Patch Notes for "The Burning Crusade"?

[Lissa]

'alternate playstyles' in character builds for WoW are difficult to justify because you either have to solo them all the time (cutting out large portions of the game), or expose other people to your weaknesses.  This was not the case in Diablo, as nobody else suffered when I played my bow-weilding Diablo II paladin in a passworded game by myself, and I could experience all the game content in doing so.  In WoW you are limited in such alternate builds and sub-par equipment, as you potentially risk your entire group, and there are potential social ramifications to these ways of extracting additional enjoyment from the game.  Party mates can get disgruntled with your performance because of your odd talent build, for instance.  This is something that could potentially be fun for you at the expense of others kind of thing, something that I think most Lurkers are not really into.  I mean you aren't going to have much success as rogue that only weilds bows in a group, even though it may be a viable way to play solo (once you get gouge).
[right][snapback]92881[/snapback][/right]

Ah, and there in lies the rub. See, there are still ways to play alternate without lowering your effectiveness by much. In raiding, a Shadowpriest can be just as effective as a Holy Priest or a Discipline Priest. There are many other builds that can be considered variant from the norm, but still quite effective.

I've been looking at my build for my Rogue lately and I'm leaning toward the Dagger Combat/Subtlety Rogue...the one that can backstab and ambush like nobody's business and can turn around and be effective in group play (due to things like improved sap). This varies pretty significantly from other Dagger Rogues that typically go Subtlety/Assassination without going very deep into Combat or the Sword Rogues that go deep into Assassination/Combat without going very far into Subtlety.

The thing is, what the general populous thinks as variant can still be viable. You're getting trapped into the feeling that you have to build your talents in a certain way because the general populous thinks that is the way it has to be to be effective without ever looking at things that would be considered variant and still effective.