Subtlety Rogue PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Dragonflight / 10.0.7)

Last updated on Mar 21, 2023 at 19:43 by Shadenox 28 comments

PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilizes your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Subtlety Rogue, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.

This page is part of our Subtlety Rogue PvP Guide.

1.

Playstyle for Subtlety Rogues

Subtlety Rogues have two roles in PvP: control the enemy team with Sap Icon Sap, Blind Icon Blind, Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot and Dismantle Icon Dismantle, and burst down stunned enemies very quickly. Subtlety Rogues badly lack sustained damage, but they make up for it by controlling the game's pace. You should partner with a class with extreme single-target damage and follow-up crowd control for your stuns, such as Mages, Hunters, or Priests.

1.1.

Before Gates Open

Discuss with your team to have a game plan. Subtlety Rogue is a specialization that is exclusively played in setup comps. That means you and your team must agree on who to control and who to kill before the game begins. You need to know who will use their offensive cooldowns first. Wasting an entire go because you did not plan and broke each other's crowd control can make you lose the game.

Apply Wound Poison Icon Wound Poison and Crippling Poison Icon Crippling Poison. Press Stealth Icon Stealth and you are good to go!

1.2.

Crowd Control

The ability to control the enemy team makes Subtlety Rogues so deadly. To lock down a team, you will aim to push in and initiate crowd control chains on the healer (Sap Icon Sap if they are not in combat, Blind Icon Blind and Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot/Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot). Most of the time, your teammates will follow up as long as you stun the DPS so they cannot stop your team. You also have the option to use Dismantle Icon Dismantle to stop an enemy melee DPS in between your setups.

The PvP trinket bonus that reduces CC duration greatly hurts Subtlety Rogues. When bursting down a target, your goal is to keep it locked down with stuns. Because stuns last for a shorter duration, now it means that in Dragonflight, you have one less GCD to deal damage for every one of your stuns, or else the targets get free before you can stun again. The only solution is to hold your GCD when the stun is just below a second to its end and then restun. This makes the optimal rotation underwhelming if you keep the target stunned (which you should).

2.

Offensive Rotation

2.1.

Generating and Spending Combo Points

Rogues have two resources to manage. The first, Energy, is relatively straightforward. Using a spell costs Energy, and it regenerates over time. The second resource is Combo Points. Some abilities generate Combo Points, and powerful skills called Finishing Moves consume them. To maximize your damage output and your Energy regeneration, you must use your Combo Points efficiently. You have several ways to generate Combo Points.

  • From Stealth Icon Stealth, Subterfuge Icon Subterfuge, or when Shadow Dance Icon Shadow Dance is active, there are 2 main ways to generate Combo Points:
    • Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot stuns the target and generates 1 Combo Point.
    • Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike can only be used in Stealth as well. It deals damage and generates 2 Combo Points.
    • Note: both of these abilities put the Find Weakness Icon Find Weakness debuff on your target. It is essential to have this debuff on any target you want to use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate on.
  • When not in Stealth, you generate Combo Points with the following:
    • Backstab Icon Backstab deals little damage and generates 1 Combo Point. If you hit from behind, it will deal 20% increased damage. Critical Strikes will apply Find Weakness Icon Find Weakness for 6s.
    • Shiv Icon Shiv generates 1 Combo Point. If you have Crippling Poison Icon Crippling Poison on, it will slow the target by 70% for 4 seconds.
    • Shuriken Storm Icon Shuriken Storm is an AoE ability and will generate 1 Combo Point for each target hit. Weirdly enough, in PvP, this does not work on pets, only players. You can use this when two players or more are stacked, and you need to generate Combo Points. Be careful not to break crown control, such as Polymorph when using this ability.
    • Shuriken Toss Icon Shuriken Toss does very little damage but generates 1 Combo Point. This should be used if you are slowed/rooted and cannot reach your target but are about to overcap Energy.
    • Marked for Death Icon Marked for Death instantly generates 5 Combo Points. This can be used for Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot to set up crowd control or for an additional Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate during a kill attempt. It should never be used to deal damage in between two setups.

