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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsProt Warrior nerf details
by Matthew Rossi 
Jan 9th 2010 at 2:00PM
Honestly, neither of these are huge gamebreakers. I liked that Warbringer cleared roots and snares for me when I was tanking, and I barely even noticed it in PvP: it was like a free self-cast Hand of Freedom. As for nerfing Shield Slam, well, like I said I don't stack block value so a lower block value cap on the ability wouldn't really affect me. Irritate me? Yes, it will do that. But it isn't a game breaker either. Of course, since as the commenters mentioned yesterday prot PvP warriors don't stack shield block value at all (I know you guys don't read my posts, Blizzard, but if for some reason someone is, look at all that ArP. Look at all that lack of block value. It is ArP that drives the prot PvP damage machine. ArP, not block value. Just thought I'd mention that) then I fail to see any point to the change either.
So there we have it: Warbringer gets changed and Shield Slam might get changed which is like taking a club away from a guy who is shooting people.
Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Talents, Wrath of the Lich King, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 7)
Twilit Soul Jan 10th 2010 7:54AM
*copied and pasted because I wasn't smart enough to hit reply the first time, in case you see this again later on in the comments*
Thanks for that lemons, I don't even see why that could've been downrated by anything but a warrior who has no better way to QQ about the nerf stick. Blizzard is nerfing their ability to break snares because of exactly what I described. If it wasn't true, why would Warriors be losing the ability? Learn to think before you downrate? I mean definitely warriors MUST do less than other malee, and tons less than ranged...because suddenly ranged damage is the only real damage, if it always passes malee, period. Rogues are a joke, amirite? Never heard of an enhancement shammy in arenas, that's for sure...
Also, let's say that by some chance, there was never any warrior[s] capable of QQing loud enough (which I highly doubt that's true, few people aren't good at QQing).
Obviously, if there aren't enough warriors QQing about it, it's not that big of a deal. Now is it? Obviously, if every single other class IS QQing loud enough about it, something is up with warriors being impossible to snare. Isn't it? Hence...the nerf.
Lemons Jan 9th 2010 8:05PM
"So there we have it: Warbringer gets changed and Shield Slam might get changed which is like taking a club away from a guy who is shooting people."
LOL! What an awesome sentence, it totally describes the problem, and the ineffectualness of Blizz's solution.
They just need to nerf prot warrior damage. It needs toning down in one way or another because u simply can't have that much damage and that much survivability together in one spec.
It's my understanding that Blizz upped prot damage so much because in BC they felt that prot didn't do enough damage to do their dailies. I always thought that was bullshit, however, because if you were prot you could just tank 10 mobs and kill them all at once, meaning you'd do your dailies at about the same speed as a DPS blowing up one or two mobs at a time.
Anyways, I think that problem is more or less solved by duel specs. If you're a tank struggling to complete your dailies then just switch over to your DPS spec. tanks don't need to do shitloads of damage, and when Blizz decided otherwise that's how we got into the current situation we're in now. They're breaking the basic rules of PvP and then expecting everything to be alright.
I also find it funny that this has been my stance on wars all along, and yet my comments on this matter always get downvoted, and now here's the warrior columnist himself basically saying the exact same thing. Sweet irony.
So to prot warriors...you are OP...Blizz has said as much, you might as well just except it and stop being idiots by trying to say you're not. Yall have been reminding me of DKs at wrath launch *shudder*
Mcfobos Jan 9th 2010 9:35PM
why they don't put it - "it doesn't work in ARENA" an leave my PVE out of it????
nah...
pointless..
Ohlaf Jan 9th 2010 11:33PM
What a joke, I mean really is it April already or something? This is designed to please 2 classes yeap two of blizzards favorite classes Mages and druids. Cause the ONLY 2 classes that I know that can snare and warriors can break are druids and mages. Yet again the privileged classes are being pandered to.
