Rogue — Subtlety
World of Warcraft: Midnight · Season 1
Use the talent calculator, live meta, macros, and keybind planner for this specialization while its encounter decisions, talent evidence, and patch review are completed. This page is intentionally excluded from search until its complete, source-reviewed guide is published.
Start here
Build a practical Subtlety Rogue setup
Use this guide for decisions in combat, then keep the chosen talents, keybinds, macros, and live gear evidence connected in the tools below.
Overview
Subtlety is a burst-window assassin dancing in and out of Shadow Dance and Symbols of Death. You weave Shadowstrike and Backstab to fuel Eviscerate and Black Powder inside stacked cooldowns.
Strengths
- Enormous burst windows
- Strong single-target
- Great control and stealth utility
Weaknesses
- Highest rogue complexity
- Shadow Dance window management
- Weak outside cooldown windows
Stat Priority, Races & Consumables
Stat rankings, race notes, enchants, gems, and consumables in one place - the same character-prep flow players expect from modern class guides.
- 1.Item Level / Agility
- 2.Mastery
- 3.Haste to hero-tree target
- 4.Critical Strike
- 5.Versatility
Trickster single target and AoE target roughly 700 raw Haste; Deathstalker single target targets about 1050 raw Haste. After that, Mastery is the dominant secondary because it increases finisher damage. Sim close gear and gems.
Races
Racials are a small optimization. Pick utility racials for the content you play most, then prioritize gear, talents, and execution.
Speeds up casts, attacks, and resource generation, so your whole rotation flows faster and you fit more globals into every cooldown window.
Chance to land a hit for roughly double value. Bursty and RNG-driven; strongest when the spec has effects that scale with or guarantee crits.
A spec-specific multiplier - what it amplifies changes per spec, so hover it on your character sheet. Often your best or worst stat depending on build.
A flat increase to all damage and healing done plus reduced damage taken. The safe, consistent, survivability-friendly stat.
Flasks, food, potions, weapon oils, and runes for this build.
Secondary-stat enchants are not universal. They should move with your current gear, stat breakpoints, and the enemies you are facing in a raid boss, dungeon, 2v2, 3v3, or Blitz match. We will split these into boss-by-boss, dungeon-by-dungeon, and PvP bracket recommendations as the live gear model fills in.
Playstyle & Rotation
This is the practical priority list: how the spec plays moment to moment, when to spend, and where cooldowns belong.
Opener
5 steps- 1Stealth into Shadowstrike
- 2Slice and Dice
- 3Symbols of Death
- 4Shadow Dance into Shadowstrike
- 5Eviscerate and Shadow Blades
Major Cooldowns
4 steps- Symbols of Death, Shadow Dance, and Shadow Blades stacked is your burst
- Flagellation for a stacking damage buff
- Vanish for extra Shadowstrikes
- Thistle Tea for Energy
Single-target priority
5 steps- 1Keep Slice and Dice up
- 2Symbols of Death on cooldown
- 3Shadow Dance windows for Shadowstrike
- 4Eviscerate as finisher; keep Rupture up
- 5Backstab or Gloomblade to build outside Dance
AoE / multi-target priority
5 steps- 1Shadow Dance into Black Powder
- 2Shuriken Storm to build
- 3Keep Rupture or Crimson Tempest on primaries
- 4Symbols of Death for the window
- 5Secret Technique for burst
Talents
Pick your hero tree by the fight’s damage profile - single-target on pure bosses, multi-target on cleave and add fights.
Single-target: Deathstalker
Deathstalker adds Deathstalker's Mark for the strongest single-target burst.
- Deathstalker hero tree
- Stat priority: Agility > Critical Strike
- Interrupt: Kick
Multi-target: Trickster
Trickster adds Unseen Blade and Coup de Grace for stronger AoE and cleave burst.
- Trickster hero tree
- Prioritize AoE and add-swap talents
- Interrupt: Kick
Loadouts by Content
Talent focus and live gear for each type of content. Copy the picks into the talent calculator to build and share your tree - verified in-game import strings are added as they are theorycrafted, never guessed.