Now that you know how to generate Combo Points, learning how to spend them is even more critical. As a Subtlety Rogue, you have a passive called Relentless Strikes Icon Relentless Strikes that grants you Energy for every Combo Point you spend on a Finishing Move. It makes it essential to use the Finishing Moves with 5 Combo Points. Here are the abilities you will be spending Combo Points on and what situations you will use them in:

  • Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot is your primary stun to set up crowd control on the enemy healer or kill target.
  • Rupture Icon Rupture is a bleed that lasts longer based on how many Combo Points you use. Only use this ability when you are not bursting a target.
  • Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice increases your attack speed. Slice and Dice should almost have 100% uptime during an arena match. Only manually use it when you are not bursting a target.
  • Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate is your primary damaging ability. This will deal more damage based on the Combo Points used for it. It also deals additional shadow damage to targets with Find Weakness Icon Find Weakness on them.
  • Secret Technique Icon Secret Technique is a powerful finisher with great damage but has a cooldown. This will deal more damage based on the amount of Combo Points used for it. It will only be used alongside offensive cooldowns to go for a kill.
2.2.

The Opener

The opener refers to your team's opening CC chain and damage done as soon as you exit the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer or your kill target uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble.

The opener is a key part of the game as Rogue. Stealth Icon Stealth gives you the advantage as you choose how the fight begins. Because people will not be in combat right after the gates open, you will be able to Sap Icon Sap a target, already providing your team with numerical superiority. If you manage to get stuns on the other enemies, you can create a situation where your kill target is stunned for you and your team to deal damage without any external help.

If you forced a trinket in the opener, you are on the right track to winning the game. If the enemy healer used their trinket, you could go with a Blind Icon Blind on them, followed by a Sap Icon Sap while you kill the enemy DPS. If the enemy DPS uses their trinket, you will be able to do a go on them with a Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot followed by a Smoke Bomb Icon Smoke Bomb to prevent the healer from helping and hopefully kill the DPS in that stun.

There are multiple openers as a Subtlety Rogue. Here is a very standard opener with a Sap on the healer.

  1. Sap Icon Sap the enemy healer, or the enemy DPS if you open on the healer.
  2. Use Shadow Blades Icon Shadow Blades.
  3. Use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot on your kill target.
  4. Use Shadow Dance Icon Shadow Dance. With the talent The First Dance Icon The First Dance you now have 4 Combo Points.
  5. Use Symbols of Death Icon Symbols of Death.
  6. Use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.
  7. Use Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike. Use Echoing Reprimand Icon Echoing Reprimand instead if it is available.
  8. Wait until your Cheap Shot is about to end, then use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot.
  9. Wait until your Cheap Shot is about to end, then use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot.
  10. Use Secret Technique Icon Secret Technique with Cold Blood Icon Cold Blood if it is available, else use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.

As you can see, if you want to keep your target stunned on a Cheap Shot kill attempt, you do not have a lot of GCDs to deal damage now that everyone has a 15% CC reduction item equipped. If you open like this, you heavily rely on your team to deal enough damage to kill the target. Therefore, you want to attack your target inside a Kidney Shot instead of a Cheap Shot stunlock. To accomplish this, you can do as follows:

  1. Sap Icon Sap your kill target.
  2. Use Shadow Blades Icon Shadow Blades.
  3. Use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot on the enemy that you want to CC.
  4. Use Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike on the enemy that you want to CC while they are in Cheap Shot. That brings you to 6 Combo Points.
  5. Have your team CC the target inside the Cheap Shot with a Polymorph, a Freezing Trap, a Psychic Scream, or use your Blind Icon Blind if your team is unable to assist.
  6. Use Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot on your kill target, who should still be in a Sap Icon Sap.
  7. Use Shadow Dance Icon Shadow Dance. With the talent The First Dance Icon The First Dance you now have 4 Combo Points.
  8. Use Symbols of Death Icon Symbols of Death.
  9. Use Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike to apply Find Weakness Icon Find Weakness and get to 6 Combo Points.
  10. Use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.
  11. Use Echoing Reprimand Icon Echoing Reprimand.
  12. Use Cold Blood Icon Cold Blood and then use Secret Technique Icon Secret Technique if it is available, else use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.
  13. Wait until your Kidney Shot is about to end, then use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot.
  14. Wait until your Cheap Shot is about to end, then use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot.
  15. Use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.

If you do not immediately need to run away once your stuns expire, you can keep attacking the target with Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike to build Combo Points and Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate to spend them.

2.3.

Burst Damage

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage. It is important to try to have your Kidney Shot ready for the kill target if you plan on doing a lot of damage yourself. If you use Cheap Shot on the kill target; you will have very few GCDs to deal damage while maintaining the unlock. The target will likely survive unless your team brings a lot of damage.

