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General Information
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft —The War Within Pre-Patch. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+.If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Subtlety Rogue talents.
Within this page, we will go over every single talent available toSubtlety Rogues. Many of them are only passive effects, butthey all can have an impact on how the spec is played, whether active or passive.To see how these choices fit into how you play as a Subtlety, take a lookat the Rotation section of our guide.
Subtlety Rogue Rotation and Cooldowns
1.
Talent Cheat Sheets for Subtlety Rogue
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highlyrecommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listedbelow work great for specific purposes.
1.1.
Single-Target (Raiding)
The go-to build for all Single Target Encounters in Raid.
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by clicking 'Copy Export String'.
The suggested builds might differ based on the current tier's bosses, so make sureto read the dedicated raiding page below.
Subtlety Rogue Raid Page
1.2.
AoE/Cleave Non-Invigorating Shadowdust (Mythic+)
You can easily import the talent tree below into the game by clicking 'Copy Export String'.
Due to the dynamic nature of Mythic+, different affixes and dungeons can changeour choice of talents. Check out the Mythic+ page below.
Subtlety Rogue Mythic+ Page
2.
Subtlety Rogue Class Tree Talents
The Class Tree for Subtlety Rogues is fairly straightforward, and the fewchoices you will have are mainly utility options, which we will talk about in thissection.
2.1.
Rows 1-4
With the redesigned talent trees, your talent options can change quite a bit. The biggest change you can make in these rows is swapping Improved Sprint or
Master Poisoner for
Gouge/
Airborne Irritant for some more CC options. However, untalenting
Master Poisoner is not recommended.
While Master Poisoner does not increase our output, it makes our
Atrophic Poison reduce the target's damage dealt by 3.6% instead of 3%which means that you should always pick this talent for progression raiding.
2.2.
Rows 5-7
The options in these rows are extremely limited. However, with the redesign, we are now afforded more utility options than we were before. The only DPS option in these rows is Improved Ambush/
Tight Spender. There is a new talent (
Shadowheart) that, unless it gets changed by the time The War Within launches, is dead on arrival because it is literally useless.
2.3.
Rows 8-10
Much like in Dragonflight, these rows give us the meat of our DPS options in the class tree. You'll notice a few changes from the old Dragonflight Talent Trees, the second charge of Shadow Dance is nowhere to be found in the Class Tree (it has instead been relocated to the Subtlety Spec Tree as
Shadow Dance),
Nightstalker is gone,
Subterfuge is now a 2-point node, and
Without a Trace caps off the right side of the Class Tree now. Now we'll discuss the change to
Acrobatic Strikes, the beloved Melee Range extension is gone and has been replaced with a buff to auto-attack damage and movement speed.
3.
Subtlety Rogue Spec Tree Talents
With The War Within, Shadow Dance is back as the identity for Subtlety Rogue. Both Assassination and Outlaw lost access to Shadow Dance. The difference between the ST build and the M+ builds still comes down to you either take
Shuriken Tornado and
Replicating Shadows, or you don't.
3.1.
Rows 1-4
These first four rows remain almost completely unchanged, you'll see Without a Trace has been removed completely and replaced with
Shadow Focus. Overall, you'll take the same 8 points in every almost build for PvE purposes.
3.2.
Rows 5-7
This is where the meat of the War Within changes are. You'll notice Premeditation has been changed and allows you a budget version of
Shadow Blades where your next combo point generator out of Stealth generates full combo points. You'll also notice a small change in the middle of the spec tree, the
The First Dance/
Master of Shadows choice node has been moved to where
Shadow Focus once stood,
Improved Shadow Dance moved into the choice node's old spot, and
Shadow Dance goes where Improved Shadow Dance was. This is a small shift in the Subtlety Spec Tree which is welcomed, but still not enough as the Subtlety Spec Tree has gotten the least amount of love from Blizzard out of the three rogue specs.
3.3.
Rows 8-10
Much like in our class tree, these rows are packed with output options. Including the new Shadowcraft and
Goremaw's Bite. If your only care is output DPS, the points you place in these rows are pretty much automatically decided. We always take
Flagellation and
Deeper Daggers and round it off with
Finality,
Dark Shadow,
Danse Macabre,
Dark Brew. Unfortunately
Sepsis managed to hide in the Shadows when Blizzard was deleting it for the other two specs and remains an option for Subtlety for whatever reason. Blizzard also announced a nerf to
Invigorating Shadowdust but that unfortunately never materialized, and we may see ourselves haunted by planning cooldowns with a spreadsheet for months to come.
4.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
If you choose to, you can enable "War Mode." Enabling War Mode providesthe following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 15% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it isrecommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards atmaximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open-world PvP,and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Questsexists.
Subtlety Rogue PvP guide
4.1.
Subtlety Rogue War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doingsolo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talentsand Subtlety Rogue-specific PvP talents.
4.1.1.
Recommended Subtlety Rogue PvP Talents
Death from Above is just a stronger
Eviscerate./li>
Dagger in the Dark — Whenever Stealth is active, you apply a debuff tonearby enemies that causes them to take an additional 5% damage from your nextShadowstrike. Stacks up to 8 times. This is nothing special, but still a slightdamage boost.
- Only two of the Honor Talents increase our DPS while outdoors, so the lastchoice is up to you on which one you think suits you the best.
Veil of Midnight,
Shadowy Duel,
Silhouette,
Smoke Bomb,
Thick as Thieves,
Distracting Mirage,
Control is King,
Dismantle and
Maneuverability have limited use in PvE contentin terms of increasing your damage in the open-world.
5.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed and Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4
- 20 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 24 Nov. 2023: Updated to add Shadowdust Talent Builds.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed and Updated for patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reformated talent tables and descriptions.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Small recommended talent updates.
- 11 May 2023: Changed recommended talent to Flagellation over Dark Brew.
- 09 May 2023: Added the new talent build with Aberrus tier set.
- 01 May 2023: Page reviewed and updated for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 14 Feb. 2023: Updated recommended single-target talent build.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Page updated and reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 17 Dec. 2022: Fixed import string for single-target spec.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated recommended talents.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 31 Oct. 2022: Changed recommended Raiding talent build and added comments on possible talent choices on certain rows.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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