Subtlety Rogue DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (Season 1)
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1). 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.
On 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 go-to build for all Single Target Encounters in Raid.
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by clicking 'Export Talents'.
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+/Delves Build
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by clicking 'Export Talents'.
Due to the dynamic nature of Mythic+, different affixes and dungeons can change our choice of talents. Check out the Mythic+ page below.
Best TWW Delve Talents for Subtlety Rogue
Delves are new content in TWW that you can engage with solo or with up to three friends. They are short scenarios, and thanks to your ability to Stealth you'll be able to bypass some of the stages almost entirely thanks to being able to skip straight to objectives, instead of having to fight.
Surviving is tough as the enemies hit hard, especially when you are undergeared, and your follower's heals aren't that strong. This build will feel familiar to those who are running Subtlety in Dungeons as it is almost the same exact build, however, you're substituting Thistle Tea for Recuperator for the little bit of extra healing. There are no time limits to these, so take it as slow as you need. Wait for cooldowns or to full heal, and you can also kite the mobs pretty easily. Crippling Poison is your friend, and you can also substitute Inevitability for Night Terrors for extra help slowing enemies.
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 1-4
With the redesigned talent trees, your talent options can change quite a bit. The biggest change you can make in these rows is swapping Improved Sprint or Master Poisoner for Gouge/ Airborne Irritant for some more CC options. However, untalenting Master Poisoner is not recommended.
While 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 5-7
The options in these rows are extremely limited. However, with the redesign, we are now afforded more utility options than we were before. The only DPS option in these rows is Improved Ambush/ Tight Spender. There is a new talent, Shadowheart, that, unless it gets changed by the time The War Within launches, is dead on arrival because it is literally useless.
Rows 8-10
Much like in Dragonflight, these rows give us the meat of our DPS options in the class tree. Subterfuge is now a 2-point node, and Without a Trace caps off the right side of the Class Tree. The must disliked change to Acrobatic Strikes; the beloved Melee Range extension is gone and has been replaced with a buff to auto-attack damage and movement speed. However, fret not, because Blizzard has managed to give us a great change to Echoing Reprimand, it is now called Supercharger and its a 2 point talent which gives you +2 combo points to your finishers. This has split many in the rogue community as many enjoyed the mini-game that Echoing Reprimand had but I believe this is better for the overall health of the entire class as it makes it less gimmicky. Also Blizzard decided to give us a choice node between the new Echoing Reprimand and Forced Induction. Currently Forced Induction is a must take talent for Subtlety.
Subtlety Rogue Spec Tree Talents
With The War Within, Shadow Dance is back as the identity for Subtlety Rogue. Both Assassination and Outlaw lost access to Shadow Dance. The difference between the ST build and the M+ builds still comes down to you either take Shuriken Tornado and Replicating Shadows, or you don't.
Rows 1-4
These first four rows remain almost completely unchanged; you'll see Without a Trace has been removed completely and replaced with Shadow Focus. Overall, you'll take the same 8 points in every almost build for PvE purposes.
Rows 5-7
This is where the meat of the War Within changes are. You'll notice Premeditation has been changed and allows you a budget version of Shadow Blades where your next combo point generator out of Stealth generates full combo points. You'll also notice a small change in the middle of the spec tree, the The First Dance/ Master of Shadows choice node has been moved to where Shadow Focus once stood, Improved Shadow Dance moved into the choice node's old spot, and Shadow Dance goes where Improved Shadow Dance was. This is a small shift in the Subtlety Spec Tree, which is welcomed but still not enough, as the Subtlety Spec Tree has gotten the least amount of love from Blizzard out of the three rogue specs.
Rows 8-10
Much like in our class tree, these rows are packed with output options. Including the new Shadowcraft and Goremaw's Bite. If your only care is output DPS, the points you place in these rows are pretty much automatically decided. We always take Flagellation and Deeper Daggers and round it off with Finality, Dark Shadow, Danse Macabre, Dark Brew. Invigorating Shadowdust is finally gone, and to replace it comes Death Perception which becomes an absolute must take talent.
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 of being "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
- 23 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed and Updated 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.
- 24 Nov. 2023: Updated to add Shadowdust Talent Builds.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed and Updated for patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reformated talent tables and descriptions.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Small recommended talent updates.
- 11 May 2023: Changed recommended talent to Flagellation over Dark Brew.
- 09 May 2023: Added the new talent build with Aberrus tier set.
- 01 May 2023: Page reviewed and updated for Patch 10.1.
- 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 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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