[Guide] Subtlety Rogue PvE Compendium - The Stealthy Rascal

**Cogo** · June 25, 2024

Hi there, welcome! Before we begin this journey to the depths of Rogue theorycrafting and insane gameplay, I will warn you that this is a very long guide, so feel free to use the search tool from your browser to find the topics you are curious about, although I recommend to at least take a quick read on the whole guide.

INDEX:

0. Introduction
1. Why should I play as a Rogue?

a. Overview of the class as a whole.
b. Pros and Cons about Subtlety, compared to Combat and Assassination.

2. Build-a-character: What I’m looking for as a Rogue?

a. Stats: Their caps and priorities
b. Races: Overall opinion about your virtual skin
c. Professions: Why do I need to work while gaming?

3. In-depth view of your 71 freebies and the choices around it:

a. Talents: Learn about your spec
b. Glyphs: How to increase your performance using rune-written toilet paper.
c. Build Paths: Choosing Hemorrhage or Backstab as your pro gamer move.

4. Keyboarding your way to the top parsing club:

a. Abilities and Cooldowns: What do I have in my disposal?
b. Rotation: The magic around combo points, energy points and shadow dancing.

5. Which is the BiS Gear and what should I aim for?

a. Brief discussion between 2t10 and 4t10 set bonuses and stats.
b. Weapon choices and poisons: Which ones and why?
c. Finally the BiS Gear list (why didn’t you put this first?)

6. How to get my gear setup even stronger?

a. Gems: Getting your gear shiny with colorful rocks
b. Enchants: Cold steel and wizardry altogether
c. Consumables: If you have enough gold for raiding, otherwise lie about it

7. Extra stuff that may be helpful, or not, for your rogue gameplay:

a. Macros: Why should you learn about C++ and Python
b. Addons: The cherry on top of your cupcake

8. Since you spent all this time reading this guide:

a. Final Considerations:
b. Link to other guides that i find very useful for your overall rogue knowledge:
c. Screenshots and logs for the curious and naysayers:

9. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

0. Introduction

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1. Why should I play as a Rogue?

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a. Overview of the class as a whole.

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Rogues are one of the most iconic classes of all times, famously known as the stealthy backstabber, wallet-stealer and havoc-spreader on leveling players. Also, the class is being relevant on every aspect of the game since vanilla, both in the PvE environment like leveling, 5p dungeons, 10/25/40p raids, but also in the PvP environment like in duels, arenas (2v2, 3v3, 5v5), battlegrounds and world PvP. Concerning the raiding aspect on WotLK, which is the subject of this guide, Rogues are well known about their overall consistency between high damage output, flexible utility and good survivability. This power-trio makes Rogues a force to be reckoned with and that’s why you will probably see at least 1 on every raid setup.

Unlike most of the other classes, with an exception being our distant cousins Feral Druids, we have two types of resources at our disposal: Energy to perform almost every action, and Combo Points to enhance some of our abilities. About the former, the standard base for Rogues is to have a pool of 100 energy points available, with a 10 energy regeneration rate every 1 second. This type of mechanic allows us to never be out of resources in the long run – unlike Restoration Shamans and their mana-drinking problems – although it limits us to spam our abilities whenever it is available, because usually you will not have enough energy to do so. About the latter, Combo points are tied to a target, are generated by some abilities and talents, and may vary from 0 to a maximum of 5. This type of resource is typically used as an enhancer to some abilities, making them to increase your damage or to perform some type of debuff on your foes.

Although Rogues are not very flexible on the type of gear we may wear, being almost exclusively Leather due to the stats tied to it, we are able to dual wield a plethora of one-handed weapons like Daggers, Axes, Swords, Maces and Fist Weapons. Alas, the off-set gearing – your superhero cape and jewelry – is very forgiving when it comes to gearing, since Rogues usually can take advantage of almost every stat available in some way.

Overall, as you will notice, Rogues are very well-rounded and versatile on what you are able to do as a DPS Melee class, being very suitable and enjoyable for a multiplayer role-playing game. As a personal opinion, and the rogue community may agree with me, I do recommend everyone to give it a try at least once, but I will give you a serious warning: you may fall in love with the class, being unable to have fun with everything else, so proceed carefully.

b. Pros and Cons about Subtlety, compared to Combat and Assassination.

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Deep diving on the serious raiding subject, both Combat and Assassination are well known by fighting against each other for the spot as the top tier spec for PvE Rogues, swapping their positions along the releases of content – also known as phases – and gear level available, but always being on the proud A/S tier of the DPS classes. For Subtlety, on the other hand, was almost exclusively reserved the A/S tier for PvP and almost completely ignored on the PvE aspect since it is commonly known as unviable. Although I’m not here trying to reinvent the wheel, I will present two important facts about the current statement of the Subtlety spec in PvE.

In the first place, considering the same gear level and player performance, Subtlety will never out-damage neither Combat nor Assassination in an ideal raiding scenario, period. One of the main reasons for this is that both specs rely a lot on passive damage and energy generation, while Subtlety relies on a more active playstyle and passive combo points generation.

However, both conditions are only always satisfied if you are inside a simulation program, not the actual game itself. Not everyone has a character that is fully on BiS gear – not even my rogue is BiS while I’m writing this guide, although very close to it – and out there exists a parsing ranking for a reason: Some players perform better than others, and this plays a vital role on your overall results.

Secondly, something not being the best does not mean that it is completely useless or unviable. Both Combat and Assassination specs brings something to the table and this also remains true for Subtlety, as therefore i’ll present in the following Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Very engaging and complex gameplay, instead of 1-2 button spam.
Astronomical survivability due to improved Cloak of Shadows and Evasion, and our own Ardent proc: Cheat Death.
Unmatched mobility due to Sprint, Shadowstep and Preparation.
Highest Threat redirection / Damage buff due to larger Tricks of the Trade uptime (50%), compared to the standard glyphed (33%) and unglyphed (20%) versions.
Lowest downtime due to passive CP generation that isn’t reliant on yourself.
Shortest offensive cooldown available: Shadow Dance, leading to more frequently burst windows.
Amazing add-control and flexibility on multi-targeting.

