The history of the Rogue is long and somewhat boring to be honest. We’ve always managed to be one of the most powerful classes throughout the history of World of Warcraft mostly due to the “stealth factor”. Our ability to surprise our enemies and choose our fights has generally compensated for any of the deficiencies of the class throughout the years. This appears to be changing come Cataclysm, where surprise just can’t beat a whole boatload of stamina. As such, the developers have given the Rogue a number of new tricks to their arsenal in order to turn us into more of a light nimble hand-to-hand fighter rather than a surprise from the shadows assassin.

The first move that stood out immediately for me was Recuperate. This is a new finishing move, which means it requires combo points. The more combo points you spend, the more health it heals. You basically can trade your combo points for a very respectable HoT (heal over time), that can be further improved with a damage reduction bonus through talent points. For anyone that has played a Rogue, the thought of trading damage for healing seems almost unfathomable. It will be interesting to see if in the long run many Rogues opt to use this ability, or ignore it.

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