Have a few questions. I'll try to format it it like the healing thread. Anyone else who responds please don't add any crying.

1. What is going to be done to reduce the amount of passive damage we do? Slice and Dice, Poisons and the 20% Haste buff pretty much makes up over half our damage. If not half, definitely the majority. Is there a way that poison damage can be more interactive via shiv?

2. There is much dissension amongst the ranks that each tree has basically the same rotation. Ignoring the claims that all the rotations are "boring," do you feel they are too similar besides when the cool-downs used?

3. Are you happy with Shadow Dance? It has been an ability that was historically shunned due to it not being as good as its initial incarnation. The UI was not implemented until well after the game was released leaving many to wonder what lies ahead for this ability. Stampede is far superior and is also something that was specifically suggested by rogues for Shadow Dance. Is it possible we can see the shadow damage idea or stampede Reckful idea implemented some time after release?

4. Earlier you said Prep was holding Rogues back. I believe one of the main problems rogues have disliked is have one (sometimes two) trees that are so far behind in damage that they are stuck being a class that can only use one tree. We feel as though choosing between great damage or great mobility is not a choice that feels good. Choosing between Deadly Brew and Cheat Death however is a fine choice. Utility vs. Utility. Do you see anything being done to the other two trees that don't have prep so as to lessen the gap between mobility and damage?

5. Utility gets thrown around a lot. Recently it was announced another class would get the 20% haste buff. Many thought this was finally a chance for Rogues to get a buff that was deemed necessary. Instead it went to hunters. Between Hunters bringing every buff in the entire game and Mages/Warlocks bringing Heroism and Battle res, Rogues are left scratching their heads in terms of utility. I don't really have a question here. We just know when groups see buffs like 20% haste or Heroism missing someone is porting back to Ironforge to recruit for it. I have never seen anyone recruit for 4% damage.

6. Can you explain the Combat mastery? I'm not sure I can grasp it really. Assassination's mastery makes you prioritize Envenom even more. Subtlety makes you want to do as many finishers as possible making haste (which should increase energy regen) or mastery rating a tough choice. What exactly does the combat mastery do?

7. Many Rogues complain about simple rotations. I will agree with the sentiment that a Rogue that plays just okay and a Rogue that is playing for optimization usually do not see much difference in their damage. There is really nothing to do better than the other rogue. You don't ever feel like you did a good job because everything is set up and predetermined. If Revealing Strike doesn't affect Slice and Dice I suppose remembering not to use it for SnD can be a difference. What do you feel about the "simplicity"?

8. Cheap shot and Kidney shot were nerfed on DR. Much needed change as the game is moving away from killing people while they can't fight back. This nerf was done under the contingency that rogues would be made less reliant on CD's. We got three new CD's. You can skip this one if you want. Its controversial and I'd rather something be answered rather than all of them being skipped due to this question.

9. This'll be it for the questions but I do believe from reading many threads and posting some myself, this question is fresh on the minds of many. Deadened Nerves, Reinforced Leather and Enveloping Shadows are 3 damage reducing talents equaling 8 points in our reduced point trees. As much as the answer given was "saving healer mana in cataclysm will be more important" do you understand that it feels pretty bad to use points for that, or even have that many of them taking up spots for more exciting talents. The assassination tree is very short on interesting non-dps talents as it is and the qualm is more with the amount that exists rather than that they exist at all. Do you feel there are enough talent choices in the trees, particularly Assassination, to give a pure DPS class a damage reducing talent in each tree? (Given that this standard of mana saving damage reducing talents is not applied to other classes nor is it fun to put points into?)