yep i noticed that blooper on my part, i edited the mistake while making this post.
the 20% extra damage to mut and other openers, plus the other viable talents you get to choose after that, does not match the damage and mutility you can achieve going 20 into combat.
This is because that 75% offhand equals to the same amount of damage for mutilate in the long run as oppurtunity. Plus rogues will always have ~50% of their damage as white attacks.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fhe0ovxoizVoGcVb0V
This is one option [you can change around the vile poisons, murder and ruthlessness as you wish]
Murder is 2% for every ability [to the creatures it applies to atleast]which is quite a lot in the long run.
I'd suggest to keep 5/5 improved poisons, those really increase your poison applications to the point you dont often have to worry about muty not getting the 50% bonus.
In combat, you can move around the first tier as you wish but i'd not go for dodge. That improved gouge gives you more time for your energy to tick to 60 to get mutilate, the reduced energy spending from SS opens up moves during a fight, including mutilate. Increased 5% hit really increases dps quite a bit, if your moves and white hits are missing less your dps will love you for it.
You can take improved sprint or endurance, whichever you prefer. People like impr sprint for what stuff roots you.
O yes, improved slice and dice. Now not many people like using slice and dice. But if you occasionally throw a 5 point slice and dice to keep it up, your poison application and white hits [that make up 50% of your damage] soar. Plus we're should keep slice and dice up in raid fights. Its great for long battles, which you will face a lot at 70.
Duel wield special. your offhand weapon gets a 50% damage reduction. Meaning if your offhand is 40 base damage, its now 20. With special it adds 50% of that damage. It doesnt mean your now 100% offhand, but 50% of 50%, which is 25% more. so 75% of your offhand, your 20 offhand damage is now 30.
This greatly increases white damage and the damage of mutilate and its crits. To the point its comparable to that 20% from oppurtunity in the long term.
And even if it isnt. By going combat, your dps does better than going 20 into subtlety. 20 in sub only boosts you so far and mainly for your abilities in stealth and coming out of it. You can make up for the buffs to stealth by being better at being a rogue, sustained overall dps > better stealth and openers.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cqbM0gxRwuVoVVbRV
The only thing to be said about 41/0/20 is that it has better CP generation options. A buff to rupture and ghostly strikes which can be useful for the combo point generating from setup. But this wont help your damage as well as 41/20 does. Your gonna be in combat [i mean fighting creatures in the open, not the talents] longer than your gonna be in stealth.
Edited, Jan 13th 2008 6:17pm by Tenjen