Okay, now that we know that the
Patch 3.3 PTR will be out soon, and what it will entail, let's go over the changes to warriors. If you've been hornswaggled by fake patch notes purporting big changes to Titan's Grip, well, such is not the case. So what has changed?
Warriors
- Victory Rush: This ability is now trainable at level 6.
- Talents
- Protection
- Damage Shield: This ability will no longer trigger any chance-on-hit effects from the warrior or the opponent it damages.
The Victory Rush change seems aimed as
part of Blizzard's move to make leveling easier in patch 3.3 while the Damage Shield change is a trifle puzzling to me. Is this aimed at removing a chance for Damage Shield to proc a Deep Wounds on someone hitting the warrior? As long as it doesn't affect other warrior abilities tanks are still going to spec up to Impale/Deep Wounds, so I can't understand why you'd make that change. Is Damage Shield proccing a lot of trinkets and that's bad? I don't imagine it having a big effect but I'm still puzzled. I'm sure one of our readers will point out where I'm missing the point.
At any rate, another patch where warriors see minimal changes at best. I guess we can take some comfort in our obvious perfection, right? Yeah, I laughed bitterly too. Still, I'm informed that the Victory Rush change was in for Worgen Warriors when folks tested them at Blizzcon/PAX, so that's a sign that this was in the works for a while.
Tags: Damage-Shield, Leveling, patch-3.3, patch-3.3-changes, patch-3.3-wow, PTR, Victory-Rush, Warrior, Warriors, world-of-warcraft-patch-3.3, wow-3.3-changes, wow-new-patch, wow-patch, wow-patch-3.3, wow-patch-news
Filed under: Warrior, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
Oct 1st 2009 at 9:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
token Oct 1st 2009 9:08PM
"At any rate, another patch where warriors see minimal changes at best. I guess we can take some comfort in our obvious perfection, right? Yeah, I laughed bitterly too"
It's only the first round of changes on the PTR and they're very few changes for level 80s of any class right now. Relax...
A Nonny Mouse Oct 1st 2009 10:45PM
This. I expect better of you, Rossi. :[ Now is not the time to panic, they're obviously more concerned with the content than class changes at this point in the testing.
Kirkules Oct 1st 2009 9:11PM
I always thought it would be interesting to be able to roll as a Broken Draenei.... not any more..
I like the Victory Rush Change. I only have a low level Warrior Alt, so seeing that addition really makes me wanna try him out a bit more once that change hits.
Ablimoth Oct 1st 2009 9:28PM
Minor changes? Minor changes?
These are game breakingly massive changes! They're intense, an outrage even! Why, Victory Rush available to low level Warriors is brilliant! I've leveled 2 (yes, 2) Warriors to 80 (before you ask, same faction, same server... I know, I know) and wish I had had Victory Rush.
Brilliant change IMO.
Damage Shield change, less than brilliant, but mine never bloody crit anyways :( very minor nerf.
Matthew Rossi Oct 1st 2009 9:45PM
I've leveled five warriors past 70 and three to 80 at this point, Tauren, Draenei and Human. Victory Rush while leveling is nice, but come on now. You'll basically get an extra instant attack with low AP while being swarmed by mobs, which is pretty much death for a low level warrior unless he has remarkable gear for his level.
A Nonny Mouse Oct 1st 2009 10:48PM
Victory Rush seems kinda meh for levelling. No, Enraged Regeneration from an early level, -that- would make levelling a lot easier.
Karilyn Oct 1st 2009 9:38PM
Maybe I'm interpreting the Damage Shield change differently than you. But I read it as "Would not activate ENEMY on hit abilities"
As in, let's say a hypothetical boss put a 5 second buff on itself that would cause it to do an AOE every time it was attacked. Now damage shield will not proc that AOE damage.
Kirkules Oct 1st 2009 9:50PM
I assume Both. Not Procing any Chance on Hit Trinkets that the warrior may have and not procing any Proc on Taking a Hit abilities the attacker may have, such as a Shaman's Lightning Shield.
orla Oct 2nd 2009 2:31PM
case and point, King Ymiron in UP
Grubba Oct 1st 2009 10:26PM
I thought the chance to proc deep wounds on damage shield attacks had already been removed.
Josin Oct 1st 2009 11:59PM
I'm pretty sure it did. I think this is probably aimed at trinket procs.
Bridgelurker Oct 2nd 2009 12:04PM
If they wanted to make leveling easier for a warrior, just give them Enraged Regeneration at level ten. They don't need a gimmicky dps buff like Victory Rush, they need a way to survive pulling more than 1 mob at a time...
lawomous Oct 2nd 2009 5:21PM
The only thing I can think of behind the Damage Shield change is when you are tanking those pairs of trash near Auriaya in Ulduar, that if they are hit by anything they supernova, even with nothing attacking them and autoswing off they still seem to nova, so maybe this was the change that it won't proc from the warrior tank's Damage Shield...?
Sineprepus Nov 2nd 2009 6:44PM
This change semms stupid and minimal. The only effect I can see it having is when I'm running low lvl instances farming for the insane, btw there are better ways to get that than this website suggests. I grind in prot, more AOE and can pick up more mobs, I also wear Blackheart, because the extra armor is nice when pulling the whole first half of diremaul. yes it procs of damage shield, 100 mobs hitting me tends to do that. if it doesn't i'll have to swing a couple times, no big deal at all...
When are they going to do something useful for warriors?
Paladins get a buff, warriors get... I don't know if either of these matter in anyway. so stay roughly the same...
garthas Dec 7th 2009 10:17PM
the only reason people have trouble leveling warriors is because they are idiot easy mode lovers
TimmyJohnson Dec 15th 2009 2:31PM
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that since the 3.3 patch, when ever i tank multiple mobs they seem to circle me, even when i back up, making it nearly impossible to shockwave all of them?