Cons:

Not a beginner-friendly spec, low performance will result in catastrophic damage loss.
Lower overall damage output, especially on heavy AoE encounters.
Lack of a raid-wide debuff like Savage Combat or Master Poisoner.
Relies on group gear, being subpar for 5p dungeons and 10p raids without group management.
Somewhat gear reliant, will only truly shines on end-gear level.

2. Build-a-character: What I’m looking for as a Rogue?

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a. Stats: Their caps and priorities

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Stats are the cornerstone of all characters, being the basis of almost every calculation that involves your combat prowess and survival capabilities, therefore being really important for you to acknowledge which ones, and how much of each, you should pursue to be an effective Rogue. Since this is a guide for raiding, it is crucial to understand not only your personal stats, but also the boss stats and what extra stats you can get by your fellow raiders due to either buffs or debuffs.

One thing that should be in your mind while playing is which stats you should prioritize getting first, since you have a limited amount of resources and gear. Concerning the Subtlety spec, i’ll order below a priority list and split them in 2 groups, also detailing the reasons behind every stat and their amount you should aim for:

Group 1: High Priority

Expertise and Expertise rating (26/26 and 213)

This stat may sound confusing for beginners at first, so to oversimplify your Expertise showing on your Character melee tab should be 26/26. Being under expertise means your enemies will be dodging your attacks, and if you are over expertise, you should aim to reallocate those extra stats somewhere else, for the sake of optimization. To be more detailed, for every 32.79 points of expertise rating, you will be decreasing the chance of an enemy parry or dodge your attacks by 1%, until the dodge cap (6.5%) and parry cap (14%). At the same time, for every 32.79 points of expertise rating, you will be increasing your expertise by 4, being approximately 8,2 of expertise rating for each 1 expertise point increase. Since you will not be frequently attacking the enemy from the front, the cap you should aim is to negate the 6.5% dodge, therefore 26 expertise or 213 expertise points total.
Special Hit and Hit rating (8% and 263)

Although Hit is very straightforward as a concept, meaning the chance you are able to hit or miss your actions, there is a lot of complexity around the different caps you should aim that may vary on your talent tree and raid composition due to choices around specs, and even racial traits. The first cap you should be aiming is the Special Hit, which enables you to not miss your melee abilities on your foes. For every 32.79 points of Hit Rating, you will be increasing your melee Hit Chance by 1%, meaning you should aim for at least 8%, or 263 of Hit Rating, as soon as possible.
Armor Penetration and Armor Penetration rating (91% and 1274)

The all-time favorite stat for almost half of the DPS specs in WotLK, where the math around it is so messy and complicated that was completely removed on the next expansion, Cataclysm. To be very direct and simple about how this stat works: it increases the non-bleed physical damage you deal, and the more you have it, the more valuable is the amount you already have. On the good side, the Subtlety spec already has a head start offering an extra 9% armor penetration, included on the talent tree due to Serrated Blades. Since this doesn’t show on your Character Tab, you should aim for 91% more armor penetration, or extra 1274 points of Armor Penetration rating. This is by far the best stat for increasing your overall damage, since the overwhelming share of Subtlety damage is physical, so you should be chasing as much as possible until you reach the cap.

Group 2: Useful extra stats

Agility (no limit)

Most of the time you will find Agility on the base stats of your gear, not as an extra stat, unless in low level gear or by extra stats like gems, enchants and such. Every 83.12 points of Agility will increase your critical chance by 1%, have a base of 1:1 ratio to Attack Power, and give you a little bit of dodge. Also, your Agility may be boosted by raid buffs, such as Greater Blessing of Kings, by your talent tree, such as Sinister Calling, and don’t have any diminishing returns, so it is always a very welcoming stat to increase your overall offensive power.
Spell Hit and Dual Wield white Hit (17%/27% and 446/885)

Yes, we are talking about Hit again, however this time is about the chance of hitting your spells and your melee auto attacks. You may be wondering which spells I’m talking about, since we are no mages or warlocks, and the answer may surprise you: poisons. Since these caps are really high – and likely unreachable considering only your gear – you should be aware that they are basically guidelines for your stat distribution and optimization. Despite Subtlety being a spec not so reliant on poison damage, a big share comes from auto attacks, making this stat very valuable, so it is always a good idea to keep an eye from where you can squeeze some extra Hit.
Attack Power (no limit)

Also known as AP for the intimate, this stat increases the damage of about everything you do to your enemies: auto attacks, poisons, abilities, finishers and the good old /laugh spam. There is neither a cap nor diminished returns for AP, by the rule of thumb, you can’t complain by getting as many as possible from every external source, which will be further increased by the talent Deadliness.
Critical Chance and Critical Strike rating (until 67%)

Critical is a very welcoming stat that will further enhance every attack you do by multiplying it for more than 1.0x, turning a big hit into a BIGGER hit. Unlike the other specs, Subtlety Rogues don’t have any extra interaction by performing critical strikes – besides the obscene damage that comes from it – and since the scaling isn’t the best around, requiring 45.87 points of critical strike rating for every 1% increase, this is just a good stat to have but not good enough to chase.
Haste (no limit)

The last stat worth mentioning, Haste increases the frequency of your melee auto attacks, by the ratio of 32.85 haste rating for every 1% increase. Similar to Critical, Haste doesn't have any extra interaction besides the higher overall damage from your white attacks, and the frequency of the poisons applied, due to the more attacks in the same window frame. Therefore, I would rank it close to Critical in terms of priority, being more or less effective based on the other 641 variables inside a raid environment.

b. Races: Overall opinion about your virtual skin

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c. Professions: Why do I need to work while gaming?

