Cookie Cutter Builds

[Bob the Beholder]

Actually, the Shadow priest base is 33 Shadow, 8 Discipline, and 10 points left over that can get mixed across the trees.  Those 10 points generally get sprinkled into the following:
- Improved Renew
- - Spiritual Healing (after Imp. Ren)
- Improved Power Word: Fortitude
- - Mental Agility
- - - Mental Strength
- Shadow Focus

Hunter:
Probably the most cookie cutter of all builds right now.  31 in Marksmanship, 20 in Beast Mastery.  This should happily change after the new talent tree revision.

Mages:
- ALL mage builds include 16 points in Arcane:  IAM, AC, IAE, and Evocation.
- Nearly all builds are 20 in Arcane
- Fire Mages:  31 in Fire, 20 in Arcane <-- THE most cookie cutter mage build out there
- Frost Mages:  35 in Frost, 16 in Arcane

Paladins:
- Most Paladins have 31 points in Retribution
- There really aren't any killer options after that, so it's kind of "whatever" for the last 20 points.
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Forgive me if this is taken as an insult, or a bash to PvE, but are these taken from a PvE server?

It seems like it, sorta. I've built a mage to 60 and played with a hunter for a good long time, and I have NEVER found a mage (myself or someone else) to pick Combustion over Presence of Mind, in the usual fire/arcane build, on my PvP server. Not once. Most common, I've found, is 21 arcane 30 fire. I'm thinking that PvE a guaranteed crit may be more important that an instant spell. No so against other players.

Most frost mages even give up Ice Barrier for Presence of Mind. It's just that good.

As to the hunter talents, I've also never seen anyone advocate picking beastmastery over survival. I've talked to a few hunters, and people seemed to consider the PvP advantage of Improved Wing Clip, Lightning Reflexes, and Deflection far more important than anything in the beastmastery tree.

Of course, that last one said, many hunters who PvP solo tend to go 30 marksmanship/21 survival, because the combination of counterattack and scatter shot are as close as a hunter can get to an I win button, in my experience.

Cookie cutter builds tend to be pretty common on PvP servers. When you're forced to fight other players who can power-game all they want, it tends to be more important to give yourself every advantage you can than to be individualistic.