Combat Tree
Improved Gouge (3/5)
Useful in PvP, less so in PvE. A 1.5 second increase is not even enough time for an extra regen of Energy but it is enough to make your opponent panic on their end. Solo wise, it gives you an essentially free combo point as the energy you spend will come back during the stun. Stuns have diminishing returns, so you can’t spam it to get a ton of points.
Improved Sinister Strike (5/5)
You can’t possibly count the amount of times you will use Sinister Strike over the course of your lifetime. 5 Energy doesn’t seem like a lot but using if you use Sinister Strike 7 times in a fight, that’s the cost of an Eviscerate. The biggest bonus though is that it reduces the cost to 40, which is exactly 4 seconds instead of having to wait 6 to regenerate the energy back (since you get 20 per 2 seconds). If you have the hemorrhage talent, do not get this talent.
Lightning Reflexes (3/5)
5% increase to dodge is great when you’re in solo. That’s 4-5 hits per fight minimum. Considering the damage higher-level opponents do, you could be saving 500 damage from that alone, letting you fight longer without healing. This talent plus

Evasion makes you practically unhittable for 15 seconds. Problem is at higher levels; you shouldn’t be getting hit at all, making this talent kind of useless at 60. Up until that point though, it’s good. Has some use in PvP (Evasion + Blade flurry + Adrenaline Rush is deadly) but you generally don’t want to be getting hit.
Improved Slice and Dice (3/5)
If you’re in a chainsaw build (see builds below) then this talent is useful. Realistically though, you won’t be using Slice and Dice that much through your solo career. In a group, this is probably one of the better finishers. Having it on as much as possible is a 30% increase to auto-attack damage and poison application. It is the cornerstone of a Combat build.
Deflection (2/5)
Same reasoning as with Lightning Reflexes except you can’t use it with Evasion. It is used to get Riposte, which is a great solo talent.
Precision (3/5)
5% increased chance of hitting with melee weapons. It’s a very good place to spend 5 pts and an extra chance to hit is always a good thing. This pretty much reduces your chance to miss with special attacks against even level opponents.
Endurance (1/5)
Reducing the cooldown of Evasion and Sprint seems like a good thing. Problem is that combat builds don’t do well in PvP where those 2 skills shine so you won’t ever get here to spend the points.
Riposte (3/5)
When this works it’s great. Makes fighting humanoids incredibly easy since a loss of a weapon cuts their damage practically in half. This works great against melees in PvP but you really don’t want to be taking too much damage from them in the first place. In solo PvE you can find more use from this talent. Part of the combat tree goes against stuns and simply absorbs the damage. In group PvE, you won’t be taking damage so not much point in investing then.
Improved Sprint (1/5)

Breaks snare/root with 2 points. There are trinket/items that do this and don’t require 2 talent points. Next.

Improved Kick (2/5)
Only useful if you put 2 points into it and then just barely. Considering that you’re only looking at a 2 second silence it really is only useful in PvP. PvE casters tend to stick to 1-2 spells and kicking them once is enough to stop them from casting again for at least 5 seconds. PvP however, it’s great against mages that use a ton of spells. It can really mess up a player’s tempo.
Dagger Specialization (4/5)
Hello +critical chance. The best “specialization” talent there is, bar none simply because it affects ALL rogue skills. Great. I give this a 4 simply because you need to have daggers to get any use from it.
Dual Wield Specialization (5/5)
50% increase on paper actually turns into 25% increase in off-hand damage. By the time you get this talent you’re probably hitting for 40 dmg with the off-hand. You’re up to 60 damage with this talent. It does increase your DPS a fair amount and offsets the miss penalty of Dual Wield. This is one of the better talents in the Combat tree.
Mace Specialization (3/5)
Great for PvP. So-so for PvE. Maces tend to have lower damage than swords, which makes Sinister Strike less powerful, not a good thing. Stuns in PvE are rare and therefore you can’t plan for it. Sure, it’s great when it happens but it will surprise you as much as it will surpise your target. You don’t want the fight to last longer with less damage and stuns. You want more damage. Again though, it has its uses in PvP. It is nice that it includes a bonus to weapon skill, which makes a difference for raiders.
Blade Flurry (4/5)
20% increase in attack speed is nice for only 20 Energy. Hitting an extra opponent, less so. In solo play, you’re only going 1 on 1 anyways. In group play, if you’re attacking multiple targets at once, you’re getting extra hate generated, which is not a good thing. AE attacks in WoW should only be used on command, not last 15 seconds. That being said, if you know when to use this skill, it is a tremendous boon to your damage output.

Sword Specialization (3/5)
If you’re at this point in the talent tree and you use swords, pick this one up. One of the more useful talents in the Combat tree since it’s effectively increasing your auto attack damage by 5%. If you’re dual swords you’ll notice this even more. Useless talent if you don’t use swords however.
Fist Weapon Specialization (3/5)
For the longest time, Fist Weapons were tremendously underpowered and rare. Since the BC expansion pack came out, many more Fist Weapons are available and they are high top end damage, making for great Sinister Strike weapons. Consider that this talent works just like Dagger Specialization but you can’t use Ambush or Backstab.
Blade Twisting (1/5)
This dazes the opponent, decreasing their movement speed by 50% for 8s. Now, you are a melee class, there is next to no advantage of dazing your opponent as you need to be next to them to attack in the first place. In PvE, only useful for runners, but that’s what Crippling Poison is for.
Weapon Expertise (1/5)
If you don’t raid things that are 2+ levels above you, there’s not much point getting this talent. However, if you raid at all, then it’s an ok addition. Since Glancing Blows are no longer reduced with +Weapon Skill, the only bonus is the 0.1% increase to critical chance. Trying to find a really good reason to invest here since the expansion.
Aggression (3/5)
6% increase in base damage is nice. Might not seem like much, but when you consider you’re using the skill nearly all the time it makes a big difference in a fight. Throw in a critical hit and the 6% become very noticeable.
Vitatlity (1/5)
More Stamina is good. More Agility is good. Consider that even at 500 base Sta/Agi you’re only gaining 200hp and about 1.5% crit. On to the next talent.
Adrenaline Rush (5/5)
This talent makes it so that you have difficulty spending the energy you have. For 15 seconds, you double your special skill output. Blade flurry + AR means I can take on a level 60 elite without breaking a sweat.

Nerves of Steel (1/5)
On the surface, this appears to be a great talent and anytime you’re not stunned or feared is good. First, this only really applied to instant cast spells, as Cloak of Shadows will fear every minute. Orcs have an innate skill that is 2.5x better than this in regards to stun and even then breaks a stunlock rogue every 3 fights. I would like this talent more if it was higher up in the tree or if the bonus was higher. As it stands, 10% just isn’t worth the investment.
Combat Potency (3/5)
Finally, a deep talent worth investing in. This is the reason you should have Slice and Dice up as much as possible. With a fast off-hand (which you should always look for), you can get nearly 1 attack a second. Every 5-7 seconds, you get 15energy, which is a sort of 30% boost to your regular energy generation. Even if you don’t think it’s great, it’s a lot better than some of the other choices at this depth.
Surprise Attacks (2/5)
You can’t miss finishing moves. That’s good, though you only every had a 5% chance to miss in the fist place, against an even level target. The precision talent got rid of most of that worry for you long ago. 10% bonus to Siniter Strike, Backstab Shiv and Gouge is nice though. It’s a ok investment but the cost to go this deep in the Combat tree seems steep when you look at what you get.