Warrior changes in Patch 3.1 PTR build 9722
by Matthew Rossi 
Mar 23rd 2009 at 11:59PM
Well, the changes, they keep being incremental, but they are happening. This latest PTR patch has one change that proves even in these times of nerfing Titan's Grip damage that, some times, just some times, good things happen for fury warriors. Like what, you may ask? I'm glad you did.Improved Berserker Stance now increases strength by 3/6/9/12/15% instead of increasing attack power by 2/4/6/8/10%
I honestly can't gibber at that change enough. It's flatly astonishing. If the change was merely AP to Str and the percentages didn't change it would make the talent twice as good. But by having it increase strength by 15% instead of AP by 10%, it's now nearly three times as good, and will be even better when raid buffed. (Note: without raid buffs, this will be an AP decrease unless you are very lucky with rings to have STR in both slots. Any AP gear you have will detract from the benefit of the talent, making it stronger when grouped/raiding but weaker solo.) I think I had a small squeegasm when I read this change. But wait, there's more! It's not all this good.
The folks at MMO-Champion dug up the goods Let's take a look, shall we?
Arms
- Rend (Rank 1) and Rend (Rank 2) had their damage slightly increased.
- Juggernaut has been changed to : Your Charge ability is now usable while in combat. Following a Charge, your next Slam ability has an additional 100% chance to critically hit if used within 10 sec.
- Taste for Blood now give you a chance to allow the use of your Overpower ability for 9 sec. (Up from 5 secs)
- Intimidating Shout range has been reduced from 10 to 8 yards.
- Improved Berserker Stance now increases strength by 3/6/9/12/15% instead of increasing attack power by 2/4/6/8/10%
- Warbringer now also affects Intercept and Intevene
- Improved Spell Reflection now works on the 2/4 closest party members within 20 yards.
Okay, taken all in all this is a pretty solid set of changes for both Arms and Fury. Arms gets more damage from Rend, which they're using to proc Taste for Blood anyway, and the change to Juggernaut (is it really a change when the ability isn't even live yet?) gives a nice boost to Slam damage, which is always nice. Taste for Blood lasting longer is nice, too. Let's see some of that action aimed at Bloodsurge next.
Fury gets a PvP related nerf (which isn't really aimed at Fury but rather at all warriors, and since they reduced the cooldown on IS recently it's not that surprising, nor that painful) and an incredible buff. This change will definitely move DPS warriors away from leather and mail gear, as it's much easier to find strength on plate. I'll compare my AP numbers on the test servers as soon as I get a chance, but I definitely expect them to be higher with this change. Edited to Add: As of right now, with my leather DPS gloves on this is a nerf, I lose about 75 AP. When I switch to my DPS set gloves, I end up at almost exactly the same AP on live and in test. The presence of AP on my neck, cape, and ring slot (I have a Ruthlessness in one slot, so there's STR there at least) means that this change is one that has potential for a good deal more AP, but at present does not provide it with current itemization. Since I don't expect that many melee DPS rings, necks and capes with STR on them, this ability will not provide the bonuses it otherwise could. In the end, it's a wash.
Prot sees some more ways to clear snares and roots (you could already Intercept and Intervene in combat, so that won't be new) and what seems to me to be a tooltip clarification.
All in all, ranges from painless to outright fantastic. I'm actually excited for once. Real, testable arms changes and a buff to fury? I didn't see that coming.
Filed under: Warrior, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Talents
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Tarmo Mar 24th 2009 12:08AM
The only thing that worries me about the Imp 'zerker stance change is that currently it is kind of difficult to find rings, necks, backs and a couple other pieces that have strength instead of AP. All of the badge rewards give AP, plus most of the gear that drops from Naxx.
maar Mar 24th 2009 12:37AM
Yeah well that's most likely intended, to make the damage a bit less bursty I would suppose.
Phydeaux Mar 24th 2009 10:50AM
I have 1143 Str and 3575 AP.
So I get 358 AP with the Live version.
And I get 343 AP with the PTR Change.
In Raids... I should come out ahead and I don't have full Best in Slot, most notably, after 15 weeks, I haven't seen Betrayer of Humanity Drop.
Also, in 3.1 currently, there are 4 Necks, 8 Rings, and 2 Cloaks with Strength on them.
