Patch 9.0.5 brought a lot of changes in a variety of classes but Rogues in particular have had fixes and a lot of them in 9.0.5. Some of them are small like simple bug fixes and others have been straight up covenant ability redos. Not a complete rework starting from the bottom up from scratch but rather a change up that allows Rogues to play more than just Kyrian and Night Fae. With Venthyr and Necrolord becoming more prominent, allowing all three specs to really highlight different aspects of themselves particularly for Assassination and Outlaw.
0:37 Speaking about Assassin, Rogues have gotten a couple changes when it comes to classes but Assassins should get in some of the biggest ones allowing itself to become one of the more played and more viable specs in this patch in particular. So Outlaw did not really change much, it just basically got more stuff to play with especially the Necrolord covenant and AOE. Making its AOE damage even more impressive and then Assassination with some of the changes it’s looking really good for single target. However, how is Subtlety Rogue doing and is it able to compete against the other Rogues? The reason I am asking this question is because some of you guys have actually had legitimate concerns. Is Subtlety basically being BFA 2.0, as we know back in BFA everyone played Outlaw, Assassin and Subtlety just did not really get the same treatment and changes as the other two. And then less and less people started playing the spec overall. And then it kind of became a bit of a meme at least in PVE content. These are the questions that were actually asked on stream.
Is Subtlety kind of shafted off to the side for Assassination and Outlaw since Assassination is the new single target master. Take a look at some of the sims and these are just sims of like pure patchwork as in no big mechanics, not a lot of movement just single target training the bosses down. Assassination is doing really well in pure single target. Don’t get me wrong, Outlaw and Subtlety are not super behind but it looks like the Subtlety Rogue used to be the pure single target champion. As a reason, it looks like Assassination has kind of taken over which is awesome, we are going to see more Assassination. There are people playing the spec right now in pure single target and are doing well in logs in certain fights. Some are cheesing with PI, getting multiple iterations of PI or even fairy buff from the priests and raids but Rogues that are not cheesing super hard are still able to put up good numbers and bring great numbers against the boss inside of a raid.
To no surprise, Outlaw is really good in AOE sims, it is not really all that new but Subtlety and Assassination are pretty close when it comes to AOE. There are already two categories where you have the other two specs dominating- full AOE for Outlaw and full single target where Subtlety used to be the king, now it is Assassination. There is also another sim we could take a look at and that’s a raid boss with ads, as in the boss is going to have ads around him. The boss damage is important here, as in the funnel damage so the boss goes down. It is also very important to do damage to enemies around you.
3:08 Assassination has decent AOE damage and quite good boss funnel damage. Outlaw has great exceptional AOE ads damage and decent boss funnel damage but again mostly focused on adds. Subtlety we see a little bit of falloff, is kind of mediocre at AOE and kind of okay at hitting the boss but in pure sims, again not a lot of mechanics going on, purely just standing there DPS-ing things thus it is falling a little bit behind. I think that is where we can have potential problems with Subtlety, because it is not just really extremely good at this one thing. And with a class full of three DPS specs Mages, Warlocks and Hunters, if Hunter survival was the top DPS spec we will probably see a lot more of them however it is Marksman right now. That’s why we have seen a lot of Marksman. And I think it is very similar to Rogue, we are going to see a lot of Outlaw because AOE damage is really good. We will probably see a lot more of Assassination because they are simming incredibly well. And Subtlety while not a bad spec, is not just super dominant in any of the fields we see so far. Sims will take you only so far so let’s take a look at how the spec plays when it comes to dungeons as well as raids and mythic pluses.
