Armour all appear to work with this talent. I have never seen Slice and Dice produce extra combo points.

Tier 3 - Lethality/Improved Expose Armor/Relentless Strikes

Lethality

Prereqs: 5 pts in Malice, 10 pts in Assassination

Increases critical strike damage of Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage by 6% per rank for each of 5 ranks
Very very useful. Rogue crits are in the 75-200% extra damage range. Rogue crits seem to happen about 10% of the time at the default rate. Mix that with crit chance boosting Talents and you can do monster damage.

Improved Expose Armor

Prereq: 10 pts in Assassination

Increases armor reduction of Expose Armor by 15% per rank for up to 3 ranks
Expose Armor has limited use as it does not stack with the Warrior armor class reduction talent. You have better things to spend both combo points and Talent points. Give this one a pass.

Relentless Strikes

Prereqs: 3 pts in Ruthlessness, 10 pts in Assassination

Finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy
There are mixed schools of thought on this one. More energy is good. It may be a bit buggy with some finishing moves not triggering this Talent. It appears to suffer the same issues as Ruthlessness.

Tier 4 - Improved Instant Poison/Vile Poisons

Improved Instant Poison

Prereq: 15 pts in Assassination

Increases chance to apply Instant Poison by 2% per rank for up to 5 ranks
Not so useful a skill. Applying poisons does not appear to be a problem.

Vile Poisons

Prereq: 15 pts in Assassination

Increases damage dealt by your poisons by 3% per rank for up to 5 ranks
This is a semi-useful Talent. It does increase your overall average DPS when using Poisons. It is often easy to find more valuable places to put your Talent points. Many builds use one point to get to Cold Blood.

Tier 5 - Cold Blood/Improved Deadly Poison/Improved Kidney Shot

Cold Blood

Prereq: 20 pts in Assassination
Instant cast
3 minute cooldown

Increases the critical strike chance of your next Sinister Strike, Backstab, Ambush, or Eviscerate by 100%
Guaranteed crits. What more needs to be said? This is a key talent in the Assassination tree. However, as many rogues will attest, this does not mean that the style is guaranteed to land. Cold Blood does not increase the chance to hit.

Improved Deadly Poison

Prereq: 20 pts in Assassination

Increases the chance to apply Deadly Poison to your target by 3% per rank for up to 5 ranks
See the Improved Instant Poison Talent discussion. Same applies here. Only for poison fanatics.

Improved Kidney Shot

Prereq: 20 pts in Assassination

Reduces cooldown of Kidney Shot by 2s/4s/5s for ranks 1/2/3
Good for stun based builds. Otherwise it is very far into the tree to improve a skill that would be used in place of Eviscerate. Be aware that repeated use of Kidney Shot on the same target leads to diminishing returns.

Tier 6 - Seal Fate

Seal Fate

Prereq: 25 pts in Assassination

Critical strikes from abilities that add combo points have a 20% chance per rank for each of 5 ranks, of adding an additional combo point Currently an officially recognized bug adds 2 extra combo points on a crit rather than just 1. At rank 5, you receive 2 extra CPs whenever your special attacks crit. Blizzard has not said if 2 CPs is incorrect or if the Talent description is incorrect. Nice talent in its current form.

Tier 7 - Vigor

Vigor

Prereq: 30 pts in Assassination

Increases your maximum Energy by 10 The best of the 30 point Rogue Talents. That's not saying much.

Combat

Tier 1 - Improved Gouge/Improved Sinister Strike/Lightning Reflexes

Improved Gouge

Increases duration of gouge by 0.5s per rank for up to 3 ranks
Gouge is one of the Rogues few means of CC. This can improve that ability. However, most people play Rogues as damage machines. Often used to bandage during a protracted fight and regen energy. Can be used in PvP to escape, since at 10seconds after no combat you can restealth again.

Improved Sinister Strike

Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike by 3 for 1 rank or 5 for 2 ranks
Almost every Rogue should have this Talent. There are very very few builds that will not have this. You will probably use this skill more any other skill. Making it cheaper is good buy it first. Look at a fight beginning with 100 energy without ISS: you make SS at seconds 0, 1.5, 4, 8. With 2 ranks of ISS: 0, 1.5, 3, 6 - a full 2 seconds faster to get 4 SSs in and 4 combo points

Lightning Reflexes

Increases chance to dodge by 1% per rank for each of 5 ranks
Very good Talent for a defensive Rogue. Not a bad overall Talent. Its main benefit comes in to play if you purchase the Setup talent in the Subtlety tree.

Tier 2 - Deflection/Improved Backstab/Precision

Deflection

Prereq: 5 pts in Combat

Increases parry chance by 1% per rank for up to 5 ranks
Another good Talent for a defensive Rogue and a pre-req for Riposte.

Improved Backstab

Prereq: 5 pts in Combat

Increases the critical strike chance of backstab by 10% per rank for up to 3 ranks
This is a great skill for a Rogue in a group. You will be backstabbing your heart out come instance groups. Not so useful in one on one combat however. Skilled Rogues will use a Backstab during the PvP dance since the chance to crit is much higher than SS.

