‘World Of Warcraft’ Rogues Will Receive Updated Outlaw Specialization, Concealed Pistol In ‘Legion’

Blizzard developers wrapped up the Legion class preview series today with a few highlighted Rogue changes. World of Warcraft developers have continued the excitement built up during BlizzCon this year with Legion class change preview posts. The Rogue class is the last to be previewed on Battle.net, and like the Hunter, has a significant change to its specializations.

The Rogue in World of Warcraft is a solely a damage dealing class with stealth, poisons, and combo points as a utility. The three specializations currently in the game do not offer much in the way of differentiation from each other, and changing that is the goal for Rogues in Legion. The most obvious change in Rogues will come with the Combat specialization is renamed and redesigned as the Outlaw specialization.

When Legion releases, the current Combat specialization will be the new Outlaw specialization. The concept of an Outlaw Rogue is one that emphasizes swordplay, fighting dirty, and becoming an iconic scoundrel. The most attractive switch to Outlaw is the handful of new abilities the specialization will utilize in tandem with a few common Rogue abilities. Slice and Dice, for example, will make a return, but the Outlaw really stands out with the new Pistol Shot ability.

The pistol an Outlaw pulls out during battle is not one that is equipped. Instead, the concealed pistol is simply featured in some of the Outlaw’s abilities. Pistol Shot will deal moderate damage at a 20-yard range for a cost of 40 Energy. It will also debuff the enemy with 50 percent slower speed and award the Rogue with a combo point. World of Warcraft developers confirmed on the official developer Twitter account that there will even be a pistol finisher that deals damage and stuns the target.

Every one of the Outlaw’s new melee attacks increases the frequency of the World of Warcraft Rogue’s gunplay. Saber Slash has a 35 percent chance to hit the target again making the new Pistol Shot free to cast. Quick Draw, a passive talent option, makes those free Pistol Shots grant an extra combo point in addition to increasing their damage.

On the inconspicuous side of the World of Warcraft Rogue class, players can enjoy the stealth-oriented gameplay that Subtlety Rogues bring to the table. Shadowstrike will let Subtlety Rogues suddenly appear behind their targets from Stealth granting themselves two combo points. In fact, the ability has no cooldown according to World of Warcraft developers on Twitter. Stealth is required to activate the ability but Stealth should not be too hard to come by as a Subtlety Rogue. They will have a passive ability called Shadow Dance that will grant them a 20 percent chance per combo point to enter Stealth after activating a Finisher. When Stealth is triggered in this way a Shadow Decoy will appear, and the Stealth granted with not break for three seconds even if the Rogue is auto attacking or taking damage.

Finally, Assassination Rogues will see a few changes, but the biggest change for them is what is not really changing at all. Assassination Rogues will be the only specialization with access to poisons and bleeds. Both mechanics were previously ingrained in all three Rogue specializations, but in Legion, Assassination will focus on dealing massive damage over an extended period of time.

World of Warcraft players should also check out the changes to the other classes divulged over the past week. According to the Inquisitr, the previous overview covered Warriors, Monks, and Druids. In particular, Druids have some interesting changes coming up with the removal of the Eclipse bar for Balance, access to Moonfire as Guardian, and the new Affinity feature that lets each specialization benefit from another one.

Legion is expected to release in summer 2016 “on or before” September 21. A World of Warcraft beta test will occur before its release that will answer a lot of questions still remaining about the upcoming class changes. Not to mention, players will get a sneak peek at how the class changes will function in practice rather than in theory. Currently, there is no beta date announced.

[Image via Blizzard Entertainment]