Subtlety Rogue DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Standard Abilities
    • 3.2. Stealth Exclusive Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
    • 2.2. For General Use
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Third Golden Trait
      • 1.3.1. Single Target/Raid Oriented Build
      • 1.3.2. AoE/Dungeon Oriented Build
    • 1.4. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
    • 1.1. Single Target
      • 1.1.1. Correctly Using Death from Above with Dark Shadow
    • 1.2. Multiple Targets (2+)
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. Combo Points and Energy
      • 2.1.1. Pooling
    • 2.2. Shadow Dance
      • 2.2.1. During Shadow Blades
    • 2.3. Vanish
    • 2.4. Defensive Utility
    • 2.5. Pandemic
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Resource Management
    • 3.2. Cooldown Usage
      • 3.2.1. Personal Initiative
  • 4. Opening Sequences
    • 4.1. Standard Opener
    • 4.2. With The First of the Dead
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Stat Weights
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. AddOns
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. Death Note
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Spammable Dance to Shadowstrike
    • 2.2. Startattack Macros
    • 2.3. Tricks of the Trade
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Best in Slot List
    • 2.1. Trinket List
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Racial Bonuses
  • 5. Legendaries
    • 5.1. Tier List
      • 5.1.1. Mandatory Tier
      • 5.1.2. Top Tier
      • 5.1.3. Mid Tier
      • 5.1.4. Bottom Tier
    • 5.2. Extra Information
    • 5.3. Mantle of the Master Assassin
  • 6. Loot Competition
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Subtlety Rogues in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Subtlety Rogue guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by impý, a Subtlety Rogue who raids in The Unnamed, a top German guild.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	✔ Master of Subtlety	✔ Weaponmaster	✘ Gloomblade
30	✔ Nightstalker	? Subterfuge	✔ Shadow Focus
45	✔ Deeper Stratagem	? Anticipation	✘ Vigor
60	? Soothing Darkness	✔ Elusiveness	✔ Cheat Death
75	? Strike from the Shadows	? Prey on the Weak	? Tangled Shadow
90	✔ Dark Shadow	? Alacrity	? Enveloping Shadows
100	? Master of Shadows	? Marked for Death	✔ Death from Above

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 Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets

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.

2.1. Raid Encounters

• Level 15: Master of Subtlety
• Level 30: Nightstalker
• Level 45: Deeper Stratagem
• Level 60: Cheat Death
• Level 75: Prey on the Weak
• Level 90: Dark Shadow
• Level 100: Death from Above

2.2. For General Use

This build is an excellent starting point for questing and general purpose usage.

• Level 15: Weaponmaster
• Level 30: Nightstalker
• Level 45: Deeper Stratagem
• Level 60: Soothing Darkness
• Level 75: Strike from the Shadows
• Level 90: Dark Shadow
• Level 100: Marked for Death

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

✔ Master of Subtlety

✔ Weaponmaster

✘ Gloomblade

Tier 1 talents augment existing abilities with minor damage increases.

• Master of Subtlety causes attacks made from Stealth and for 5 seconds after it breaks to deal 10% increased damage.
• Weaponmaster grants your abilities a 6% chance to strike twice per target hit.
• Gloomblade replaces your Backstab, deals shadow damage and is unaffected by facing.

Weaponmaster has rough parity with Master of Subtlety on a single target, and pulls definitively into the lead once 2 targets are present (once you are using Shuriken Storm). This is our go-to talent for virtually all situations.

Master of Subtlety is slightly behind Weaponmaster, providing increased consistency in damage output, on a single target, at the cost of a slight average DPS loss.

Gloomblade is noticeably behind both other options in normal scenarios.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

✔ Nightstalker

? Subterfuge

✔ Shadow Focus

Tier 2 talents augment your Stealth ability 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 a great option for sustained damage, and makes the spec significantly more forgiving.

Nightstalker is the best option for large bursts of damage, and generally our go-to in combination with the other recommended talents.

Subterfuge is a stable option for any situation, but noticeably weaker than the other options.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✔ Deeper Stratagem

? Anticipation

✘ Vigor

Tier 3 talents augment your resource systems.

