The Care and Feeding of Warriors: A week on the patch 4.3 PTR
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 1st 2011 at 8:00PM
I mean that headline quite literally -- I have been on the PTR pretty much every available moment since it dropped. I've run End Time close to 40 times now. I've messed around with transmog, copied over my warrior four times and run amok with options, done some DPS and tanking and mused over the set bonuses for tier 13. In general, I've gorged on the PTR like Thrall running headlong into hostile mobs in Durnholde Keep. As soon as I get a chance to run The Hour of Twilight, I'll let you know if he still yells I did not ask for this while throwing himself bodily at six hostiles.
Frankly, Thrall, you so asked for this.
So what do I think of Patch 4.3 at this early, early date? I'm glad I rhetorically asked. Well, for one thing, I am loving transmogging my gear like you would not believe. I'm vacillating between a mix of Onslaught and Ymirjar Lord's (I like the tier 10 chest and legs with Onslaught everything else) and the classic Horde level 60 PVP gear. But as much fun as transmogging is, it's hardly the meat and potatoes of this patch.
Warriors, heroics are fun again so far
If you're a non-raider and you're worried about getting geared enough for the Raid Finder feature, don't. Take a look at the Axe of the Tauren Chieftain. It's solidly representative of how gear for warriors in the new heroics is itemized. Compared to the Skullstealer Greataxe from regular Shannox in Firelands, it is effectively equivalent depending on your stat needs. You will be able to run these new 5-mans and get as geared as a 10- or 25-man normal mode raider can right now. The Crown of Epochs from Murozond is better than the Greathelm of the Voracious Maw from Alysrazor, in my opinion. More crit, hit instead of mastery, and a red socket. Itemization in this first 5-man, at least, is simply superb. Since I currently have four level 85 warriors, I'm looking forward to catching up on three of them.
With only one dungeon to run at the time I write this, I can at least tell you that it's a fun dungeon. End Time is not just a place to crack open some loot pinatas, even at this early stage with unfinished quests. The boss fights have interesting mechanics and often ask you to make use of abilities like Heroic Leap (very useful against Baine, as an example).
DPS warriors and scaling in Cataclysm redux
As things stand right now, I'm prepared to say that rage normalization has failed. At least it didn't render the class unplayable this time, but one off the stated goals of normalization was to prevent the constant need for nerfing warrior DPS with every patch as we saw in Wrath. Warriors would gear up in a tier of raiding, go from terrible DPS to leaders in DPS, and then get nerfed as new content was released. This happened in Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and ICC.
It's also happened in Cataclysm, and if the recent Dev Watercooler is any indication, it's going to happen in 4.3. I felt nauseous when I saw yet again the oft repeated Fury warrior damage is almost certainly too high that almost certainly indicates some sort of nerf is in our future. Now, I understand nerfs come and nerfs go, but I'm frankly well past the point of being sanguine about being nerfed every patch because rage is simply not working as a resource. I talked at length about this subject back in patch 4.2, so I don't want to beat it to death here.
I will say that I'm a trifle tired of being nerfed at the beginning of every raid only to see scaling effects from rage put me up after I've been carried through the content by classes that weren't nerfed. I like my guild. It's not fair to the other people in my raid to have to pick up the slack because someone who once contributed good DPS suddenly can't do as much, especially when it happens every single patch. I sincerely hope that whatever the next expansion is, it features a major overhaul of how warriors work, perhaps one inspired by Diablo 3's Fury system. You own it, Blizz -- consider using it.
Patch 4.3 PTR notes- Vengeance for Protection warriors, Protection paladins, Blood death knights, and Feral druids has been redesigned slightly. It no longer ramps up slowly at the beginning of a fight. Instead, the first melee attack taken by the tank generates Vengeance equal to 33% of the damage taken by that attack. In addition, as it updates periodically during the fight, it's always set to at least 33% of the damage taken by the tank in the last 2 seconds. It still climbs from that point at the rate it did previously, still decays when damage is not taken, and still cannot exceed a maximum based on the health and Stamina of the tank.
You will all taste my Vengeance
Tanking changes aside from the Vengeance fix have not been rolled out for warriors yet. (Neither have any changes to warrior DPS.) I'd have to say that both the Vengeance change and the recent threat hotfixes do what they were designed to do, but without the new tanking paradigm of active mitigation in place, they feel exactly like the Band-Aids that they are. Still, we shouldn't snub a Band-Aid. They exist for a reason. I'm actually fairly eager to start playing around with this form of tanking and seeing how it works.
