Subtlety Rogue Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within (11.1.0)
On this page, we go over several of the most frequently asked questions regarding Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.0). This will be updated as more common repeated questions surface over the course of the expansion.
Can I use a Non-Dagger as my Off-Hand Weapon??
Always use a dagger in off-hand. The reason for this is that
Shadow Techniques procs more often with a dagger due to the 1.8 attack speed compared to the 2.6 speed of other weapons.
Which means you lose roughly 8% of all of your energy and combo points by equiping a slower off-hand.
Does Our Stat Priority Change on Multi-Target?
On multiple targets, Mastery gains more value. This is due to a larger portion of our damage coming from finishers on AoE.
How Much Haste Should Subtlety Rogues Have? / Is there a Haste Cap?
For Subtlety, there is no Haste breakpoint/cap. The spec is intended to play at a very slow pace outside of cooldowns and increasing your haste will not allieviate this feeling.
Which Race or Racial Ability is the Best for Subtlety Rogue?
The DPS differences between the races are fairly minimal. The best race for DPS on Horde is Mghar Orc, and for Alliance, it is Mechagnome.
You can see a ranked list of all the Racials on our Simulations page.
What Piece is Better, X or Y?
The answer to this question will always be to simulate it. This is because an upgrade for you may not be an upgrade for someone else. In other words, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer, even when talking about 2 completely identical comparisons from you to another person. Everything in your gear has an effect on everything else.
This applies to gear, trinkets and talents in certain situations.
The only exception to this rule is when a specific fight dictates a certain set of optimal talents, for example. If you are curious about what kind of setup to go for a specific fight, WarcraftLogs.com's rankings and statistics are a good place to see what others are doing.
We have a guide on how to sim yourself here:
How Much of X Stat Should I Have?
Stat questions are much like gearing questions, the best answer is to always simulate your character. However, the generalized stat priority can help you make a mental note about which stats to prioritize. There are also no stat goals or particular distributions of stats that you want to aim for. It is very common for people to overestimate the importance of having the "right" secondaries, when in reality, having a higher quantity of stats will almost always beat having "better" stats. Having 120 of your worst stat is often better than having 100 of your best stat, since the differences in value are not as big as many people think.
Changelog
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4
- 20 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Page reviewed and updated for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Rogue Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Eleem, who has been a rogue player, enjoyer and theorycrafter since Legion. He is currently raiding in a top 100 guild and has been known to dabble in m+ from time to time. You can find him in the Ravenholdt Discord as Eleem.
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