Patch 3.2.2 changes for Warriors
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 23rd 2009 at 4:00PM
Warriors
- Talents
- Arms
- Sword Specialization: Now has a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to proc an extra attack, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Protection
- Critical Block: This talent now grants a 20/40/60% chance to block double the normal amount instead of 10/20/30%.
Should I keep going or was that enough sarcasm? I honestly can't tell. I know that these are both buffs, really I do. And the Critical Block change is nice: I mean, you're going to take the talent anyway in your prot build, so having it be twice as likely to proc is pretty sweet. Of course, even if you stack all the block value you possibly can, block's still a fairly weak tanking stat against bosses who hit for 27k.
As for Sword Spec? Well, it's better than it was. But much as dumping a mess of wax on elephant dung won't make it not smell like what it is (although it will probably be shinier, according to Mythbusters) adding twice the proc chance for Sword Spec but keeping the internal cooldown that keeps it from proccing off of itself limits how useful it actually is. You can get a flat 5% to crit and 5% increased critical hit damage all the time, 15% armor penetration all the time, or 10% chance for an attack to have an extra swing and then nothing for six seconds. Considering it takes 3 seconds at the fastest any Arms warrior would ever be swinging (that's assuming a lot more haste than I'd believe anyone would use) we're more looking at 9 seconds between procs. Meanwhile, with Poleaxe Specialization a well geared Arms warrior can be pulling 55% chance to crit in a raid, if not more.
It's just not likely to change much of anything. If you happen to only have a sword, well, it's more reason to use it, but if you can get an axe you will. It makes me sad, because frankly I like swords a lot more than axes or polearms just from an aesthetic standpoint and I'd love to feel that I could use one in an Arms spec without hurting my performance.
Basically, Patch 3.2.2 ends up being a couple of incremental changes for warriors. If they're built upon it could be excellent for the class. If not, it's fairly unremarkable. There weren't even any bug fixes for us this time around.
Filed under: Warrior, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tom Clarke-Hazlett Sep 23rd 2009 4:02PM
good stuff
sh0wtime Sep 23rd 2009 4:14PM
The only classes that had significant changes this patch were Rogues, Shamans and DKs. Two of those got nerfed, so I'd rather have the small buffs than the likely alternative.
Preston Sep 23rd 2009 4:45PM
Why does every player think their class should have big changes every patch? If you're so bored with WoW that you need huge changes all the time to keep you interested, it's time to take a break.
Kemikalkadet Sep 23rd 2009 5:42PM
Arcane mages got a pretty big overhaul this patch.
Kanap Sep 23rd 2009 11:07PM
Prot pallies as well. got a bit of a nerf.
eric_barbaric Sep 23rd 2009 4:13PM
Thank you Matthew, for making this humdrum (as far as warrior changes are concerned) patch funny in your own special way.
Ghost7718 Sep 23rd 2009 4:17PM
The Critical Block thing will be nice indeed when the next X-pac makes block a % damage decrease. If a blocked damage % gets to 50% for a normal block a critical would mean negating 100% of that 27k strike.
I'm looking forward to the new block mechanics.
Angus Sep 23rd 2009 6:37PM
If you think that they will allow block value from critical block to approach 50% in an expansion a year off from now and are looking forward to it, I have a bridge I'd like to get off my hands in Brooklyn.
There's no way Critical block will become that good. Their comments already indicate block will have to become a lot more rare to allow the new percentage mechanic. So it isn't likely they are going to have critical block remain what it is since it would make their mitigation hit insane levels.
thebitterfig Sep 24th 2009 2:27AM
I wouldn't be surprised if Critical Block, at some point in the future, became based on your *ghasp* critical hit chance. Maybe XX% + Crit, or XX% + 2*Crit or something. That would be an interesting change, and in line with Blizzard's stance that tanks should be more willing to gear for threat.
Madamedub Sep 23rd 2009 4:30PM
There was also a change to armor pen. I don't remember the exact number, but it has lowered my dps as fury. Just fyi
Falcon6 Sep 23rd 2009 4:43PM
Well, that's not class-specific. Warriors were certainly the ones hit the hardest, but my MM Hunter got that nerf, too.
Though somehow, I did more DPS than usual last night. Interesting...
Angus Sep 23rd 2009 6:50PM
12% less
MM Hunters and Warriors took the worst hit.
Rogues, Druids, other Hunters, and Enhance Shaman all saw a smaller hit as a lot of their damage is based on poisons, bleeds or magic and that stuff doesn't care about it at all.
Seriously, the design team needs to get a clue sometime.
3 months ago: "Hey, what stat's just horrible?"
"Armor Pen, it's stupid. I'm glad we're nixing it in cataclysm."
"I have an idea, let's make it good, like really good."
"So people will want it?"
