As a Rogue, you must look to the shadows. You needn’t gaze to the point of absorption—you’re not a Shadow Priest, after all—but you must analyze every detail of your surroundings. A moment of surprise is all you need to win a battle. All contract killers can agree on this, but Subtlety Rogues in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic take this to the next level.

Not all outlaws start off at the top, though. In fact, most don’t survive their first mission, at least not IRL. It takes time, training, and a questionable moral code for a whisper of your name to be feared. This guide will cover all you need to know to assassinate your enemies and leave without a trace. Just don’t tell the governing bodies of Stormwind or Orgrimmar!

This guide will start by providing an overview of this specialization, including the best profession/race combos and the overall strengths and weaknesses of Subtlety Rogues. Then, your ideal setup will be covered. This section will include the best talent builds, stat priority for leveling gear, and more! After that, your rotation and abilities will be explained. Finally, the endgame gear that you should aim to get for your Subtlety Rogue will be highlighted.

 

The Basics—Ideal Toon Setup and More

Like the other two Rogue specializations, Subtlety Rogues are a DPS spec. All Rogue characters should focus on leather armor to maximize their experience. Every Rogue uses the resources Combo Points and Energy, too. The sameness between Subtlety Rogues and the other specs in this class end there.

Subtlety Rogues are highly valued for niche situations, while the other two specializations are desired for their outrageous DPS. As such, most players of this spec also know how to play as a Combat or Assassination Rogue. This is to stay relevant in situations where Subtlety’s play style may not prove as beneficial.

So, why do Subtlety Rogues matter? What situations are they wanted for?

  • Teams where more CC or interrupt abilities are needed
  • Fights that don’t involve much target switching
    • Altairus, The Vortex Pinnacle
    • Slabhide, The Stonecore
    • Al’Akir, Throne of the Four Winds
  • 5-man content where certain buffs are missing

If you’re looking for a specialization good for providing utility and navigating mechanics that has an infinitely high skill ceiling, you’ll probably want to learn how to play a Subtlety Rogue. For many players, this means starting a new character. Draenei and Tauren cannot play as this class, presumably due to being massive. While you should play as whatever available race you enjoy the most, seeing as racial traits don’t make a huge difference, it is worth noting that the following races are the best for Subtlety Rogue players.

  • Alliance
    • Night Elves offer the racial ability Shadowmeld, which works similarly to any other stealth ability. They are the best Alliance race for all Rogue specs thanks to this. Subtlety Rogues will benefit even more from this since it allows for another window of Find Weakness.
    • Worgen offer the racial passive Viciousness, which gives them a 1% increase to critical strike chance. They also have the ability Darkflight, a sprint ability that can help players close in on enemies.
  • Horde
    • Trolls offer the racial ability Berserking, a powerful attack speed buff that can greatly increase DPS when timed right with Find Weakness. This makes them the best Horde race for this specialization. Trolls will do better than other races in fights against beast mobs due to their Beast Slaying racial. They get a reduction to movement impairing debuffs, too. Combining all of this with their extra critical strike chance in situations that call for Fan of Knives, it is easy to see why they’re the top Horde pick.
    • Goblins offer the racial passive Time is Money, which increases their attack speed by a smidge. Since Subtlety Rogues love haste, this racial passive is always welcome. Goblins also have the racial ability Rocket Jump, which can help close the gap between you and a foe.

While you’re busy leveling up your new toon, you might as well grab two professions to go with it. Your choice of profession will not make a huge difference for most players, but players looking to push their Subtlety Rogue to the max should consider these professions.

  • Engineering
    • Synapse Springs, one of the most useful things offered by Engineering, will give you +480 agility for 10 seconds with a 1 minute cooldown. This ability will be extra useful when timed with Find Weakness.
    • Agile Bio-Optic Killshades are your best in slot headpiece before stepping into raids. Guess who makes them? Engineers. Also, only toons with a high Engineering skill can use this piece, making this profession even more valuable.
    • Nitro Boosts and Grounded Plasma Shields can prove quite helpful in tough situations.
  • Leatherworking
    • Since Rogues prefer to wear leather armor, you may be able to craft some of your own gear.
    • Draconic Embossment — Agility will give you an extra 80 agility compared to what toons without a high skill in Leatherworking can get.
  • Blacksmithing
    • Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves are abilities provided by Blacksmithing that, when combined, can provide +80 agility.

Let’s recap before moving on.

  • Subtlety Rogues are a leather-wearing DPS spec valued for niche situations.
  • Night Elves and Trolls offer the best racials for this spec for Alliance and Horde players, respectively.
  • Most Subtlety Rogue players who are highly dedicated will want to pair up some combination of Engineering with Leatherworking or Blacksmithing.

