70 Subtlety Rogue Guide [BfA]

Dreams

fastest shadowstep in the west
Level 70 Subtlety Rogue Guide

Table of contents:
  • Introduction
  • Character Build
    • Gear, gems, enchants
    • Talents
    • Professions
  • Macros
    • General macros
    • Arena macros
    • Battleground macros

Introduction
Welcome to the Battle for Azeroth version of my level 70 rogue guide, this time focusing on a single spec: Subtlety. I'm Dreams and I've played level 70 actively for 7 years. This guide, like the previous ones, is directed mainly at new rogue players. Its main goal is to try to answer all of the common questions people ask about the class.
Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments or by private message if you feel like anything should be changed or could be explained better.

Character Build
This section of the guide will address how to build your subtlety rogue.
With Battle for Azeroth we're finally rid of the predetermined stat templates of Legion, which means we can once again choose our own stats through gear, enchants and gems.

Gear
Before you choose your gear it's important to realize how your spec works so you can build around it.

Procs vs static stats:
Subtlety is a very control oriented spec that deals damage in short windows; during openers and shadow dances. Because of that it's very risky to use proc effects, as they are completely wasted if they proc outside of your damage windows. That's why we're using a build that emphasizes high base stats instead of relying on many proc effects.

Defense vs offense:
Building defense in pvp is usually never a good idea. However, the level 70 bracket is extremely fast paced; health pools are extremely low compared to the amount of damage most classes can put out. That's why it's a very good idea to incorporate stamina into your build wherever it doesn't cost you too many offensive stats. The goal is to significantly improve how many globals of damage you can take without significantly decreasing your own damage.

This list only includes gear, gems and enchants that are available right now. It also doesn't include the rare ilvl100 BoEs or WoW anniversary world boss loot. In other words all items on this list are relatively easily obtainable.

Head:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34244/duplicitous-guise

Neck:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34358/hard-khorium-choker
http://www.wowhead.com/item=128553/enchant-neck-mark-of-the-hidden-satyr

Shoulder:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34392/demontooth-shoulderpads
http://www.wowhead.com/item=28888/greater-inscription-of-vengeance / http://www.wowhead.com/item=28910/greater-inscription-of-the-blade

Back:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34241/cloak-of-unforgivable-sin
https://www.wowhead.com/item=38893/enchant-cloak-stealth

Chest:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34211/harness-of-carnal-instinct
http://www.wowhead.com/item=74708/enchant-chest-glorious-stats

Wrists:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34448/slayers-bracers
http://www.wowhead.com/item=44815/enchant-bracer-greater-assault

Hands:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34370/gloves-of-immortal-dusk
http://www.wowhead.com/item=44458/enchant-gloves-crusher

Waist:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=30106/belt-of-one-hundred-deaths
http://www.wowhead.com/item=41611/eternal-belt-buckle

Legs:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=34188/leggings-of-the-immortal-night
http://www.wowhead.com/item=38371/jormungar-leg-armor / http://www.wowhead.com/item=38372/nerubian-leg-armor

Feet:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=32366/shadowmasters-boots
http://www.wowhead.com/item=37603/enchant-boots-dexterity

Ring 1:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=44039/signet-of-bridenbrad
http://www.wowhead.com/item=128544/enchant-ring-binding-of-versatility

Ring 2:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=42864/frozen-mood-ring
http://www.wowhead.com/item=128544/enchant-ring-binding-of-versatility

Trinkets:
There are lots of good choices here, so I'll talk a bit about each trinket and in which situation they excel.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=40767/sonic-booster is a very solid all-around trinket and a must have. It doesn't have the strongest attack power proc you can find, but its high stamina more than makes up for it.

https://www.wowhead.com/item=166769/bolstering-war-horn (Stats at level 70: 29 stam, 17 vers on-use) This trinket has great stamina but a mediocre on-use effect. Nevertheless, the combination of stamina and offense makes it one of the best choices.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=13515/ramsteins-lightning-bolts is the modern tazik shocker. Really good damage on use but the cooldown is pretty long. It's best in duels and arena.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=29383/bloodlust-brooch is another really good all-around trinket. Its duration matches your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121471/shadow-blades perfectly and the cooldown isn't too punishing. It's good for arenas and is the best choice for capture the flag battlegrounds as well as kot'mogu.

https://www.wowhead.com/item=35702/figurine-shadowsong-panther is an alternative bloodlust brooch. It trades duration for cooldown.

https://www.wowhead.com/item=23835/gnomish-poultryizer doesn't have a great effect but can be considered for its huge stamina boost. The effect turns your target into a chicken for 5 seconds which silences them and reduces their damage done by 66%. It breaks on damage and DRs incaps (sap,poly,hex,etc). The on-use effect cannot be used in arena.

