Subtlety Rogue DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

This rotation offers a general priority list for Subtlety Rogue abilities, along with key cooldowns at the bottom. It's based on a standard build and is here to help while we work on a smarter, build-aware system. If you are very new to the game or this class, we added info on the new assisted rotation features at the bottom of this guide. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: The War Within (11.2).

Single Target

Start in Stealth with Instant Poison applied.

Use when >5 combo points, Shadow Blades ready, and Symbols Of Death & Shadow Dance charges align.
Use together.
Use during Flagellation and Shadow Dance.
Use during Shadow Dance when Darkest Night is active.
Use during Shadow Dance with Cold Blood if Shadow Blades is active.
Maintain if <9 seconds remaining.
Primary builder during Shadow Dance.
Use when Premeditation is active for Danse Macabre.

Begin in Stealth and apply Instant Poison. Use Flagellation with aligned cooldowns, followed by Symbols Of Death and Shadow Dance. Maintain Rupture and prioritize Eviscerate or Secret Technique during Shadow Dance.

AoE

Start in Stealth with Instant Poison applied.

Use when >6 combo points, Shadow Blades ready, and Symbols Of Death & Shadow Dance charges align.
Use together.
Use during Flagellation and Shadow Dance.
Use during Shadow Dance with Cold Blood if Shadow Blades is active.
Use with 4+ targets.
Primary builder during Shadow Dance.
Use as builder when Shuriken Storm is not optimal.

Start in Stealth and apply Instant Poison. Use Flagellation with aligned cooldowns, followed by Symbols Of Death and Shadow Dance. Prioritize Black Powder for 4+ targets and Secret Technique during Shadow Dance.

Cooldowns

Use with aligned cooldowns for burst.
Pair with Flagellation and Shadow Dance.
Use with Shadow Dance for energy efficiency.
Use frequently, ensuring two casts during Shadow Blades.
Use with Secret Technique during Shadow Blades.

Align Flagellation, Shadow Blades, and Symbols Of Death for burst. Use Shadow Dance frequently, ensuring two casts during Shadow Blades. Pair Cold Blood with Secret Technique for max DPS.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

Single-Button Assistant
Assisted Highlight
Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.