WotLK Warrior Changes – Build 9038

All in all very minor changes, not unlike the other class changes for beta build 9038. I like the change to sudden death, which should certainly help to further solidify the talent as a key choice for arms warriors. The rage kick back will really improve its utility in arena, as dropping to zero rage without an assured killed is rarely a worthwhile.

More than anything I’m very excited to see the final result of all these protection buffs, specifically from a PvP view. The increase in taunt rage from 5 to 20 yards should really make for some interesting arena and world PvP situations. I haven’t heard any major feedback regarding protecting PvP specs, but theoretically it looks like it may be a viable solution for more defensively oriented warriors.

Warrior

Arms

• Strength of Arms – Increases your total Strength and Stamina by 2/4% and your Expertise by 2/4.
• Sudden Death – In addition, you keep 3/7/10 rage after using Execute, was added to the description.

Fury

• Unending Fury – Increases the damage done by your Slam, Whirlwind and Bloodthirst abilities by 2/4/6/8/10%. Changed from reducing rage cost.
• Execute – All ranks had a slight damage increase. Max rank: Attempt to finish off a wounded foe, causing [1456.0 + AP * 0.2] damage. Up from [1266.0 + AP * 0.2].

Protection

• Taunt – Now has a 20 yard range. Up from 5.

Oct. 1 WotLK Updates Wrap Up!

Well, pretty big day today with loads of changes across the forums, beta, and here at Zug Gaming. To make sure you didn’t miss anything I thought this occassion calls for my first WotLK wrap up post.

Honor Points Will NOT Reset In Expansion

Title pretty much sums this one up. Blizzard reversed their earlier decesion to reset honor / honor marks prior to expansion. Honor points will not be reset prior to the expansion.

Updated WotLK Glyphs

New / revised glyphs for all classes.

WotLK Beta Build 9014 Class Changes

Nothing major here, most of the changes are pretty minor and focus more on balancing. Never the less, some interested and positive adjustments to every class.

Arena Season 4 End Date / Patch 3.0.2 Launch Date

Season 4 will end October 14th, 2008, additional information regarding details and patch 3.0.2 speculation.

Major Warrior Buffs – Berserker Rage Change

Berserker rage change may be used in any stance now, confirmed by blue.

WoW Gold Tip – Jewelcrafting and Prospecting

Gold tip #6 from yours truly, check out the tutorial video regarding jewelcrafting, prospecting, and the auction house.

Major Warrior Buff – Berserker Rage Changes

Warriors around the world are going to be drooling when they see this…

Ghost is out for the rest of the evening so I thought I would make a quick post regarding a new warrior change. Berserker Rage will now be usable in all stances.(source)

While this change isn’t “major”, it’s still pretty big in my book. This will definitely help to further solidify the potential PvP protection spec, as well as offer tanking warriors extra rage throughout a fight.

Most PvP and DPS warriors are going to be in berserker stance anyway, basically meaning nothing…but for those few times when you’re in battle or defensive stance and need the extra rage in addition to the fear / sap immunity from this buff should be a dramatic improvement.

Updated WotLK Glyphs

A few new glyphs added in the most recent beta build. Very disappointing to see the glyph of preparation has been changed (previously it reduced the cooldown of prep by 2 minutes). A 3 minute preparation would have been pretty insane though (new talent reduces it by 2.5/5 minutes).

Make to check out wotlk glyphs compiled for additional class inscription glyphs.

Warrior

• Glyph of Resonating Power – Reduces the rage cost of your Thunder Clap ability by 5.0.

Death Knight

• Glyph of Rune Strike – Increases the critical strike chance of your Rune Strike by 10% but increases cost by 5.0 runic power. Down from 50.

Priest

• Glyph of Fading – Reduces the mana cost of your Fade spell by 30%. Down from 50%.
• Glyph of Spirit of Redemption – All heals cast while Spirit of Redemption is active have a 20% chance to increase the remaining duration of Spirit of Redemption by 5 sec. Down from 20 sec.

