Reflecting on Subtlety Rogue in Dragonflight & War Within - An Editorial Wishlist

Dragonflight Retrospective: The Journey of Subtlety Rogue

As the sun sets on the Dragonflight expansion and The War Within looms on the horizon, it's time to take a reflective look at the evolution of the Subtlety Rogue specialization. In this retrospective, we will delve into the progress made by Subtlety Rogue in Dragonflight, discuss its strengths and weaknesses, and explore our hopes for its future in The War Within. So, let's dive in and explore the journey of the Subtlety Rogue in the Dragonflight expansion.

What Happened During Dragonflight?

• Overview

Dragonflight proved to be a favorable time for Subtlety Rogue, as the spec consistently performed well in all three raid tiers. While initially tuned to be weaker than the other two specializations, Subtlety Rogue often rose to the top after the other specs received nerfs. Let's take a brief look at each season of Dragonflight:

• Season 1: The talent tree design allowed for versatile combinations between single-target and AoE talents, enabling Subtlety Rogues to excel in fights like Raszageth, where they could deal significant damage at all stages of the fight.
• Season 2: Changes to talents empowering magic damage sources at the start of Season 2 provided a small compensation buff for Subtlety Rogue, making it one of the strongest performers in the early weeks. However, the spec fell off later due to weak set bonuses and low benefits from haste.
• Season 3: Season 3 introduced a talent tree rework, focusing on increasing damage output during cooldowns. This redesign allowed Subtlety Rogues to reach certain talents more easily, such as Invigorating Shadowdust, which proved vital for exceptional performance in encounters like Smolderon.

• The Evolution of Talents

The talent tree underwent significant changes during Dragonflight, providing both opportunities and challenges for Subtlety Rogues. In Season 1, players relied on a single talent build with the capstone talent Dark Brew. Season 2 introduced changes to talent choices with the new tier set, resulting in three unique talent options within a small DPS range. Season 3 brought further improvements, reducing the decisions between utility and damage and allowing for more precise control over specific talent options.

Overall, the talent tree's evolution in Dragonflight was a positive step forward for Subtlety Rogues, but there were still some areas that needed improvement. Let's explore some of these issues in more detail.

Talent Diversity (or the Lack Thereof)

While the talent tree redesign in Dragonflight aimed to provide diverse options for Subtlety Rogues, there were still a significant number of talents that didn't align well with the spec's gameplay. Many talents ended up being outdated or niche choices, and some previously good options became obsolete due to changes in spec design. As a result, Subtlety Rogues often found themselves choosing talents not because they were optimal, but because there were no better alternatives. Let's take a closer look at some of the outdated talents:

• Sepsis: This Covenant ability, even with Dark Brew, offered little reward for its complexity and added an extra cooldown to track with minimal benefits.
• Lingering Shadow, The Rotten, Perforated Veins, and Gloomblade: These talents empowered combo point builders but had special requirements and additional conditions, making them less effective for a spec focused on finisher damage.
• Shadow Focus, Master of Shadows, and The First Dance: With a high number of resource-generating talents in the tree, these talents added unnecessary complexity to resource management.
• Shuriken Tornado: This spell posed gameplay challenges with its delayed and time-sensitive nature, often resulting in lost combo points. It did not synergize well with other abilities like Shadow Blades and Shadowcraft.

Despite these weaknesses, there were also well-designed talents like Danse Macabre, Shadow Techniques, Shadowcraft, and Invigorating Shadowdust that added creativity to the Subtlety Rogue gameplay.

Gameplay Complexity

Subtlety Rogue stands out as one of the most complex specializations in Dragonflight. The rework introduced numerous interactions and explanations for each spell, making it difficult for new players to grasp the spec's core gameplay loop. Additionally, each encounter demanded different cooldown usage, often requiring the use of spreadsheets and external resources to achieve optimal performance.

One of the primary culprits of this complexity is the talent Invigorating Shadowdust, which adds a second charge to Vanish and allows for more flexibility in its usage. However, the mismatched cooldown timers of various abilities in the spec make optimal cooldown alignment a challenging task. While this uniqueness adds excitement to the spec, it also results in a steeper learning curve.

Weaknesses

Dragonflight's focus on making Subtlety Rogue more burst-oriented came with a trade-off. The spec's low-target cleave damage was already mediocre but became even worse, sacrificing sustained AoE damage in the process. While these weaknesses had limited impact in raid encounters, they should be addressed to improve the spec's overall performance. Additionally, several bugs in the spec's gameplay were present in Dragonflight, some of which were turned into intentional mechanics by the development team.

Tier Sets

Tier sets in Dragonflight ranged from hit to miss for Subtlety Rogue. Season 1 saw a lackluster tier set that served its purpose for the first raid tier. Season 2 focused excessively on making underperforming talents relevant, resulting in unintuitive set bonuses. Season 3's tier set presented a significant improvement, emphasizing the spec's strengths and empowering finishing moves. However, it had some challenging elements to understand.

Conclusion

Subtlety Rogue showed significant progress during Dragonflight but still faced some hurdles. The talent tree's current state limits choice and diversity, while the spec's complexity raises the learning curve. However, the unique gameplay experience and strengths of the spec make it an exciting choice for players. The primary question moving forward is how these weaknesses will impact the spec in the long term, as tuning currently balances out the trade-offs reasonably.

Wishlist for The War Within

Looking ahead to The War Within expansion, there are several areas where Subtlety Rogue can be improved. The dominant choice of Invigorating Shadowdust could be iterated upon to allow more competitive alternatives. Additionally, leaning further into the shadow damage fantasy and reintroducing thematic effects like Banshee's Blight would enhance the spec's gameplay. Multi-target situations also need attention to create more meaningful trade-offs between finishing moves like Eviscerate and Secret Technique. Simplifying cooldown timings, such as aligning Flagellation and Shadow Blades, could also benefit Subtlety Rogue in the long run.

About the Author

This article was written by Fuu, a Rogue Theorycrafter specializing in Subtlety since the Legion expansion. Fuu is also a moderator in the Rogue Discord community, where they actively discuss rotation strategies and theories for simulation improvement. For any rogue-related discussions, you can reach Fuu on Discord under the handle .fuuu.

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