Shadow Rogue, Improving DPS

[advantage 0]

 

Hello, I have a reasonably geared subtlety rogue with disappointing dps.  My iLevel is 894 equipped and my artifact level is 54 (max).  A link to my character is provided below.  On Nighthold, depending on my familiarity with the fights, I can do 350-400—which usually puts me in the bottom of the groups I pug.

I'm pretty sure I am doing something systematically wrong.  I did a quick LFR to generate some logs and have attached them below.  I was worried about my up time for symbols of death, but that doesn't seem to be the issue.  Any insight more experienced rogues can offer would be appreciated.

 

Character:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/tichondrius/Unfair/advanced

LFR Combat Log:

http://worldoflogs.com/reports/vcqjpwhva8jkbyua/details/9/

 

 

[advantage 0]

As far as rotation and strategy goes, I keep nightblade on my main target.  I may be shadow dancing too early, I trigger it when available and when I know I have enough energy to get three solid hits.  I usually eviscerate after two and get a third in before the dance expires.  I use Goremaw's bite when energy is low.

For multiple targets, I'm using shuriken storm as a combo builder and eviscerate.  But that seems to be a dps loss.  Not sure why, but my dps goes up when I go back to shadowstrike.

I have two other legendaries, Darklord's Deceit and the Kil'jadeen trinket—but I believe the ones I am using are 1st and 3rd bis.  I may not be getting the most out of the boots.  I am suspicious I need to put distance between me and boss to increase their value and I haven't really worked at that.  Not sure how important that is.

I may also be triggering shadowstrike before the global cool down resets.  I installed weak auras to help me reduce that error as I imagine it undermines my melee damage (which looks low).

[Bunbohue 2]

With proper energy pooling and and the boots you should have no issue pushing 4 SS into each dance. Pop dance at around 70 energy and 1 cp assuming you run with master of shadows, wait the slight delay for your stealth bar to open and use 2 shadowstrikes, evis, use 2 more shadowstrikes then auto attack untill you proc 1-2 more cp (don't backstab unless you're about to cap energy or you anticipate another cp proc from auto attack during the global cd), then finish off with an evis. Rinse repeat. Don't forget to use vanish as an offensive cd, and consider using flickering shadows to proc vanish on sprint if the opportunity arises. 

With Draught of Souls you can also macro it together with sprint for the free vanish

make a macro :

#showtooltip Draught of Souls
/stopattack
/cast vanish
/use 13 (14 if you put it in the other trinket slot)

I keybind this to shift + mouse scroll up as you need to activate the macro several times for full effect. This stops your auto attacks, activates sprint then activates your trinket. The damage from your trinket does not stop Flickering Shadows from activating and you get a free vanish right after. The best time to use this would be when your < 50 energy and < 2.45 Shadow Dance stacks.

The TP component of the boots are negligible. At max range you'd get 8 energy instead of 3 per SS, but you'd lose out on auto attacks and potential procs.

The belt is really good on most bosses in Nighthold as there are a lot of adds that needs to be bursted down. I'd keep the ones you have equipped.

You could also work on getting some of that haste into mastery. Your stats aren't bad, but mastery has a lot more value than haste. 

And as always, sim your character, look at the stat weights. If you can get your hands on the tier chest and pants, and replace your tier hands with hands from Spellblade and your shoulders with the ones from Starguy Augur, it would be a good start with getting your stats in the right place.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Bunbohue
Some additional information

[advantage 0]

Thank you for this post.  There was a lot of useful information, probably the most valuable was the reminder to sim (I found I was way under the optimal amount of versatility) and the Draught of Souls + Sprint macro.  That synergy between the draughts 3 second immobilization and the required 3 seconds for flicker shadows works extremely well.