Rogue

• Glyph of Preparation – Your Preparation ability also instantly resets the cooldown of Blade Flurry, Dismantle, and Kick.
• Glyph of Garrote – Reduces the duration of your Garrote ability by 3.0 sec and increases the total damage it deals by 20%. Down from 45%.

Hunter

• Glyph of Aimed Shot – Reduces the mana cost of your Aimed Shot ability by 20%.

Druid

• Glyph of Aquatic Form – Increases your swim speed by 50% while in Aquatic Form. Up from 20%.
• Glyph of Thorns – Removed.
• Glyph of Regrowth – Increases the healing of your Regrowth spell by 20% if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target. Down from 50%.

Paladin

• Glyph of Exorcism – Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.
• Glyph of Flash of Light – Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140.0% of its inital effect over 15 sec.
• Glyph of the Warhorse – Removed
• Glyph of the Wise – Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.

Warrior Glyphs

Below is the updated list of warrior glyphs which will be introduced when the wrath of the lich king is released. Note, you will be able to use 3 major and 3 minor glyphs at level 80. Make sure you check out the the Compiled Inscription Glyphs to see the other class glyphs.

Major Warrior Glyphs

• Glyph of Revenge – After using revenge your next heroic strike costs no rage
• Glyph of Barbaric Insults – Your mocking blow also taunts the target
• Glyph of Cleaving – Reduces the rage cost of cleave by 5
• Glyph of Execution – Your execute ability deals damage as if you had 10 additional rage
• Glyph of Mortal Strike – Increase the damage of your mortal strike ability by 10% but the healing penalty is reduced by half
• Glyph of Bloodthirst – Increases the healing you receive from your bloodthirst ability by 20%
• Glyph of Whirlwind – Increases the number of targets your whirlwind ability hits by 1
• Glyph of Hamstring – Gives your hamstring ability a 10% chance to immobilize the target for 5 seconds
• Glyph of Blocking - Increases the block value by 10% for 10 after using your shield slam ability
• Glyph of Spell Reflection – Reduces the cooldown of your spell reflection ability by 10 seconds
• Glyph of Intervene – Increases the number attacks you intercept for your intervene target by 1
• Glyph of Rapid Charge – Reduces the cooldown of your charge ability by 20%
• Glyph of Victory Rush – Your Victory Rush ability has a 30% increased critical strike chance against targets above 90% health
• Glyph of Taunt – Increases the chance for your taunt ability to succeed by 8%
• Glyph of Rapid Charge – Reduces the cooldown of your charge ability by 20%
• Glyph of Resonating Power – Increases the maximum targets affected by your thunder clap ability by 4.
• Glyph of Heroic Strike – You gain 10 rage when you critically strike with your heroic strike ability
• Glyph of Sweeping Strikes – You generate 30 rage over 13 seconds when you use sweeping strikes ability
• Glyph of Rending – Increases the duration of your rend ability by 3 seconds
• Glyph of Overpower – Adds a 50% chance to enable your overpower when your attacks are parried
• Glyph of Sunder Armor – Your sunder armor ability affects a second nearby target
• Glyph of Devastate – Your devastate ability now applies two stacks of sunder armor

Minor Warrior Glyphs

• Glyph of Bloodrage – Reduces the health cost of your bloodrage ability by 50%
• Glyph of Battle - Increases the duration of your battle shout ability by 1 minutes
• Glyph of Mocking Blow – Increases the damage of your mocking blow ability by 25%
• Glyph of Thunder Clap - Increases the radius of your thunder clap ability by 2 yards

Wrath of the Lich King Warrior Changes

It was only a matter of time before warriors finally started to get their turn along the buff table. Blizzard poster Gamnin made a massive post regarding some of these changes that are expected to be introduced in the next beta build.

Overall most of these changes are very reasonable. The very nature of the warrior class always seems to lead down the same road though…without gear it’s pretty miserable, but with proper weapons, itemization, and ideally a good healer the class becomes one of the highest pvp damage dealers in the game.