Trickster - Single Target
Default single-target build with Shadow Dance, Secret Technique, and Trickster's Unseen Blade/Coup de Grace loop.
CUQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgx2MAAAAAwsMGLTMbbjxMjZwDMzMzYMbjZGbbzMzMzMjBjZWGAAAAGMGwY2MMwAzCL0iNMDYmBzYADeathstalker - Single Target
Single-target alternative. It uses the same Shadow Dance discipline but aims for the higher Deathstalker Haste target.
CUQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgx2MAAAAAwsMGLTMbbjxMjZwMzMzYMbDzYbbmZmZmZMYMzyAAAAwgxsYWGYALgthJwsgZYmBYGDASecondary-stat enchants are flexible. They change with your current gear and the enemy profile in a specific raid boss, dungeon, 2v2, 3v3, or Blitz match. As the live model fills in, this page will show enchants and gear by boss, dungeon, and PvP bracket.
Equipment
Tier set notes, target gear, trinkets, embellishments, and boss-specific gear links.
Treat secondary-stat enchants as matchup-aware recommendations, not permanent rules. Your current gear, raid boss damage profile, dungeon pulls, and arena or Blitz enemies can change whether Haste, Mastery, Critical Strike, Versatility, avoidance, leech, or movement is the right enchant for that slot.
Gearing notes
Use the BiS tables as a target list, then prefer item level and the secondary stats shown in this guide.
Open the 3v3 meta view for the current ladder sample and gear trend.
Open source →Exact gear from the current #1 final-boss parse, not a hand-authored target set or unrelated logout gear.
Open source →Open the Mythic+ meta view for the current top-key sample and gear trend.
Open source →Raid Encounter Gear
Retrieving verified gear from the current top parses. This refreshes automatically.
Mythic+ Dungeon Gear
Loading the verified live dungeon references.
Enchants
Choose enhancements after your equipment is settled. Secondary-stat enchant choices move with your current stat mix and the content you are preparing for.
Gems
Socket into the current stat priority, then re-check after major equipment swaps rather than treating a gem choice as permanent.
Embellishments
Crafted effects are capped at two equipped embellishments. Lock these in only after deciding which crafted slots survive your next raid or Mythic+ upgrades.
Best in Slot by Boss
Gear and talents change per fight. For each boss we surface the current #1 parse as the best-in-slot reference - open any boss to copy that player’s full gear from Warcraft Logs. The recommended hero tree follows the fight’s damage profile.
Utility & Defensives
The Rogue toolkit, shared across every spec - a few entries are talent choices. Landing these on cue is what separates a good Subtlety from a great one.
Defensives
Movement
Cloak of Shadows is a magic immunity window that also clears magic debuffs; Shroud skips trash.
Interrupt: Kick - grab a focus-interrupt macro on the Subtlety macros page.
Interface & Macros
Start with Midnight’s built-in boss warnings, cooldown manager, damage meter, and raid frames. Then add only the interface pieces that make your decisions clearer.
Focus interrupt
#showtooltip Kick
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] KickTips & Tricks
- Shadowstrike only from stealth or Shadow Dance
- Keep Slice and Dice and Rupture up
- Pool resources for Symbols plus Dance
- Shuriken Storm to build in AoE, then Black Powder
Common Mistakes
- Wasting Shadow Dance charges
- Letting Slice and Dice or Rupture drop
- Eviscerate under 5 combo points
- Backstab when Shadowstrike is available in Dance
FAQ
1 quick answersWhich races are best?
Race differences are small. Pandaren is a strong Mythic+ damage option, while Dwarf provides valuable Stoneform utility; choose the race whose utility helps the content you play.
Talents by enemy class
Pick an opponent to see the pressure your PvP build must answer. Named picks appear only in reviewed matchup plans; the baseline comes from this spec's current arena build when one is published.
Grip setups, anti-caster pressure, and sustained melee uptime.
Mobility, anti-slow, and physical or magic mitigation.
Keep an answer for grip-based isolation and do not spend movement before the Death Knight commits their control chain.
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