Subtlety Rogue PvP Best Covenants, Soulbinds, Conduits, and Legendary Powers (Shadowlands / 9.2.5)

For more information about what Covenants bring you, please refer to our page about Covenant abilities for Rogues.

There are four Covenants available: Night Fae, Kyrian, Venthyr, and Necrolord. Each Covenant will provide you with a class ability and a Covenant ability. If you have at least one character with Renown 80 and a complete campaign you can freely swap Covenant in Oribos. With Patch 9.2 we also gained the Unity power, allowing us to access our Covenant Legendary on top of another Legendary. Subtlety Rogue players have several good options. Kyrian is the best option in Patch 9.2, thanks to its very powerful Legendary. Venthyr is another very strong pick in arena, with extremely high burst damage. Night Fae can also be played successfully. Necrolord is the least desirable option as it does not go well with how Subtlety is supposed to be played.

1. Kyrian is a Covenant that will frequently give you high burst damage thanks to its Legendary. The Covenant ability, Echoing Reprimand, deals moderate damage in PvP combat due to being heavily nerfed in PvP, so the major benefit you would get from it is the possibility of landing a 7 Combo Point Eviscerate. This is decent damage, but it is also random due to the fact that you cannot know which of your Combo Points will be anima-charged, and you will have a hard time controlling your Combo Point generation because of the passive Shadow Techniques. However the Legendary, Resounding Clarity, will anima-charge 4 different Combo Points, so you will for certain be able to land at least two 7 CPs Eviscerates during your burst, sometimes more. Therefore this Legendary brings consistently high damage on a rather short cooldown which is exactly what a spec like Subtlety Rogue needs to be a threat. The Covenant ability is a spell that will summon a Steward, and the Steward will give you Phial of Serenity. The cooldown on this heal is excessively long, and it does not start until you leave combat. It is not as worthwhile as the healing from the Necrolord ability, or the ability to simply avoid damage by escaping provided by both Venthyr and NightFae. However it remains a useful heal when you are kiting, which you will often be doing as Subtlety Rogue. It is a strong defensive when you are facing an Assassination Rogue or a Feral Druid, two specs that are looking good in the current patch.
2. Venthyr is the Covenant that will give you the most burst damage. The class ability, Flagellation, deals large amounts of damage for every Combo Point spent, even more so with the Lashing Scars Conduit. It also gives a bit of Haste, but that is not a great stat for Subtlety. This ability works particularly well with Marked for Death, since your burst rotation will include two Eviscerate back to back, causing Flagellation to deal a lot of damage in a very short period of time. You will also use the Legendary Mark of the Master Assassin when playing Venthyr, so by using Vanish alongside your Flagellation burst window you will be able to deal extremely high damage very quickly. The Covenant ability, Door of Shadows, is decent as it allows you to escape a dangerous situation and may even allow you to re-Stealth, but it can be interrupted, making it unreliable when enemies have their interrupts ready. The Venthyr Legendary, Obedience, allows to you lower the CD of Flagellation and to gain a bit of Versatility once it has lashed the target. The Versatility bonus will amplify your burst damage, and the cooldown reduction part will allow you to use Flagellation once every minute instead of only once every two minutes alongside Vanish. This will allow Venthyr Subtlety Rogues to be threatening more often, when previously they were only a real threat when all their offensive cooldowns lined up.
3. Night Fae is the Covenant that will give you the most mobility as well as decent burst damage. The class ability, Sepsis, deals moderate damage and allows you one use of a stealth-based ability without being Stealthed. One of the Night Fae Soulbinds will also allow Sepsis to give you a significant Mastery buff, making it a nice addition to your burst. The Covenant ability, Soulshape, is the reason why Night Fae is such a great Covenant for Rogues. It allows you to teleport 15 yards away every 4 seconds for 12 seconds. This is a great tool to escape lethal situations and go for re-Stealths. This gives you more mobility, allowing you to get re-Stealths more often. Of course, it can also be used to reach a target that has been kiting you. An instant teleport effect that can be repeated a few times while the enemy is using its mobility spells really is a boon to a class such as Rogue, as escaping damage and going back into Stealth is really core to the gameplay. The Night Fae Legendary, Toxic Onslaught, allows you to gain Vendetta and Adrenaline Rush once Sepsis expires. While getting Vendetta looks good on paper you will usually benefit from this effect when your stuns on your kill target come to an end, which means your go is over. If you want to pre-use Sepsis to get Vendetta on your kill attempt you are warning the enemy team of your intentions. Therefore the Legendary does not fit Subtlety all too well, but can occasionally be useful.
4. Necrolord is the Covenant that will give you the most survivability. The class ability, Serrated Bone Spike, deals decent damage, is very cheap, and allows you not only to generate Combo Points from a distance, but also to keep dealing damage to an enemy who managed to get away from you. A great spell overall. The Covenant ability, Fleshcraft, is a channeled ability that grants you a large shield and reduces all damage you take by 20% while channeling the shield. This is a very powerful defensive ability, especially with the Ultimate Form passive that comes with one of the Soulbinds, as you will get a crowd control immunity and healing on top of the shield. The Necrolord Legendary, Deathspike, grants you two additional charges of Serrated Bone Spike and allows it to also deal damage to nearby enemies. This Covenant really does not fit Subtlety Rogues. You do not want to cleave as it could break CC, and you do not want to be overly tanky as you plan on running away in between your goes anyway. Having more burst and mobility is much better.

