Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 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 4 of 5)
Zuktaw Apr 5th 2010 3:18PM
heh, Arms
Lemons Apr 5th 2010 8:46PM
It's been a long time coming...this was from patch 1.4!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJWeWMKfa3g
Henry Apr 5th 2010 2:09PM
When they 'instant' as in off of the GCD or do they mean 'instant' as in exactly like every other Warrior, Bear, and Death Knight ability except for Slam and Army of the Dead?
jp Apr 5th 2010 2:21PM
As a warrior who has grown exceedingly tired of the current system, I hyped to see these changes finally announced. May be unstable for a little while, but I have faith in blizz.
Mognet T Apr 5th 2010 2:23PM
Awesome, I love it, but could Blizz help us Rage Tankers who want synergy with our Disc Priest friends?
Shrike Apr 5th 2010 4:31PM
If you're referring to shielding, you're about an expansion behind.
Druids and warriors both gain rage on absorbs equal to the amount of rage they would have gained from taking that damage.
Mognet T Apr 6th 2010 9:46PM
Wait, really?
/facepalm
Oh well, I learn something new everyday!
Xylaria Apr 5th 2010 2:25PM
The "on-next-swing" removal makes me wonder - will they make Rune Strike a spammable/cooldown attack for DKs as well, since it uses the same mechanic? I wonder.
Angus Apr 5th 2010 9:56PM
WTB some instant attack for extra threat, instead of being stuck in a rotation.
-signed a tankadin
jbodar Apr 5th 2010 11:35PM
Yeah, Rune Strike is especially easy to macro into everything, since RP is a secondary resource, unlike Rage, so you don't have to worry too much about starving yourself. Will Frost DKs even bother to use RS if it costs a GCD, considering they we already have Frost Strike to dump RP?
Kathop Apr 5th 2010 2:28PM
hmm... time do dust off my BT geared level 70 tank warrior! :D
Trotline Apr 5th 2010 2:33PM
My Warrior is currently pretty highly geared, so I'm in the OP end of the current system, and I'm rarely rage starved anymore. This comes at the end of a loooong climb up that curve, though, and for most of it, I was struggling to put out enough dps to justify being in the raids that eventually got me that great gear.
I'm pretty stoked by this news! I missed the fiasco that was rage normalization in BC, but it sounds to me like Blizz remembers the lessons from that attempt, and is being careful to incorporate the ability to tweak rage gain, should they decide it's too low, or too high. Fair enough. Now I'm doubly excited to see Cataclysm ship. :)
ElrithCC Apr 5th 2010 2:51PM
I've been playing my warrior as a main since December 2004. The past few years we have really felt sort of gimped in every department outside of tanking, not that tanking has been perfect, but seeing the way other melee has performed especially with Deathknights has really sort of been painfull when going back to a warrior. Arms in pvp especially, the way it's been balanced around arena was a real shame for those of us who prefer battlegrounds and what little world pvp there is in the spirit of vanilla pvp. Any change at this moment is good change, I welcome this shift and am eager to get used to the new mechanics.
alpha5099 Apr 5th 2010 2:51PM
My prot warrior's more interested to know how this affects Cleave. It's a move I find much more satisfying to use, and one I probably have to use more (I'd lose threat on trash without Cleave, while Heroic Strike increases my threat lead but mainly serves to burn through excess rage; it's rare that I'd lose threat if I didn't use HS). Also, when I'm using HS, that usually means I'm set on rage, while Cleave comes into play mostly during trash, where rage is scarcest.
Blizzard seems to have it out for my characters' resource systems. My warrior's going to have to deal with rage normalization, while my enh shammy will have to adjust to Int-less gear due to the Hunter shift to Focus.
Carn Apr 5th 2010 6:00PM
I don't care what they do long as my damage output goes up, and my taking ability gets better haha.
paragorillabear Apr 5th 2010 3:12PM
My main concern is Will the new Heroic Strike still be off the GCD?
After many painful tanking sessions with my finger constantly jabbing HS, I just made some cool Macros that tie my Heroic Strikes into my Devastate and Shield Slam -- will these become useless?
Armenius Apr 5th 2010 4:43PM
I think the real question is how will this affect raptor strike and the reclusive melee hunter build
Snuzzle Apr 5th 2010 4:59PM
As someone who plays both a geared bear and a fresh warrior, I can chime in saying "It's about time!" The differences in play because of rage are stark. In fact, I was thinking to myself the other day that they should do away with Maul and Heroic Strike and just fold their threat/damage into our basic attacks since every player above a certain gear level has them bound to everything, anyway.
My bear never has an empty rage bar. She has every key bound to Maul, spams her attacks on cooldown, and never runs below 85%--- not in heroics, not in ICC, never. It's not fun to feel like you're constantly throwing rage down the toilet because you just canNOT empty your bar enough to fit more rage.
On the other hand, my warrior is consistently either age starved (when she spams Heroic Strike) or threat-starved (when she doesn't). That's also not fun. It's not fun to have to constantly say "Sorry guys, I just didn't have any rage). Micromanaging your rage isn't fun, and it's not fun to constantly lose aggro because you jut don't have the rage to do your job.
As long as they don't bork it like they did in TBC, and as long as they don't make it play out like "red energy" or "red runic power", I'm all for this change. Rage should stay a unique mechanic, but it shouldn't be crippling at low gear levels and infinite at high levels. Some scaling is great, because we don't want to feel the same in blues as in epics, but the kind of scaling it has currently is just out of control.
thebitterfig Apr 5th 2010 7:54PM
hrm. i don't know if i like the removal of "next-swing" mechanics because i liked that warriors had something they could do off the GCD, and i think that the next-swing nature of HS is kinda fun, personally. it gives you both a priority queue to watch, as well as an outside-the-priority button to push.
however, i like the constant rage-per-hit mechanic. it'll go a long way to making warriors solid dps at low gearing, and more balanced dps at high gearing.
Saidear Apr 5th 2010 9:36PM
... I called it, pretty close.