Champion Mar 24th 2009 12:09AM
Attaching slam to Juggernaut is just annoying. What's so overpowered about breaking roots every 12 seconds?
Hellbane Mar 24th 2009 12:10AM
Pity so many schmucks on the WoW forums don't seem to share your enthusiasm. Personally I'm happy warriors got all these changes, and it'll be interesting to fight against them.
oh...
In before the "TEH GUTTED OUR CLASS"
and "BLIZZ DON'T KNOWZ THEYRE OWNZ GAMEZ LAWL LAW LAWLAWL!!!11ONE111!!"
I hope the competent warrior can see that these are some pretty nice changes.
Matthew Rossi Mar 24th 2009 12:21AM
The point made about rings and necks with str on them by an earlier poster (Tarmo) is a good one. I don't have Str on my neck or cape and don't have it on one of my rings. So that's a concern.
It's possible the change will end up balancing out for that very reason. What seems like a really nice buff could end up being almost no change at all, we'll see how it goes.
Warwench Mar 24th 2009 12:50AM
you are in denial.
15% of 700 STR is 105 STR = 210 AP.
10% of 3400 AP is 340 AP.
340 AP > 210 AP
It's a pretty severe nerf for me on the PTR.
Teaspoon Mar 24th 2009 2:05AM
Warwench, try decking out in strength-plate insead of AP-leather and tell us what sort of difference it makes. This is clearly a move to push Fury warriors to choose plate over leather, and if you've got 700Str and 3400AP then you're one of the people who they're pushing.
Now, will 15% bonus strength be enough to make strength plate more desirable than the AP leather, or is the *real* reason you've been using AP-leather simply that it doesn't have an abundance of useless/weak stats like stam and haste at the expense of the tasty stats like hit, crit and expertise?
Emma Mar 24th 2009 2:25AM
Hasn't the warrior reaction been livid on the wow forums... I've seen a few awful posts be deleted.
JALbert Mar 24th 2009 3:13AM
Speaking as a DK, I have 1200 str and 3000 AP unbuffed, meaning that with less focus on leather, warrior will probably come out even or slightly hurt unbuffed. With raid buffs, I'd imagine it's a step in the right direction, although warriors still won't be as strength based as DKs likely will.
Exe Mar 24th 2009 12:28AM
Im still nervous about the TG nerf, but the changes to 'zerk stance will be nice to help counteract it.
And with the tier 7 set bonus for slam, it might be worth missin a swing for a guarantee crit.
But maybe they wont nerf TG so hard that i have to spec arms... /wish
Bunny (Eredar) Mar 24th 2009 12:41AM
I'm pretty sure they made it so Slam doesn't reset the swing timer, but I'm not 100% sure on it, but from limited testing, it sure seems like it doesn't.
Thander Mar 24th 2009 12:46AM
It doesn't reset it but it does extend it.
Say your next swing is due in .25 sec. You use talented slam (.5 sec cast). Your white hit will happen at .5 sec instead of .25 sec.
sotallytober Mar 24th 2009 12:29AM
The Rend buff is for only ranks 1 and 2. At level 80 were using rank 10, so that's not a relevant buff at all.
Delmonico Mar 24th 2009 7:17AM
Is the change to the skill or the talent?
Briareus Mar 24th 2009 1:46AM
The Rank 1 and Rank 2 rend are referring to the Talent/Points, not the level 4 Rend or Level 10 Rend you get from training...lol.
sotallytober Mar 24th 2009 12:07PM
Are you SURE? The name of the talent is "Improved Rend" not "Rend" and the talent calc at MMO champ still says Improved Rend is 10/20%
sotallytober Mar 24th 2009 2:55PM
Also from wowhead's PTR info Rend (Rank 1) went from 15 (live) to 25 (PTR) damage plus weapon damage (that formula is the same for both).
Worried Mar 24th 2009 12:39AM
Actually, the strength thing seems to be a nerf, I gain more AP from 10% ap than I would from 15% strength
slimj091 Mar 24th 2009 12:10PM
"Actually, the strength thing seems to be a nerf, I gain more AP from 10% ap than I would from 15% strength"
get more strength
also.. try and get raid buffed (kings, gotw, strength of earth totem/horn of winter, trueshot aura, dragonfin filet, battleshout/might) and see where your AP is on the ptr compared to where it is on live. you should see a nice increase unless that is your wearing nothing but leather with AP gems instead of strength gems in.