Finding a way to balance this is no easy task, but I’m hopeful Blizzard will find a happy medium. My only major concern with the class at this point is titan grip. While this talent makes fury a great substitute to traditional mortal strike builds I think it’d be difficult to find the gray area where it could be good enough to convince some warriors to change from arms without making it insanely overpowered.

But this point has been the underlying problem with WoW talent builds from the beginning. There is always going to be “the” spec you have to be if you want to participate in X, be it PvP, Raiding, etc. This type of min / max theorcrafting has certainly helped players achieve their goals much quicker, but it’s very sad to see so many talents, skills, play styles and hybrid builds go unused for the greater part of WoW existence.

Hello Warriors,

I’ve got a sneak preview of things coming up in the beta for you to discuss. We still have lots of polish and bug fixing to do and we’re still wrestling with a few elements of the warrior abilities and talents so do not consider this an exhaustive list. As always, post any concerns or suggestions you have.

General

• Enraged Assault redesigned, now Enraged Regeneration: You regenerate 30% of your total health over 10 sec. This ability consumes all Enrage effects and prevents any from affecting you for the full duration. Must be enraged to use. Cost 15 rage, 3 min cooldown.
• Slam – We’re working to change this ability to suspend the swing timer when you are using the ability. In other words, if you’re .5 sec away from swinging your weapon when you start using Slam you’ll be .5 sec from swinging your weapon after Slam goes off.

Arms

• Improved Charge now generates 5/10 rage.
• Mace Specialization now ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target’s armor.
• Sudden Death and Trauma swapped locations.
• Bladestorm now lasts 6 seconds, causing a whirlwind every second.

Protection

• Toughness now also reduces duration of movement slowing effects by 10/20/30/40/50%.
• Improved Sunder Armor renamed Puncture, reduced to 2 ranks for 1/2 rage cost reduction.
• Improved Disarm reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces the cooldown of Disarm by 10/20 sec and increases damage taken by disarmed targets by 5/10%.
• Improved Defensive Stance reduced to 2 ranks, now reduces spell damage taken by 3/6% and any block/parry/dodge has a 50/100% chance to enrage the warrior causing 5/10% more damage for 12 sec.
• Vigilance will soon transfer the 10% threat lost to the warrior. It will also have 3 charges to curb using it on targets that are being hit constantly. We’re still polishing this element to get it to feel right.
• (NEW) Warbringer is a new one point talent on Tier 9 that allows Charge to be used in combat. Did I mention the change to Improved Charge?
• Critical Block now also increases your chance to critically hit with your Shield Slam by 5/10/15%.
• Sword and Board no longer triggers when Shield Slam is used, but the chance to trigger has increased to 3/6/9/12/15%. Note these are not final numbers.

Fury

• Intensify Rage and Precision swapped locations.
• Enrage now increases damage done by 3/6/9/12/15%, limitation on number of attacks removed.
• Improved Whirlwind now increases damage of Whirlwind by 10/20%, no longer reduces cooldown.
• Focused Attacks changed to use PPM (procs per minute) to make it trigger at the same rate regardless of weapon speed. Note that dual-wielding and haste still improve your chances.
• Titan’s Grip still needs a counterbalancing element, but what it will entail and how severe it will be is still being evaluated.

Thanks for reading!
To answer a few questions:

- Yes, I meant Furious Attacks, not Focused Attacks.
- Some notes are already in the beta, some are not updated yet on the calculator so wanted to give additional visibility to anyone else reading the forums.
- Warbringer: What we don’t want to see is Charge becoming part of a tanking rotation. At the moment it will remain usable only in Battle Stance. An experimental idea to be sure.
- Stance Dancing: The short answer here is we want just the right amount of it. :)
- Final numbers are not in yet for the various talent trees. We want all trees to be viable in PvP and PvE so expect further number tuning across all classes/specs.
- The important upcoming change to Vigilance is the threat transfer. 10% of the target’s generated threat will go to your threat total.
- Bladestorm consuming rage every second is a bug that’s been fixed.