2.1.
New Content
The Midnight Season 1 launch has finally arrived, and with it we get a lot of new
goodies to play with. From a new Tier-Set, to three new raids, as well as the start
of the Mythic+ and PvP Season 1, there is a lot of new content to engage with. If you
want to check out any of the new content, make sure to head over to the dedicated sections!
2.2.
Class Tuning
For the start of Season 1, Outlaw received no changes whatsoever. Blizzard previously
announced that there will be multiple tuning passes in the first few weeks of the season though,
so we are looking forward to hopefully receiving updates in the first few weeks of S1. We
will ensure to update this guide as soon as new changes occur, or new theorycrafting findings have
been made. Even without major or even minor changes, there is still new things to discover
in this guide, from new BiS lists to updated information on Mythic+ builds.
When it comes to tuning adjustments, our next planned pass is expected to arrive
with the Midnight Season 1 launch on March 17. Our next pass will follow immediately
afterwards utilizing data gathered during the week Heroic difficulties are available;
these changes will go live with the launch of Mythic raid difficulty and Mythic+ on
March 24.
Beyond these dates, we will look to perform more tuning passes based on data gathered
during the starting weeks of Mythic difficulty for Season 1 and the March on Quel’Danas
available the week of March 31.For these two passes we err on the side of caution with
the amount of tuning we do until their respective Mythic end-bosses die to avoid being
overly disruptive to progression. After these key dates we will have several check-in passes
planned roughly a month apart. Once players obtain higher item level and better optimized gear
sets, the throughput of several specs will shift up or down relative to others and we feel
it’s important to be diligent in looking at the current state of class balance as time goes on.
The Midnight Launch has finally arrived, and there are a large amount of changes
to Outlaw Rogue, both for the Spec itself as well as changes to the Rogue
class in general. Many of these changes have already been applied with the
Pre-Patch prior to the expansion's launch, but we have listed the entire set of changes
here for returning players, and to ensure you know exactly what awaits you when you explore
Midnight on your Outlaw Rogue.
The main goal behind these changes is to strengthen the
identity of the two Hero Talent trees, 
Trickster and 
Fatebound,
and changing rotational gameplay flow by making Energy a more impactful resource again.
Roll the Bones received a full overhaul, so make sure to check out how it works now!
2.3.
Hero Talent Changes
The rolling of coins as Fatebound is now a lot more consistent, and no longer requires Vanish or the now removed
Cold Blood to consistently hit the capstone buff. It also gained some
additional resource generation, which will help with Outlaw's lowered
Energy generation on all its passives, to make the spec still feel fluid and smooth
unless you get really bad procs. As a whole, these changes improves the
usability of Fatebound in all cases, giving it a more reliable benefit to our
damage profile, while still retaining its core identity of flipping coins.
Trickster has seen very few changes, other than the addition of the three new talents
that every Hero Talent Tree gained. It continues to be a bit of a wonky option, although most of the
bugs that have plagued Trickster during The War Within have thankfully been ironed out. It still focuses
heavily on the 
Unseen Blade triggers and its capstone Coup de Grace, granting some additional
damage and CP that can help improve your rotational flow.
That being said, it trails behind Fatebound quite dramatically in every content.
2.4.
Apex Talent: Gravedigger
Gravedigger is our Apex Talent in Midnight, and it provides a few damage increases,
while also generating additional resources for more cooldown reduction. While not particularly
flashy, it smooths out our gameplay and fits well thematically.
Depending on the amount of points invested into the talent, you will gain the following
bonuses:
- Gravedigger: Your BtE has a chance to apply its damage amp effect twice.
- Gravedigger: When spending 5+ CP on
Dispatch, you deal bonus damage.
- Gravedigger: When casting Dispatch, you have a chance based on CP spent to hide a bullet
up your sleeve. Once you get to 6 stacks of the buffs, you can unleash a BtE free of cost, with
a 6 CP refund.
These bonuses all add more damage to our kit, and getting the occasional free BtE and more
damage amp stacks is a nice boost to our already high sustained DPS.
2.5.
Rotational Aspects
The Outlaw and Rogue changes in Midnight are far reaching, impacting a lot of
our toolkit and rotational design. That being said, our gameplay loop the spec
is built on still remains — and the spec has a clearer focus. Unfortunately, some
of our best defensive and utility spells were removed or nerfed, like 
Float Like a Butterfly and
Retractable Hook, and the addition of a cooldown to 
Cheap Shot
will give us less stops to disrupt enemies as well.
2.5.1.
Roll the Bones
By far the biggest change to our rotation is the redesign of Roll the Bones.
It is much more consistent now, and when using RtB, you will gain a certain stage:
- Stage 1
Sinister Strike has a 20% increased chance to strike twice and grant Opportunity.
- Stage 2
Sinister Strike and Ambush generate 1 additional combo points and deal 15% increased damage.
- Stage 3
Restless Blades cooldown reduction increased by 30%.
- Stage 4
Critical strike chance increased by 10%.
Depending on which stage you enter, you will also receive all the buffs of the
previous stages. For example, if you gain Stage 3, you will not only gain the cooldown reduction
increase from Restless Blades, but also gain the bonuses to Sinister Strike and Ambush
from Stages 1 and 2.
This serves to normalize the rotational flow quite a bit, by moving most of the power
into the first two stages, which you can get the most often, while the rarer outcomes
do not offer as many benefits that feel required for rotational fluidity, yet still
offer nice bonuses you want to gain.
The current odds of receiving the buffs seem to be 55% chance to gain Stage 1,
30% chance to gain Stage 2, 10% chance to gain Stage 3, and a 5% chance to gain Stage 4.
2.5.2.
Between the Eyes
A lot of focus for Outlaw players in Midnight lies in 
Between the Eyes,
which functions similarly to Guardian Druid's 
Ironfur, in that it provides a buff
that increases your damage dealt, and each buff has its own duration and can stack
with itself. You will often maintain multiple stacks of this buff, especially when
the procs hit just right and you get its cooldown reset, and there might be some
interesting min-max opportunities when you get particularly lucky with your procs.
2.5.3.
Energy Generation
Our Energy generation has been lowered across the board, which in turn makes
Blade Rush feel like a mandatory talent that helps in situations where
you do not get many procs or start running low on Energy.
With most of our rotational flow being improved by the Stage 1 and 2 buffs,
it is rare for us to not consistently get Sinister Strike procs that are key
to a smooth and fast-paced rotation, and while the changes may look like
Outlaw could play a lot slower and more clunky, initial experiences on Alpha
have not proven to support this concern.
2.5.4.
Cooldown Adjustments
Adrenaline Rush is no longer expected to have close to 100% uptime,
with it being closer to ~30-35% in the current Alpha build. Uptime on at least Stage 2
is closer to 75-80%, and the new Apex Talents also help in softening the gameplay
moments where you do not have AR up, only have the first stage of the RtB buffs, and
get unlucky with your SS and Opportunity procs.
Vanish, and by extension Stealth, are no longer a major benefit to our DPS,
and many of the stealth-related benefits it provided through certain Talents like 
Underhanded Upper Hand
or 
Crackshot have instead been rolled into the abilities themselves or new
talents that work without any stealth requirement.
Blade Rush is a core part of the Outlaw gameplay now,
with its Energy recharge being a key component in softening the blow from bad RNG
during your rotational play, as well as a Tier set that is designed around
the ability.
Ghostly Strike and Cold Blood have also been removed, lowering
the amount of buttons needed to optimally play Outlaw and improving accessibility
without simplifying the spec too much.
Trickster
Fatebound
