Outlaw Rogue PvP Talents and Builds — The War Within (11.1.5)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as an Outlaw Rogue and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Outlaw Rogue PvP Guide.
Regular Talents for Outlaw Rogues
There is one viable talent build as Outlaw. It focuses on CC and high single-target damage.
Ambush Build
Build Highlights
This build focuses on high, consistent damage with short burst windows. It
features multiple ways to use Ambush, which deals more damage than
Sinister Strike, as well as several talents that aim at increasing the
damage of finishing moves.
Audacity and
Hidden Opportunity are the talents that make
Ambush
the Combo Point builder to use over
Sinister Strike whenever possible. Alongside
Improved Ambush it is a great way to deal decent damage while generating many Combo
Points.
Fan the Hammer works great with
Audacity for additional Ambush procs.
The talent
Subterfuge and provides 6s during which you can use your stealth abilities,
including Ambush, when you leave Stealth. This activates at the start of the game, but also
everytime you use
Vanish (which you have two charges of thanks to
Without a Trace).
Deeper Stratagem and
Devious Stratagem increase the damage of all finishing
moves.
Supercharger alongside
Forced Induction allow you to further empower your
finishing moves everytime you use
Roll the Bones. This will mainly be used in combination
with
Ghostly Strike and
Killing Spree for significant burst damage. However it can
also be used alongside
Between the Eyes, as several talents also enhance this ability.
The talent
Crackshot allows
Between the Eyes to also cast
Dispatch
and have no cooldown when used from Stealth or from Subterfuge.
Improved Between the Eyes
increases the critical strike damage done by Between the Eyes.
Ace Up Your Sleeve has a chance
to make Between the Eyes instantly refund the Combo Points spent, allowing you to use it again.
If you are a bit lucky with procs you can kill someone by spamming Between the Eyes only !
Fatebound has amazing synergy with Outlaw. The main effect of the tree,
Hand of Fate,
is triggered whenever a finisher is used with 5 or more Combo Points. Outlaw currently has very high
Combo Point generation, and uses a lot of finishers quickly so Hand of Fate has a lot of value. Beyond
that
Destiny Defined and
Deal Fate both increase the chance for
Sinister Strike
(and
Ambush) to strike an additional time, and allow them to generate extra combo points when
they do so. The remaining talents are simply empowering the effects of Hand of Fate even further.
PvP Talents for Outlaw Rogues
You can choose three of the following PvP talents; each has uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful but can be replaced with other PvP talents depending on your team's goal.
Mandatory PvP Talents
No talents are truly mandatory as Outlaw. You can always adapt to what you are facing, and what you are playing with.
Situational PvP Talents
Smoke Bomb creates a smoke cloud around you. Enemy players who are
outside the cloud will not be able to target anyone inside it. This talent
is strong for multiple reasons. Firstly, it can help you land a kill by
stunning a target when they have no trinket. By using Smoke Bomb right after
a stun, you will prevent the healer from saving their teammate. Secondly, you
can use it defensively to save yourself or an ally from a lethal cast
about to go off, such as
Greater Pyroblast. And lastly, you can use it
to prevent incoming crowd control on you or your team if such crowd control
would result in you losing a game, such as a
Polymorph or
Repentance on your healer when they have no trinket, and you are low on
health.
Preemptive Maneuver is a solid defensive option as it makes
Feint
reduce the damage you take even more when stunned, and reduces its energy cost.
Dismantle is a strong PvP talent that allows you to disarm an enemy
for 6 seconds every 45 seconds. Disarming an enemy can delay their next kill
attempt or stop it entirely if they have pulled the trigger. It is a great
pick against Warrior, Rogue, and Marksmanship Hunter. It is also
helpful against other Hunter specs. However, they can still use many threatening
abilities while disarmed, and the same goes for Retribution Paladin and Death Knight.
One thing to note is that you can use Dismantle offensively against Death Knight
and Warrior, as being disarmed prevents the use of
Death Strike and
Die by the Sword.
Control is King is a talent that will make your opener, and your goes
with
Kidney Shot a bit more bursty. This would be a decent option when
playing double DPS comps, but that is not the strong point of Outlaw at the
moment.
Changelog
- 23 Apr. 2025: Updated Talents.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.5.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for The War Within Season 2.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Prepatch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 18 Mar. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.5.
- 30 Apr. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7.
- 25 Jan. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.5.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 28 Jul. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 01 Jul. 2022: Changed T1 Talent.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 23 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Already up to date with Patch 9.1.5.
- 25 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 27 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 29 Nov. 2020: Removed outdated Traits and Essences.
- 04 Nov. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
- Updated Tiers 3, 6, and 7 Regular Talents.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 16 Feb. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
- Updated Tier 7 Regular Talent.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 20 Jan. 2020: This page was checked for Patch 8.3 and no update was deemed necessary.
- 05 Jan. 2020: Page added.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Shadenox, an experienced Gladiator player who has achieved over 3,000 rating on Rogue. You can find him on his YouTube channel, where he creates guides and other informational content regarding Arenas.
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