Bring back gladiator spec

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Nuff said k!

[Krawu]

Unfortunately we'll never get it back unless Blizz implements a 4th spec for everyone.

But I wholeheartedly support that notion. Glad was the only good thing in an otherwise disastrous expansion.

[ohiostate124]

I’d resub immediately if they did it

[Firefall]

With Heroic Strike of course. I want it exactly as it was. I miss that gameplay so much.

[Bigbazz]

Glad was the only good thing in an otherwise disastrous expansion.

I liked Gladiator but really this is such a nonsense statement. Gladiator was just a slight variation on the basic Prot tanking gameplay, it wasn't that special. WOD had its issues but the raids were undoubtedly the highlight of the expansion and not an experimental spec that was only popular for a couple of weeks in Highmaul.

[HCLM]

Wasnt it hilariously broken? No thx

[Mirishka]

With Heroic Strike of course. I want it exactly as it was. I miss that gameplay so much.

I miss Heroic Strike/Cleave gameplay as a warrior tank so much.

[Eapoe]

Wasnt it hilariously broken? No thx

So broken it was nerfed into obscurity fairly quickly and then not touched again because it was then useless.

[Krawu]

I liked Gladiator but really this is such a nonsense statement. Gladiator was just a slight variation on the basic Prot tanking gameplay, it wasn't that special. WOD had its issues but the raids were undoubtedly the highlight of the expansion and not an experimental spec that was only popular for a couple of weeks in Highmaul.

Speaking for myself of course.

[Bigbazz]

So broken it was nerfed into obscurity fairly quickly and then not touched again because it was then useless.

This is nonsense too it had 2 issues

1. In PVP Shield Slam was still removing magical effects, so it made them strong against priests, but far from the best PVP spec. When they nerfed Shield Slam removing effects in Glad stance it lost the main gimmick it had.

2. In PVE Arms and Fury were completely dogshit because Blizzard changed them on Beta just before launching. They nerfed whirlwind for Arms because people were just spamming whirlwind and winning and the spec had no more depth than that, and they removed colossus smash from Fury and then left it. At 90 in BIS gear Fury was overpowered in spite of no CS, but it was really weak on the Beta at max level. Despite that, Blizzard still nerfed it on retail due to complaints about it being overpowered in Siege of Orgrimmar at level 90, leaving super weak at level 100.

So when WOD launched the only real good all-round dps spec for Warriors was Gladiator... But it was far from "OP", even the world first Highmaul clear didn't use one, they actually used a Fury Warrior because in spite of dogshit dps overall, it still brought rallying cry and usable AOE. People were only playing Glad because Fury/Arms were shit, they only gave it a small nerf alongside buffing Fury/Arms and that was enough for everyone to abandon it.

Glad still did good DPS for the rest of the expansion and Blizz did buff it to make sure it kept up... But the problem it had from the start was weak burst, no execute, no rallying cry. Glad wasn't bad because it didn't do good dps, it was bad because it didn't do good "burst" dps and didn't bring rally cry, two things that were vital to WOD progression.



Here is a video from 2015 playing Gladiator in HFC - The overall dps was "fine" throughout the expansion. But why take a Warrior that can't execute and doesn't bring raid buffs?

[Zka]

Nuff said k!

+100

By the way, I know it's not exactly glad... but prot dps wasn't so bad in BC - equip dps gear with 2 slow 1handers, spam devastate and WW, dump rage into HS/Cleave in berzerker stance... it wasn't so bad, maybe 20% under proper DPS warriors on singletarget. On multitarget it was actually beating some of the proper DPS. I had a lot of blast with it on Kara runs and hyjal trash. Normally I was the MT so I usually didn't get to goof around much with it.

[Azerox]

The only reason i would consider playing Warrior again.

[h4rr0d]

Yes please, but without the degenerate part, where the top dps was to have freefloating mousewheel that you had to keep spinning

[Razion]

It would be cool if we could go back and play specs as they were during Timewalking so old retired specs like these could be played again in their full glory. I'd definitely support Gladiator coming back as a new spec, even if it had to be added to a new class.

[Kaver]

Blizzard could easily make specs like the Gladiator IF players would accept these specs to be underperforming. The main reason that Blizzard don't add more specs to the game is because of balancing.

[ohiostate124]

I miss confusing the hell out of people in dungeons who didn’t know what glad spec was.

[Pryyde]

I'm still on the fence with Shadowlands, but if they were to bring back Gladiator I'd play in a heart beat. I was going to buy a damn metal poster for Gladiator because it was the most fun I ever had with the game, even in an otherwise-dull expansion. I don't care that it did less damage after the nerfs, or that it was 'just a slight variation on the basic Prot tanking gameplay,' I loved every second of playing Stepmania Warrior.

[hulkgor]

No thanks?

[Djaye]

This is why pre cata trees were better imo. They had the option to make different builds based on playstyle preference. Rather than just ability swapping, you could adjust your power and pick up or drop abilities.
Talent rows just aren't fun or interesting. They are only convenient

[Bigbazz]

Doesn't matter if in terms of rotation it wasn't different, it was sword and board DPS that was what was appealing about it.

So the best thing about WOD was a spec that nobody played which was basically just sticking a talent that turned tanking into DPS? The best thing in the whole expansion was a low effort bandaid experiment? Come on man, it was a fun little experiment but it was far from the best thing in WOD and that's probably evident by the fact that only about 5 people played the spec.

WOD was a bad expansion on the whole, but it had plenty of positives.. Maybe Gladiator was a positive, but let's not overdo it.

This is why pre cata trees were better imo. They had the option to make different builds based on playstyle preference. Rather than just ability swapping, you could adjust your power and pick up or drop abilities.
Talent rows just aren't fun or interesting. They are only convenient

What does this have to do with Gladiator? The old talent system was fun for levelling but at max it's mostly cookie cutters. Sure, you had specs like Arms/Fury 2h Slam hybrid in TBC, but it was just a cookie cutter everyone played because full Arms was bad, the 2h Fury spec had the same gameplay but without bringing Blood Frenzy, nobody played it. You could dual wield Arms too, but that was basically Fury gameplay with less dps and of course nobody played it.

You had some meme specs like Revenge spam Arms tanking in WOTLK, useless defensively but situationally high dps. You had the Prot DPS spec in TBC and early WOTLK based around spamming devastate with dual wield, just Fury gameplay using Devastate instead of Bloodthirst, had some value to offtanks prior to dual/triple spec but no value as a primary dps build.

With the new spec/talent system every spec has a more individual gameplay style. With the old talent system you've less actual choices because most talents are obvious stat bonuses, defining abilities (eg bloodthirst) or prerequisite talents that had to be taking. I think there is some value in allowing cross talents/abilities between Arms/Fury/Prot like the old days, but the new talents also allow you to actually change your gameplay meaningfully, rather than agonising over whether to put your single free point into heroic fury or not.