WoW players are confused why one spec’s playstyle feels so different from its theme

Blizzard is constantly retooling and tuning all of the classes and specializations in World of Warcraft, but some fans of the game seem to be perplexed by the direction that the team took when it came to one spec in particular.

Rogues come in a few different varieties, and in WoW, the three specializations have traditionally represented different playstyles. With Subtlety being the stealthier of the specs and Assassination revolving around poisons and single target damage, Outlaw was meant to be a little bit of a changeup. Especially in previous expansion like Battle for Azeroth, Outlaw was the spec that Rogues would run when they wanted to have more of an “in your face” playstyle and maximize multi-target damage with Blade Flurry.

However, some fans have pointed out that the ways of the Outlaw seem to be gone as the spec has abilities that focus more on stealth and less on the combat-focused, gunslinging ways of old.

“Combat/Outlaw was the spec that was focused on the non-stealth side of rogue while Assassin and sub was the one that focused on stealth,” one Reddit poster said. “But now Outlaw runs with Shadowdance and has a decent chunk of talents focused on the stealth side of combat, and looking at the rework it seems like they want to expand that.”

Shadow Dance is an ability that gives Rogues access to all of the abilities that they can only use while in Stealth and gives them the benefits of Stealth for six seconds without necessarily needing to be in Stealth, and while it’s only one small part of the overall Rogue kit, it’s place in the Outlaw rotation doesn’t seem to fit the flavor of the swashbuckling specialization. Meanwhile, some of the talents later in the specs talent tree, like Take ‘em by Surprise, emphasize using stealth to your advantage.

These changes make the Outlaw feel, well, less like an Outlaw, and it’s also left a couple players out in the cold, forced to change their playstyle.