6.0 Warrior changes discussion thread

[Sting]

Let's start with the relevant sections from the patchnotes:

Warrior

Battle Shout now lasts 1 hour and no longer generates Rage.
Berserker Rage no longer generates Rage or increases Physical damage dealt.
Berserker Stance has been removed.
Cleave has been removed.
Commanding Shout now lasts 1 hour and no longer generates Rage.
Demoralizing Banner has been removed.
Hamstring is now a passive ability that causes Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, Revenge, and Raging Blow to also reduce the target’s movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds.
Rallying Cry is no longer available to Protection Warriors.
Recklessness is now available only to Fury and Arms Warriors.
Skull Banner has been removed.
Throw has been removed.
Thunder Clap is no longer available to Fury Warriors.
Whirlwind is now available only to Fury Warriors.

Warrior

Charge now Roots the target (instead of stunning). The Root effect does not share a Diminishing Return with other Roots.
Warbringer now causes Charge to stun the target for 1.5 sec instead of rooting it.
Disarm has been removed.
Intimidating Shout now has a 6 sec duration in PvP (down from 8 sec).

Active mitigation has worked very well as a tanking model. So, moving forward we want to keep the amount of Dodge and Parry on tanks on the low side. This helps prevent encounters from causing very spiky damage on tanks, which generally isn't much fun. Dodge and Parry gains from Strength and Agility are being reduced to help accomplish this. Additionally, items in Warlords of Draenor will not have Dodge or Parry on them as a stat. Some Dodge and Parry can still be gained through class-specific effects.

The amount of Dodge gained per point of Agility has been reduced by 25%.
The amount of Parry gained per point of Strength has been reduced by 25%.

Protection: Vengeance changes and Protection Mastery changes to compensate; Riposte updated.

Vengeance has been removed and replaced with a new passive ability, Resolve.

Resolve: Increases your healing and absorption done to yourself, based on Stamina and damage taken (before avoidance and mitigation) in the last 10 seconds.

Warrior

Mastery: Critical Block now also passively increases Attack Power by 12% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.

Riposte has been redesigned.
Riposte gives the Warrior +100% to Parry chance until they Parry an attack after getting a critical strike with an Auto Attack.

A few things I'm concerned about so far:

-Being a warrior tank myself, I really hate losing 100% of my raid utility. They'd have to balance the tanks at level 100 pretty damn close to avoid guilds stacking the fotm class.

-With Dodge and Parry mostly gone, how are they gonna rework Revenge to stay viable and keep RPM about the same? The Riposte redesign helps a little bit but you're still gonna see less revenge procs.

-Here we go again with the charge change, I thought the community had been pretty clear about that?

Update: There's more, wall of text inc:

Warrior

We wanted to fix a few problems with Warriors. First, we still weren't happy with Arms' rotation (and neither were many players), so we've made some more changes, primarily through cutting abilities (see Ability Pruning above).

As with other classes, we wanted to reduce cooldown stacking. Cutting Skull Banner did a ton to help that across the whole game. But for Warriors specifically, we needed to make further changes, including merging some of the personal benefit of Skull Banner back into Recklessness. Also, to make up for Throw being removed, we modified Heroic Throw to be more frequently usable.

Recklessness now increases Critical Strike chance by 15% (down from 30%) and increases Critical Strike damage by 10% (up from 0%).
Shattering Throw no longer reduces the armor of the target; it only does damage and breaks immunities.
It also is no longer learned via any specialization, but instead through a new Major Glyph, Glyph of Shattering Throw.
Heroic Throw now has a 6-second cooldown (down from 30 seconds), but now has a 15 yard minimum range.


Haste has long been a problematic stat for Warriors, usually being of little value. As part of our commitment to ensuring all secondary stats are valuable (except Bonus Armor for non-tanks and Spirit for non-healers, of course), we're making a significant change to Warriors, to ensure that Haste has strong, competitive value. We're giving all Warriors a new passive, which lets haste affect their global cooldown, and the cooldowns of their very-short-cooldown rotational abilities.

Headlong Rush is a new passive ability for Warriors:
Headlong Rush: Haste reduces global cooldown and the cooldowns of Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, Shield Slam, and Thunder Clap.


