To reiterate something that's been said several times in this thread:
Reapplying serpent sting only applies to buffs that grant percentage increases to damage (Culling of the Herd gives +3% to all damage, 2t10 gives +15% to all damage, Tricks of the Trade also gives +15% if you have a friendly rogue), which remembers the percent increase for the rest of the sting's life. Crit is also remembered from time of application if you have 2t9.
AP, on the other hand, is recalculated every time you use chimera shot. Hence there is no benefit to manually applying serpent sting at a high level of AP.

With 10 more exp you would be over the cap, thus wasting 4 points of exp, that reduces the value of the last gem.
Compare 6exp to whatever you're using as normal gems, like 20ap/10haste, 20haste or 40ap.

I am wondering if I just missed the Resto post like this one? I did not see one on the shammy forums page? it is completely possible that I am blind.

1st please excuse my spelling (English isn’t my native tongue).

where to start... after 396 days played on my rogue, a few server transfer and even a faction change, I think it is safe to say I have been around and saw most of what my class can/can't do. I lived the flaws as much as the goods, been thought all the changes, the hypes as well as the frustration, I can even say I did all the major spec from vanilla to WotLK.

So here is what I think of the new possible spec for our class that we love so much. Let me start with what I consider the obvious.

1 -seriously, give us all shadowstep as a learning ability, make a glyph of camouflage and wipe the hole Subtlety tree... the only think we might miss would be preparation, period ( ambush, HaT, cheat death are cool but not essential). Let us be honest here, the spec only live because player like the mobility shadowstep/camouflage give (helped by HaT to make up the huge lost of dps), in pvp those are the only think that can help us fight against a kiting player.

2- Imp gauge at a 31 point in a tree?? You must be kidding.

3- backstab as a combo builder stop being good a long time ago, mostly when people learn you needed to be zoom out as much as you can to be aware of your surrounding (target get so small you have an hard time knowing if you are in there back, and if you have the unit name plated on you just don’t see anything), plus in dynamic fights positioning can be a b***.

Personally backstab should be a starter (a la garrote/ambush/cheap shot) and/or a finisher.

4- Why all the hype on daggers? Really! Maybe you could make us use daggers as our normalized offhand (beside we really love having a 1.30 or 1.40 offhand anyway). Again, personally, crushing our foes with a mace, slashing enemies with swords/axes is somewhat so satisfying.

5- Finishers, what do we have…. Rupture, eviscerate and envenom, and combo builder…sinister strike, mutilate and hemorrhage….
Those should be reflecting in the 3 spec…
Assassination: mutilate/envenom where poison and dagger use are mostly present
Combat: sinister strike/rupture for the sustain dps required in very long fights
Subtlety: hemorrhage/eviscerate where burst is all that matter

Basically don’t put venomous wound… imp eviserate in assassination tree, blood splatter to serrated blade in subtlety.

6- Does anyone use/spend point in “after killing an opponent that yield experience or honor” kind of ability? Those are way too uncertain to my opinion to be worth spending the 2-4 precious points when I want to pull the best out of my points.

7- Unfair advantage is mostly pvp ability, very cool, fun and efficient, but way too far in the tree to be picked up.

I am sorry that I see the bad points fist , but my experience in expansion release is close to terrible, remember when TBC came out and no one wanted to take a rogue , even for a 5 man ?! ( why take a useless rogue when a mage could do the same dps while requiring less healing and way more useful CC) or the so low dps in early WotLK naxx because of the amount of AoE ?!

Now, enough with the bad side, let see the good points.

1 - Blackjack! At last woot woot! This is a jewel.

2- Imp exposed armor… /clap now we are talking… loose a few second not all your combo points and be useful to your group.

3- Vendetta is a very refreshing idea. Perfect for pvp the kind of ability that will give back the edge that use to make us so feared. Beside it s about time we get something against every other class that had so many tools against our stealth. It will probably become a “must have” for professional pvp.

4- restless blade is another stroke of genius, I am sure this ability will be very interesting to pull out more dps while keeping the combat spec a lot more challenging to play, and we all know the combat spec is base a lot on cooldown, so making the cooldown less predictable will bring the play style to an whole new level.

5- Ambush with any weapon…. WAS ABOUT TIME!

6- hemorrhage: BRAVO! Only 11 points, so any spec can use it , brilliant if you want to try out a spec on your own, and the debuff is awe! We can feel a lot more useful to our raid.

7- HaT, is finally very attractive

Please let me put some comment about the rogue class before I finish this.

I will quote HYLANTH here (from a post he made on the world of warcraft rogue forum):

“The rogue class requires so much skill now just to survive...it actually takes skill now to play. Can't say that about the other classes. You punish rogues by giving other classes mindless overpowered skills that reward their lack of skill and punish the rogue (or other classes) for maneuvering or playing in such a way as to gain the upper hand. What skills am I talking about? Here are a few skills that break the game: death grip (removes strategy from the game and punishes good players for graining ground), soon to be trap-shot (lol?!), thunderstorm/typhoon, disengage. The classes that received these abilities already have other abilities to use to keep people away--you've simply gone overboard.”

“You want to fix the rogue? “

“6. Make shadowstep CORE ability, period. You’ve given other classes too many range creating skills. Warriors have charge and intercept by default, rogues should get shadowstep.
7. Poisons should no longer be a reagent but a skill. Bring back the poison skill...makes it actually WORTH something. You are removing arrows from the game, but you are leaving poisons in...Makes no sense. Poisons cost more than arrows, stack in vastly fewer quantities, and half of them are virtually obsolete. Make poisons a quest, give the rogue a few quests to obtain VIALS of each type of poison, this vial applies poison to the rogues weapon similar to a warlock's stone, wizard oil, and so forth. Make it be perpetual like a shaman's totem....something....anything!
8. Bleed damage...fix it. Why druids and warriors have better melee dot's that rogues is disgusting. A slap in the face to the assassin class. Bleed needs a big buff, and poison needs to do more on bleeding targets (think open wounds). “
.
“10. Introduce the need for pick lock, disarm trap, and stealth into dungeons and groups. Rogue CC in pve is annihilated. Pick lock is nothing more than one of the most annoying and difficult grinds in the game...yeah...fun times.”

On my part I would add:

1-I could an hybrid class do as much dps as a pure class like us while having more viable CC, more HP, more armor ?
2- we could get a pet, more passive, one that can stealth as we do , but would bring a new dimension to the game, in example… a rat that would get on our target when fighting them and would slow there casting time, or a larva that could corrode armor for a time.
3-How is FoK having one poison instead of two a 'hefty buff'?
4-bring back the rogue tanking possibility.

Beside that I think ALDRIANA had everything else cover in his post on EJ (sorry to quote you but your comment is fill with wisdom).

Cataclysm Rogue Changes

In conclusion, I think blizzard is making a huge and great work on trying to make it right.