This is an integer addition to your base crit chance (e.g. 10% crit becomes 40% crit, not 19% crit.) - Artega

Precision

Prereq: 5 pts in Combat

Increases chance to hit with melee weapons by 1% per rank for each of 5 ranks
This is a decent Talent for a Combat build Rogue.

Tier 3 - Improved Evasion/Improved Sprint/Riposte

Improved Evasion

Prereq: 10 pts in Combat

Increases the duration of evasion by 2s for 1 rank or 4s for 2 ranks
A nice to have kind of skill. Preparation is better in every way however.

Improved Sprint

Prereq: 10 pts in Combat

Reduces cooldown of your Sprint by 30 seconds per rank for each of 3 ranks
See Improved Evasion.

Riposte

Prereqs: 5 pts in Deflection, 10 pts in Combat
10 Energy
Instant Cast
6 second cooldown
5 yd range

A strike that becomes active after parrying. Deals 150% weapon damage and disarms the target for 6 seconds
Good for a defensive build Rogue. Only useful when fighting one on one.

Tier 4 - Dagger Spec/Dual Wield Spec/Improved Kick

Dagger Specialization

Prereq: 15 pts in Combat

Increases critical strike chance with daggers by 1% per rank for up to 5 ranks
Would be nice to have for a dagger based build. Unfortunately it is very hard to work into such a build.

Dual Wield Specialization

Prereq: 5 pts in Precision, 15 pts in Combat

Increases the damage done by your offhand weapon by 10% per rank for up to 5 ranks
Useful combat build Talent. Overall increase in DPS is pretty low however.

Improved Kick

Prereq: 15 pts in Combat

Gives your kick 50% chance per rank, for each of 2 ranks, to silence the target for 2 seconds
This is a great Talent to get if you can. Very useful in AvH and when fighting caster mobs.

Tier 5 - Blade Flurry/Fist Weapon Spec/Mace Spec/Sword Spec

Blade Flurry

Prereq: 20 pts in Combat
25 Energy
Instant cast
2 minute cooldown
Requires melee weapon

Increases attack speed by 20%. Attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. Lasts 15s
Can be worked into some Combat builds.

Think of it as Sweeping Strikes on steroids. It's very powerful when grinding or farming, but it's not really the best talent for groups or PvP. Consider buying it early on to help level faster, then spec out of it at a later date. -Artega

Fist Weapon Specialization

Prereq: 20 pts in Combat

Increases critical strike chance with fist weapons by 1% per rank for up to 5 ranks
Only for the very rare fist weapon Rogue.

Mace Specialization

Prereq: 20 pts in Combat

Gives a 1%/2%/3%/4%/6% chance for ranks 1/2/3/4/5 to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Great Talent for stun based builds. Just remember that if you are not using a dagger you give up many Rogue abilities.

Sword Specialization

Prereq: 20 pts in Combat

Gives a 1%/2%/3%/4%/6% chance for ranks 1/2/3/4/5 to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword
This is a very good Talent for a combat build. More attacks means more chances for crits and overall more damage. Same caveat applies here as to the Mace Talent as far as daggers goes.

Tier 6 - Aggression/Throwing Weapon Spec

Aggression

Prereq: 25 pts in Combat

Increases damage of Sinister Strike and Eviscerate by 2% per rank for up to 3 ranks
Very good Talent for combat builds.

Throwing Weapon Specialization

Prereq: 25 pts in Combat

Increases the damage of your throwing weapons by 10% for 1st rank and range by 10 yds for 2nd rank
This is virtually useless.

Tier 7 - Adrenaline Rush

Adrenaline Rush

Prereq: 30 pts in Combat
Instant Cast
6 minute cooldown

Increases energy regen by 100% for 15s
The second most useful 30 point Talent. In practice you can SS spam for the entire duration of the talent. Coupled with Slice and Dice and Blade Furry, there is not much that can stand up to you.

Subtlety

Tier 1 - Camouflage/Master of Deception/Rapid Concealment

Camouflage

Increases speed while stealthed by 3% per rank for up to 5 ranks
You will still move slower than anyone else. COuld be useful in a stealther vs stealther situation.

Master of Deception

Reduces chance to be detected when in Stealth mode. 5 ranks of increasing effect
This is the default tier 1 Subtlety Talent.
Apparently each rank adds [the equivalent of] +3 Subtlety; 5 ranks is the equivalent of being 3 levels higher for stealth purposes - Malaclypse In Rogue versus Rogue wars, he who sees first, wins.

Rapid Concealment

Reduces cooldown of Stealth by 1s per rank for each of 5 seconds
Preparation is better in every way. Does not affect the 'in combat' issue, and so by the time your combat is done, Stealth is usually available.

Tier 2 - Elusiveness/Opportunity

Elusiveness

Prereq: 5 pts in Subtlety

Reduces the cooldown of your evasion, vanish, and blind abilities by 15 seconds per rank for up to 5 ranks
Preparation is the way to go.

