World of Warcaft: Subtlety Rogue PvP / Rogue Builds

Since it's release, World of Warcraft has attempted to balance every tree and class so that they'd all have even chances when engaging in player versus player combat (PvP). For a long time, Rogues never even looked into the subtlety tree because it was just worse than the other two. Due to recent events however, the subtlety tree is the top choice for Rogues looking to PvP and dominate while they're at it. Subtlety is unlike the other two trees. It's about doing a lot of burst damage during the beginning of the fight. Combat is more for longevity, and assassination is about one target damage and positioning. Let's delve into the Subtlety tree and see why it's so good to pursue Subtlety Rogue PvP in the current climate of World of Warcraft.

Tier 1:

When deciding what talents to buff out in the first tire of the Rogue subtlety tree, it might be a little big hard to decide. Unlike a lot of classes, we're going to take two separate talents in the first Tier because well...they're just that good. Relentless strikes gives you a chance to restore 25 energy after you use a finishing move. This is great for keeping your momentum up during battles. More energy = more damage! Opportunity is also a must, because it makes your bread and butter moves do a lot more damage. This talent would be great even if it took 5 points to max out, but since it only takes 2, even better!

Tier 2:

When PvPing a subtlety rogue, you're going to be using stealth even more than you would with the other trees. It's because of this that we should take Camouflage here. This talent reduces the cool down of your stealth ability by 6 seconds, which is going to be incredibly useful when finishing a battle then returning to stealth immediately. Subtlety rogues can't be seen regularly out of stealth or you'll get killed. This will prevent that. It also boosts your speed while stealthed which will allow you to catch those pesky faster characters even while stealthed. Once you take this talent you're going to wonder how you ever snuck up on a moving target before. This helps a lot. Trust me.

Tier 3:

Elusiveness. This talent is the best of this Tier because Rogues as a rule are dependent on their cool downs. In fact, you'll often hear them referred to as the "cool down class". This is because they rely on tricks to win the battle, and that's why they're fun. Elusiveness will reduce the cool downs of those tricks, thus making you an even more effective "cool down class". Ghostly strike is another supreme talent here. It does marginal damage, but it really shines in the fact that it gives you a much higher chance to dodge an attack for a brief period of time. Rogues wear leather. Dodge is important. This is also going to pair well with a talent further down the tree - more on that later. Serrated Blades gives your attacks the ability to negate some of your opponents armor class (AC). This is a great talent to have when fighting warriors or Paladins because they just have so much armor. It's a great passive talent.

Tier 4:

Remember when I said Ghostly Strike would pair well with another talent. That talent is Setup. Setup says that you have a 100% chance (when maxed out) to add a talent point to your target after fully resisting one of their spells or dodging an attack. Well, since Ghostly Strike is going to give you an insane dodge chance for a while, you're going to see a whole lot of combo points stacking up every time you dodge. These two talents paired up are very very effective against melee classes. Learn to love them. Initiative is going to give you yet another combo point when opening the battle with your Cheap Shot. You can begin to see the chain of effects here. When fighting say...a Warrior, you'll open with Cheap shot, get 3 talent points, hit with Ghostly Strike and dodge a few attacks and before you know it you've got more talent points than you can handle. This is a good thing.

Tier 5:

Dirty Deeds reduces the Energy cost on your Cheap Shot. That's just even more energy that you save when using the structured attack system that I've laid out above. Also, Dirty Deeds is going to give you an advantage when your opponent is already low on health. you do 25% more damage to targets with less than 25% health. A lot of Rogues might say "If I'm already winning, why do I need to do more damage?". It's all about efficiency, especially when in the battlegrounds. Killing your opponent faster means being able to jump into the next battle faster. It's more efficient to take more damage wherever you can get it. Hemorrhage is going to replace Sinister Strike as your main damage move, as it does about the same amount of damage for less energy, and it also places a debuff on the target. Preparation clears most of your Rogue Cool downs. Since you're the "cool down class", it would be wise to take this so you can have them there when you really need them. Tier 5 is a big part of what makes Subtlety effective.

Tier 6:

Master of Subtlety allows you to come out swinging from Stealth. You'll do a lot more damage for 6 seconds after coming out of stealth, which means that your burst damage will be higher. Consistent damage is for raiding. In PvP, we want to do as much damage as we can before our opponent has time to react. That's what this talent is going to do for you. Deadliness increases your attack power by 10% when maxed out. This should be fairly self explanatory.

Tier 7:

Premeditation adds 2 combo points to your target. This is amazing when used while stealthed. With this spec already you can use this and open with a Cheap Shot, giving you 5 combo points right off the bat. Use them how you wish, but I think it's pretty clear that Premeditation wins battles all on it's own. Cheat Death is going to give you a second chance when you're losing. A lot of the time, battles are so close that all you need is a few more seconds. This is going to make the difference in all of those close calls we regularly see in PvP. It might give your healer enough time to get that heal off. It might give you enough time to get that energy you need for the finishing move. One thing is clear, It's a great talent.

Tier 8:

Sinister Calling is going to increase your Agility (your main stat) and buff up Hemorrhage. Since you're going to be using Hemo (as we call it) all the time, this added damage is going to build up very very quickly.

Tier 9:

Honor Among Thieves = When you critically strike you get a combo point! Take this talent, haha! Filthy tricks is going to reduce the cool down time on your crowd control abilities. Just another talent that improves the cool downs on the "cool down class". Shadowstep is a powerhouse of a talent. It adds tons of mobility and extra damage. You're going to want to take this. A subtlety Rogue without Shadowstep is going to be a poor rogue.

Tier 10:

Slaughter From The Shadows reduces your energy cost yet again on your starter moves. This is going to increase efficiency, as you can use that extra energy to keep up the burst damage. Pump this talent up 5 points, you're going to want it!

Tier 11:

Shadow Dance allows you to use your most powerful abilities that normally require stealth...without stealth. Imagine what you can do with just the talent alone. This talent changes the game for Rogues, quite literally. It rewrites the rules of the game. Any talent that breaks the rules of the game in my favor...I'm getting!

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