#subtlety-faq

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Midnight Overview

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Subtlety has received a large amount of changes going into Midnight with the aim of making the spec less complicated and easier to play, however the core principal of "Press Shadow Dance and do big damage" has remained and been reinforced even more. Here are some of the most notable changes:

  • Flagellation Flagellation has been removed.
  • Symbols of Death SymbolsofDeath has been removed.
  • Rupture Rupture has been removed.
  • The cooldown reduction per combo point spent on ShadowDance and SecretTechnique has been removed.
  • ShadowBlades now doubles combo points generated rather than always filling them to full.
  • The combo point refund part of Shadowcraft has been partially moved over to the last Apex talent ancientarts.
  • Several new/reworked talents like Deepening Shadows make Haste a more desirable stat.
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Talent Builds

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Single Target

Deathstalker:

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Trickster (Recommended):

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Mythic+

Trickster (Recommended):

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Pure ST deathstalker comes out ahead, but it falls of very quickly whenever there are more than one target compared to trickster. Almost all raid encounters in midnight have several additional mobs so i'd recommend playing Trickster.

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Stats

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Agility (Item level) > Haste (650-700) >= Mastery = Crit > Vers

With the new Haste scaling talents it is no longer a completely wasted stat for Subtlety. However most of the value of Haste is allowing you to fit extra globals into ShadowDance, which means that we have breakpoints where haste is good and where it isn't as good. Deathstalker is looking for ~1100 haste and Trickster ~700, so thats what you primarily should be aiming for (AFTER Oils and/or Flasks). The rest of your stats should be spent on Mastery and Crit. In AoE scenarios Mastery shoots up in value but you should generally still try to get the Haste breakpoint. To get the most accurate information for your character it is recommended to use Raidbots Top Gear.

Sidenote: If you do not yet posses a Light Company Guidon and are playing Trickster, you likely want to aim for atleast ~800 haste instead of the recommended above. This is so you can fit a second SecretTechnique into your ShadowBlades window.

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Rotation

The rotation is simplified compared to TWW. There are some minor things to play around but for the most part the spec is now very straightforward with the rotation looking something like this:

  • Cast ShadowDance Shadow Dance when SecretTechnique Secret Technique is ready or ShadowBlades Shadow Blades is up.
  • Cast ShadowBlades Shadow Blades during ShadowDance Shadow Dance.
  • Cast SecretTechnique Secret Technique during ShadowDance Shadow Dance with 6 or more combo points.
  • Cast coupdegrace Coup de Grace to spend combo points when you have 6 or more.
  • Cast Eviscerate Eviscerate with 2 or less targets, BlackPowder Black Powder if there are more.
  • Inside ShadowDance Shadow Dance to build combo points: Cast ShadowStrike Shadowstrike with 3 or less targets, otherwise ShurikenStorm Shuriken Storm.
  • Outside ShadowDance Shadow Dance to build combo points: Cast Backstab Backstab with 1 target, otherwise ShurikenStorm Shuriken Storm.

Below are some minor optimizations you can do once you have a grasp of the basics:

  • You can use one ShadowDance Shadow Dance before the pull to start the fight with 2 supercharged combo points. (anything above that will reset)
  • Making sure to always get 2 ShadowDance Shadow Dances during ShadowBlades Shadow Blades by holding ShadowDance Shadow Dance+SecretTechnique Secret Technique if ShadowBlades Shadow Blades has less than 10 seconds left of its cooldown.
  • Try to not finish a few seconds before you're gonna enter ShadowDance Shadow Dance to save up some extra shadowtechniques Shadow Techniques stacks.
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  • You want your second ShadowDance to cover the last 8 seconds of ShadowBlades, this means that you wont supercharge SecretTechnique but thats okay in this instance. Just be sure to cast it immediately on cooldown.
  • Generally Trickster wants to enter ShadowDance at full cp and deathstalker with low cp.
  • Because of Deepening Shadows extending the duration of ShadowDance its very important to try to use your abilities immediately when they are ready so you do not end up casting them 0.2 seconds later outside of it. To help with this you can use macros like these to remove some of the delays in between your button presses:
    As tricksterTrickster
    ⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨ #showtooltip /cast Shadow Dance /cast Secret Technique⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩
    As Deathstalker deathstalkermark (explanation further down)
    ⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨ #showtooltip /cast Shadow Dance /cast Shuriken Storm⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩
  • As Trickster Trickster on all target counts: Try to ensure that you always have ancientarts active for your supercharged non-Secret Technique Finisher during ShadowDance. (This can mean using ShadowStrike/ShurikenStorm at full CP to activate it)
    This looks complicated but it effectively sorts itself out if you follow the rotational tips listed above.
  • As Deathstalker deathstalkermark with 4 or less targets: Try to ensure that you always have ancientarts active for your Darkest Night buffed Eviscerates during ShadowDance. (This can mean using ShadowStrike at full CP to activate it).
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  • In big AoE situations with AoE talents its often better to use Potion of Recklessness for mastery instead of the usual Light's Potential. If you are using Light Company Guidon be sure to use the potion before the trinket as you do not want it to give you a ton of haste.
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Common Questions

  • Can i macro my Haste On-use (Emberwing Feather/Light Company Guidon) trinket together with ShadowDance?
    No, because Deepening Shadows can take upwards of 1 second to update, if you macro them together you will miss out on the benefit of a longer ShadowDance.
  • I see ShurikenStorm in the deathstalker macro above, does that mean i should be using it, Backstab or BlackPowder to trigger Danse Macabre more often?
    No, its not worth to use either of those over your regular spells. The reason the macro contains ShurikenStorm instead of ShadowStrike is because there is a bug that makes it so you cannot cast ShadowStrike until roughly ~0.2 seconds after entering ShadowDance, whereas you can cast ShurikenStorm immediately.
  • I cant press abilities every global outside ShadowDance, should i get more haste?
    The specs pacing being slower outside cooldowns is how the spec is supposed to be played. Its completely normal
  • Gee those ancientarts Apex conditions seem very complicated, how big of a loss is it to just ignore all that?
    It looks significantly more complicated than it is in practice, most of the time it naturally lines up and you dont even need to think much about it. But its 1% for Trickster & 3% for deathstalkermark. Theres also no hidden condition related to Bloodlust.
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