Rogue Subtlety Rotation & Opener

First ~12 casts of actual top-ranked kills. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Ethereal Augmentation 2 Shadowstrike 3 Eviscerate 4 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 5 Shadow BladesOff-GCD 6 Shadow DanceOff-GCD 7 Goremaw's Bite 8 Secret Technique 9 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 10 Shadowstrike 11 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 12 Eviscerate 13 Shadowstrike 14 Eviscerate 15 Eviscerate

1 Shadowstrike 2 Eviscerate 3 VanishOff-GCD 4 Shadowstrike 5 Eviscerate 6 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 7 Shadow BladesOff-GCD 8 Shadow DanceOff-GCD 9 Goremaw's Bite 10 Eviscerate 11 Secret Technique 12 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 13 Shadowstrike 14 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 15 Eviscerate

1 Shadowstrike 2 Eviscerate 3 VanishOff-GCD 4 Shadowstrike 5 Eviscerate 6 Shadow DanceOff-GCD 7 Goremaw's Bite 8 Light's PotentialOff-GCD 9 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 10 Shadow BladesOff-GCD 11 Secret Technique 12 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 13 Shadowstrike 14 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 15 Eviscerate

#showtooltip Shadowstrike
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Vanish
/cast Shadow Blades
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Shadowstrike

Ability	Top-player CPM
Eviscerate	19.3
Backstab	8.7
Shadowstrike	7.6
Shuriken Storm	5.4
Black Powder	4.2
Shadow DanceOff-GCD	3.1
FeintOff-GCD	1.3
Goremaw's Bite	1.3
Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD	0.7
Shadow BladesOff-GCD	0.7
Crimson Vial	0.6
Mark for DeathOff-GCD	0.5
Sprint	0.5
VanishOff-GCD	0.4

CPM = median casts per minute across the sampled top kills. If you're far below on a core ability, that's usually the first thing to fix.

First ~12 casts after the pull starts, taken from actual top key runs: the AoE opener is the first pack of the run, the single-target opener is the first boss. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Shadowstrike 2 Shuriken Storm 3 Shuriken Storm 4 Shuriken Storm 5 Shuriken Storm 6 Sprint 7 Shuriken Storm 8 Shuriken Storm 9 FeintOff-GCD 10 Shuriken Storm 11 Shuriken Storm 12 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 13 Shadow BladesOff-GCD 14 Shadow DanceOff-GCD 15 Goremaw's Bite

1 Shadowstrike 2 Eviscerate 3 Shuriken Storm 4 Shuriken Storm 5 Shuriken Storm 6 Shuriken Storm 7 FeintOff-GCD 8 EvasionOff-GCD 9 Backstab 10 Goremaw's Bite 11 Shadow DanceOff-GCD 12 Secret Technique 13 Shadow BladesOff-GCD 14 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 15 Light's PotentialOff-GCD

1 Shadowstrike 2 Shuriken Storm 3 Shuriken Storm 4 Mark for DeathOff-GCD 5 Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD 6 Shadow BladesOff-GCD 7 Shadow DanceOff-GCD 8 Goremaw's Bite 9 Secret Technique 10 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 11 Secret TechniqueOff-GCD 12 Black Powder 13 FeintOff-GCD 14 Shuriken Storm 15 Shuriken Storm

#showtooltip Shadowstrike
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Shadow Blades
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Shadowstrike

Collected from public Patch 12.1 guides and checked for this patch. Spell names follow the language you selected on this site and must match your game client. If a macro does not work on your client, report it with the button on the card.

#showtooltip Shadow Dance
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Secret Technique

#showtooltip Shadow Dance
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Shuriken Storm

#showtooltip
/cast Shadow Dance
/cast Shadow Blades

#showtooltip Black Powder
/cast Coup de Grace
/cast Black Powder

#showtooltip Shadow Blades
/cast Shadow Blades
/use 13
/use 14
/use Light's Potential

#showtooltip Shadowstep
/cast [@mouseover,nodead,exists][] Shadowstep

#showtooltip
/cast [@NAME][] Tricks of the Trade

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus][] Kick

Keybinds are personal — this is not a layout to copy wholesale. What it does say is which abilities you press most, measured from the same top parses above: the more often an ability is cast, the less effort its key should take. Interrupts, defensives and movement are deliberately left out; they barely register in cast data yet must always be within reach, so choose those yourself.

Rows marked Passive are not pressed at all — they fire on their own (auto-attacks, procs) and get no key, even though they top the casts-per-minute table.

Key	Ability	Top-player CPM
1	Eviscerate	19.3
2	Shuriken Storm	11.6
3	Black Powder	11.4
4	Backstab	8.7
5	Shadowstrike	7.6
Z	Shadow DanceOff-GCD	3.1
X	FeintOff-GCD	2.4
C	Goremaw's Bite	1.3
V	Voracious Heart of Ula'tekOff-GCD	0.7
R	Shadow BladesOff-GCD	0.7
F	Crimson Vial	0.6
T	Mark for DeathOff-GCD	0.5
G	Sprint	0.5
Shift+1	ShadowstepOff-GCD	0.5
Shift+2	VanishOff-GCD	0.4
Shift+3	Tricks of the Trade	0.4
Shift+4	Stealth	0.3