Outlaw Rogue DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Heavy Cleave & AoE
    • 2.2. General Purpose/Leveling
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
    • 3.1. With Greenskin's Waterlogged Wristcuffs and Mantle of the Master Assassin
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. Curse of the Dreadblades
    • 2.2. Roll the Bones
      • 2.2.1. Pro Tip: How to Roll the Bones
    • 2.3. Death from Above
    • 2.4. Combo Points and Energy
    • 2.5. Adrenaline Rush
    • 2.6. True Bearing CDR
    • 2.7. Blade Flurry
    • 2.8. Defensive Utility
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Practical Usage of Roll the Bones
    • 3.2. Resource Management
  • 4. Opening Sequences
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. AddOns
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. Death Note
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Startattack Macros
    • 2.2. Tricks of the Trade
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Best in Slot List
    • 2.1. Trinket List
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Racial Bonuses
  • 5. Legendaries
  • 6. Loot Competition
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Outlaw Rogues in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Outlaw Rogue guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Perfecto, an Outlaw/Assassination Rogue who raids in Method.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	✔ Ghostly Strike	✘ Swordmaster	✔ Quick Draw
30	✔ Grappling Hook	✔ Acrobatic Strikes	✘ Hit and Run
45	✔ Deeper Stratagem	✘ Anticipation	✘ Vigor
60	✘ Iron Stomach	✔ Elusiveness	✔ Cheat Death
75	✘ Parley	✔ Prey on the Weak	✔ Dirty Tricks
90	✘ Cannonball Barrage	✔ Alacrity	✘ Killing Spree
100	? Slice and Dice	✔ Marked for Death	✘ Death from Above

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets

Optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, as many talents offer unique strengths in the right situation. I have decided to list a "cheat sheet" of sorts below, however, to help with a quick set up that should be just fine for most encounters. If you want to fully optimize your ability to play this specialization, I recommend reading the entire talents section here to gain additional insight on when swapping your talents would be beneficial.

2.1. Raid Encounters

This build is an excellent starting point as a standard raid setup.

• Level 15: Ghostly Strike
• Level 30: Grappling Hook
• Level 45: Deeper Stratagem
• Level 60: Cheat Death
• Level 75: Prey on the Weak
• Level 90: Alacrity
• Level 100: Marked for Death

2.1.1. Heavy Cleave & AoE

• Level 15: Ghostly Strike
• Level 30: Acrobatic Strikes
• Level 45: Deeper Stratagem
• Level 60: Cheat Death
• Level 75: Prey on the Weak
• Level 90: Alacrity
• Level 100: Marked for Death

2.2. General Purpose/Leveling

• Level 15: Quick Draw
• Level 30: Grappling Hook
• Level 45: Deeper Stratagem
• Level 60: Iron Stomach
• Level 75: Dirty Tricks
• Level 90: Cannonball Barrage
• Level 100: Marked for Death

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

✔ Ghostly Strike

✘ Swordmaster

✔ Quick Draw

Tier 1 talents focus on improving Combo Point generation.

• Ghostly Strike is an ability that deals moderate damage and causes the target to take 10% increased damage from your abilities for 15 seconds.
• Swordmaster grants Saber Slash a 10% extra chance to strike an additional time.
• Quick Draw causes free uses of Pistol Shot (generated by Saber Slash) to grant an extra Combo Point and deal 50% increased damage.

Ghostly Strike is best for nearly all situations.

Quick Draw is the best option if you are using Greenskin's Waterlogged Wristcuffs. It is also the most desirable option for questing, due to the high consistency and damage output it offers.

Swordmaster is an acceptable alternative to Ghostly Strike

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

✔ Grappling Hook

✔ Acrobatic Strikes

✘ Hit and Run

Tier 2 talents focus on improving your mobility.

• Grappling Hook lets you grapple to a targeted location within 40 yards.
• Acrobatic Strikes increases the range on all melee attacks by 3 yards.
• Hit and Run increases your movement speed by 15% at all times.

This tier is largely a matter of personal preference, or is specific to the encounter at hand.

Acrobatic Strikes is a good choice on cleave encounters as it also extends the length of your Blade Flurry. It can also allow you to stay in range of the boss even when mechanics would normally zone you out. Grappling Hook is a fantastic alternative as it allows for snap mobility, which never fails to be useful. Hit and Run is good for kiting and your best option if you have the Thraxi's Tricksy Treads legendary.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✔ Deeper Stratagem

✘ Anticipation

✘ Vigor

Tier 3 talents augment your resource systems.

• Deeper Stratagem increases maximum Combo Points to 6, allows finishing moves to consume 6 combo points, and increases the damage of finishing moves by 5%.
• Anticipation increases maximum Combo Points to 10, but finishing moves still consume 5 combo points.
• Vigor increases your maximum Energy by 50 and increases Energy regeneration by 10%.