Protection Warriors have received a few notable changes. First, we removed Dodge and Parry from gear, and expect Protection Warriors to value Haste and Crit as important secondary stats. In order to achieve that, we made Riposte give defensive value to Crits. The aforementioned Headlong Rush also helps for valuing Haste.

Riposte has been redesigned.
Riposte gives the Warrior +100% to Parry chance until they Parry an attack after getting a critical strike with an Auto Attack.


A few Warrior Talents also were in need of revision. First, Second Wind was problematic; it was sometimes too weak, and sometimes too strong. We chose to change it from a passive health regeneration effect to the new Leech effect, so that low-health Warriors have to maintain combat in order to benefit, instead of kiting, hiding, or otherwise playing defensively. For the level-60 and level-90 Talent rows, certain combinations were proving problematic. We decided that Stormbolt would better compete with Shockwave and Dragon Roar, and that Bladestorm would better compete with Avatar and Bloodbath, so swapped Stormbolt and Bladestorm's positions.

Second Wind no longer directly heals the Warrior while active. Instead, Second Wind grants the Warrior 10% Leech while active, which causes the Warrior to heal for 10% of all damage and healing done by the Warrior while active.
Bladestorm is now a level-90 Talent, swapping places with Stormbolt.
Bladestorm no longer allows use of Shouts while active. It does still allow the use of Taunt, Enraged Regeneration, Shield Wall, and Last Stand.
Stormbolt is now a level-60 Talent, swapping places with Bladestorm.


Fury Warriors are receiving updates to spell alerts to improve usability.

Bloodsurge’s spell alert has moved to the top slot instead of the left/right slots.
Raging Blow now has a spell alert on the left and right slots.


With the introduction of one of the level-100 Warrior Talents, which deals Fire damage, we also expanded Enrage to affect all damage, not just Physical damage.

Enrage now increases all damage (up from only Physical damage).
Mastery: Unshackled Fury (Fury) now increases all damage (up from only Physical damage).


We're also making a change to the design of Deep Wounds, to try to limit is effectiveness in PvP, without hurting its effectiveness in PvE.

Deep Wounds now lasts 15 seconds, or until the target is healed to full health.

Edit: Draenor Perks, you get these while leveling from 90 to 100 (apparently in a random order that changes per player):

All
Improved Charge - Increases the range of Charge by 10 yards.
Improved Heroic Leap - The damage radius of Heroic Leap is increased by 2 yards.
Arms
Enhanced Sweeping Strikes - Sweeping Strikes now lasts 5 sec longer.
Improved Mortal Strike - Increases the damage of Mortal Strike by 20%.
Enhanced Slam - Increases the radius of the splash damage dealt by Slam while Sweeping Strikes is active by 3 yards.
Improved Overpower - Increases the damage dealt by Overpower by 20%.
Improved Die by the Sword - Increases the damage reduction from Die by the Sword by 10%.
Empowered Execute - Increases the damage of Execute by 50%.
Improved Colossus Smash - Colossus Smash now generates 10 rage when hitting a target.
Fury
Improved Die by the Sword - Increases the damage reduction from Die by the Sword by 10%.
Empowered Execute - Increases the damage of Execute by 50%.
Improved Colossus Smash - Colossus Smash now generates 10 rage when hitting a target.
Improved Meat Cleaver - Meat Cleaver now grants 2 charges every time Whirlwind deal damage.
Improved Wild Strike - Damage of Wild Strike increased by 40%.
Improved Bloodthirst - Increases the damage and healing of Bloodthirst by 20%.
Improved Raging Blow - Increases the damage of Raging Blow by 20%.
Protection
Improved Heroic Throw - Heroic Throw no longer has a cooldown.
Improved Shield Slam - Increases the damage of Shield Slam by 20%.
Improved Revenge - Increases the damage of Revenge by 20%.
Improved Shield Barrier - Increases the absorb amount of Shield Barrier by 10%.
Improved Unwavering Sentinel - Unwavering Sentinel now increases your armor by an additional 15%.
Improved Bastion of Defense - Bastion of Defense now increases your block chance by an additional 10%.
Improved Thunder Clap - Increases the damage of Thunder Clap by 20%.

