Subtlety Rogue PvP Best Arena Compositions — The War Within (11.0.5)

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

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)