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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsRage normalization in Cataclysm
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 5th 2010 at 12:35PM
Some of the major points:
- Rage [will be] no longer generated based on damage done by auto-attacks. Instead, each auto-attack provides a set amount of Rage, and off-hand weapons will generate 50% of the Rage main hands do.
- If the attack is a critical strike, it will generate 200% Rage. Haste will accelerate swing times to generate Rage faster.
- Rage from damage taken will no longer be based on a standard creature of the character's level, but instead will based on the health of the warrior or druid.
- All "on next swing" attacks in Cataclysm are being removed. Heroic Strike and Maul will be instant swings that cost a variable amount of Rage.
The full statement after the break.
This post is currently being edited.
BornakkWe are going to take the opportunity in Cataclysm to try and fix some of the problems with the Rage mechanic for both warriors and druids. Some of these problems include:
To resolve these issues, Rage will be normalized in Cataclysm. This will make the Rage gained by characters more consistent and avoid drastic differences between low-end and high-end gear.
The concept of normalized Rage may leave a negative impression on some veteran players, as we tried it once before in The Burning Crusade and it wasn't successful, resulting in them feeling weakened. However, we think that the concept is still sound -- it was just that the previous implementation didn't balance the values correctly, leading to players being Rage-starved. That is not the goal. As part of the change, we want to give warriors and druids a lot of ways to control their rage, so even in the worst-case scenarios they won't feel like they lack the resource to do their job.
Here are some of the ways the Rage mechanic will change in Cataclysm:
We understand this change may be scary for many players, but keep in mind that the constants in the formulas for gaining Rage will give us the ability to make quick adjustments if we feel Rage generation is too low. Our goal is for each character's Rage to not be always high or always low, but rather a resource that needs to be managed properly by the player.
- Warriors/dru
ids in the lowest levels of gear can be Rage-starved. - Warriors/dru
ids in the highest levels of gear no longer have to manage their Rage when it becomes infinite. - Warrior/drui
d tanks lose Rage income as they improve their gear and take less damage. - The gameplay of warrior and druid tanks loses a lot of depth when massive boss hits means never having to manage Rage.
- Heroic Strike and Maul are effective, but tedious abilities for using up extra Rage.
- In general, warriors and druids don't have enough control over their Rage.
To resolve these issues, Rage will be normalized in Cataclysm. This will make the Rage gained by characters more consistent and avoid drastic differences between low-end and high-end gear.
The concept of normalized Rage may leave a negative impression on some veteran players, as we tried it once before in The Burning Crusade and it wasn't successful, resulting in them feeling weakened. However, we think that the concept is still sound -- it was just that the previous implementation didn't balance the values correctly, leading to players being Rage-starved. That is not the goal. As part of the change, we want to give warriors and druids a lot of ways to control their rage, so even in the worst-case scenarios they won't feel like they lack the resource to do their job.
Here are some of the ways the Rage mechanic will change in Cataclysm:
- If the attack is a critical strike, it will generate 200% Rage.
- Haste will accelerate swing times to generate Rage faster.
1) Rage is no longer generated based on damage done by auto-attacks. Instead, each auto-attack provides a set amount of Rage, and off-hand weapons will generate 50% of the Rage main hands do. This amount is based on a constant formula which factors in the base swing speed of the weapon. This means the Rage gained should be averaged out between fast and slow weapons. The constant formula also gives us the ability to easily increase the rage gained if it feels too low (or reduce it if is too high). We are also implementing the following mechanics, which will still allow rage to improve to some extent as you improve gear:
2) Rage from damage taken will no longer be based on a standard creature of the character's level, but instead will based on the health of the warrior or druid. Again, there is a constant that is multiplied by the rage generated in order to allow for fine-tuning. This calculation ignores all damage reduction from armor, absorption, avoidance, block, or similar mechanics, so improving your gear will not reduce Rage gained.
3) We will provide warriors and druids with more instant sources of rage. For example, the warrior shouts are changing to work more like the death knight ability Horn of Winter. Instead of Battle Shout consuming Rage, it will generate Rage but have a short cooldown. Both classes will have additional methods to generate Rage in an emergency or bleed off Rage when they have too much.
4) All "on next swing" attacks in Cataclysm are being removed. Heroic Strike and Maul will be instant swings that cost a variable amount of Rage. For example, imagine Heroic Strike costs between 10 and 30 Rage. You must have at least 10 Rage to use the attack, but it will consume all available Rage up to a maximum of 30. Any Rage consumed above the minimum will cause the ability to hit harder, and in some cases much harder. We will tune the ability so that it's generally not a good idea to hit it when you have low Rage (unless everything else is somehow on cooldown) but becomes a more attractive button the higher your Rage.
We understand this change may be scary for many players, but keep in mind that the constants in the formulas for gaining Rage will give us the ability to make quick adjustments if we feel Rage generation is too low. Our goal is for each character's Rage to not be always high or always low, but rather a resource that needs to be managed properly by the player.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Druid, Warrior, News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Mondryn Apr 5th 2010 6:08PM
Isn't rage, by definition, uncontrollable?
darian Apr 5th 2010 6:42PM
I took Anger Management classes, but they only gave me more rage.
Holgar Apr 5th 2010 12:49PM
As long as they realise that the attempt to do this in BC was (censored) in the extremes and actually take the time to make this work I like the general idea behind this.
Just A Canuk Apr 5th 2010 12:51PM
"Rage [will be] no longer generated based on damage done by auto-attacks. Instead, each auto-attack provides a set amount of Rage, and off-hand weapons will generate 50% of the Rage main hands do."
