MoP Classic Subtlety Rogue — Guide (Phase 5)
viewsAbout the Class
Subtlety Rogue is a specialization built around stealth and burst damage, one of the strongest single-target specs in Pandaria.
Its main resource is energy, with combo points as the secondary one. The whole playstyle revolves around chaining 
Shadow Dance and 
Vanish to repeatedly land 
Ambush: it applies 
Find Weakness and strips 70% of the target's armor for the next window. In a raid it is a pure melee fighter that brings 
Master Poisoner, 
Swiftblade's Cunning and the usual set of rogue utility.
Strengths
- At a high gear level it competes for the top spot in single-target damage.
- Massive burst damage on demand: priority targets and adds die instantly.
- Excellent defensive cooldowns:
Cloak of Shadows, 
Evasion, 
Feint, 
Combat Readiness, 
Smoke Bomb. - Very high mobility:
Shadowstep, 
Sprint, 
Burst of Speed. - Provides the raid buffs Master Poisoner and Swiftblade's Cunning.
Sanguinary Vein nicely bridges damage between burst windows.
Weaknesses
- Very gear-dependent and feels weak at a low item level.
- Cleave and AoE damage fall behind Combat and Assassination.
- Requires nearly perfect uptime on Find Weakness; mistakes are costly.
- Heavily reliant on cooldowns: a poorly timed Shadow Dance is a big damage loss.
- You need to stand behind the target for
Backstab, so movement-heavy fights are tough.
Stat Priority
- 1Agility
- 2Hit up to the 7.5% cap for special attacks
- 3Expertise up to the 7.5% cap
- 4Haste
- 5Critical Strike rating
- 6Mastery
Hit and expertise have a soft 7.5% cap: past it your abilities no longer miss or get dodged. Auto-attacks keep missing up to the full 27% hit cap, but reaching it is less valuable than investing into haste and critical strike.
Talents
Rotation (Ability Priority)
The opener is a set sequence of abilities you use as you engage an enemy. Memorising it helps initiate your rotation in the most optimal way possible.
- 1
Deadly Poison - 2
Stealth - 3
Premeditation - 4
Virmen's Bite - 5Ambush
- 6
Slice and Dice - 7Ambush
- 8
Rupture - 9
Shadow Blades - 10Shadow Dance
- 11Ambush
- 12
Eviscerate
- Deadly Poison — keep the poison on the target at all times
- Shadow Dance — on cooldown at 80 or more energy with buffs up
- Shadow Blades — on cooldown, ideally inside a burst window
- Slice and Dice — do not let the attack speed buff fall off
- Rupture — keep it on the target; it enables Sanguinary Vein
Hemorrhage — keep the bleed on the target- Vanish — on cooldown for another Find Weakness window
- Ambush — under Shadow Dance and Vanish, refreshing Premeditation each time
- Eviscerate — spend combo points once Rupture and Slice and Dice are already up
- Backstab — filler when Shadow Dance is not active
Important Abilities
Ambush 20 energy cheaperAmbush and a Find Weakness windowFind WeaknessShadow DanceSanguinary VeinFind WeaknessSanguinary Vein
Best Gear (BiS)
Best Gear (BiS)Tier 16 Set — Battlegear of the Barbed Assassin
Tier 16 Set — Battlegear of the Barbed AssassinIn the recommended Phase 5 build the leg slot goes to
Riou's Vigilant Leggings, while the 4-piece bonus is completed by the other four set items.
Enchants, Gems, Consumables
Enchants
Gems
ConsumablesRaces
Shadow Dance and Shadow Blades windows.
Ambush and an extra Find Weakness.
Best Professions
Synapse Springs line up under Shadow Dance and greatly boost Ambush damage. Nitro Boosts add mobility.
Swordguard Embroidery on the cloak gives a stacking attack-power proc right inside the burst window.
Socket Bracer and 
Socket Gloves — two extra agility gems.
Up to three 
Delicate Serpent's Eye give more agility than regular cuts.
Author
Fouren
Fouren has been playing World of Warcraft for over 15 years. He is an active player with 12 Cutting Edge achievements under his belt, and has reached the top 1% and 0.1% multiple times on various classes. His main classes are healers, particularly Holy Paladin.
Comments
0No comments yet. Be the first to comment!