Damage optimised rogue

[Concillian]

It seems to me that with Feint one can dump all one's energy at once since if hate generation from damage is too high one simply spends less Energy on damage and more on Feints. You still get one combo point per Feint

This is false. Feint does not add a combo point. Feint lowers hate levels but if you are on the edge and get a crit backstab, feint is not enough. Feint also has a miss rate like any other attack, so you cannot DEPEND on feint. It also has a considerable cooldown of 10 seconds.

OK, I recognise the value of this but with 4 others in the group, all very likely with valid methods of rescuing this situation, plus options available to me from the basic skillset like Gouge, I don't want to spend talent points speccing for this. I envisage spending an evening killing stuff fast, not an evening peeling mobs off the healer.

As MongoJerry says... Rule #1: Things go wrong.

like it or not, rogues, hunters and shamen are best equipped to help in this situation. Pallys have a limited skillset for this situation, and any clot wearer pulling the aggro back is only delaying the inevitable, because they'll go down just as quick as the priest. Ideally the warrior will pull aggro back to him, and the fade will work, but Rule #1 can always apply. Blizzard has said it was their intention that battles be chaotic. And even the best laid plans go wrong in WoW.

All I can say is play the game some, your perspective may change. If you're tactics are not group oriented and all you want to do is kill stuff fast, then you may want to stick to killing normal mobs 3-5 levels below you solo, rogues tear through those quick. Or duo with another DPS class on normal quests. Instances and 'elite' mobs may not be your thing. That's the thing about WoW, you can find your niche, because there are multiple ways to play and level to 60.