This is my current spec, which I believe is the best rogue PvP spec. With 8/2/31 (no puncturing wounds) I do not backstab, ever. On my 3v3 team, which was started at the beginning of the Ruthless season, every game has been played with this hemo spec.
Pro’s of hemo over 10/0/31 backstab spec:
-No positional requirement: Good players will be very good at abusing the positional requirement on backstab when they really want/need to (being bursted, low HP, healer CC’d). When playing with expertise like I do (5%), you don’t even need to try to get behind casters while hemo spamming because they cannot dodge with that much expertise. This makes positioning easier a lot of the time, and means you can be ready to gouge by standing in front of them, which places this spec among the best rogue PvP specs.
-Better combo point generation: Hemo costs significantly less energy, even though it crits less often, the increased combo point generation is noticeable. This is huge since combo points are used for many of the most important rogue abilities. It allows you to keep recup up more easily, keep slice and dice up for most of the game, and be able to get the combo points needed for a kidney shot faster. That might mean the difference between saving someones life or not with a faster kidney shot to peel; making this the best rogue PvP spec. You also get more eviscerates off, which makes up for some of the lost burst outside of dance (but not much of a loss at all).
-Slice and Dice glyph: Not needing backstab glyph allows you to have slice and dice glyph. Having slice and dice up for a lot more of the game is a huge source of extra damage. It also gives you more poison procs which is huge for crippling and an added bonus damage with more wound procs. With slice and dice glyph I usually only slice and dice with 1 combo point, or 2 if I didn’t get it off when I had 1 combo point. This makes it the best rogue PvP spec because it lasts long enough with 1-2 combo points to where you will most likely get kited or cc’d before it falls off anyway, so it saves you combo points/time by not spending/waiting for 5 combo points.
-More Main hand attacks (more poison procs again): Since hemo costs lest energy you are hitting with your main hand more often, granting more main hand poison procs.
-Substantially more survivability: Hemo frees up some talent points from puncturing wounds allowing you to get imp recup in combat. This makes your recup tick bigger, and reduces your damage by 6% while recup is active. This is pretty huge for when you get swapped to and have recup up like you should. It is also huge for when you healer is under a lot of pressure to heal himself or your teammate and you are taking a mild amount of pressure off from dots. The stronger recup means your healer will have more time to heal himself and your teammate without worrying about you rotting to off dots or a small/medium amount of other off damage. This is huge and can mean the difference between a win and a loss, and makes this spec the best rogue PvP spec. Also if it comes down to a double dps 2v2 or a 1v1 vs a dps class hemo is better for every dps vs dps 1v1 and is better in double dps 2v2 for surviving longer.
-Easier to pool energy: Since hemo costs less energy it makes it easier to pool energy. If you are pooling energy waiting to set up some big burst and you are about to get full energy, you don’t want to waste energy so you will hemo once even with 5 combo points so you don’t waste energy. That energy used on the hemo is regained quickly, whereas if you had to backstab once there, you will need to wait longer to regain that energy for getting a full energy KS. When hemo crits you are rewarded so much for the 2 combo points because of how little energy had to be spent on it, so that helps a lot with saving energy to get those full energy ks’s or dance cheap shots more easily.
Cons of hemo over 10/0/31 backstab:
-Less burst outside of dance ONLY: This less burst is not even that much, it really depends on crits, if a backstab doesn’t crit it is extremely bad because of how much more energy it costs. If a hemo doesn’t crit it’s not as bad. But if you get a few hemo crits in a full energy KS the difference in damage to a full energy KS with backstab crits is not a big difference. Even with this slightly lower burst, I still believe this is the best rogue PvP spec.
Best Rogue PvP Spec Breakdown
Subtlety Talents
0/2 nightstalker: This is one of the most useless talents now since they buffed base stealth. Stealth cooldown is only 6 seconds right now, it takes 6 seconds to get out of combat, so it is not very helpful to have your stealth on a cooldown shorter than 6 seconds. You also already move plenty fast in stealth now. Even before the stealth buff I didn’t spend my points on this talent.
3/3 Improved Ambush: Most of your kills come from dancing on someone, so having your ambush critting ~95% of the time and doing more damage is going to land you kills.
2/2 Elusiveness: Reducing the cooldown on very important abilities is huge. These cooldowns coming up a bit faster could mean the difference between dying or scoring the kill.