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Professions are a multi-purpose option for your character, since they may improve your damage and utility, provide you gold by crafting and gathering materials, and also give you a relevant role as a functional member of society. There are 11 professions equally available for every class that i’ll split in 3 groups due to priority order, and also detail the relevant ones:

Group 1: BiS Professions

Jewelcrafting: Allows you to craft special gems by cutting Dragon’s Eye and equipping 3 of those in your gear. This profession is BiS for every PvE spec due to the higher raw stats improvement and Subtlety rogues aren’t an exception: you have an easier time to reach your Armor Penetration cap or to get more Hit if you’re lacking the Special Hit cap.
Blacksmithing: On 2nd place for professions, and somewhat paired with JC, BS allows you to add 2 extra prismatic sockets on your gear – 1 on wrist, 1 on gloves – that also helps you squeeze some extra stats to reach your caps, being a very welcoming profession on every stage of your gearing process.
Engineering: Although not being the best DPS-wise compared to JC+BS, is a fair contender to the 2nd place for the utility it provides: A parachute on Flexweave Underlay, a minor DPS cooldown on Hyperspeed Accelerators and a mobility cooldown on Nitro Boosts. Some people can’t live without Engineering, but since Haste isn’t a particularly great stat for Subtlety and we have enough mobility due to the talent tree, I would suggest going for JC+BS.
Tailoring: Since you are amazed by poisons being counted as spells and love flying on rugs, Tailoring is a decent profession and a solid 4th due to Swordguard Embroidery. Although the average value of the proc, in the long run, is lower than the above professions, it’s a rather profitable profession and the burst window can be higher if every proc aligns.

Group 2: Useful Professions

Alchemy, Enchanting, Inscription, Leatherworking, Skinning: All of these professions provide you some kind of DPS increase by giving extra offensive stats – most commonly AP – but clearly have a lower value than those mentioned in the group above. I’m not here to judge you, if you want to keep your professions for the sake of multi characters or economy, feel free to take one of these.

Group 3: Not Recommended Professions

Mining, Herbalism: Both of these don’t provide any damage increase and are not recommended for PvE raiding as a DPS class. However, I'm not your father to tell you what to do, so if you want to be a gatherer and camp some nodes to kill clueless people, it is up to you.

3. In-depth view of your 71 freebies and the choices around it:

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a. Talents: Learn about your spec

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b. Glyphs: How to increase your performance using rune-written toilet paper.

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c. Build Paths: Choosing Hemorrhage or Backstab as your pro gamer move.

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Everyone knows a friend that got his fresh level 80 Fury Warrior ready to do some heroic northrend dungeons – or maybe you did as well – and managed to hit the enemies like it was wearing 2 pool noodles as weapons, doing less damage than the tank. One of the reasons is that classes and specs that rely on Armor Penetration have their damage crippled as much as they are afar from the stat cap, and as you may have read on previous sections, Subtlety Rogues are one of these classes. Does this mean that Subtlety is useless until the Armor Penetration cap? No. Was I lying to you this whole time? Neither.

Let me explain: From leveling until you hit the soft-cap for Armor Penetration, which is between 600 and 700 – and you can find out by subtracting the hard-cap (1274) from the value of the ArPen proc from a trinket like Grim Toll, Mjolnir Runestone or Needle-Encrusted Scorpion – you should be choosing Hemorrhage as your main CP generation ability and a talent tree dedicated to it, since its bonus damage is static and higher at lower gears. Furthermore, your poisons and Rupture damage will also play a more important role in your damage, due to the lack of Armor Penetration. As soon as you begin to stack ArPen past the soft-cap, the damage-per-energy (DPE) from Backstab starts to get higher and both your Eviscerate and Ambush begin to take over, shifting the dynamic towards the Backstab build.

However, one of the downsides of choosing Hemorrhage is, impressively enough, a social factor. Since Hemorrhage bonus damage is an applied debuff, it will increase the damage counter for the player who consumed the stacks, not who applied it. This means that your damage in a counter tracker, like Skada or Recount, will appear lower than it is while the damage from your fellow raiders will appear higher than it is. Despite not changing the overall damage from the group, this may cause some unaware players – especially the ones that yet didn’t read this amazing guide – to believe that your damage is abysmally low, even more noticeable as lower your gear is. Nonetheless, whether people like it or not, this still is the best option below the soft-cap, so if you go into a PvE environment and notice a slightly better damage counter with Backstab on lower gears, don’t get fooled by it and try to acknowledge the effects of Hemorrhage, although by the end of the day is your choice.

4. Keyboarding your way to the top parsing club:

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a. Abilities and Cooldowns: What do I have in my disposal?

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Before discussing the rotation itself, it is vital to understand your abilities, both offensive and defensive ones, and what each one of them are able to do so you can perform the best as possible. Because you've read everything till here, I’ll presume that you are also able to read the abilities by yourself, so this topic will be reserved to enlighten you some pro tips and smart usage for some of them inside a raiding environment, giving more emphasis on the more unique ones to the Subtlety spec, while being really brief about the most well known, mostly for the new players, that you may skip if you are already a Rogue player for a while:

