Is subtlety viable as a raiding spec for rogues?

[Rougekillerz 0]

I was wondering what you guys thought of subtlety as a raiding spec for rogues. I believe it has traditionally been a PvP spec and this seems that this aspect remains dominant.

[HardBeatZ 39]

Sub is a very viable raid spec when it comes to DS. Combat still out weighs it on most fights do to cleave opportunities, but things like Hagara and Morchok Sub can be seen to come out above Combat. Pretty much for Rogues it is (in order of best to worst) Combat --> Subtlety --> Assassination.

http://raidbots.com/dpsbot/Overall_DPS/10H/100/14/60/default/#e000

[Nyxxiana 28]

i agree, and ive always been of the mind that you play the spec that YOU enjoy playing, and find people that will let you play within that scope. Some hard core raiders absolutely beat down if a rogue isnt combat, and that drives me nuts. Im combat, and i do pretty gnarly dps, but ive had equal rogues who were sub and assasin out dps me.... its how you play your toon, and if you KNOW how to work it, you end up proving yourself in the end.... AND making a name for yourself at that :)

[Damien 1,476]

Subtlety is probably the best rogue spec for purely single-target fights. The problem is that it suffers a lot from downtime on the boss. If you lose Recuperate, Rupture, or Slice and Dice, you will need to reapply them. Movement also messes up with the cycle you are trying to maintain and almost always causes you to let something drop.

Subtlety is best used for fights like Morchok, Zon'ozz, Hagara, or Ultraxion where you can get long periods of uninterrupted uptime on the boss.

[HardBeatZ 39]

I think as Nyxxiana pointed out though the most important thing is what spec you are comfortable playing. If you are comfortable playing Sub you are going to do way better DPS than if you don't know how to play combat despite combat theoretically being able to pull higher numbers.

Also Sub is preferred for Heroic Spine even though combat rogues get cheap higher DPS counts do to being able to cleave bloods. If there was a breakdown of just pure damage on the tendons Sub would rank higher than combat rogues.

[dngnb8 3]

I was wondering what you guys thought of subtlety as a raiding spec for rogues. I believe it has traditionally been a PvP spec and this seems that this aspect remains dominant.

Ive played sub from vanilla. Sub is the survival spec. It trades DPS for survival.

As far as raids are concerned, if they are chart mongers, then Sub is not ideal. If they are casual, it wont matter.

I was raiding with one group and the tank bit it. The raid leader yelled RUN! My rogue (BC Sub) picked up the boss and evasion tanked it. We downed the boss.

I love the sub spec. Unfortunately, the changes Blizzard made this release eviscerate (pardon the pun) the survivability of the spec for PvP, and Assass and Com will always out DPS it.

Edited August 31, 2012 by dngnb8