Not sure if this is the correct place to post this. But I personally think classic WoW rogue just felt better. Maybe it’s the animations, I don’t know. Sinister strike in retail is this goofy side-step stab-looking move while in classic it was a simple slash. I think they went a little too hard with the pirate-themed stuff. I’m not exactly sure where the pirate idea came from. Maybe because people wanted to feel like the defias or Van Cleef? In classic wow you actually felt like an assassin or some kind of special covert operative. I am glad they are bringing back the old-style talent system in Dragonflight. That’s a positive step in the right direction. Maybe the next step should be giving back the older class designs. I think WoW really got lost on class identity over the years, especially with rogues
Pre-Legion Sub: Fast, nimble, quiet, cunning, opportunist.
Post-Legion Sub: MeLeE sHaDoW pRiEsT
Rogue was my first class and it’s sad to see what has become of the spec thematically.
Especially Outlaw. Combat was cool, outlaw is so dumb. Why do rogues get a gun for changing specs? This and survival SMH.
i feel like being a rogue had more value back then with actual pvp servers.
still one of the classes with the most flavor - albeit diluted.
I’m gonna go with a hard “no thank you” on getting energy back in chunks though.
“Combat” is the most utterly generic uninspired name for a spec though.
Fair. Although retail rogue it kind of feels more or less the same just with real-time regen instead of chunks.
Funny enough SWTOR actually had a spec named combat for Jedi Knights. Sometimes generic names are all you need to get the idea across =P.
Man in Legion they came with literally the worst takes for each Rogue spec:
Outlaw: A forgetable “pirate” with no ship
Assassination: An impractical assassin that DOES NOT WANT YOU DEAD RIGHT NOW but in a moment through poison and bleeds. Also, while making a huge mess.
Sublety: An physicaly incapble shadow stalker that is totally dependant of the magic power of the dark shadows of the darkness who used the power of the dark shadows of darkness to shadowy stalk in the dark shadows of darkness shadows dark. Of the shadows.
Haha. Totally right. I mean like I said in my op I don’t know where the pirate theme came from. I would think it would be rather easy to switch back given we got shared class spells again, and the old talent tree is returning next expansion. They would have to change some spells though to look different and fit the new identity. But I always loved Combat because you felt like a ninja.
The eviscerate animation for female undead has been nerfed so hard it’s sad. Their flip isn’t nearly as high or as hard hitting looking.
Legions sub overhaul to this day remains one of the most offensive things Blizzard has ever done to my favorite class in retail, and was part of what pushed me to Classic full-time TBH.
It hit particularly hard for me as a person who played Sub in every aspect of the game. Not just in PvP, but I also played it in PvE. I loved where the spec was, and they just obliterated it, though if I were a huge combat fan I’d probably feel the same way about Outlaw.
Still makes me sad
Only thing I really miss from previous iterations is burst of speed.
Never liked combat, with the exception of the degen hours in TBC with the PvP 1h maces which had a chance on hit to stun.
Outlaw is a great spec. I also wouldn’t have minded if they had gone with a duelist type spec or even a 2h sword samurai type spec either. But as it stands, I’m glad combat is gone. Alexa . . . play Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack.
But seriously, gimmie back burst of speed.
Weird as hell take.
I just miss the old sounds, so dull nowadays. I miss that visceral Cheap Shot crunch! The old Vanish that sounds like you’re really just throwing a fistful of flash powder into the ground!
…Between The Eyes sounds pretty cool though.
Huh, I thought I was the only one that doesn’t love the legion-shadowlands design of sub.
Partly why im parking my rogue for now. Sub is meta, the other are a bit too far back, no fun playing the meta spec. Bleh.
It makes much more sense when you realize the rogue class designer was giggling in their cubicle plotting to make combat and sub into pirates vs ninjas while also thinking about all the work they weren’t going to put into modernizing assassination. Legion had some cool stuff though, sub rogues being immune to gravity was cool.
Overall I kind of like how outlaw plays, but at the moment the abilities just lack a punch, the aoe feels awful, and roll the bones feels like a break in an otherwise interesting rotation, it reminds me of legion warlocks hitting life tap between doing cool stuff.
In addition, it seems a lack of consequence.
When “unpruning” came, they rid of “Saber Slash” ability icon, because “we understand it would be unfitting where you can use other weapons than sabers”, but for some mysterious reason the saber sound remains xDD That lack of logic class designer didn’t notice 
What logic stands behind a philosophy when one class gets (almost) all of his previous abilities (Warrior, Druid), and for rogue devs suddenly forget what even Sinister Strike sounded, Comb… Outlaw it’s not a pirate anymore, not Combat either obviously, but it’s a unpruning fest, so let’s pretend it is something between, or let’s pretend Sub was’nt really having more bleeding/white dmg based abilities than Rupture…