Subtlety is a builder-and-finisher rotation with two things to keep running: Slice and Dice on you and Rupture on the boss. Energy is what runs out, and nearly every press between finishers is Hemorrhage.

The pull

The sims start out of Stealth with full Energy and no combo points, and spend most of their cooldowns in the opening seconds:

1. Hemorrhage for the first combo point, then Slice and Dice on the first point or two.
2. Vanish at about 2 seconds, then Premeditation while you are stealthed, for two free combo points. Your next attack ends the Stealth.
3. Rupture as soon as you hold three points.
4. Cold Blood a few seconds in, followed by Preparation, which finishes the cooldowns of Vanish, Premeditation and Cold Blood.
5. Thistle Tea (100 Energy) when there's space in the bar, and the Goblin Sapper Charge (Engineering). Vanish and Premeditation go again, and the second Cold Blood once the first is spent.

Racial cooldowns go out with them, and the rest of the fight is the priority below.

Priority

Each time the global cooldown comes up, go down the list and press the first line whose condition holds.

Why the lines read the way they do:

1. Slice and Dice at one or two combo points whenever it is down. With Improved Slice and Dice a one-point cast lasts 13 seconds, and Ruthlessness returns a point 60 % of the time, so waiting for more points only costs attack speed. Its uptime is 94.7 %, and the line is worth 17.6 %.
2. Vanish into Premeditation, with 30 Energy or more and few combo points. Premeditation adds two, and the line's combo-point limit keeps them from spilling over five. Vanish is worth 4.5 % and Premeditation 4.6 %.
3. Rupture at three or more points when the boss doesn't have it. The line fires as soon as you have three, so most of your Ruptures are short ones. That keeps Rupture ticking, and every tick feeds Thousand Cuts. Skip it in the last 8 to 13 seconds, when it can't finish. It is worth 3.4 %.
4. Cold Blood only when its buff is down. It waits on you until an Eviscerate spends it, because Hemorrhage can't. Casting it while it is already up would waste the reset Preparation gave you.
5. Eviscerate at four or five points (the widget shows which) with Slice and Dice up. Rupture comes first at three points, so Eviscerate only goes out while Rupture is already ticking: about 2 a fight here. It is worth 7.3 %.
6. Ghostly Strike below five points, where the rotation has it. It costs 40 Energy, and Hemorrhage costs 35 or less with Thousand Cuts, so it fires only when you come off a global cooldown with 40 or more: 3 times on a three-minute boss.
7. Hemorrhage below five points, or at 85 Energy or more. At five points you hold your Energy for the next finisher, unless the bar is about to overflow. The line is worth 60.0 %.

More than one target

Nothing in the rotation changes against three bosses: no Subtlety ability reaches a second target, so you play the single-target list on one of them. Only Dragonbreath Chili, the sapper and a cleave trinket hit all three. The chili goes from 1.7 % of your damage on one boss to 4.9 % on three. Our sims don't try putting Rupture on more than one boss.

Cooldowns

The sims spend everything in the opening. The only part of the build that grows later is Quietus, 10 % more Hemorrhage damage below 35 % health.

• Cold Blood goes out a few seconds in and again after Preparation. Its buff sits on you until an Eviscerate uses it: up 83.0 % of the fight.
• Vanish and Premeditation go twice in the first 10 seconds. Vanish's 5-minute cooldown doesn't return inside our fights, and the threat it clears isn't modelled.
• Preparation goes once, a few seconds in, as soon as Vanish is on cooldown. It has a 10-minute cooldown.
• Thistle Tea goes once, early, when the bar has room for 90 Energy. It has a 5-minute cooldown.
• Mighty Rage Potion shows in the table below because the benchmark drinks one, but Forever restricts it to warriors and druids. The Gear page has the details.

If a real boss needs your damage later, for an add or a phase, the sims can't tell you: their fights have neither.

Cooldown	Uses	At
Vanish	2	0:02, 0:10
Premeditation	2	0:02, 0:10
Cold Blood	2	0:05, 0:11
Everlook Pathcarver	1	0:05
Preparation	1	0:05
Mighty Rage Potion	1	0:06
Thistle Tea	1	0:07
Goblin Sapper Charge	1	0:07

What your log should show

Set your Warcraft Logs damage and cast tables beside this one. Fewer Hemorrhages a minute means wasted Energy. A low Rupture share means gaps between Ruptures.

Ability	Casts per minute	Of damage	Crit
Auto attack	86.7	31.5 %	39.9 %
Hemorrhage	19.9	19.5 %	30.5 %
Auto attack via Windfury Totem attack	17.4	15.0 %	39.9 %
Eviscerate	1.7	9.3 %	97.0 %
Rupture	3.2	8.4 %	26.5 %
Deadly Poison V	–	4.2 %	9.1 %
Instant Poison VI	–	2.9 %	16.0 %
Touch of the Grave	–	2.6 %	0.0 %
Ghostly Strike	1.8	2.3 %	31.0 %
Goblin Sapper Charge	1.0	1.6 %	16.2 %
Dragonbreath Chili	–	1.6 %	15.8 %
Everlook Pathcarver	1.0	1.2 %	16.3 %
Preparation	1.0	–	–
Slice and Dice	3.1	–	–
Cold Blood	2.0	–	–
Premeditation	2.0	–	–
Vanish	2.0	–	–
Thistle Tea	0.9	–	–
Mighty Rage Potion	1.0	–	–

Aim for about 19.9 Hemorrhages a minute, doing 19.5 % of your damage, with Rupture near 8.4 %. Plain auto attacks are 31.5 %, and Windfury Totem's extra swings are a line of their own. Deadly Poison is 4.2 % and Instant Poison 2.9 %. Eviscerate's crit rate, 97.0 %, is Cold Blood landing on it.

Uptimes

Buff or debuff	Uptime	Times per fight
Windfury Totem aura	100.0 %	13
Hemorrhageon the boss	99.9 %	19
Slice and Dice	94.7 %	3.1
Deadly Poison Von the boss	89.2 %	1.6
Cold Blood	83.0 %	2.0
Ruptureon the boss	65.0 %	3.1
Holy Strength	46.0 %	2.8
Thousand Cuts	42.5 %	19
Quietus	34.9 %	1.0
Mighty Rage Potion	33.3 %	1.0
Ghostly Strike	19.1 %	1.8
Windfury Totem	7.7 %	17
Stealth	1.8 %	2.0

Slice and Dice (94.7 %) and Rupture (65.0 %) are the two to watch. Rupture's uptime decides how much of the fight Thousand Cuts is discounting your Hemorrhages: 42.5 % in the sims.