Originally Posted by
Bovan
With all and utmost respect, why don't you just roll a Hunter? What could a ranged Rogue possibly add to World of Warcraft that makes them different and worth playing over a Hunter aside from a little more flexibility when fights require more ranged?
I don't see what this would add to the game. It's not like you are able to deploy new and awesome poisons or anything, Hunters already have Serpent Sting which isn't far off from Deadly Poison these days. Focus and energy is quite comparable although one passively regenerates and the other is being regenerated passively and also actively. Then there are combo points, and with that all I can imagine is a ranged Rupture, and ranged Eviscerate and a Slice and Dice type of ability.
In Guild Wars 2 the Rogue (or Thief rather) class was able to become a ranged spec/class. All they came up with in that game which mind you has nothing but amazing and original ideas, was a Shadowstep like ability that shoots yourself forward (much like Blink) and ranged combo point-like abilities that simply did more damage the more ''combo points'' you had.
I don't see this ever working. Hunters fill the niche of a ranged physical class and all I can see Rogues become are knockoff Hunters. Yes a Hunter class/spec without a pet would be nice, but I think reworking a Hunter spec to fill that would be far more likely.