Rogue Hero Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Outlaw Rogue, check out our Talents page:

Trickster is entirely built around the idea of triggering a new proc called Unseen Blade. This deals significant damage whenever it occurs and initially has a 20-second inner cooldown. However, several talents within the Tree allow for extra procs and reducing the cooldown under specific circumstances. The proc also applies a debuff that increases all damage you deal to the target and even negates their ability to parry your attacks.

Despite all this, the Tree is woefully undertuned, heavily bugged, and its capstone Coup de Grace locks you into an animation that is very offputting due to its 1.2 seconds duration. You can't even use Kick during it. As it stands, it is not recommended to play Trickster under any circumstances. This section will be updated once the outstanding bugs have been fixed and the Tree is in a more playable state, but the difference between both specs is in the reign of 10%, which is too big of a difference to ignore.

Fatebound is, on the other hand, suits Outlaw incredibly well, as it increases gameplay flow and smoothness by increasing the additional strike chance of Sinister Strike, while the damage increase and proc from Hand of Fate are nice additions to our dps kit that heavily focuses on sustained DPS. While it is a very passive and simple Hero Talent Tree, it further boosts the strengths of Outlaw while also simply performing much better. As it is simpler to play, improves gameplay smoothness, and does better numbers, almost all of our recommended builds will be playing Fatebound.

Fatebound outperforms Trickster by double-digit numbers, so there is little room for discussion on when to play either one of them. Fatebound will be your go-to choice in single-target in any situation.

While Trickster does perform slightly better in AoE scenarios than single-target ones, due to its buffs to Blade Flurry, it is still a very awkward, messy, and buggy affair to play this Hero Talent Tree. As a result, even Mythic+ currently favors Fatebound, although the difference is much smaller than it is for Raids. The main issue with Trickster in Mythic+ is the combination of having to play Killing Spree and also having Coup de Grace as your capstone, which means you will be using 1 ability and have 1 proc that will make you lose control over your character, which can quickly spell doom in a Mythic+ environment.

4.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Outlaw Rogue

Fatebound Standard Build Trickster Standard Build

5.

Best Fatebound Build for Outlaw Rogue

The Fatebound build is the same for Mythic+ and Single-Target. While there are a few DPS choice nodes in the Fatebound Tree, the chosen ones in the Tree below are numerically superior to the alternatives. The Tree is entirely passive, augmenting your flips and helping you generate longer chains of flipping your coin. The 5% extra chance to proc your extra attack on Sinister Strike (and by extension Ambush due to Hidden Opportunity) is much more valuable not only for raw DPS but due to it also smoothing out the gameplay a little, with fewer gaps in your rotation due to bad SS proc RNG.

The other two choice nodes are simply for Utility, with Death's Arrival allowing you to quickly Grappling Hook away from and back to the boss, potentially gaining you a second or two of additional boss uptime. You can pick between these choices freely, as they are all very low impact and situational, to the point where they do not make a big difference either way.

5.

Best Trickster Build for Outlaw Rogue

The Trickster build is the same for Mythic+ and Single-Target. The Tree is entirely passive, with no gameplay impact whatsoever, other than the issues above surrounding Coup de Grace. It is better in AoE due to Nimble Flurry, but it is still not strong enough to compete with Fatebound.

As for the choice nodes, you can pick freely between Smoke and Mirrors depending on the situation, if there is a big AoE spell in an encounter, then Mirrors tends to be the better choice as it is not conditional. Thousand Cuts is stronger simply because it is not conditional, further strengthening our sustained DPS output, and the same applies to the other DPS choice nodes of No Scruples vs Cloud Cover.

For more general information on your rotation, make sure to check out our rotation guide:

There is no rotational impact on the regular rotation for Outlaw, as the bonuses provided by Fatebound are entirely passive. You will simply notice a higher CP generation thanks to Deal Fate and more consistent procs due to Destiny Defined.

Trickster also has no change to its rotational priorities due to its Hero Talent passives. You will simply proc your Unseen Blade and end up dealing more damage when it happens, but there is no added active gameplay linked to this Hero Talent Tree specifically.