Here's one for blizzard No CD on cyclone, no way to get out of it other than trinket?! On my warrior I can be removed for almost a whole arena match with cyclone. On my pally healer yeap you guessed it and on my warlock yeap again you guessed right again. Where's the nerf for that? Maybe a CD might be nice cause I know that every ability including charge has a CD on it as a warrior (abilities to CC). Then there's the fact they can shift into bear and be very hard to do any damage to. They can run away in cat form, they can hot while ccd. They can resist and are immune to most cc, I'm happy to pay what ghost crawler called the "hybrid tax" on my pally as I understand it's only fair, but for the love of god where is the "hybrid tax" for the four spec switch in a second druid. All that said I don't find them that bad in arena save cyclone and the hots on resto's.
Then there's mages and poly, again as a healer a mage can dispel my buffs such as sacred shield can dispel my beacon can spell lock spell steal counter spell freeze me polly me. I had one match against two mages and I spent the whole match as a sheep. Where's the nerf for mages cc? Deep freeze you can't trinket out of? Oh and diminishing returns have been nerfd so erm....
I mean is blizzard really that clueless do they even look at the arena top 100 how many warriors are there? Cause I'll tell you this there are NONE in the top ten. There are lot's and lots of mages and plenty of priests very few warriors.
As Matt rightly points out those nerfs don't really affect pvp prot warriors or pve much. A smart warrior will switch stances make use of all his abilities. I battled one tonight in arena who switched between a prot set of gear and a arms set of gear. He was arms spec but was able to use spell reflect etc and slam all that stuff then switch into his arms gear and blade storm. I didn't once feel he needed a nerf it just made me think a bit more. My problem isn't what their doing to warriors or rogues it's what their not doing to other classes and this is called balance?! Plus the fact if you actually play arena with half a brain a warrior tank is not even remotely hard to beat. Kyte and keep out of the charge range but not close enough to get hit, there's almost nothing they can do to you. Before you say I don't know what I'm talking about i have a prot warrior :)
Excellent post matt I just hope as you say blizzard actually reads some of this.
Ohlaf Jan 9th 2010 11:36PM
One more thing out of all the tank classes I never come above a DK, druid or pally. I see druids and pally's pushing 3k easy so why is only warrior's getting nerfd? Plus palladins have exactly the same block maths?!
christian_588 Jan 10th 2010 12:56AM
lol, so luminousnerd apologizes and ppl still blacken his posts? grow a pair, nerds. ridiculous...
RiverDragon Jan 10th 2010 3:05AM
Looks like someone needs to stop telling people to "grow a pair" and also stop swinging from a d-bag's... well, pair!
Rabbles Jan 10th 2010 1:03AM
Can you name me a fight where you get knocked back AND rooted? THE only places I that I found the root break really useful was in Faction Champs and heroics, for the most part in heroics mobs don't tend to move very far, example those skeletons that chains of ice you in POS and move back less than 8yards, you can't even charge them, you have to intervene and then charge...which is what I always do anyway, infact the frequency at which you get rooted in heroics is also very small, you could ALWAYS stick to the intervene->charge which still works perfectly fine.
People are making this a bigger deal than it is, there really isn't many places in PvE where you need Charge, intercept AND intervene to break you out of roots, maybe in heroics, but really...heroics...
Kevin Fitzgerald Jan 10th 2010 2:26AM
Took them long enough. I've got no talent for Arena, but handling dueling and battlegrounds as a Prot Warrior was getting to be a little insane. With roots, I could spell eflect the next cast, heroic throw the next cast, stance dance and shattering throw the next cast, or charge to interrupt. With the exception of Mages, Hunters and Shadow Priests,
Another thing to consider is that Tank gear has scaled so much higher than it has for other classes. Dodge got nerfed, so they made it up to us with other stats, and those new stats are giving unreal survivability and damage that'd make an Arms Warrior in t7 jealous. I honestly feel like a raid boss when I'm in a battleground.
christian_588 Jan 10th 2010 5:39AM
that was a sad attempt at being funny... downrate, really, people? hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..............
