Subtlety Rogue

Overview

Talents and builds

Level 60 and raid build

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Key talents

• Thousand Cuts1/1When your Rupture ability deals periodic damage, the Energy cost of your next Hemorrhage or Backstab ability within 10 sec is reduced by 3, stacking up to 5 times
• Quietus5/5Your Sinister Strike, Ghostly Strike, and Hemorrhage abilities cause 10% more damage against targets below 35% health
• Dirty Deeds2/2Reduces the Energy cost of your Cheap Shot and Garrote abilities by 20, and your Garrote ability no longer requires you to be behind your target
• Preparation1/1When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Rogue abilities
• Hemorrhage1/1An instant strike that deals 100% weapon damage (145% if a Dagger is equipped) and causes the target to take 15% increased Rupture damage from the Rogue. Lasts 15 sec. Awards 1 Combo Points
• Serrated Blades3/3Causes your attacks to ignore 9% of your target's Armor and increases the damage dealt by your Rupture ability by 30%

In rough priority order: Opportunity raises the damage of Backstab, Ambush, and Mutilate, which matters even for a Hemorrhage-based build since Ambush remains the spec’s stealth opener. Initiative adds a chance at an extra combo point when opening with Cheap Shot or a similar ability, accelerating the path to a finisher. Ghostly Strike is a cheap, high-damage-relative-to-cost filler that also applies its own attack power debuff. Premeditation (1 point) is a required pick, not an optional one — missing from an earlier draft of this guide’s talent section — since this build’s rotation opens with it for two free combo points before the first Ambush. Serrated Blades adds armor penetration and boosts finisher damage, a flat multiplier once you’re spending combo points regularly. Hemorrhage, the tree’s signature ability, replaces Sinister Strike as the combo builder and needs its bleed reapplied once its charges run out. Cutthroat, new to the tree in Forever, only procs off Backstab, which a Hemorrhage build never casts, so the build skips it. Quietus (Hemorrhage and Ghostly Strike hit harder below 35% health) takes 5 points after two in Dirty Deeds, paid for by Cutthroat, Dirty Tricks and Setup (a defensive combo point on dodge or parry, idle against a raid boss), with one point in Improved Ambush for the opener; that spend measured about +1.3% in our level-60 raid run. Thousand Cuts, the tree’s capstone, is the bottom-row talent this build reaches.

Point allocation now runs 31 points deep into Subtlety to reach Thousand Cuts at the bottom row, with the remaining 20 in Assassination. Open the planner at /planner?class=rogue to build this out.

Rotation and priority

Open from stealth: Stealth, then Premeditation for two free combo points a couple of seconds before the pull, then Ambush on the pull itself; then play from Hemorrhage. Thistle Tea goes in whenever energy is near empty (100 Energy, 5 minute cooldown). Hemorrhage is the builder, hitting for 145% weapon damage with a dagger and awarding a combo point, and its debuff makes the target take 15% more damage from your Rupture for 15 seconds, so keep it going. Rupture is the main finisher: cast it at four or more combo points whenever it is not already running. Ghostly Strike goes on cooldown, hitting for 180% weapon damage with a dagger for a combo point. While Rupture is running, spend the combo points that build behind it: Eviscerate at three or more, and Slice and Dice when it is down or under 3 seconds from ending, so nothing idles at the cap. In this site’s simulator, dropping Eviscerate and Slice and Dice entirely and putting every point into Rupture measured a few percent higher still; the priority above keeps all three finishers in play rather than adopting that. Poisons are your weapon imbues: this site’s simulator carries Deadly Poison on the main hand and Instant Poison on the off hand once Deadly is learned at 30, which measured well ahead of two Instants; at level 60 the mirrored pair measured about 1% higher still.

Stat priority

1. 1Hit
2. 2Agility
3. 3Critical strike
4. 4Strength
5. 5Attack power
6. 6Melee haste

Best in slot

Since Hemorrhage and Rupture are both driven by weapon damage and attack power, those outweigh haste more than in a pure swing-speed spec. A new stat reducing target dodge and parry chance may show up on gear as itemization fills in.

Enchants and consumables

A raid shaman’s Windfury Totem is an aura on you, not a weapon enchant, so it stacks with your poisons; this site’s raid-preset numbers include it.

Races

• Human
• Orc
• Dwarf
• Night Elf (Recommended)
• Undead
• Gnome
• Troll (Recommended)
• High Order Skyborne
• Windshaper Skyborne

Night Elf is the Alliance pick: Elune's Light. Troll is the Horde pick: Berserking.

Professions

Community convention favors Engineering for combat utility alongside a gathering profession such as Herbalism or Mining, matching general Rogue practice across all three trees rather than anything Subtlety-specific.

Leveling

Outlined: points added in this level range.

Combat is the generally recommended leveling spec for Rogue over Subtlety, since Adrenaline Rush and consistent weapon damage clear trash faster than Subtlety’s stealth-and-reposition playstyle, which pays off more in single-target or PvP scenarios.