Subtlety Rogue PvP Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0.1)

Subtlety Rogues have one of the best control toolkits in the game, with Blind and Kidney Shot, but most importantly, with Shadow Dance, enabling them to access Sap and Cheap Shot at will. They also have the well-known Smoke Bomb on a shorter cooldown than the other Rogue specializations, making them true crowd control lords amongst the melee specializations. They also have strong on-demand burst damage, allowing them to score kills when the entire enemy team is in CC.

Strengths

• Excellent control.
• Powerful burst.
• Great mobility.
• Excellent utility.

Weaknesses

• Very prone to dying in stuns.
• Significant cooldown on defensive abilities.
• Often reliant on teammates to stay alive.
• Weak sustained damage.

• New talents/spells: Cold Blooded Killer, Swift Slasher, Toxic Stiletto, Quick Fingers, Deep Cuts, Danger Sense, Shuriken Storm, Potent Powder, and Improved Secret Technique.
• Removed talents/spells: Cold Blood, Flagellation, Improved Shadow Techniques, Inevitability, Rupture, Swift Death, and Symbols of Death.
• Changed talent/spells:
  • Supercharger, Shadowcraft, Warning Signs all trigger from Shadow Dance.
  • Replicating Shadows - shadow clones deal 20% increased damage and your effects that have a chance to create them have additional chance to occur.
  • Swift Death - haste affects the cooldown recovery rate of Symbols of Death.
  • Shot in the Dark - after using Vanish or Shadow Dance, your next Cheap Shot is free and ignores its cooldown. This is extremely important for setups.
  • Symbols of Death increases damage of finishing moves.
  • The Rotten now triggers when Shadow Dance is active.
• PvP Talent Changes: no notable PvP talent changes.