Instead of Slam... How About This?

[Atro]

From the perspective of an Arms warrior, I don't like Slam in its current state. It offers marginal damage gain at the cost of valuable talent points and awkward applicable use. I see why Blizz would want to keep a skill like Slam, it's something which arguably sets apart the pros from the amateurs. However, I feel it needs a drastic overhaul because right now it drags down warrior gameplay instead of enhancing it.

I present to you my solution: It starts with taking Slam, and renaming it Deathblow.

Deathblow
- Keep the signature 1.5 sec cast (I would keep it cannot move while casting -> situational skill. Big risk/reward)
- Make it do worthwhile damage ( 2x or 1.75x the damage of MS)
- Make it cost a lot of rage (45, maybe even 55 or 60).
- Change current Improved Slam to Improved Deathblow: increases DB crit damage by 15/30%, +1.5/3% chance to crit with Db (may not be properly scaled, but this is a fun talent that doesn't feel as mandatory as Improved Slam; as of now it feels dumb to use Slam if not with Improved Slam)

With DB's high resource cost, you present a choice to the player as to whether or not it's worth it to use it. It's definitely not a spammable skill due to insane rage costs, but in situations where the warrior has a ton of rage income, Deathblow could be an amazing go to skill/rage dump.

It's also a possible solution to another skill I don't particularly like, Inner Rage. It has too large a negative implication to ever make me want to use it. I want a skill which gives me proportional output to the rage I invest. Inner Rage instead makes me feel like I'm about to make a deal with the devil if I decide to use it.

Pros of this skill:
+ Gets rid of awkward Slam
+ Gets rid of broken Inner Rage
+ Warriors still have iconic Mortal Strike, but now also an iconic finisher that doesn't require an opponent to have sub 20% hp, but rather requires skill/saavy to use/master.
+ New rule to casters: if a warrior is casting Deathblow, GET THE BLEEP OUT OF HIS RANGE
+ Seems rly fun

Cons:
- You tell me

[Rizendragon]

From the perspective of an Arms warrior, I don't like Slam in its current state. It offers marginal damage gain at the cost of valuable talent points and awkward applicable use. I see why Blizz would want to keep a skill like Slam, it's something which arguably sets apart the pros from the amateurs. However, I feel it needs a drastic overhaul because right now it drags down warrior gameplay instead of enhancing it.

I present to you my solution: It starts with taking Slam, and renaming it Deathblow.

Deathblow
- Keep the signature 1.5 sec cast (I would keep it cannot move while casting -> situational skill. Big risk/reward)
- Make it do worthwhile damage ( 2x or 1.75x the damage of MS)
- Make it cost a lot of rage (45, maybe even 55 or 60).
- Change current Improved Slam to Improved Deathblow: increases DB crit damage by 15/30%, +1.5/3% chance to crit with Db (may not be properly scaled, but this is a fun talent that doesn't feel as mandatory as Improved Slam; as of now it feels dumb to use Slam if not with Improved Slam)

With DB's high resource cost, you present a choice to the player as to whether or not it's worth it to use it. It's definitely not a spammable skill due to insane rage costs, but in situations where the warrior has a ton of rage income, Deathblow could be an amazing go to skill/rage dump.

It's also a possible solution to another skill I don't particularly like, Inner Rage. It has too large a negative implication to ever make me want to use it. I want a skill which gives me proportional output to the rage I invest. Inner Rage instead makes me feel like I'm about to make a deal with the devil if I decide to use it.

Pros of this skill:
+ Gets rid of awkward Slam
+ Gets rid of broken Inner Rage
+ Warriors still have iconic Mortal Strike, but now also an iconic finisher that doesn't require an opponent to have sub 20% hp, but rather requires skill/saavy to use/master.
+ New rule to casters: if a warrior is casting Deathblow, GET THE BLEEP OUT OF HIS RANGE
+ Seems rly fun

Cons:
- You tell me

A few things to note: You can now move while casting slam; Collossal Smash will fill any spots where you're currently using slam to fill gaps. I just don't see where this would be useful in my opinion really. Inner rage is awesome for bleeding off extra rage, and it doesn't screw up your rotation any. Slam hasn't ever really been a particular favorite of mine for arms spec.

