Welcome to the guide for Subtlety Rogue in 8.3. If you’re looking for a good introduction to playing Subtlety in Battle for Azeroth PvE, you’ve come to the right place.

8.3 brings some nerfs to old essences and a few brand new ones.

Introduction

Subtlety has been on the backburner for rogue for a good while. It has been overshadowed by both Outlaw and Assassination in both raids and 5 mans.

Talents

A staple sub setup

Single Target

  • Level 15: Find Weakness
  • Level 30: Nightstalker
  • Level 45: Deeper Stratagem
  • Level 60: Optional
  • Level 75: Optional
  • Level 90: Dark Shadow or Enveloping Shadows
  • Level 100: Master of Shadows

Multi Target (f.ex 5 man instances)

  • Level 15: Find Weakness
  • Level 30: Nightstalker or Shadow Focus
  • Level 45: Deeper Stratagem or Marked for Death
  • Level 60: Optional
  • Level 75: Optional
  • Level 90: Dark Shadow
  • Level 100: Secret Technique

You should always run a simulation of your character to check which talents are best for you.

Gearing & Stats

8.3 introduces a new version of warforging. Your items will no longer be able to roll higher item level, but will instead have a chance to have additional powers attached to them. These items should always be simulated to find out the optimal combinations.

“Stat Weights,” is a term you might have heard many times. What is actually being discussed, is scale factors, because they usually change the moment you change a piece of equipment. This is why we recommend that you sim your character to compare items rather than relying on weights.

For stats you should be aiming for the following:

Single Target

  • Agility
  • Critical Strike
  • Versatility
  • Mastery
  • Haste

Multi Target

  • Agility
  • Mastery
  • Critical Strike
  • Versatility
  • Haste

For your food buff while raiding you should be eating the food for the secondary stat that your scale factors says is highest.

For potions you have to choose depending on the situation. Potion of Unbridled Fury is the pick for single target. Potion of Empowered Proximity for when you have four or more targets.

For your flask you should always use Greater Flask of the Currents.

For your ring enchants you should use the secondary stat that your scale factors says is highest.

For your weapon enchants you should use one two secondary stat enchants that your scale factors says are highest. A likely pair for single target would be Versatile Navigation and Deadly Navigation.

Azerite Powers

This is the current staple setup going into the patch for Subtlety essences.

Single Target

Major Essences

  • Blood of the Enemy: A possible major when shorter cool down for a burst phase is required.
  • Condensed Life-Force: The go to major.

Minor Essences

  • Conflict and Strife: A constant source of versatility .
  • Memory of Lucid Dreams: A minor that you want 99% of the time.
  • The Crucible of Flame: Can be used instead of Conflict and Strife.

Outer Ring

  • Blade In The Shadows: An alright trait to have only one of.
  • Inevitability: Another great one point wonder.
  • Night’s Vengeance: Solidified as the main trait to stack 3 of.
  • The First Dance: The most powerful trait of them all. A must have one point wonder due to its sheer power.

Inner Ring

  • Gutripper: Good for execute.
  • Heed My Call: Good on single target and aoe.
  • Overwhelming Power: The best inner ring essence.

Multi Target

Major Essences

  • Blood of the Enemy: Go to for bursting down packs of enemies.
  • Essence of the Focusing Iris: Also capable of lasering .

Minor Essences

  • Memory of Lucid Dreams: Yet again going to be equipped almost always.
  • Conflict and Strife: Offers flat damage increase through out.

Outer Ring

  • Inevitability: A one point wonder.
  • Night’s Vengeance: Works in multi target situations aswell.
  • The First Dance: Strong even when multiple targets are present. You really want at least a single copy of this trait.
  • Replicating Shadows: One can be picked for multi target fights.

Inner Ring

  • Gutripper: A reliable but modest damage proc for five man content.
  • Heed My Call: Good on single target and aoe.
  • Overwhelming Power: The best inner ring essence.

For more information you can check out Herodamage for more traits or run a simulation for your character and the item(s) in question.

Rotation

Pre-Pull

  • 18 seconds on the pull timer, Marked for Death when talented
  • Potion
  • Shadow Blades

Pull

  • Shadowstrike
  • Nightblade
  • Shadow Dance
  • Symbols of Death
  • Shadowstrike until 4+ Combo Points(5+ with Deeper Stratagem)
  • Secret Technique when talented
  • Eviscerate when not talented into Secret Technique
  • Shadowstrike until 4+ Combo Points(5+ with Deeper Stratagem)
  • Eviscerate
  • Shadow Dance repeat
  • Vanish to refresh Find Weakness

Cool Downs

  • Symbols of Death on cool down
  • Vanish to refresh Find Weakness
  • Shadowblades on cool down
  • Secret Technique on cool down, preferably inside Shadow Dance
  • Marked for Death on cool down outside stealth at low combo points unless you can quickly reset it via a dying mob.

At 4-5 Combo Points or 5-6 Combo Points with Deeper Stratagem

  • Nightblade, refresh with 5.4 seconds remaining at 6 combo points, or 4.8 seconds remaining at 5 combo points, or 4.2 seconds remaining at 4 combo points
  • Secret Technique
  • Eviscerate

Builders Outside Shadow Dance

  • Shuriken Storm, if there are 2 or more targets
  • Backstab

Builders During Shadow Dance

  • Shuriken Storm, if there are 3 or more targets
  • Shadowstrike

Stealth and Shadow Dance Priorities

  • Vanish, when you need to refresh Find Weakness
  • Shadow Dance together with symbols of death, or when you are about to cap your charges

Cleave

  • Apply Nightblade to main target
  • Apply Find Weakness to main target, if it has high priority
  • Apply nightblade to remaining targets, if the they will live long enough
  • Eviscerate main target

AddOns & Macros

There isn’t really any hard requirements for AddOns you should use. You should look into using Weak Auras and/or an energy bar AddOn.

Weak Auras

You can find a number of Weak Auras available on wago.io.

Macros

There are a number of macros to help with Shadow Dance and abilities used with it.

Shadow Dance → Shadowstrike

#showtooltip
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Shadowstrike

Shadow Dance → Shuriken Storm

#showtooltip
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Shuriken Storm

You can also create copies that use /cast Vanish instead of Shadow Dance.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do we do with Shadow dance?

  • The core idea of Shadow Dance is to maximise combo point generation. All forms of stealth allow you to cast Shadowstrike instead of Backstab which means you want to maximise the amount of Shadowstrikes during Shadow Dance without wasting combo points. This also means you do not want to enter Shadow Dance at high combo points or use Marked for Death during it.

Do I spam all my Shadow Dance charges on opener?

  • No and yes. You should use two of your Shadow Dance charges on the pull, which means using both charges for Dark Shadow build and leaving one charge for Enveloping Shadows build. After the opener you are looking to use a Shadow Dance every time Symbols of Death is up or to avoid capping your Shadow Dance charges.

Changelog

I’ll make a note of any changes to the guide and the date it was updated here if you want to come back in the future to check for changes.

Last updated: Friday, 14th January 2020 – Old gods await

Author

This guide has been written and is maintained by wEak. wEak has played rogue for over 10 years and raided with Memento.

If you have questions, please visit Ravenholdt Discord.