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Warrior Changes In Patch 4.1
Blizzard has not officially announced the release date for patch 4.1, but given the latest release build it will probably happen this Tuesday, April 26th.
Cataclysm seems to be the expansion where they try to desperately reach class balance between PVP and PVE and fail miserably. Will they keep the streak alive with Warriors this time around?
- Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects.
- Colossus Smash now ignores 50% of a hostile player’s armor (PvP), but continues to ignore 100% of a non-player character’s armor (PvE).
- Heroic Throw is now available from trainers at level 20.
- Heroic Leap is no longer on the global cooldown, similar to other warrior movement abilities.
- Inner Rage is now available at level 56.
- Intercept now has a 1.5-second stun, down from 3 seconds.
- Pummel is now usable in all stances.
- Rallying Cry (new ability) is available from trainers at level 83. It temporarily grants the warrior and all party or raid members within 30 yards 20% of maximum health for 10 seconds. After the effect expires, the health is lost. It has no cost, no stance requirements, and is not on the global cooldown. It has a 3-minute cooldown, but also shares a cooldown with Last Stand.
- Shield Bash has been removed from the game.
- Spell Reflection cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 10.
- Whirlwind now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by Bladestorm remains unchanged.
Arms
- Improved Hamstring now reduces the global cooldown on Hamstring by 0.25/0.5 seconds in addition to its current effects.
- Juggernaut no longer adds 2 seconds to the Charge stun, but instead lowers the cooldown of Charge by 2 seconds (to 13 seconds total without the glyph).
- Lambs to the Slaughter now causes Mortal Strike to refresh Rend in addition to its current effects.
- Strikes of Opportunity value per point of mastery has been increased by 10%.
Fury
- Precision (passive) now increase auto-attack damage by 40%, in addition to the 3% hit it offers currently.
- Unshackled Fury now only grants 2 base points of mastery, down from 8.
Protection
- Shield Mastery no longer affects the cooldown of Spell Reflection, however, it now allows Shield Block to proc a second aura that reduces magic damage by 7/14/20% for 6 seconds.
- Gag Order now applies to Pummel and Heroic Throw, giving these abilities a 100% chance to silence the target for 3 seconds. In addition, Gag Order lowers the cooldown of Heroic Throw by 30 seconds.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Spell Reflection reduces the cooldown of Spell Reflection by 5 seconds, up from 1 second.
Let’s also not forget the changes to the Dungeon Finder and the effect it will have on Warriors:
- The Dungeon Finder now attempts to avoid putting damage-dealing classes with the same armor type in a group.
- Players will now get bonus rewards 7 times per week (while earning less than 980 Valor Points) instead of once a day when using Dungeon Finder.
- When there is only 1 player left in a Dungeon Finder group, they will now be able to queue for replacements as long as they queue within 2 minutes or stay in the dungeon.
- The Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms will now identify which class role is currently the least represented in the queue, and offer them additional rewards for entering the Dungeon Finder queue and completing a random level-85 Heroic dungeon.
- The least represented class icon will show within the Dungeon Finder to indicate the role that is eligible to earn the bonus reward.
- Players must queue solo with the currently indicated least represented class (by the system) and complete the dungeon up to and including the final boss in order to be eligible for the bonus reward.
- The bonus reward will be displayed to eligible (system identified as least represented) classes within the UI.
- Once the dungeon is completed the eligible player will receive a Satchel of Exotic Mysteries (account bound) with various potential rewards including: gold, rare gems, non-combat pets, and (very rare) mounts.
Only one plate-wearing DPS class per group = Longer queues for DPS Warriors and Death Knights. Meanwhile, Tank classes will not only continue to receive instant queues, but if they stick around to the very end they’ll get a goodie bag.
This will end badly, and I will bathe in the tears that will flood from the official forum boards.
… and my tank got a rare mount at the end of the run! My wife? No, her warrior still queues as DPS.
The Warrior – Patch 4.0.1
Cataclysm doesn’t drop until December 7, but things are pretty chaotic in Azeroth right now.
Broken addons, bugged UI’s, brand new trees… quite frankly it’s enough to give a guy a throbbing migraine. But I’m here to help, so here’s some class help for those who are spinning their wheels. First, of course, is the new Warrior for 4.0.
General
Q: Will Plate Specialization and Mastery be available with the patch?
A: Yes, you can learn them from your trainer.Q: Will Agility Amulets/Rings/Cloaks/Ranged Weapons break Plate Specialization?
A: No, as those items don’t have an armor type. You still want to replace them with Strength items if you can.Q: Where the heck did all my Armor Penetration/Block Value/Block Rating/Defense go?