Level 100 talents:

Warrior

Left
Anger Management - Every 30 rage that you spend reduces the remaining cooldown of your Readiness-affected abilities by 1 sec.
Middle
Ravager - Throw a whirling axe at the target location that inflicts XXXX damage to enemies within 8 yards every 1 sec. Lasts 15 sec. Also increases your chance to parry by 20% for 15 sec. 40 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
Right
Ignite Weapon (Arms, Fury) - Ignite your weapon and deal 100% weapon damage (140% if a one-handed weapon is equipped) as Fire, and cause your auto attacks to deal Fire damage for 10 sec. This ability is not on the global cooldown. Replaces Heroic Strike. 30 Rage, Melee Range, Instant, 1.5 sec cooldown, Requires Melee Weapon
Gladiator's Resolve (Protection) - Increases the damage reduction provided by Defensive Stance by 5%.
Also allows you to forgo your defensive role, and instead focus only on offensive capabilities, by replacing Battle Stance with Gladiator Stance. Gladiator Stance - A dauntless combat stance. Increases physical damage dealt by 20%, and replaces your Shield Block with Shield Charge. You cannot change into or out of this stance during combat.
Passive
Shield Charge
20 Rage, 10 yd range, Instant, 15sec recharge, Requires Shields
Raise your shield and charge a short distance to your target, increasing the damage of Shield Slam, Revenge, and Heroic Strike by 30% for 6 sec. Maximum 2 charges.

New Glyphs:

Warrior

Glyph of Cleave - Your Heroic Strike now hits 2 targets.
Glyph of the Drawn Sword - Each time you parry while Die by the Sword is active, you gain 5 Rage
Glyph of Heroic Leap - Increases your speed by 70% for 10 after using Heroic Leap.
Glyph of Mocking Banner - Your Mocking Banner now causes creatures to attack the tank specialization player you had targeted when placing the Mocking Banner, instead of attacking you.
Glyph of Raging Blow - If both of your attacks from a single Raging Blow are critical strikes, then your next Bloodthirst within 10 sec heals for 0% more.
Glyph of Rallying Cry - While your Rallying Cry is active, you also gain 20% leech, healing you for 20% of all damage and healing you cause.
Glyph of Shattering Throw - Teaches you the ability Shattering Throw.
Shattering Throw - Throws your weapon at the enemy causing 12 damage or removing any invulnerabilities.
Glyph of Flawless Defense - You have a 25% reduced chance for attacks against you to be critical strikes while Shield Wall is active.

[sjsctt]

Ground rules:

No flaming for thoughts. Stay on topic. Keep it 6.0.

[Jalopy]

Headlong Rush is a new passive ability for Warriors:
Headlong Rush: Haste reduces global cooldown and the cooldowns of Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, Shield Slam, and Thunder Clap.

[Aberrict]

-Mastery: Critical Block now also passively increases Attack Power by 12% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.

Here's the Prot Mastery change.

Increases the damage reduction provided by Defensive Stance by 5%.
Also allows you to forgo your defensive role, and instead focus only on offensive capabilities, by replacing Battle Stance with Gladiator Stance. Gladiator Stance - A dauntless combat stance. Increases physical damage dealt by 20%, and replaces your Shield Block with Shield Charge. You cannot change into or out of this stance during combat.
Passive
Shield Charge
20 Rage, 10 yd range, Instant, 15sec recharge, Requires Shields
Raise your shield and charge a short distance to your target, increasing the damage of Shield Slam, Revenge, and Heroic Strike by 30% for 6 sec. Maximum 2 charges.

Update: Gladiator Stance.

[Recke]

Riposte has been redesigned.
Riposte gives the Warrior +100% to Parry chance until they Parry an attack after getting a critical strike with an Auto Attack.

Imo, Headlong Rush is only going to be worthwhile for Arms, if that.

Riposte seems kind of... well, it's backwards to what it was. Still to early to tell on Prot, imo, since Mastery=Damage, Crit=Parry (which if Revenge+Hold the Line stays, = damage).


