SUB ROGUE FUNDAMENTALS COURSE

SUB ROGUE PLAYSTYLE

Welcome to our Subtlety Rogue damage course for the War Within, which is custom designed to equip you with all of the essential knowledge that's needed to excel in PvP.

Now, in this introductory video for Subtlety Rogue, we're going to be exploring what to expect from the Sub Rogue playstyle and what's changed going into the War Within. So, if you've enjoyed previous iterations of Subtlety Rogue, well, you're in luck.

The War Within has kept the playstyle largely the same with just a few improvements. Now, for those unfamiliar with the spec, Subtlety Rogue is exactly what you'd expect from a classic MMORPG rogue, the ultimate tactician.

Now, while you might not top the damage meters or deal massive overall damage, Subtlety thrives on control and setting up kills. This gameplay revolves heavily around Shadow Dance, which has two charges and benefits from reduced cooldowns via deepening shadows.

While active, Shadow Dance is going to grant access to the Shadow Dance. Shadow Dance is going to grant access to abilities typically reserved for stealth, amplifying your damage massively through multiple modifiers, which enables you to essentially 100-0 unsuspecting enemies.

And it also enables you to access consistent stuns via cheap shot. Now, to put it bluntly, Subtlety Rogue is for players who prefer precision and coordination in their gameplay.

Unlike specs that focus on maximizing sustained pressure and using crowd control to support that damage, Subtlety requires a more thoughtful approach to secure kills.

To master this spec, you need to constantly plan your next setup, keeping track of stunned diminishing returns, enemy defensive cooldowns and positioning, as well as your own damage potential.

But with so many tools at your disposal, such as Smoke Bomb, Blind, and Kidney Shot, there's a reason Subtlety Rogue has been considered one of the highest skill cap specs since its inception. It rewards those who are capable of thinking several steps ahead, and it's a great way to get ahead of your opponents.

Subtlety Rogue is a great way to get ahead of your opponents. Subtlety Rogue is a great way to get ahead of your opponents.

Subtlety Rogue is a great way to get ahead of your opponents. In order to execute kills with finesse.

For those who are already familiar with the Subtlety playstyle, The War Within introduces some notable changes beyond just hero talents, which we're going to dive into shortly. Shadow Dance has now been moved to the Subtlety spec tree, making room for a new capstone talent called Without a Trace.

This talent grants an additional charge of Vanish. Subterfuge has also received a significant buff with its duration.

The duration doubles from 3 seconds to 6 seconds. While these changes keep the core playstyle intact, they provide players with a lot more access to both our key burst and control abilities.

Hero talents, though, are where the bulk of the changes to the spec really come from, with every spec now having access to two brand new hero talent trees. For Subtlety, these are Deathstalker and Trickster.

We're going to be delving into both of these a little bit later on in the course. But to quickly touch on them now, Deathstalker is centered around the Deathstalker's mark ability.

This is going to apply a mark with three stacks to whichever target you first use Shadow Strike on. Your finishers on that target will then consume these stacks for some added damage.

Once you consume all three, you're going to gain access to the capstone, Darkest Night, for a powerful Eviscerate. Which overall fits more or less seamlessly into the current playstyle, just with a little bit more to manage.

Trickster, on the other hand, is centered around Unseen Blade, causing your backstab and Shadow Strike to apply a debuff to the target. Once you proc this four times, you gain access to the in-cap Coup de Grace, which will, similarly to Deathstalker, enhance the damage of your next Eviscerate.

This tree definitely has more damage potential when targets are stacked, as you're going to be able to do a lot of passive cleave damage with Nimble Flurry, causing some of your attacks to hit up to seven in a row.

This is a good way to get your backstab and Shadow Strike to be able to get a lot of damage to your backstab. Either way, don't worry, as we're going to focus more on hero talents throughout this course.

For now, though, it's time to take a look at your goals inside of Arena.

SUB ROGUE GOALS

Welcome back! In this video, we're going to be outlining some key goals for Subtlety Rogue that you should aim to follow throughout your games.

These are the objectives that top players strive to achieve in every match, so pay close attention as we delve into the mind of one of North America's best rogues, Naj. To start off, we have goal number one, play around your stun diminishing returns.

