Subtlety Rogue DPS Guide — Shadowlands 9.0.2

Subtlety Rogues revolve around burst damage windows by combining Shadow Danceand Symbols of Death whenever possible for maximum burst, however this means that damage outside of these cooldowns is very mediocre at best. Like other Rogue specializations, Subtlety has one of the best defensives in the game.

Strengths

• Strong burst damage, both in single-target and AoE.
• Powerful defensive cooldowns such as Cloak of Shadows, Feint, Evasion and Crimson Vial.
• Cleave situations fuel additional single-target damage.
• Utility such as Shroud of Concealment, Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot and Blind can come in handy in some situations, mainly Mythic+.

Weaknesses

• Damage outside of Shadow Dance and Symbols of Death windows is very low.
• Due to Combo Point spenders reducing the cooldown of Shadow Dance, losing uptime is significant loss of DPS.

Subtlety is receiving quite a lot of mechanical changes in Shadowlands, however the playstyle will still feel very similar to how it played out in Battle for Azeroth.

The largest rotational change is introduction of new spell Black Powder, which is a Combo Point finisher that deals damage up to 8 enemies, which means that Subtlety will have a spammable AoE damage ability.

Shadowlands has three exciting major features, Torghast, Legendary Powers, and Covenants. Check out the links to see our recommended Covenant and Legendaries for Subtlety Rogues as well as some tips for Torghast further down on the page.

For the full list of changes for Rogues for Shadowlands, please use the link below.

If you are planning on leveling a Rogue, make sure to check out our Leveling page below for tips regarding talents and more.

Addons make it easier to track important buffs and debuffs which is why we recommend that you get used to them while leveling, so check out our addons page below. You can also find few useful macros there.

Subtlety Rogue is a spec that deals with multiple different resources and bunch of cooldowns, which may seem daunting to a new player trying to pick up the spec. Understanding the core concept of the specialization makes it quite a bit simpler, which is that the goal is to stack as many cooldowns as possible to deal massive burst damage.

Cast Shadow Blades, Symbols of Death and Vanish on cooldown.

Aim to align Shadow Dance with Symbols of Death whenever possible.

Maintain Slice and Dice and Rupture, cast Backstab, Shuriken Storm or Shadowstrike to generate Combo Points. Spend Combo Points on Eviscerate unless Slice and Dice or Rupture are about to fall off.

Outside of Shadow Dance, cast Shuriken Storm on 2+ targets. When Shadow Dance is active, cast it on 3+ targets.

If you are an absolute beginner to the spec, but would like to learn the basic fundamentals of the class, recommend looking through the Spell Summary first, as well as the Easy Mode page linked below.

If you have previous experience with Rogues, you can head straight to the Talents and Rotation pages to jump right into the more complicated information regarding rotation and talents.

Since the game offers so many routes of gearing now, be it through Mythic+, PvP or raiding, it is very difficult list exact best in slot items, as these often change for every character depending on what gear they are already wearing. Keep in mind that the best way to find out upgrades is by simulating your character, however we will have Best in Slot items listed below from the current raid tier.

Important part of the gearing process is to make sure that you try to aim for gear that has good stats for Subtlety along with proper gems, enchants and other consumables as these provide you with decent amount of DPS. Check out our dedicated stats page, as well as enchants and gems page to find out what to use as Subtlety Rogue.

Shadowlands brings us a ton of customization options with the introduction of Covenants, Soulbinds and Legendaries.

Choosing a Covenant gives you a new class specific ability along with miniature talent trees in the form of soulbinds that you can customize depending on the content you are planning on doing. On top of that, we have access to bunch of legendaries that are a mix of old set bonuses, legion legendaries and new powers to enhance our gameplay. We have detailed pages ready to tell you what Covenants, soulbinds and Legendaries excel in certain scenarios and more below:

Once you feel like you have the basics down and are ready to take the step into end-game content, whether it is PvP, Torghast, Mythic+ or Raiding, we have pages that are ready to tell you optimal talents, tips and tricks and more below.

If you feel like your performance is subpar, but do not really know why, giving the pages below a read might help you or answer some questions you have regarding Subtlety.