EDIT:

Fury Warriors are receiving updates to spell alerts to improve usability.
Bloodsurge’s spell alert has moved to the top slot instead of the left/right slots.
Raging Blow now has a spell alert on the left and right slots.

....to improve usability, we added RB spell alert (yay?) and then changed the location of Bloodsurge's....

Mastery: Unshackled Fury (Fury) now increases all damage (up from only Physical damage).

Capacitance meta will hit very hard for the inbetween. Let's hope we don't get something weird like Weapon procs that deal damage which bullet hole us into Fury.

[Sting]

Here's the Prot Mastery change.



Update: Gladiator Stance.

Thanks, missed the mastery part. Updated OP with talents and draenor perks.

[Requiel]

aren't you excited to thunder clap slightly earlier then before?

[Wazooty]

I don't understand the removal of Zerker stance. It's fun thing to do to get more rage if you can risk it. Not necessary at all, but there if the player wanted it. I liked it. It's the type of thing that added to the skill cap, if only by a little. Theoretically you'd be using D stance in those situation instead, by why not have that choice?

[Requiel]

I don't understand the removal of Zerker stance. It's fun thing to do to get more rage if you can risk it. Not necessary at all, but there if the player wanted it. I liked it. It's the type of thing that added to the skill cap, if only by a little.

It was crap in most situations and too good in others, can see why it got removed.

[Jalopy]

aren't you excited to thunder clap slightly earlier then before?

Can't they just give reforging back and stop shoving haste down our throats

Blizzarddddddd

And I dunno how ret paladins work, but won't this give us some wonky-ass things like a 3.7s bloodthirst or whatever? Something entirely crazy?

[sjsctt]

Unfortunately, as it stands, haste will still be bad for fury if it went live today. Hopefully they have more up their sleeve.

They are removing beserker stance (((((((

[Sting]

aren't you excited to thunder clap slightly earlier then before?

From a tank point of view, it MIGHT be nice to increase your RPM. Can't really tell if Crit (through new Riposte) is gonna be more useful than Haste (through Headlong Rush) until we actually get some numbers.

[Khorm]

I liked our 1.5s unchangeable GCD.

Blood Death Knights receive a new passive ability at level 80 called Power of the Grave.
Power of the Grave grants a bonus to Mastery to all Party and Raid members.

Brewmaster Monks now also learn Legacy of the White Tiger, granting 5% increased Critical Strike chance to all Party and Raid members.

Still can't give us BShout and CShout together though. Would go perfectly in line with their ability pruning.

[Sting]

Can't they just give reforging back and stop shoving haste down our throats

Blizzarddddddd

And I dunno how ret paladins work, but won't this give us some wonky-ass things like a 3.7s bloodthirst or whatever? Something entirely crazy?

A good point actually, I only play Protection for the most part, not sure if this change is gonna mess up your rotations.

[Aberrict]

Automatically Learned Glyphs: Warriors

At level 25: Long Charge, Victory Rush, Bloodthirst, Gag Order.

At level 50: Executor.

At level 75: Bull Rush, Enraged Speed, Shield Wall

I might have missed a few since they didn't sort them via class.

[Jalopy]

A good point actually, I only play Protection for the most part, not sure if this change is gonna mess up your rotations.

I'm sure we'll get some Collisionmath™ soon, but from what I can tell, haste will have value up through and until each 1.5s "breakpoint", and then likely drop off erratically until the next breakpoint can be reached (assuming it can be reached at all).

[sjsctt]

Haste stays terrible. Move along boys and girls.

They are removing beserker stance. Just saying

[Soisoisoi]

Got excited when I saw the GCD change, and then sad again when I saw it was for SOME abilities, and scaled with Haste. Same reason I won't play a Paladin is the lack of 1s GCD and it makes the class feel clunky. :|

[Jalopy]

Damn that change because I was arguing with retards on the WoW forums not terribly long ago about how stupid Blizzard would have to be to entirely remove zerker stance.

[sjsctt]

Controversial opinion here:

Thank god they are removing profession raid benefits. Never grinding that shit again.