Subtlety Rogue DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7. 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 WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Subtlety Rogue talents.
Within this page we will go over every single talent available to Subtlety Rogues. Many of them are only passive effects, but they all can have an impact on how the spec is played whether active or passive. To see how these choices fit into how you play as a Subtlety, take a look at the Rotation section of our guide.
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)
The standard build for raiding for most encounters.
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by clicking 'Copy Export String'.
The suggested builds might differ based on the current tier's bosses, so make sure to read the dedicated raiding page below.
AoE/Cleave (Mythic+)
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by clicking 'Copy Export String'.
Due to dynamic nature of Mythic+, different affixes and dungeons can change our choice of talents. Check out the Mythic+ page below.
Subtlety Rogue Class Tree Talents
The Class Tree for Subtlety Rogues is fairly straightforward and the few choices you will have are mainly utility options, which we will talk about in this section.
Rows 1-3
The biggest change you can make in these rows is taking Nimble Fingers
instead of
Master Poisoner however this is not recommended.
Whilst Master Poisoner does not increase our output, it makes our
Atrophic Poison reduce the target's damage dealt by 3.6% instead of 3%
which means that you should always pick this talent for progression
raiding.
Rows 4-7
The options we have here are very limited and the only choice is between
Virulent Poisons and
Acrobatic Strikes. Virulent Poison is a very
small DPS increase while Acrobatic Strikes is a huge quality of life improvement.
Rows 8-10
Sadly these rows have virtually no choice for us in both the single-target and Mythic+ builds. As almost every node just increases our DPS, we simply pick whatever performs the best.
Subtlety Rogue Spec Tree Talents
Since there are different builds depending on what content you want to do, we will separate this into two sections: Single-Target and AoE/Mythic+.
Subtlety Rogue Spec Tree Talents for Single-Target
Rows 1-3
After picking up the single-target DPS increase talents from these rows, you will have zero points left which does not allow for much choices to be had.
Rows 4-7
As almost all of these talents are focused on output; what we have recommended is simply what does the most DPS. All of the utility options are ignored here as they are not too appealing.
Rows 8-10
Almost every talent in these rows increases our damage, so the recommended ones will
be the best performing options. The only exception is that instead of
Without a Trace you can select
Fade to Nothing which is a decent
survivability option at the cost of minor DPS increase.
Subtlety Rogue Spec Tree Talents for Mythic+/Cleave
Rows 1-3
Even if it is an AoE damage focused build, we will still be taking all the
single-target talents as well since there will always be situations where you
do not cast your AoE spells. Sadly this means that it leaves us with zero options
in these rows and forces us to not even take Shadowstep.
Rows 4-7
The main choice you have in these rows is whether you take Without a Trace
or
Fade to Nothing. Fade to Nothing provides no DPS but is a very strong
defensive option instead of the small DPS gain you would get from Without a Trace.
Rows 8-10
The last 5 points are no-brainers as Dark Brew and
Danse Macabre
are the best performers currently.
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
Death from Above is just a stronger
Eviscerate./li>
Dagger in the Dark — Whenever Stealth is active, you apply a debuff to nearby enemies that causes them to take an additional 5% damage from your next Shadowstrike. Stacks up to 8 times. This is nothing special but still a slight damage boost.
- Only two of the Honor Talents increase our DPS while outdoors, so the last choice is up to you on which one you think suits you the best.
Veil of Midnight,
Shadowy Duel,
Silhouette,
Smoke Bomb,
Thick as Thieves,
Distracting Mirage,
Control is King,
Dismantle and
Maneuverability have limited use in PvE content
in terms of increasing your damage in the open-world.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 14 Feb. 2023: Updated recommended single-target talent build.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Page updated and reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 17 Dec. 2022: Fixed import string for single-target spec.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated recommended talents.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 31 Oct. 2022: Changed recommended Raiding talent build and added comments on possible talent choices on certain rows.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight 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.
- PvP Play with the Blues on the 10.1 PTR: March 31st
- Aberrus Raid Testing Schedule: March 30 - April 28
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 Hotfixes, March 28th
- Upcoming 10.1 PTR Changes to Class Tier Sets: March 28th
- Dragonflight 10.1, Season 2 New and Removed Mythic+ Affixes
- Dragonflight Patch 10.1 PTR Development Notes, March 28th: Old Mythic+ Affixes Removed, New Ones Added
- Riders of Azeroth Spotted in Zaralek Cavern in Patch 10.1
- A Preview of the Druid Crucible Raid Tier Set in Patch 10.1