PvP vs Raid as Subtlety

~ By Akhellar

Alright, this one piece is about my personal thoughts about PvP’ing and Raiding as Subtlety spec, so if you were looking for a guide of sorts about pvp and said talent build, this isn’t it.

Ok, so I decided that, since I epically fail at PvP, yet three of the people in the guild have asked me to join their 2v2 Arena team, I’d give Subtlety build a spin, also, I was very interested in seeing how Cheat Death works now (not that I had tried it pre-“nerf”, mind you). So I went and blew 20 gold to reset my talents, got my daggers out of my bank, and went off to Warsong Gulch.

After a short time of running around and whacking hordies here and there. It was interesting to see how my own style of playing changed so much compared to when I was combat and I was surprised to see how well I actually adjusted to the difference between builds.

Anyway, I’ll put a break here and go on full out after the break.

Very well then, I chose this build, basing it off of our top PvP rogue but tweaking it a bit to what I thought I needed…right…Ok I’ll be honest, I’m writing this AFTER going back to Combat for our 25-man raids, so the actual build is something like it, I just can’t remember what ^^;;

It’s a pretty standard build (I did go look around a few on the armory), with the exception of taking Sleight of Hand, to make up a bit for my lack of resilience, Ghostly Strike, I saw that one lacking in a lot of PvP rogues, not sure why, however I took it because of the nice boost to dodge, allows me to have a good enough dodge percent without having to blow Evasion. Last but not least, I took Cheat Death because….well, because I forgot to NOT take it.

Why didn’t I want to take it? According to my understanding of the Patch Notes and the comments in some blogs, the “nerf” made it so you needed a lot of resilience to make Cheat Death worth taking. Given my lack of the aforementioned stat, I KNEW it was going to blow. My 25 Resilience made my Cheat Death absorbe a whopping total of 27 damage before the effect ended.

How did it go on PvP Aspect?

I had a blast really, it was awesome. I noticed a need in the change of pace of my own actions, and I gave in to that need, I was moving faster, and I was hitting way harder. Classes that could easily kite and kill me before were unsuccessful at doing so now. I could trully see the difference.

Now, I’m really no expert about PvP, in fact I actually still suck, so feel free to completely smash the following lines/paragraphs. My normal line of attacks were (after a few Raid-rotation attempts while getting out of the habit) Cheap shot to open, followed by two or three Hemorrhage, then as soon as the cheap shot was running out, I used Kidney Shot, Hemorrhage again until the KS is about to run out…that’s where I mess up, I’m too…wary of using my cooldowns like Vanish and Blind, I guess that’s the PvE part of me getting in the way, cooldown management and stuff like that.

Overall, it was really nice, I know Killing Blows don’t mean much in a battleground, but it made me feel good opening the scoreboard and seeing myself above all the rest, even in AV, on both total damage and Killing Blows, for a change. Now…about Cheat Death, and my “nerf” thing. Notice the quotes?, Ok, I don’t think it was a nerf, Sinister Calling, yes it was, but not Cheat Death. I see that as a fix…rogues now need resilience, that’s Ok with me.

How did it go on the PvE Aspect?

Here’s the issue, according to Recount, unbuffed and killing Talbuks in Nagrand, I lost 300 DPS by going Subtlety, however, I could plow thru mobs so fast while doing dailies it was not even funny….Ok that was a lie, it was fun!, and the best thing? A tree-druid got jumped on by a MS Warrior and a Hunter, and got killed, while doing the Crush the Dawnblade quest. I didn’t like that…so I slaughtered them….twice!. Then a silly warlock filled me up with DOT’s, I couldn’t see him, OHNOES! whatever will I do!, sit and die not even seeing my murderer’s face!?…NO!, Cloak of Shadows, Shadowstep and BAM!, silly warlock fell dead.

Shoot I still didn’t see his face…Oh well.

When it comes to raiding, I really didn’t dare trying it today (er, yesterday, happens to be 2 AM right now) at Gruul and Magtheridon, however I did try this in Karazhan, and here’s the thing, on trash, I kept an almost permanent 50% DPS lead over the rest of the dps people, once the first bosses started going down, so did my DPS.

Final Thoughts

In short, the burst is awsome, but in long term boss situations it doesn’t really compare with Combat. Although I already knew that much, both from reading and from experiencing (we had a rogue that used to raid Hemo-spec), but it was fun to try it myself, and in a way it was a challenge, staying among the top DPS while PvP spec. I finished 2nd, at Shade. After that I had to pull my priest in.

I also missed a lot the crazy energy generation rate that Combat Potency brings, and due to my low-ish hit rating (266 Hit), the lack of Precision was noticeable, as well as the lack of Surprise Attacks when trying to apply Rupture.

The combo point generation was great however, and locking mobs in place is very enjoyable, when they’re not immune to stuns and CC mechanics. Something only doable in trash pulls and a limited amount of sub-bosses. I also thought the dps boost for the rest of our physical dps in the raid would be nice with Hemorrhage but the charges got used so fast I found myself having to spam it to keep it up.

I went back to my old combat build for Gruul, Magtheridon and SSC for now as it is needed right now, maybe in the future and with more gear I’d switch back, but for now I see more advantages in combat-raid than otherwise.