Cataclysm Classic Subtlety Rogue Leveling

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Improved Ambush increases the damage and Critical Strike chance of our Ambush ability which will act as our main Stealth attack and a significant amount of our overall damage.

Improved Ambush increases the damage and Critical Strike chance of our Ambush ability which will act as our main Stealth attack and a significant amount of our overall damage. Nightstalker is incredibly powerful as Subtlety we will be spending a lot of time in Stealth so the added movement speed will greatly increase our overall leveling speed over the long term.

Improved Ambush increases the damage and Critical Strike chance of our Ambush ability which will act as our main Stealth attack and a significant amount of our overall damage. Nightstalker is incredibly powerful as Subtlety we will be spending a lot of time in Stealth so the added movement speed will greatly increase our overall leveling speed over the long term. Hemorrhage becomes our main source of building Combo Points as it will be very difficult to consistently Backstab while leveling, and thanks to the Glyph of Hemorrhage it will allow us to take advantage of bonus bleed effects found later in the tree.

Improved Ambush increases the damage and Critical Strike chance of our Ambush ability which will act as our main Stealth attack and a significant amount of our overall damage. Nightstalker is incredibly powerful as Subtlety we will be spending a lot of time in Stealth so the added movement speed will greatly increase our overall leveling speed over the long term. Hemorrhage becomes our main source of building Combo Points as it will be very difficult to consistently Backstab while leveling, and thanks to the Glyph of Hemorrhage it will allow us to take advantage of bonus bleed effects found later in the tree. Find Weakness allows you to ignore 70% of a targets Armor for ten seconds after casting Ambush, while we will have a hard time activating this outside of our initial Ambush its important to try to maximize the uptime of this buff as it is a considerable damage increase.

Premeditation allows you to add two combo points to your target while still in stealth or under the effects of Shadow Dance.

Premeditation allows you to add two combo points to your target while still in stealth or under the effects of Shadow Dance. Honor Among Thieves greatly increases the amount of Combo Points you will have access to when in a group, each time a group member Critically Strikes you will be awarded with a Combo Point. This effect has a two-second cooldown.

Premeditation allows you to add two combo points to your target while still in stealth or under the effects of Shadow Dance. Honor Among Thieves greatly increases the amount of Combo Points you will have access to when in a group, each time a group member Critically Strikes you will be awarded with a Combo Point. This effect has a two-second cooldown. Preparation instantly refreshes our Vanish, Sprint and Blind abilities.

Premeditation allows you to add two combo points to your target while still in stealth or under the effects of Shadow Dance. Honor Among Thieves greatly increases the amount of Combo Points you will have access to when in a group, each time a group member Critically Strikes you will be awarded with a Combo Point. This effect has a two-second cooldown. Preparation instantly refreshes our Vanish, Sprint and Blind abilities. Serrated Blades causes your Eviscerate to have a 20% chance to instantly refresh your Rupture to it's original duration. While we will not be casting many Ruptures while leveling this is greatly useful when we do, typically against bosses inside of dungeons.

Premeditation allows you to add two combo points to your target while still in stealth or under the effects of Shadow Dance. Honor Among Thieves greatly increases the amount of Combo Points you will have access to when in a group, each time a group member Critically Strikes you will be awarded with a Combo Point. This effect has a two-second cooldown. Preparation instantly refreshes our Vanish, Sprint and Blind abilities. Serrated Blades causes your Eviscerate to have a 20% chance to instantly refresh your Rupture to it's original duration. While we will not be casting many Ruptures while leveling this is greatly useful when we do, typically against bosses inside of dungeons. The final talent in the Subtlety tree Shadow Dance allows us to use our Stealth abilities for six seconds, enabling us to spam Ambush to not only deal massive amounts of damage but refresh our Find Weakness buff.

As we leave the Subtlety tree we will first head into the Assassination tree, the first talent we will be taking is Deadly Momentum increases the Critical Strike rating of your next damaging ability by 40% for fifteen seconds after killing an enemy, but more importantly it causes your Slice and Dice and Recuperate abilities to be instantly refreshed to their original duration.

As we leave the Subtlety tree we will first head into the Assassination tree, the first talent we will be taking is Deadly Momentum increases the Critical Strike rating of your next damaging ability by 40% for fifteen seconds after killing an enemy, but more importantly it causes your Slice and Dice and Recuperate abilities to be instantly refreshed to their original duration. Lethality greatly increases the amount of damage done by our Hemorrhage critical strikes.

