Subtlety Rogue DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within Pre-Patch
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Subtlety Rogue in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — The War Within Pre-Patch.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Subtlety Rogue rotation.
Subtlety Rogue Rotation
Beginner Subtlety Rogues
If you are new to the spec and the information below seems too overwhelming, you can check out the Easy Mode page, which has all relevant info in condensed form.
PvP
This page only discusses Rogue rotation in PvE situations. If you are looking for information regarding PvP, we recommend you to check out the Rogue PvP page instead.
Subtlety Rogue Single Target Ability Priority List
The changes to Rogue in The War Within have brought some much needed quality of life to Subtlety. Subtlety no longer has to manually refresh Slice and Dice or relying on the old version of
Premeditation thanks to
Cut to the Chase becoming baseline for all three specs. What this means for Subtlety Rogues, is now you press
Slice and Dice once and forget about it for the rest of the fight, because
Eviscerate will automatically refresh it!
- Try to always begin while in
Stealth.
- Cast
Shadow Blades on cooldown, paired with
Flagellation as often as possible.
- Cast
Sepsis right before
Flagellation so that the latter half ends up in
Shadow Dance.
- Maintain
Slice and Dice. This no longer needs to be manually cast.
- Maintain
Rupture on your primary target and any targets that live over 12 seconds.
Rupture should be applied before
Shadow Dance windows and reapplied outside of
Shadow Dance.
- Cast
Symbols of Death on cooldown or with less than 3 seconds remaining on the buff granted by the 10.1 tier set.
- Cast
Shadow Dance with low combo points during
Symbols of Death or when about to cap on charges.
- Cast
Thistle Tea if at 3 charges in combination with
Shadow Dance and after that, use it when you are running out of Energy.
- Cast
Secret Technique with
Cold Blood on cooldown to spend Combo Points when reaching 6 or more and 5 or more during Shadow Dance after you have gained some
Danse Macabre stacks.
- Cast
Eviscerate to spend Combo Points when reaching 6 or more and 5 or more during Shadow Dance.
- Cast
Vanish on cooldown when out of
Stealth/
Shadow Dance and low on combo points to get an extra
Shadowstrike.
- Cast
Shadowstrike to generate Combo Points if
Shadow Dance is active. Otherwise, use
Backstab/
Gloomblade (from behind the target if possible to gain 20% extra damage on it).
- Use
Flagellation with enough combo points to finish after and if
Shadow Blades is up or has less than 12 seconds remaining on its cooldown.
As mentioned above, try to combine and sync your offensive cooldowns together to deal maximum damage.
Subtlety Rogue Multiple Target (3+) Ability Priority List
- Maintain
Slice and Dice. Stop casting on 6+ targets.
- Maintaining
Rupture on any target that lives at least 12 seconds is a DPS gain, however this can sometimes be hard to estimate.
- Cast
Symbols of Death on cooldown.
- Cast
Shuriken Tornado/
Thistle Tea on cooldown in combination with
Shadow Dance.
- Cast
Secret Technique with
Cold Blood to spend Combo Points when reaching 6 or more and 5 or more during Shadow Dance after you have gained some
Danse Macabre stacks.
- Cast
Black Powder to spend Combo Points when reaching 6 or more and 5 or more during Shadow Dance instead of
Eviscerate if there are 3+ targets.
- Use
Shuriken Storm during
Shadow Dance instead of
Shadowstrike, if there are 3+ targets.
- Cast
Shuriken Storm to generate Combo Points.
- Cast
Backstab during
Shadow Blades if you haven't used it to generate a
Danse Macabre stack with 3 or less targets.
While Shadow Blades still does decent damage on AoE, the value of
extra Combo Points gained is diminished. Use Shadow Blades at your own
discretion on multi-target or save it for a single-target situation.
Vanish has fairly low value on multi-target and is best used to extend the
duration of Find Weakness and
Slice and Dice.
Mythic+
To learn more about how to play Subtlety Rogue in Mythic+, check our dedicated page below:
General tips for Subtlety Rogues
Always open while in Stealth and make sure you have applied
Instant Poison.
You should activate any on-use trinkets you may have alongside
Symbols of Death.
Refreshing Slice and Dice is recommended in-between your
Shadow Dance windows.
Subtlety Rogue Single-Target Opener Sequence
The opener below assumes you are playing with the recommended single-target talent build.
- Try to start while in
Stealth.