Soulbinds are unlocked as you progress your character with a Covenant. Each Covenant features 3 Soulbinds, and every Soulbind has its own set of passive effects. In every Soulbind you will have to choose a path, and that path is important as it determines what passives you get, and what kind of Conduits you can use.

Here is the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Kyrian.

This Soulbind gives you the Combat Meditation passive. This will allow you to gain Mastery when using Echoing Reprimand, increasing the burst damage of your finishing moves such as Eviscerate. You also get Phial of Patience, greatly increasing the healing of Phial of Serenity, but causing it to be dealt over 10 seconds. This is powerful if you manage to use it just before being stunned. That being said, there will be situations in which an instant 20% heal is better than a bigger heal dealt over time. In that case, you can pick the leftmost path instead. You also get the passive Let Go of the Past, which is a small defensive bonus. The last two passives are amongst the strongest of the Soulbind. Path of the Devoted will reduce all incoming damage by 20% after recovering from a crowd control effect once every 30s. While this may be triggered by crowd control abilities that will not hurt you, it could also trigger on very dangerous abilities such as Kidney Shot or Storm Bolt. If you are the target it is likely that you will indeed get value out of it as many crowd control attacks on you will be meant to kill you. The last passive, Newfound Resolve, is a powerful damage increase when you manage to get it, although it may not always be very practical to do so while in PvP combat.

Here is the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Venthyr.

This Soulbind gives you the Soothing Shade passive. While this is a proc, and thus unreliable, if it procs on your burst window it will increase your damage output by a lot. You also gain Leisurely Gait, granting you a second charge of Door of Shadows at the cost of a slight cooldown increase. On top of that you gain the passive Wasteland Propriety. This will give you 6% Versatility when using Flagellation, and since you use this spell when you burst, you gain a flat buff to damage on your burst windows. It's Always Tea Time will provide a very minor defensive benefit.

Here is the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Night Fae.

This Soulbind gives you the Grove Invigoration passive. This will allow you to gain 300 Mastery when using Sepsis, greatly increasing the burst damage of your finishing moves such as Eviscerate. You also get Run Without Tiring, which is a bit of healing when kiting away with Soulshape. The last trait, Bonded Hearts will further amplify the Mastery buff given by Grove Invigoration if an ally nearby isn't Night Fae, which helps a lot with the burst damage, on top of providing you and your team with a little bit of healing. Last the trait Survivor's Rally is a small defensive tool that slightly helps with survivability.

Here are the Soulbinds and paths you should take if you chose Necrolord. There are two good options, depending on the situation.

You should use this Soulbind when facing a team with a lot of consistent damage. This Soulbind gives you the Ooz's Frictionless Coating passive, which will amount to a lot of healing overall. You also gain the passive Ultimate Form that allows Fleshcraft to heal you and provide you with crowd control immunity for a short period of time. This can be useful in many situations if you know the enemy team is about to crowd control you. The issue with this Soulbind is that it forces you to play two or three Potency Conduits, and these are not good as Subtlety Rogue. Since Ooz's Frictionless Coating is nerfed by 50% in PvP it is possible to instead opt for Plaguey's Preemptive Strike instead for more burst damage in your opener, and then you would pick Prepared for All as a third Finesse Conduit.

