Mastering Subtlety Specialization

[Eazy]

A few questions:
1. If my rupture is going to fall off, should I wait till I get 5 Combo Points or refresh it immediately?
2. Should I use Hemo, I mean refresh it always? (just for situations like the one above?)
3. On the burst phase(at the start) should I use Shadow Dance after first Find Weakness buff or Vanish? (Shadow Dance -> Vanish -> Shadowmeld?)
4. Purely hypothetical situation: 0 Combo Points, no Slice and Dice and no Rupture on the boss, which use first? (after getting combo points ofc)

I'm currently trying Subtlety Spec(yeah, I love Assassination but want to try something other).
Any other tips&tricks?

[RemJay24]

I'm not a huge expert; so I'll do my best until someone else chimes in (and possibly corrects me).

1) Rule of thumb is to always wait for 5 points. Worst case scenario; rupture falls off, but Hemo is up as a safe guard (with the glyph, to keep sang. veins active).

2) Yes. Not a huge emphasis on hemo; like if it falls off during Shadow Dance; don't worry. But do your best to keep it active. I typically do so without knowing at times (boss turns and faces me a bit longer than anticipated; so I hemo until he turns around).

3. In terms of Priority, SD > Vanish > meld. In fact I believe its recommended to SD right at the start of the fight (after applying rupture)... which means clipping your first Find Weakness (because you start the fight from stealth). You want to be in SD while your pre-pot is up; as well as all your trinket procs. I use to delay my first SD until after the first FW faded; but have checked many logs where Sub Rogues typically SD 5 secs into the fight. So far its been beneficial for me... plus it allows you to possibly squeeze in one more SD before the fight is over.

4. I would first Hemo (to put up sang. veins); SnD, build up to 5 pts, rupture, then re-apply SnD when needed.

Again; I'm no expert, but have been playing Sub for quite a couple years now. Sub can get really technical with all sorts of things... on which many people may disagree with. Looking forward to what others have to say; good luck and have fun!

[jsz]

4. Hemo, then SnD, then Rupture

[Deleted]

Dont drop Rupture ever. If its below 7s, refresh it and benefit from the pandemic. In the opener with Scales/Beating heart this is slightly harder. But experience will help you get a rhythm

Dance instantly. If you're playing Subterfuge w/4set you can Ambush Ambush SR Rupture Dance yolo. People here generally advise garrote before 1st Ambush. Personally I dont buy it. 1 ambush with SV+Garrote and 3CP vs 2 Ambush outside SV and 4 CPs. Garrotes DPE is worthless if you Dance after the ambush anyway since you'll cap energy. Either way, the difference is minimal, do what you fancy.

I speak to a few top Rogues, opinion on Hemo differs. But its minimal again. I tend to refresh Hemo when its low time left. Not sure on pandemic duration. In general I refresh it below 10s. But there are also top Rogues I know who Hemo a lot less than I do. Hemo doesnt matter too much anyway. Your first 90 seconds are big, and you wont Hemo much at all in that phase if you are playing properly. What you do after that period is usually not that important outside of the 2nd big CD burst.

Rupture>Snd. If I was in the situation with 0 CP, 0 Rupture and 0 SND youve messed up somewhere as you should be utilizing pandemic to avoid this.

Premed @ 10 > SND @ 1 and then go in to your preferred opener.

Your Dance>Vanish>Meld priority is right. Just make sure youre using each on higher CPs to get more Eviscerates in FW. Preferably with SND+Rupture up with a decent duration remaining. Optimising this you want to chain dance>vanish>pre vanish>meld all inside FW. This is harder than it seems, but thats preferable. Pool energy as youre nearing the end of the FW and then extend it with vanish/w.e. Just make sure youre extending FW as much as you can.

[B L A D E]

1) Always refresh Rupture with 5 CP, it shouldn't be able to fall off, remember always to refresh around the 7 second mark.

2) You only use Hemo as a filler in a new set of CP and when you don't got, important 'damage' trinket procs, MoS and FW. Else, if you play Sub with different targets, you wanna go with Hemo glyph and use it to open on new targets, if you don't got 5 CPs to immediatly start with rupture.
- A good way to use Hemo is in case of, no trinket procs, no MoS, no FW, SnD is up and Rupture aswell, you don't got any other options like Ambush etc. and you are just starting a new set of CPs to build up. You can start out with 1 Hemo, 1 CP - get a HaT proc, be at 2 and then just two backstabs with another HaT proc and boom.
- Never use Hemo if it's still going on your target. It does the most of it's damage because of ful duration, so you can easily let Hemo drop. The only time you don't want it to drop, is if Rupture is going down aswell.

3) Always SR with 5 CP rupture > SD > Vanish > Prepa > 2nd Vanish > Meld - This is possibly the longest run of FW you can get. Always remember to let FW run down to about 2 seconds before you refresh, you still wanna use the next ambush within in a FW to get extra damage.

4) Get Hemo up for SV and then build towards Rupture > SnD always. If you don't got SnD or Rupture up, you always choose Rupture first. But you should never be in this case of scenario if you do it right.