Subtlety Rogue Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.0.7)

The general rule, even at max level, is always equip the higher item level piece. The exception to this is that you need a dagger in your mainhand. Rings, Necklaces, and certain trinkets can also be exceptions as there is no primary stat on rings and necklaces, and certain trinket effects overpower the gain you get from more primary stat. While leveling, it is almost always better to just default to equipping the highest item level pieces you have access to.

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Cast Stealth if you want to get to a quest objective without fighting all enemies or before engaging enemies.

Prior to level 10, the only damage dealing abilities you have have access to are: Sinister Strike, Eviscerate at level 2, and Ambush at level 7.

1. Cast Eviscerate once you have 4+ Combo Points to spend them.
2. Use Sinister Strike to build up Combo Points.

1. Make sure you always have Instant Poison buff applied.
2. Make sure you always have Crippling Poison buff applied.
3. Use Shadow Blades either on cooldown or save it for elite enemies.
4. Use Flagellation together with Shadow Blades on cooldown or save it for elite enemies.
5. Use 4+ Combo Points to keep up Slice and Dice at all times. After you unlock Cut to the Chase at lvl 18 you never need to cast it yourself.
6. Cast Shadow Dance as a DPS cooldown as often as possible.
7. Cast Symbols of Death as a DPS cooldown as often as possible.
8. Cast Secret Technique to spend your Combo Points on cooldown.
9. Cast Secret Technique to spend your Combo Points on cooldown. Combine it with Cold Blood every time its ready.
10. Cast Eviscerate to spend your Combo Points when fighting a single enemy.
11. Cast Black Powder to spend your Combo Points when fighting 3+ enemies.
12. Cast Backstab to generate Combo Points when fighting a single enemy. If you are in Stealth or have Shadow Dance active use Shadowstrike instead.
13. Cast Shuriken Storm to generate Combo Points when fighting 2+ enemies.

Subtlety Rogues have a ton of tools available to them that makes fighting multiple enemies at once easier, or just simply getting away from a sticky situation.

• Kick allows you to interrupt an enemy that is casting a spell. Use this whenever possible to interrupt enemies to take less damage while leveling.
• Crimson Vial lets you heal 20% of your max Health over 4 seconds. Use this is if your Health is dropping low or between mob pulls.
• Sap lets you control any Humanoid, Beast, Demon, or Dragon for up to 60 seconds. Use this to keep a single enemy from joining the fight before you open on a group of enemies from Stealth. This crowd control breaks when the enemy takes damage. To avoid breaking your Sap , either lure the other enemies away or do not use any AoE spells.
• Kidney Shot can be used to stun a single opponent for up to 8 seconds. Use this to interrupt a dangerous cast or to simply not take damage from an enemy. Some NPCs might be immune to stuns.
• Evasion increases your chance to dodge incoming melee and ranged attacks by 100% for 10 seconds. Use this to your advantage by doing larger pulls whenever Evasion is ready. Note that you can only dodge if you are facing the enemy.
• Vanish removes you from sight. This resets combat with everything that you were currently fighting, making it a strong cooldown when leveling. Whether it is just to escape certain death or to get rid of pesky enemies that you do not want to deal with, make sure to use Vanish to your advantage.
• Blind allows you to control an enemy for up to 60 seconds. This can be used from Stealth or outside of it. The crowd- control breaks when you deal damage like Sap does, so make sure to lure enemies away or avoid using area-of-effect abilities.
• Cloak of Shadows removes and makes you immune to magical effects for 5 seconds. This allows you to potentially remove damage over time effects that could break your Stealth, allow you to take less damage, or simply avoid certain crowd control or damaging effects.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of Subtlety Rogue-specific PvE talents.

1. Maneuverability Sprint has 50% reduced cooldown and 50% reduced duration.
2. Dagger in the Dark — Whenever Stealth is active, you apply a debuff to nearby enemies that causes them to take an additional 5% damage from your next Shadowstrike. Stacks up to 8 times. This is nothing special, but still a slight damage boost.
3. Death from Above — Finishing move that leaps you up in the air and casts an Eviscerate that deals 10% more damage.
4. The third choice does not matter much as none of them provide benefits for PvE situations. Use any of them that you feel suitable.

Congrats on reaching Level 70! Now that you have hit Level 70 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.