Subtlety Rogue PvP Best Arena Compositions — The War Within (11.0.7)
Team composition in 2v2 or 3v3 Arena is very important, because not all classes work well together. Here, we give you the best compositions you can have for your Subtlety Rogue (i.e., the best classes to pair with it).
This page is part of our Subtlety Rogue PvP Guide.
2v2 Arena
Subtlety Rogue in 2v2 is about setting up crowd control on the enemy healer for your team, whether you are playing with a healer or with another DPS, and then stunning your kill target so that both you and your teammate can burst it down. Your sustained damage is almost nonexistent, so you will want to avoid the fight in between your set-ups. It is worth mentioning that since Subtlety Rogues have a lot of crowd control and burst damage, they are particularly powerful in double DPS comps as they will be able to crowd control both enemies, leaving their ally totally free to follow up with CC and burst someone down.
In rare scenarios, you will want to crowd-control the DPS and kill the healer instead, but as a general rule, the DPS will be the kill target with the enemy healer locked in crown control. You win the game once the enemy team is out of ways to get out of crowd control and out of defensives they can use while under crowd control effects.
When there are no diminishing returns on your targets, and your team is
ready to go, you want to use Cheap Shot on the enemy you are not
trying to kill, and then
Kidney Shot on your kill target. A Mage, Priest
, or Hunter, for instance, will follow your
Cheap Shot with a crowd
control ability of their own —
Polymorph,
Psychic Scream, and
Freezing Trap respectively. Meanwhile, you
will keep your kill target locked down with additional
Cheap Shots while
dealing damage. It is of utmost importance to keep the target stunned without
any gap in order to prevent the use of any defensive cooldown or self-healing.
Repeat this every time the diminishing returns allow it.
Also, as a Rogue, you have access to Blind. This is a key ability
that you will use to force the enemy healer to trinket on one of your set-ups.
You may initiate your go with it, although it is usually better to use it
either after your stun if your partner is unable to follow up or
after the crowd control spell of your partner if your kill target is still in
danger in order to force a trinket from the healer.
In between your set-ups, you want to run. Rogue, in general, and Subtlety Rogue
especially, is not designed for head-to-head combat. Every single DPS
specialization in the game wins the fight against a Subtlety Rogue who is not
under the effects of Shadow Dance. To survive and to make it easier on
your healer's Mana, you need to run away from the fight when enemies can no
longer be crowd-controlled. Avoid as much damage as possible. Ideally, you even
want to kite well enough to enter
Stealth again without having to use
Vanish so that you still have it for rainy days. You should, however, make
sure that your teammate does not need your help to stay alive before you go
away.
Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:
- Subtlety Rogue + Arcane Mage/Fire Mage
- Subtlety Rogue + Discipline Priest/Holy Priest
- Subtlety Rogue + Survival Hunter
- Subtlety Rogue + Shadow Priest
- Subtlety Rogue + Balance Druid
3v3 Arena
The way to play Subtlety Rogue in 3v3 is similar to 2v2. The key difference
is that since there is one more enemy, you may have to land crowd control
every time you go for a kill. Most of the time, a simple
Cheap Shot will be enough, and your teammates will do the rest. The
reason why it is so important to land CC on the third target is because, as a
Subtlety Rogue, you can only kill when your target is in a stun and receives no
healing. If you do not land crowd control on the third player, he might prevent
your teammates from landing crowd control of their own on the enemy healer
after your stun, or he could simply save his partner himself
with healing spells or by crowd-controlling your team.
Subtlety Rogue is only played in comps revolving around set-ups at the moment as it has little sustained damage, so the gameplay described here will hold true for any comp you may play.
Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:
- RMP (Subtlety Rogue + Fire Mage/Frost Mage/Arcane Mage + Discipline Priest/Holy Priest)
- Thug Cleave (Subtlety Rogue + Survival Hunter/Marksmanship Hunter + Discipline Priest/Holy Priest)
- RPS/RLS (Subtlety Rogue + Shadow Priest/Destruction Warlock + Restoration Shaman)
- Dancing With The Stars (Subtlety Rogue + Balance Druid + Discipline Priest/Holy Priest)
Changelog
- 15 Dec. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Prepatch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updqted for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 18 Mar. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.5.
- 30 Apr. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7.
- 25 Jan. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 28 Jul. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 01 Jul. 2022: Updated 3v3 comps.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 23 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5.
- 04 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 28 Mar. 2021: Rewritten by Shadenox and updated for Patch 9.0.5.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Shadenox, an experienced Gladiator player who has achieved over 3,000 rating on Rogue. You can find him on his YouTube channel, where he creates guides and other informational content regarding Arenas.
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