Poisons allow rogues to coat each of their weapons in various poisons which can cause instant damage, damage over time, or even reduce an enemy's movement and/or casting speed. Once poison is applied to a weapon, it will last for 1 hour. (Before Patch 2.3, poisons only lasted 30 minutes.)
Poisons are considered a temporary weapon enhancement. Poisons do not stack with other temporary weapon effects such as a Blacksmith's sharpening stones or a weightstones or Alchemist's oils. Only one such temporary weapon enchantment can be active on a weapon at a time.
Rogue talents can be used to enhance the effectiveness of poisons; there is also a set bonus on the Bloodfang armor that increases your chance to apply poison.
Faster weapons (i.e. daggers) will proc poisons much more often. (This is unlike "Chance on Hit" effects that many magical weapons are imbued with.)
Poisons
Poisons can be purchased from poison vendors or Shady Dealers.
These are the poison items that that can be purchased, «along with the level required»:
[Crippling Poison] «20»- Snares the enemy, reducing their movement speed.
[Mind-Numbing Poison] «24»- Increases the casting time of the enemy's spells.
[Instant Poison] «20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60, 68, 73, 79»- Inflicts damage on the enemy immediately.
[Deadly Poison] «30, 38, 46, 54, 60 , 62, 70, 76, 80»- Adds a DoT (damage-over-time) effect to the enemy. Can stack up to five times.
- [Wound Poison] «32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 78»
- Deals damage and reduces the strength of healing effects on the enemy for a period of time.
- [Anesthetic Poison] «68, 77»
- Causes no threat and dispels one Enrage effect, but doesn't scale with AP.
Abilities
These abilities are directly related to poisons
- [Shiv] instantly applies the poison on your offhand weapon to the target.
- [Mutilate] damage is increased by 20% against poisoned targets
- [Envenom] consumes 1 stack of deadly poison per combo point on the target, dealing additional damage per point, similar to [Eviscerate] but ignores armor and deals nature damage
Historical
Prior to Template:Patched, rogues made their own poisons using a Poisons profession. Ingredients for poisons were purchased at Shady Dealers or reagent vendors. They were also found in junkboxes obtained through Pickpocketing various mobs. Some components were also gathered with Herbalism.
Once you had the poisons skill, you had to level it like a profession. You had a poisons skill level which you could increase by making poisons that still gave skill. Poisons listed in orange always gave a skill point when made, and the other colors also worked as they do in the professions. Unlike professions, you did not need to purchase the ability to skill up beyond the 75, 150, 225, and 300 limits. Instead your current skill limit was simply five times your current level. There was no poisons trainer, instead you learned new poisons from the rogue trainer, subject to meeting the level and skill prerequisites.
Poisons did not count towards your two-profession limit, despite the fact that it behaves like a profession.
As of Patch 3.0.2, poisons are bought in their full, created forms from the vendors that originally sold 
[Flash Powder] and poison reagents. Rogues no longer have a poisons skill.
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 Poisons (Profession)
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|---|---|
| Reagents • Trainers |
Gaining Poisons
Formerly, the quest chain detailed below was required to access Poisons - this is no longer the case and Poisons become available for purchase upon reaching level 20. The quests remain however as Rogue-only quests.
Quest chain
At level 20, rogues are able to begin a quest chain that allowed Poisons to be purchased. The exact quests depend on the rogue's faction.
Alliance
Go to the Old Town in Stormwind. Master Mathias Shaw at SI:7 headquarters offers the first quest in the chain, Template:Questclass. The quest takes place in a tower on the southern border of Westfall near Stranglethorn Vale, along the river, and requires a skill level of 70 in Lockpicking to complete. After completing Template:Questclass, the second quest in the chain, you will gain the ability to buy poisons.
Horde
Go to the Cleft of Shadow in Orgrimmar and perform Template:Questclass. The Horde quest chain is difficult to complete solo at level 20, but two level 20 characters or a solo rogue around level 23 should be able to complete it. The two main quests (including Template:Questclass which requires a skill level of 70 in Lockpicking to complete) in the chain take place in a tower in the northeast corner of the Barrens. When the quest objectives are completed, the rogue will be poisoned with a very slow-acting poison debuff. After turning in the quest at the Cleft of Shadow, the rogue travels to Tarren Mill in the Hillsbrad Foothills, where they will be cured of the poison debuff (though the poison is easily curable through a variety of other means as well) and gain the right to buy poisons.
Patch changes
Template:Patched Template:Patched
- Recent testing suggests that presently poisons are available to all rogues starting at level 20, regardless of completing the quests listed above (some poisons only become available at higher levels, but do not seem to be related to any specific quests).