Subtlety Rogue DPS Guide — 12.1

Midnight Season 2 is underway, and has all of the usual endgame offerings available. It has two new Raids, one with 8 bosses and the other a stand alone single boss raid. It also features Midnight's second Season of both Mythic+ and PvP. Below, we have some quick links to dedicated hubs covering everything available!

Patch 12.1 is the biggest update for Midnight yet, it is filled to the brim with new content. Besides the new Raid, Mythic+ and Pvp Season, there is also a mysterious new Troll island named The Coiled Isle to discover. This outdoor zone is full of Rares, treasures, and secrets to find, and it offer Heroic World Tier for those who are up to the challenge.

There were quite a few changes and bugfixes to Subtlety Rogue going into Patch 12.1, here are the most notable ones:

• Shadow Techniques had its proc rate significantly increased, but it rewards less energy.
• Ancient Arts now does the intended amount of damage with Secret Technique, instead of a lot less.
• Goremaw's Bite had a complete redesign and had its position shuffled on the talent tree.

The adjustment to Shadow Techniques makes it proc noticeably more often outside of Shadow Dance, but also inside of it with Shadowcraft it is still activating more often. It generates less energy, but that is not really an issue as the absolute vast majority of the energy was getting wasted anyway, we still have far more energy than we need while Shadow Dance is active. Secret Technique working properly with the apex talents Ancient Arts and dealing the intended amount of damage means that we will want to combine these two effects at almost all times, especially as Trickster since Secret Technique additional damage with that Hero Talent Tree.

Goremaw's Bite has received a fresh coat of paint and is now a completely different spell, placed smack dab in the middle of the tree which effectively forces us to always take it. The initial damage of the spell and the bleed effect that lingers afterwards are both quite mediocre, but the "finisher echo" effect is quite potent. Due to this the best way to utilize the spell is going to be right before the rest of the cooldowns, as to not waste a global during those more powerful effects.

Below you will find the full list of changes to Subtlety Rogue:

Due to the enormous amount of changes, they have been broken up into sections to make it easier to digest how Subtlety Rogue is different this expansion. Note that in addition to these changes, there were also many changes to overall tuning of spells. Most of these changes are intended to make the specialization more intuitive and less confusing, while maintaining the burst centric Shadow Dance focused gameplay the spec is known for.

• Here are the most impactful changes to the baseline Subtlety Rogue spells.
  
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  • Thematically Subtlety now has more of a focus on shadow clones.
  • Flagellation has been removed.
  • Symbols of Death has been removed.
  • Rupture has been removed.
  • The cooldown reduction per combo point spent on Shadow Dance and Secret Technique has been removed.
  • Shadow Blades now doubles combo points generated rather than always filling them to full.
  • The combo point refund part of Shadowcraft has been partially moved over to the 4th Apex talent.
  • Several new/reworked talents like Deepening Shadows and Swift Slasher make Haste a more desirable stat.
• The Hero Talents have had some minor updates.
  
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  2.5.

  Trickster

  
  

  • Nimble Flurry no longer cleaves Eviscerate or Shadowstrike.
  • Clever Combatant allows Shuriken Storm to proc Unseen Blade.
  • Flawless Form is stronger but now caps out at 5 stacks.

  2.6.

  Deathstalker

  
  

  • Deathstalker's Mark can now only be moved while the Darkest Night buff is active.
  • Darkest Night can now be triggered by Eviscerates at 5 or more combo points instead of at exactly 7.
  • Precise Killer makes Critical Strike a good stat when it previously was not for Deathstalker.
• Additionally there has been a couple of changes to our Utility Spells.
  
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  • Airborne Irritant no longer makes Blind target multiple enemies. As of Patch 12.0.5 this has been reverted, Blind once again targets multiple enemies.
  • Toxic Stiletto makes Shiv longer range and cheaper to use whenever a de-enrage is required.
  • While most other specializations have lost defensive talents or spells Subtlety did not and also gained a new one with Danger Sense.

These changes massively simplify the specialization, allowing for new and returning player to enjoy it without needing to extensively study a guide like this, which was nearly required in the previous iteration. Its still centered around casting Shadow Dance and doing big bursts, but a lot of extra bloated buttons and passives were culled.

As we journey and level throughout Midnight, we will gain access to our new Apex Talents: Ancient Arts, Ancient Arts, and Ancient Arts. At first glance, or if you are new to Subtlety Rogue, the tooltips might look confusing. But in practice, they are very straightforward.

• Ancient Arts makes it so our combo point generators sometimes spawn a clone that deal extra shadow damage
• Ancient Arts adds passive shadow damage and generates additional Shadow Techniques stacks whenever a clone appears
• Ancient Arts adds a buff that triggers if you ever end up with 5 or more Shadow Techniques after casting a combo point generating ability
  • The buff adds a shadowy glow near the middle of the screen, and makes your next finisher do more damage via a clone, as well as refund combo points.

A more in-depth explanation and how the new Apex Talent impacts the rotation can be found on the rotation page: