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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Care and Feeding of Warriors: Fury demolishes entire cities in 4.0.1
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 29th 2010 at 9:00AM
Forget Deathwing. After the horrible start fury got in 4.0.1, it saw some buffs that have made it an extremely beefy DPS spec again. While we may not be topping the meters in all fights, we're certainly putting out some very solid DPS numbers. "Solid" depends on your gear, of course, but my mixed-geared night elf can easily push out 9-11k in a heroic, and my much better-geared draenei can easily put out more if the boss stays alive long enough. With the ICC buff, fury is once again competitive for the top spot (although much less likely to own it) and is no longer a hindrance to your raid. And if you're not a raiding fury warrior, with the change to the justice point system and the removal of ratings on PvP gear, it's never been easier to get solid DPS gear (like I did for my night elf, above).
The gearing requirements are different now, the rotation has changed and we have new glyphs to consider, so while the damage is solid again, there are some real differences to consider.
To gear a fury redux
One thing to note for fury DPS in this last month of Wrath of the Lich King is that certain truths that have held for the entire expansion do so no longer. Not only is armor penetration dead, but hit rating, a formerly despised stat, is now a very welcome one. With the removal of the old Heroic Strike, you want to get as close to 27 percent hit as possible, which is 738 hit rating for a fury warrior (we get 3 percent free from our talent specialization Precision; otherwise, it would be 830 hit rating) in order to ensure your attacks land. Even with rage normalization, a white attack has to land in order for you to generate rage from it; the amount is just fixed and can't go up with a crit or more damage dealt.
As our hit rating needs are now far more stringent, a lot of DPS plate that once looked pretty substandard will now start to look a lot better. Landsoul's Horned Greathelm, for instance, is a very attractive offset piece. In fact, if you don't have four-piece tier 10 for whatever reason, the two-piece T10 bonus is so worthless for us fury warriors that you might as well not worry about wearing any for set bonuses, making off-set pieces like Gendarme's Cuirass and the Raging Behemoth's Shoulderplates far more attractive. However, the four-piece set bonus, a flat 5 percent more damage dealt, is very attractive -- so much so that my draenei, who has a full set of off-set i277 DPS pieces, still wears four of the 264 Ymirjar for that 5 percent boost, and then uses the i277 pieces for other slots.
Those glittering gems
Frankly, with all the old armor pen gems converting to crit, I found crit the easiest stat to reforge off of my gear for hit or mastery. If I'd been inclined to entirely regem my gear, I probably would have stacked strength or mastery gems and reforged more haste along with crit for hit, but either way seems to work. (My draenei has more standing-around money, so he went with more strength gems than my night elf, who is instead relying more on reforging.) Either way, once you have enough hit to ensure steady rage generation and a handle on the rotation, high DPS once again becomes possible, even likely.
Those glittering gems
Frankly, with all the old armor pen gems converting to crit, I found crit the easiest stat to reforge off of my gear for hit or mastery. If I'd been inclined to entirely regem my gear, I probably would have stacked strength or mastery gems and reforged more haste along with crit for hit, but either way seems to work. (My draenei has more standing-around money, so he went with more strength gems than my night elf, who is instead relying more on reforging.) Either way, once you have enough hit to ensure steady rage generation and a handle on the rotation, high DPS once again becomes possible, even likely.
The rotation itself is, to be kind to it, not terribly interesting. Some people have reported binding it to their mouse wheel with macros and putting out high DPS with it. I suspect this would work on a dummy, but not as well in a dungeon or raid where you have to move around. Nevertheless, it's worth mentioning that as of right now, you spend a lot of time hitting Bloodthirst or Heroic Strike while waiting for either Raging Blow or Slam to light up, and that can get kind of monotonous. I'd personally rather have a boring rotation that works than an exciting one that doesn't, but I'd prefer an exciting one that works to either of those, so we'll see how things look once we can slide in an occasional Colossus Smash at 81+. Without the ability arms has to reset its CS, fury will need to learn how to time it for maximum use of that 6-second window, but for now, this is not a concern.