Conclusion:
Trinkets are a great way to pick up a lot of health without sacrificing a lot of damage. Always run at least one stamina trinket (booster, war horn or poultrizyer), although you should seriously consider running two. https://www.wowhead.com/item=166769/bolstering-war-horn + https://www.wowhead.com/item=40767/sonic-booster is my personal recommendation.

Weapons:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=28572/blade-of-the-unrequited + https://www.wowhead.com/item=34331/hand-of-the-deceiver to maximize short-term burst. Sacrificing energy regeneration for more stats.
OR
https://www.wowhead.com/item=34329/crux-of-the-apocalypse + http://www.wowhead.com/item=28572/blade-of-the-unrequited for better energy regeneration and better sustained damage.

http://www.wowhead.com/item=74726/enchant-weapon-dancing-steel

Gems
1 http://www.wowhead.com/item=41398/relentless-earthsiege-diamond
1 https://www.wowhead.com/item=32634/shifting-amethyst
1 https://www.wowhead.com/item=49110/nightmare-tear (+6 all stats)
1 https://www.wowhead.com/item=28361/delicate-blood-garnet if you are alliance. The horde version only has 5 agility and is not worth using.
Fill the rest of your sockets with http://www.wowhead.com/item=28363/deadly-ornate-topaz.


Talents
Level 15 Tier:
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=193537/weaponmaster
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=91023/find-weakness
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=200758/gloomblade ?

The best choice at level 120 is usually find weakness but there are a couple of factors that make weaponmaster the best choice by far at level 70:
  • Level 70 characters get significantly less damage reduction from their armor when compared to level 120 characters.
  • Subtlety mastery increases damage from finishing moves and shifts the majority of your damage from shadowstrikes to eviscerates. Level 70 rogues get most of their damage from shadowstrikes by far because they don't have mastery.
Gloomblade offers very situational utility against physical immunity.

Level 30 Tier:
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=14062/nightstalker ?
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108208/subterfuge
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=108209/shadow-focus

Subterfuge provides an insane amount of utility and extends your burst windows. Good for both damage and control. Nightstalker is a situational all-out damage option that can be considered for very short 2v2 games.

Level 45 Tier:
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=14983/vigor
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=193531/deeper-stratagem
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=137619/marked-for-death

The choice comes down to difference in playstyle as well as the role you're playing on your team. Vigor provides more energy for crowd control and rewards energy pooling and restealths. Marked for death allows for scarier openers and gives you more burst when it matters.

Level 60 Tier:
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=200759/soothing-darkness
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31230/cheat-death ?
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=79008/elusiveness

Choose elusiveness if you will consistently have a healer nearby, such as in 3v3 arena or when queuing premade battlegrounds with healers. It will allow you to more consistently outlive crowd control on your healers and is very powerful if you successfully predict stuns on yourself.
Cheat death is the best choice in duels and 2v2 skirmishes.


PvP Talents
Battle for Azeroth has finally given lower level players access to the PvP talents. At level 70 we get the trinket slot and 2 additional choices.

Trinket Tier:
Go with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=208683/gladiators-medallion, unless you're playing human in which case you can choose to play with either http://www.wowhead.com/spell=214027/adaptation or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=196029/relentless.

PvP Talents:
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=198952/veil-of-midnight
Way too weak to be considered. Maybe if it worked off shadowstep like in Legion it would be decent.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=213981/cold-blood
Really good burst option.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=212081/thiefs-bargain
The vanish cooldown reduction is decent for battlegrounds, but the price is way too steep in an already fast paced bracket.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=207736/shadowy-duel
The mechanics of shadowy duel are not immediately obvious from the tooltip. It places you and your target in a different 'phase' where neither of you can target or see anyone else. However, your allies can still see you while the allies of your target cannot see them. That means you can still be healed by others while your target cannot. Both you and your target can still interact with others through AOE abilities.
This talent has a very wide variety of potential uses:
  • Isolating a target from their healers in order to finish them off, like a kind of smokebomb
  • "CCing" someone for 6 seconds, for example using it on a healer so they can't target their allies, or a DPS to peel for a teammate
  • Stopping anyone from peeling you
  • Can be used as a defensive cooldown by dueling someone with low damage (like a healer)
  • Can be used as extra shadow dance if you are playing http://www.wowhead.com/spell=14983/vigor, have full energy and have no dances left

