So, we’ve got Deathwing himself sitting on Wyrmrest Temple, backward and forward time travel, and a black dragon offering us Legendary weapons? Brute force ain’t gonna get this thing done. What we need here is some… Subtlety. So, to get subtly stabbing things in the subtle back with a subtle great knife, here’s your guide to Sub talent specs, glyphs, gems and reforging, rotation, changes and more in Patch 4.3.
Updated Dec 19th, 2011, for Patch 4.3
Subtlety Rogue Changes in Patch 4.3
First up, all rogues NEED to be aware of the coolest damn thing for a while, and that’s the Rogue Legendary quest line . Not only does it lead to the best damn daggers ever at the end, but if you follow it only a bit through – easy enough to do if you raid at all- you’ll get your hands on some of the best weapons out there short of drops from Heroic Deathwing.
Aside from that, Rogues get the 10% melee attack power buff and nothing else. Sorry.
The Tier 13 set bonuses are pretty good, and the 2-piece does change our play slightly. If you have 2 pieces of T13, make sure to use Tricks of the Trade on cooldown.
Subtlety Rotation / Priorities
Like most DPS classes in Cataclysm, Subtlety Rogues don’t have a fixed rotation any more. Instead, we have a number of buffs and debuffs to keep running, and a couple of combo point generators to do so.
Make sure you’ve got Instant Poison on your mainhand weapon, Deadly Poison on your offhand, and Wound Poison on your throwing weapon.
Single Target: Open from stealth – start with Premeditation if possible, then use Ambush to break stealth, and start Slice and Dice. Backstab to 5 combo points and use Rupture. After that:
- If Slice and Dice is about to go down and you have combo points – use Slice And Dice. If Rupture is down and you have combo points, use Rupture.
- Put up Recuperate if it’s not running
- If you have 5 combo points and Slice and Dice is not about to go down, use Eviscerate.
- If none of the above apply, use Backstab if at all possible, and Haemhorrage if not – unless you are at low energy and have 3 or more Combo Points, in which case don’t do anything and let your Energy recharge.
Use Hemorrhage as needed to keep the debuff up on the boss (it has a minute’s duration, so you won’t need to use it often) unless you’re with a Feral Druid or Arms Warrior, in which case they’ll apply an identical debuff as part of their standard rotation.
Cooldowns: Use Shadow Dance whenever possible, ideally near full Energy, and switch to using Ambush rather than Backstab whilst in it. Also, use Vanish whenever possible, then Shadow Step followed by Ambush. For maximum burn DPS, use Vanish, then Shadow Dance once out of Stealth, then Preparation, then wait for Find Weakness to go down and Vanish again. Remember, you can use Shadow Step to get behind opponents for Backstab and Ambush, and it also boosts Ambush damage. Other than this, use Vanish on cooldown unless Find Weakness is currently up.
AOE: Use your single-target priorities unless there are at least 5 opponents, in which case spam Fan of Knives.
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Subtlety Talent Spec
This is the standard Subtlety talent spec for 4.3
Stats, reforging and gemming for Subtlety
Agility is the most important stat for Subtlety by an insane margin – it’s nearly 3 times as valuable as the next most valuable stat. After that, it’s Hit to the Yellow Cap (481), then Haste. Expertise, Crit and Hit above yellow cap are all about the same, with Mastery the weakest stat for Sub rogues.
Reforging: Reforge to the yellow hit cap, then reforge to Haste. Reforge from Mastery first, then Crit, Hit above yellow cap, and Expertise.
Gems: Use a Delicate Inferno Ruby unless the socket bonus provides 20 or more Agi per gem. In that case, use Glinting Demonseye for blue sockets and Deft Ember Topaz for yellow sockets.
