The top rated rogues in Cataclysm have chosen the subtlety tree for arenas. Now, I’m not saying that the other rogue specs aren’t viable for PvP, but why try to reinvent the wheel. The subtlety tree has proven itself in the PvP world; its just up to you to choose the proper talents that will give you the biggest advantage against your opponent. Top rogues focus on talents that will give them the best possible burst dps while maintaining maximum survivability. These are the best talents for achieving those goals.

Click these links to jump to a specific talent tree.

Subtlety Talents
Combat Talents
Assassination Talents
Unused/Optional Talents

 Subtlety Tree

Night Stalker: Increases your speed while stealthed by 15% and reduces the cooldown of your stealth ability by 6 sec.

• This is crucial for positioning for an attack, as a rogue, starting the fight properly can mean the difference between a win or a loss.

• The 6 sec cooldown reduction puts your stealth on a 4 second cooldown, which makes resetting a fight easier. Just get out of combat, eat some food and go in for a second assault.


Improved Ambush: Increased the critical strike chance of your ambush ability by 60% and its damage by 15%.

• This combined with shadow dance can result very high burst damage.

Relentless Strikes: Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy.

• Cant dps without energy, 25 energy return after using 5 combo points is great regeneration.

Elusiveness: Reduces the cooldown of your vanish and blind abilities by 60 sec and your cloak of shadows by 20 sec.

• This talent greatly increases your survivability. These three abilities alone make fighting a rogue frustrating and this talent lets you use them even more! Casters especially will hate you for this one. These are powerful abilities that can easily decide the outcome of a fight.

Opportunity: Increases the damage dealt with your backstab, mutilate, garrote and ambush abilities by 30%.

• This talent is a must. Backstab is a sub rogues primary attack and can do some incredible damage if speced properly.

Initiative: Gives you a 50% chance to add an additional combo point to your target when using your ambush, garrote, or cheap shot ability.

• This talent is optional, but the point must be placed within the subtlety tree to reach the 31 point minimum requirement. I chose it because it can increase dps slightly.

Energetic Recovery: Empowers your recuperate ability, causing its periodic effect to also restore 12 energy.

• Since you should have recuperate active 100% of the time during fights, this talent is a no brainer. Extra energy = more dps.

Find Weakness: Your ambush, garrote, and cheap shot abilities reveal a flaw in your target’s defenses, causing all your attacks to bypass 70% of that enemy’s armor for 10 sec.

• Allows extra burst damage when you use your strongest abilities

• Used when you open on a target as well as when you use shadow dance.

Hemorrhage: An instant strike that deals 110% weapon damage (more when using a dagger) and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 1 min.

• Some people hesitate to take this one, but it is necessary. Although it does less damage, it can be used in place of back stab if backstab is unusable in a certain situation.

• Once you get Sanguinary Vein you will also be doing an extra 10% damage to your target

• Just use Hemorrhage once, for the bleed effect, then use your normal rotation.

Honor Among Thieves: Increases the critical strike chance of all party and raid members by 5%. When any player in your party or raid critically hits with a spell or ability, you have a 100% chance to gain a combo point on your current target. This effect cannot occur more than once every 2 seconds.

• 5% extra critical strike is huge for sub rogues because our damage is based off of critical strike.

• The extra combo points are great for gathering some extra combo points.

Premeditation: When used, adds 2 combo points to your target. You must add to or use those combo points within 20 sec or the combo points are lost

• Free combo points! Some strategies involve using the combo points from this ability to activate recuperate before opening on an opponent. This assures 100% up time on recuperate.

Preparation: When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your sprint, vanish, and shadowstep abilities.

• Best used if you are about to die. Can be used to finish off an opponent at a distance if shadowstep in on cooldown or to vanish and cheap shot someone who needs some stunning.

Slaughter from the Shadows: Reduces the energy cost of your backstab and ambush abilities by 20, and the energy cost of your hemorrhage and fan of knives abilities by 6.

• Once again, ambush and backstab will be your main abilities and saved energy translates to more dps.

Shadow Dance: Enter the shadow dance for 6 sec, allowing the use of sap, garrote, ambush, cheapshot, premeditation, pickpocket and disarm trap regardless of being stealthed.

• Best used when at max energy

• Typically, you will use (ambush x2 then eviscerate) X2, meaning you will be able to use ambush + ambush + eviscerate then ambush + ambush + eviscerate. This will provide the best dps, but it may be necessary to use garrote for the silence effect.

 Combat Tree Improved Recuperate: Causes your recuperate ability to restore an additional 2% of your maximum health and reduces all damage taken by 6% while your recuperate ability is active.

• Provides great survivability by giving you some extra damage reduction with decent hp regeneration.

 Assassination Tree Coup de Grace: Increases the damage done by your eviscerate and envenom abilities by 14%.

• 2 points here because eviscerate isn’t your biggest damage dealer, but we need 5 total to get to the second part of the tree.

Lethality: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your sinister strike, backstab, mutilate and hemorrhage abilities by 30%.

• This is crucial for sub rogue dps because sub damage is based off of critical strike.

Puncturing Wounds: Increases the critical strike chance of your backstab ability by 30%, and the critical strike chance of your mutilate ability by 15%.

• Another must have for a sub rogue. 30% extra crit is huge.

 Some optional talents that can be used

 Waylay: Your ambush and backstab hits have a 50% chance to unbalance a target, increasing the time between their melee and ranged attacks by 20%, and reducing movement speed by 50% for 8 sec.

• This is a good talent to pick up if you want throw one point into it. Initiative isn’t necessary or crucial to sub rogue dps, so the point can be taken from there.

• I would only put one point into this talent because adding a second point into this talent will only increase your chance to cause the waylay effect. Since you will be using backstab so much, a second point isn’t necessary.

• You can also leave this talent out entirely if you have crippling poison on your offhand.

• If you have this talent, putting mind numbing poison or wound poison may be the best option for your offhand poison.

Cheat Death: You have a 100% chance that an attack which would otherwise kill you will instead reduce you to 10% of your maximum health. In addition, all damage taken will be reduced by 90% for 3 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.

• This talent effectively gives you a second life.

• If you have to have this one, 2 points can be taken from Honor Among Thieves – so you still get your 5% extra crit – and the point from Initiative/Waylay.

Precision: Increases your chance to hit with weapon and poison attacks by 6%.

• Necessary hit for pvp is 5%, so 2 points can be placed here.

• This talent isn’t the best place for your points in my opinion because you can easily get enough hit rating from your gear. This way you can use your talent points to increase the damage of your main abilities.

Quickening: All healing effects on you are increased by 20% and your movement speed is in increased by 15%. This does stack with other movement speed increasing effects.

• This is great for added survivability, but you will have to drop points from Puncturing Wounds. I’m just not willing to drop 20% crit chance from Backstab for a little bit more healing.

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Subtlety Rogue gems, gear, enchants, reforging
Why choose the subtlety tree?