Now, as we'll likely have a few new players watching this, every time you use either cheap shot or kidney shot onto a target, they're going to be put on what's known as a diminishing returns, which reduces the effectiveness of subsequent crowd control by 50% and then 25%, lasting from 18 seconds after your crowd control ends.

Ultimately, as a sub-rogue, the golden rule is that you never burst a target unless there's... meaning we're reliant on stunned diminishing returns as an indication for practically everything. When we can burst, when we can crowd control healers, when we can make swaps, and even when we can pop our own cooldowns.

Take a situation like this for example. Naj opens with a sap onto the enemy's restoration shaman and looks to open onto the windwalker with a cheap shot, which he unfortunately pre-walls.

Noticing this, Naj then swaps over to the restoration shaman inside of a kidney shaman. He then gets a shot, which he unfortunately then gets peeled on.

So, now that the monk and the shaman are both on stunned diminishing returns, it's going to be a waste of time focusing on either of them, leaving Naj with two options.

He could wait around for 16 seconds and then go back onto the monk, but this would mean we're basically throwing in the towel for the opener and getting absolutely nothing done. But instead, what he does is play around his diminishing returns, attempting to swap to the rogue.

Again, to not much benefit. Definitely not the best opener by any means, but nonetheless, we're going to pause here.

What do you think Naj's next move should be? Take a look at his diminishing returns.

Well, the answer is pretty simple. Nothing.

He can't do anything. All three enemies are on diminishing returns for the next 18 seconds, meaning he's going to wait around, prep his damage, whittle some people down, and both plan and prepare for his next setup, playing solely off the back of his demon.

That's all he can do. Stunned diminishing returns are the timers that we play around, so track and manage them well.

This brings us to the second key goal. Make the most of your downtime.

Even though rogues are designed to capitalize on brief windows of burst and control, what you do outside of those windows is equally important. Top rogues excel at managing their downtime between setups, which can involve a variety of different things depending on the situation.

Top rogues excel at managing their downtime between setups, which can involve a variety of different things depending on the situation. Top rogues excel at managing their downtime between setups, which can involve a variety of different things depending on the situation.

Top rogues excel at managing their downtime between setups, which can involve a variety of different things depending on the situation. First, there's maintaining pressure.

The reality is that if your target survives your stuns, they're likely not going to die immediately afterward. Let's face it.

Even though it might be tempting to commit another charge of Shadow Dance and push for the kill, this rarely works, and it often leaves you without damage for your next setup. Instead, the best rogues focus on keeping up the pressure by other means.

This might involve swapping to the healer, using blind, gouge, or kicks. This might involve swapping to the healer, using blind, gouge, or kicks.

This might involve swapping to the healer, using blind, gouge, or kicks. Any form of CC or micro CC to stop the enemy healer from recovering.

Just take a look at this here, for instance. Naj and his teammate have the Shaman at around half health after their setup.

But with Astral Shift active and Stun DERs not available for some time here, there's absolutely no chance they're going to get a kill, though. So what does Naj do?

He focuses on maintaining that pressure, but not with damage with CC. First, he blinds the monk.

Then he smoke bombs him to make sure he doesn't get a kill. Then he smoke bombs him to make sure he doesn't get a kill.

Then he smoke bombs him to make sure he doesn't get a kill. Ensuring he can sap.

Saps the monk's trinket. Into a third.

And then follows that with a full kidney shot. At which point, we have Stun Diminishing returns back, and the Shaman is still low on health.

Now, on the flip side, part of your downtime involves reducing pressure. You won't always be in control.

And once your setup ends, it's crucial to know when to switch gears and play defensively. This can involve various things, such as minimizing your own damage taken by running or kiting, or peeling for yourself or your team using abilities like Gouge, Kick, or Dismantle at pivotal moments.

This involves several important tasks. Yeah, yeah, I know, playing a rogue can be pretty complex.

But preparation includes things like ensuring you have Slice and Dice active for your next setup, applying a fresh rupture on your target, pre-stacking finality, or getting ready with Darkest Night. Simultaneously, it's also crucial to work on getting your cooldowns back.