Engraved on our hearts
Glyph choices for fury are relatively simple. The build and glyphs I'm currently using for level 80 more or less hit the highlights. I unfortunately find myself in agreement with Sleutel's analysis from last week, after taking my 1H weapons for a spin with a SMF build this week. While her assessment of the lack of strength on most ICC weapons is part of the issue, I also feel that the SMF damage buff doesn't quite overcome the raw statistics available through dual wielding 2H weapons yet. Still, if the best weapons you have are a Black Bruise and Keleseth's Seducer (better than what I have, an Abomination's Knuckles and Scourgeborn Waraxe), you may see better results. Furthermore, while SMF isn't performing as well as TG, that doesn't mean it is bad in any way, shape or form. It's just not as good as TG given equivalent gear. If your 1H weapons are i264 and your 2H are i245, obviously, go with SMF.
Engraved on our hearts
Glyph choices for fury are relatively simple. The build and glyphs I'm currently using for level 80 more or less hit the highlights. I unfortunately find myself in agreement with Sleutel's analysis from last week, after taking my 1H weapons for a spin with a SMF build this week. While her assessment of the lack of strength on most ICC weapons is part of the issue, I also feel that the SMF damage buff doesn't quite overcome the raw statistics available through dual wielding 2H weapons yet. Still, if the best weapons you have are a Black Bruise and Keleseth's Seducer (better than what I have, an Abomination's Knuckles and Scourgeborn Waraxe), you may see better results. Furthermore, while SMF isn't performing as well as TG, that doesn't mean it is bad in any way, shape or form. It's just not as good as TG given equivalent gear. If your 1H weapons are i264 and your 2H are i245, obviously, go with SMF.
To sum it all up: Fury is performing very well, better in 5-mans than it did before 4.0.1 and the adjustments. It's not as good in raids as it was, but we expected that. It's still very, very gear-dependent with a very high hit cap, and you'll probably need to do some reforging or regemming to get the stats you need. Your glyph choices are fairly boring. The rotation itself is reasonably boring but effective. And it's pretty easy to get an i264 weapon or two to test out with the changes to PvP gear, if you're interested in playing with the spec.
Next week, how did tanking come through, and is Mortal Strike (and all other healing debuffs) really being reduced to a 10 percent healing debuff on the beta? (Yes, it is.) If so, what's the point of even having healing debuffs? (None.) Why not just take them all out and give us some more damage? (No idea.)
Next week, how did tanking come through, and is Mortal Strike (and all other healing debuffs) really being reduced to a 10 percent healing debuff on the beta? (Yes, it is.) If so, what's the point of even having healing debuffs? (None.) Why not just take them all out and give us some more damage? (No idea.)
Check out more strategies and tips for warriors of all specs in Matthew Rossi's weekly class column, The Care and Feeding of Warriors.Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
Sleutel Oct 30th 2010 12:41PM
Right now, theorycrafters are seeing that Slam is only worth it IFF Bloodsurge is procced AND you have an overabundance of Rage, because Heroic Strike > Slam, so if you only have Rage for one or the other, you want to use HS. The question is, can you find a more useful place to stick those points?
Sleutel Oct 30th 2010 12:49PM
Note however that this is dependent on having good gear. If you're a very fresh 80, I suppose it's possible that Slam will hit for more. The difference is that Slam hits for base weapon damage plus a static modifier, so it's only slightly better than an autoattack, while HS uses a small static number modified by your AP. So, the higher your AP, the better HS will be in comparison with Slam. You should check to see what the actual numbers are for your character with your gear.
busuan Oct 29th 2010 12:01PM
So far I found that Heroic Strike at near 100 rage does the highest burst damage, while Slam is so so.
Alex Yang-Nikodym Oct 29th 2010 12:30PM
You didn't even Execute. :|
Execute is putting out insane numbers (~30k with the ICC buff in iLvl245 gear); mash the #&@# out of it once a boss hits 20%.
Sir Broose Oct 29th 2010 7:33PM
This is true. I've read speculation that it is broken and may get fixed (read "nerfed"), but for now, Execute is insane.
Fluffumz Oct 29th 2010 11:40PM
Agreed, especially if specced into executioner. Makes for a fun finish on Raid bosses that dont just keel over after 3 seconds of 20%
Goradan Oct 29th 2010 12:34PM
Thank you, guys! I'll be picking up a couple of Wrathful Gladiator's Greatswords for alts tonight, then. :-)
gladapple Oct 29th 2010 1:00PM
Very nice article. I'm glad to hear I'm doing most of these things right.
