Subtlety Rogue PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.2.5)

Subtlety Rogues have unmatched utility as a pure DPS class. With multiple ways to enter Stealth, they have tools such as stuns, Blind, and countless other forms of crowd control. The Subtlety Rogue is the master of control. Match a Rogue's control with a Mage and you have a powerhouse of a team composition.

• Great control
• Decent mobility
• Strong burst

• Weak to teams with two melee on it
• Needs help from teammates to stay alive
• Very few defensive cooldowns

The stat priority for Subtlety Rogue in PvP is as follows:

1. Agility;
2. Mastery;
3. Critical Strike;
4. Versatility;
5. Haste.

Agility is the best stat in all situations. Mastery is the strongest secondary stat at all times, due to increasing the damage of your finishing moves. This will increase your sustained and burst damage. You should also be looking for gear with Critical Strike. This will increase the chance your damaging abilities deal additional damage.

Essences allow players to customize their characters while adding a new ability to use. This section will cover the best overall Azerite Essences for Subtlety Rogues in PvP. For a general guide to all the essences, as well as how to obtain them and increase their ranks, check out our Essence Guide.

The Crucible of Flame gives you a Major Power that blasts the target for damage ( Concentrated Flame). Each time you use this ability, it increases the damage dealt by 100% and stacks up to 2 times. This is a solid Essence that deals good single target damage.

Memory of Lucid Dreams increases your Energy regeneration by 100% for 12 seconds. This is by far one of the best Major Essences you can have. More Energy regeneration results in being able to use more damaging abilities with Shadow Dance active.

In addition to having a Major Essence, you can choose two Minor Essences to place in your neck at Heart of Azeroth Levels 55 and 65.

Memory of Lucid Dreams gives your spells and abilities a chance to refund 50% of the Energy spent on them and heal you. This is great for increasing your damage, as you will frequently be refunded Energy throughout a match.

Conflict and Strife grants a very powerful Versatility Minor Power. Not only do your spells have a chance to give you Versatility, but any loss of control to your character does too. This means that, if teams stun you and try to swap to you, you have additional Versatility and take less damage.

Azerite traits are unlocked in you helm, shoulders and chest. With each Azerite level in your neck, you get closer to unlocking the center trait in your gear. These traits vary from increasing damage of certain abilities to helping increase your survivability. Depending on what traits you use, it can completely alter your playstyle and what talents you should be using.

Below are the best Outer Ring traits.

1. Night's Vengeance
2. Blade In The Shadows
3. The First Dance
4. Inevitability

Subtlety Rogues do not depend on one single trait to increase their damage. Instead, they want a mix of the above traits. Because most of your damage is increased by your Mastery, you want to maximize the damage of your Eviscerates. This means Night's Vengeance will give you the most burst and sustained damage. You want at least one The First Dance for the stat increase and the Combo Points that are generated. Blade In The Shadows and Inevitability both increase your overall damage output and work well with the above traits.

Below are the best Middle Ring traits.

1. Heed My Call
2. Earthlink
3. Overwhelming Power
4. Elemental Whirl

The Middle and Inner rings are important for additional damage. Elemental Whirl, Overwhelming Power, and Earthlink give an increase to your stats. These are minor stat boosts, but still increase your damage. Heed My Call will help increase your single target pressure.

Below are the best Inner Ring traits.

1. Resounding Protection
2. Shrouded Mantle
3. Impassive Visage

All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all passive, but are crucial to have.

In general, Subtlety Rogues want to get trinkets that line up well with Shadow Blades. Because this ability has a 3 minute cooldown, your trinkets can have a passive or on-use effect. The stat you want to be increasing is Agility. The reason you want to increase Agility is because it drastically increases your overall damage output.

To be successful in 3v3 arena, you need to have at least 2 pieces of gear to have the The First Dance. You will also want either Earthlink or Heed My Call in the second tier.

Below, we list the items that have these traits.

• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Skullguard;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Skullguard;
• Hood of the Slithering Loa;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Helm;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Helm;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Hood;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Hood;

• Pistoleer's Spaulders;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Pauldrons;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Pauldrons;
• Gold-Tasseled Epaulets;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Spaulders;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Spaulders.

• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Jerkin;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Jerkin;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Chestguard;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Chestguard;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Vest;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Vest;
• Deathsnap Jerkin;
• Gore-Splattered Vest.

Notorious Gladiator's Maledict is absolutely the best trinket you can have. The on-use damage and healing absorption is capable of forcing defensives by itself. This can be used by itself or while you are using your burst rotation to force multiple cooldowns out of enemy teams.