- Cast
Shadowstrike.
- Cast
Slice and Dice.
- Cast
Sepsis. (You will want to use Sepsis right before every cast of
Flagellation)
- Cast
Shadowstrike.
- Cast
Flagellation.
- Cast
Rupture.
- Cast
Symbols of Death
- Cast
Shadow Blades.
- Cast
Shadow Dance.
- Cast
Shadowstrike.
- Cast
Eviscerate.
- Use
Thistle Tea with Shadow Dance. (You can macro these together if you wish to reduce button bloat)
- Cast
Shadow Strike.
- Cast
Cold Blood and
Secret Technique. (You can, and probably should macro these together)
- Cast
Shadowstrike.
- Cast
Eviscerate.
- Cast
Shadowstrike.
- Cast
Eviscerate, and then continue with the normal priority list.
Subtlety Rogue Multi-Target (AoE) Opener Sequence
The opener below assumes you are playing with the recommended single-target talent build.
- Try to start while in
Stealth.
- Cast
Shuriken Storm.
- Cast
Slice and Dice.
- Cast
Shuriken Storm.
- Cast
Flagellation.
- Cast
Rupture.
- Cast
Shuriken Tornado.
- Cast
Shadow Dance.
- Use
Thistle Tea with Shadow Dance. (You can macro these together if you wish to reduce button bloat)
- Cast
Symbols of Death.
- Cast
Shadow Blades.
- Cast
Black Powder.
- Cast
Cold Blood and
Secret Technique. (You can, and probably should macro these together)
- Cast
Black Powder.
- Cast
Shadowstrike.
- Cast
Black Powder.
- Cast
Shuriken Storm, and then continue with the normal priority list.
Potion usage
Aim to use your Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power with
Bloodlust/
Heroism and your other cooldowns, such as
Shadow Blades. In most encounters, you will want to use it at the start of
the fight.
Keep in mind that the potions now have 5-minute cooldown, so if the encounter is longer than that, remember to use it again whenever the extra damage is useful.
Important Notes for Subtlety Rogue
Combo Points and Energy
As a Rogue, most of your abilities need Energy to be used. Your Energy bar
has a capacity of 100 Energy and refills at a rate of 10 Energy per second.
With Vigor, we have 200 Energy. Your Energy regeneration is
increased by:
- melee haste (Haste + Haste-enhancing buffs);
- the
Relentless Strikes passive, which guarantees your finishers restore 6 Energy per Combo Point;
Shadow Techniques, which awards 4 Energy every time it procs;
Vigor, if chosen as your Tier 3 talent.
The faster you regenerate Energy, the smoother the rotation will begin to
feel, as you will need to "pool" less. Faster Energy regeneration and proper
management allow for more finishers, more damage contribution from your
Shadow Dance, and more burst damage.
Never let your Energy reach its maximum, as resource overflow is wasteful and results in lost damage.
Pooling
You will often have to wait for resources in order to ensure optimal delivery of your burst. The time you spend waiting (simply auto-attacking the target) is known as "pooling". This allows your Energy to regenerate in anticipation of a burst window.
During a fight, the DPS value of Energy and Combo Points fluctuates. For
example, during Shadow Dance, the DPS value of Energy is
extraordinarily high. This is due to the short duration and limited
availability of Shadow Dance (5 seconds, and 6 with
Subterfuge).
If you do not have enough Energy, then you cannot get all your
Shadowstrikes off in that time. For this reason, it is incredibly
important that you enter Shadow Dance with as close to maximum resources as
possible. Playing with
Shadow Focus does ease this by quite a
bit.
Consider your "maximum" Energy as roughly 50 to 60 if your
Symbols of Death) is ready. This is due to the fact that you always
want to cast Symbols of Death (which gives 40 Energy) instantly when entering
Shadow Dance to get the damage increase for your first global in
Shadow Dance.
Combo Points, on the other hand, have a higher value when the boss enters a period of increased damage taken, as pumping out as many finishers as possible during this time results in the highest overall damage yield. These examples should highlight the importance of pooling, and you will be doing it extremely often as Subtlety.
Shadow Dance
Shadow Dance is your "bread and butter" cooldown, and your damage
output relies heavily on proper usage. Shadow Dance has 1 charge (or 2 when
talented into
Shadow Dance, each with a 1-minute recharge. The
Deepening Shadows passive, however, ensures that they will be
available much more often than that. Each Combo Point spent will reduce the
cooldown of Shadow Dance by 0.5 seconds when talented into
Deepening Shadows.