You should use this Soulbind when facing a team that will try to kill you in a stun, such as a Rogue team or a Feral team, or when you want more damage and do not need the consistent healing provided by Marileth. The first passive of the Soulbind, Lead by Example, is a decent damage increase. The third row allows you to channel Fleshcraft while moving, which helps not being interrupted or controlled while channeling. The passive Sulfuric Emission, is the reason why you want to pick this Soulbind when facing a team that will kill you in a stun. As soon as you go below 20% health, everyone around you is feared for 3.5-second, and this can happen every minute. This will allow you to survive burst damage by fearing the enemy melee DPS. Resilient Stitching will provide a bit of sustained healing versus magic users and the last passive, Pustule Eruption is a bit of damage and healing alongside your Fleshcraft. This Soulbind also has the advantage of offering a good conduit distribution for Subtlety Rogues.

Conduits are passive buffs that you can use to fill empty slots in your Soulbind Trees. There are three types of Conduits: Potency, Endurance, and Finesse. Here are the best Conduits for each of those different types:

1. If you are Venthyr, Lashing Scars increases the damage of your Flagellation, increasing your burst damage.
2. If you are Kyrian, Reverberation increases the damage of your Echoing Reprimand, increasing your burst damage.
3. If you are Night Fae, Septic Shock increases the damage of your Sepsis, increasing your burst damage.
4. Deeper Daggers makes Eviscerate increase your Shadow damage after using it. This will increase your burst damage, as your Eviscerate deals shadow damage when Find Weakness is on the target.

1. Cloaked in Shadows gives you a shield for 4s when you enter Stealth. As a Subtlety Rogue, you will often attempt to re-enter Stealth once you failed to kill an enemy. This Conduit will allow you to re-Stealth with DoTs on you. As long as the shield remains you will not get pulled out of Stealth by DoT damage. Even though this conduit used to give a permanent shield and now only grants 4s of shield it is still good for Subtelty Rogues as the gameplay is very hit and run, and with this you will have 4s to go far, maybe hide behind a pillar and then restealth once more once DoTs on you have faded.
2. Recuperator makes Slice and Dice heal you over time. This is good to help your healer with sustained healing as you will have Slice and Dice up most of the time.

1. Rushed Setup reduces the Energy cost of your crowd control spells, such as Cheap Shot, Kidney Shot and Sap. This will greatly help you manage your energy on your kill windows.
2. Quick Decisions reduces the cooldown of Shadowstep and increases its range. This is great for both running down enemies or kiting away from them if you need to.
3. Prepared for All allows you to reduce the cooldown of Evasion by dodging attacks and the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by successfully interrupting casts. This is powerful because it will allow you to get your defensives back faster than the enemy can anticipate.

Legendaries have many different effects and some can alter how you should use some of your abilities. For more information on Legendaries, check out our general guide on them.

Here are the best Legendaries for a Subtlety Rogues.

1. Finality is the best option, especially if you are Kyrian. Since you will always be able to land two 7CP Eviscerates during your burst window you are certain that either the first or the second one will be empowered by the Legendary, for a huge hit. This will empower your burst damage, and make sure you never lack damage on a good kill attempt.
2. Mark of the Master Assassin remains a great option, and is the best one if you are Venthyr and want to oneshot enemies with Flagellation. Prior to Patch 9.2 it was the go-to Legendary for every Covenant but Kyrian, but now that Kyrian Rogues have access to their Covenant Legendary baseline they can also use Mark of the Master Assassin. It gives you 100% Critical Strike chance for 2.4 seconds after Stealth breaks, making your burst damage when coming out of Stealth a bit more powerful. However since you will often spend your first GCDs stunning people you will not benefit from the buff that much coming out of Stealth. It will be more impactful when you use Vanish to land two Eviscerates with the Critical Strike chance buff. If you are Venthyr you'll want to use it alongside Flagellation and make sure that you land two Eviscerates in the crit window. If you are Night Fae you'll want to use it right after Sepsis to get huge DoT tics, and make sure that you land two Eviscerates buffed by Grove Invigoration in the crit window. If you are Kyrian you'll want to use it after your Echoing Reprimand and make sure that you land two 7CP Eviscerates in the crit window.
3. Invigorating Shadowdust is an interesting Legendary. This makes it so Vanish reduces the cooldown of your other abilities by 20 seconds. This is powerful, as this means you can use Blind and if the enemy healer trinkets, you can Vanish and they will not have trinket ready for the next Blind. You can also Kick, use Vanish and Kick again. This gives you much more utility and control over the enemy team. This Legendary power is even more valuable if you run the new Honor Talent Thief's Bargain as this lowers the cooldown on Vanish.