Skill Mastery: Shockwave
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 22nd 2008 at 6:00PM
Shockwave has its limitations, of course. The fact that it is a frontal cone and not a true AoE spell means that the warrior using it for threat while tanking must take care to position himself properly to hit everyone he wants, which of course takes time and means you may be trying to angle away from CC and such. It's not a huge impediment, but it is something to consider. More problematic for pure threat is that the stun component will inhibit rage generation and this is a downside for a rage-based tank like a warrior.
These aren't huge liabilities in my opinion but they're there and need to be considered. With those aside, though, it's a nice spike of damage to multiple mobs every 20 seconds, and for that reason alone it's worth adding to any tanking rotation.
For soloing, however, it's very, very nice. You can have a group of five or six mobs hitting you and between this ability, Damage Shield and Enraged Regeneration (expect to see them get their own Skill Mastery spotlights soon) you can very easily whittle them down while minimizing your own incoming damage. Shockwave is one of those talents that could probably use some tweaking upwards in damage or a reduction in the cooldown (15 seconds would be plenty between Shockwaves in my opinion) but it's a solid, workhorse ability that helps break up a warrior's rotations and is useable in and out of instances.
And of course a 4 second cone stun has implications for protection spec in PvP. But I'll talk more about then when I discuss Warbringer.
Filed under: Warrior, Tips, Features, Guides, Classes, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Manatank Sep 22nd 2008 6:12PM
"trying to angle away from CC and such."
Which is also and advantage in some situations. Consecrate on the other hand hates CC.
Natsumi Sep 23rd 2008 12:42AM
Actually, I've been playing on the 3.0.2 PTRs and I usually have so much rage i can't get rid of it. Heroic Strike can't keep up with the rage generation. I'm not even having problems holding threat. I just wish I could get my hands on that TC Glyph that adds 4 targets.
Oh, and all you need to do is jump back and hit Shockwave, it'll hit everything in front of you. I tried running around and backing up, but they don't always get everyone. The stun component is great for when your healer is a little slow (or tired, or stupid) and gives you a little breathing room to down a potion or let a greater heal go off. Personally, I'll PvE as Prot DPS if this goes live like this, I pulled over 800 DPS in Heroic Shattered Halls, with a TG warrior and Ret Pally above me (1100 and 950 DPS respectively). The actual Tank of the group was pulling 711 DPS (also a Prot warrior).
Warrior LFG, Prot DPS Spec, any Heroic.
Clifton Sep 22nd 2008 6:32PM
This looks like a great ability. I have a 70 protection warrior alt and always had problems soloing and tanking multiple mobs. This should help with both of those. Nice job Blizzard.
Szass Sep 22nd 2008 9:53PM
Yeah Great Freaking Job !!
Fricken Warriors Get Cone of Cold Now ?!?!?!?!
I'm really starting to hate WOW.
Kaphik Sep 22nd 2008 10:04PM
Szass, I am guessing by the tone of your mewling comment you play a mage. There's a spell you should have learned at a pretty low level called "Blink". You may want to look into that.
Szass Sep 22nd 2008 10:08PM
Actually I play a Paladin.
And Blink is the most buggy useless spell in the game.
Blink backwards 1 yard !!
Or if you do get lucky and it does somehow happen to work, the rogue or warrior you were trying to blink away from either disappears or simply runs right back up to you.
BLINK ! HA!
dpak Sep 23rd 2008 6:18PM
Well, I raid with my mage, and have played a mage for a long long time.
I also play a prot warrior, and my mage is more than happy for prot warriors to get this.
Really.
Maybe when they do 1000dps, can CC, blink, and have an awesome aggro dump (invis for the win!) I will start to QQ about warriors.
Oh, and blink works great. Wipe incoming?
Blink, and invis.
Everyclass has strengths and weaknesses, play them all, then complain about what is fair.
(for full disclosure, I do not have a raiding rogue or DK...yet).
Kalken Sep 23rd 2008 1:55AM
Shockwave has been around as long as Cone of Cold. The Scourge Lich had Cone of Cold and the Horde Tauren Chieftan had Shockwave in WC3. If you want to be mad about a conical shaped attack you'll go poke a warlock and leave your tanks well enough alone. Complaining about tanks getting buffed is like complaining when a suitcase of money hits you in the forehead.
