Subtlety Rogue PvP Talents and Builds (Dragonflight / 10.0.7)

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.

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.

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.

Shadowed Finishers, Deeper Daggers, and Finality all synergize together to empower your finisher damage massively. These talents are the key to your damage.

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.

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.

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.