Subtlety Rogue PvP Talents and Builds (Dragonflight / 10.0.7)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as a Subtlety Rogue and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Subtlety Rogue PvP Guide.
Regular Talents for Subtlety Rogues
Rogue Tree
Mandatory Talents
Blind,
Sap,
Cloak of Shadows,
Evasion, and
Shadowstep
are core abilities that you need to pick to play the class. These abilities are your CC, defensive
cooldowns, and mobility.
Elusiveness is a good option against comps with predictable damage
that you can preemptively Feint. Still, in the current meta (very fast-paced, highly
bursty),
Cheat Death is often a better option.
Shadow Dance gives you a second charge of Shadow Dance. This is a must-have.
Echoing Reprimand and its follow-up node synergize very well with the spec since
it allows you to either dramatically increase the damage of
Eviscerate by hitting the animacharged
Combo Points while giving a lot of cooldown reduction on Shadow Dance, thanks to
Deepening Shadows.
Important Talents
Gouge is a handy ability to have. While it breaks on damage taken, you can still use it to
set up CC on a target that has no DoTs when you don't have Shadow Dance or don't want to put a stun DR
on the enemy. It can even be used as a way to interrupt casts when you don't have your
Kick.
Cold Blood allows you to make sure an important ability is going to critically strike for added
damage. In this build, it is picked to go alongside
Secret Technique.
Subtelty Tree
Mandatory Talents
Relentless Strikes and
Improved Shadow Techniques are what allow Subtlety to regenerate energy. They are a must-have.
Secret Technique is currently the most powerful ability available to Subtlety Rogues regarding damage output. Paired with Cold Blood,
it will greatly damage your target on your kill attempts.
Improved Shadow Dance extends the duration of your Shadow Dance, allowing you to deal more damage and land more CC. This is a must-have.
Deepening Shadows allows you to reset your Shadow Dance, a must-have.
Dark Shadow and
Danse Macabre greatly empowers your burst damage. This is a must-have.
Shadow Blades is your burst cooldown. While not overly powerful, it increases your Combo Point generation, allowing you to
land more
Eviscerate on a go. An excellent ability to have.
Without a Trace is a mighty talent as it gives you an additional charge on Vanish. This makes you more elusive and lets you
initiate kill attempts more.
Dark Brew increases most of your damage by 10%. A powerful buff.
Important Talents
Shadowed Finishers,
Deeper Daggers, and
Finality all synergize together to empower your
finisher damage massively. These talents are the key to your damage.
PvP Talents for Subtlety Rogues
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents; each has 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.
Mandatory PvP Talents
Smoke Bomb creates a smoke cloud around you. Enemy players who are
outside the cloud will not be able to target anyone inside it. This talent
is mandatory for multiple reasons. Firstly, it can help you land a kill by
stunning a target when they have no trinket. By using Smoke Bomb right after
the stun, you will prevent the healer from saving their teammate. Secondly, you
can use it defensively to save yourself or an ally from a lethal cast
about to go off, such as
Greater Pyroblast. And lastly, you can use it
to prevent incoming crowd control on you or your team if such crowd control
would result in you losing a game, such as a
Polymorph or
Repentance on your healer when they have no trinket, and you are low on
health. As you can see, this talent is helpful in many different situations,
which is why it is so powerful. Note that, as Subtlety, the cooldown is only
2 minutes.
Shadowy Duel places you and the enemy you cast this on in a duel.
You can only interact with each other and no one else for 5 seconds.
This talent is mighty. You can use it on an enemy at low health to
prevent the enemy healer from saving them while you finish them off. If you
do not have the damage to do so, you can use it on the enemy healer to
give time to your teammates to finish off your kill target. You can also use it
on an enemy killing one of your teammates. Since they will be locked in
the Duel with you, they can no longer attack your allies. You can also use it on
an enemy casting a significant spell on one of your allies. Since you
will phase them in the Duel with you, they will never throw the spell. One thing
worth knowing is that inside a Shadowy Duel, everyone has Truesight, which
means that both you and your enemy will see through Stealth or other
invisibility spells. The consequence is that if you try to Duel an enemy to
save an ally and then Vanish to be safe, the enemy will still be able
to see you and kill you. In the same way, if you Duel a Rogue and he uses
Vanish, you will be able to see him, Sap him, or kill him.
Situational PvP Talents
Thief's Bargain is a PvP talent with a lot of potential. Having
Vanish
more often means you can survive more or set up more for your team. Alongside the talent
Without a Trace that gives you a second Vanish; you have it very, very often !
Dismantle is a strong PvP talent that allows you to disarm an enemy for 6s
every 45s. It is a great pick against Warriors, Hunters, and Rogues. Disarming
an enemy can delay their next kill attempt or stop it entirely if they have pulled
the trigger.
Maneuverability is a powerful PvP talent versus teams with
multiple slows. You can take this so you can maximize your uptime on your
target. It also removes any root on you when you use it so that you may escape
a Frost Nova or a Steel Trap with it as well.
Thick as Thieves is a strong PvP talent when playing a setup comp
with an ally with very high burst. With this, you can further amplify their
burst damage by 15% for 6s, which can be the reason why the target dies. The
downside of this talent is that you have to spend a point in
Tricks of the Trade,
something you don't necessarily want to do.
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.
- 23 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Updated Tier 2 Talent.
- 06 Oct. 2021: Updated Tier 3 Talent.
- 21 Jul. 2021: Updated Tier 3 Talent.
- 04 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 28 Mar. 2021: Rewritten by Shadenox and updated for Patch 9.0.5.
- 18 Mar. 2021: No Updates Made for Patch 9.0.5
- 05 Dec. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
- Updated Tier 6 Regular Talent.
- 27 Oct. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
- Updated Tier 2 Regular Talent.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
This guide has been written by Shadenox, an experienced Gladiator player who has achieved over 3,000 rating on Rogue. You can find him on his YouTube channel, where he creates guides and other informational content regarding Arenas.
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