Season of Discovery Subtlety Rogue DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

As an Subtlety in Season of Discovery there have been some major changes made to greatly improve your Damage output and also lessen the downtime traditional to Rogue DPS. Subtlety operates off of a list of priorities as opposed to a DPS rotation but we have updated this list below to reflect what your rotation should look like now including abilities added in Season of Discovery via the Rune stone Engraving system.

While it is not required Engineering is a great tool to have as a Rogue not only because of the many toys and gizmos associated with it but bombs such as Solid Dynamite can are essentially free damage and help with the issues Rogue deal with due to a lack of consistent AoE damage. Even with added AoE abilities via the Back Rune slot Rogue can still be heavily limited due to Energy costs. Bombs are typically best used on the pull as soon as your tank has established aggro so you can get multiple uses in an encounter, however if you know a fight will have multiple targets always try to keep the cooldown ready for when there are multiple targets to hit.

If you are using the recommended talent/rune build than two daggers is absolutely required for this build as Mutilate only works with Daggers. Which Dagger you have in what hand can be quite important, make sure to have your high damage dealing Dagger in your main-hand to best take advantage of various damage multipliers found on abilities such as Mutilate.

This rotation assumes that you are using the Subtlety DPS build. This build focuses on using Mutilate as much as possible in order to maintain as much up time on Slice and Dice and Rupture as possible and using your excess combo points on Envenom. As Subtlety we will have a bit of an easier time maintaining Carnage as we will be casting multiple Garrotes during the course of a fight so keep this in mind when considering which of your abilities to spend your combo points on.

1. Ensure you have Instant Poison applied to both of your weapons before combat, if you are assigned to or your group is lacking a source of it apply Sebacious Poison to your main-hand to apply the Expose Armor effect.
2. Begin Combat in Stealth to maximize Master of Subtlety uptime.
3. If starting in stealth, apply Garrote to gain the Carnage buff.
4. Cast Mutilate to build Combo points.
5. When the target has 5 stacks of Deadly Poison/ Occult Poison I cast Poisoned Knife.
6. If an ability needs to be interrupted, prioritize interrupting it with Kick.
7. After the Master of Subtlety buff has faded, cast Vanish to refresh it and cast Garrote again to re-apply Carnage.
8. Cast Slice and Dice at 5 Combo Points.
9. Apply and maintain Rupture to the target once Garrote has faded to benefit from the Carnage buff.
10. If you find yourself with extra combo points after maintaining Slice and Dice and Rupture cast Envenom to spend them.

With the addition of the Back Rune slot Rogue has three new abilities to deal consistent AoE damage but we typically recommend Fan of Knives. In a situation where you are fighting 3 or more mobs your focus should be on casting Fan of Knives as many times as possible.

Preparation is one of the strongest cooldowns in the entirety of Rogue talents as it instantly resets the cooldowns of your other abilities, this is especially useful in a situation where you may need to Vanish or Evasion. With the Rune of Master of Subtlety active this makes Preparation even more powerful as it turns Vanish into a DPS cooldown. Try to use Preparation soon after casting Vanish in order to maximize the number of uses possible in each encounter.

Sprint increases your movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds, this has great uses both in and outside of combat and can be used to both travel the world more effectively or close the gap in some type of combat scenario.

Evasion is an incredibly useful tool that greatly increases your dodge chance and will allow you to avoid massive amounts of incoming physical damage.

Vanish will instantly send you back into stealth clearing any rooting or slowing effects in the process. This is an incredible tool for both resetting your threat but also enabling you to use another stealth only ability such as Ambush. Vanish will also allow you to take advantage of Master of Subtlety so in a situation where you are not concerned with threat consider using this ability to further maximize your damage by refreshing this buff.

Shadowstep teleports you behind your current target and increases your movement speed by 70% for 3 seconds. This is a great way to close the gap when an enemy is running or move to a target quickly to interrupt an ability you otherwise may not have been able to reach in time.

Kick interrupts spell casting and should be utilized as often as possible to lessen incoming damage both when playing solo to maximize your up time or in a group to lessen the burden on your healer.

Gouge is a brief incapacitating ability that stops spell casting and renders the target unable to act for a few seconds, make sure to take advantage of this to either stop incoming damage, interrupt a spell cast or use it to create distance between you and an enemy in an emergency situation.

Redirect will allow you to move your combo points from your previous target to your current target, this only works on unspent combo points and if you generate a combo point on your new target before redirecting then you will be unable to move your previous ones to the new target.

Kidney Shot is a stun that will consume your combo points, its duration depending on how many combo points you spent. This is a great way to interrupt spell casting in a situation where Kick or Gouge is not available or just to crowd control and otherwise dangerous enemy.

Cheap Shot is a stun that can only be used exiting stealth, your target will be stunned for 4 seconds and you will be awarded two combo points to the target.

Combo Points are a resource that Rogues generate by using 'generating' abilities, in the highlighted build above the majority of your combo points will be generated by Mutilate. These points can be spent on various different finishing moves but at this point in time your main focus should be on maintaining as much up time as possible on Slice and Dice and Rupture as possible. If you find yourself with excess combo points they should be spent on Envenom. Keeping Slice and Dice and Rupture active are a much greater priority than an extra cast of Envenom so keep this in mind when considering which ability to use next.