Subtlety Enchants
Do check if your professions offer a better enhancement – these are just general-purpose ones.
| Head |
Arcanum of the Ramkahen |
| Shoulders |
Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal |
| Back |
Enchant Cloak – Major Agility |
| Chest |
Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats |
| Wrist |
Enchant Bracer – Agility |
| Hands |
Enchant Gloves – Haste |
| Belt |
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle |
| Legs |
Dragonscale Leg Armor |
| Feet |
Enchant Boots – Major Agility |
| Weapon |
Enchant Weapon – Landslide on both |
Glyphs
Prime: Backstab, Slice and Dice, and Shadow Dance if you want to increase your burst DPS, or Eviscerate to increase your all-the-time DPS.
Major: Tricks of the Trade, Feint, and whichever other one you prefer.
Minor: Safe Fall and your choice.
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15 Responses
As far as I know, Preparation doesn’t reset the CD on Shadow Dance…
@Randy – Our bad, that appears to have changed in Cata.
@Hugh Hancock –
No worries man. Stuff changes so much in this game, sometimes it’s hard to keep track
How can this apply for pvp?
@xlordt – I don’t know, I’m afraid. These are PvE guides only – unfortunately I don’t know my ass from my elbow when it comes to PvP of any sort
@Hugh Hancock – Fair enough, thank you for the fast reply, its been a plesure
It’s silly o’clock so i may have missed this in your guide but, You’ll want to use a hemorrhage instead of one of those x5 backstab so your rupture damage is increased 30%
Also instead of using 5 combo points on a rupture, if specced correctly a 5 point eviscerate should refresh the duration of the rupture so you can completely leave that out
@Scargrimbatol – Thanks – really helpful comments!
Rupture – great catch. I actually meant to structure the priority system like that, so that you use Evis if Rupture’s not down, but was defeated by a typo! I’ll correct it just now.
Haemhorrage technique makes sense – I’ll look into it next week and add it to the guide if (as I suspect) you’re right on that. (Gotta do my due dilligence – but it sounds right, so thanks in advance.)
@Hugh Hancock – No worries, glad to help!
i only just recently started trying to perfect my sub Pve spec, so there’s probably a ton of handy little “Tricks” waiting to be discovered
If i find anything i think will be useful to this site i’ll be sure to post it.
@Scargrimbatol – Right, I’ve looked into the Hemorrhage technique, and you’re right – you should keep the debuff up, but only if you’re not with a Feral Druid or Arms Warrior, both of whom can apply an identical debuff with their standard rotation (Mangle or Blood Frenzy).
Hey! First of all I just want to say: Great guide! I rummage through your class guides’ on a weekly basis, and I love them all! The main toon I play is a Sub Rogue, and through all my time playing I figured I’d throw in my own two cents and see if you like any of it.
For single targets: Stealth w/ a premed to an ambush. Use a 5CP rupture right away, followed by two hemos (1 for the 30% bleed bonus, and the second to put a second bleed in addition to rupture) use the two (or more if you get extra points from crits done by your party members) CP for a slice n’ dice, and then use a backstab to get your recup up. From here you use backstab repeteadly, hitting 4-5 CP eviscerates to keep your rupture up. When your hemo runs out, refresh it and make sure you keep your SnD and Recup up. If you want a bit of extra damage every two or so minutes you can try popping a vanish, followed by a shadowstep, back into an ambush. The shadowstep gives you a damage bonus for 12 seconds. Aside from that all you really have to do is keep your DoTs up, and your buffs running strong. The hardest part is the opening.
This rotation/stat priority won’t apply to pvp. The rotation used in PvP is different, like for Example you’ll want to keep Recuperate up at all times and slice and dice if you can. However, Recuperate is not negotiable and should stay up at all times.
Thanks for the information there – much appreciated!
As anyone who has ever ganked me on my RPPvP realm can attest, I know virtually nothing about PvP
I dont understand this rotation, apologies, but I cannot use the ‘Backstab’ unless you pop Shadowstep first. Even then, Shadowstep as far as I know does not work very well at all in PVE. Am i missing something?
No worries!
You don’t need to Shadowstep to use Backstab – you just need to be behind your target.