Subtlety Rogue DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (Season 1)

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.

This page only discusses Rogue rotation in PvE situations. If you are looking for information regarding PvP, we recommend you check out the Rogue PvP page instead.

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 rely 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!

1. Try to always begin while in Stealth.
2. Cast Shadow Blades on cooldown, paired with Flagellation as often as possible.
3. Maintain Slice and Dice by using Eviscerate. This no longer needs to be manually cast.
4. 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.
5. Cast Symbols of Death on cooldown or with less than 3 seconds remaining on the buff granted by the 10.1 tier set.
6. Cast Shadow Dance with low combo points during Symbols of Death or when about to cap on charges.
7. Cast Thistle Tea if at 3 charges in combination with Shadow Dance and after that, use it when you are running out of Energy.
8. 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.
9. Cast Eviscerate to spend Combo Points when reaching 6 or more and 5 or more during Shadow Dance.
10. Cast Vanish on cooldown when out of Stealth/ Shadow Dance and low on combo points to get an extra Shadowstrike.
11. 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).
12. 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.

1. Maintain Slice and Dice. Stop casting on 6+ targets.
2. Maintaining Rupture on any target that lives at least 12 seconds is a DPS gain; however, this can sometimes be hard to estimate.
3. Cast Symbols of Death on cooldown.
4. Cast Shuriken Tornado/ Thistle Tea on cooldown in combination with Shadow Dance.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Use Shuriken Storm during Shadow Dance instead of Shadowstrike, if there are 3+ targets.
8. Cast Shuriken Storm to generate Combo Points.
9. 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.

To learn more about how to play Subtlety Rogue in Mythic+, check our dedicated page below:

Always open while in Stealth and make sure you have applied Instant Poison.

Subtlety Rogue now plays as a 90-second spec. Every 90 seconds, you will use Flagellation with Shadow Blades and your on-use trinket. Thus, Flagellation should be held until Shadow Blades is off cooldown.

The opener below assumes you are playing with the recommended single-target talent build.

1. Try to start while in Stealth.
2. Cast Shadowstrike.
3. Cast Slice and Dice.
4. Cast Shadowstrike.
5. Cast Flagellation.
6. Cast Rupture.
7. Cast Symbols of Death
8. Cast Shadow Blades.
9. Cast Shadow Dance.
10. Cast Shadowstrike.
11. Cast Eviscerate.
13. Use Thistle Tea with Shadow Dance. (You can macro these together if you wish to reduce button bloat)
14. Cast Shadow Strike.
15. Cast Cold Blood and Secret Technique. (You can, and probably should macro these together)
16. Cast Shadowstrike.
17. Cast Eviscerate.
18. Cast Shadowstrike.
19. Cast Eviscerate, and then continue with the normal priority list.
20. It is important to note that with the way Subtlety will play, you'll have to send a Symbols of Death naked (aka without Shadow Dance). The reason for this is that we simply cannot generate enough Combo Points to gain another charge of Shadow Dance to match sending Symbols on Cooldown. This is better explained by Eleem in the Ravenholdt Subtlety Rogue Beta Info Thread.

The opener below assumes you are playing with the recommended single-target talent build.

1. Try to start while in Stealth.
2. Cast Shuriken Storm.
3. Cast Slice and Dice.
4. Cast Shuriken Storm.
5. Cast Flagellation.
6. Cast Rupture.
7. Cast Shuriken Tornado.
8. Cast Shadow Dance.
9. Use Thistle Tea with Shadow Dance. (You can macro these together if you wish to reduce button bloat)
10. Cast Symbols of Death.
11. Cast Shadow Blades.
12. Cast Black Powder.
13. Cast Cold Blood and Secret Technique. (You can, and probably should macro these together)
14. Cast Black Powder.
15. Cast Shadowstrike.
16. Cast Black Powder.
17. Cast Shuriken Storm, and then continue with the normal priority list.

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.

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 a 5-minute cooldown, so if the encounter is longer than that, remember to use it again whenever the extra damage is useful.

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 and 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. resource management;
2. cooldown usage;
3. personal initiative.

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:

1. Shadow Dance charges;
2. Combo Points;
3. Energy.

It is very important that you never waste Shadow Dance charges.

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.

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.