Deeper Stratagem pulls ahead of the other choices as it gives you some flexibility with Combo Point overflow and increases the damage of your finishers by 10%.

Vigor and Anticipation are both inferior choices with respect to DPS value, but they make the specialization easier and improve the flexibility of the rotation. These might be good options if it is your first time playing a Rogue, but should be avoided by serious raiders.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

✘ Iron Stomach

✔ Elusiveness

✔ Cheat Death

Tier 4 talents improve your personal survivability.

• Iron Stomach increases the healing received from Crimson Vial, healing potions, and Healthstones by 30%.
• Elusiveness causes Feint to also grant 30% reduced damage taken from all sources.
• Cheat Death causes fatal damage to instead reduce you to 7% of your maximum health and grant 85% reduced damage taken for 3 seconds. Cheat Death cannot save you from damage great that double your maximum health. It has a 6-minute cooldown.

Elusiveness is technically the best talent in most situations, but requires you to be extremely proficient with Feint usage and very aware of incoming damage. Cheat Death is a good choice for players in a raid environment, as it is entirely passive and great for soaking raid mechanics when needed. Generally, Cheat Death is best for learning encounters and soaking high damage mechanics, whereas Elusiveness is great for sustained incoming damage, or soaking frequently occurring mechanics.

Iron Stomach is by far the best choice for leveling and world content, as it improves your self sustainability noticeably. Iron Stomach does not have much potential a raid environment, as it would mostly be strong on encounters with sustained damage intake. Unfortunately in these situations it is considerably outshined by Elusiveness.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

✘ Parley

✔ Prey on the Weak

✔ Dirty Tricks

Tier 5 talents focus on improving your crowd control utility.

• Parley replaces Blind, and pacifies a target (Humanoid, Demon, or Dragonkin only) for 5 minutes. Only 1 target can be engaged in Parley at a time.
• Prey on the Weak causes targets afflicted by your Cheap Shot, Blind, Sap, and Gouge to take 10% damage from all sources.
• Dirty Tricks removes the Energy cost from Cheap Shot, Blind, Sap, and Gouge.

Prey on the Weak and Dirty Tricks are prime choices for raids. Prey on the Weak is the best choice for fights where an important add needs to be quickly burned down, as you can Vanish and Cheap Shot to improve your group's damage output. Dirty Tricks is a perfectly acceptable alternative and allows your Gouge to be used as a pseudo interrupt. It is also a fantastic choice for leveling and world content.

Parley functions as a Blind with a very short cooldown, but currently does not have much use in raids.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

✘ Cannonball Barrage

✔ Alacrity

✘ Killing Spree

Tier 6 talents offer unique damage cooldowns and a stacking passive.

• Cannonball Barrage bombards an area with cannonfire for 1.8 seconds and slows enemies hit by 50% for 1.5 seconds.
• Alacrity causes finishing moves to have a 20% chance per Combo Point to grant 2% haste for 20 seconds, stacking 10 times.
• Killing Spree teleports you to your target and attacks 7 times over 3 seconds. Killing Spree is affected by Blade Flurry.

Alacrity is the best choice in raids, provided you are able to consistently maintain your stacks for most of the encounter. The other two options are currently too weak to displace this talent in any situation.

Cannonball Barrage is good for dealing burst AoE damage, especially in situations where it can be reliably used to hit multiple targets on cooldown. Cannonball Barrage and Killing Spree are both affected by the cooldown reduction provided by True Bearing. These talents never displace Alacrity in terms of overall damage gain provided, however, in theory they could be used to help overcome a burst AoE damage check that might otherwise wipe you (like the Imps on Mannoroth).

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

? Slice and Dice

✔ Marked for Death

✘ Death from Above

Tier 7 talents focus on shifting the playstyle in new directions.

• Slice and Dice is a finisher that replaces Roll the Bones and consumes Combo Points to increase attack speed by 125% and Energy regeneration rate by 15%, lasting longer per Combo Point.
• Marked for Death marks a target and instantly generates 5 Combo Points. The cooldown is reset if the marked target dies.
• Death from Above is a two-part finishing move with a short cooldown that ends with an automatic cast of a 50% stronger Run Through.

Marked for Death is best in every situation, currently. It shines on encounters with regularly occurring adds, as it will allow you to consistently reset the cooldown.

Slice and Dice is a close competitor, though it still falls short to Marked for Death in every scenarios. It is an acceptable choice for players not wanting to deal with the random nature of Roll the Bones.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated Tier 7 talent discussion for Patch 7.2.5.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
• 30 Nov. 2016: Updated to include mentions of talent swaps for specific legendary items.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 24 Jul. 2016: Improved prose for many of the talent explanations. No changes in recommendations.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.