I don't know if impressive is the right word here, but "correct" sure could be. There have been a few fights where being at range is a huge advantage over melee, and it's certainly possible that we'll see them in the future. But generally, these fights are best if you don't bring rogues to them at all, or melee in general. If shuriken + deadly makes us the best melee at range (better than say, frost DKs and enhance shaman), then I will grant that these are cool talents. If instead it just makes us better than a normal rogue, I'd say that they could be correct at times, but will really just be what you do if the fight is designed to punish guilds for having any melee that can't switch specs to something better (as say, tier 11 did).
Psh. They made his mechanic ignore cloak, why not make it ignore elusiveness? I'm being petty, but only to a point. My point is that Baleroc was carefully tuned to get around the few things we could do, making us terrible (compared to other classes) at soaking up crystals. "So see, the damage is magical damage so armor doesn't help but it doesn't count as a SPELL so CLOAK can't clear or HELP but also they are DOTS so you can't stack combat readiness, and it sees through vanish because it's magical and you can't dodge it so no evasion wheeeee..." it's like playing against your little brother in a game of pretend lightsaber- you can't win that fight.Tier 3: Leeching for some sustained healing (e.g. Ultraxion). Cheat Death for fights with heavy burst like Warmaster. Elusiveness would've been FANTASTIC if we actually had it for Baleroc...
In any event, Tier 3 has three elements, all of which will help in different situations in pve. I think this tier works correctly for all rogues. I also think it is the only tier like that.
Maybe. If it actually works for real, yes, waddling into the ice sphere and pressing it would be better, maybe, than shadowstep, which lets you get on target a lot in that fight. But you do have to look really far to find fights where you would use burst.Tier 4: Sub will probably take Prep for the extra stealth damage boost. Other than that, there's nothing of any particular value. The speed boost could potentially be used on Hagaara HC.
Probably. But it also doesn't matter. If your auxillary rogue brought the gouge talent because he pvps with it, you aren't gonna scold him, because it's a very rare fight where this will matter at all.Tier 5: Deadly Brew, hands down.
As I said, tier 3 has three choices, tier 4 has two. I'll grant that an occasional fight might reward burst.Tier 6: Shuriken Toss has only had one fight in 3 tiers which it could've beeen viable for, which is pretty sad... Versatility will pretty much be the mandatory skill to have, with the exception of Tank n' Spank fights like Ultraxion, in which it doesn't have any value at all. Toss will only be used for gimmicky fights like Atramedes, in which we'll still perform rather poorly due to the low damage output of the Toss itself.
So all in all: We get to choose between some survivability, movement skill of our choice, and depending on the fight, the choice between Versatility or Anticipation. That's rather limited... :/
Final tier... you are definitely undervaluing anticipation. Lets go over what you would use for each fight in FL and DS:
Hunter guy with two doggies: Anticipation.
Ugly Spider Thing: Versatility
Fat Legs: Anticipation unless your caller is bad, then versatility. But just go combat and flurry.
Fluffer for Shadowpriests: Versatility
Baleroc: Anticipation
Yelly Druid: Anticipation
Rag: Anticipation
Morchock: Anticipation
Yor'sahj: Depends on your job. Anticipation is better damage, Versatility if you switch to and from the slimes.
Zon'ozz: Depends on your job again.
Hagara: You would probably gain decent benefit from either.
Ultrax: Anticipation
Boatboat boat: You would probably gain decent benefit from either.
Spine: Anticipation
Madness: Anticipation, but you would be better at swaps with versatility.
If your guild for some reason decides you will be swapping at all times to all things because they hate you and don't understand rogues, even then, we have 8 Anticipation fights and only 7 Versatility.