What will fury do in Cataclysm?
by Matthew Rossi 
May 27th 2010 at 1:00PM
Ghostcrawler - Re: Cataclysm Fury RotationThat leaves Fury with Bloodthirst and Slam and Heroic Strike. Heroic Strike will play more of a role since it will require a GCD, but you also may not want to push it every time in low rage scenarios. So we do think Fury will need one more rotational button. The one we are messing with right now is Victory Rush. It feels pretty cool so far, but a lot of things will change with classes over the next several weeks. Not sure yet whether it works better as a proc (like Sudden Death) or something available all the time.
I'd personally like to see Victory Rush become a proc like Sudden Death or Bloodsurge Slams: in fact, it wouldn't be hard to simply add VR to both of those abilities, letting it proc either instead of or at the same time as a Sudden Death Execute or Bloodsurge Slam. You'd need to leave it enough time to not end up wasted a lot, but there's potential there.
Ghostcrawler also makes a good point about glyphs and Cataclysm (if you think an ability isn't good because of a glyph or too good because of one, don't assume that glyph will still exist or be in the same form in the future) and again emphasizes the problem with Whirlwind style abilities. While it's good to see them thinking about this, we need more details: how is Bloodsurge going to be affected by losing Heroic Strike spam, for just one concern? Still, I'm hopeful they'll work out the new rotation fairly soon.
Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Tim {the other Tim} May 27th 2010 1:18PM
I like the idea of having more buttons as fury, but I also like the procey nature of arms. I don't want them to become bland and same-ish. Arms can still be the reactionary spec while fury would use more of the limit break full rage hits or whatever.
SunGod228 May 27th 2010 1:19PM
omg i need to get my eyes checked I thought the article was called. "what will FURRY do in cata.." and thought it was an article about Tauren
iceveiled May 27th 2010 1:21PM
1 extra GCD and maybe a situational/procced ability (aka instant slam) would be nice for fury as the rotation is simple, but not every rotation needs to be feral druid complex.
Debesun May 27th 2010 2:43PM
I believe the references GC has been making towards the feral rotation is not entirely him implying they want other dps classes to have a 'complex' rotation such as feral, but use similar core mechanics of feral DPS. The mechanic of basically using certain abilities to chain or strengthen other abilities.
With feral, we don't exactly slam which ever key is of higher priority and off CD / procced (much like how a few class play currently, who have been stated to be getting some attention) as we have quite a bit of debuff and buff management. To use our highest damage nuking ability, we are required to have Savage Roar, Mangle, and a bleed effect on the target.
The closest you could relate to this mechanic currently with a warrior is with stacking sunders, and I assume the revamped Heroic Strike in Cata will also put more emphasis on this kind of gameplay.
TL;DR: Blizz wants to steer away from whack-a-mole type playstyles.
Could be wrong though ;)
busuan May 27th 2010 1:25PM
Once we reach level 81, assuming current talent trees largely remain unchanged, Sweeping Strike becomes available to Fury build. So I guess I don't quite mind the idea of shifting Whirlwind to AoE only.
But my impression is, still, Blizz people are AFRAID of making warrior too powerful. So much so, they now have nerfed the signature fury ability, Whirlwind, into nearly useless in boss fights.
(venting cont.) Why don't they just remove all yellow attacks from fury warriors, leaving us with white ones only?
Jez May 27th 2010 1:35PM
Okay, relax. I understand that you're upset at 'losing' WW, but we simply don't know enough to throw our toys all over the place. :) With Rage normalised PROPERLY, there's no reason why Fury warriors won't get some nice moves and be balanced nicely. Yellow attacks come from pushing buttons.. that's normally fun.. And while 8 WW crits was always pretty, single-target WW has always lacked potential and felt funny, perhaps?
Hopefully the NDA will be lifted soon so we can get a clue as to what's going on.
busuan May 27th 2010 1:43PM
Sorry I don't have the same confidence.
For the past TWO years, the goal of tuning warrior dps builds has been balancing the class with others, at least IMO. The end result is indeed balanced dps output. But what we also get is an awkward dps class that's quite often dull to play.
All of this nerfing trend is going to change in 4.0? They need to show me that in 3.3.6 first.
clundgren May 27th 2010 2:02PM
Fury does NOT have balanced dps output. You currently rival rogues for melee dps, and are way ahead of DKs (all builds), arms warriors, and ret paladins. Fury warriors are overpowered by comparison to other plate melee classes.
Frankly, I find the warrior QQ about whirlwind hard to take. Ret paladins are facing *exactly* the same nerf to Divine Storm, which plays *exactly* the same role in our rotation, and I haven't heard 1/10th the whining. And we are well behind you on the dps meters to start with.