It’s been quite a while since I last played Subtlety and it was a very enjoyable experience this spec owns. Some of the things I noticed about the spec, starting with burst. The burst is incredible and for Subtlety it is really easy to turn the damage from a 1 to an 11 in a heartbeat. The other specs would need maybe a buff set up or a bit of a bleed set up with a Vendetta but Subtlety can just do it on a whim anytime it wants. You could just turn up damage and you have cooldowns that are so short you always can have some phase where you do big damage to a boss or to adds instead of a trash pack very very easily. Your AOE rotation is also really simple and you are going to be facing a lot of enemies when it comes to AOE enemies and AOE adds because you just press Shuriken Storm and Black Powder. You need to maintain slice and dice and you need to rupture here and there. If you are running a secret technique you should press that too from your talents. However if for the most part you’re just pressing Shuriken Storm into Black Powder, that’s good and very simple to do.
We can’t just compliment Subtlety, so what are the things I did not like about it? It has a bit of a dead spot for two target or three target cleave. The single target feels great and feels smooth. The AOE feels super easy to execute and between manage and slice and dice and also a couple of ruptures, that all feels fine. Where it does not feel as satisfying is the two target and three target combo. For Outlaw as long as you are attacking more than one target, you get big AOE damage and you basically perform in single target play style the whole time. With Assassination you put up bleeds which do damage because of mastery but they also give you back energy so there is interactiveness between that play style of donning multiple enemies. And those bleeds will give you a bunch of energy so you can spin Fan of Knives over and over and then it is easier for you to manage those DoTs. Subtlety on two target and three target puts up rupture on two enemies and you do not have that same cool interaction as Assassination with the energy regen. On three targets you will start using Black Powder but that ability can do so much more damage on four higher targets. So to me it did not feel nearly as satisfying. It is serviceable damage but on two targets and three targets is where I think the gap is for the spec.
6:44 Another cool thing about Subtlety is the specific play style of funneling. Every time you press Shuriken Storm, you generate a bunch of common points and you can choose to spend them on whatever you want to. Normally in AOE trash packs you will use it on black powder. Technically Subtlety has a play style where you could use it in order to funnel common points and single target damage into a singular enemy. Imagine yourself in the mythic plus, you got a really bad pull and you spawn a prideful add that’s all surrounded by a bunch of mobs and a dungeon. You kind of want to help out your team and do that single target nuking damage to the prideful. And that was one of those things that Subtlety could uniquely do above all the other specs. Ever since in Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard took away the ability for your Shuriken Storm whenever it generates common points from nearby enemies to buff the damage of eviscerate where Blizzard supported that funneling play style. With Shadowlands, they gave you an AOE finisher which means you have a lot more spread damage but you still have the unique mechanic of funneling. I think that mechanic while it is an aspect, it falls a little bit behind because there’s other classes that can do this funneling better like Unholy DK and Windwalker Monks for example. Those classes simply do more damage the more enemies are around. Whether they debuff them like a Monk with punches and kicks or Unholy DK would make all their DoTs explode at the same time. So you have classes who are able to do high single target boss damage while also not having to sacrifice AOE damage. Subtlety will have to sacrifice on the AOE or single target which again does give you this play style but there’s other classes that can do that better. So in a sense Subtlety in the sims it’s kind of behind the other specs slightly. And there’s the unique aspect that Subtlety can do but there’s whole other classes that can do that just a little bit better. Those two things will put Subtlety in a weird position when it comes to trying to maximize the value of how much damage you can do for a group whether it’s out on raid or inside of a dungeon. The spec is not bad, it’s far from it. Subtlety’s damage is still serviceable, not at the bottom of the charts. The damage is there and pretty competitive however it just does not really translate nearly as well into PVE now that Assassination got a hefty buff.
Prior to this, Outlaw and Subtlety were the only two specs that were viable but now that Assassination is in play, it feel like Subtlety had the advantage of pure single target just kind of lost it a little. And there’s definitely a potential for Subtlety in the future where I think the spec is simply going to scale out of control. Whereas we get better secondary stats, crit, master and versatility once you hit certain breakpoints that’s when you will really start to shine. The way Subtlety is right now in 9.0.5, it is true that this spec did not really get too many updates with this patch. Certain covenants are a lot stronger so there are cool choices but some of the Rogues are switching from Subtlety to Assassination, if you are trying yo maximize that single target.