Now, one key part of rogue downtime is maximizing deepening shadows. The more combo points you generate and you spend, the faster you regain Shadow Dance, which means the more damage we can do.

The bottom line here is if you don't already have pressure, you won't create it outside of a setup. Instead of focusing on sustained damage, it's far more beneficial to spend your downtime preparing.

Lastly, use downtime to take a breather. Arena is hectic and playing rogue is all about precise execution.

Now, we're obviously not saying put your feet up and take a nap or anything. It's ridiculous.

But rather, use this downtime to gather your thoughts, assess the game state, track enemy trinkets and defensives, plan your next move. If you're in solo shuffle, this is also a great moment to communicate your plan to your teammate if you think it's necessary.

Now, finally, we come to our third and final goal. Use your crowd control with a purpose.

Now, this might sound obvious. Go with us here.

Consider it this way. If you're playing a demon hunter or a warrior, you can often just mindlessly tunnel your target and throw out crowd control whenever you have pressure.

As rogues, however, we need a bit more finesse. Every button press should have a clear purpose.

You're not throwing these button presses out into the etherverse because it's just easy to. When you use blind, ask yourself, will it force a trinket?

Do you have a plan to sap out of it? That smoke bomb, was it really necessary?

Always think about why you're using your abilities and the impact they're going to have not only in the now, but also later on in the game. But don't worry about hearing all this.

We know it can be a little bit hard to take in thinking you have to plan so much. While this might seem a little bit overwhelming at first, gradually work toward achieving these goals throughout this course.

For now, though, let's start with the basics by going over your sustained damage priority.

SUB ROGUE DAMAGE PRIORITY

Welcome back! Now that you have a broader understanding of both the playstyle and the goals of a Subtlety Rogue in the arena, the next step is learning how to deal damage effectively.

Now, in order to do this, we're going to start by teaching you what you should be prioritizing during your downtime, with something that we like to call a maintenance priority.

Then, later on in another video, we're going to be breaking down the exact sequences that you're going to want to follow in order to deal the maximum burst damage possible during your setups. Now, to be crystal clear here, this isn't a strict rotation, but it's rather a priority list for you to follow.

At our number one priority, we have Rupture. Surprisingly, Rupture can account for nearly 40% of your overall damage in a game.

While our sustain pressure may not be the highest, it certainly isn't non-existent. Thanks to talents like Replicating Shadows and Corrupt the Blood, the damage Rupture deals adds up significantly, contributing not only to our sustain pressure, but also providing extra damage during our burst sequence.

With Rupture applied to your target, the next priority is then Eviscerate. During maintenance phases, we have two main goals.

Stack buffs for our burst and spend combo points to reduce the cooldown of our Shadow Dance via deepening shadows.

Eviscerate, aside from dealing some damage, will also boost any subsequent shadows that you can deal damage to. will also boost any subsequent shadows that you can deal damage to. will also boost any subsequent shadows that you can deal damage to. will also boost any subsequent shadows that you can deal damage to. will also boost any subsequent shadows that you can deal damage to. will also boost any subsequent shadows that you can deal damage to. will also boost any subsequent shadows that you can deal damage to.

Additionally, it provides you with Finality, which gives you yet another modifier to enhance your damage when you initiate your burst. On top of that, due to the most recent rework, Eviscerate will also grant you Slice and Ice per combo point spent, thanks to the cut to the chase passive.

Now, everything up to this point has been a combo point spender, and outside of burst windows, we generally only ever want to spend when at the maximum amount of damage. and outside of burst windows, we generally only ever want to spend when at the maximum amount of damage.

The best way, and the fastest way to build these combo points, is with our next priority and highest priority generator, Shuriken Storm. The rule here is simple.

Anytime there's more than one target, pets included, you're going to want to use Shuriken Storm to build. The only exception to this is when you have the Clear the Witnesses buff, which is going to make Shuriken Storm worthwhile on a singular target as well.

Otherwise, if there's only one target, or you don't have any, Otherwise, if there's only one target, or you don't have any, Otherwise, if there's only one target, or you don't have any, don't want to risk breaking crowd control, you should instead utilize Backstab to build.

Ideally, if you can, you're going to want to go behind the target in order to get some additional damage, but this isn't too important. Alright, with that covered, there's one more thing we need to discuss before diving into burst sequences.

That being, hero talents.

HERO TALENTS: DEATHSTALKER

Hey everyone, welcome to the next video in our Subtlety Rogue damage course. Now as you probably know, in The War Within, a major new addition is the introduction of hero talents.

The tree you select and the talents you choose can significantly affect both your gameplay and your rotation. So in this video we're going to be breaking down these impacts and provide tips and tricks to help you maximize your damage with this tree.

Let's start with what we anticipate will be the go-to spec for release, Deathstalker. The entire Deathstalker tree is primarily built around the passive Deathstalker's Mark.

Applied by your first Shadowstrike out of stealth or after Shadowdance, this is a debuff on the target with three stacks. Every time you use a finisher on that target, you're going to consume one of these stacks, in turn dealing damage to the target and increasing the damage of your next backstab or Shadowstrike.

Then, thanks to the endcap, Darkest Night, once you consume your third stack, you can use the same stack to consume the third stack.

You'll gain some energy and more importantly, cause your next eviscerate to be a guaranteed critical strike as well as doing some bonus damage, which will then in turn also apply another Deathstalker's Mark to the target, granting you a way to apply marks without the need to Shadowdance or vanish.

Here are some key things to note. First, you can only have one mark active at a time.

While this doesn't have a huge impact overall, especially on burst sequences, it's still something to keep in mind.

For example, if you already used one or two stacks on a target, it's generally more beneficial to stay ON that target and clear the mark before swapping, this way you'll then have the bonus eviscerate damage going into set-up.

Also, if you're planning on using Shadowstrike for purely mobility reasons, doing so will swap your mark to the new target making it detrimental. Secondly, it's good to know that Deathstalker's Mark stacks are only consumed via damaging finishers.

Now, what we mean by this is that slice and dice and kidney shot will not consume a stack on the target, just something to bear in mind. Alright, now that we understand how Deathstalker works, let's discuss its impact on our gameplay.

The biggest change is in how we open. Don't worry, we're going to dive into the sequences in much more detail in our next video.

But for now, instead of starting with cheap shot as we used to, you should now always begin with Shadow Strike to apply your mark to the target. Starting with cheap shot, due to the rework on premeditation, is not only going to waste combo points, but also a large part of our stun duration.

This can be frustrating against skilled players who use certain abilities immediately once we open, such as pre-walls. However, consider it this way, if we can force defensives with just a Shadow Strike, that's a trade that I'm going to be happy with.

Asides from how we open though, the other aspect to consider with this tree is the strength of Darkest Night. Really, this is a very important aspect of Shadow Strike, and it's going to be a very important part of our gameplay.

So, if you're interested in how we open, consider with this tree is the strength of Darkest Night. Really, this is a very important aspect of Shadow Strike, and it's going to be a very important part of our gameplay.

So, if you're interested in how we open, consider with this tree is the strength of Darkest Night. Really, this is the main thing you're going to be looking to play around, and we highly suggest grabbing yourself a weak aura to be able to track this.

Now, although nerfed in PvP, Eviscerate remains to be our hardest hitting ability by a substantial margin, having the potential to deal millions of damage for a single use when combined alongside modifiers. Now, because of this, you should make an effort to play around these procs as much as possible.

For example, take a look at how Naj uses them. Before initiating his setup, he spends a few seconds to get his procs ready, and then a few extra seconds consuming his final mark on the warrior with a rupture in order to get Darkest Night, then holds onto it.

Meaning, once he lands his crowd control onto the enemy druid, he has that empowered Eviscerate ready, increasing his chances of securing the kill on the warrior.

Now, while on the topic as well, an interesting aspect of this buff is that in addition to being granted when you consume your three marks, it's also gained whenever a target with the mark dies.

Meaning, one way to min-max it, and gain access to more procs, is to finish off low health pets or even totems with a shadow strike, as this is going to provide you with a proc immediately.

The same applies when you already have one active, as you can just Eviscerate a low health pet or totem, finish it off, and get another proc right after. Anyway, enough about Deathstalker's mark and Darkest Night, let's quickly go over the rest of the talents in the tree.

