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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 3 of 5)
Hëx Apr 5th 2010 3:01PM
I too feel that a higher geared player doing lower content shouldn't have as much to worry about be it rage or mana, but at skill appropriate content should have to resource manage. I don't agree with the down rating, your opinion was well worded and concise. Please keep posting your comments!
Zuktaw Apr 5th 2010 3:14PM
@splodesondeath I wouldn't say that rage is the only gear based resource. Really, energy is the only one that's (almost) not gear based. After playing feral kitty for a while (with bear off-spec) I changed my druid to a boomkin. I had almost a full sp set from heroic drops that no-one else needed. I couldn't do daily quests w/o running oom & spec'd into as much regen as I possibly could. Now I have over 30K mana in raid & the only time I run OOM is in the rare event that I dps a heroic & am simply spamming hurricane. The only reason I've spec'd OOC is because of set bonuses.
On my warrior who's taken advantage of free triumphs, so is therefore essentially raid geared, I have to make judicious use of charge & intercept to stay ahead of itchy dps or I don't get there first & can not generate enough rage to generate the threat to generate the rage... ... ...
@windstalker668 thanks for that clarification...I realized that I might have been misinterpreted which is why I restated it in my 2nd comment, to further expound...
Personally, I like the feeling of running heroics in raid gear. Raids are fun because they're a challenge, heroics are fun because they're a race & the only challenge is when you pull that extra pack.
When you're overgeared you should also be over-resourced. It shouldn't be a matter of do I have enough [insert resource] to get through this fight. But, rather, does the tank have enough skill to hold all of these packs while the dps aoerolls them down.
Geared to content every encounter should require management of everything to overcome or there's no skill involved.
icepyro Apr 5th 2010 5:23PM
Poor wording is poor. Managing resources simply means no more 'infinite'. Us mana users still have to 'manage resources' on heroics even though I never run out of mana. Well, I could run out when I want to hit every button on the keyboard, but I'm actually more effective not doing so. I think the same will be true for warriors.
Gear will still scale, this is just an additional constant. Gear + constant =/= gear doesn't matter. More effective health, more defense, rage generating shouts, etc., all means you get rage while being a proper tank and not having to rely on dps glass (sorry, is dps plate really made out of metal?) to keep rage/threat up. You will still be able to steamroll without gimping either yourself or your healer to stay alive. Haste adds options for customization that I really can't wait to see. All around win.
Then again, I'm no warrior, so I could be just spewing out of the wrong orifice so to speak.
devilsei Apr 5th 2010 1:01PM
Alright, blam me or whatever, but am I the only one who might be a little worried that this little "experiment" will end up like most every other rage adjustment they've tried...?
Eyhk Apr 5th 2010 1:02PM
The implementation of rage generating abilities will definitely be a welcome change.
Any rage-starved overgeared bear in random Heroics with Enrage on a one minute CD waiting for that first 2.5 second melee hit to happen to generate some rage to swipe to gather a group while ret pallys Divine Storm and Dks throw DnD and mages start up a blizzard will appreciate it very much. That and the constant shapeshifting to generate a measly 10 rage (not many bears put all points in Furor in the resto tree, usually only 3 for a 60% chance to generate 10 rage)
Borrik Apr 5th 2010 5:02PM
/sit
No, seriously! /sit
Sitting = automatic hit = Rage
I do I in heroics on my BearTank.
Broken, yes. But affective!
Eyhk Apr 5th 2010 5:21PM
Sadly, that will never work in pugs, as usually Divine Storm, DnD, and Blizzard will all be cast way before your first faerie fire'ed mob ever reaches you. I just let them die and taunt mobs away from the healer (healers are our friends! don't piss em off!). After a couple of deaths, they usually get the point.
I did sit while waiting for that Sorrowgrave to finally show me the lame "might of the Lich King" in UP though. Actually I did a /sleep so that her first hit on me was a crit (even bears are crittable when sleeping!)
DeathPaladin Apr 5th 2010 1:05PM
His example for the new Heroic Strike sounds a lot like a Sudden Death Execute.
GrumblyStuff Apr 5th 2010 1:55PM
That's what I immediately thought of, too. I hope that's not exactly what they plan to do though.