Unique Abilities for Subtlety Rogue

Hemorrhage: Alternative CP generation ability for Backstab, can be used while facing your enemy – which is very useful on bosses like Kologarn, Auriaya and the Factions encounter – should be used only when the debuff is fully consumed, also as an energy dump to reach 5 combo points on your target. Its bonus damage is an improvement to physical, so it will increase your melee auto attacks and Eviscerates, but not your Rupture since it is a bleed. Also, especially at lower gear levels, the damage increase from the stacks is very noticeable, so it is a good alternative until you get end-gear, as already discussed.
Preparation: This skill makes some abilities twice as better, since it resets the cooldown from your Evasion, Vanish, Shadowstep and Sprint. You can use 2x Evasion while fighting adds that you may take aggro, especially if you are with your ToT on cooldown. You should be using 2x Vanish for extra damage, due to Master of Subtlety, and you may use 2x Shadowstep for an extra gap closer, same as 2x Sprint. Prep is amazing, and you should be using it quite often.
Premeditation: Free extra 2 CPs on your target every 20s, with a 30 yd range, but can be used only while stealthed or under the Shadow Dance effect. You should be using this ability before the pull, since you will start on stealth, and every time you start your shadow dancing, together with the first Ambush. Also can be used together with Cheap Shot and Garrote while shadow dancing to build up 5 CPs as soon as possible for add management, together with Kidney Shot.
Shadowstep: There are a couple uses for Shadowstep and knowing when to use it separates the kids from the men. First, in static fights like Deathbringer Saurfang, you should be using this ability on cooldown before Rupture, Eviscerate or Ambush, since it will increase their damage by 20%, which is a LOT. Second, in fights where you have to move a lot between targets, like Professor Putricide, it is a good idea to save your cooldown so you can Shadowstep an Ooze, kill it and Shadowstep back to the boss, along with Preparation, Sprint or both. Third, but not less important, you have some cheese and niche uses for it, like the flying phase from Sindragosa where you can reapply Rupture while she is on air – and trying to not cross the edge of the platform, because you will fall off the cliff and die, trust me – for some extra damage before transitioning. Also, you should be using very carefully on dragons, such as Sindragosa, Halion, Sartharion and Sapphiron, since bad positioning may lead you to getting tail swiped and probably dying to their mechanics.
Shadow Dance: Not only the coolest Tier 11 ability, but it is also the most flexible one since you can use it for both damage and utility, and since it is on a 1 minute cooldown, should be used very often. While under the Shadow Dance effect, you will most of the time be using Ambush and a finisher – like Slice and Dice, Rupture or Eviscerate – back to back, leading to some obscene burst window. However, one of the utility uses is to Cheap Shot multiple adds, like the Val’kyrs on the Lich King encounter or the Cultists on the Lady Deathwhisper encounter – also mind controlled people, depending on the difficulty you are playing – where when paired with Kidney Shot can lead to a 10 seconds stun on a single target, since both abilities don’t share diminishing returns (DR) in PvE, turning a Subtlety Rogue into a powerhouse for add management.

Damage Abilities

Ambush: Main CP generation ability while stealthed or under the Shadow Dance effect, replacing Backstab or Hemorrhage, requires attacking from behind and used as an energy dump to reach 5 combo points on your target.
Backstab: Main CP generation ability, can only be used from behind the target, does a lot of damage and extends Rupture from 2 to 6 seconds when glyphed. Used as an energy dump to reach 5 combo points on your target.
Eviscerate: Main burst finisher that does a lot of physical damage, should be used mainly on 5 CPs as a combo points dump.
Fan of Knives: Main AoE ability, should be used when facing multiple enemies for damage or to apply some debuff from your poisons, in example by weapon-swapping a 3rd weapon with Crippling Poison.
Rupture: Main DoT finisher that applies a bleed debuff on your target, should be used only with 5 CPs and should never be clipped, which means not reapplying it before its full duration is over.
Slice and Dice: Main self-buff finisher that increases your attack speed by 40%, mainly used with 5 CPs and should be active all the time.

Utility Abilities

Blind: Ranged Crowd-Control (CC) ability that disorients a target for up to 10s or until it takes damage. Can be used to manage isolated targets for a significant period of time, like mind controlled players in some encounters.
Cheap Shot: Main CC ability that can be used while stealthed or shadow dancing, stuns your target for 4 seconds and only shares a DR with Pounce from Feral Druids. Great tool for add management and should be used quite often.
Disarm Trap: Requires to be stealthed and allows you to disarm traps, what a surprise! Do your job as a Rogue and get rid of those pesky ones, especially inside ICC.
Dismantle: Strong CC ability that removes all weapons from your target for 10 seconds, really useful against heavy-hitting melee adds such as the Darkfallen Tacticians and Lieutenants from the Blood Quarter in ICC.
Expose Armor: Finisher ability that lowers the armor from your target by 20%, same as a fully stacked Sunder Armor, between 6 and 30 seconds depending on your CP usage. Is a very useful tool to increase damage on high priority adds, such as Raging Spirits from the Lich King encounter, since they usually don’t live enough time for a complete sundering.
Garrote: Useful CC ability, can only be used from behind the target and while stealthed or under the Shadow Dance effect, that silences an enemy for 3 seconds and deals moderate bleed damage for 18 seconds. Honestly, you will be using Cheap Shot instead of Garrote 99% of the time, but if you need a bleed on your target, it is a good way to do so.
Gouge: Useful CC ability that can only be used by the front, and incapacitates your target for 4 seconds or until it takes damage. It is a weaker and less flexible version of Blind, but can be used as an interrupt for some adds.
Kick: Main CC ability that interrupts spellcasting and can be applied to the vast majority of adds and bosses, similar to Pummel and Mind Freeze. Very handy on fights like Lady Deathwhisper, Lord Jaraxxus and the Factions encounter.
Kidney Shot: Main CC finisher that stuns a target up to 6 seconds. Should be used quite often as an add management control, and paired with Cheap Shot, allows you to stun a target up to 10 seconds.
Shiv: Main poison niche ability that performs a quick attack with your off-hand. It is mainly used with a weapon swap macro to apply a specific poison to a target with a 3rd weapon, where the most common use is Anesthetic Poison II to dispel an enrage effect on Saviana Ragefire and on Shambling Horrors.
Stealth and Vanish: Both abilities allow you to enter a stealthed state, enabling you to use your other abilities – Ambush, Cheap Shot, you already know – and increasing your damage due to Master of Subtlety.
Tricks of the Trade: Redirects your threat to a target for at least 6 seconds, up to 10, and also increases that target’s damage by 15% for the duration. Your main damage buff and utility to a raid, that you may target your tank for extra threat, or another rogue or a strong dps to increase their damage. Also, it gives you extra energy due to 2t10, so you should be using it on cooldown.