What.
"Haste will accelerate swing times to generate Rage faster."
What?
"If the attack is a critical strike, it will generate 200% Rage."
WHAT!?
Dear god... I'm just a little lost for words at the moment....
TinyLittleRobot Apr 5th 2010 12:59PM
Wonder how much rage per swing we'll be seeing? And 200% for a crits? Makes me think fury warriors are doing the happy dance right now.
Hal Apr 5th 2010 1:51PM
This seems very interesting, because it could end up meaning that haste will become very important for Warriors.
Daigeil Apr 5th 2010 1:58PM
LOOK EVERYONE! An ambiguous post! We have no idea what he really thinks! Isn't this helpful to any discussion that might follow? :o
Hakkai-Lethon Apr 5th 2010 6:12PM
@hal
I think hes being sarcastic. The haste change isn't a change at all it does the same thing as It does now. But you dont see warriors stacking haste because ArP is God.
And since I dont dps as a warrior I cant really make a coment on it but. Warriors gain there rage threw there dps. Go figure a melee crit does x2 dmg then gets modified by armor it would Make sense that.
Since our attacks generate normal rage on regular dmg it makes sense that our 2x dmg makes 2x rage
I also think its sarcastic anger because they are changing haste for the other Melee classes to affect the resource gains Such as Faster energy for rogues Faster runes of CD's for DK's and More focus for those Hunters out there. At least I base this all on that post awhiles ago when they where exsplaining whats stats are making the cut to cata and why
traptinacivicsi Apr 5th 2010 8:50PM
I thought I heard that haste will be different in Cata and that melee/casters would get to hit buttons faster.
Ophelos Apr 5th 2010 12:51PM
Sweet i'm glad to see blizzard bring back the skilled game..
TinyLittleRobot Apr 5th 2010 12:56PM
Matthew Rossi had an excellent article on this recently about rage and how it is a broken mechanic. Seems like blizzard addressed just about every issue he brought up. Matthew, care to weigh in on these changes? Good, bad, too much, not enough?
jlpknights82 Apr 5th 2010 12:58PM
This is going to freak people out reeeaaaalllly bad for a while. I can't wait to see how the affected communities deal with it and what their feedback is.
This kind of change is overdue, from what my rage-using friends say.
It does make me a bit nervous for whatever they are planning to do to healers. *hides*
Wrabbit Apr 5th 2010 12:58PM
Insta-Cleave is gonna be nuts.
Zuktaw Apr 5th 2010 1:02PM
I have a feeling that the cost of cleave will be such that it'll only be nuts once or twice =D
Tim Apr 5th 2010 1:11PM
Pop all of our new and old rage generating skills, charge in, and HUGE CLEAVE CRITS!!!!!! This should help with warrior AoE in a very warrior way, not all that fancy magic stuff.
Zuktaw Apr 5th 2010 1:01PM
In general I don't agree with what seems to be Blizzard's default answer to resource management at the moment. It's as if they want your resources to have to be constantly managed at any gear level. If I have an end game geared toon & go into a heroic, I shouldn't have to manage rage as a warrior tank or mana as a healer or spell dps. That should be the reward for gearing up. Granted, in those end game raids, the resource management mechanic should be present, but not in content you overgear.
Jnarek Apr 5th 2010 1:38PM
My primary toon was a warrior and I think this change sounds great. I particularly like how it helps correct for damage avoidance not penalizing rage generation.
I have always seen Rage generation as the only fully gear resource.
Energy - Generates over time. Only haste on gear helps
Mana - Granted by ability scores. Better gear allows for less downtime/longer fights
Runes - regenerates with cool downs. gear doesn't help
Runic Power - Secondary resource that builds by using runes. Gear doesn't help
Rage - Based on dmg done/taken. Requires better gear to scale.
Rage with change - Generates by attacking taking dmg independent of gear. It will scale like energy with regards to haste but also with Sta by being able to take more hits.
Zuktaw Apr 5th 2010 1:44PM
I'm trying to understand why I was downrated.
I don't disagree that rage is a broken mechanic or that the changes sound good.
It's the related topic that Blizzard seems to think that our resources should have to be constantly managed regardless of gear or content that I disagree with.
splodesondeath Apr 5th 2010 1:54PM
See, right now, like the commenter above said, Rage is the only gear-dependent resource. Therefore, Blizzard has two options.
One, the more likely one (which has been confirmed now), would be to make Rage like the other resources, and remove the way gear affects rage.
Two, the less likely one (which won't happen now), would be to make all the other resources gear-dependent, which would probably anger all non-warriors and be difficult to implement.
It's like buffing vs nerfing. If one class is underperforming (cough shaman), then you can either nerf everyone else (the sad method) or buff the class (the happy method).
windstalker668 Apr 5th 2010 2:27PM
I think you were downrated because the way you worded your comment makes it sound like you think that just because you are geared you should never have to manage your resources. It is part of the game to manage resources, remember, this game stems from strategy game roots, everything in a strategy game is about resources. Granted WoW isn't a strategy game, it is an MMO and everything needs to be fun and balanced in a way that makes people want to continue playing and keeps them interested. If you have to keep an eye on your mana/etc then everything requires more thought, you can't just hit a button over and over again, you have to think about your moves carefully when mana runs low. I am sure that you don't think resources should be infinite because then you are just managing cooldowns and thats not fun at all. Resources are an integral part of the game and although you shouldn't have to watch them like a hawk when you are in a heroic in full tier 10, you should have to pay some sort of attention.