From the sound of it, it's a little different in that more rage means more damage more efficiently whereas sudden death (and execute in general) it's better to use it with the minimum amount of rage. Here's hoping for a pseudo-bloodthirst attack: Instant damage up front, damage increases with extra rage, and you gain a buff that boosts the next few attacks (just white or just yellow or both) but maybe at the cost of lowered rage generation.
I do like how they're encouraging the use of haste but on the other hand, I fear it will be like WotLK for casters in that EVERY stat is great but working out if gear is an upgrade is a headache (give up haste for crit? hmm, lose int but gain spirit..). But then again, it's not like we'll have to worry about ArP anymore or leather/mail gear.
Sindella Apr 5th 2010 1:06PM
Incoming Rossi column!!! lol
Omenemo Apr 5th 2010 1:15PM
if they're removing all "on-next swing" attacks, i wonder what will happen to death knight's rune strike and the (admittedly pitiful) one demo locks get.
Kal Apr 5th 2010 1:10PM
Sounds a bit like they're shifting it to be more like DK's Runic Power and strikes, but I could just be talking out of my rear.
Thyago Apr 5th 2010 1:15PM
So that settles it: I'm deleting my long-bored level 7 NE Warrior and my first will be a Worgen =D
Alex Apr 5th 2010 1:55PM
As someone who now suffers RSI in the finger I used for Heroic Strike spam, this change is long overdue.
Jared Apr 5th 2010 1:48PM
I'm a skeptical about these changes to say the least. However that doesn't mean I'm not excited that they are attempted to do something about how rage works. But as I read this Heroic Strike has, in a way, become a new Execute. So one thing that I'm concerned with is, what are they going to do to Execute? Because in my humble opinion it's a little broken right now. I'd like to see Execute actually be appealing to use again.
ringthree Apr 5th 2010 1:56PM
This actually mimics Final Fantasy XI's "TP" mechanic quite closely. In FFXI, all classes gain "TP" by connecting swings on a mob. The amount of "TP" you get is based on swing speed. You can also get "TP" from taking damage but it is not a major mechanic for any class. "TP" is then used in tiers (i.e. 100, 200, 300) to use "Weapon Skills" which are special attacks determined by weapon type. The more TP you have when you use a WS (you have to have 100 TP to use a WS) the more of a specific modifier you get from the WS.
There are still differences though (obviously the way that Rage and TP are used is different and Crits giving more Rage and off-hand given less are far different) but for the most part they are exactly the same.
Oh, and I am not saying that WoW "stole" the idea from FFXI. In fact, I thought it was inevitable that Blizzard was going to have to do something based on an external factor to fix Rage. The only real factor that doesn't scale with gear and is normalized across all weapons is swing speed.
Another interesting thing to pull from FFXI is the fact that there are certain gear builds (FFXI has modifiers to increase TP gained per swing) that can be put together to get the exact amount of TP per swing to use WS faster. I can very much see this happening in WoW. People are going to want to use weapons that get them round numbers for using abilities. For example if one weapon speed gets you 24 Rage per swing and another gets you 25 Rage per swing, you may actually want the slow weapon just because you will be able to use an ability like Whirlwind on your first swing instead of waiting for two swings.
In FFXI, the TP system is pretty strong, and I think that it was a good choice for Blizzard to use for the Rage system.
Gx1080 Apr 5th 2010 1:54PM
"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."
What about Rune Strike, huh? I won't miss having a macro for every single of my strikes.
Hëx Apr 5th 2010 3:06PM
I am reading that to mean any ability that includes the wording "Next melee" in the tooltip. While this shows everything, not just player abilities, it appears there are going to be some very sweeping changes to this mechanic!
http://www.google.com/search?q="next+melee"+site%3Awowhead.com
Hëx Apr 5th 2010 3:08PM
And the comment system screws my link, go to google and search for:
"next melee" site:wowhead.com
and you'll see everything that includes that exact phrase from wowhead
Branalia Apr 5th 2010 2:06PM
About flipping time this happened. But this also means that Warriors won't be unstoppable killing machines with infinite resources in PvP anymore either. A change I welcome with open arms.