Subtlety in Forever is a Hemorrhage spec. Hemorrhage is your main combo-point builder, it works with any weapon from any side, and its debuff makes the target take 15 % more from your Rupture. Between Hemorrhages you keep two finishers running: Slice and Dice on yourself and Rupture on the boss. Thousand Cuts, the new 31-point talent, makes every Rupture tick shave Energy off your next Hemorrhage. Your burst is the opening of the fight, when Vanish, Premeditation and Cold Blood go out twice thanks to Preparation. It ranks 22nd of 25 damage specs on a one-minute single-boss fight, at 700.8 DPS.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

• No dagger, no positioning. Hemorrhage needs only a melee weapon and works from the front, where Backstab and Ambush need a dagger and the boss's back. It is 19.5 % of your damage.
• A strong opener. Vanish, Premeditation, Cold Blood, Preparation, Thistle Tea and the Goblin Sapper Charge all go out in the first ten seconds of a single-boss fight, so the build does 700.8 DPS on a one-minute single-boss fight against 641.6 DPS on a three-minute single-boss fight.
• Rupture pulls its weight. Serrated Blades adds 30 % to it and Hemorrhage's debuff another 15 %, so Rupture is 11.1 % of your damage over three minutes, your largest special after Hemorrhage.

Weaknesses

• It sits low in the damage table. 22nd of 25 on a one-minute single-boss fight, at 64.3 % of the top spec. More than half the Subtlety tree buys nothing in a boss fight: 18 of its 31 points are worth exactly 0 in our sims.
• One target only. No Subtlety ability touches a second boss. Against three it is 25th of 25, and the only area damage it has comes from consumables.
• Everything rests on one talent. Take Hemorrhage away and the build loses 60.0 % of its damage. Cold Blood can't help it: Hemorrhage isn't one of the attacks Cold Blood works on.

On every fight

Subtlety posts its best numbers on one-minute fights, where the opener is a sixth of the fight, and loses a little with every minute after that. On one boss it ranks 22nd, 22nd and 22nd on one, two and three minutes. Three bosses push it near the bottom, because the specs above it hit all three and it hits one. Each row links to that fight's version of this guide.

Races

For the Horde, Undead lead every fight with Touch of the Grave, which gives each hit a 5 % chance to take 5 % of your maximum health off the boss as Shadow damage: 2.7 % of your damage over three minutes.

For the Alliance, Human leads the two- and three-minute fights. Sword Specialization adds 2 % crit while either hand holds a sword, and the Alliance sets wear one in the main hand. On one-minute fights the opener decides it, and Gnome (Eureka! and 5 % more Energy) or Night Elf (Elune's Light, 10 % crit for 15 seconds) edge past Human by a few DPS.

Gnome tops the Alliance list on a one-minute single-boss fight.

What a Rogue brings to the raid

A rogue's contribution to the raid is Expose Armor. In our fights Sunder Armor stays up beside it, so the table shows what losing Expose Armor alone costs the damage specs that notice it.

Changes

Each update of the simulator or the game data that moved this build's number on this fight. The Updates page explains each one.