New warrior changes

[Saurus]

We've all seen the front page. But there are a few tasty changes.

• Berserker Stance - A reckless combat stance. Generates rage from damage taken.
• Spell Reflection - Cooldown reduced to 15 sec, down from 25 sec.
• Piercing Howl - Duration increased to 15 sec, up from 6 sec.

There are a lot of enrage mechanic and damage modifier changes, I hope they smooth out the gameplay. But really glad they abandoned Berserker Stance as the AoE stance, that felt really boring. Really interested to see how it plays out now.

However, still confused about this change:

• Defensive Stance - A tanking combat stance. Decreases damage taken by 15%. Reduces the chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks by 6%. Significantly increases threat generation.

It seems now any warrior can become crit immune (in PVE)? Perhaps a too strong in PvP? I hope they change that, so that Prot could use the new Beserker Stance. Though perhaps this is intended to make PvP less bursty/1-shot?

We'll see how it plays out.

Thoughts?

[asharia]

Sweeping Strikes glyph has changed also. So although there's no CD, you will have to burn 50(?) rage every 10secs if you want to keep it up.

[Saurus]

Sweeping Strikes glyph has changed also. So although there's no CD, you will have to burn 50(?) rage every 10secs if you want to keep it up.

Ah yes, just noticed. It would be a little OP otherwise xD.

[Deleted]

I think the new stances seem good, berserker as an aoe stance just seemed wrong and dull and now you will actually have to think instead of macroing your respective abilities to their stance. Players will most likely have more crit than 6 % so i don't think you have to worry about defensive stance being op in pvp! Overall I'm very pleased and it seems like piercing howl will completely replace hamstring now if you chose to spec it. The spell reflect and sweeping strikes changes are just awesome as well!

[Deleted]

They should change Sweeping strikes, so it's some what similar to rogues blade flurry instead.

[Cernunnos]

There are a lot of enrage mechanic and damage modifier changes, I hope they smooth out the gameplay. But really glad they abandoned Berserker Stance as the AoE stance, that felt really boring. Really interested to see how it plays out now.

I do like the newest change to berserker stance. I wasn't thrilled with the change to it where it became the AOE stance.

Will be interesting to see how it's damage taken bit works out. I remember prior to cata coming out and all the hoopla around the various Enrage iterations, and talk of people deliberately standing in AOE to proc Enrage as it would proc from damage taken (later changed to % chance to proc from damage done)

I think the new stances seem good, berserker as an aoe stance just seemed wrong and dull and now you will actually have to think instead of macroing your respective abilities to their stance

Stance dancing in MOP will almost be a thing of the past. Almost every ability now that currently has a stance requirement, does not have it in MOP

Thunderclap
Shattering throw
Hamstring
Intervene
Colossus Smash
Disarm
Taunt
Execute
Charge
All no longer have a stance requirement like they do on live currently.


Bout the only thing that still requires macroing is abilities that require shields, like Shieldwall or Shield Block. But that is about it. They do not have a defensive stance only requirement. Just shields.

[Deleted]

However, still confused about this change:

• Defensive Stance - A tanking combat stance. Decreases damage taken by 15%. Reduces the chance you will be critically hit by melee attacks by 6%. Significantly increases threat generation.

It seems now any warrior can become crit immune? Perhaps a too strong in PvP? I hope they change that, so that Prot could use the new Beserker Stance. Though perhaps this is intended to make PvP less bursty/1-shot?

Just wanted to point out, -6% Critchance doesn't make one crit-immune

[Saurus]

Just wanted to point out, -6% Critchance doesn't make one crit-immune

Yeah sorry for the confusion, I meant crit immune in a PVE sense. But very strong in a PVP sense. As in, any Warrior can throw a shield on and try to tank a boss, without worrying about getting crit'd. And the -6% in PVP is very noticeable. So, it will be interesting to see how stances workout.

Perhaps stance dancing is now changing into 'The stance I need given the situation' as oppose to 'switch stance to do X ability'. Interesting .... time will tell

[Deleted]

Stances will be useful, thankfully. Being in Battle for single target and Berserker for AoE wasn't that interesting.

[Deleted]

I think the new stances seem good, berserker as an aoe stance just seemed wrong and dull and now you will actually have to think instead of macroing your respective abilities to their stance/quote]

Stance dancing in MOP will almost be a thing of the past. Almost every ability now that currently has a stance requirement, does not have it in MOP

Thunderclap
Shattering throw
Hamstring
Intervene
Colossus Smash
Disarm
Taunt
Execute
Charge
All no longer have a stance requirement like they do on live currently.


Bout the only thing that still requires macroing is abilities that require shields, like Shieldwall or Shield Block. But that is about it. They do not have a defensive stance only requirement. Just shields.

Perhaps I wasn't writing clearly enough but what I meant to say was that I think there will now be a choice in which stance you want to be in. Either you generate more rage from auto attacks or generate rage from taking damage also. In the old berserker stance model from the beta whirlwind and cleave did more damage in it which is why you probably just would've macrod it to berserker stance like how arms warriors currently macro a lot of their ablities to it and just switch back and forth constantly with no real thought behind it.

[Deleted]

I'm actually really excited about some of these changes. The new stances are very interesting, however, we'll have to see just how they play out. Obviously Berserker Stance can't be so strong that any incoming damage will instantly neglect Battle Stance, but it'll probably be strong enough to be a major asset on an Ultraxion-style fight.

