Review of Trickster Hero Talents: Unveiling the Versatile Art of Subtlety Rogues

This past week, Blizzard unveiled their latest expansion, The War Within, and with it, they introduced Hero Talent Trees. These new talent trees offer players a chance to explore class fantasy with a third talent tree separate from their class and specialization. In this blog post, written by WowCarry, we will be taking a closer look at the Trickster Rogue Hero Talents for Subtlety and addressing the controversial decision to repurpose the defensive spell Feint for damage while still not delivering on the deceptive class fantasy.

The Trickster Rogue Hero Talents

The Trickster Talent Tree aims to enhance both the Subtlety and Outlaw specializations. As the name suggests, it focuses on deception and aims to outsmart enemies. However, how well do the current hero talents achieve this fantasy?

• What is a Trickster?

Before we dive into the talents themselves, let's first define what a trickster is. In mythology and folklore, a trickster is a character who exhibits great intelligence or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or defy conventional behavior. From this definition, we can gather that smart planning and clever tricks should be key elements of the trickster fantasy.

Now let's explore the hero talents and see what ideas Blizzard has come up with.

• The Core Concept of Trickster

Every talent tree has a keystone talent that plays a central role. This talent introduces the mechanic that the tree is based around and determines the success or failure of the tree.

For the Trickster Talent Tree, the keystone talent is Fazed. This talent applies a debuff to enemies that increases the damage they take by 5% for a short time. Follow-up talents enhance Fazed, such as increasing critical damage from combo builders, increasing critical strike chance for finishing moves, and reducing damage taken. The tree also introduces additional ways to trigger or apply Fazed to enemies.

The capstone talent, Graceful Guile, synergizes well with Subtlety's cooldowns. By granting 2 charges of Feint, this talent opens up the option to use the capstone effect, Symbols of Death, more frequently. However, there is a potential conflict where auto attacks may trigger the effect before cooldowns are ready, adding a layer of complexity to cooldown management.

• The Elephant in the Room

One of the controversial aspects of the Trickster Talent Tree is the decision to repurpose Feint, a core defensive ability of the Subtlety Rogue, for offensive damage. This raises the question of whether it is good design to use defensive cooldowns for damage. Many players argue that it is not ideal as it trades off utility for damage. Furthermore, using Feint rotationally introduces a potential high trade-off, as it is currently crucial for survival in higher-level content. On the other hand, a high uptime of Feint can significantly increase survivability, especially when coupled with the Elusiveness talent, which provides additional damage reduction. It seems reasonable to separate offensive and defensive/utility cooldowns to maintain a clear distinction between them.

• What Works Well for Subtlety

Despite its shortcomings, the Trickster Talent Tree does have some strengths that benefit the Subtlety specialization. For the first time, the dev team has directly targeted the spell Secret Technique in talents. Talents such as Surprising Strikes and Smoke increase the power of Secret Technique, which is historically a talent used primarily for multi-target situations but has become a core element of Subtlety. Other talents like So Tricky and Don't Be Suspicious enhance utility spells like Tricks of the Trade, Blind, and Shroud of Concealment, providing more options and flexibility in gameplay.

• Underwhelming Aspects

While there are some positive aspects of the Trickster Talent Tree, there are also areas where it falls short. The decision to use Feint as an offensive cooldown is widely criticized. Additionally, the talents Feint & Fancy and Cloud Cover have limited utility and are overshadowed by more compelling options. The complexity of managing multiple abilities, including Feint, Fazed, Symbols of Death, and more, can be overwhelming for players already struggling to learn the basics of the Subtlety specialization.

Is Trickster Good?

Overall, the Trickster Talent Tree seems like a missed opportunity, both in terms of design and class fantasy. While it technically offers synergy between talent nodes, it lacks a compelling hook to keep players engaged. Some talents feel underpowered, and the offensive use of Feint goes against the concept of deception. There is potential for improvement by drawing inspiration from the Subtlety and Outlaw specializations, incorporating higher risk and reward structures and unique utility options. The Trickster Talent Tree is not terrible, but it certainly needs some rework to live up to its potential.

About the Author

This article is written by WowCarry's Rogue theorycrafter, Fuu. Having focused on Subtlety since the Legion expansion, Fuu is well-versed in the intricacies of the specialization. They are also a moderator in the Rogue Discord, where they actively discuss rotation, strategies, and theories to improve gameplay simulations. Feel free to reach out to Fuu on Discord under the handle fuuu.UnseenBlade if you have any questions or want to chat about the Rogue class.

Trickster Rogue Hero Talents for Subtlety