There was one question I was hoping you'd answer, though, and it's this: what exactly does your rotation looks like? (Besides what you mentioned about HS/BT).
I know most people have got the rotation figured out--maybe I'm crazy, and it's a no-brainer--but I still feel uncomfortable with it. I typically have too much rage, in which case there are never enough buttons to hit, and *sometimes* I even hit slam when it's not procced (awful, I know). But during the times I don't have enough rage, I just don't know what decision to make... do I wait 1-2 secs for raging blow to come off cooldown, or do I hit BT or Heroic Strike because they are lit up? Playing a fury warrior is starting to feel like a game of whack-a-mole.
I still effing love my warrior though. There's nothing better. Blizzard will have to do a lot worse than this to get me off my pig-tailed harbinger of death.
Pyromelter Oct 29th 2010 8:25PM
Yup, fury dps right now feels exactly like what ret pallies did before 4.01. Here is the priority as I understand it:
BT>RB>Heroic Strike when over 60 rage>InstaSlam>Victory Rush (if an add died or something)
At under 20%
Execute>Execute>Execute>Execute>Execute....
If you are Rage capping, you might want to prioritize Heroic Strike, it is hitting for monster damage at the moment. And I could be wrong, but I think even whirlwind does more damage on single target than slam right now. Slam basically is really nerfed and almost never worth using right now. It will be getting buffed and useful again soon.
Eirik Oct 29th 2010 1:48PM
I have to say that Rossi's blasé attitude towards iLevel 277 (and even 264) items is distressing to someone who has yet to defeat The Lich King, let alone Ruby Sanctum or whatever other uberness he's about these days.
So, what are numbers like if you've access to only 1st quarter ICC/10? Or worse, vendor/dungeon gear only? Do you still stack up against equivalently geared people? Better? Worse?
Matthew Rossi Oct 29th 2010 2:21PM
Actually, the night elf doing 13k on a boss above is in a mix of 251/232 epics with a PvP offhand. You can do solid damage with ICC10 non heroic gear or even heroic dungeon gear, that's exactly what I'm doing.
Scalin Oct 29th 2010 1:50PM
9-11k dps in a heroic? Tell me, Mr. Rossi, are you of the Wrath baby mindset that it's just a heroic and if the healer's awake, it doesn't matter who tanks what? Seriously, seeing dps going balls out just to see how high their dps can get bugs the crap out of me when I'm tanking. Arcane mages spamming Arcane Blast just to see how high they can crit, ignoring the fact that the tank is trying to actually tank the content.
9-11k dps means 9-11k tps thanks to the lack of threat redux talents. A tank trying to keep up with that, in a heroic, when we have such a horrid ramp up time, is almost impossible.
Last H FoS I did, a fury warrior (mostly 251's with DBW) decided he wanted to see just how much dps he could do. After he, and I quote, "blew my load" on the first boss as I pulled him and stole aggro, I just let him tank it. He died, shortly after. He died 4 more times because he'd attack when I did/charge in BEFORE I headed in, get aggro, and I'd just /dance and let him tank it. I really hope he enjoyed his repair bill.
So please, you dps machines, remember that tanks are people to, who want to do their jobs as best they can. But if you're not going to give us the time Blizzard says we need to establish aggro, well, I'm sorry for the repair bills.
Mayhew Oct 29th 2010 1:59PM
I think that whether or not this type of behavior is acceptable really depends on if you're in a pug or running with friends. I have a healer I sometimes run randoms with who gets really bored if I *don't* do that. He thanks me every time I do it, because it gives him something to do.
Also, if you know the tank and they are geared and skilled, they can put out enough threat to hold onto enough stuff that it is a non-issue.
I do tank fairly often, so I know how frustrating it can be on the other side of this. But these days, fury is putting out enough dmg and has enough self-healing (thank you, Victory Rush!) that I can almost always tank anything that I pull off the real tank and kill it before it kills me (even without heals). Bosses are another story, of course, and I don't recommend pulling those off the tank until you hit execute range (at which point it will die within 2-3 GCDs).
Pyromelter Oct 29th 2010 8:30PM
"But if you're not going to give us the time Blizzard says we need to establish aggro, well, I'm sorry for the repair bills."