Survivability Abilities

Cloak of Shadows: Remove all harmful spell effects on a 1 minute cooldown, allowing you to negate a lot of mechanics faced on raid encounters and, since the list is huge, the most noticeable and frequent ones are: Choking Gas (Professor Putricide), Swarming Shadows (Blood Queen Lana'thel), Chilled to the Bone (Sindragosa), Fiery Combustion and Soul Consumption (Halion) and probably a billion more.
Evasion: Gives you 50% melee dodge and 25% ranged dodge for 15 seconds, really useful when you are about to take aggro from a boss or an add. Near end-gear, you can reach more than 75% dodge with this spell active, so it may save your life a couple times.
Feint: Lowers your total threat and gives you a 50% damage reduction from AoE for 6 seconds. Amazing survival tool that should be used very often in heavy AoE fights like Sindragosa.
Sprint: Main mobility ability that increases your movement speed by 70% for 15 seconds. Being faster makes you reduce your downtime on an encounter, while also allows you to kite bosses and adds for a quite significant time.

b.Rotation: The magic around combo points, energy points and shadow dancing.

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Rotations are the core essence of your peak performance, at any given role, since it guides you on what to do, when to do and how to do everything you need in the most optimal way. Since we are finally talking about how to play this marvelous spec, and probably you already have a guess by learning the talent tree and the abilities available on the previous topics, I’ll try to be very objective in this session of the guide.
Similar to almost every DPS spec, the ideal rotation is composed of three segments: First, an opener that allows you to set up everything you need in a 30 seconds window, between the pre pull and the first moments of the encounter. Second, the priority list of what you need to keep up and the filler abilities that you will be using as the bulk of the rotation. Third, your available cooldowns and when you should be using them. However, before discussing about them, there are a couple things that you should keep in your mind in every encounter as a Subtlety Rogue:

Try to not die, and I know that may sound like a dumb statement but a dead Rogue equals to zero damage – and if you die, blame the healer – and this is the biggest DPS loss possible. Therefore, be smart on your positioning and on your usage of the survivability abilities in your disposal.
Energy capping and Combo Points capping – which is keeping your Energy at 100 and CPs at 5 for a while – are also a DPS loss. However, keep in mind that you don’t have to expend your Energy right away and you can save about 80 energy points without being an issue.
Your tools to generate Energy and Combo Points are predictable – Relentless Strikes, Tricks of the Trade set bonus and Honor Among Thieves – so you can anticipate your next moves based on those mechanisms.

Talking about the opener, there is a checklist of things you should do before the pull:

Apply poisons on your weapons if you don’t have them on, or if they are 15 minutes or less. If you are doing weapon swapping, don’t forget to apply poisons on the weapons on your bag as well.
Use your consumables like Food and Elixirs if you don’t have their buffs on.
Use your Tricks of the Trade on the starting tank or, if there is an exception, on the designated target.
Use your Potion as a pre pot.
Use your Stealth, you should start every encounter stealthed to proc your Master of Subtlety in the first seconds.

Right when the fight starts, there are 2 possible cases that slightly change your opener and that difference relies on if you can be in melee range when the fight starts, or if you start the fight on a ranged distance. Keep in mind that this is a guideline, so give more attention to the idea instead of just memorizing the opening sequence.

Opener if you start in melee range (i.e. Deathbringer Saurfang, Sindragosa, The Lich King):

Tricks of the Trade > Stealth > Premeditation > Ambush > (5CP) Slice and Dice > Shadow Dance > Ambush > (5CP) Rupture > Ambush > (5CP) Eviscerate > Ambush > (5CP) Eviscerate > Vanish > Ambush > (5CP) Eviscerate > …

Opener if you start in ranged (i.e. Lord Marrowgar, Festergut, Halion):

Tricks of the Trade > Stealth > Premeditation > (2CP) Slice and Dice > Shadowstep > Shadow Dance > Ambush > (5CP) Rupture > Ambush > (5CP) Eviscerate > Ambush > (5CP) Eviscerate > Vanish > Ambush > (5CP) Eviscerate > …

Priority list and cooldown usage:

After your opener, there is a priority list of buffs and debuffs you should keep on that is very similar to other specs. Since there are a lot of short cooldowns to use, most of the time the rotation is very dynamic – not as an Enhancement Shaman or a Frost Death Knight, since both are for masochistic players – but if you follow a guideline, you will be performing very well. The Priority list is something like this:

Keep Slice and Dice up all the time, you may clip a couple seconds if needed.
Keep Rupture up most of the time, unless you have to clip it.
Use Eviscerate as your CP dump finisher.
Use Backstab or Hemorrhage as a filler to build up Combo Points.
Use Fan of Knives as a filler if you are facing 4+ targets.

Use Shadow Dance if you have less than 2 CP and more than 75 Energy, as many times as possible. You should be using Ambush instead of Backstab or Hemorrhage while shadow dancing, as your CP generation ability. Also, you should aim to perform 3 Ambushes during the effect of Shadow Dance.
Use Vanish > Ambush if you have less than 2 CP and more than 75 Energy, as many times as possible to proc your Master of Subtlety.
Use Shadowstep on cooldown before a Rupture, an Eviscerate or an Ambush, unless you need it for mobility.
Use Premeditation everytime you go into a stealthed or Shadow Dance state, for extra 2 CP on your target.
Use Preparation to reset Vanish and Shadowstep for extra damage, or to reset Shadowstep and Sprint for extra mobility.
Use Tricks of the Trade on cooldown, for extra threat/damage to your target and also for extra Energy regeneration for yourself – if you have the set 2 bonus for the t10 set – since it is a DPS increase.
Use your Racials, Trinkets and such on cooldown for extra DPS.

In an ideal scenario you will be doing perfectly every condition stated above, but since raids have a LOT of variables, you should be treating this section of the guide as a direction to follow, not as a fixed sequence of what to do. Also, if you have some other functions instead of doing DPS, such as add management or spell interrupting, you may be more flexible about the rotation and prioritize your assignment on that specific encounter.

5. Which is the BiS Gear and what should I aim for?

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a. Brief discussion between 2t10 and 4t10 set bonuses and stats.

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b. Weapon choices and poisons: Which ones and why?