Shadow Dance on Multi-Target
You should aim to cast Symbols of Death in combination with Shadow
Dance. However, you should never cap on Shadow Dance charges. If you are about
to cap on them, cast Shadow Dance without Symbols of Deaths.
Defensive Utility
Rogues have the best defensive capabilities in the game, which makes them the best candidate for soaking required mechanics and dealing with heavy incoming damage.
Feint reduces AoE damage taken by 40% for 6 seconds for only 35 Energy. When talented into
Elusiveness, it also reduces all other damage by 20%. This is one of the most overpowered abilities in the game and a huge asset on fights with heavy raid damage.
Cloak of Shadows removes all non-physical debuffs, followed by 5 seconds where all spells will miss. Cloak can be used for intercepting in boss fight mechanics or be used for damage gains, such as staying in and hitting the boss during an AoE that you would otherwise have to avoid.
Cheat Death is a talent that allows you to escape lethal damage once every 6 minutes. The damage cannot exceed more than twice your maximum Health. Cheat Death is great for soaking mechanics that pierce immunities and damage reductions as it guarantees your survival. It is also great for encounters with bursty damage that might take you by surprise, as you get a free get-out-of-jail free card once every 6 minutes.
Crimson Vial provides a respectable amount of healing on a very short cooldown. Useful for an extra bit of healing if you are low on Health, or you are out of range of a healer.
Pandemic
Some of your personal buffs benefit from Pandemic, a mechanic that allows you to refresh early without penalty as long as the buff has less than 30% of its maximum duration remaining. The current timer will be added to the newly refreshed full-duration buff, allowing for a new buff longer than the maximum duration. Rupture can be safely refreshed at 8.4 seconds, and Slice and Dice at 12.6 seconds.
The Pandemic timing from Rupture is based off of your current
Combo Point value, rather than the duration of the original Rupture. So if
you had a 2 Combo Point Rupture on the target, and refresh with a 5 Combo
Point Rupture, the Pandemic value would be treated as a 5 Combo Point
Rupture instead.
Core Concepts for Subtlety Rogue
Ultimately, this is a specialization that rewards the initiated and informed, but can be incredibly punishing to new players. Learning to focus on what is important and mastering the core concepts of a specialization is what leads to strong overall performances on the damage charts. Subtlety features 3 major concepts that form the central trinity of optimizing for success:
- resource management;
- cooldown usage;
- personal initiative.
Resource Management
As discussed in depth earlier in this section, pooling is one of the most
important aspects of this specialization. When playing optimally, you will
spend a lot of time doing nothing and just waiting for your Energy bar to fill
before going into Shadow Dance.
The 3 resources of Subtlety are Energy, Combo Points, and
Shadow Dance charges. The main goal of resource management is to
minimize overflow and wastage of these resources. Oftentimes, these resources
will be at odds with each other; aiming for perfect Combo Point management may
result in Energy cap, immaculate Energy management may result in Shadow Dance
charge overflow, and so on. Perfect resource management is impossible, and
therefore, becoming a seasoned Subtlety veteran is learning which compromises to
make. Listed below is the priority of resources to help you minimize wastage:
Shadow Dance charges;
- Combo Points;
- Energy.
It is very important that you never waste Shadow Dance
charges.
Cooldown Usage
Shadow Dance is one of the least rigid cooldowns in the game
currently, as it allows for a variety of different usages depending on player
interpretation of the current situation. As mentioned earlier in the guide, it
is imperative to pool Energy and ensure you are getting the maximum value out
of your
Shadow Dances.
Personal Initiative
Your personal experience and instincts will play a large role in your ability to fully maximize output. Try to keep track of all your cooldowns as a whole. To maximize your damage output, you would benefit greatly from being able to learn timings for boss fights so you can plan your cooldowns accordingly.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4
- 20 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed and Updated 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: Page updated and reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 17 Dec. 2022: Small updates to ability priority list.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Added mention of Cold Blood usage.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 31 Oct. 2022: Page updated with Venthyr build opener.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Rogue Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Oxi, a life long Rogue player since early Classic. He is a Moderator in Ravenholdt, the official Rogue Class Discord. He also maintains the Ravenholdt website, and helps ensure that the Tricks of the Trade Rogue podcast runs smoothly.
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