Rogue Hero Talents — The War Within (Season 1)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Subtlety Rogue, check out our Talents page:

Trickster is entirely built around the idea of triggering a new proc called Unseen Blade. This deals significant damage whenever it occurs and initially has a 20-second internal cooldown. However, several talents within the Tree allow for extra procs and reducing the cooldown under specific circumstances. The proc also applies a debuff that increases all damage you deal to the target and even negates their ability to parry your attacks. Another perk of Trickster is it has natural cleave built into the hero tree which is something that Subtlety has been historically AWFUL at, so Sub Rogues take all the help they can get in cleave situations. TLDR: Everyone hates Parry except Blizzard, and this helps negate Parry; plus, it's the best burst option, and everyone loves burst damage.

Deathstalker is the more involved Hero Talent Tree for Subtlety, adding a variety of Plague (Shadow+Nature) damage to your toolkit by enhancing several of your abilities and having some minor rotational impact. Its key mechanic is the application of Deathstalker's Mark and the maintenance of the Mark through Darkest Night, which will greatly boost your Energy regeneration and direct damage. The TLDR for Deathstalker is it can be considered the "more sustained damage option".

Currently, Trickster is the go-to Hero Talent Tree for Subtlety in all situations as it performs better than Deathstalker in mixed-target scenarios. However, Deathstalker has been largely bug-fixed and is about even with Trickster, so if the capstone animation lock bothers you, you can play Deathstalker without risking any Single Target DPS. However, it is noticeably worse in AoE situations because Deathstalker's power is largely Single Target.

After recent bugfixes Deathstalker is now about even with Trickster, so it's a coin-flip toward what you prefer (yes, this is a fatebound pun). Most people may be put off by the animation lock with Trickster, so thankfully, these bugfixes give people an option!

While Trickster just performs better in AoE scenarios than Deathstalker, due to it not having its power tied to one target. As a result, even Mythic+ currently favors Trickster, although the difference can be negated if you build your team comp around the Subtlety Rogue doing priority damage.

4.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Subtlety Rogue

Trickster Standard Build Deathstalker Standard Build

5.

Best Trickster Build for Subtlety Rogue

The Trickster build is almost the same for Mythic+ and Single-Target. The cleave bonus ( Nimble Flurry) for Trickster also allows Subtlety Rogues to skip out on Shuriken Tornado entirely, which both lowers the button count and makes energy management in Mythic+ a little less annoying.

For the choice nodes, you can pick freely between Smoke and Mirrors depending on the situation, if there is a big AoE spell in an encounter, then Mirrors tends to be the better choice as it is not conditional. Thousand Cuts is stronger simply because it is not conditional, further strengthening our sustained DPS output, and the same applies to the other DPS choice nodes of No Scruples vs Cloud Cover.

5.

Best Deathstalker Build for Subtlety Rogue

The Deathstalker build is the same for Mythic+ and Single-Target. While there are a few DPS choice nodes in the Deathstalker Tree, the chosen ones in the Tree below are numerically superior to the alternatives.

There might be some unique situations where Ethereal Cloak or Shroud of Night can make a difference, but unless you can leverage the extended duration for some tangible benefit, the currently selected options are more useful.

For more general information on your rotation, make sure to check out our rotation guide:

Below are the rotational changes for the Trickster Hero Talent Tree.

1. If you are not in Shadow Dance and have 4 stacks of Unseen Blade then you cast Black Powder instead of Eviscerate to preserve Coup de Grace. This applies in both AoE situations and in Single-Target situations.
2. Only use Coup de Grace if you have the fazed debuff up.
3. If you use Shadow Dance and do not have 4 stacks of Unseen Blade or do not have the fazed debuff up, you would cast Secret Technique as your first finisher instead of your second.
4. You use Eviscerate if Flawless Form is up, even in AoE situations.
5. You use Backstab in AoE if Flawless Form is not up and you are not in Shadow Dance.
6. You use Shadowstrike in AoE rather than Shuriken Storm during Shadow Dance.
7. In AoE, you only use Black Powder if Flawless Form is not up or if you have 10 or more targets.
8. If specced into Invigorating Shadowdust, you will want to use three charges of Shadow Dance in your Flagellation window instead of the two. You should also fit one Secret Technique into every single Shadow Dance window. (NOTE: This is difficult to do without Skyfury, so do not get frustrated if you cannot manage it every single time.)

Below are the rotational changes for the Deathstalker Hero Talent Tree.

1. Always build to 7 combo points when Darkest Night is up.
2. When Darkest Night is up, only use Eviscerate.
3. You will always use a 7 Combo Point Eviscerate when you have Darkest Night up, even in AoE, and regardless of target count.
4. You use Shuriken Storm in single target when Clear the Witnesses is up outside of Shadow Dance and Symbols of Death windows.