Subtlety Rogue PVP Guide WoW Cataclysm Classic

Published on 5/1/2024

Rogue is a solid class. Also, it's easy to find a team comp for arena as Sub Rogue or RBG team.

Subtlety Rogue PVP Guide WoW Cataclysm Classic

Pros and Cons to pick Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic

Pros

  • Many arena comps in any PVP bracket (2s, 3s, RBG)
  • Amazing survivability
  • Ton of utility on arena or battlegrounds

Cons

  • Required a good cooldown management
  • Almost all team comps are very skillbased and very depended on your skill
  • You must keep the balance between crowd control enemies and burst target
  • Sometimes it's hard to have a good position on arena

Stat priority

  1. 5% Hit - Do not required to get more Hit in PVP
  2. Crit - in the 1st season of WoW Cataclysm Classic you can prioritize this stat due to lack of resilience
  3. Haste - more Haste -> faster Energy Regen
  4. Mastery - sadly, but our mastery is garbage, so try to avoid this stat

In short 5% Hit > Crit > Haste > Mastery

You can reforge all mastery in to the Hit till the cap, and afterwards to the Crit. Expertise is not a stat in PVP. Do not try to get a cap in early seasons. Also, in theory Spell Penetration is a thing for rogue, but do not try to use it in Subtlety build because it's mostly for Mutilate rogue in the last season.

Races for Subtlety Rogue in PVP

Alliance: Human (pvp trinket ability is very cool on rogues) > Dwarf (stoneskin might be useful) > Night Elf (Shadowmeld is still useful)

Horde: Orc (additional attack power from ability and reduced stun duration) > Blood Elf (AoE Silence) > Undead (Sadly, Will of the Forsaken share 30s cooldown with PVP trinket) > Troll (Haste popup, but it's worst choice for PVP sub rogue)

Talent Build

SubRogueBuild

it's standard build for new players as Subtlety Rogue. If you become more experienced you will adjust it. Most likely you will remove Improved Recuperate for Punctured Wounds, but I do not recommend to do it if you are never played arena as Rogue in WoW Cataclysm.

Glyphs

Prime Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Shadow Dance - must have for sub rogue
  2. Glyph of Hemorrhage - it is not your spam ability anymore but it provide additional bleed that increased your damage on 16%
  3. Glyph of Backstab - reduce energy on Backstab use. And that is your main ability in this build

Major Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Preparation - increase your utility
  2. Glyph of Garrote - increased silence duration is very strong against any caster comp, or and heals (except dwarf comps)
  3. Glyph of Blind - remove all DoT's from the target. Recommended for new rogues. However, if your comp doesn't have many DoT's or you know that you can play without it you can pick Glyph of Cloak of Shadows, or even Glyph of Vanish vs mirror comps

Minor Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Poisons - sometimes it's important to re-apply or apply different poisons during arena match
  2. Glyph of Blurred Speed - it's useful on AB because you can just run on BS. However, the good choice is Glyph of Distract if you prefer more arena like glyph
  3. Glyph of Safe Fall - just useful glyph on BGs

Gems

  • Red: Delicate Inferno Ruby
  • Orange: (you will use them in yellow socket slots): Deadly Ember Topaz
  • Purple: (you will use them in blue socket slots): Glinting Demonseye
  • Meta socket: Agile Shadowspirit Diamond; Or you can use Cogwheel socket if you decide to use engineering helm

Professions

The best choice will be Jewelcrafting (JC only gems are amazing!) and Tailoring (cloak enchant is the best one) but it's pretty expensive.

The decent choice is Tailoring and Engineering. The cloak enchant and enchant on gloves from engineering is a very good for burst gameplay as sub rogue.

If you have a rogue from WOTLK, it will have BS + JC most likely. It's still a strong profession setup and you can keep use it. But Tailoring instead of BS is slightly better.

Poisons that we will use on Arena in the most of matches

  1. Main hand - Wound Poison
  2. Off Hand - Crippling Poison
  3. Thrown - Crippling Poison. Against hard caster setups you can use Mind-Numbing Poisong.

Keep in mind, Rogue is a very suitable class. It means, you can use other poisons against exact arena comp that you meet in arena, And we provided the guide for new players. If you are on advanced level you can know what poisons are better in this situation

Arena Comps for Subtlety Rogue in WoW Cataclysm Classic

2s Bracket

RM - Rogue Mage. This comp will require a good communication but it's easy way to high rating.

DP + R - Discipline Priest and Rogue. It's very default comp. Many crowd control, very safe gameplay due ton of utility from both classes. Recommended for new players.

SP + R - Shadow Priest and Rogue. It's a very skill based comp due to lack of sustain. But if you can place CC in the right moment - you will annihilate most of the targets. Fun to play, but very hard to be a master on high rate.

Retri + Rogue. Just perform a good open and try to oneshot enemy player. Easy to start - hard to play above 2k rate.

Feral Druid + Rogue. It's very hard comp due to lack of sustain and very CC depended. However, this comp might be on the equal rate as RM.

3s Bracket

RMP - Rogue Mage Discipline Priest. The classic comp that require a good teamplay and CC the enemy team. Godlike comp for you if you are very skilled as Rogue.

RLD - Rogue Warlock Restoration Druid. Weaker than RMP but easier to play as Rogue due to easier opener. Every class in this comp have hard CC, so it's easier than RMP and, also, usually it counters it.

Also, the Rogue is a good part of some melee cleave 3s comps

Useful Macro

Spamable Stealth button

#showtooltip Stealth
/cast !Stealth

Blind in target, and Blind in focus

#showtooltip Blind
/cast [nomod] Blind
/cast [mod:shift, target=focus] Blind

Gouge in target, and Gouge in focus

#showtooltip Gouge
/cast [nomod] Gouge
/cast [mod:shift, target=focus] Gouge

Sap the nearest target

#showtooltip Sap
/cleartarget
/targetenemyplayer
/cast [harm, nodead] Sap

You can write more useful macro's for your Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot, Kick, Shadowstep abilities just use this templates.

Good luck on Arena in World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic!