How To Improve As Subtlety Rogue — Dragonflight 10.2.6

Last updated on Mar 20, 2024 at 18:50 by Oxi 63 comments
General Information

On this page, you will find out how you can improve at playing Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.6. We list the common mistakes that you should try to avoid and the small details that can greatly improve your performance.

1.

Overcapping Resources

Since all of Subtlety's damage is tied to resources, it is important to waste as little of them as possible. You should make sure you do not find yourself being Energy-capped or casting Combo Point generating abilities when at maximum Combo Points.

2.

Pooling Energy

Pooling Energy has been a vital part of optimal Subtlety gameplay for a long time now. This is especially prominent in 10.2 as Subtlety has moved back toward lower APM and lower energy generation. Often, players tend to go into Shadow Dance Icon Shadow Dance without enough Energy, which makes them unable to get the maximum amount of globals in the short burst window. Since Subtlety revolves around these burst windows, you want to make sure you get most out of them.

You should aim to have at least 60 Energy and use Symbols of Death Icon Symbols of Death instantly to get close to the Energy cap when going into Shadow Dance Icon Shadow Dance burst windows.

3.

Using Cooldowns Together

You should always use Shadow Dance Icon Shadow Dance, Symbols of Death Icon Symbols of Death, your Covenant ability and Shuriken Tornado Icon Shuriken Tornado, if talented, together. Never use Shadow Dance unless you are about to cap on charges or can combo it with Symbols of Death.

4.

Knowing How To Sim Yourself

It is impossible to correctly play and optimize a Subtlety Rogue without using Raidbots to sim your own character, there are simply too many variables involved to intuitively figure out what gear to wear and so on without simming it first. Generally speaking, a simulation should be the first and final say in the gear you end up wearing for any given situation.

On top of this, simming is now very easy, with no need to understand SimulationCraft APLs or installation yourself. All you will need is the in-game SimulationCraft AddOn, and the Raidbots website. Below, you can find a video on how to sim your own character using the website.

5.

Analyzing Your Mistakes as a Subtlety Rogue

When it comes to identifying and improving your mistakes, we strongly recommend the website WoWAnalyzer — it will analyze your logs and give you a report detailing how you did on the problems above and more.

6.

Changelog

  • 20 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Page reviewed and updated for Patch 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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