A: Blizzard converted them all into other stats. Depending on the item Armor Penetration became Haste or Crit while Block Value/Block Rating/Defense became Parry or Dodge.Arms
Q: What is the best Arms spec?
A: Some variation of 31/4/1. You have a lot of leeway on Major and Minor glyphs.Q: What about Blood and Thunder?
A: If you want more AoE damage go for it, take the points out of Battle Trance to get it.Q: Why did you skip Sudden Death?
A: It doesn’t proc Execute anymore, only Colossus Smash,Q: What rotation should I be using?
A: Maintain Rend, prioritize Mortal Strike > Overpower > Slam. Execute is only better than Slam at high levels of AP and when there’s a full 30 rage available. Don’t Slam or Execute if it will delay MS, and use Heroic Strike at 60+ rage.Q: When do I use Bladestorm?
A: When you need to AoE. It’s not worth using for single targets.Q: What good is Shattering Throw?
A: It can increase raid DPS during Bloodlust if there are a number of other physical DPS present. However, it’s a personal DPS loss.Q: What are my stat priorities?
A: Get 8% Hit. After that, Strength > Crit > Mastery = Expertise > Haste.Q: What should I reforge my Haste into?
A: Hit if you’re below the cap, otherwise Crit.Q: What should I use to enchant my weapon?
A: Berserking.Q: My raid leader wants me to use Sunder Armor, I don’t want to lose DPS.
A: Do it. It’s a DPS gain for the raid, and for you as well if no one else is willing/able. Screw your rotation and the DPS race; stack it immediately to full. No, it isn’t a better idea for the Rogues to use Expose Armor.Fury
Q: What is the best Fury spec?
A: Some variation of 3/31/2. You have a lot of leeway regarding Major and Minor glyphs.Q: What about Single Minded Fury?
A: There aren’t any one-handers with Strength on them currently which hurts Single Minded Fury significantly. Feel free to play around with it, but it won’t really take off until Cataclysm.Q: I don’t like Rude Interruption, it sucks on bosses without interrupts.
A: If you’re dying for some specific utility elsewhere that’s your prerogative, but there are no other DPS talents to take.Q: What rotation should I be using for Titan’s Grip?
A: Prioritize like so: Bloodthirst > Raging Blow (use Berserker Rage to activate if necessary) > Slam > Shouts. Use Heroic Strike at 60+ rage.Q: Should I use Slam when I don’t have a Bloodsurge proc?
A: No.Q: What about when I can Execute?
A: Execute to stack your Executioner talent, then resume your rotation replacing Slam with Execute when you need to maintain your stack.Q: When do I use Death Wish and Recklessness?
A: Use Death Wish on cooldown, but try to line it up with Bloodlust whenever possible. Recklessness should only be used when Slam or a shout isn’t available and preferably during Death Wish or a confluence of procs.Q: What good is Shattering Throw?
A: It can increase raid DPS during Bloodlust if there are a number of other physical DPS present. However, it’s a personal DPS loss.Q: What are my stat priorities?
A: Get 8% Hit (including Precision), 26 Expertise. After that, Strength > Hit > Crit > Haste > Mastery.Q: What should I reforge my Haste into?
A: Hit.Q: What should I use to enchant my weapon?
A: Berserking.Q: What about my offhand?
A: Still Berserking.Q: My raid leader wants me to use Sunder Armor, I don’t want to lose DPS.
A: Do it. It’s a DPS gain for the raid, and for you as well if no one else is willing/able. Screw your rotation and the DPS race; stack it immediately to full.Protection
Q: What spec should I use?
A: Some variation on 2/3/31. You have a lot of leeway regarding Major and Minor glyphs.Q: Your build is terrible, I prefer-
A: Protection is less set in stone, depending on whether you’re running heroics are raiding. The prior build is a general raiding setup.Q: What’s my maximum threat rotation?
A: Prioritize Shield Slam > Revenge > Victory Rush (with Impending Victory) > Devastate. Heroic Strike at 60+ rage.Q: What about AoE packs?
A: Rend (if you took Blood and Thunder), Thunderclap and Shockwave become your top priorities. Use Cleave instead of Heroic Strike. Shield Block will greatly reduce your incoming damage.Q: What are my stat priorities?
A: Stamina, Dodge and Mastery.Q: Should I reforge Dodge for Mastery?
A: No.Q: What about Parry?
A: Maybe. If you do, go all out as Mastery gets better the more of it you have. Just don’t reforge Dodge.Q: My threat sucks, what should I do?
