I stopped playing Rogue after shadowlands, and I would love to get back into it but it just doesn’t seem as fun for me when my Death Knight can pull a ton of stuff and just do stuff a lot quicker.
What do you think would be fun for rogues to have so the open world would be quicker / more fun?
Not thinking about PVP or Instanced Content, just spitballing stuff that would be cool in the open world.
For me:
If they’re gonna keep the Vanish as an offensive tool, what if Vanish spawned something like that monk tanking thing and the enemies would “look for you” for a couple of seconds before finally losing aggro. That way it wouldn’t feel so useless.
AoE CC - smokebombs, flashbangs, caltrops
More CC like a ranged bola to root enemies
Have kidney Shot reset on killing something that yields exp?
A dash ability like the Slicing Winds in Plunderstorm that would also apply a slowing poison.
I like each of those. I’d love to see some sort of wall/terrain-climbing in the open world, or maybe just fix the “no path available” issues that often impede our mobility.
Caltrops would be nice; an alternative to a Hunter’s Tar Trap.
I’d love to see a separate spec all about throwing knives and stars from a short distance, or creating short duration shadow copies, like a true ninja!
In Naruto, they do a move called replacement technique, which is basically vanish. The user vanishes in a puff of smoke and leaves behind a log. You could do that in WoW and have the log hold aggro for like 2 seconds. That doesn’t fix the problem of this whole bootleg shadowdance rotation sucking, though.
I would argue that this is an illusion. I’ve played other classes that have strong aoe damage. I find it much quicker to stealth to my destination without having to engage every single mob and critter between me and my prize.
For times when do engage combat, I can handle most situations just by killing one target at a time while using my survival tools. When I can take down 4 or 5 mobs inside of an opener, that’s plenty fast for me.
I would also like a ranged option too! Though more on the sniper/gunslinger vibe.
But I’d REALLY love a rogue tank where they’d be dodging instead of blocking. I love playing tanks but I really wanna play a rogue too, and having the option of being a tank would be great - though as for the spec, I can’t name a theme but I think having things like Killing Spree or Shadow Techniques would work as aoe abilities for the tank too. Have maybe a button for increased parry chance or throw grenades for aoe. Or even something like Death Blossom like Thiefs in GW2
Hmm I’ll have to try it. I’m just finishing up the story quests on this DK and then I’ll go on my rogue again. What spec do you like playing in the open world and can I have your loadout c: I’d like to try it
In an ideal situation, any change they’d make would also meaningfully help Rogue value when the time comes to decide between applications in LFG, which is an area I’d highlight as a pain point. Newfangled, low-CD Sprint is already stupid-good. Sap, stealth, and shadowstep are some of the most powerful open world tools available. Frustrating path availability issues notwithstanding, our average cruising speed is still prrretty intense. Admitting this at least based on my own experience – we’re doing pretty alright in the open world.
That said, the answer we should be looking for here is smoke bomb.
My thought is that the designers just really need to give up the ghost on thinking of the ability as overpowered. They could figure out a way to make its use limited or even useless against boss mechanics, as its efficacy in those situations seemed to be impetus for its removal in the first place. And if you look at the wide swath of powerful and maybe even similar abilities populating spellbooks in 2025, the decision to keep bomb away from the PvE experience for sure feels like a hybrid/FOTM-favoring tax with little-to-no explanation devside.
Yeah I’d be happy if we could have smoke bomb LOS shenanigans not work on bosses or something like just reduce our damage taken. I feel like it’s really cool and it felt like something really unique that rogues had.
Power aside, it just doesn’t get simpler than the following statement, and I’d hope it’s what devs would consider most of all when/if returning it to the kit.
The idea is to open with 6 seconds of Subterfuge and if needed, 12 seconds and 8 seconds of Shadow Dance. That’s 26 seconds of spamming Shadow Strike and Eviscerate. More than enough to do 90% of the world content.
There’s a spot in Ringing Deeps where I farm leather (on my alt). I can pull 6 or 7 mobs and down them before the 1st Shadow Dance expires.
i mean would you rather have something you can use after every bte, or drop combat ?
again who cares about whats best for world content, its world content. you can do world content without any talents. you dont have to freaking minmax for world content elites, i legit rip appart the undermine elites without evene pressing vanish, thats how easy it is.
yall legit need to stop focusing on dumb stuff and play stuff you find fun in world content. i promise yall would be happier t hat way
