WoW Forever: best Rogue race after the October racial changes

Quick answer

Pick Human on Alliance and Orc on Horde for PvE damage, in every specialization.

Why Human now: Assassination and Subtlety use daggers, which the old sword bonus ignored. Ruthless gives 2% crit with any weapon, permanently.

What the October 15 racial changes mean for Rogue

Values from Blizzard’s October 15 beta notes, checked against the Forever tooltips on Wowhead. Blizzard may still tune the game before launch on November 4.

Human — Ruthless

+2% critical strike chance with all spells and attacks. Replaces Sword Specialization: no sword required.

Orc — Savage, Blood Fury

Savage: +1% critical strike chance with all spells and abilities, replacing Axe Specialization. Blood Fury: +10% attack and spell power for 15 s, cooldown raised to 3 min (was 2).

Gnome — Eureka!

Now an 8 s buff with no charges, 2 min cooldown: non-periodic damaging or healing abilities cost 10% less and deal 10% more. Periodic effects have been excluded since October 1.

Skyborne — Wind Blessed

Permanent melee, ranged and spellcasting haste raised to 3% (was 1%).

Night Elf — Elune's Light

Not changed on October 15: +10% critical strike chance for 15 s every 3 min. Quickness speed now stacks with other speed bonuses.

Alliance races for Rogue

Horde races for Rogue

By specialization, and what we cannot measure

Gnome’s Eureka! changed from 3 charges to an 8 s buff and cannot be used in stealth, so it fits a burst opener less well than before. We have no logs comparing it with Human’s permanent 2% crit.

For PvP, Night Elf, Gnome and Undead keep their utility tools; the October notes did not change Shadowmeld or Escape Artist.