The new WoW talents aren't dumbed down.
I could go into a long discussion or explanatory post about why that is, but eh.
The current talent trees are 100% mandatory. It requires zero thought to armory some top player and copy exactly what they're doing. Nothing could be more dumbed down than the current system of "Wait for the theorycrafters to tell you what's best, then do that for a year and a half until next expansion."
;)
You don't want to go here.
While the current trees are bad, and have failed at thier pre cata original design (remove boring passives, give real choice), there actually is choice.
I'll use Frost DKs as an example.
Ignoreing the basic swap of DW to 2H (NoCS+ToT - 6 points, or MotFW - 3 points) there are at least 4 different builds, two within the restricted structure of 31 Frost, and 2 without.
Do you choose to work towards Sudden Doom, or Desceration? Do you build a Mastery Based HB spam set up (which ignores the Glyph of Obliterate, Rime and Annihalation), or do you stick with the old faithful Oblterate Build?
Sudden Doom is more useful for dealing with Healers (and Dual Weilding), while Descecration is more useful to a 2H Build (more NS) than Sudden Doom is. Then there's the choice of PResence you run either in, which also effects your build.
Now, with the Current MoP patch, the Talents are bland, cookie cutter, or make no impact.
My Post formt he Beta Boards;
The DK Talents have become blander, with what I feel to be obvious choices each tier.
Tier 1
Unholy Blight.
Rolling Blood is next to useless, and the new Plague Leech is /meh. Kind of like a Warlocks Soul Swap, we can remove FF/BP and recharge a random fully depleted rune as a Death Rune. I can see this trying to be squeezed in as your diseases are aobut to fall off, but we're based around having them up, so we'll need to reapply them anyway. And trading a GCD for a Death Rune, doesn't seem to be that great.
Tier 2
Lichbourne (PvP) / Purgatory
Lichbourne is a solid PvP choice (and it allways allowed Death Coil to heal you) and AMZ is a Raid Cooldown. But I see the new Talent Purgatory being the go to choice here. 3 Seconds of more DPS, with the potential to save you from death. Too good to pass.
Tier 3
Death's Advance (PvP) / Aspyxiate
Buffed so you can never be snared. WooT. Chilblains is nice, but why Snare on FF, when we've got CoI and the option for another AoE snare (see Tier 6). Aspyxiate is good, a bonus for PvE, where snares don't really matter.
Tier 4
Conversion
Death Pact is good, but only for Unholy. Death Siphon is also good, but tied to Death Runes. Conversion, with no cooldown, will be the go to heal. Anytime you have excess RP (or are playing Frost...) fire up conversion.
Tier 5
Runic Couruption.
Blood Tap is still bad, and R.E. suffers form the RNG fail it always has.
Tier 6
Remorseless Winter
Do you want an AoE DG? Maybe. A 2 Min immunity to CC might be good in PvP. If your opponents don't just LoS you round a pillar, as you can't leave the AoE. But an AoE Sanre/Stun, on a 1 min coodown, coupled with being immune to snares (Deaths Advance). The choice. As for PvE, /meh.