Starting on the left, we have Clear the Witnesses. As we mentioned, if you have this active, it makes Shuriken Storm worth a while, even on single targets.

Fatal Intent provides some extra finishing power, but there's really not much to play around here. Bait and Switch is absolutely significant, as both Cloak and Evasion become valuable defensives, regardless of what you're facing, so do not forget about this.

In the center, we have Hunt Them Down. There's not much to note here, other than it gives you some extra damage against your marked target.

On the other hand, Corrupt the Blood is entirely passive, but offers a huge boost to your passive damage from rupture, this is partly why our sustained pressure has increased significantly this expansion. Ideally, you're going to want to maintain this at maximum stacks on your kill target at all times.

Now, as for Moment of Despair, it provides extra damage on Shuriken Storm, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

Now, moving to the right side, Singular Focus adds some nice damage to your maintenance phase, incentivizing you to apply rupture to off targets to boost your main target's damage, whereas Lingering Darkness grants additional damage after Shadow Blades expire, giving you some extra finishing power and swap potential.

Finally, we have Shadewalker. Every time you consume a stack of Deathstalkers, you'll gain 3 seconds off your Shadowstep cooldown.

Since we want to be hitting it into our mark anyway, this significantly enhances our mobility. Alright, it's time to shift our focus from Hero Talents to what you've all been waiting for.

Burst Sequences, coming up next.

SUB ROGUE BURST: DEATHSTALKER - KIDNEY SHOT

This is the part of the course that you have been waiting for. In this next section, we're going to be breaking down the exact sequences you should follow to achieve the highest burst damage possible.

To begin, make sure your target has Rupture and Wound Poison active. You'll then either re-stealth or use Vanish to activate Premeditation.

This setup ensures your next Shadow Strike grants full combo points and applies Deathstalker's Mark. You'll then use Kidney Shot and activate Shadow Dance, Symbols of Death, and Shadow Blades.

Followed by a quick sip of Thistle Tea. From here, use Shadow Strike into a devastating secret technique.

Follow it up with another Shadow Strike and this time into Eviscerate. You'll then re-stun with Cheap Shot, land another Eviscerate, and then finish strong with a final Cheap Shot.

SUB ROGUE BURST: DEATHSTALKER - CHEAP SHOT

In this video, we'll show you how to deal maximum burst damage with all cooldowns, leading with Cheap Shot as your stun. Just like before, we're ideally going to have Rupture already on the target, and of course, Wound Poison.

Then, if we want to deal maximum damage, we'll have to be in Stealth, which might mean committing our Vanish. We'll then use our Re-Stealth or Vanish to Shadow Strike, applying Deathstalker's Mark.

And we can now eviscerate to dump combo points and give us Finality. Following this, we'll pop all of our cooldowns, including Shadow Dance, Shadow Blades, Thistletee, and Symbols of Death.

And we'll want to be pressing Cheap Shot immediately, leaving the enemy no time to react. Now, we'll dump our combo points with Secret Technique into a Shadow Strike, followed by a huge eviscerate.

Now, we'll need to re-stun with another Cheap Shot, followed by yet another eviscerate, and then one more Cheap Shot into a full combo. And that's it.

If you're interested in how to deal maximum damage with your Vanish, eviscerate.

SUB ROGUE OPENER

Let's move past the theory and get to the practical. In this next part of our subtlety damage course, we're gonna guide you through the best strategies for how to approach openers.

Now, as you can probably guess, the rogue starts in stealth and pops sprint to quickly get into position and land a sap on the evoker before they have a chance to cast shroud. With a demon hunter on the enemy team, the window to get sap is gonna be pretty tight here.

The rogue has two options. They can either step to the demon hunter for a quick sap, hoping to follow up with a sap on the evoker to deny their shroud, or go for the evoker directly as they did here and secure the sap before the enemy team has a chance to do anything.

The rogue uses evasion offensively in the opener, and this is to prevent themselves from getting peeled, but the axe toss goes through anyway. Now, you're gonna notice that the rogue isn't trinketing here.

At this point, the rogue hasn't committed any cooldowns. With everything still available, it doesn't really make sense to trinket as they're just gonna get crowd-contacted and controlled again without a way to stop it.

