Raiding Highmaul as a Rogue

Raiding as a rogue and viewing the trends of fellow rogues has proven that the subtlety rogue is now a viable option for raiding. Its odd really but in Mists of Pandaria, the subtlety rogue still was ranked the highest in the DPS charts with the combat rogue coming in first and the assassination rogue coming in last based on sources like Noxxic and Icy-Veins. Despite it being the highest DPS spec it just didn't become the top raiding spec in Mists due to a couple of reasons.

The tier bonus of the Siege of Orgrimmar gave a combat rogue a shorter cooldown on damage enhancing skills, shadow blades and adrenaline rush. Along with that, the attack speed was greatly enhanced by Haste in Mists of Pandaria. With Haste being the main secondary stat of Mists of Pandaria, the combat rogue gained more damage up time then a subtlety rogue could. Another reason why the combat rogue didn't have issues like damage per second was because they could maximize their abilities more easily compared to a subtlety rogue that was limited from using backstab as a primary damage dealer since they had to be directly behind the target.

With that the combat rogue dominated encounters like the spoils of Pandaria, Protectors of the vale and Garrosh himself.

That though is a different story in Warlords of Draenor. The combat rogue's haste has been turned down a notch and was increased on the most recent hot fix if I'm not mistaken. With haste's effectiveness lowered, the all important auto attack damage that accumulated the DPS charts of a combat rogue gradually reduced. Shadow blades has been removed and subtlety rogues now can use backstab as the position requirements have been lifted partially and can be used on the sides of the bosses. Now with the subtlety rogue giving as much attacks as a combat rogue, the importance of that all important burst comes in to greater value thanks to Multistrike giving the rogue more chances to trigger critical blows. The AOE rotation of a subtlety rogue also helps as its just fan of knives and crimson tempest.

Oh the bliss of being a subtlety rogue is now an option for raiders and PVP'ers alike. That's why I'm currently running a Subtlety / Combat rogue right now. The secondary stats easily mesh and it depends on the current weapon and trinket. That is for now...Once Blackrock Foundry is out, the tier bonus will kick in and the higher i-lvl crafted gear will change things. I hope not too much though because I'm enjoying subtlety right now.