Quite the narrow minded definition on what a rogue is you have there. Rogues are not just "stealthy ninjas" but also lightly armored skirmishers and scout-like fighters. Rogues have a variety of abilities and the Combat Tree makes them more focused on hand-to-hand combat rather than just lurking in the shadows. Quite frankly. my Combat rogue is a completely different beast than my warrior. So yes, we would know the difference. A rogue player would know that.

I'll go one step further. Blizzard should make all three trees viable for PvE. If mages, warlocks, death knights, and hunters can have three viable PvE specs, I don't think there is a good reason why rogues can't, either.

I have a suspicion this will be the case in Cataclysm.

Because Beast Mastery is *SUCH* a viable, competitive raid spec, yeah?

One word.

Lulz.

Take equally geared, equally competent hunters, and BM will always perform well under MM and Survival. The last two are close enough in numbers that it depends on more on personal preference/the fight at hand.

The most important features of BM, admittedly, make it much more useful for soloing and Beast Cleave.

To clarify:

By "Beast Cleave" I meant the Beast Cleave arena team setup: Enhancement shaman, Beast Mastery Hunter, and another class that I'm forgetting.

@ Al relax sweetheart, my comment about combat rogues was made in jest. My actual point was that Blizzard continues to pay attention to the other 2 trees while totally ignoring subtlety.

That being said combat rogues are a metaphor for what the game has become today. Quickly run in, aoe , collect the loot. Blizz has designed these encounters to cater to the lowest common denominator (see Al and his combat rogue), so no one needs to cc or has the time to re-enter stealth.

Ha, maybe we combat rogues do that in Heroics that we vastly overgear, but who doesn't run in, AoE, and collect loot in Heroics that they vastly overgear? I assure you that when I'm raiding ICC I work just as hard as any other DPS class to maximize my DPS and my utility.

Do I wish that more of my DPS were based on how well I play my class than on my ability to juggle stats according to the latest spreadsheet? Yes, and I'm hoping they will work on that in Cataclysm. In the meantime, I'm working on improving my skills, maximizing my rotations, and adding utility wherever I can. Just because some people play combat rogues like doofuses doesn't mean we all do, and the same can be said for any class/spec that's currently getting hate because Blizz overtuned them. Just remember that when the OP crown falls on you.

@ Bloomidraal

You're kidding right? lol. Rogues have nothing to do with the apparent lack of Tanks marking trash pulls, whether from lack of knowledge or going with the flow of, "lets run this in 5 minutes and leave", trend in Wrath.

I've actually run into people who didn't know what LoS pull meant and thought Skull, X, Square were just there to highlight the mobs. Focus fire wut you mean dude?

And the last I checked, an end game geared Mut rogue now has less buttons to mash then a Combat rogue that knows what to mash to keep up with the Mut's on the meters. Read the updated FAQs on EJ.

"I'll go one step further. Blizzard should make all three trees viable for PvE. If mages, warlocks, death knights, and hunters can have three viable PvE specs, I don't think there is a good reason why rogues can't, either."
Last I checked frost, demo, frost and BM were all significantly inferior to their alternatives.