Outlaw Rogue DPS Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

The Midnight Pre-Patch has 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. 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!

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 in Mythic+ as well.

Important Note

Keep in mind that this is not the entire re-design of the spec, as more changes are forthcoming with the launch of the Midnight expansion on March 2nd, 2026. Once Midnight launches, we will be gaining access to 3 more Hero Talent Points, as well as our new Apex Talent: Gravedigger. These will further support and deepen the new gameplay design for Outlaw.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We hope this summary helped you prepare for the Midnight launch on March 2nd, or February 27th with Early Access. If you want to prepare for your leveling journey in Midnight, make sure to check out our recommended consumables and items that can help you reach max-level in Midnight faster!