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As I have stated before in the introduction, Rogues are able to wear every one handed weapon available in the game – Axes, Swords, Maces, Fist Weapons and Daggers – although like the Assassination spec, Subtlety Rogues are tied to use Daggers on their main hand due to the core abilities requiring their use. You should be using a slower Dagger (1.8/1.7) on your main hand since your main abilities are tethered to your weapon damage, and a faster weapon (1.5/1.4/1.3) on your offhand for faster applications of poisons, that may be anything that gives you decent stats, not necessarily a Dagger as well.

Talking about poisons, they act as an extra layer of enchantment on your weapons for multi purposes like doing damage, applying debuffs and even removing target’s buffs. As standard for every Rogue, you should be using Instant Poison IX on your main hand and Deadly Poison IX on your offhand – even though poisons not being part of the core damage of Subtlety Rogues – for the most optimal DPS possible.
However, one of the mechanics that great Rogues use from time to time is weapon swapping, which is changing one of your weapons during the encounter by a /equipslot macro to apply other poisons on your targets. Some of the niches uses for other poisons are:

Wound Poison VII to apply a 50% healing reduction debuff on encounters like General Vezax in Ulduar and Anub’arak in Trial of the Crusader.
Mind-numbing Poison to apply a 30% increased cast time on the Factions encounter if you are assigned to control a healer or caster, also on Blood Prince Council and Sindragosa in Icecrown Citadel.
Anesthetic Poison II to dispel enrage effects in fights like Saviana Ragefire in Ruby Sanctum and the Shambling Horrors that spawns on the Lich King encounter.
Crippling Poison for a massive 70% slow in fights like Halion in Ruby Sanctum, on the heroic version, the Val’kyr Shadowguard of the Lich King encounter in Icecrown Citadel, or even on the Suppressors in the Valithria Dreamwalker encounter for add management.

c. Finally the BiS Gear list (why didn’t you put this first?)

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Finally the moment everybody was waiting for since WoW players are aficionados about their gearscores and precious loot from raids, the Best in Slot gear list for Subtlety Rogues is very similar to the Combat spec, since both are very fond of Armor Penetration and Agility gear, although there are some major differences on the weapon usage and stat polishing through gems and enchants. You may opt for other gear setups based on what you have on your disposal or personal opinions, but this is the list that will net you the maximum DPS available for the spec:

Head: Sanctified Shadowblade Helmet
Enchant: Arcanum of Torment
Gems: [M] Relentless Earthsiege Diamond, [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Neck: Sindragosa’s Cruel Claw
Enchant: –
Gems: [B] Fractured Dragon's Eye
Shoulder: Sanctified Shadowblade Pauldrons
Enchant: Greater Inscription of the Axe
Gems: [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Back: Sylvanas’ Cunning / Vereesa’s Dexterity
Enchant: Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
Gems: [R] Fractured Dragon’s Eye
Chest: Ikfirus’s Sack of Wonder
Enchant: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats
Gems: [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby, [B] Puissant Dreadstone, [Y] Rigid King's Amber
Wrist: Toskk’s Maximized Wristguards
Enchant: Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault
Gems: [Y] Rigid King's Amber, [P] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Hands: Sanctified Shadowblade Gauntlets
Enchant: Enchant Gloves - Precision
Gems: [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby, [P] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Waist: Astrylian’s Sutured Cinch
Enchant: Eternal Belt Buckle
Gems: [B] Rigid King's Amber, [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby, [P] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Legs: Sanctified Shadowblade Legplates
Enchant: Icescale Leg Armor
Gems: [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby, [Y] Rigid King’s Amber
Feet: Frostbitten Fur Boots
Enchant: Enchant Boots - Icewalker
Gems: [Y] Accurate Ametrine, [Y] Rigid King’s Amber
Finger 1: Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance
Enchant: –
Gems: [Y] Rigid King’s Amber
Finger 2: Frostbrood Sapphire Ring
Enchant: –
Gems: [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Trinket 1: Sharpened Twilight Scale
Enchant: –
Gems: –
Trinket 2: Deathbringer’s Will
Enchant: –
Gems: –
Main Hand Weapon: Heaven’s Fall, Kryss of a Thousand Lies
Enchant: Enchant Weapon - Berserking
Gems: [R] Fractured Dragon’s Eye
Poison: Instant Poison IX
Off Hand Weapon: Lungbreaker
Enchant: Enchant Weapon - Berserking
Gems: [Y] Rigid King’s Amber
Poison: Deadly Poison IX
Ranged Weapon: Fal’inrush, Defender of Quel’thalas
Enchant: –
Gems: [R] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Shiv Weapon for weapon swapping: Librarian's Paper Cutter
Enchant: Enchant Weapon - Berserking
Gems: –
Poison: Based on the topic above about poison usage.
Fan of Knives Weapon for weapon swapping: Heartpierce
Enchant: Enchant Weapon - Berserking
Gems: [Y] Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Poison: Based on the topic above about poison usage.

6. How to get my gear setup even stronger?

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a. Gems: Getting your gear shiny with colorful rocks

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b. Enchants: Cold steel and wizardry altogether.

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c. Consumables: If you have enough gold for raiding, otherwise lie about it

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7. Extra stuff that may be helpful, or not, for your rogue gameplay:

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a. Macros: Why should you learn about C++ and Python

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Unless you are a very new player – and if that is the case, you shouldn’t be wasting time reading this guide because you are probably clicking your spells – you may have heard of macros and how amazing they are to improve your gameplay. Macros are an in-built system that allows you to compress one or more inputs on the same button, making the player’s life a lot more practical and simpler to execute the rotation and overall functionalities.

There is an endless amount of combinations and conditions you can set on a macro, and since this subject can be quite extensive, I'll simplify and summarize the most commonly used ones, as a Subtlety Rogue, in practical examples that you may modify for your own preferences and gear available.

