Man, with all of the talents in this game for each of the classes, it's hard to figure out which direction to go as far as how to spend those talents and how to really do an effective talent build. This is one aspect of the game that is tough to master, and it is not cheap to be switching your talent points around a bunch. Does anyone have some good "builds" (for lack of a better term) for each of the classes (ex. for mage, something like a fire mage, frost mage, or arcane mage specialization). Just wondering, as it can get pretty confusing, and those points are a major investment in your character.

For shaman, if you spec out completely in enhancement and spend the rest in elemental, you do some pretty nice things.
However, if you just spec a bit in enhancement for all the tank/survivability boosters, and spend the rest on elemental, you perform really well.

And for the mage, I was thinking if you went all fire, I great combo would be combustion and pyroblast. Especially at level 60 (1200+ damage from one spell is nuts).

And it really isn't about "mastering the talents" so to speak. Talents are there to truly make characters unique. Pick whatever appeals to you most, but always look at all the talents in a line so you know what to expect.

Mages are very good when they specialise in 1 of their 3 tree. There's no point going into specific example with them because you have more than enough point to create a good specialised template and have enough left over to get some extra skills in other trees.

Rogues are very hard to mess up, because they too have very good possibilities in all trees. I'm going mostly subtlety but my friend is going combat. Assasination is usefull too.

Most priests that solo a lot start by specialising in Shadow magic for crazy damage, then in their 40-50 they respec to a more traditional priest build. (Discipline/Holy)

Most hunters go Marksman with some point in survival or beast mastery, but raising mainly beast mastery is viable too.

In my opinion, paladins and warriors are harder to build right, because they have no talents that make you say "wow" like other classes have. They just get a lot of talents that give small benefits.

Druid are easy. Are you interested in playing as a spellcaster, shapeshifter or healer? Pick the according tree.

I went all fire for my mage, great for solo play. But when you hit lvl 60 soloing starts to lose its appeal. Most of your quests will be in instances like BRD/BRS, Scholo, etc. So I switched to a mix of mainly arcane with some frost. Arcane helps a lot with mana management, and arcane missiles do more damage than the fast fire spell (scorch). I do still use Fireblast (instant cast) but mainly arcane missiles now. You also draw less aggro which can really become a problem. That said I do miss the Pyroblast with combustion hehe, one big rock of fire that did massive damage was sweet.