Subtlety Question

I’m fairly new to the game. I boosted a character before and realized it was a mistake. I was easily overwhelmed by specs and abilities.
I decided to start over. Rogue was a no brainer for me. As I’m leveling up, learning abilities and switching between specs, I noticed that Subtlety even though crazy fun falls short in comparison with other two.
Does it get better? Is it only for PVP? I imagine PVP being similar to questing, you take on your enemy, theres no tank or healer so survivability is important , Subtlety sounds great on paper.
Lots of stealth depending skills, taking on different strategies, sapping enemies, pure fun. I also noticed that Outlaw has this skill called Gouge, it would synergize with backstab so perfectly. It’s odd that Subtlety doesn’t have access to it.
Gouging with swords seems ridiculous but maybe that’s just me. Any of you guys use that spec? All I hear on YouTube is Assassination and Outlaw. Seems like Subtlety is casted to the side.

When you unlock mastery, it will help kill faster. It has the same survivability as the other 2, it’s just taking you too long to kill stuff now.

I play sub on my rogue. 421 ilvl…I enjoy it more so I end up performing better on it. Its skill ceiling is higher and it’s less forgiving when you screw up. I can burst up to almost 50k dps band 200k+ evicerqtes are fun to see

Gouge used to be important for all three specs. And you are right Gouge was very important for Sub Rogue.

Sub is ~okay~ if you have gear, but in a world of guardian druids, destro locks, and tank trinket dh/dks, the damage throughput just isn’t really there

You’ll see even fewer sub rogues once 8.3 is out because of the disc priest damage nerf (currently sub rogues primarily pair with disc priests to set up their huge schism damage)

I also noticed that Outlaw has this skill called Gouge, it would synergize with backstab so perfectly. It’s odd that Subtlety doesn’t have access to it.

That’s how rogue was traditionally played. Gouge->backstab was one of the staple combos, but those days are long gone. Blizzard reworked most specs during the Legion expansion. If you play classic you can get a taste of old-school rogue