Ohlaf Jan 10th 2010 6:36AM
OMG really druids still complaining that warriors can bust roots in BG, swap stupidity for brains and use cyclone!!! Further more Charge has a cood down cyclone doesn't.Also heroic throw has a 1 minute cool down. I love how blizzard thinks that "balancing classes" means nerfing warriors to suit two classes (mages & druids). Really pve wise I don't care to much about this as a nerf and pvp or pve wise I don't really go prot in a bg I'd much rather dot you up with my bleed affects :D but I think it's a ridiculous nerf tbh as these two classes will just find something else to cry about, hmm that balde storm could do with another nerf couldn't it...
Kevin your arguement about bg's doesn't really stand up cause in wsg the druid has more advantages than any other class. As far as I know no other class's can turn into cat form instantly and run faster than any other without any issue. Rogues had energy for sprint, shammy's have a cast time for wolf form and mages have a 20 second CD on blind, I'd like to see a cool down on form switching or a cast time, because see trying to take down a resto in a bg or arena if it's a good player and they know what their doing in a bg you pretty much need an army to take one down and even then they can cat form run away and bang full hp.
Vorken Jan 10th 2010 6:53AM
i disagree with this change. However, i think they should put a 2 min cd on the other when either Last Stand or Shield Wall is used. They could even call this debuff "Forbearance". That would put Warriors back in line with the rest of the tanks.
Ohlaf Jan 10th 2010 7:11AM
I can see your point Vorken however warriors don't have sacred shield or a cool down that matches the duration of sheild block to enable us to keep shield block up 100% of the time. Furthermore we don't have LOH (lay on hands). Out of all the tanks I see in runs as a healer, tank and dps the highest dpsing tanks are usually pallys and druids. Yet there has been not one mention of nerfing pally tank's damage. I think a reduction in warrior's damage if it affects threat which it probably will, would really put us back to where we we're in TBC and you will see some warrior's hang up their tank gear again.
Radu Jan 10th 2010 7:23AM
So sad to see Prot warrior get nerfed for arenas. Its already bad enough that as a prot warrior my personal dps is way below that of a paladin's, bear's or DK's. I know Blizzard doesn't account for damage when they balance tanks but it makes a difference. Class "balance" based so strongly on arenas has been perhaps the only truly unpleasant aspect of an otherwise fantastic XPac.
Ohlaf Jan 10th 2010 7:41AM
You'd think it's based on areana Radu but how can it be
http://www.sk-gaming.com/arena/player
Where are the multitude of prot warrior's on that list?! Hmm, yet the classes that complain the most about warriors, are all over that page and in the highest ranked spots. So where is the basis for this change coming from? If it's all based on arena and the nearest warrior on that list is in 39th position should that not mean we should be getting a boost and not a nerf?! I'm confused.
I think these nerfs are coming because clothies and druids are qqing about charge and slam plain and simple. Nothing to do with the actual facts and mechanics of the game. Well maybe I'll just start crying about how OP mages are in arena until they get nerfd because let's face it at the moment their one of the most OP classes in pvp.
Twilit Soul Jan 10th 2010 7:49AM
Thanks for that lemons, I don't even see why that could've been downrated by anything but a warrior who has no better way to QQ about the nerf stick. Blizzard is nerfing their ability to break snares because of exactly what I described. If it wasn't true, why would Warriors be losing the ability? Learn to think before you downrate? I mean definitely warriors MUST do less than other malee, and tons less than ranged...because suddenly ranged damage is the only real damage, if it always passes malee, period. Rogues are a joke, amirite? Never heard of an enhancement shammy in arenas, that's for sure...
Also, let's say that by some chance, there was never any warrior[s] capable of QQing loud enough (which I highly doubt that's true, few people aren't good at QQing).
Obviously, if there aren't enough warriors QQing about it, it's not that big of a deal. Now is it? Obviously, if every single other class IS QQing loud enough about it, something is up with warriors being impossible to snare. Isn't it? Hence...the nerf.
