Subtlety Rogue Class Guide - MoP Classic

Welcome to our Mists of Pandaria Classic (MoP Classic) Subtlety Rogue Class Guide for Phase 1, it focuses on getting you up to speed with the Spec for PvE content, Dungeons and Raiding. The guide includes key information for what has changed going into MoP, the best Talent builds, Major Glyphs, your Rotation, Gearing and Consumables for Subtlety Rogue.

Table of Content:

• Changes from Cataclysm to MoP
• Talents
• Rotation & Abilities
• Gearing & Consumables

What’s New for Subtlety Rogues in Mists of Pandaria Classic

Mists of Pandaria brings a lot of changes to the game, and a lot of classes are getting changed. Rogues are one of the classes that are getting the most attention from Cataclysm to Mists of Pandaria. Poisons are getting changed, they get a lot more group utility, a lot of new spells… Here are the most important changes:

• No more ranged weapons. Throw becomes a base ability, and you can’t equip a ranged weapon.
• Poisons are reworked, and you no longer need to craft them or to carry them in your bags. You can now put any combination of 1 lethal poison and 1 non-lethal poison on your weapons.
• Shroud of Concealment has been added.
• Shadow Blade has been added.
• Shadowstep has been added.
• Master poisoner has been added.
• Fan of Knives now gives a combo point.
• Crimson Tempest has been added.
• Evasion has been buffed, with a lower cooldown and more dodge.
• Expose Armor is now a combo point builder.
• Smoke Bomb is reducing damage to everyone in it.
• Cold blood, Overkill, Ruthlessness, Vile poison are deleted.

Is Subtlety Rogue Good?

Rogues in Mists of Pandaria are in a much, much better state. Usually, you would only pick Rogues if they annihilate bosses and top damage charts. But in MoP, Rogue brings so much group utility that you are forced to bring at least one in every group. So yeah, Rogues are good! And if you add the damage potential of Subtlety Rogues in the first phase, you have a very, very good melee specialization you should try.

Best Talents & Glyphs for Subtlety Rogue in MoP Classic

As for a lot of classes with the new revamped talent system, you can pretty easily set up 2 talent builds: one for Single Target, usually more for Raids, and AoE, more for Dungeons and Challenge mode. But with more ways to reset talents and change assignments, you can adapt your build to each situation.

Subtlety Rogue Raiding Talent Build

Sadly, in PvE, you don’t really have a lot of choices regarding talents as a lot of them are just crushing their competition. Shadow Focus is just mandatory, Combat Readiness is a better defensive option and Anticipation in PvE can’t be dodged because of the random combo point generation from Honor among Thieves.

The choices you will have are on the 3 middle rows. Cheat Death is a very comfortable pick, but Elusiveness, if used correctly, is better. Shadowstep is good if you have a target, but if you need extra mobility during a fight for a precise mechanic and you don’t have any targets, Burst of Speed is better. Finally, Prey on the Weak is good if you can disable targets, Dirty Tricks is better if your job in a fight is to keep one target CCed.

Best Subtlety Rogue Raid Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you don’t really have any major choice you want to keep all the time. The best should be Glyph of Feint and Glyph of Redirect, but outside of that Glyphs are situational: Glyph of Smoke Bomb to help your raid, Glyph of Cloak of Shadow to get even tankier, Glyph of Hemorrhaging Veins and Glyph of Sharp Knives for AoE, Glyph of Sprint for movement, Glyph of Expose Armor if you’re assigned to it…

Glyph of Safe Fall and Glyph of Blurred Speed are the only minor glyphs you should consider.

Subtlety Rogue Dungeons & Challenge Mode Talent Build

In Dungeon, nothing fundamentally changes. Prey on the Weak will find more use, and you will have more targets to use Shadowstep.

Best Subtlety Rogue Dungeon Glyphs

Regarding Glyph choices, they are pretty much the same as the raid ones.

Rotation for Subtlety Rogue in MoP Classic

Single Target Rotation & Priority

Subtlety Rogues use Energy to generate Combo points, and spend Combo points to cast strong and unique abilities. The following is a list of priority, not a straight rotation.

1. Maintain Deadly Poison and Leeching Poison.
2. Maintain Slice and Dice, with 5 Combo points if possible.
3. Maintain Rupture with 5 Combo points.
4. Use Shadow Blades on Cooldown.
5. Use Premeditation before entering the fight, and then after Vanish and during Shadow Dance.
6. The most important thing after this is to have the highest uptime possible on Find Weakness.
7. Use Shadow Dance on Cooldown if Find Weakness isn’t on your target.
8. Use Vanish on Cooldown if Find Weakness isn’t on your target.
9. Use Preparation just after Vanish to reset its cooldown.
10. During stealth, spam Ambush.
11. Spend your Combo points on Eviscerate if Slice and Dice and Rupture aren’t about to fall off.
12. Maintain Hemorrhage.
13. Use Backstab.

Regarding openers, you have a lot of preparation to do as a Subtlety Rogue. Don’t forget to use Trick of the Trade on your tank before pulling and go in Stealth. Use Premeditation, Slice and Dice, go in, and then Ambush as much as possible, spend on Shadow Blades, and then follow the classic rotation.

AoE Rotation & Priority

• Maintain Rupture on 2 targets.
• Maintain Crimson Tempest with 5 combo points on all targets.
• Use your single target rotation. If there are more than 3 targets, use Fan of Knives and forget about Hemorrhage. If there is more than 6 target, just spam Crimson Tempest with 5 combo points and generate them with Fan of Knives.

Best Gear & Stats for Subtlety Rogue in MoP Classic

Best in Slot (BiS Gear) aren’t as big in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Reforging is the new hype, so you can tailor your gear better than before.

The gear you should aim for are: trinkets, sets and weapons.

The best weapons you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:

• Tolakesh, Horn the Black Ox, Wing Leader Ner’onok, Siege of Niuzao Temple.
• Amber Slicer of Klaxxi’vess, The Klaxxi - Exalted.
• Masterwork Ghost Shard, from Blacksmithing.
• The Gloaming Blade, World drop.
• Mantid Trochanter, Commander Ri’mok, Gate of the Setting Sun.

The best pre-raid trinkets are:

• Relic of Xuen if you have Inscription.
• Searing Words, Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance.
• Quilen Statuette, from Archeology.
• Windswept Pages, from Temple of the Jade Serpent.

MoP Classic Subtlety Rogue Stat Priority

Reach your Hit and Expertise cap, so around 7.5% for both. Then, Agility is your best stat. As soon as a gear piece gives you more Agility, it’s a good idea to equip it.

After that, it goes: Haste before anything else, then Critical strike, then Mastery in that order. You can then try and reach a Hit Rating of 26.5% to be 100% sure that your off-hand will hit 100% of the time, but it’s often less valuable than more secondary stats.

Consumables, Enchants & Gems for Subtlety Rogue in MoP Classic

The following tables outline the recommended Consumables, Enchants and Gems for Subtlety Rogue in Raiding and Dungeon content.

Consumables:

Enchants:

Gems:

We hope this guide helped you improve your Subtlety Rogue Gameplay and better understand the spec. To check out all of our MoP Classic content, such as Class Guides, Tier Lists and more, you can browse our full library of MoP Classic Guides.