Sub and Assassination feel too similar, they are both vying to be the Dot Damage dealer rogue spec. For sub Rupture is very important and it does more damage over time than eviscerate deals up front.
Assassination is also about Rupture while it has another effect baked into it its the only dot we have control over, deadly poison is passive.
Combat lost Rupture this expansion and was never about dots but all 3 specs have a huge emphasis on White hits/ Auto Attacking. Combat lacks any form of armor penetration instead it gets a clunky damage bonus.
In pvp because of larger health pools and no desire for rogues to be 1 shotting people finishers need to be used a lot more than they use to combo points have been devalued.
In vanilla wow, tbc, and even wrath a single large crit was a big deal, Critting with eviscerate or a combo builder was a huge portion of someones health. In return energy did come in as quickly there were few ways to get energy faster except for passives from Combat and one passive in the assassination tree. There was no such thing as venomous wounds and slice and dice returning energy to you every 2 seconds.
Combo Builder attacks and Combo points have been greatly devalued. In old times 5 combo points felt very valuable and now it does not.
Perhaps its always felt the way it is now to PVE players but in PVP its awful.
I find all 3 boring and in much need of change to flesh out their identity and make them fun again especially in the eventual presence of Demonhunters.
Assassination has remained my favorite despite having the worst cool down in the game and becoming a tiddly poison spec because I just like how it flows and forgive me but I really love its simplicity and auto pilot feel vs the other 2 specs. For Combat its all about Killing Spree and what you do during Adrenaline rush and for Sub its all about that dance. While for assassination you just tunnel into someone and your always doing decent damage as long as your on target. Its enhanced by the fact now that Slice and dice is completely passive.
many call assassination mindless but who wants to feel like their doing work while trying to kill someone in a video game. I never understood the mentality of loving sub because its hard to play at an advanced level. At the level I play at I often defeat sub rogues of = skill to me because assassination is just so much easier and more forgiving and that in itself is an advantage it just creates for a lower maximum potential than sub in a pvp environment.
Im the same way in fps games. The only fps where I ever used snipers and weapons of finesse was Halo but Halo no matter how you play it online is not a finesse game your playing as a spartan/elite with an energy shield who can kill people with a couple weapon butts or 1 shot from behind and plus there is no recoil. The guns aren't one bit realistic ect. I prefer Shotguns and smgs to precise rifles and sniper rifles. Even pistols are more fun for me. My favorite thing about counter strike are the ECO and Pistol rounds where everyone can only afford pistols and Smgs or at best a shotgun if not the most expensive smg the P90.