"Yea, we'll put it all over the plate and mail, Hunters and Warriors rejoice!"
"What about Enhance, beast mastery, ret or unholy?"
"Who?"
Last month: "Guys, people are doing to well with high amounts of armor pen."
"Except enhance, ret and unholy."
"Who? Anyway, they use it too much, we need to discourage it."
"Maybe if 50% of the gear didn't have it as a stat?"
"Exactly, since they are going out of their way for it, it must be OP."
"Why do I bother talking to you?"
"Anyway, 12% nerf sounds good."
"Yea, not liek they are stuck with it, since EVERYTHING has it on there..."
"Exactly, they can use other stuff!"
"It's called iLevel 213..."
mysticalos Sep 23rd 2009 4:34PM
if anything the critical block change means more breath. surviablity you won't even notice it, but you'll notice higher damage shield slams. when critical block is active, shield slam hits twice as hard, when shield block is up, hits twice as hard, when both are up, hits 4 times as hard roughly. more chances for the RNG critical block to be up during shield block means more massive burst crit shield slams for great aggro holding.
pkrockin Sep 23rd 2009 5:33PM
Critical Block is not a proc - it's a passive ability. It also only affects blocks, not Shield Slams. Note that the talent's name is "Critical Block," not "Critical Block Value," therefore it does not increase the damage done by Shield Slam. The Shield Slam component of this talent is separate and is a crit chance increase, not a damage increase. There are no procs involved here.
Orvidos Sep 23rd 2009 4:43PM
And the truth shall set you free!
I was hoping for something more like
Warriors
Protection
Now one-shots everything.
Ah well. There's always 3.3
noeticist Sep 23rd 2009 5:00PM
I'm a little tired of everyone poo-pooing block value. Aside from how great it is against any boss that hits more rapidly for less (say, 10-12k), or again swarms of adds...let's actually calculate what this means.
A warrior trying very hard to have low block value in tier 9 will still have around 1700 block, possibly more. Shield block will be up 1/3 of the time, with the tier 9 4 set bonus, so that's actually 3,400 block value during those 20 seconds every minute. A critical block occurring on 60% of blocks means nearly 7k of reduced damage. That's a *30%* reduction on your theoretical 27k hit (and the vast majority of hits are nowhere near 27k). Even with only shield block and no critical block, or a critical block while shield block is down, it's still a 15% reduction of incoming damage.
Sounds pretty sexy to me.
Bikhai Sep 23rd 2009 5:40PM
The reason it's still poopooed is that your 30% reduction is only active 30% of the time *if* you have 4 pieces of t9 already (25% of the time if you don't). And outside of the shield block ability, your 15% dmg reduction has a 60% chance to occur on 20-30% of incoming attacks depending on your block chance. That's ~16% equivalent "uptime" on your 15% dmg reduction. Just less than one out of six attacks. And we all know how random the rng in this game is.
Fact is, for a boss that is meleeing that hard, having 100% uptime on 15% or 20% reduction of dmg that would take you below 35% (like with blood dks and paladins, respectively) is a lot more useful than a 16% chance at 15% dmg reduction. Hell, every single impale that Gormok the impaler does takes you below 35%, especially toward the end of the phase.
That's not to mention that some bosses like to use magic occasionally. Which block doesn't even touch (but the dk/pally talents still work against). Block is situational, RNG-ridden, and it's still not going to save you like avoidance if you're low and the boss is about to nail you for a 25k+ impale.
That said, my block set is the set I'm using most often now that the crit block change has been made. :)
Samsonite Sep 24th 2009 11:02AM
Plus a lot of the bosses out there have abilities (like impale or AoE) that block does absolutely nothing for. On top of that, there aren't that many bosses these days that do a lot of the fast small hitting. The 'in thing' for bosses is hitting the tank for 25k+.
*Stam and to some extent armor is good for this. No RNG to worry about.
*Dodge and Parry eliminate 100% of the damage and each happens about as often as block.
*Block eliminates ~2k (up to 8k with shield block up and a crit block proc) and it only occurs 20-25% of the time. That's of some use, but not much.
Block is a threat stat (per shield slams and damage shield) and OK for trash or OTing.
Yartch Sep 23rd 2009 6:11PM
I actually switched to swords because of this change. After looking at Recount, it looks like it's adding an average of 8% damage, which is big in my opinion. At first I was hesitant to pick up this talent, but after realizing it can proc off special moves too, and the extra hits can crit, I was sold. Don't throw it aside so quickly, I'm sure it can be optimal in some situations!
Angus Sep 23rd 2009 7:05PM
Internal CD means it is not a 10% chance but a lot lower.
Ask any Enhance Shaman about Windfury Weapon's 20% chance.
You probably had the RNG gods smile on you to make you think it was a much better upgrade. ;)