A: Expertise is your best single target threat stat before you hit 26 expertise, it gets more confusing after that. Strength is the best all around threat stat and for AoE. Look for tanking gear with these stats, or reforge some Parry for Expertise.Q: I keep dying. What I am doing wrong?
A: You are probably still adjusting to the new changes, as are your healers. In addition, you may be undergeared, using a wrong strategy, standing in the fire, failing to use/time your survival cooldowns or have too few/bad healers.Q: Who should get my Vigilance?
A: Your offtank in a raid. Whoever keeps pulling threat in heroics.
– Information via Elitist Jerks
Edit: I have changed the Talent Calculator to the WowTal version. That way, you can import the tree directly from the site to your character.
How easy, not to mention cool, is that!
Blizzard Tweets on Warriors
Every once in a while, someone tweets something that is worth paying attention to. Not that reading Kim Kardashian name-dropping products and getting paid for it isn’t the bees knees, but I prefer something a little more substantial. Blizzard had a Twitter developer chat on July 16th, and this is what they had for Warriors:
Q. Will rend (sigh) be refreshed by Thunderclap on all targets used with Blood and Thunder?
A. Yes. The idea is that you Rend once and then Thunder Clap from then on. We still hope it’s an optional talent, not the only way warriors can AoE tank.Q. Slam’s design is pretty archaic and not very fun. Is there any chance of Slam becoming an instant-attack baseline ability?
A. We think it makes the ability feel different. Slam as an instant attack isn’t very different from some of the other attacks. As it’s designed though, Fury shouldn’t use Slam at all without procs and Arms should only use it with the Improved Slam talent. We tried (briefly) making Slam a low-level ability, but weren’t happy with it.Q: Are Fury Warriors still going to see a new attack to fill the loss of Whirlwind? Any insight?
A. Yes! It’s called Raging Blow (at least for the moment), because we wanted to distance is a little from the old Enraged Assault. It’s Fury-only and can only be used when Enraged, but does not consume the Enrage. It does indeed strike with both weapons (including the animation).Q: Will Whirlwind still be a part of a Fury warrior’s rotation on single mobs or will it be multi-mobs only?
A. Multiple mobs only.Q: Concussion Blow is rarely used these days outside of PvP. Any plans for it? Will you unlink it from Vigilance?
A. It’s pretty useful on Mr. Lich King….Q: How is Heroic Leap working so far? Is it progressing better than your last attempt at putting it in-game?
A. We’re pretty happy with it so far. The version we have right now lets the warrior target where they want to leap, so they can use it as an escape tool as well. We all know paladins would never retreat from a battle, but warriors have been known to do so.Q. Why does fury have two 31-point talents? Wouldn’t it be simpler to merge them so one doesn’t have to re-specialize when new weapons drop?
A. We feel the decision on which of these two talents to choose is based on play style (two fast weapons, or two slow two-handed weapons), not based on which weapons most recently dropped (like the former Arms weapon specialization talents which have been cut).We expect the player to decide which type of dual wielder they are and collect weapons and gear that fit that type.
Q: Hi, it’s me Rend! I’m sort of terrible, but if tanks are having to use me in Cataclysm, may I be a good ability now?!
A. Get back to the back of the bus, Rend.In all seriousness, though, we don’t want Rend to be the answer to Protection warrior threat. It isn’t going to keep mobs glued to you. We do think we have room to boost its damage though, even for warriors with a DPS specialization. One change we’ve made is letting it do a tick of damage immediately, so that you see and feel damage right on the application instead of waiting for the first tick.
Q: Why does Fury have two 31-point talents? Wouldn’t it be simpler to merge them so one doesn’t have to re-specialize when new weapons drop?
A. We view swapping from two-handed to one-handed weapons as more of a play style choice than swapping from mace to axe because the axe has more DPS. You are rarely going to be in a situation where a boss drops two one-handed weapons that are superior to your two-handed weapon.Q: What do you think warriors will be more unique for in PvP now that Mortal Strike is available to other classes and reduced to 20%?
A. We don’t think warriors need a unique ability that is so awesome that you just have to have a warrior on your Arena team. That is bad mojo for all the other classes. We do want warriors to be useful in PvP, however. One ability we are trying out for Arms is “Throwdown,” which lets them knock an opponent to the ground for five seconds. Since it’s usable in Battle Stance, they can also use it as a Pummel in a pinch.Q: You mentioned “Disarming Glare isn’t likely to make it. Could you expand on this a bit?
A. We cut it in exchange for the Throwdown talent above.
It’s going to be interesting to see how things unfold in the beta. Hopefully people give the two 31-pt Fury talents a try and post some results. But this is Beta after all, which means that nothing is etched in stone. Fingers crossed!
Rokk Talk 