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.

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

WotLK Hunter Pet Changes

A lot of interesting fixes and overall “smoothing” for lack of a better word, for hunter pets coming up in the next WOTLK beta build. While there’s been a lot of truly major changes for WOTLK, it’s great to see these type of small…seemingly insignificent changes as well. Honestly, these are the things that have polished the game to the point it is, and will continue to polish and perfect it into the future.

• Taunt no longer shares a cooldown with Growl and Cower.
• Avoidance, not Great Resistance, is the prereq for Wolverine Bite.
• We are still trying to rework Heart of the Phoenix to get around the shortcomings.
• Tenacity and Ferocity pets lost their armor multiplier but it was given to all pets at base. The net effect is that Cunning pets won’t be at a stat deficit compared to the other trees.
• Roar of Recovery provides more mana.
• Lick Your Wounds now with faster licking technology.(lol?)
• Carrion Feeder cooldown dropped to 30. We can’t easily change the range because this spells uses the same tech as the undead racial.
• Focus cost removed from Bullheaded.
• Not directly talent-related, but rather than reworking Prowl, cats got a second damage ability, Rake. It felt odd for them to shift from most desired pet to one of the least desired.

As far as who belongs to which tree, those decisions were made largely based on the pet special ability, not what ecologically makes more sense with the tree’s theme. Strong CC or other PvP-useful abilities were generally given the Cunning tree, just because we didn’t also want to see those same pets as the most popular when raiding or soloing. The goal is to have a lot more options about which pet you’re going to bring. With the Cunning stat change and tree rework, hopefully that will include those animals as well.

Rather than start another thread, feel free to talk about any of the pet family abilities (Rake, Web, Poison Spit etc.) as well within this one.

Cats have Rake, Prowl and Bite. Prowl has almost no combat use. Bite is spammable. Rake has a short cooldown like other pet abilities, but it’s a bleed like the druid attack.