Notorious Gladiator's Safeguard is a mandatory trinket if you think the enemy team can swap to you and kill you. This provides an additional defensive for when you drop to low health. If you do not think a team will swap to you and kill you, you can use replace this one with any of the trinkets below.

Notorious Gladiator's Badge is strong for the versatility and the on-use Agility effect. The 2-minute cooldown lines up well with most of your burst cooldowns.

Notorious Gladiator's Insignia has a good amount of Versatility on it and has a passive effect. This effect increases your Agility. This increases your sustained damage.

Enchant Weapon - Quick Navigation and Enchant Weapon - Masterful Navigation are the best weapon enchants. You will be duel wielding weapons and having one of each of these enchants on your weapons. These enchants give you a strong Haste and Mastery buff that can be crucial in multiple ways. Both of these procs increase your damage output and are great if you can line it up with your burst.

Level	Choices
15	✘ Weaponmaster	✔ Find Weakness	✘ Gloomblade
30	✘ Nightstalker	✔ Subterfuge	✘ Shadow Focus
45	✘ Vigor	✘ Deeper Stratagem	✔ Marked for Death
60	✘ Soothing Darkness	✘ Cheat Death	✔ Elusiveness
75	✘ Shot in the Dark	✘ Night Terrors	✔ Prey on the Weak
90	✔ Dark Shadow	✘ Alacrity	✘ Enveloping Shadows
100	✔ Master of Shadows	✘ Secret Technique	✘ Shuriken Tornado

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

Find Weakness is the best choice in this tier. This is an overall strong talent to increase your damage against targets with the Find Weakness debuff.

Subterfuge is the best choice in this tier. Using this with Vanish makes it a very versatile talent. This will give you more control and extend the duration of your Shadow Dance. This will also allow you to use Cheap Shot on multiple enemies to help your teammates cast.

Marked for Death is the best choice in this tier. This can be used in many different ways. You can use Marked For Death and get a full Kidney Shot on your kill target or for crowd control. You can also use it aggressively for Eviscerate on an enemy with low health.

Elusiveness is an all-around solid choice, and the best talent in this tier. Just make sure to use Feint when you are the focus for the enemy team.

Prey on the Weak is the best choice in this tier. This is a damage increase to you and your teammates. Because your kill target will most likely be stunned, this is an important damage increase to have when securing a kill.

Dark Shadow is the best choice in this tier. This talent gives you the most consistent pressure while Shadow Dance is active.

Master of Shadows is the best choice in this tier. This will allow you to regenerate Energy quicker while you are in Stealth, increasing your sustained damage.

The first PvP talent tier is will give you a choice between Gladiator's Medallion, Relentless, and Adaptation. Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. It is great for removing crowd control on you that your healer cannot dispel. Subtlety Rogues are also notorious for dying in stuns and this well help you trinket and kite incoming damage.

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP talents depending on your team's goal.

Cold Blood instantly deals 10% of the enemy players health when you use Cheap Shot or Shadowstrike. This is a good offensive cooldown and a great ability when using your burst rotation.

Smoke Bomb creates a cloud around you. Enemy players who are outside the cloud will not be able to target anyone inside of it. This talent is mandatory for multiple reasons. The first is to land a kill while your target is stunned without a trinket. The enemy healer will not be able to heal and you will easily secure a kill while Smoke Bomb is active. The second is to stop incoming spells. This is not done often, but you can use Smoke Bomb on your healer to prevent enemies from crowd controlling them. It all depends on the situation, which is why this PvP talent is so good.

Maneuverability is a very strong PvP talent versus teams with multiple slows. This should be taken so you can maximiize your uptime on your target.

Death from Above is a finishing move, which means it is affected by your Mastery, that deals a large amount of damage. This should be chosen if you want additional damage. You can replace Maneuverability with this PvP talent.

Shadowy Duel places you and the enemy you cast this on in a duel. You can only interract with each other and no one else for 8 seconds. This talent should be chosen if you want additional crowd control. You can replace Maneuverability with this PvP talent.

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.

The Orc racial bonus ( Hardiness) is great for reducing the duration of stuns on you. This is absolutely the best Horde racial to have if you are primarily focusing on PvP. In addition to Hardiness, Orcs also have the Blood Fury racial. This is off the global cooldown and should be used when you are using your burst rotation.

The Blood Elf racial bonus ( Arcane Torrent) has multiple effects. The primary use for this ability is that it removes 1 beneficial effect from all enemies in range. This is great for removing abilities such as Blessing of Protection from Paladins or Soul of the Forest from Restoration Druids. It can also be used versus players using the The Crucible of Flame Major Essence to remove the stacks it creates. The other effect is that it restores resources based on what specialization you are.

