Subtlety Rogue DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic DPS Rogue talents.
Talent Choices for Subtlety Rogue
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Still Mind and
Codex of the Still Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change
talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.
Talent Cheat Sheets for Subtlety Rogue
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.
Single-Target (Raiding)
- Level 15:
Weaponmaster
- Level 25:
Shadow Focus
- Level 30:
Deeper Stratagem
- Level 35:
Cheat Death
- Level 40:
Prey on the Weak
- Level 45:
Enveloping Shadows
- Level 50:
Master of Shadows
The standard build for raiding for most encounters.
The suggested builds might differ based on current tiers bosses, so make sure to read the dedicated raiding page below.
AoE/Cleave (Mythic+)
This is our recommended build for Mythic+ dungeons and encounters with a lot of targets.
- Level 15:
Premeditation
- Level 25:
Shadow Focus or
Nightstalker if you have 5+ targets constantly
- Level 30:
Deeper Stratagem
- Level 35:
Cheat Death
- Level 40:
Prey on the Weak
- Level 45:
Enveloping Shadows
- Level 50:
Shuriken Tornado or
Master of Shadows if you feel like your group has enough AoE damage.
Due to dynamic nature of Mythic+, different affixes and dungeons can change our choice of talents. Check out the Mythic+ page below.
General Use
This build is an excellent starting point for questing and general purpose usage.
- Level 15:
Weaponmaster
- Level 25:
Shadow Focus
- Level 30:
Marked for Death
- Level 35:
Soothing Darkness
- Level 40:
Shot in the Dark
- Level 45:
Enveloping Shadows
- Level 50:
Master of Shadows or
Secret Technique
How To Use Subtlety Rogue Talents
Subtlety Rogues have few talents that impact our rotation, so give the rotation page a read to see how conditionals change when picking up certain talents.
Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Subtlety Rogue
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Tier 1 talents augment existing abilities with minor damage increases.
Weaponmaster causes your
Shadowstrike and
Backstab to have a 15% chance to hit the target twice each time they deal damage.
Premeditation causes your first
Shadowstrike that you cast from
Stealth to grant you up to 10 seconds of
Slice and Dice or generate 2 additional Combo Points if Slice and Dice is already active.
Gloomblade replaces your
Backstab, deals Shadow damage, and is unaffected by facing.
Weaponmaster and is the best option on this row for single-target.
Premeditation is the best option for AoE and cleave situations
because you will be casting
Shuriken Storm which does not benefit from
Weaponmaster.
Gloomblade is generally only used in PvP situations.
Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents for Subtlety Rogue
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Tier 2 talents augment your Stealth and
Shadow Dance
abilities to provide a damage increase.
Nightstalker increases movement speed by 20% and damage by 12% while
Stealth and
Shadow Dance are active.
Subterfuge allows abilities requiring Stealth to be used for an additional 3 seconds after Stealth breaks.
Shadow Dance also lasts for an additional 1 second.
Shadow Focus reduces the Energy cost of abilities by 25% when used from
Stealth or while
Shadow Dance is active.
Shadow Focus is the best choice, due to the lack of Haste and Energy
regeneration in general. It also makes the spec quite a bit easier and smoother
to play.
Nightstalker is worse than
Shadow Focus on low target amounts,
but in AoE due to accelerated resource gain it becomes slightly better.
Subterfuge is a weaker than the other options for raid and
dungeon purposes, but is a fine choice for questing.
Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents for Subtlety Rogue
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Tier 3 talents augment your resources.
Vigor increases your maximum Energy by 50 and increases Energy regeneration by 10%.
Deeper Stratagem increases maximum Combo Points to 6, allows finishing moves to consume 6 combo points, and increases the damage of finishing moves by 5%.
Marked for Death marks a target and instantly generates 5 Combo Points. The cooldown is reset if the marked target dies.
Deeper Stratagem is the best option on single-target while also gaining
increased value on multi-target. This is due to the increased resource
generation on multi-target which lets us cast more finishers, making the 5%
finisher increase component more valuable. It also makes Combo Point management
easier and helps you not to waste them.
Marked for Death is very close to
Deeper Stratagem but is
quite a bit harder to use optimally especially in situations with adds.
Vigor makes the spec more forgiving regarding mistakes, but is
weaker than the other two options.
Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents for Subtlety Rogue
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Tier 4 talents improve your personal survivability.
Soothing Darkness allows you to regenerate 3% of your maximum life per second while
Stealth is active.