  1. Use Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot on your kill target.
  2. Use Shadow Dance Icon Shadow Dance. With the talent The First Dance Icon The First Dance you now have 4 Combo Points.
  3. Use Shadow Blades Icon Shadow Blades.
  4. Use Symbols of Death Icon Symbols of Death.
  5. Use Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike to apply Find Weakness Icon Find Weakness and get to 6 Combo Points.
  6. Use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.
  7. Use Echoing Reprimand Icon Echoing Reprimand.
  8. Use Cold Blood Icon Cold Blood and then use Secret Technique Icon Secret Technique if it is available, else use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.
  9. Wait until your Kidney Shot is about to end, then use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot.
  10. Wait until your Cheap Shot is about to end, then use Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot.
  11. Use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate.

If you do not immediately need to run away once your stuns expire, you can keep attacking the target with Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike to build Combo Points and Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate to spend them.

You may be required to burst down a target without every cooldown available. You can still follow the same rotation. The only thing that changes is that if you do not have Echoing Reprimand Icon Echoing Reprimand available, then you need to use Shadowstrike Icon Shadowstrike instead. Consequently, your next attack will only be a finishing move if you land on a blue Combo Point or procure a second Shadowstrike to get to 6 Combo Points. Otherwise, you will replace the finishing move with another Shadowstrike. Usually, when you go for a burst phase without any offensive cooldown, your team should have their damage cooldowns to help, so you don't have to worry about not doing a lot of damage yourself and can instead focus on keeping the enemy team in CC.

2.4.

Sustained damage

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available and when your enemies cannot be crowd controlled because of diminishing returns. Because Subtlety Rogues have weak sustained damage, they spend their sustained damage windows trying to re-Stealth if possible to prepare the next setup, or, if they cannot, they apply their bleed to the enemy, their maintenance buff to themselves and gather Combo Points for the next setup.

  1. Try to re-Stealth if possible.
  2. Use Rupture Icon Rupture with 5 Combo Points.
  3. Use Slice and Dice Icon Slice and Dice with 5 Combo Points. Having this buff up when you initiate your next setup will allow you to gain more Combo Points with the Premeditation Icon Premeditation talent.
  4. Use Eviscerate Icon Eviscerate with 5 Combo Points and do not need to refresh Rupture Icon Rupture.
  5. Use Backstab Icon Backstab to generate Combo Points.
3.

Defensive Techniques

Vanish Icon Vanish is one of your main defensive cooldowns. Use Vanish to avoid damage and get away from the enemy team. It can also be used to land crowd control with Sap Icon Sapand Cheap Shot Icon Cheap Shot.

Cloak of Shadows Icon Cloak of Shadows is a strong defensive cooldown when playing against casters. Use this when in trouble against caster teams and run to safety. You can also use it to mitigate incoming magic crowd control abilities, such as Mortal Coil Icon Mortal Coil or Hammer of Justice Icon Hammer of Justice.

Evasion Icon Evasion is a strong defensive cooldown when playing against melees and Hunters. Use this when the enemy team is using offensive cooldowns on you. You can also use it to dodge incoming physical crowd control abilities such as Kidney Shot Icon Kidney Shot or Mighty Bash Icon Mighty Bash.

Feint Icon Feint (with the Elusiveness Icon Elusiveness talent) is the trickiest but most useful defensive ability a Rogue has. It grants you a flat 20% damage reduction from everything for 6 seconds on a 15-second cooldown. This is a potent tool to mitigate incoming damage. A Rogue is weak against stuns, so preemptively using Feint when a stun is coming your way greatly increases your chance of surviving heavy damage from the enemy team. Of course, it can be used when the enemy team is using cooldowns on you, even if there is no stun.

Crimson Vial Icon Crimson Vial is a minor healing over time effect. It can be used the same way as Feint, either when you are about to get stunned or when the enemy is using cooldowns on you, and your healer needs extra help.

4.

Macros

It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.

5.

Changelog

  • 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7.
  • 25 Jan. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
  • 28 Jul. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
  • 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
  • 24 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
  • 10 Nov. 2021: Already up to date with Patch 9.1.5.
  • 04 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
  • 28 Mar. 2021: Rewritten by Shadenox and updated for Patch 9.0.5.
  • 18 Mar. 2020: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
  • 05 Dec. 2020: Updated Rotations to include Covenant Ability.
  • 02 Dec. 2020: Updated Burst Damage rotation.
  • 01 Dec. 2020: Updated Opening and Burst rotations.
  • 29 Nov. 2020: Removed outdated Traits and Essences.
  • 10 Nov. 2020: Updated Opening Rotation.
  • 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
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