If you don't have Mutilate, there's no reason for you to play Assassination to the fullest. Unless you're going to PvE, using combat in PvP is just silly. Using Subtlety in PvP is the best decision you can make.
Many people put so much emphasis on Cold Blood. Cold Blood from TBC on is OK, basically it gets on the way to get Mutilate so, why not take it? But in Vanilla is crappy, really crappy. People use it to get a nice crit on Ambush or Backstab. If you use it just to crit with SS or Esvicerate, you're dummy. So, why would you go such a long way to get CB just to proc ONE crit with Ambush or Backstab? Every 3 minutes? It makes no sense, it's a waste of talent points. Then CB opens Seal Fate, which gives you an additional combo point basically. WOW, do you think that's op? I remind you, in Vanilla you don't have Mutilate, why would you go with Assassination such a long way? To get Vigor? It's +10 energy, ONCE, when in combat. Meh...
Now let's get real and compare it to Subt: Instead of CB I suggest you to get a nice gear, to boost that critical chance, get Malice, get Lethality, before you get to Lethality get Relentless Strikes, awesome talent
. So far, we have a decent Critical Strike chance, but it doesn't equal CB. Well, now it's time to get some points on Opportunity and Improved Ambush. Now you can forget about CB because you will most likely always get a critical strike from Ambush. Use Improved Backstab to score a critical strike with Backstab. No need for CB. No need to go such a long way just to get that crappy talent. Seal Fate? 5 points? What a waste man... Get Initiative, and you get that extra combo on your target. It will also enable to use better talents even further. You can then get Highthened Senses and crush them rogues in 1v1, you can get Preparation which is awesome to remove CDs, a rogue without CD is a rogue that wins most of the time. Really, there's so much to explore there. Assassination, get them 15 points in there, no more. Combat? 8 points, no more, just to improve Backstab. Because that's what Rogue's are about in Vanilla, Ambush, Backstab and good Stealth. Subtlety offers you that. In case you want to use a daggerless build, you need to combine Subt with Combat and Assass in a different way, but again... Remember... Cold Blood sucks. Don't waste your valuable talent points just to get to that talent.
