Subtlety Rogue PvP Talents and Builds — The War Within (11.0.5)

There is one viable talent build as Subtlety. It features all the talents that empower finishing moves in order to have powerful burst damage during Shadow Dance, especially with Shadow Blades active.

This build emphasizes the damage of your finishing moves - Eviscerate, Secret Technique and also Rupture. Multiple talents are picked to specifically make those spells more powerful. The goal is to have decent sustained damage with Rupture and swiftly dispatch your targets every kill attempt with huge hits from Secret Technique and Eviscerate.

Rupture is empowered by Dark Brew, which makes the damage become Shadow and increase it by 10%. Veiltouched increases it by another 5%, as Shadow damage is magic damage. Finality allows every second Rupture to be buffed by another 15% (Finality is halved in PvP combat). Deeper Daggers further empowers Rupture by 8% during your kill attempts, as it now deals Shadow damage. Add to that the modifiers that empower finishing moves, such as Deeper Stratagem and Secret Stratagem, as well as the modifiers that increase damage on your goes, such as the talent Dark Shadow and the spell Symbols of Death, and you have a very powerful Rupture.

Eviscerate is empowered by Shadowed Finishers, increasing its damage by 30% as Shadow. Because Shadow damage is magic, this part ignores armor. Dark Brew increases that part of the damage by 10%. Veiltouched increases it by another 5%. Finality allows every second Eviscerate to be buffed by another 15% (Finality is halved in PvP combat). And finally, Deeper Daggers further empowers the Shadow damage part by 8%. Add to that the modifiers that empower finishing moves, such as Deeper Stratagem and Secret Stratagem, as well as the modifiers that increase damage on your goes, such as the talents Dark Shadow and Danse Macabre and the spell Symbols of Death and you have a very powerful Eviscerate.

Last but not least Secret Technique is empowered the same way as Eviscerate, Shadowed Finishers and Finality aside. While the initial hit from Secret Technique deals Physical damage the two following hits from your shadow clones deal Shadow damage. This is why every modifier mentioned above works with Secret Technique. As such, it is essential to use Eviscerate shortly before Secret Technique in order to activate Deeper Daggers for a substantial damage increase.

Deathstalker is a great pick for Subtlety. Since Shadowstrike is one of your main abilities you won't have to think to apply Deathstalker's Mark, it will come naturally with your rotation. The talents Ethereal Cloak and Shadewalker give you more survivability and mobility respectively. But the reason why this Heroic Talent tree is good is the last talent, Darkest Night. When it is available your next Eviscerate will deal massive damage. Plus, during Shadow Blades, since you generate full Combo Points everytime you use a builder, you might be able to trigger Darkest Night two or three times which will make your burst very deadly. And last, the talent Lingering Darkness will grant you extra Shadow damage once Shadow Blades expires. That means you can burst your target with Shadow Blades, and once your kill attempt is over you will be able to burst them again with Lingering Darkness on the next kill attempt since your Secret Technique deals Shadow damage (and part of Eviscerate does as well).

You can choose three of the following PvP talents; each has uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful but can be replaced with other PvP talents depending on your team's goal.

Smoke Bomb creates a smoke cloud around you. Enemy players who are outside the cloud will not be able to target anyone inside it. This talent is mandatory for multiple reasons. Firstly, it can help you land a kill by stunning a target when they have no trinket. By using Smoke Bomb right after the stun, you will prevent the healer from saving their teammate. Secondly, you can use it defensively to save yourself or an ally from a lethal cast about to go off, such as Greater Pyroblast. And lastly, you can use it to prevent incoming crowd control on you or your team if such crowd control would result in you losing a game, such as a Polymorph or Repentance on your healer when they have no trinket, and you are low on health. As you can see, this talent is helpful in many different situations, which is why it is so powerful. Note that, as Subtlety, the cooldown is only 2 minutes.

Shadowy Duel places you and the enemy you cast this on in a duel. You can only interact with each other and no one else for 5 seconds. This talent is mighty. You can use it on an enemy at low health to prevent the enemy healer from saving them while you finish them off. If you do not have the damage to do so, you can use it on the enemy healer to give time to your teammates to finish off your kill target. You can also use it on an enemy killing one of your teammates. Since they will be locked in the Duel with you, they can no longer attack your allies. You can also use it on an enemy casting a significant spell on one of your allies. Since you will phase them in the Duel with you, they will never throw the spell. One thing worth knowing is that inside a Shadowy Duel, everyone has Truesight, which means that both you and your enemy will see through Stealth or other invisibility spells. The consequence is that if you try to Duel an enemy to save an ally and then Vanish to be safe, the enemy will still be able to see you and kill you. In the same way, if you Duel a Rogue and he uses Vanish, you will be able to see him, Sap him, or kill him.

Thief's Bargain is a PvP talent with a lot of potential. Having Vanish more often means you can survive more or set up more for your team. Alongside the talent Without a Trace that gives you a second Vanish you have it very, very often !

Dismantle is a strong PvP talent that allows you to disarm an enemy for 6s every 45s. It is a great pick against Warriors, Hunters, and Rogues. Disarming an enemy can delay their next kill attempt or stop it entirely if they have pulled the trigger.

Veil of Midnight has become a decent defensive option in some specific scenarios since it was recently nerfed. It allows Cloak of Shadows to cleanse physical debuffs on top of magic ones. It is very useful against Feral Druid, Assassination Rogue, or even Arms Warrior.

Thick as Thieves is a strong PvP talent when playing a setup comp with an ally with very high burst. With this, you can further amplify their burst damage by 15% for 6s, which can be the reason why the target dies. The downside of this talent is that you have to spend a point in Tricks of the Trade, something you don't necessarily want to do.