Matthew Rossi May 27th 2010 2:35PM
Clundgren, you're either a liar or misinformed.
http://www.wow.com/2010/05/06/icc-dps-analysis-by-spec
Ret and fury are almost identical across the board on average and on specific fights like Rotface/Festergut. In some cases, ret is ahead of fury. In others, fury beats ret.
clundgren May 27th 2010 3:39PM
Wow...a liar? That's a bit harsh. See my reply to your second post, but let me point out that there are multiple sites that track dps performance according to different criteria.
clundgren May 27th 2010 5:24PM
Further: the data you link to includes all players of all skill levels. The problem with that is fury warriors get much better as their gear improves. I think the wow meters online data is a much better indication of how classes stack up once you normalize gear and skill. That data shows fury warriors to be ahead of ret paladins in *every* fight, and one of the top dps classes overall.
I take strong exception to your "liar" comment.
Travieso May 27th 2010 1:27PM
Personally, I would want to avoid another randomish proc like Slam because otherwise you're turning Fury into Arms. I wouldn't rule out a proc altogether, but possibly a less chance-based one. What about a talent that makes Victory Rush light up when your Heroic Strike hits while Bloodthirst is on CD?
Jez May 27th 2010 1:53PM
It might be nice if they can do something with haste...
i've always found that (with my Fury Warrior and Enha Shaman) that they feel the coolest they they're going mental and super fast.
If there's anyway that Blizzard could make Haste a key stat for Fury Warriors, I'd dig it, but I appreciate everyone is different. And my Warrior is an Alt, so it's important that Main Fury Warriors are happy that the 4.0 Fury Model matches their ideas of how the class should be, I guess.
Mayhew May 27th 2010 3:46PM
"i've always found that (with my Fury Warrior and Enha Shaman) that they feel the coolest they they're going mental and super fast."
I completely agree with you on this point. I love the feeling of racing the GCD and spamming abilities frantically, seeing numbers flying up on the screen and crits popping up left and right. I also love the immediacy with which warriors can ramp up their DPS.
I haven't played all the classes, but one thing that I love about warriors is the frantic pace at which you can queue up abilities and improve your DPS as a result. Rogues are complex to play, but they only really have to worry about their GCD-based abilities. Warriors have those as well as their on-next-swing abilities and the occasional stance-dance in order to slap on a Rend.
I'm worried that my fury warrior is going to feel ponderous and boring in Cataclysm, compared to the way he feels now.
Jez May 27th 2010 6:01PM
Aah, I wouldn't worry so much... our pace and excitement comes from Flurry and rampage, I think? While we'll 'miss' Whirlwind, as long as there's a button to press instead that does something fun, I remain positive.
I just hope we don't get left in the dark regarding Heroic Leap... It sounded as though Prot and Arms will get the Ability as standard, and as usual, Fury walks boringly into the fight.. not charging like the other warriors...
I know we can use Intercept, but it's not the same... costs rage and uses a Bloodrage.
Jez May 27th 2010 1:32PM
I sincerely hope Blizzard don't try and keep any more of the current Fury setup as they can. If the tree needs a rethink in terms of design an rotation, then please, take your time, Blizzard, and get it right.
I understand that we're all used to BT > WW > Slam > HS or whatever, but if WW leaves, then things might feel a bit bare. Having buttons to push doesn't necessarily make them exciting. If VR, Slam, HS and BT all end up doing fairly similar damage, then is there any point in having more than one or two of them?
Fury Warriors are supposed to be 'rampaging warriors in woad' (that's right, isn't it?) so why not have a flurry attack like that Bone-Spit thingy in the craped up part of Sholazar Basin? Something that isn't just another Press = Block of Damage. There's no reason Fury Warriors couldn't have a kind of quick-slash-mental-go-crazy channeled attack (hitting many times over 4 seconds) that would let you move at the same time.
I hope they think outside the box when making Fury Warriors cool for Cataclysm. :)
goldenheartbear May 27th 2010 1:36PM
"over the next several weeks"
Are we missing something important here?
Djinn May 27th 2010 1:40PM
Yeah i hope warriors are cool too because if the new death knight rune system leaves me sitting on my thumb a lot i might be switching mains to my warrior for a tank/dps toon..
Ralod May 27th 2010 1:47PM
I could have swore that said furry in the title. I thought it was going to be about how the furry worgen ERP is going to take over the deeprun tram and goldshire inn.
Ilunc May 27th 2010 1:55PM
I am hoping that Cataclysm makes wow good again or I am never going to play it again. If you enjoy it thats fine, its your money and frankly dear.. I don't give a damn. but for me wow has lost its luster and it has become a faceless grindfest it was much more fun without the automatic treadmill that they call the dungeon finder.
Peace