Reducing the RNG of Enrage is fantastic. The less of it we have, the less we'll struggle both PvP and PvE - we all know how terrible PvP is right now.

The new Defensive Stance is actually quite crazy, however, at a lot of cost. If you need to go defensive, this'll really, really make you defend yourself. Combining Defensive Stance with the new Die by the Sword gives about a ~32% damage reduction (assuming they stack the way damage reduction cooldowns stack today - multiplicatively). The 6% crit reduction has nothing to do with immunity in PvP - in Cataclysm gear it could be a pretty large amount, but we'll have to see how much it is with 90-level gear.

[Cernunnos]

Reducing the RNG of Enrage is fantastic. The less of it we have, the less we'll struggle both PvP and PvE - we all know how terrible PvP is right now.

Yeah some times I find my self with no enrage effects at all and thus unable to use Raging Blow. No berserker Rage as it's on CD, no Deathwish as it's on CD, Enrage Regeneration currently requires an enrage effect to be used before it can be used as an enrage effect for Raging Blow purposes, and my 9% chance to proc enrage just doesnt seem to happen. It doesn't happen often, but it happens just often enough that I find it irritating.

[Deleted]

Stances will be useful, thankfully. Being in Battle for single target and Berserker for AoE wasn't that interesting.

Yes, but am I the only one worried that prot no longer has 6% cr reduction?
Think like this - if prot has extra passive to have 6% crit redux in all stances, stance dancing for tanks would also make some sense, now they are still limited to def unless it's thrash.

[Deleted]

wow, the new stances are interesting to say the least. good to see they are still working on core mechanics. would love to know how it plays out. the new battle stance seems to be a bit OP.

[Soldiah]

Im wondering if block has changed. it says block an attack. does that mean its still a 30% reduction or does it prevent all damage?

[Deleted]

Im wondering if block has changed. it says block an attack. does that mean its still a 30% reduction or does it prevent all damage?

should be still 30%. preventing all damage would make critical blocks useless. maybe just a datamining error.

[Gatsu]

The stances changes are very interesting, switching in Berz just before an enviromental damage during a PvE encounter to maximize rage gen could be the way to go.
Love the change to Spell reflect, we kinda needed it, also some defensive buffs, finally.
Approved!
The only thing that I really find "strange", is the Mortal Strike buff and the OP nerf. They are giving MS really A LOT of importance, having it dodged or parried in PvP would make us almost without buttons to push for another 6 secs or so.

[WarTV]

Awesome changes so far. here is my current feedback tho:

pre change:
-there was no point having Heroic strike on your bars. you almost never had the rage to use it if you had a proper dps rotation.
-sometimes i would stand waiting for my auto attack since i did not have enough rage to use my current available abilities (without using a single Heroic strike and not bashing slam)

did the new dung just now and i have to say that i almost have no downtime what so ever unless i mash slam and starve myself. rage is always available if managed properly.

-15 sec spell reflect makes the glyph so so so so so much better now. <3
-berserker stance provides extra pressure as a warrior if you are being trained in pvp (thank you blizzard)
- 50% Enrage much better than 25%. i couldnt help but wonder how weak the 25% felt and if anything would be done about it.
- Enrage from auto attacks + special attacks. noticed that my enrage up time has slightly improved.

What is needed to be looked into for atm:
-Warrior snare. hamstring is back to 1.5sec GCD IF the new piercing how puts a 15 sec snare in pvp as well then this doesnt need to be looked into. If not then i suggest either increasing the snare on hamstring duration or reduce the gcd of hamstring back to 1 sec.
-Overpower this ability is lacking now. based on the number of dungs/rotations i have done Overpower is now a rotation filler with very low priority depending on how much rage you have. why not give Overpower a 1 sec GCD again since it has lost its high based crit and with that change it has lost its priority in our rotation as well as being low in the dps category.

[Deleted]

What is needed to be looked into for atm:
-Warrior snare. hamstring is back to 1.5sec GCD IF the new piercing how puts a 15 sec snare in pvp as well then this doesnt need to be looked into. If not then i suggest either increasing the snare on hamstring duration or reduce the gcd of hamstring back to 1 sec.
-Overpower this ability is lacking now. based on the number of dungs/rotations i have done Overpower is now a rotation filler with very low priority depending on how much rage you have. why not give Overpower a 1 sec GCD again since it has lost its high based crit and with that change it has lost its priority in our rotation as well as being low in the dps category.

this.

plus, staggering shout is pretty much useless if you don't have an aoe slower in your "group" since piercing howl is in the same tier. it's like frostnova doing nothing if there's no slow effect on the target but it would have to be your single target slow (frostbolt) or a slow from another player.

[Deathgoose]

It stands to reason that abilities no longer require a specific stance, since now they make abilities spec specific. So, yeah, Arms/Fury can toss a shield on and hop to Defensive, become crit immune against a boss, and try to tank him the last bit after the real tank went down and try to prevent a wipe

Still, I do find it odd that the other tank classes seem to require being in their respective tank spec to get the -6% crit bonus and Warriors would just require changing stances, but they should also be missing many of the proper "sword & board" attacks, so they won't be as effective? I guess that is why they are doing that? Dunno, seems odd.