The Undead racial bonus ( Will of the Forsaken) removes any Charm, Fear or Sleep effect from you. This is a great racial versus specializations, like Destruction Warlocks, that are able to fear you constantly throughout an arena match. It is important to note that this does share a 30-second cooldown with Gladiator's Medallion, so it is advised to only use it when you do not want to waste Gladiators Medallion.

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns. If you think you will be the focus target versus teams with multiple stuns, this race allows you to play Relentless. This will help increase your overall survivability. It is also important to note that Humans also have The Human Spirit. This increases your secondary stats (Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, Versatility). This is another beneficial reason to play Human.

The Night Elf racial bonus ( Shadowmeld) is always a strong choice. This racial has a high skill cap, but using it to avoid crowd control can be very powerful. For example, if a Mage is casting Polymorph on you, use Shadowmeld to avoid it. If you use Shadowmeld at the same time that a Priest uses their Psychic Scream, you will not be feared.

The Dwarf racial bonus ( Stoneform) removes Poison, Disease, Magic, and bleed effects. In addition to this, it reduces all Physical damage taken by 10%. This racial can make a large impact versus teams that have multiple Bleed or Magical damage over time abilities. It is also important to note that this racial lines up with the cooldown from Maledict trinkets and can be used to remove the absorption that is placed on you from Maledict. Another example is removing bleeds versus Assassination Rogues or Feral Druids that are focusing you. This will significantly slow down the damage being dealt to you.

The Gnome racial bonus ( Escape Artist) removes any movement speed reduction effects on you. With only a 1-minute cooldown, this can be used both defensively or offensively. You can use this to help kite incoming damage or use it to remove slows on you while chasing down an enemy. Another racial that Gnome provides is Expansive Mind. This will increase your maximum Energy, which helps with not running out of resources.

The Subtlety Rogue has two roles in PvP: control the enemy team with relentless mobility and crowd control and having strong sustained damage outside of burst cooldowns. Although Subtlety Rogues lack offensive cooldowns, they make up for it with the strongest control in the game.

To lock down healers, you will aim to push in and get crowd control on the healer ( Sap, Blind when they do not have trinket, and Cheap Shot or Kidney Shot).

The ability to control the enemy team is what makes Subtlety Rogues so deadly. You should look to partner with a class that has very strong single-target damage, such as Mages, Fury Warriors, Survival Hunters or Balance Druids.

Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on. Rogue crowd control is powerful, but dealing any damage to the target will break and waste it. Also, remember to enter Stealth.

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns.

If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. Blind, with a follow up Sap, is one of the most devastating crowd control combinations in the game, with very few ways of getting out of it without having a trinket. Save Blind for when the enemy healer does not have their trinket.

If an enemy DPS uses their trinket, you can crowd control the healer and stun the DPS without a trinket. This means they can be burst down in a stun and possibly killed. This would be the best time to use Smoke Bomb.

When opening, always try to Sap the enemy DPS player who is trying to bring you out of Stealth, then Sap the healer. Then, use your burst rotation. After you are done with your burst rotation, perform your sustained damage rotation until your burst abilities are available again.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game that will maximize your opening damage. You will want to use as many 5 Combo Point Eviscerates as you can, while using Cheap Shot to control your target. This opener will allow you to use Marked for Death and Kidney Shot as crowd control on the enemy healer.

1. Enter Stealth.
2. Sap the enemy healer.
3. Use Cheap Shot on your main target.
   • This will apply the Find Weakness and Prey on the Weak debuffs.
4. Use Shadowstrike.
5. Use Nightblade.
   • In addition to the damage over time effect, you will deal 15% increased damage to your target.
6. Use Shadow Dance.
7. Use Symbols of Death.
8. Use Shadowstrike.
9. Use Cheap Shot.
10. Use Eviscerate.
11. Use Cheap Shot.
12. Use Shadowstrike.
13. Use Eviscerate.

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. Use Shadow Blades.
2. Use Kidney Shot.
   • This will apply the Prey on the Weak debuff.
3. Use Smoke Bomb.
   • You should only use this if your target does not have a trinket. Otherwise, they can easily trinket and use a defensive cooldown.
4. Use Shadow Dance.
5. Use Concentrated Flame if you are using the Major Essence.
6. Use Shadowstrike.
7. Apply Symbols of Death to yourself.
8. Use Eviscerate at 5 Combo Points.
9. Use Marked for Death.
10. Use Death from Above.
11. Use Cold Blood.
12. Use Cheap Shot.
13. Use Memory of Lucid Dreams if you are using the Major Essence and need to generate Energy.
14. Use Shadowstrike.
15. Use Eviscerate at 5 Combo Points.

