Based on the wonderful datamining from WoWHead we can make some initial guesses about our talent trees. Per Celestalon and Jay some of this stuff may have changed already and in a few places I’m guessing. All that said we can definitely start to get a picture of how our new talent trees may be structured. Spoiler warning: not all that different from our old talent trees.
Tier 15: Rotational
This tier looks like a good example of the stated design at Blizzcon. There is a passive talent with low rotational impact, a more complex passive talent and an active talent.
Assassination:
Master Poisoner: Increases the damage done by your poisons by 10% and their non-damaging effects by 20%.
Elaborate Planning: Your finishing moves grant 20% increased damage done for 4 sec.
??: Still seem to be missing one talent, probably the active talent here.
Outlaw:
Ghostly Strike: Strike an enemy with your cursed weapon, dealing 176% Physical damage, awarding 1 combo point, and causing the target to take 10% increased damage from your abilities for 15 sec.
Quick Draw: Free uses of Pistol Shot granted by Sabre Slash now generate 1 additional combo point, and deal 50% increased damage.
Swordmaster: Sabre Slash has an additional 15% chance to trigger a second instant free Sabre Slash.
Subtlety:
Weaponmaster: Your abilities have a 20% chance to hit the target twice each time they deal damage
Gloomblade: Infuse your weapon with Shadow energies and stab the target, causing 210% Shadow damage. Awards 1 combo point. Replaces Backstab.
??-Elaborate Planning: This was called out as an assassination talent in the preview but it does seem to fit on the sub row so putting it here provisionally
Tier 30: Movement and Stealth This tier looks very similar to live tier 15 with all three of nightstalker, shadow focus, and subterfuge. Outlaw has two new movement based talents on this tier. Given what Blizzard said about outlaws and stealth this fits. It isn’t clear what the 3rd talent on this tier will be, it might be one of the stealth talents above or something else new.
Into the Fray: Increases your movement speed at all times by 15%.
Acrobatic Strikes: Increases the range on all your melee attacks by 3 yards.
Tier 45: Resources All three specs appear to share three resource generation/management talents on this tier, our old friend anticipation, now maxing out at 3 surplus combo points and two new talents.
Vigor: Increases your maximum Energy by 50 and your base Energy regeneration by 10%.
Deeper Stratagem: You may now have a maximum of 6 combo points, and your finishing moves now consume up to 6 combo points.
Tier 60: Survivability and Healing
This looks like a modification of live tier 45. The two interesting talents from tier 45 stick around to keep the great cheat death vs elusiveness debate raging. Each spec also has a healing talent as well, assassination keepsleeching poison while outlaw and subtlety get new talents.
Subtlety:
Soothing Darkness: You heal 3% of your maximum life every 1 sec while Stealth is active.
Outlaw:
Iron Stomach: Increases the healing you receive from Crimson Vial, healing potions, and healthstones by 30%.
Tier 75: CC
Broadly a merger of tiers 30 and 75 from live. It isn’t entirely clear how things fit together. Assassination gets [paralyic poison] from MoP back and paralytic poison’s WoD replacement internal bleeding befitting the assassination bleed emphasis. Current tier 75 talent dirty tricks goes to outlaw, a seemingly odd choice given the lack of dots for the spec but it does seem to fit everything we’ve been told about about outlaw aesthetically. It isn’t exactly labeled as such but current tier 30 talent nerve strike seems to round out the tier for outlaw and subtlety, this is a guess.
Assassination:
Thuggee: Each time you deal Bleed damage, you have a 15% chance to reset the cooldown on Garrote, but Garrote’s silence now lasts only 1 sec.
Outlaw:
Parley: Pacifies the target, who is forced to negotiate instead of fighting for 1 min. Only works on Humanoids, Demons, and Dragonkin. Any damage caused will break the peace. Limit 1 target.
Subtlety:
Strike From The Shadows: Shadowstrike also stuns your target for 2 sec.
Tangled Shadow: Nightblade now decreases the target’s movement speed by an additional 20%. Nightblade is subtlety’s rupture replacement.
Tier 90: Rotational
As announced at Blizzcon outlaw gets everyone’s favorite suicide button killing spree as a talent. Otherwise this tier is all new stuff. One new talent, alacrity, shared between all three specs.
Alacrity: Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to grant 1% Haste for 20 sec, stacking up to 25 times.
Assassination:
Numbing Poison: Coats your weapons with a Lethal Poison that lasts for 1 hour. Each strike has a 20% chance of poisoning the enemy, increasing all damage taken from your abilities by 10%, stacking up to 5 times and lasting 12 sec.
Blood Sweat: Each time you deal Bleed damage, the effect has a 30% chance to spread to an additional nearby target.
Outlaw:
Cannonball Barrage: Command a ghost ship crew to barrage the target area with cannonballs doing 8 Physical damage over 1.80 sec and slowing enemies by 50% for 1.50 sec.
Subtlety:
Premeditation: Cheap Shot and Shadowstrike generate 1 additional combo point.
Expanded Technique: Your combo point generators now also have a chance to trigger Shadow Techniques.
Tier 100: More Rotational?
All three specs share one well regarded talent from live in marked for death and one not so well regarded talent from live death from above. Assassination rounds out the tier with another live tier 100 talent, the disappointingly named Lemon Zestvenom rush.
Outlaw:
Roll the Bones: Finishing move that rolls the dice of fate, providing a random combat enhancement. Lasts longer per combo point.
Subtlety:
Relentless Strikes: You gain an additional 40 Energy when you enter Stealth.
What’s Missing?
There are two obvious omissions from the list above. The current level 45 mobility is gone. It may be that Blizzard is trying to move to spec specific movement kits. The devs confirmed on twitter earlier this week that shadowstrike (new ambush) will also serve as a gap closer. Outlaw appears to pick up a grappling hook leaving assassination with the old standby shadowstep. The other oddly hard to place ability is my most hated talentshadow reflection. We’ll have to wait and see but I’m hoping the clone is gone for good.
Overall we have picked up two tiers of potentially interesting rotational talents. There has been some shuffling between tiers but that isn’t obviously a bad thing. Part of the issue with the old rogue tiers was the somewhat disjointed collection of mechanics per tier. Several of the new mechanics look very interesting and I’m excited to play with them, others have major issues but that is exactly what beta is for.