Chiv Jan 10th 2010 8:26AM
I play a Rogue, Druid and Shammy and I would downrate your post. I arena with my Rogue...who doesn't, the class kicks butt in arena. I have played against multiple Warriors in arena. Fury ones, Arms one in Tank gear, Tank ones in Arms gear, Tanks in Tank gear and Arms with a huge big axe. Oh a warrior starts hitting me....I run away or let my healer heal me thru it. Warrior has a Healer, depending on the healer I can still nuke down the Warrior so badly with poisons and such the healer has no chance to keep em alive, if healer is good, I go for healer and there is nothing the warrior can do to me. If I get charged woopdy do, its a brief stun till i lay into the healers again who is slowed by me , blind the warrior dismantle him kill healer. If I dont hit a warrior and they cant hit me a la pop evasion....how do the get mad at me? No rage HAHA. And tanks....yea they might have loads of armour and health...once their healer/teammate is dead...what's to stop me and my team mate from slowly and painfully killing them? Stuns? Rogues are full of them. But thats not what people are mad at. I think what's bothering most people that play arena, Hunters Mages, Priest is that when they get a tank(not really a tank) who stacks BV.....they get 1-2 shotted sorta like.....I do when I go against a Mage in full PvE gear who relies on burst rather than skill.
Twilit Soul Jan 10th 2010 9:06AM
You missed my point completely...and this nerf wouldn't affect your rogue at all. Note that in my post immediately after this, I stated how I meant to reply to someone earlier and didn't hit the button.
I'm a hunter. The stuns are not the problem. It's the fact that no matter what I do, warriors break snares and get right in my face. I can't get room to breathe. As a rogue, I'm sure you don't have these problems. Like you said, you can rape them if all they want to do is get within malee range. And when was the last time you heard someone say "amirite" and expect to be right? I was mocking the other person's claim that ranged dps is always better than malee.
Did you really think anyone expected you to care about warriors breaking snares too much? You don't want them kept at a distance. that's counter-productive. Why downrate someone who agrees with the nerf when it has so little to do with you? Although maybe if you went into 3v3 or 5v5 you'd hear a ranged partner complain about the prot warrior who won't get out of their face. Then it would affect you, and I doubt you'd be so against this nerf.
Twilit Soul Jan 10th 2010 7:49AM
Dang it. I didn't hit reply. And I can't delete it...so I guess I gotta go back and copy/paste..that was my fail.
Chiv Jan 10th 2010 1:27PM
My BF plays a Warrior. And when I face a Tank Warrior, they are a bastard to kill ie they take FOREVER! If I were to go one on one against one I would fail(Im no pvp pro and Ive never met a rogue able to kill a Tank on their own) however when you play arena (i do 2v2) you have a teammate. I rarely kill the tank first, because they usually are paired with a) a druid which are pains to kill but still killable or b) a disc priest who's dispels are the thing of nightmares (good bye sacred shield) The reason I responded to your post is I am a leather wearing melee dps. Warriors are a plate wearing melee dps. Do I like being charged and battered in the face, NO, BUT and its a big but, its over comeable by smart players. I have tried 3v3 and as well as 5v5....I rarely ever found the team that won had a Tank or Warrior period. Who did I get wailed on by? Mage, Mage, Disc Priest, Pally, Shadow Priest. My team was Hunter, Rogue, Pally, Lock, and Mage. We got hammered. Now maybe our team set up sucks, but I do know warriors are the least annoying. They are more like a flea, hopping from one person to the next annoying everyone to hell. When you let the Warrior get in range of you and charge and then disarm you, you still have a pet to sick on em and lay traps while they let their charge cd run out and get in range again hoping that your team mates(3v3, 5v5 youll have more than one dps) arent zerging them down in the vulnerable state they find themselves. Ask any of the well experienced top arena players if they find warriors an unstoppable force...In fact if any of the Top Arena players posted here and said that Warrior Tanks are the bane of their arena lives Ill retract my statement of the nerfs are wrong and undeserved.....btw last time I checked 3 hunters in the top 10 players. NO warriors.