Cataclysm Classic Subtlety Rogue Rotation and Cooldowns

What Poisons you use as an Subtlety Rogue is relatively set in stone, we will always be using Instant Poison on our main-hand weapon and Deadly Poison on our off-hand weapon. When it comes to our thrown weapon for situations we are casting Fan of Knives Wound Poison will in most situations deal more damage but Deadly Poison will out perform Wound in a situation where the mobs you are AoEing live long enough to reach 5 stacks of Deadly Poison.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page.

As a Subtlety Rogue you will focus on maximizing the up time of your Rupture, Recuperate and Slice and Dice buffs and debuffs while using Hemorrhage to apply and maintain the Glyph of Hemorrhage bleed debuff and Backstabing as much as possible to generate Combo Points. Maximizing your Find Weakness uptime will be the most noticeable difference you will find in your DPS pull to pull so always try to maximize its uptime by casting Ambush as often as possible.

1. Cast Tricks of the Trade on cooldown;
2. Start combat in stealth then Shadowstep to the target and cast Ambush to gain Find Weakness;
3. Cast Hemorrhage to build Combo Points and maintain the Glyph of Hemorrhage debuff;
4. Cast Backstab to build Combo Points if the Glyph of Hemorrhage debuff is active;
5. Apply Slice and Dice once you have reached 5 combo points. Make sure you always have Slice and Dice active;
6. Apply Rupture;
7. Cast Eviscerate if you have 5 Combo Points and Slice and Dice is already active. This will maintain Rupture thanks to Serrated Blades;
8. With any excess combo points cast Recuperate to take advantage of Energetic Recovery which will greatly increase your Energy regeneration.

Subtlety Rogue is incredibly limited when it comes to AoE Damage, the only situation we will be able to contribute meaningfully in AoE damage is when fighting 10 or more mobs in which case we will spam Fan of Knives, otherwise stick to your single target rotation, but instead of applying Rupture to your target, focus on maintaining Slice and Dice and Recuperate to increase the amount of Auto Attacks and your Energy Regeneration.

Subtlety Rogues put a huge emphasis on their cooldowns as one of the largest ways to increase your DPS as Subtlety is maximizing your Find Weakness uptime by utilizing Shadow Dance, Vanish and Preparation.

1. Shadow Dance — allows you to use your Stealth abilities for six seconds, allowing us to cast Ambush which ontop of dealing a ton of damage also refreshes our Find Weakness buff
2. Vanish — instantly sends you back into Stealth allowing you to cast Ambush to refresh your Find Weakness buff.
3. Preparation — instantly refreshes the cooldown of your Vanish, Sprint and Shadowstep abilities. This allows you more uptime in a situation where your Shadowstep ability may already be on cooldown but more importantly allows for you to be able to cast another Vanish to increase our Find Weakness buff uptime.
4. Premeditation — instantly applies two Combo Points to your target, this is only usable in Stealth so make sure to use this anytime you Vanish or have Shadow Dance active.
5. Shadowstep — instantly teleports you behind your target and increases the damage done by your next Ambush or Garrote ability by 30%. Try to utilize this anytime we use Vanish or Shadow Dance to maximize the damage dealt by our Ambush casts.