Subtlety Rogue

Melee DPS / PvPRace: Night ElfBuild 1.60.1.70753
Subtlety is the stealth and opener spec. Improved Ambush and Initiative make openers hit hard, Preparation resets your cooldowns, Hemorrhage is a cheap builder, Boot Knife turns Shank into combo points and Death Mark is the capstone. Assassination points add Malice crit and Lethality.
Starter build and talent orderTalent calculatorLeveling routeSpellbookEnchants & consumables

Rotation

Opener: Stealth, Ambush or Garrote, Hemorrhage to 5 points, Slice and Dice.

Priority: Hemorrhage as the builder (the party likes the debuff), Eviscerate or Rupture at 5, Slice and Dice up. Kidney Shot and Blind for control.

Cooldowns: Preparation resets Vanish, Sprint and Evasion; Ghostly Strike for dodge; Premeditation before an opener.

Forever notes: Subtlety is the PvP tree: openers, control and escapes. For dungeons it works; for raids pick Combat.

Stats

Agility and Crit for openers, Hit to 9%, Stamina for PvP survival, then attack power. A high top-end dagger for Ambush.

Subtlety is burst, so weapon damage range beats steady stats.

Numbers for every spec and a gear comparer: stat weights.

Where it ranks

See the tier lists for PvE and PvP placement, and Classic vs Forever changes for what Blizzard altered in this class.

Wowhead and Icy Veins keep spec guides of their own: Icy Veins Subtlety Rogue, Wowhead class guides. Our rotation notes are editorial, written for the Nov 2 tuning.

Editorial, 2026-11-04; sources linked in the text. Wowhead and Icy Veins guides are referenced, not copied. Data from talentsforever.com (CC BY 4.0), read from the WoW Forever beta client, build 1.60.1.70753. Updated 2026-11-04. World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment; this is a fan site.