Kastirin Sep 22nd 2008 6:33PM
I was going to say that an aoe (conical) stun on a 15 second cooldown was OP in pvp, when I realized that my destro lock has a targetable aoe stun on a 20 second cooldown :(
It will be nice to see prot warriors become more competitive in PvP.
Matthew Rossi Sep 22nd 2008 6:35PM
Keep in mind shockwave is current a 20 second cooldown, the 15 second number is just what I think it should be.
Kastirin Sep 22nd 2008 8:00PM
I agree with you, it needs tweaking to be more 51-point worthy.
Ikarus Sep 23rd 2008 2:55PM
I think your initial, objective observation that an AoE stun with a 15cd would be OP in PvP is correct. You backed off when you realized your lock has almost the same thing :P
I know, I know....the game is not all about PvP, and I'm glad its not, but you still have to consider the implications on that part of the game. 15cd AoE stun would be pretty brutal in PvP. It wouldn't be too hard to time all your interupts to almost pull off a rogue-like lock down. Charge>dps>shockwave>dps> back up > intercept etc
Asher Sep 22nd 2008 6:57PM
Shockwave is a great addition, and I agree that a 15 sec CD is more reasonable, but I must also say that I have found the range to be a little bit buggy. Latency being what it is on the Northrend server it is difficult to judge this one...but several times I have launched what I thought was a well placed Shockwave only to see it hit no mobs at all.
There really needs to be more cooldown synergy between shockwave and thunderclap CDs since they are going to be serving a similar purpose (or at least have been in my instance tanking experience).
Hella Sep 22nd 2008 6:56PM
Cheers to Prot Warriors. Although I'm fury while I wait for Wrath. =O
dan Sep 22nd 2008 7:35PM
I can't believe the number of people that still complain about the cone aspect of the skill. It's really not that hard to use people.
Kastirin Sep 22nd 2008 8:01PM
Trying to hit someone in melee range with a cone ability is extremely difficult for those of us without local servers.
Matt Sep 22nd 2008 9:49PM
I've never specced prot before, as I mainly like pvp, but I'm really leaning toward it for the expansion. Looks like a lot of fun new stuff in there, for instance, I like the idea of of gag order + heroic throw amounting to a ranged silence. And warbringer of course looks very nice. On the other hand, the new arms tree especially looks rather... underwhelming. Fury looks like it might become the new pvp spec (now that MS isn't "required" for the healing debuff) but I'm curious to see what kind of gear sacrifices will have to be made to make up for the massive 15% hit penalty from TG.
Kaphik Sep 22nd 2008 9:58PM
I'm a big fan of using stuns while tanking. I play a Tauren warrior, so I have an additional one. Especially when tanking a group of mobs, stuns can be lifesavers for your party. If a mob starts to break away, I'll Warstomp which gives me two seconds to target and taunt, or if Taunt is on cooldown, I'll hit a Concussion Blow and stop the mob in it's tracks.
Most of the time, I will turn and face the party while tanking so the mobs have their back turned to my party members. I learned to tank like that before the days of threat meters and target of target frames. So for me, having a frontal stun will only add to my ability to keep my party alive.
Aerei Sep 23rd 2008 1:56AM
Have I mentioned that you're largely responsible for me wanting to play a warrior again, Kaph? Specifically a tank. Got one up to 52 now, and planning to level her the rest of the way Prot the moment 3.0 hits. :)
peekaboo Sep 23rd 2008 2:29AM
Well hoo-ray. The only thing protection paladins could really shine in was AoE tanking. With the introduction of the above mentioned damage shield and shockwave, not to mention the TC glyph, protection warriors will have no problem at all holding aggro on 6+ mobs at the same time. Of course they won't be able to handle situations like MH trash, but come on, how often do you need to tank 10 mobs? Blizzard is taking away the only uniqueness of the paladin, giving basically everything to warriors we have. Who will need a paladin when you can have a warrior who does the same thing, but has abilities that already made warriors the best choice for progression tanking? Get lost, Blizzard.