Opportunity

Prereq: 5 pts in Subtlety

Increases damage dealt with Backstab, Garrote, or Ambush by 4% per rank for each of 5 ranks
Another great Rogue Talent. Bigger Backstabs and Ambushes rock.

Tier 3 - Ghostly Strike/Improved Ambush/Improved Garrote/Initiative

Ghostly Strike

Prereq: 10 pts in Subtlety
50 Energy
Instant cast
20 second cooldown
5 yd range

Strike that deals 125% weapon damage, awards 1 combo point, and increases chance to dodge by 15% for 7 seconds
Not much to say about this one. It is rarely seen in many popular Talent templates.

Improved Ambush

Prereqs: 5 pts in Opportunity, 10 pts in Subtlety

Increases critical strike chance of ambush by 15%/30%/40% for ranks 1/2/3
Very nice Talent. 40% higher chance for the biggest opener to crit. Unless you are going for a sword and mace build, ambush is probably your best opener. With this talent even level mobs are often knocked down to half to 2/3 their health with your first swing. Weapon swap macros are easy to implement, so using a dagger to ambush and then switching to sword/mace should not be a limitation anymore.

Improved Garrote

Prereqs: 5 pts in Opportunity, 10 pts in Subtlety

Increases duration of Garrote by 3 seconds per rank, but reduced damage by 5% per rank for each of 2 ranks
Good Talent for a DoT build. Stack this with Hemorrhage and poison and your target has little chance. A talent that actually reduces damage caused is never a good thing. Hemorrhage does not affect the 'tick' damage however of Garrote or Rupture.

Initiative

Prereq: 10 pts in Subtlety

Gives a 15% chance per rank for each of 5 ranks, to add an addition combo point when using Ambush, Garrote, or Cheap Shot
More combo points are good. They lead to finishing moves happening sooner.

Tier 4 - Improved Rupture/Improved Sap/Improved Vanish

Improved Rupture

Prereq: 15 pts in Subtlety

Increases damage dealt by Rupture by 10% per rank for each of 3 ranks
Another Talent for the DoT build. Stack this with Garrotte, poison and Hemorrhage.

Improved Sap

Prereq: 15 pts in Subtlety

Adds a 30% chance per rank, for each of 3 ranks, to return to stealth mode after using your Sap
This is the Talent groups will expect Rogues to bring into instances for CC.

Improved Vanish

Prereq: 15 pts in Subtlety

Increases movement speed while vanished by 10% per rank for each of 3 ranks
Limited usefulness. You will not spend alot of time Vanished. If you are playing a hit and run type Assassin type of Rogue this could be useful. Stealth at level 60 is 70% normal rate, plus Camo5 (15%) and Vanish 3 (30%), for the time spent in Vanish mode you would be moving at a 115% movement rate.

Tier 5 - Improved Cheap Shot/Improved Distract/Preparation

Improved Cheap Shot

Prereq: 20 pts in Subtlety

Reduces energy cost of Cheap Shot by 10 for 1 rank or 20 for 2 ranks
Very useful in many circumstances. Dagger based builds will open with Ambush, while DoT builds open with Garrote. Cheap shot with ICS would make a great opener for a non-dagger build: Cheap shot, a couple or three sinister strikes, and a kidney shot to restun the opponent.

Improved Distract

Prereq: 20 pts in Subtlety

Increases radius of Distract by 3 yds for 1 rank or 5 yds for 2 ranks
Distract works just fine without this Talent.

Preparation

Prereq: 20 pts in Subtlety

Instant cast

10 minute cooldown

Immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities
Insane things can be done here. Two ambushes and two kidney shots in one fight. Get this one if you can.

Tier 6 - Hemorrhage/Setup

Hemorrhage

Prereq: 25 pts in Subtlety
35 Energy
Instant cast
5 yd range
Requires melee weapon

Strike that damages the opponent, awards 1 combo point, and applies debuff that increases physical damage taken by up to (3 - 7). Lasts for 30 strikes or 15 seconds.
Useful for the DoT build. Otherwise avoid it. This is incorrect, Hemorrhage does not affect the 'tick' of DoT damage. It is very useful when a lot of melee is being applied to a mob, such as in a raid or group, since the debuff is on the mob itself, not just a buff to you the Rogue.

Setup

Prereqs: 1 pt in Ghostly Strike, 25 pts in Subtlety

15% chance per rank for each of 3 ranks, of adding a combo point to a target after dodging their attack
Could be useful if you plan on tanking or in a defensive build.

Tier 7 - Premeditation

Premeditation

Prereq: 30 pts in Subtlety
10 Energy
1 second cast
2 minute cooldown
5 yd range
Requires Stealth

Adds 2 combo points to your target. Must engage target within 5 seconds or combo points are lost
Combo points are good. 30 point pre-reqs are not. You lose Cold Blood this way, but do get Preparation. Typical scenario is to hit with Imp. Sap, Premed, regen energy and Cheapshot. With initiative you can often get 5CPs that way. The 5yard range means you basically have to immobilize the target prior to casting, hence the use of Imp. Sap