Elusiveness causes
Feint to also grant 30% reduced damage taken from all sources.
Cheat Death causes fatal damage to instead reduce you to 7% of your maximum health and grant 85% reduced damage taken for 3 seconds. Cheat Death cannot save you from damage greater than double your maximum health. It has a 6-minute cooldown.
Cheat Death is a good choice for players in a raid
environment, as it is entirely passive and great for soaking raid mechanics
when needed.
Elusiveness is technically the best talent in most
situations, but requires you to be extremely proficient with
Feint usage and very aware of incoming damage. Generally,
Cheat Death is best for learning encounters and soaking high
damage mechanics, whereas
Elusiveness is great for sustained
incoming damage, or soaking frequently occurring mechanics.
Soothing Darkness is a useful talent for questing, world content and
Torghast.
Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents for Subtlety Rogue
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Tier 5 talents improve your crowd control utility.
Shot in the Dark causes your next
Cheap Shot to be free after entering
Stealth or
Shadow Dance.
Prey on the Weak causes enemies disabled by your
Kidney Shot,
Sap, and
Cheap Shot to take 10% increased damage from all sources.
Night Terrors causes
Shuriken Storm to decrease the movement speed of targets it deals damage to by 30%.
Prey on the Weak is generally the preferred choice here
because of the damage boost it provides to your group when focusing the stunned
target.
Night Terrors can be useful for some situations where AoE slow
is needed, but due to it only being 30% there are often classes that have
better options when it comes to slowing targets.
Shot in the Dark is a fine choice for outdoor content to preserve
your Health due to the free stun.
Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents for Subtlety Rogue
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Tier 6 talents involve potent build-defining passives.
Dark Shadow causes you to deal an additional 15% damage while
Shadow Dance is active.
Alacrity causes finishing moves to have a 20% chance per Combo Point to grant 2% Haste for 20 seconds, stacking 5 times.
Enveloping Shadows grants an additional charge to
Shadow Dance and causes
Deepening Shadows to reduce the cooldown of dance by an additional 1.0 second per Combo Point consumed.
Enveloping Shadows is the strongest option for every scenario.
Dark Shadow offers slightly more burst but is just worse for overall
output than Enveloping Shadows.
Alacrity is worse than the other two options in virtually every
situation.
Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents for Subtlety Rogue
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Tier 7 talents focus on resource utility and powerful finishing moves.
Master of Shadows causes you to gain 25 Energy over 3 seconds when entering
Stealth or
Shadow Dance.
Secret Technique is potent finisher move that deals full damage to primary target and reduced damage to secondary targets. It has 45-second cooldown which is reduced by 1 second for every Combo Point you spend.
Shuriken Tornado causes you to automatically release a
Shuriken Storm every second for 4 seconds. It has 1-minute cooldown.
Master of Shadows is the best choice for single-target damage and it
is a good option for newer and less experienced players.
Secret Technique currently does not perform well enough to be
considered.
Shuriken Tornado is the best option when you can have multiple targets
whenever it is ready.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
If you choose to, you can enable "War Mode". Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 15% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
Subtlety Rogue War Mode Talents
In this section we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Subtlety Rogue-specific PvP talents.
Recommended Subtlety Rogue PvP Talents
Thief's Bargain reduces the cooldown of your
Vanish by 45 seconds and reduces your maximum Health by 15%. While this talent does not provide any damage increase, the reduced cooldown on Vanish is great when you do not want to fight a pack of mobs.
Cold Blood causes your next
Shadowstrike or
Cheap Shot deal up to 10% of the target's total health in Shadow damage.
Dagger in the Dark - Whenever Stealth is active, you apply a debuff to a nearby enemies that causes them to take additional 10% damage from your next Shadowstrike. Stacks up to 10 times. This is nothing special but still a slight damage boost.
Veil of Midnight,
Shadowy Duel,
Silhouette,
Smoke Bomb and
Maneuverability have limited use in PvE content
in terms of increasing your damage in the open world.
Honor Among Thieves
can be used instead of
Dagger in the Dark. Both are very negligible DPS
gains so use whichever you prefer.
Changelog
- 02 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 06 Jul. 2021: Updated talent recommendations for AoE situations.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 05 Jan. 2021: Update to Premeditations and Marked for Deaths descriptions.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Talent recommendations updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Rogue Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Ashine. He is raiding with FatSharkYes and has been competing in the MDI for multiple years, achieving 1st place in 2018 and 3rd place in BlizzCon 2019. You can watch him play on Twitch.
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