Basic CP Generator/Finisher macro:

#showtooltip Eviscerate
/equipslot 17 Lungbreaker
/startattack
/cast Eviscerate
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Basic Burst macro:

#showtooltip Shadow Dance
/equipslot 17 Lungbreaker
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Berserking
/cast Blood Fury
/use Sanctified Shadowblade Gauntlets
/startattack
/cast Shadow Dance
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Spell + Premeditation for 5CP macro:

#showtooltip Ambush
/equipslot 17 Lungbreaker
/cast Premeditation
/cast Ambush
/startattack
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Vanish + spell macro:

#showtooltip Vanish
/stopattack
/cast Vanish
/stopattack
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Tricks of the Trade macros:

#showtooltip Tricks of the Trade
/cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

#showtooltip Tricks of the Trade
/cast [@targettarget] Tricks of the Trade
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Weapon Swapping macros:

#showtooltip Heartpierce
/equipslot 17 Heartpierce
/startattack
/cast Fan of Knives
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

#showtooltip Librarian's Paper Cutter
/stopattack
/equipslot 17 Librarian's Paper Cutter
/startattack
/cast Shiv
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Easy poison applying macros:

#showtooltip
/use Instant Poison IX
/use 16
/click StaticPopup1Button1
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

#showtooltip
/use Deadly Poison IX
/use 17
/click StaticPopup1Button1
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

b. Addons: The cherry on top of your cupcake

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Everybody knows that the vanilla game is well designed, flawless and perfectly adequate compared to the games of the same genre, right? Well, that may be true 15 years ago, but compared to nowadays UI and interactions is not that polished. For this reason, addons began to play a vital role on performance of your gameplay and overall quality of life improvements and it is highly recommended to have at least the most commonly used ones. Down below I’ll list the ones i’m using and the reason behind it, although i won’t link to the download sites since they change a lot, so it is up to you to choose if they are worthy or not to search, download and install:

Raiding Addons:

Combo Points Redux: CPR is a very simple and straightforward addon that allows you to have a customizable combo points tracker, it’s a must for every Rogue to have at least one addon of this type.
Deadly Boss Mods (DBM): Amazing due to how complete this addon is, it gives you a warning and timers for every raid mechanic of the game, which is essential for new players to learn about the encounters, also really useful for old timers as well.
Omen: Shows you a live threat meter on the chosen target which is really useful to track who got the aggro or is about to get aggro. Especially for Rogues, since you are in one of the roles responsible for redirecting threat, it is a must for raiding.
Recount and Skada: Live tracking addon that gives you a window that shows damage, healing, resource generation and a lot of different types of data to track while raiding. Really useful if you want to track your performance or if you are interested in extra information, but in my humble opinion it is not essential for raiding.
Tell me when (TMW): Simple but very effective highly-customizable addon that allows you to create windows to track buffs, debuffs and cooldowns on your screen. At least one addon of this type is recommended to raid and this is my personal preference due to its simplicity to configure and display.

Quality of Life (QoL) Addons:

Atlas Loot: Great addon for showing you a list of almost every item available on the game that you can select by categories such as dungeons/raids, crafting, reputation rewards, et cetera. Also, allows you to create a wishlist for easy tracking of the items you want on a specific character.
Atlas Map: Responsible for showing you a minimap of every instance of the game, really useful for new players when facing some dungeon leveling – specially for you to not get lost inside Wailing Caverns – or just for curiosity about the instance.
Auctioneer: Really useful for navigating the Auction House in a cleaner way, both for casual and hardcore players, which has a lot of depth if you are trying to be a tycoon in some specific area.
DressMe: Fun addon that allows you to search about every item appearance of the game and save presets, very similar to a wardrobe functionality, which is very helpful if you are into transmogrification.
GearScore: Useful for tracking the average gear level of every player in the game, setting an arbitrary number roughly between 0 and 7000. Although I personally dislike this addon and the impacts of it on the social aspect of the game, it’s a must if you plan to join PUG raids (pick up group) or if you are looking for a guild.
Ignore More: Grant you the possibility to add more people to your ignore list than the vanilla game allows it, which may be useful long term.
Postal: Changes how your mailbox works, where the most important functionality is to allow you to open every unread mail at once, very useful while buying and selling items on the Auction House.

Interface (UI) Addons:

Bagnon: Good addon that allows you to customize your personal bag frames, guild vault interface and check your own other characters bags.
Chatter and Prat: Improves your chat window functionality, like adding class colors and overall formatting.
OmniCC: Adds text to items, spells and abilities that are on cooldown to indicate when they'll be ready again for use.
ShadowedUnitFrames: UI addon that changes your vanilla interface to a more clean and modern one, it is my favorite UI overhaul addon and the one i recommend for everybody, although not being the most common one.
Tidy Plates: Changes the appearance of the friendly and enemy targets health bars to a more clean and modern one, also have some extra functionalities like an in-built debuff tracking and threat meters, very interesting to complete the UI overhaul.

8. Since you spent all this time reading this guide:

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a. Final Considerations:

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b. Link to other guides that i find very useful for your overall rogue knowledge:

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c. Screenshots and logs for the curious and naysayers:

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9. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Despite believing that the answers people are looking for about Subtlety you may find it here in this guide, these past couple weeks I'm noticing a pattern on the questions about the spec and, for this reason, I decided to make an on-going post-post FAQ to clarify some of the most commonly asked ones. Instead of making a fixed post below the guide, I'll keep this updated in a non-spoiler format to be more clear about being an "extra section" of the guide.

Q1: "I have a Combat Rogue and I want to give it a try on Subtlety to see how it feels like, what can i use from my actual gear and what I'm lacking to play it?"

A1: Combat and Subtlety are very similar in terms of stats, so the swap/dual speccing is a lot more forgiving than Assassination to Subtlety. You may use almost all your gear with 2 important caveats: First, you will need a slow dagger as a main weapon, but you will be fine using a fast axe/sword/mace on your offhand. Second, despite not being optimal you are fine using 2 pieces of the Tier 10 set instead of 4 pieces, however most likely you will find yourself lacking Expertise – since the t10 legs provides a lot of expertise and you won't have the Combat talent "Weapon Expertise" – so you'll probably need to swap a couple gems to achieve the Expertise cap.