Hopefully, that’s all you needed to catch up. Rogues are like honey badgers—they don’t care about the world and will happily become violent. I wouldn’t expect much grace from your fellow outlaws…

Talents, Glyphs, and Stat Priority

While no one should really expect patience and understanding from a hardened criminal, it is totally fair to expect this from other players as you learn a new spec. That is, if you’re new to the game. Anyone who has been playing WoW, especially Classic, knows that the community tends to not be very kind in group content. As such, it is suggested you find a guild or at least a few friends willing to help you out. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll hold them for ransom! Disclaimer: This was a joke directed at World of Warcraft Rogues, not real life Rogues.

Before worrying too much about your talents and the sort, play around with this spec. You’ll need to be level 85 for the suggested talent build. By the time you reach max level, you should know if this specialization is right for you. After all, people learn through trial and error, often with more error than trial.

To start, your ideal talent build for this guide can be found below.

  • Subtlety Tree
    • 3/3 Improved Ambush
    • 3/3 Relentless Strikes
    • 2/2 Elusiveness
    • 3/3 Opportunity
    • 2/2 Initiative
    • 3/3 Energetic Recovery
    • 2/2 Find Weakness
    • 1/1 Hemorrhage
    • 3/3 Honor Among Thieves
    • 1/1 Premeditation
    • 1/1 Preparation
    • 2/2 Sanguinary Vein
    • 3/3 Slaughter from the Shadows
    • 2/2 Serrated Blades
    • 1/1 Shadow Dance
  • Assassination Tree
    • 2/3 Coup De Grace
    • 3/3 Lethality
    • 3/3 Puncturing Wounds
  • Combat Tree
    • 2/3 Precision

And now, we have the ideal prime glyphs.

  • Glyph of Backstab
    • Good for energy restoration
  • Glyph of Hemorrhage
    • Brings bleed debuff to enemy targets
  • Glyph of Slice and Dice
    • Increases the duration of Slice and Dice

Next up, we’re going over the ideal major glyphs.

  • Glyph of Fan of Knives
    • Increases the range of your Fan of Knives by about 12 yards
  • Glyph of Ambush
    • Increases the range of Ambush by 5 yards
  • Glyph of Feint
    • Makes the energy cost of Feint a whopping 0
  • Glyph of Sprint
    • Increases Sprint speed up to 100%

Finally, the small but unforgettable minor glyphs!

  • Glyph of Distract
    • Increases the range of Distract by 5 yards
  • Glyph of Safe Fall
    • Increases Safe Fall’s protection to greater heights—sadly, does not make you bounce
  • Glyph of Poisons
    • Increases poison application speed by 50%
  • Glyph of Blurred Speed
    • Causes Sprint to also enable water walking

Most of the above information has been well established and should not be meddled with by most players, even at high levels. All of the talents and glyphs are pretty straightforward to lock in. Gear, however, is not—at least not until you’re looking at BiS. As you level up your toon, you’ll run into new pieces of gear. Keeping in mind the following stat priority, along with simulations of your toon, will help you decide on which item to use.

Agility > Hit Rating (8% special hit cap) > Haste > Expertise (6.5% cap) > Hit Rating (17% spell hit cap) > Critical Strike > Mastery

Let’s break down that stat priority a little bit. Agility is the stat that most directly impacts the attack power of your damaging abilities. Since this is your primary stat as a Subtlety Rogue, you’ll want as much as possible. Expertise and hit rating affects your chances of landing hits. You’ll want these to be at the aforementioned caps so you’re not smashing buttons for no reason. Haste helps smooth out your rotation by increasing your energy regeneration. Critical strike rating impacts your chances at striking, well, critically. Mastery is overall underwhelming for this specialization and should be prioritized last despite the aid it lends finishing moves.

Getting Deadly–Rotation and Spell Info

So, you’ve got your talents, glyphs, and leveling gear sorted out. It’s time to get deadly, and deadly needs poison. You should be using Instant Poison on your main-hand weapon and Deadly Poison on your off-hand. There are a few situations where this setup will change, but you’ll figure that out naturally as you progress both through this guide and through your Cataclysm journey.

Now that your weapons are coated in the appropriate poison, you have to use them. A Subtlety Rogue’s rotation should look something like the below in most situations. There will inevitably be deviations as targets need to be stunned by your Kick ability, trash groups halted by Distract, and other various scenarios where you will need to dip into your utility potential. This is just to give you an idea of where to start.

  • Start combat in stealth, move to your target with Shadowstep, and use Ambush to trigger Find Weakness
  • Use Hemorrhage to maintain the Glyph of Hemorrhage debuff, as needed
  • Use Backstab to generate Combo Points while not in stealth
  • Use Slice and Dice once you have 5 Combo Points available—aim to maximize uptime on this
  • Apply Rupture
  • Cast Eviscerate if you do not need to reapply Slice and Dice
  • Any extra Combo Points can go into Recuperate

Your Find Weakness windows are where you’ll find the most opportunities to perform exceptionally well in DPS rankings. As such, you should really focus on maximizing your time spent using Find Weakness. Shadow Dance and Vanish are your two best ways of opening up a Find Weakness period. Make sure that you’re using this window effectively by analyzing your fights.