October 7, 2026: Blizzard published the Rogue and Warlock class deep dive, bringing the series to eight of the nine Classic-era classes. Paladin is the one still outstanding.
Two structural changes apply to both classes and to the game:
- A new 16-point milestone. Talents still unlock at level 10 with one-point milestones at 11, 21 and 31, joined now by a 16-point milestone. Several signature abilities moved onto it (Cold Blood, Premeditation, Curse of Exhaustion, Conflagrate, Fel Domination).
- Dual Spec at 40, with talent and Legacy changes handled at a class trainer in a major city.
Rogue: poisons and axes
The headline is preparation. All poison charges increased, and poisons can now sit on a weapon alongside temporary enchantments like Weightstones and Sharpening Stones.
- Sap no longer breaks Stealth, giving Rogues a party and raid crowd-control tool that is theirs to set up.
- Distract now reduces affected enemies' Stealth detection for 10 seconds, with the honest cost that player enemies learn a Rogue is nearby.
- Expose Armor now matches roughly five stacks of Sunder Armor at the same level, and no longer blocks a Warrior from using Sunder for threat.
- Axes are newly equippable, which Blizzard ties to the brigand and outlaw archetype.
- Combat folds the old Dagger/Mace/Sword/Fist Weapon Specializations into one talent, Hack and Slash, which also adds an axe bonus. Maces now ignore armor instead of stunning.
- New capstones: Mutilate (Assassination 21), Venom (Assassination 31), Thousand Cuts (Subtlety 31), plus Flawless Execution, Cutthroat and Quietus.
Warlock: Banes, imbues and pet scaling
Warlocks split damaging effects from utility curses and let pets grow with their master.
- Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom become Banes. Only one Bane can be active per Warlock on a target, and everything that read "Curse" now reads "Bane." Curse of the Elements hits all magic damage; Curse of Shadows is removed.
- Firestone and Spellstone become weapon imbues stackable with Wizard Oil, one for Fire damage and crit, one for Shadow damage and spell haste.
- Life Tap scales with Spirit, Drain Soul builds toward a guaranteed Soul Shard, and pets scale from the summoner's stats.
- New capstones: Wrack (Affliction 31), Demonic Pact (Demonology 31, letting Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist stack for the first time), Incinerate (Destruction 31) and Bane of Havoc (Destruction 21).
- Master Demonologist and Demonic Sacrifice are both redesigned around which demon is up.
Blizzard's own caveat is in the post: abilities and talents "may continue to evolve throughout the beta test." Treat every number as provisional, and the removal lists (Sleight of Hand, Deadliness, Grim Reach, Dark Pact, Emberstorm and others) as the more durable signal.
We previously covered the earlier deep dives in this series, including Priest and Warrior and Hunter and Druid.
SOURCES: Blizzard news, "World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives: Rogue and Warlock," October 7 2026 (read in full, October 15 2026).