As we leave the Subtlety tree we will first head into the Assassination tree, the first talent we will be taking is Deadly Momentum increases the Critical Strike rating of your next damaging ability by 40% for fifteen seconds after killing an enemy, but more importantly it causes your Slice and Dice and Recuperate abilities to be instantly refreshed to their original duration. Lethality greatly increases the amount of damage done by our Hemorrhage critical strikes. Lastly we will head to the Combat tree for Precision which increases our chance to hit, as a Rogue especially when Poisons are unlocked benefit massively from Hit Rating due to the amount of number of attacks it takes to kill an enemy as a Rogue.

In your Prime Glyphs we recommend Glyph of Hemorrhage which adds a Bleed damage-over-time effect to our Hemorrhage ability which synergizes incredibly with talents like Sanguinary Vein. Next we take Glyph of Slice and Dice which increases the duration of our Slice and Dice buff even further allowing us to have a nearly 100% uptime on this buff while leveling. For the third slot we recommend Glyph of Eviscerate which increases the Critical Strike rating on your Eviscerate ability which acts as your main spender of Combo Points while leveling.

For your Major Glyph slots we recommend Glyph of Fan of Knives which increases the radius of our Fan of Knives ability allowing us to deal AoE damage much more easily. The next Glyph we choose will be spent in Evasion which increases the duration of one of our strongest cooldowns when it comes to mitigating incoming Physical damage. The last Glyph slot should be dedicated to Glyph of Sprint which makes our Sprint ability increase our movement speed by an additional 30%, Sprint should be used as often as possible to get around and maximize your uptime.

For your Minor Glyphs we recommend Glyph of Blurred Speed which allows you to walk on water with Sprint active. The next Glyph we recommend is Glyph of Safe Fall which greatly reduces the damage taken from fall damage. And last is Glyph of Distract which increases the range of your Distract ability.

1. Melee.
2. Use Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points and deal damage.
3. Use Eviscerate to spend your Combo Points and deal damage. This ability is best used with five Combo Points.
4. Use Stealth to approach your enemies.
5. Use Ambush exit Stealth.
6. Use Evasion to mitigate incoming Physical damage, use this any time you are fighting more than one enemy at once that is attacking you.
7. Apply and keep Instant Poison active on your weapons.
8. Use Recuperate as needed to heal yourself, this ability is best used with five Combo Points but in any situation where you need to self-sustain it should be used.
9. Use Kick to interrupt any enemy spell casting.
10. Use Gouge as an impromptu interrupt or as a way to incapacitate your enemy for a short period of time.
11. Use Sprint early and often to get around and maximize your uptime against enemies. Remember you can use this to cross water thanks to Glyph of Blurred Speed.
12. Apply and maintain Slice and Dice as much as possible to maximize your outgoing Auto Attacks.
13. Use Vanish to quickly re-stealth should you find yourself in danger. This ability will reset any mob you are engaged with if you are the only one on their aggro table. If you have someone else to take aggro do not hesitate to use this to refresh your Find Weakness buff on longer fights.
14. Use Cheap Shot if you are in Stealth and need to stun your target.
15. Use Hemorrhage to deal damage and generate Combo Points.
16. Use Kidney Shot as needed to stun your target and minimize incoming damage, while most of your combo points should be spent on Eviscerate or Recuperate do not hesitate to Kidney Shot if you need to stop incoming damage or interrupt.
17. Use Blind to disorient your target for up to a minute, this can be used to disengage from an enemy or can even be used as an impromptu interrupt should you find yourself in danger.
18. Use Premeditation to generate an additional Combo Point on the target in Stealth before opening with Ambush.
19. Apply and keep Instant Poison active on your main-hand weapon and Deadly Poison on your off-hand.
20. Use Cloak of Shadows to stop incoming Magic damage or become immune to incoming Magic effects.
21. Use Deadly Throw to deal damage to enemies you will not be able to otherwise reach or are fleeing. Keep in mind this ability can only be used with a throwing weapon equipped.
22. Use Shadow Dance on cooldown to deal maximum damage. While it will be difficult to use Ambush while soloing consider using Cheap Shot or a high Combo Point Kidney Shot and move behind the boss to Ambush while Shadow Dance is active to refresh your Find Weakness buff.
23. Use Fan of Knives when fighting three or more enemies, keep in mind this ability can only be used with a throwing weapon equipped.
24. Use Combat Readiness to mitigate incoming Physical damage when being attacked.
25. Use Redirect to move your Combo Points from a target that using a finishing move would be overkill on.

Congratulations on hitting Level 85 in Cataclysm! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level 85 Subtlety Rogue gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.