[kolopotho]

also with throwdown and deadly calm, it would be easy to smack out 3 or 4 of those on an enemy... not really fair tbh

[fizikz]

also with throwdown and deadly calm, it would be easy to smack out 3 or 4 of those on an enemy... not really fair tbh

yeah this is the first thing I thought of... throwdown -> deadly calm -> dead lol.... if not, rinse and repeat in 2 min. (or without deadly calm in 45 sec)

[Rigroll]

Blizzard could first of fix slam, the dmg is terrible. For fury that is

[Pingu]

As it stands, all blizzard have to do it increase the damage of slam for Fury warriors, so they would bother with the proc. The grass is alot green on arms, as slam hits harder than MS unless you wait for it to go off cooldown to make use of Slaughter.

[Deleted]

To be honest I must disagree with the OP, slam is "supposed" to be one of the main skills used in the arms rotation. If we think back some time, this was too the case for classic --> BC etc. Slam was used most frequently of all attacks for an arms warrior (think of it, 0,5sec per slam and MS having a cd of 5 or 6 sec back then, OP whenever it is up). The design this originated from, if I am not too wrong was meant for slam to be a signature skill for the arms warrior. From a theoretical aspect point of view, I am very fond of this. They are however going to face many problems if they wish to keep it this way, especially with how they changed rage generation and how haste has no impact on slam. That scaling may be an issue has however been pointed out by blizzard.

To me, slam is clearly an Arms skill. Fury has RB now and can instant proc on slam. Arms should use Slam over HS (once this "works as intended"). I strongly disagree in making this more attractive for fury warriors. There should be a significant difference between the two specs (Arms and Fury), if both specs end up using the same skills with the difference being the uptime of CS (though, many complaints here too), then what is the point of having 2 (theoreticaly 2, recently fury was the only really viable dps spec - Wrath) dps specs?

Currently at lvl 80 this is not really worth using as HS does more dmg when coupled with Incite build and allows for more SoO procs and white hits for more rage. Supposedly from what I have read of beta testers this changes in favour of slam later on (at 85), due to better weapon dmg scaling I assume (as opposed to lvl 80).

Imo slam at half the rage of HS is fine, scaling needs to be fixed however, though this seems to not yet be an issue. Imo HS should never be more attractive to use than Slam for an Arms warrior as pointed out by blizzard. Too bad this is currently not entirely the case.

[JhonnyAwsome]

so whats the point of this? all you did was basicly rename it and make it more rage cost.. seems like a nerf mroe then anything.

[Spondoo]

I'd like to see slam give buffs maybe everytime you use it you get +crit buff on yourself stacks 3x and sunders your target and continues your white swings. Also Inner Rage is just shit kill IR give back Gushing wounds, I want to juggle dots in my rotation.

[Deleted]

Slam is fun, I have my doubts about Inner Rage, but haven't seen it in action yet. Maybe it'll be a good decision you can make, maybe it'll be just a garbage ( pretty much depending on how they'll pack Heroic Strike, in current state I'd prefer it over IR )

[SushiBarrel]

slam should give some kind of buff, like after slam used, for 3 seconds your chance to to proc strikes of opportunity strikes is doubled or something

i think that's a much better idea then dumblow, i mean deathblow :3

[Deleted]

so whats the point of this? all you did was basicly rename it and make it more rage cost.. seems like a nerf mroe then anything.

I've read the post twice and I'm still wondering myself..

[Laundry]

It's also a possible solution to another skill I don't particularly like, Inner Rage. It has too large a negative implication to ever make me want to use it. I want a skill which gives me proportional output to the rage I invest. Inner Rage instead makes me feel like I'm about to make a deal with the devil if I decide to use it.

I'm actually perplexed by this statement. Our rage generation with 1 and 2 handers scales with level, inner rage was implemented to make our abilities function as if we were generating enough rage to perform our lvl 80 rotation, and the trade-off is massively increased damage.

As for the other posts, I agree, and see nothing other than increasing rage cost of slam. It already does 160% weapon damage (Talnted), which is like 10% more than mortal strike. You'd obviously need to rework your theory on this one.