Thus is for pve questing, i dont care at all about pvp. Its not for dungeon or raids either. Just regular open world quests
I finally got kidney shot and was super excited because i thought it was so funny to stunlock enemies. However I found that stunlock takes way longer even with having to eat after pulls. With amb/evis i can hit enemies 25 to 50% or more depending on level diff and then build my points a few times and evis and they are dead.
With stunlock i need to usually kidney shot 2x, which means its taking at least 1 minute. Way longer
Is the only time to use stunlock when you are facing an enemy that you cant beat with ambush?
Or stunlock to get yourself out of a tricky situation. If you need to lock up the mob to stay alive.
Going into classic I really wanted to be a sub rogue, but now actually experiencing it, I realize that combat is far superior while leveling, if you want to efficiently kill things.
You will do more damage and have less down time as combat spec in the open world doing quests and dungeons.
Ambush works out great for me. Talents make it so I have a 100% chance to crit with it. Since level 40 I’ve been opening with ambushes that range from 800-1200 on every mob I engage depending on the mob’s level and armor type (I’ve literally 1 shotted whelps and caster mobs that yield exp). I have almost 0 downtime because I almost never eat or bandage.
90% of the time all I have to do is Ambush, Sinister Strike, and Evisc and whatever I’m fighting is dead. Higher level mobs require 2 sinister strikes, but for anything that doesn’t die with 1/1/1 (ambush/ss/evisc) what I do is I’ll ambush, gouge, backstab, and evisc instead.
shrug. I know all the guides and youtube videos say combat is the best and you should roll combat, but… that’s just not the experience I’ve been having.
Ambush has a lot of value at low levels and low gear levels, but loses value as the game goes on I think. Honestly right now ambush might be the best, just because most people at 60 have <3k health and you can literally 2 shot most people with a ambush>ss>cold blood>evis (I might be missing something, I don’t have tons of xp playing rogue, but that’s generally it).
I think once you and everyone else gets better gear, going for a more cc-heavy, hemo lockdown build is more optimal/versatile and not as one-trick.
Edit; oh lol you said pve, I’d prob go combat swords but idk, daggers/ambush might be more optimal but I feel theres more room for error and you’ll struggle a little more against multiple mobs without bladefury/adrenaline rush
Used to level in my dagger / pvp spec. Did it fine, but recent swapped to sword to speed up leveling, make it easier and do better in dungeons. Blade Flurry helps drop 2 at a time. Will go back to dagger / pvp when honor comes out.
Only time I really use stuns is to get away or stop a cast or if the mob has some hard hits that stunning can stop. (and i say to stop a cast, if kick or gouge is not ready)
While not the best gear as level, the ambush method started falling off around early 50s for me. Unless the mob was a clothie and green or lower to me, ambushes were only doing like 20 - 30%. So higher / thicker mobs i was always garrote-ing anyway to let the tick away as I beat on them.
But swapping to combat…I do miss my prep for resetting my escape tools 
Your thread. You mention PvE, so for PvE.
Also just want to mention what I end up doing in combat rather that in sub. Now I just open with garroe to start ticks. SinSTrike, a slice n dice to speed it up. If 2, add a blurry to hit the other. Can do up to 4 mob. Sap, Blind, evasion tank other 2 with flurry and then you have AR to help if need be.
If the mob has a lot of hp, I rupture. If not, I evis.