The only reason a tank should purposely let a dps die is if he breaks CC on a target you needed to CC for a trash pack. Otherwise, you are just being a diva tank, and saying "Oh well you're going to blow your load and do your job, then you tank it and you die and screw you."
You're the tank. It's your responsibility to do everything you can to be the shield for the damage dealers and healers in your party. When I tank, I do everything I humanly can to maintain aggro. Most of the time on bosses, I'm cool, but in big trash packs things can get hairy. There is a REASON blizzard gave you a taunt button. You never use it on a pull, that's what your charge/openers are for. If you are not using your taunt to protect your party, then you are doing nothing other than being another diva tank who thinks he is too good for dps who wants to do their job to the best of their ability.
Again, if someone breaks cc, or it's a trash pack, sure, let him die. But on a boss? No. Never. If you are not doing everything in your powers to be the tank and letting people die, you are not a tank I hope I ever get. It's not the dps's fault that their abilities are buffed through the roof, and it is unreasonable and unfair to expect them to not hold back, because that is not fun, and it's not playing the game.
Scalin Oct 29th 2010 11:04PM
Sad part is, on that boss, I did taunt. I even said in party change to slow down for a second, but he kept on. If a dps pulls on accident, I'm a lot more forgiving. Dps have two jobs, sometimes three if we're going to toss some CC in there. There job is to kill the mobs. Easy enough. They're also supposed to do as much damage they can, without pulling aggro from the tank. If that means you wait 10 seconds to hit Death Wish instead of .10 seconds, then so be it.
Think about the other people in your group. If tanking randoms keeps being this damned annoying, I'm not going to do randoms, and there's four less tanks in my battlegroup. Hope you dps who only give a rat's ass about yourself enjoy the longer queue times. If I can't have fun doing the job I like, then why should I care about the dps and their fun? It's that Wrath baby mindset that makes me hate the people that play this game sometimes.
Mayhew Oct 29th 2010 2:08PM
I thought I would chime in to give my perspective from an in-between gear level. I'm sitting on a full set of 264 gear, on average (one 277 item and one 251, since heroic WFS doesn't want to drop for me). Not end-game, but pretty decent. Somewhere in between the two warriors Rossi mentioned in this article. I'm currently using TG with Shadow's Edge and Cryptmaker, but I'm wondering if it would make sense to swap out Shadow's Edge for Bryn'Troll or heroic Ramaladni's, or even heroic Citadel Enforcer's if I can get another one to drop after vendoring my old one. I haven't swapped out my armor pen gems or reforged anything yet, and I'm sitting on about 21.3% hit and 25 expertise.
My experience has been that my boss damage has actually gone up at least 1-2k, compared to pre-4.0.1. Also, the change to Victory Rush and some of the other talents has increased my ability to solo content by a ridiculous amount. I recently tried soloing normal UK, DTK, and VH in full dps gear, and I was able to complete them all without dying once. So for me, patch 4.0.1 has been a wonderful, wonderful change. Hearing Rossi say that his 277-geared warrior has had a dps loss really brings home to me what huge gulf there was even between lvl 264 and 277-geared warriors.
Mayhew Oct 29th 2010 2:14PM
I have a warrior gear question that I haven't seen covered yet.
What are the best items for a warrior's ranged slot, post-4.0.1?
I currently have access to ICC-25 normal gear and ICC-10 heroic gear. On my character currently, I have the wrathful gladiator's war edge, shrapnel star, heroic gluth's fetching knives, and heroic njorndar bone bow. I'm currently using heroic gluth's fetching knives, but I wanted a second opinion (including other available items that I didn't mention).
Fluffumz Oct 29th 2010 11:59PM
IMO the way the tread seems to be setting I would say the heroic thrown as well. best hit with an attack power socket (very little it maybe but its still something). WTB STRENGTH RANGEADID WEAPONZ THAT ARENT TANKYZ, Pst fluffumz w/offer
Bloodybath Oct 29th 2010 7:00PM
So not that I want to question the great Rossi, but why would he mention regemming/stacking or quite frankly anything to do with mastery while talking about fury? It's my understanding and testing that mastery for fury is downright terrible. It'd be like a mage stacking strength. Perhaps I misread or am just being too anal, but I'm curious.
snoova Oct 29th 2010 7:18PM
I find the comment about stacking mastery gems confusing since there are no mastery gems in 4.0.1. Been playing to much beta?