Mists of Pandaria Classic Subtlety Rogue Guide

Subtlety Rogue is one of the best DPS in Mists of Pandaria and is widely considered the strongest of the three Rogue specializations. Subtlety Rogue has a unique play style focused largely around using Ambush to proc Find Weakness. This is done a number of ways but primarily by utilizing our Shadow Dance and Vanish cooldowns to maximize the amount of Ambush casts throughout an encounter. Your goal as a Subtlety Rogue is to deal as much damage as possible inside of these windows of Shadow Dance and Find Weakness up time.

Yes! While all three Rogue specs have a place in Mists of Pandaria Subtlety is often considered the strongest of the three and scales incredibly with gear. As a Subtlety Rogue you have access to nearly unmatched burst damage and provide consistent AoE to help get through large groups of enemies. In Mists of Pandaria Rogue also has a considerable amount of utility in the form of crowd controlling abilities like Blind, a powerful raid cooldown in Smoke Bomb and a raid buff that increases your groups Attack Speed in Swiftblade's Cunning.

Strengths

• Competes for highest single target damage in the game.
• Massive burst damage makes dealing with priority targets easier.
• Powerful defensive cooldowns like Cloak of Shadows and Smoke Bomb.
• Incredibly mobile thanks to abilities like Shadowstep.
• Provide the raid with buffs in the form of Master Poisoner and Swiftblade's Cunning.

Weaknesses

• Very gear dependent.
• Cleave damage lacks compared to Assassination or Combat.
• Maximizing Find Weakness up time is required to deal competitive damage.

As Horde, you have six different options; Pandaren, Troll, Orc, Goblin, Blood Elf and Undead. Undead and Orc both offer unique benefits in the form of Will of the Forsaken and Blood Fury but will fall behind Troll or Pandaren. Troll is our default pick due to the way Berserking interacts with your cooldowns. Pairing Berserking with Shadow Blades can greatly increase the amount of damage you are able to deal while it is active. When fighting Beasts that are quite prevalent throughout Mists of Pandaria you will also benefit from Beast Slaying which is just a flat 5% increase to your damage done when fighting a Beast. Pandaren offers Epicurean which doubles the effectiveness of our Food buff. As all three Rogue specs but especially Subtlety Agility is king so getting as much of it as possible should be your goal.

As Alliance, you will have six races to choose for your Rogue; Gnome, Human, Worgen, Night Elf, Dwarf, and Pandaren. Similar to Horde Pandaren is a great choice due to the increased Agility granted from Epicurean which far outweighs the bonus Critical Strike you would gain from being Worgen. Human can be a solid choice due to Will to Survive but will fall behind in PvE. Worgen is another race to consider but again struggles to compete with the bonus Agility provided by Epicurean. Darkflight is a great cool down but can be made a bit redundant by abilities like Sprint or Burst of Speed. If you are finding yourself exclusively playing Subtlety than Night Elf is likely the best due to their ability to gain Find Weakness with Shadowmeld which allows you to cast another Stealth ability while under the effects of Shadowmeld.

1. Engineering — Engineering is the default choice as a Subtlety Rogue. Pairing Synapse Springs with your Shadow Dance will greatly increase the damage dealt by your Ambush which acts as a huge part of our damage profile. Nitro Boosts can also be very situationally useful if you find yourself without access to Sprint allowing you to quickly close the gap between you and your target or possibly avoid an incoming boss ability.
2. Tailoring — provides us with Swordguard Embroidery which greatly increases our Attack Power. A Well timed Swordguard proc can greatly increase the damage done in one of your burst windows when Find Weakness is active. As Subtlety the goal is really to do as much damage as possible within these burst windows so the static stat bonuses offered by other Professions yield slightly lower increases to your overall damage done.

Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life during Mists of Pandaria. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.