Arms AoE Idea - Cleave

[Bamzy]

I was thinking recently about how I dislike Slam cleave in 5.4, and if there are any other ways we could reliably AoE, without simply having Whirlwind, just like Fury (doesn't really feel like an Arms ability to me personally).

And then I thought about how sad it is that such an iconic ability as Cleave is getting removed (I know that's the least of our worries, but still). So I came up with a little idea on how Arms could AoE as other classes do, and have Cleave back.

[Cleave] - Cleave nearby enemies in a cone in front of you, inflicting XXX% weapon damage. (On the GCD, of course)





http://i.imgur.com/jUNNckh.jpg (Full Size)

This is sort of what I'm talking about (very similar to how Swipe used to work for Druids, I think).

This would of course replace Whirlwind / Slam as our 'sustained' AoE (and be our filler in 6.0).

Just want to hear some thoughts on this idea, as well as ask you:

Do you guys actually like the way Arms AoE's currently with Slam?

[Secondwind]

Do you guys actually like the way Arms AoE's currently with Slam?

I love the live Slam AoE conceptually, just want it to have a bigger area to be more usable. I felt like it gave a lot of flavor to an ability that was otherwise lacking, and was a great way to remove a button from the rotation (Whirlwind) without getting into weird things like AoE in single target. I seem to be in the minority on that though.

[Bamzy]

I love the live Slam AoE conceptually, just want it to have a bigger area to be more usable. I felt like it gave a lot of flavor to an ability that was otherwise lacking, and was a great way to remove a button from the rotation (Whirlwind) without getting into weird things like AoE in single target. I seem to be in the minority on that though.

I'm sure you already know this, but just in case, they are indeed increasing the range slightly for WoD (last I checked).

[Secondwind]

I'm sure you already know this, but just in case, they are indeed increasing the range slightly for WoD (last I checked).

That was in Alpha. More recently they have decided that they are removing Slam from the game and giving us Whirlwind as our single target and AoE filler. And slightly more recently than that they have decided to give back Slam as a talented ability. This talent seems to have no interaction with Sweeping Strikes.

[Bamzy]

That was in Alpha. More recently they have decided that they are removing Slam from the game and giving us Whirlwind as our single target and AoE filler. And slightly more recently than that they have decided to give back Slam as a talented ability. This talent seems to have no interaction with Sweeping Strikes.

Wow, how could I have forgotten they are removing Slam... Just slipped my mind I guess. Didn't yet see the news about Slam as a talent yet though, thanks

[Leih]

Looks like at the moment the plan is to give arms some kind of Whirlwind/Thunderclap/Sweeping Strikes combination for AOE, but it's really unclear how those 3 abilities are going to interact for the moment, until we see how the changes are actually implemented and what the tuning is like.

But I always thought some kind of spammable cleave-based AOE would fit arms thematically really well. I'd love to see something more like this. WW just doesn't fit with how I would see the arms "style" from a visual perspective... even as AOE, much less as a single target filler like they've had in the last build. Yuck.

[Bamzy]

This could give us a really cool animation (gigantic sweep), like they talked about. I think they mentioned adding more visual spells to Warriors & melee in general a while ago.

[Leih]

I'd love to see them add in more overall animations for melee swings and specials, like they did when they added in the more unique visuals for Templar's Verdict and Revenge/Slam/CS. But I wouldn't count on much of that kind of thing while they're already having to update the existing models. Could be something they will consider in later patches though once the initial new models are finished.

Adding in fancier shiny graphics to go along with the existing basic animations is of course something that could be nice... but on the other hand too much of that without the animated swings to go with it looks... way too silly!

[Bamzy]

I'd love to see them add in more overall animations for melee swings and specials, like they did when they added in the more unique visuals for Templar's Verdict and Revenge/Slam/CS. But I wouldn't count on much of that kind of thing while they're already having to update the existing models. Could be something they will consider in later patches though once the initial new models are finished.

Adding in fancier shiny graphics to go along with the existing basic animations is of course something that could be nice... but on the other hand too much of that without the animated swings to go with it looks... way too silly!

Yeah, for sure I think adding too many flashy effects would be bad, as we are supposed to be brutally smashing people up with nothing but our weapon.

I just meant that adding a huge sweeping animation, could be cool. As you said, just a long the lines of what they did with CS. I honestly don't think that it's too much work, considering they are (I think) re-doing a ton of animations anyway.

[Leih]

Yeah, I figured that's what you meant but chances are it'll come under the same vein as adding new hair colours, skin tones, etc. etc. when they've replied to people asking about that. They'll focus on getting the new models to have all the exact options and animations that the old ones had first, but maybe once those are finalised they can start working on improving things from there. Things like new customisation options, brand new animations, 3D armor, all that nice stuff... it's all a lot more likely we can see that kind of thing now that the models have been updated to more advanced skeletons... but it'll probably come in post-launch patches or future expansions. They're already apparently swamped just trying to get all the updates of existing stuff done without adding new things

I'm excited for the future possibilities though, once the initial work has been done.

[Celarent]

[Cleave] - Cleave nearby enemies in a cone in front of you, inflicting XXX% weapon damage. (On the GCD, of course)

A cone would be nice. On-GCD is fine, and all it would need was Cleave's traditional schrunk to have most of us giddy.

[Fyersing]

I'd like to see both Heroic Strike AND Cleave be dropped as fillers and utilized as the core single-target and multi-target abilities, personally. The fact that virtually every NPC in the game that's meant to be warrior-like uses Charge, HS, Cleave and (depending upon their weapon setup) Shield Slam/Slam/Bloodthirst is pretty telling of which skills are thematically valuable.

None of these annoying banners and super-hero forms.

[-Raer-]

Your picture made me think of Wildstar. That's literally how the game plays, it even puts the cone on the ground AVR style.

OT: I just recently returned to my warrior (he was my farmbot for a long time). And I'm enjoying things but I would definitely enjoy it more if the aoe ranges were a bit more defined/larger.

[Bamzy]

Your picture made me think of Wildstar. That's literally how the game plays, it even puts the cone on the ground AVR style.

OT: I just recently returned to my warrior (he was my farmbot for a long time). And I'm enjoying things but I would definitely enjoy it more if the aoe ranges were a bit more defined/larger.

Haha, yeah I can see that. I was just trying to give a representation of the range, though. You wouldn't see this in-game of course :P

[Archimtiros]

Your picture made me think of Wildstar. That's literally how the game plays, it even puts the cone on the ground AVR style.

OT: I just recently returned to my warrior (he was my farmbot for a long time). And I'm enjoying things but I would definitely enjoy it more if the aoe ranges were a bit more defined/larger.

Yeah I don't want to play Wildstar. That game is doo doo.

[Bamzy]

Yeah I don't want to play Wildstar. That game is doo doo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh7B7s3-pGs&t=0m36s

You already know what this video is going to be