3/3 Opportunity: For hemo this only helps your ambush, garrote damage is pretty negligible. But again since ambush is such a huge part of your kills this is completely essential.
3/3 Energetic Recovery: One of the best things to happen to rogues, one of the best talents. If you ever try playing without this talent the game will feel slow because you will be energy starved a bunch of the time. Energy is so vital for everything, so increasing your energy regen will help with everything.
2/2 Find Weakness: This synchronizes very well with the rogue style of vanish swapping and bursting someone / bombing and dancing or vanishing on someone.
1/1 Hemo: Even when you are backstabbing having hemo is very helpful for when you cannot get behind someone. With the hemo glyph it is great for increasing your damage by keeping up a hemo dot on your target at all times, or to prevent a rogue or feral from restealthing. You also get extra combo points from dot tick crits. I believe this talent is a must-have for the best rouge PvP spec.
3/3 Honor Among Thieves: Increasing combo point generation is one of the best use of talent points since combo points are used for so many important rogue abilities.
1/1 Preparation: No brainer for the best rogue PvP spec, refreshes important cooldowns.
2/2 Sanguinary Vein: Increase your overall damage significantly and be able to gouge people while hemo dotted / ruptured / garrote which is extremely helpful in some situations.
3/3 Slaughter from the Shadows: Reducing energy cost goes hand in hand with increasing energy regeneration, they are two different ways of achieving the same thing: more damage, and more combo points.
1/1 Shadow Dance: The whole reason you spent all these points in sub. Dance isn’t just amazing for landing kills, but for saving yourself and your teammates by CC’ing multiple people with cheapshots/garrotes. Another no brainer for the best rogue PvP spec.
Combat Talents
2/2 improved recup: Allows your healer to focus healing himself and your teammate more, he doesn’t have to worry as much about you rotting to off dots or any other form of small/medium off damage. If it comes down to a double dps 2v2 or a 1v1 vs a dps class this is so much better than not having it in exchange for puncturing wounds for backstab.
Assassination Talents
3/3 Lethality: Increasing the damage done of your most used damaging ability when it crits will increase your overall damage significantly and increase your chance of getting a kill outside of a dance.
3/3 Coup de Grace: Since you get to evis more with hemo spec, I go 3/3 into this instead of 2/3 (you could put the 1 point into ruthlessness for a chance of getting an extra combo point sometime. But since hemo burst is slightly lower than backstab I go for increasing damage. Also combo point generation is already noticeably better without that 1 point in ruthlessness. (that 1 point could also be put into puncturing wounds, and then use backstab only when pooling full energy and going for big burst, but that is not worth it in my opinion unless you have at least 2 points in puncturing wounds which you cannot get without giving up too much).
Best Rogue PvP Spec Glyphs
Prime Glyphs
-Shadow Dance: Dance being your #1 way to land a kill or a great way to peel, increasing its duration will give you more openers.
-Hemo: Keeping hemo dot up increases your burst, sustained damage, and combo point generation (dot crits). It also keeps people from restealthing.
-Slice and Dice: Helps you keep slice and dice up for a lot more of the game, increasing poison proc and sustained damage by a lot. My armory shows evis glyph because I haven’t been able to do 3s so I have been using evis glyph for duels and sometimes in double dps 2v2 it is better than slice and dice.
Major Glyphs
-Prep: Having prep reset your dismantle is huge for saving someone on your team from a melee. Having it reset kick can be very clutch by helping to land a kill or stop a CC cast. Having a 2nd smoke bomb is absolutely amazing, the first smoke bomb the team usually has CD’s for, so its often times the 2nd smoke bomb which is what wins the game or can save you from dying by using it defensively.
-Garrote: Longer garrote is huge for landing kills on healers or CC’ing caster DPS longer.
-Blind: Blind glyph is incredible, making your blind usable at any time you need it regardless of dots on the target you wish to blind.
Minor Glyphs
-Poisons: If your poisons ever run out during a match, this will be very helpful, or if you don’t have two main hands to swap between wound and mind numbing, you can swap to mind numb real quick during a frost nova or something if you are fighting a wizard cleave and really need mind numbing but had wound on.
-Distract: A bigger range on distract can help for sapping people or cheap shotting them while they are on their mount and you are going to step sap or cheap shot, distract them just before so they run towards you.
-The last slot has nothing useful for arena.
That’s the end of my breakdown of the current best rogue PvP spec; I will update this guide in the future as the game changes.
