1.
Outlaw Rogue: Midnight Expansion Preview
Welcome to our Midnight expansion guide for Outlaw Rogue!
Alpha testing is now underway, and the information on this page will be regularly
updated for the newest developments during the Midnight Alpha. As we are heading into
the next step of the Worldsoul Saga, we will try and break down the huge amount
of new information to cover all the changes to Outlaw Rogue and
explain and compare their impact to our gameplay, relative to how the spec
currently plays on retail. We will also be giving a quick personal note on these
changes as well!
This page will exist as an evolving work in progress, maintained throughout
the testing cycle. This is not intended
to be a full launch guide that goes into the nuances of playing Outlaw
Rogue, and this page also does not aim to help you improve
your rotational gameplay on the Alpha servers. It will instead serve as a resource
for you to stay up to date with the most important changes, and the direction
the spec is taking as we move closer to the Midnight expansion launch.
2.
Midnight Changes for Outlaw Rogue
To start, the official developer statement regarding the approach to Outlaw
was posted alongside the initial Patch Notes:
Developers’ notes: Outlaw before Midnight could be a very demanding spec
to play. The factors involved in when to cast Roll the Bones could be
complex, performance relied on a lot on how long you could keep Adrenaline
Rush going, and its shortened global cooldown could result in a high rate
of actions per minute. In Midnight, we intend for Outlaw to be a very
approachable rogue spec while still embodying its fantasy of a tricky,
resourceful, sometimes underhanded fighter that is willing to roll the dice
and take a chance.
Roll the Bones now grants a single bonus of varying power, Outlaw no longer
uses Vanish offensively, and Adrenaline Rush has a consistent duration but
provides a bigger boost while active. Outlaw gameplay is based around
building and spending combo points and managing your Energy, with several
random bonuses that can trigger and change up your rotation. Crackshot has
been removed, but talents enable Between the Eyes to reset its own cooldown
and stack its bonus multiple times. We hope you enjoy taking up your blades
and pistol and living the life of an Outlaw!
Like all the other specializations, Outlaw received a
huge amount of changes going into the Midnight Alpha. Many of these changes
are small in impact, aimed at reducing ability-clutter, making the rotation more
forgiving and less fast-paced, and removing talents that rarely saw any play or
offered no rotational impact beyond just hitting them on cooldown. It is also
clear that many of these changes have been enacted to accommodate the planned
restrictions placed on add-ons, by limiting the number of buffs, debuffs, and cooldowns
that need to be tracked, and reducing friction within the rotation to improve
accessibility. Outlaw is considered one of the most difficult specs to get into
by many players, and with these changes it might see an increase in popularity
going into Midnight!
You can check out a full list of patch notes under the Outlaw section here.
There are also quite a few changes to both of our Hero Talent Trees.
2.1.
Fundamental Outlaw Updates in Midnight
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.
2.1.1.
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. I.e. 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 50% chance to gain Stage 1,
40% chance to gain Stage 2, 9% chance to gain Stage 3, and a 1% chance to gain Stage 4.
2.1.1.
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.
2.1.1.
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.
2.1.1.
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.
2.1.
Outlaw Hero Talent Updates in Midnight
2.1.1. 
Fatebound
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.
Developers’ notes: Midnight’s changes to Fatebound are intended to make
its benefits more reliable in different types of content. Fateful Ending’s
“all or nothing” benefit that ended at the end of combat has been replaced.
Several Fatebound talents didn’t scale well against multiple targets or
trigger effects like Caustic Spatter. Those have been updated with new
designs with more universal value.
2.1.1. 
Trickster
Unfortunately Trickster has not yet received any major attention, and we expect to see more changes
for it in one of the upcoming Midnight Alpha builds.
3.
Outlaw Rogue Tier Set in Midnight Season 1
The Season 1 tier-set once again is designed to only offer minor power gains,
while also not having any rotational impact, to ensure players can quickly find
their bearing in a new expansion without the Tier set unduly adding more complexity.
For Season 1, our tier-set looks as follows:
Rogue Outlaw 12.0 Class Set 2pc — Blade Rush's damage is
increased by 30% and its damage to your primary target is increased by an additional 25%.- Rogue Outlaw 12.0 Class Set 4pc — Blade Rush's cooldown
is reduced by 6 seconds and it increases your damage dealt by 5% for 8 seconds.
Both of these bonuses simply add a bit more damage, and don't change the gameplay
all that much. Blade Rush is being pushed as a new major button to press for Outlaw,
so putting more power behind it makes sense, and will be an easy tuning tool both on
AoE and single-target. If Outlaw ends up overperforming in one or the other,
just changing the numbers slightly on the set will allow them to quickly tune our
DPS a little.
As the beta cycle continues, we might see some changes to the Tier-Set, but
the expectation will be that the bonus will add anywhere from 3-5% of DPS for each
of the bonuses.
4.
Writer's Thoughts
The changes to Outlaw are heavily debated, but as a whole they will definitely
make Outlaw more accessible to players who are not yet familiar with its gameplay
loop and come from other specs or classes to try out this unique specialization.
It is important to remember that there are massive changes to the add-on system afoot as well. Keeping track
of all the numerous buffs, cooldowns, and debuffs we currently have in The War Within
is going to be impeded in Midnight, and as a result some of these effects were
removed to ease the cognitive load required to play the spec optimally.
The Roll the Bones change will make it feel a lot less RNG, and thanks to the most important
buffs being the ones you have up at almost all times, your rotation will no longer
heavily change on a whim just because you are missing X or Y buff. This may lower the
complexity of the rotation a bit, but will allow us to focus more on executing
encounter mechanics without risking misplaying our rotation in a major way.
The loss of many important utility spells and skills will make us less tanky
and mobile, but even with the removal of Float Like a Butterfly and Retractable Hook
we are likely going to be one of the tankiest specs in the entire game.
A much higher chance to proc Sinister Strikes will make the rotation feel
more consistent, but we will inevitably have moments of gameplay where we did not
get all the pieces required for a smooth rotation. Gameplay definitely slows down
quite dramatically when we only have the first stage buff of RtB, and if the Sinister
Strike RNG is not in our favor, with no Grave Digger Apex proc on the horizon,
you might be in for a bit of a wait until you can get back to pressing
buttons at a high frequency again.
However, these moments are rare, and we are hopeful that further changes
will alleviate these issues in some way. We cannot wait to see what else Blizzard
is cooking up for Outlaw and Rogue in general!
5.
Changelog
- 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
- 11 Nov. 2025: Page updated for Midnight Beta launch, including Tier Set information.
- 11 Oct. 2025: Page added.
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Outlaw
Apex Talent