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=198675/dagger-in-the-dark ?
Not a good choice for battlegrounds or arenas, but it can be a good damage option for duels.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=197899/silhouette
Cool effect but unfortunately never worth replacing another talent for.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=212182/smoke-bomb
Excellent choice for both arenas and battlegrounds with twink healers in them. It's strongest when used in combinations with stuns on an out-of-position target. It can also be used as a peel or to stop CC, but because of its long cooldown you really want to be scoring kills with it.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=197000/maneuverability
It's not terrible, but subtlety already has really good mobility which means this talent is never worth a slot.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=248744/shiv ?
Shiv is a defensive option with lots of niche uses. It's excellent for kiting in 1v1 situations, even against rogues and warriors using evasion/parry, as it goes through all avoidance. It can also be used to keep someone in a smoke bomb after they trinketed a stun. Its only problem is that it can be hard to justify giving up a damage talent for it.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=198032/honor-among-thieves
Not strong enough to be considered for a slot. If only it didn't have a cooldown, it would be really good in big battleground fights.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=269513/death-from-above ?
A viable choice for duels. Never use it to do damage, as you lose more damage from the animation time than you gain from the slightly harder hitting eviscerate. Instead, use it to try immune CC from your opponent by predicting when they're going to use it.


Professions
Choosing the right professions is not as significant as it once was, but doing so can still give you some decent bonuses that are worth considering.

Jewelcrafting is a must as it unlocks your BiS necklace http://www.wowhead.com/item=34358/hard-khorium-choker
If you do happen to have a grandfathered http://www.wowhead.com/item=35135/guardians-pendant-of-triumph you can leave this slot open.

Choose Engineering if you're planning on using http://www.wowhead.com/item=40767/sonic-booster. Engineering also provides a number of utilities that work in battlegrounds, which is the reason a lot of people pick it.

If you still have an open slot you can go for Tailoring in order to make bandages and nets.


Macros
Macros are essential to any class and rogue is no exception. Their goal should always be to simplify your gameplay as much as possible without limiting you. In this section I'll share every macro that I use on my rogue in 3 different categories: General, Arenas and Battlegrounds.

General Macros:
Code:
#showtooltip Kick
/cast [mod:shift,@focus]Kick
/cast [nomod,@target]Kick
Kick macro with focus modifier.

Code:
#showtooltip Blind
/cast [mod:shift,@focus]Blind
/cast [nomod,@target]Blind
Blind macro with focus modifier.

Code:
#showtooltip Kidney Shot
/cast [mod:shift,@focus]Kidney Shot
/cast [nomod,@target]Kidney Shot
Kidney Shot macro with focus modifier.

Code:
#showtooltip Shiv
/cast [mod:shift,@focus]Shiv
/cast [nomod,@target]Shiv
Shiv macro with focus modifier.

Code:
#showtooltip Shadowy Duel
/cast [mod:shift,@focus]Shadowy Duel
/cast [nomod,@target]Shadowy Duel
Shadowy Duel macro with focus modifier.

Code:
#showtooltip Sap
/targetenemy
/cast Sap
Spam sap macro for duels against stealthers.

Code:
#showtooltip ShadowStep
/cast [@mouseover]Shadowstep
/cast [mod:shift,@focus]Shadowstep
/cast [mod:shift,@focus]Kick
/cast [nomod,@target]Shadowstep
/cast [mod:alt,@party1]Shadowstep
Shadowstep macro. It has shift modifier for focus that can be double tapped for a quick step-kick. It also has an alt modifier for stepping party1, which is handy for 2v2 arena. The mouseover line is just for getting around quicker in cities and whatnot. You'll never accidentally use it in combat because your mouse is always held down to move.

Code:
/use [nostealth]Bloodlust Brooch
On-use trinket macro. All it does is make sure you don't accidentally break stealth by using it too early.

