I need a small advice on Subtlety. There has been much more discussion about it since specs became much more “equal” as they nerfed Assassination. I am still quite new to Rogue!
My talents: Find Weakness, Shadow Focus, Marked for Death, Elusiveness, Prey on the Weak, Enveloping Shadows, Secret Technique.
I usually start with MfD followed by Nightblade, then Shadow Dance with Symbols of Death followed by Shadowstrike(s) and Eviscerate when having 4 or 5 Combo Points. I always try to re-apply SHadow dance to make the most of Symbols. After CDs, I keep Nightblade on a target and use Backstab as filler and Eviscerate as finisher.
The problem is that outside the Shadow Dance window everything gets really slow. Shadow Dance is on 1 min CD with two charges 2 for 5 sec so it is like 50 sec waiting at max. Now, I know it is all reduced by combo points spent but still there is always a significant gap when I just need to wait. This is especially noticeable after I finished a more demanding target, all my abilities are on CD, and I need to start another fight. It is really hard to build CPs and make Shadow Dance available soon enough.
I have been just wondering how do you overcome this problem with such a gap when Shadow Dance is not ready? I feel like I am doing something wrong. I really like Sub but this small detail is quite discouraging.
Feel free to check my build, you can trade some burst potential for sustain damage due to extra SD duration, extra charge and better cooldown resets via finishers.
You open from the stealth Shadow Strike, Shadow Strike, Cheap Shot, Nightblade. Then Shadow Dance, Symbol of Death, 2x Shadow Strike, Eviscerate, 2x Shadow Strike, Eviscerate. Then repeat. Refresh Nightblade when it ends, be mindful of energy, if you have less then half of a bar - better wait couple seconds then waist Shadow Dance. Use Shadow Blade when you need to burn something and Symbol of Death on CD since it’s not only damage bonus but also extra source of energy.
This way you can do more sustained damage on bosses, but it’s sub optimal from PvP perspective.
I would advise anyone to completely ignore this advice. I mean, your rotation is bad, your gear is bad (your mastery sucks unless its lying), your traits are bad.
Anyway sub is terrible; I can do similar burst with Assa using TB, just needs a little bit more set up but its more reliable.
if you wana somehow play sub, get a first dance and double precision, STACK the living crap out of mastery (and that means > 60% base) and maybe you’ll do okay but it is exceedingly frustrating to play
I’m speaking from the position of casual player that likes class (spec) fantasy and playing it despite being well aware that it’s a weakest one at the moment.
Considering secondary stats - haste was my priority, anything short of 15% makes the spec feels chunky too much “downtime”. My advice oriented on optimization regarding comfort and independence - every second you sit in a shadow dance you heal 3% of you max health (and if you do everything right - you heal a lot), you can easily solo any elite that is not 322 and even then sometimes you can. And in dungeon/raid healer does not have to bother with cheap damage that you take so he’ll have more time for your tank and dps when everyone topped off.
Judging by your gear - your main focus (at least one of them) in the game is PvP and I already mentioned that in my previous that is not an optimal build if there is one.