• 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%.
• Anticipation increases maximum Combo Points to 10, but finishing moves still consume 5 combo points.
• Vigor increases your maximum Energy by 50 and increases Energy regeneration by 10%.

Deeper Stratagem is currently the best choice in all situations (even while using Denial of the Half-Giants). If you are a less seasoned player and struggle with Combo Point management, you should instead use Anticipation.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

? Soothing Darkness

✔ Elusiveness

✔ Cheat Death

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 great that 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 (such as Blood Ritual on Iron Maidens). Soothing Darkness is a useful talent for questing and world content, but has no use in a practical environment.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

? Strike from the Shadows

? Prey on the Weak

? Tangled Shadow

Tier 5 talents improve your crowd control utility.

• Strike from the Shadows causes your Shadowstrike to also stun the target for 2 seconds (5-second daze against players).
• Prey on the Weak causes enemies disabled from your Kidney Shot, Sap, and Cheap Shot to take 10% increased damage from all sources.
• Tangled Shadow causes Nightblade to decrease the targets movement speed by an additional 20%.

Either Prey on the Weak or Strike from the Shadows is fine here. As a rule of thumb, Prey on the Weak is the superior choice when the entire group is focusing one target, as everyone in the group benefits from the damage bonus. Strike from the Shadows is a better choice when the damage is a little more split, or the focused damage is less important, as it combines damage output with crowd control. This allows to you instantly burst on important targets, such as Inconceivable Horrors on Xavius, without wasting a global cooldown. Prey is the recommended default choice as you do not want to stun targets unless you intend to.

Tangled Shadow could be useful for dealing with an add that the tank needs to kite, as it would result in a permanent 70% slow as long as you are attacking the target and Nightblade is active.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

✔ Dark Shadow

? Alacrity

? Enveloping Shadows

Tier 6 talents involve potent passives and a new finisher.

• Dark Shadow causes you to deal an additional 30% 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 10 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.

Dark Shadow offers unparalleled burst and is an extremely strong option in any situation, be it single-target or cleave. Should be picked in virtually all scenarios in current gear.

Enveloping Shadows is a good option for stable and sustained damage output.

Alacrity is a good option for sustained AoE but will generally fall behind Dark Shadow even in said situations.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

? Master of Shadows

? Marked for Death

✔ Death from Above

Tier 7 talents focus on resource utility and a powerful finishing move.

• Master of Shadows causes you to immediately gain 25 Energy when entering Stealth or Shadow Dance.
• Marked for Death marks a target and instantly generates 5 Combo Points. The cooldown is reset if the marked target dies.
• Death from Above is a two-part finishing move with a short cooldown that ends with an automatic cast of a 50% stronger Eviscerate.

Death from Above is currently the best option for virtually all situations.

Master of Shadows is a good option for single-target damage but will often fall just short of Death from Above in current gear. A good option for newer and less experienced players.

Marked for Death can be a strong option when the reset can be constantly taken advantage of, though currently it does not seem to be quite as strong as the other options.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 10 Sep. 2017: Updated T5 talent descriptions.
• 31 Aug. 2017: Removed mention of Weaponmaster bugs, as they have been fixed.
• 28 Aug. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
• 28 Jun. 2017: Updated several talents.
• 24 Jun. 2017: Added Marked for Death as General Use level 100 talent.
• 15 Jun. 2017: Updated to provide a more definitive answer on which talents are our go-to in 7.2.5.
• 14 Jun. 2017: Updated Tier 2, 6, and 7 talent discussions.
• 03 Apr. 2017: Slight update to the discussion between Master of Subtlety and Weaponmaster.
• 23 Jan. 2017: Added a section explaining the Finality bug for Anticipation.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
• 06 Dec. 2016: Updated T1 talents (Weaponmaster>=MoS) and added a note about situational uses of Alacrity and Death From Above.
• 11 Oct. 2016: Updated talent build and descriptions.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Updated Level 45, 75, 90, and 100 talent recommendations.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Tweaked Level 30 talent recommendations.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.