Long time readers of this blog knows that I have been a dedicated Mutilate rogue since I switched from Combat Daggers (!) back in Burning Crusade sometime. Through the times when Combat was the theoretically highest dps spec, I stuck with Assassination. Even on fights with adds, I’ve been a diehard Assassin and I’ve made it work.
/sigh
In my previous post I lamented how rough it was to keep my damage competitive in heroics these days. Well, I cured that. All I had to do was switch to Combat spec. Last night I ran a couple of heroics in Combat spec, and finished in 1st or 2nd in dps in most fights. Blade Flurry was active almost the whole time, but even with that I felt considerably less energy-starved than I do in Assassination spec.
Trash packs are still the AoE-fests that they have always been, and Combat shines there. Many bosses in heroics have adds, making Combat the spec of choice. Even without adds, Combat has less ramp-up time so it is preferable on single-target fights if they are not too long.
I still expect to go back to Assassination once I start raiding, but it looks like I’ll be sticking with Combat for now. Since stat priorities are slightly different between the two specs (Mastery is better for Assassination and Haste for Combat) I may have to work on two gear sets, or choose which spec will be slightly non-optimized.
Forever a Noob - A WoW Rogue Blog 
Combat rules on the first boss in MSV you’re almost constantly dpsing two bosses next to each other. Blade flurry I love you!
Have you tried the new Subtlety for comparison? Also, what’s an “add” ?
I have not tried subtlety. I attempted subtlety briefly during Cata and found it too hard to manage under anything other than ideal conditions. I haven’t had any motivation to try it again, although I’m sure that I will eventually.
“adds” are short for “additional” which means extra targets during the fight. Perfect for Blade Flurry.