Q2: "I have swapped to Subtlety and went on a Training Dummy to try the rotation and check the damage, but I was hitting less than a Frost Mage in tanking gear, this spec sucks or I'm just bad?"

A2: Well, good news: neither of those. Due to the nature of how HAT (Honor Among Thieves) works, and being one of your core resource generation talents, going on a Training Dummy is COMPLETELY different than raiding with the spec, so it is expected that the damage is abysmally low since your rotation and resources are severely crippled. Despite some other specs like Affliction Warlock having different results comparing the Training Dummy and Raiding due to the static nature of the dummy HP, Subtlety Rogue is – in my humble opinion – the worst spec to use the Dummy as a training tool, so I advise as a good practice tool to do some actual PvE, preferably 25p raids where you'll find the better and most optimal results.

**sonicfan102412** · July 26, 2024

Excellent guide explaining how sub works, very nice and well done!
Marvelous.
Also nice to meet you in game!

Just a note:
The HAT will not work with all raid players, but only with the group you are in.
It's the same if you are with 25 players or 10 players raid, it doesn't make a difference as this happens with Cataclysm and other expansions, but not WOTLK.
So don't be in same groups as tanks haha, and try to pair with dps with high GS.

Also for me the Shawl of Nerubian Silk is a better, since I have noticed this gives us more AP, from MY EXPERIENCE, I have not seen that haste makes much difference and this provides more hit and more expertise, which makes a lot of difference.

**Cogo** · July 26, 2024

Glad to meet you as well friend, thanks a lot for the feedbacks!

Regarding the HAT mechanic, you are completely right and in a second thought i probably wasn't very clear about it on the guide. My point about the difference between 5p dungeons and 25p raids is that is more likely to have heavy-critting players in your group as the larger the raid is, since on dungeons you have a tank in your group in example. So in a 25p environment, you will probably have better geared dps players that will crit more often, proccing the 1 combo point per second as the HAT talent aims for.

About the Shawl of Nerubian Silk, despite the stats being very interesting, one of the problems is that close to bis you will be pretty close to the expertise cap using the Ikfirus chest + t10hc legs, so the expertise will be wasted. Also, the TOGC25 back is a higher ilvl item, so the stats are a bit higher as well and the armor penetration most likely won't be wasted. However i do agree that the Marrowgar back is a fairly strong item when you are demanding expertise.

Once again, thanks for the input! I hope this guide, added with the knowledge of some experienced rogue players like you, may help people to discover and enjoy this very underrated and underplayed spec. Cheers!

**Placeholder456** · December 17, 2024

I wasn't aware Honor Among Thieves was party only, perhaps that is why 2 subtlety rogues in 1 group will get 50% of the combo points they usually expect when solo, though I've only seen this 'issue (bug?)' pop up once and haven't tested party vs raid HOT.

I'm surprised you did not mention the Thistle Tea consumable. It does not DR with potions (It DRs with the warlock's healthstone) and the extra +20 energy helps with your opener.
I would state that the talent Filthy Tricks is not optional but required.
Shiv is an important ability to keep in mind not just as a Macro weapon swap but a mainstay ability as your Wound Poison debuff can fall off your target pretty often.

I would recommend this Rupture/Hemorrhage/Vigor build https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#fhh...GzdAkVcRt:kfpV for players new to Subtlety as the spec is quite fast paced and unforgiving compared to Assassin and Combat, particularly since you can't practice on a training dummy due to the nature of Tricks of the Trade and Honor among Theives. This build lets Shadowstep + Rupture line up every 21 seconds comfortably and Hemorrhage be your filler due to it being cheaper in energy. Ghost strikes is useful for world questing, or when a raid is wiped and you pop evasion+ghost strike to stay alive for that last 0.1% of boss HP, but is otherwise optional and I'm wondering if the talent Setup will proc a few times during an ICC run.

**Cogo** · December 18, 2024

Thanks for your input mate!

I'm unaware about any bugs related to 2 Subtlety Rogues sharing the HAT procs on the party, but even if this is a real thing its a very remote chance to have this setup on any raid whatsoever. But yes, HAT is party-only and that's why usually its good to have other 4 heavy-critters on your party to proc it every second, instead of a tank i.e.

About Thistle Tea, you may use it on your starter but it is such a marginal dps increase that it may be included into the regular variance caused by RNG on every regular fight, would be quite similar of using Flame Caps as a rogue (i'm not saying its useless, but borderline unnoticeable)

Filthy Tricks is indeed an important talent and i do agree with you, althought for a very fresh 80s Subtlety Rogue, the 2% hit from precision will be more handy for a dps increase for pushing closer to the hit cap (also poison cap and dual-wield cap)

About Shiv, on a raiding environment you won't use it that often since most Hunters spec into Aimed Shot and not many bosses requires that much the % healing reduction, although it is very important for you to point it out because you might use for % slow cast speed and de-enrage on cases where your raid isn't performing as they should be. Rogues are a great backup debuffer for some fights and every Rogue should be well aware of Shiv usage, as you mentioned.

That's a very interesting talent tree approach for new players, specially the Vigor tech for a more friendly energy management since Subtlety is indeed a very unforgiving spec compared to the other two, that's a very thoughtful perspective! However, about Ghostly Strike i would probably spec into Cheat Death for the purpose of survivability, since imho the reliability and frequency would be a tiny bit higher.

Cheers mate, i do appreciate the feedbacks and long live the Subtlety lifestyle!

**Placeholder456** · December 18, 2024

Originally Posted by Cogo

About Shiv, on a raiding environment you won't use it that often since most Hunters spec into Aimed Shot and not many bosses requires that much the % healing reduction, although it is very important for you to point it out because you might use for % slow cast speed and de-enrage on cases where your raid isn't performing as they should be. Rogues are a great backup debuffer for some fights and every Rogue should be well aware of Shiv usage, as you mentioned.

Mistype, I meant Deadly Poison. It can fall off during a fight, particularly one where you dont have full uptime like Putricide, Sindragosa, or Lich King.

For dungeons I don't even bother using Deadly Poison, I just use 2x instants.

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