Immediately after the stun wears off, the rogue pops shadow dance and shadow blades to kick off their burst. At the same time, they begin CCing the enemy team, starting with a cheap shot on the warlock.

This forces that warlock to trinket fear, and then the rogue immediately trinkets in response. Remember earlier when we talked about not trinketing because no cooldowns were running?

This is the exact opposite situation. The rogue has everything popped, and since subtlety relies entirely on their go to secure kills, trading their trinket here is definitely gonna be worth it to keep the momentum going.

Out of the fear, the rogue shadow steps to the evoker and lands a kidney shot while the windwalker bursts the warlock. Notice how the rogue is just standing on top of the evoker, not using any globals.

This isn't a mistake, it's intentional. The goal here is simple.

If the evoker trinkets, the rogue can instantly cheap shot them and follow up with a blind, which will almost guarantee the win. Since the evoker isn't trinket, the rogue starts putting their damage into the evoker.

They're able to do a considerable amount of damage, forcing the evoker to use emerald communion. The warlock then has to wall, and yet the evoker still has to trinket to save the warlock with time dilation.

In just one shadow dance, the rogue is forced two trinkets and almost every cooldown from the warlock and healer. This puts them into a perfect position to win on the next round.

The evoker is now able to use his trinket to save the warlock. The evoker is now able to use his trinket to save the warlock and healer at the next go.

SUB ROGUE WIN CONDITION

Alright, so far in this course we have outlined our goals in Arena, we've provided you with a straightforward damage priority, thoroughly explored each and every ability, and even covered how you should be approaching openers.

Now, it's finally time to bring it all together and demonstrate precisely how you should use all of this knowledge to win you games. Now, your win condition hinges on how well your setup goes and which cooldowns you're able to force.

Remember that opener clip where the Rogue forced two trinkets in nearly every cooldown? That kind of momentum is how you win the game.

Because Subtlety Rogue isn't a PvE class, if you miss your window to secure the kill, you go back to churning through the enemy's cooldowns until you can create another opportunity. There are really two win conditions for Sub Rogue, and both revolve around crowd control.

The first is pretty straightforward. Pair all your cooldowns with CC on the healer to close out the game when necessary.

Simple enough, right? The second win condition involves using Smoke Bomb so that even if the healer has a trinket, they still can't save the kill target.

Since we don't have Shadowy Duel anymore, Bomb is really going to be our only reliable way to secure kills when the healer still has their trinket. So let's break down both of these situations.

Let's start with this VOD here. The Rogue opens with Shadow Dance on the Demon Hunter, while their healer lands a full fear on the enemy Priest.

Both the Priest and the Demon Hunter have no trinkets, so this is a textbook win condition. We've got cooldowns, and they don't have cooldowns.

The Rogue follows up with a Kidney Shot to restun the Priest, then chains it into a DR Blind, just enough crowd control to secure the kill. Whenever the enemy team has no trinkets, your next move is to identify the easiest kill target for your next go.

In this case, Demon Hunters are especially vulnerable to Rogues, while Priests have passive damage and a lot of damage. So if you're going to go for a kill, you're going to have to take a look at this clip.

The Druid still has their trinket and is an NCC, but the enemy Rogue has no trinket, which makes them the kill target. So when it's time to go, they drop Smoke Bomb on the Rogue and pop all their cooldowns.

Meanwhile, the Holy Priest is zoning the Druid, boxing them out so that if they try to enter the bomb, they're going to get instantly killed. So, if you're going to go for a kill, you're going to have to take a look at this clip.

The Bomb ends and the enemy Rogue just barely hangs on, but the Chastise into Fear lands just in time, securing the kill before the Druid can react with Trinket. Crowd control is great, but Smoke Bomb can help us secure the win when the kill target has no trinket and we can deny healing with Bomb.

Now, the downside is that Bomb has a long cooldown, which means you're going to usually only get one or two uses per game, but even if Bomb doesn't land the kill, it often forces major cooldowns, which sets you up to close out the game the next time the enemy has no trinkets.

So while Bomb really isn't always consistent, it can still help you set up for a win down the line.