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Use Backstab to generate Combo Points.
2. Use Shadowstrike if you need to generate Combo Points while stealthed or Shadow Dance is active.
   • Do not use Backstab to generate Combo Points when Shadow Dance is active. Use Shadowstrike to generate them.
3. Maintain Nightblade on your target.
   • This deals decent damage and increases your damage dealt to that target.
4. Use Symbols of Death to generate 40 Energy and increase your damage.
5. Use Concentrated Flame if you are using the Major Essence.
6. Use Shuriken Storm if the enemy team is stacked to generate multiple Combo Points quickly.
7. Use Eviscerate when you have 5 Combo Points and do not need to refresh the Nightblades DoT.
8. Use Death from Above when you have 5 Combo Points and the enemy is in a Cheap Shot or Kidney Shot.
9. Use Cheap Shot for Combo Points and controlling the enemy.
10. Use Memory of Lucid Dreams if you are using the Major Essence and need to generate Energy.
11. Use Shuriken Toss if you are slowed or rooted and want to generate Combo Points.

Vanish is one of your main defensive cooldowns. Use Vanish when you want to avoid damage and get away from the enemy team.

Cloak of Shadows is a strong defensive cooldown when playing against casters. Use this when in trouble against caster teams and run to your healer or re-enter Stealth.

Feint (with the Elusiveness talent) grants you a flat 30% damage reduction from everything. This is a buff that should be active on you at all times. A Rogue is very weak against stuns, so having Feint up when stunned greatly increases your chance of surviving heavy damage from the enemy team.

Crimson Vial is the trickiest, but most useful defensive ability a Rogue has. If you feel a hard swap onto you or you are about to be stunned, use Crimson Vial. Using this efficiently can enable you and your teammates to save your other cooldowns.

Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage rotation, it is time to step into the Arena with your team. Subtlety Rogues have some of the best crowd control in the game and are a threat to any team.

In 2v2 Arena you will be focusing on single target damage. Depending on what healer you are playing with, use Cheap Shot on the enemy healer to setup crowd control. For example, if you are playing with a Discipline Priest, you should use Cheap Shot on the enemy healer so your Priest can get close enough to use Psychic Scream. Your overall goal is to force a trinket out of the enemy healer early. This gives you the opportunity to use Blind with your next Shadow Dance. Once Blind is almost expired, use Sap.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

• Subtlety Rogue + Discipline Priest
• Subtlety Rogue + Restoration Druid
• Subtlety Rogue + Holy Paladin
• Subtlety Rogue + Arcane/Frost Mage

Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. You will likely be focusing on maximizing your single target damage. If you are playing against a healer that is not mobile (Discipline Priest, Holy Paladin or Restoration Shaman), you can open on them and try to force a trinket or a major defensive cooldown. If the enemy healer trinkets, you can use Blind with your next setup. Your overall goal is to focus an enemy without a trinket. When you and your teammate have damage, use Cheap Shot on the enemy healer. After this, use Kidney Shot on your kill target and continue with your burst rotation. The good thing that Subtlety Rogues can do that the other specs cannot is peel for their teammates. Shadow Dance can be used offensively, as well as defensively. When it is active, use Cheap Shot on as many enemy players that are within your range as possible. An important note is that Rogues are very easy to kill in 3v3 Arena. Make sure you are maintaining your Feint buff and play defensive when your team does not have much damage.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

• RMP (Subtlety Rogue + Frost Mage + Discipline Priest)
• RPS (Subtlety Rogue + Shadow Priest + Restoration Shaman)
• Subtlety Rogue + Balance Druid + Holy Paladin
• RLS (Subtlety Rogue + Destruction/Affliction Warlock + Restoration Shaman)

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Subtlety Rogues can benefit from.

• #showtooltip
• /cast [target=focus] Shadowstep
• /cast [target=focus] Kick

Using this macro will use Shadowstep on your focus enemy. If you press this macro again, it will use Kick on your focus target. This makes it easier to interrupt an enemy while staying focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Blind
• /cast [target=focus] Blind

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Blind on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Kidney Shot
• /cast [target=focus] Kidney Shot

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Kidney Shot on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Sap
• /cast [target=focus] Sap

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Sap on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Stealth
• /cast !stealth

This makes it so, when you use Stealth, it will not cancel if you click it a second time.