Aside from the fact that many people I know of found Combat rogue a lot better to play I feel like Outlaw is limiting thematically, the talent set gives off swashbuckler/ pirate vibes between the pistol and dice mechanic. Can you dress your character how ever you want? Sure, but there are some themes costume wise that Outlaw just does not really work for.
Ex: After unlocking the Night Elf Heritage set and getting the moon glaive T-Mog I wanted to make a Night Elf that dual wielded the moon glaives, but since the moon glaives are only available as a tmog for one handed weapons this left me with the choice of demon hunter, Frost DK or Outlaw Rogue (unless I wanted to make a fury warrior who was hampered by only using one handed weapons instead of dual wielding two handed, Also I suppose the). I went with the most desirable option for me⊠but using the pistol shot ability and dice ability both feel out of place for a Night Elf in completely heritage armor and weapons.
Also the only option for a Night Elf to wield a single glaive (that works with the tradition and lore) is to make a Prot Warrior to make your character more like the Huntress archetype⊠but I digressâŠ
My point here is that the combat rogue was not only more desirable than the outlaw by many players, thematically outlaw makes it hard to escape that Pirate/ Swash buckler vibe.
That said I am NOT advocating to replace outlaw with Combat Rogue, but give combat rogue back as 4th option (honestly I think all classes with the exception of Druid and maybe DH could benefit from a 4th spec, but again I digress)
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I agree and keep it simple like the WOTLK combat rogue! So much easier to tune anyway!
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This is a nice sentiment, but one that I donât think is at all likely. I can empathize, however, because I loved combat and pre-Legion sub rogue. The âclass fantasyâ reworks kinda killed the specs for me (along with rsv, spriest, uhdk, and fdk).
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I agree unlikely, but a lot less likely if I (and hopefully others) donât express themselves
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reads title and begins reading opâs post with torches lit and pitchforks raised. Gets to the last part where OP doesnât want outlaw replaced and puts the pitchforks down and puts out the torch
Would be nice wouldnât OP if we could get outlaw and combat. But I donât see it happening sadly even though it would be a nice thing for the community if it did.
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Thatâs fair. Although, your feedback is more likely to be seen on the ptr forum, where rogue is currently undergoing a rework, and the rogue dev seems fairly receptive to player feedback. Anyone can post there, unlike the alpha/beta forums.
General Discussion is basically the Mos Eisley Spaceport of the WoW forums.
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Pure martial classes in WoW generally have a serious identity problem RN. Rogue, Warrior, and Hunter all pretty seriously suffer from a lack of thematic vision.
Warrior is more akin to a Barbarian than a Fighter, leaving the tactical fighter archetype unused (do not tell me Arms is the tactical fighter, when its capstone is literally Bladestorm). Rogueâs internal split between ninja, pirate, and assassination, leaves very little ârogueâ vibes left in the class. Pirate and Ninja are fully developed concepts on their own, and they totally override the baseline class fantasy. Hunter is one of the worst implementations of the Ranger archetype that Iâve seen in modern fantasy games.
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Yeah⊠I always liked the stance system because it reminded me of being a fighter but with the shouts etc as well as rage it seemed much more barbarian.
I do wish there was a true fighter but I feel theyâd have to gut what Warrior is pretty heavily to fill that role. I mean which could be a positive on both fronts if done well.
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Itâs better than FF14s at least, where the Archer turns into a Bard around lvl 30 for some reason.
Also,
#bringbackcombatrogue
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Combat was, like, the most barebones, afterthought of a spec that needed to be reworked.
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Maybe so⊠but outlaw was not a rework it was a complete overhaul to the point it didnât resemble combat rogue at all. Also in expacs like Pandaria Combat was one of the best specs (and was tons of fun with the old tree system). I would be curious to see how combat might look with the current tree system.
Also opinions aside when outlaw came out I know of several people who hated it so much they stopped playing their rogues altogether because combat was their jam. I also knew and knew of several others that hated it and just avoid outlaw at all costs. I personally think outlaw is interesting, itâs just super thematic to pirate/ swashbuckler archetype, where as combat allowed for a wider range themes, hence why I advocate to NOT replace outlaw, but give us Combat as a 4th spec. other than Blizzardâs willingness I see little reason we canât have both⊠imho combat should have never been replaced and outlaw should have been a 4th new spec from the get go.
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Itâs one of the weirdest things in WoW history that they got rid of Combat, which was a very iconic spec, maybe the most iconic melee spec in the early days. It made doubly no sense that it ended up being a mostly Combat-like spec with a different name and some odd choices to make it a lot more RNG based. A big failure in class design IMO.
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What? The spec is more or less the same except actually fleshed out and was some sort of actual theme now rather than just âsword rogueâ.
Keep slice and dice up, keep revealing strike up, press sinister strike? 
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Some people like to K.I.S.S.
I can think of a few classes that have a very basic/ boring rotation that people love to play, but those werenât completely overhauled to give them flare or a new theme or make them more complex.
I never said combat was complex, I said lots of people liked it better than outlaw. 
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The only way a person could find combat âbetter to playâ is because they like extremely simple rotations.
Outlaw is combat with more stuff to do.
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Thereâs also the red light green light version from cata or mop.
Not gonna lie though, the changes from shadowlands to dragonflight was huge for me personally. I had to completely redo all my bars for the new shadow dance play style.
Also I donât understand why people still think outlaw = pirates because of the pistol.
Like pistols didnât work on land when holding up carriages on the high way or something
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you have some what of a point, but there are still themes that the dice and pistol do not fit. My Example in my OP, though niche being one of them.
I also think part of that is the gear sets and the weapons they got legion when they were introduced were all pirate themed
there are people who do enjoy that, heck there are still classes where people joke they have 4 button rotation, but I donât see those being overhauled to make them more complex.
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Nope, the swashbuckler theme is awesome. Also reminiscent of the EQ2 Swashbuckler, which is a rogue-type class.
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if you read my original post I never said to get rid of outlaw (because it is fun) I said to bring back combat as a 4th spec. Also I never said I personally liked Combat better (frankly I liked combat in MoP) I just know there were lots of people who hated outlaw and as I stated in my OP the pistol + Dice thing doesnât work for certain themes.
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