Subtlety Rogue Dragonflight Class Guide

General Information

Welcome to our Subtlety Rogue Guide for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. We will help you to learn and master Subtlety Rogue in either Raids or Mythic Keystone Dungeons.

Last Update: 16-03-2023

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Basics of Subtlety Rogue

The masters of stealth, Subtlety Rogues deal their damage from the shadows by combining Shadow Dance and Vanish to their advantage. They have to remain behind their enemies to maximize the damage of Backstab, and throw knives against their enemies in Multi-Target situations.

Stat Choice for Subtlety Rogue

General Stat Priority for Subtlety Rogue with our Build is:

Agility
Critical Strike
Mastery
Versatility
Haste

Basic Rotation

Please read our Rotation and Cooldown section for further information.

Use Stealth
Maintain Slice and Dice
Maintain Rupture
Use Shadowstrike whenever possible to gain Combo Points, Otherwise use Backstab
Use Eviscerate to spend Combo Points

Builds and Talents

General Talent Tree

Most Notable Talents

Bottom row Talents like Deeper Stratagem, Marked for Death, Shadow Dance, Cold Blood, Thistle Tea and Echoing Reprimand have the biggest impact in our playstyle.

Other Damage Talents

Thief’s Versatility grants us 4% Versatility. Left side Talents are granting us more Poison damage, critical strike chance, more maximum Energy and additional Combo Points whenever landing a critical strike. Right side Talents are granting us Energy cost reduction of Finishing moves, more damage during Stealth, Ambush generating more Combo Points and Finishing Moves granting us a stacking Haste buff.

Crowd Control & Utility

Sap, Blind and Gouge are top row Talents, and grant us more Crowd Control. Shadowstep and Improved Sprint grant us more mobility. Atrophic Poison reduces the enemies damage done by 4%, and Numbing Poison slowing their attack and cast speed by 18%.

Defensive Talents

Evasion, Feint and Cloak of Shadows are granting us strong defensive cooldowns. Other small Talents grant us more heal with Crimson Vial, or passive damage reduction.

Specialization Talent Tree

Single Target Talents

For Single-Target, Subtlety Rogues ignore the right side of the talent tree which focuses on Shuriken Storm and AoE damage, but instead skill into the left side of the talent tree.

Gloomblade replaces Backstab, dealing more damage and bypasses the enemies’ armor. Critical strikes will also apply Find Weakness against your target.

Shadow Techniques is a passive, which will give your auto-attacks a chance to regenerate additional energy, which is now increased with Improved Shadow Technique. The First Dance will grant you 4 combo points whenever you activate 4 combo points, ensuring that your rotation is very smooth consistently throughout a single target encounter.

For single-target, we also improve our Symbol of Death, increasing our critical strike during the duration of Symbol of Death, and Gloomblade and Shadowstrike increase its duration by 0.5 seconds. While we are already on the left side of the talent tree, we pick up the old Shadowlands Night Fae ability Sepsis.

Multi Target Talents

Subtlety Rogues are using Black Powder as their finisher. This deals damage in AoE, in comparison to Eviscerate. Secret Technique is a finishing move with a 1-minute cooldown, which damage to all targets close to you. Every combo point that you spent will reduce the cooldown of Secret Technique by 1 second.

Replicating Shadows will apply Rupture to an additional target in 8-yards range of your current target.

Shuriken Storm deals damage against all enemies close to you, while you throw knives in all directions. It has an increased chance to hit critically, and after using Stealth, it will land a critical strike for 100%. Shuriken Tornado is a 1 minute cooldown, which will make you automatically cast Shuriken Storm every second for 4 second, granting Subtlety Rogues a quick way to gain Combo Points.

Mythic+ Talents For Subtlety Rogue

Import:

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Aberrus, The Shadowed Crucible

Kazzara, the Hellforged

Molgoth

The Forgotten Experiments

Assault of the Zaqali

Rashok, the Elder

The Vigilant Steward, Zskarn

Magmorax

Echo of Neltharion

Scalecommander Sarkareth

Aberrus, The Shadowed Crucible

Kazzara, the Hellforged

Molgoth

The Forgotten Experiments

Assault of the Zaqali

Rashok, the Elder

The Vigilant Steward, Zskarn

Magmorax

Echo of Neltharion

Scalecommander Sarkareth

Rotation and Cooldowns

Basic Rotation for Subtlety Rogue in Single Target

Use Stealth
Use Shadowstrike as long as you can
Use Slice and Dice
Use Sepsis
Use Shadow Blades
Use Symbols of Death
Use Shadow Dance
Use Shadowstrike
Use Rupture
Use Shadowstrike twice
Use Eviscerate
Use Shadowstrike twice
Use Eviscerate
Use Vanish
Use Shadowstrike as long as you can, and granted by Sepsis
Maintain Slice and Dice
Maintain Rupture
Use Shadowstrike whenever possible to gain Combo Points, Otherwise use Backstab

Basic Rotation for Subtlety Rogue in Multi Target

Use Stealth
Use Shadowstrike twice
Use Slice and Dice
Use Shuriken Tornado
Use Flagellation
Use Shadow Blades
Use Symbols of Death
Use Shadow Dance
Gain Combo Points with Shuriken Storm
Spend Combo Points with Black Powder
Maintain Slice and Dice

Stat Priority

Stat Choice for Subtlety Rogue

General Stat Priority for Subtlety Rogue with our Build is:

Agility
Critical Strike
Mastery
Versatility
Haste

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Agility is your primary stat, meaning that Itemlevel is superior in most cases. Higher Itemlevel will also increase your Stamina and Armor that you gain.

Critical Strike increases the chance for your abilities and spells to deal double damage.

Haste reduces your global cooldown, your time to cast spells, and reduces the cooldown of many abilities.

Versatility grants you a flat damage increase, but also a damage decrease for half of its value.

Mastery increases the damage of your finishing moves by a certain amount.

The further we are getting into the expansion, the effects of diminishing returns start to limit your effective gain of your secondary stats. After reaching 30% (by rating) of any given stat, you will start to receive a penalty that reduces the gain from more of the same stat over this treshold.

Stat priority can differ on every character. Make sure to simulate yourself on Raidbots get the perfect results for you.

Gear and Trinkets

Best In Slot Gear for Subtlety Rogue

This List shows the current Best-In-Slot Gear for Dragonflight Season 1. Many Items can be potentially substituted with any Profession Gear, especially early on into the Season.

Additionally, there is the option for Profession Gear to be crafted with additional Buffs/Perks, which can benefit your character in certain situations.

Slot	Item
Head	Vault Delver’s Vizard
Necklace	Eye of the Vengeful Hurricane
Shoulders	Vault Delver’s Epaulets
Cloak	Acid-Proof Webbing
Chest	Vault Delver’s Brigandine
Wrists	Loyal Flametender’s Bracers
Hands	Vault Delver’s Lockbreakers
Belt	Fused Shale Waistband
Legs	Vault Delver’s Pantaloons
Boots	Ice-Climber’s Cleats
Ring 1	Seal of Diurna’s Chosen
Ring 2	Seal of Filial Duty
Weapon 1	Ornamental Drakonid Claw
Weapon 2	Ornamental Drakonid Claw