Stealth/Shadow Dance Macros:
These are macros that I use for every ability that requires stealth or shadow dance.
This is the base structure that they are all built on:
Code:
/cast !Stealth
/cast [combat,nostealth,stance:0]Shadow Dance; [stealth]Cheap Shot; [stance:2]Cheap Shot
/cast Cheap Shot
The example above is a Cheap Shot macro. It may look confusing but here is what it does:
If you are already stealthed or shadow dancing it will just cast Cheap Shot.
If you are out of combat and not stealthed or dancing it will Stealth → Cheap Shot.
If you are in combat and not dancing it will Shadow Dance → Cheap Shot.
Basically no matter the situation you are in, it will do whatever is necessary for you to Cheap Shot, and then Cheap Shot. This concept can be applied to every stealth ability:

Code:
#showtooltip Cheap Shot
/cast !Stealth
/cast [combat,nostealth,stance:0]Shadow Dance; [stealth]Cheap Shot; [stance:2]Cheap Shot
/cast Cheap Shot
Cheap Shot target.

Code:
#showtooltip Cheap Shot
/cast !Stealth
/cast [combat,nostealth,stance:0]Shadow Dance; [stealth,@focus]Cheap Shot; [stance:2,@focus]Cheap Shot
/cast [@focus]Cheap Shot
Cheap Shot focus.

Code:
#showtooltip Sap
/cast !Stealth
/cast [combat,nostealth,stance:0]Shadow Dance; [stealth]Sap; [stance:2]Sap
/cast Sap
Sap target.

Code:
#showtooltip Sap
/cast !Stealth
/cast [combat,nostealth,stance:0]Shadow Dance; [stealth,@focus]Sap; [stance:2,@focus]Sap
/cast [@focus]Sap
Sap focus.

Code:
#showtooltip shadowstrike
/cast !Stealth
/cast [combat,nostealth,stance:0]Shadow Dance; [stealth]Shadowstrike; [stance:2]Shadowstrike
/cast Shadowstrike
Shadowstrike target.

Arena Macros:
Code:
/target arena1
Code:
/target arena2
Code:
/target arena3
Code:
/focus arena1
Code:
/focus arena2
Code:
/focus arena3
These are targeting macros for arena. Getting used to these is one of the biggest improvements you can make to your gameplay if you aren't already using them. They also work for targeting flag/orb carriers in battlegrounds.

Code:
/cast [@arena1]Sap
Code:
/cast [@arena2]Sap
Code:
/cast [@arena3]Sap
Arena target sap macros. I find these to be quicker than a traditional /targetenemy macro when looking for stealthers in arena.
You'll also want to bind cheap shot, kidney shot, shadowstep, and kick arena target macros using the same formula. Alternatively, if you're running low on available keybinds, you can skip some of them and rely on focus targeting instead for the rest of your abilities.

Battleground Macros:
Code:
#showtooltip Stealth
/cancelaura Shadow Dance
/cancelaura Shadow Dance
/cancelaura Horde Flag
/cancelaura Alliance Flag
/cast !Stealth
Stealth macro. Automatically drops WSG flag in case you need to CC a pursuer or whatever. The !Stealth line means you can't cancel stealth by pressing the macro again. It's optimal to bind this to something easily spammable such as your mousewheel, in case you only get a fraction of a second out of combat.

Code:
#showtooltip
/cancelaura Horde Flag
/cancelaura Alliance Flag
/cast Vanish
Vanish macro that automatically drops flags.

Code:
/focus [@mouseover]
Code:
/clearfocus
Mouseover focus macro and focus clear macro. Useful in battlegrounds when you need to control or keep track of multiple people.
 
Last edited:
That's a big step for sure but you'll be surprised to learn that playing pvp is more than testing your burst in elwynn forest!
But testing your burst in Elwynn Forest is the first step! Baby steps Dreamsy, baby steps.

Maybe one day I'll teach you how to play AssAssNation rogue properly.
 
Until execute phase happens ;D
We don't include execute phase in DPS charts anymore. I refer to rule 13.37 of the Rogue's Association Handbook which states "Damage Meters for a rogue start at the initiation of the boss fight, and end at 30%, so as to not allow Warriors the chance to catch up".
 
We don't include execute phase in DPS charts anymore. I refer to rule 13.37 of the Rogue's Association Handbook which states "Damage Meters for a rogue start at the initiation of the boss fight, and end at 30%, so as to not allow Warriors the chance to catch up".

Still got 5% to catch up with. We got this easy. >:D
 
20%? Guess the Handbook has a lot of amendments to do. It isn't 30% at all! Marvelous revelation!

I think your Rogue's Association Handbook was written by an absolute plonker.
 

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