Until we get to look at the redesigned way we'll be tanking, we can at least talk about our tier 13 set bonuses. When these were first revealed last week, I was not overly impressed with our DPS set bonuses, and I was worried about the possibly implication of the tanking ones. I didn't panic at the time because it's the PTR; stuff is subject to change. Well, stuff has already changed at least once. I definitely like the current tier 13 four-piece for DPS warriors over the one Blizzard announced last week.
Warrior Tier 13 set bonuses (Old and new)
Warrior
- Protection, 2P -- Your Revenge ability now also grants a physical absorption shield equal to 20% of the damage done by Revenge.
- Protection, 4P -- Your Shield Wall ability now grants 50% of its effect to all party and raid members.
- DPS, 2P -- Heroic Strike costs 10 less rage while Inner Rage is active.
-
DPS, 4P -- Your Execute critical strikes have a 20% chance to refresh the duration of Colossus Smash. - DPS, 4P -- Your Raging Blow and Mortal Strike abilities have a 13% chance to apply the Colossus Smash effect on your target for 6 sec.
I really cannot tell you how underwhelmed I am by the two-piece DPS bonus. 20 rage HSes while Inner Rage is active? Is anyone swimming in rage to the point where they're spamming HS enough that this sounds appealing to them? Frankly, I think the Inner Rage experiment has failed. It was interesting as a semi-cooldown that increased your damage and rage costs. Giving rage a bit of a strategic use, but once it was changed to simply lower the cooldown on HS and Cleave it became more useful for tanks wanting to hold aggro than DPS. With the threat changes, it's lost even more of its niche. There are times where I use Inner Rage, like after one of Staghelm's raid-wide slashes where I have a ton of rage, but it's not very often.
Even changing the bonus to (as an example) increase the damage on HS when Inner Rage is active wouldn't make me all that excited to juggle another DPS cooldown-style ability. Between trinkets, Death Wish or Sweeping Strikes and Recklessness, both arms and fury warriors have enough to do. The new four-piece for DPS is much improved over the old. It does make me wonder if arms will be able to keep the CS debuff up almost indefinitely, which should be a very solid DPS increase for them.
The tank bonuses are superior. With Vengeance increasing attack power faster now, tanking warriors will quickly see very significant damage on Revenge. With no internal cooldown yet discussed, 20% of a 20,000-damage Revenge crit in tier 13 gear (based on the fact that I can easily crit for 10 to 15k with Revenge now) will be 4k, and those popping up every few seconds sounds pretty tasty. As nice as the Revenge damage shield (basically turning Revenge into Death Strike) sounds, the four-piece is the one with the more complicated implications.
Assuming you have unglyphed Shield Wall and Shield Mastery so you can use it every 2 minutes, you will now have a cooldown capable of reducing the raid's damage by 20% every 2 minutes and another cooldown (Rallying Cry) capable of giving the raid 20% additional health every 3 minutes. This is kind of an insane amount of raid cooldowns in one class. An unglyphed Shield Wall will increase the time to 4 minutes but will also increase the raid's damage reduction to 30%. I'm not 100% sold on forcing tanks to sacrifice a personal cooldown for the raid, but it has potential. I do worry about fights where there's so much raid damage that the tank has to have these kinds of cooldowns to get through them.
Right now, that's about all that can be said about the PTR. We'll see what the next week will bring.
At the center of the fury of battle stand the warriors: protection, arms and fury. Check out more strategies and tips especially for warriors, including Cataclysm 101 for DPS warriors, a guide to new reputation gear for warriors, and a look back at six years of warrior trends.
Filed under: Warrior, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Fletcher Oct 1st 2011 8:43PM
I think one can say that Cataclysm's rage normalization has succeeded in at least one way - rage generation is no longer exponential (or possibly *as* exponential?), meaning that low-level warriors aren't continually rage-starved and high-level warriors aren't continually swimming in it. I leveled a fury warrior before the rage changes, and one after, and the difference is incredible.
Inner Rage is designed to deal with that Wrath problem, a solution for warriors swimming in rage who need to dump it. In Cataclysm, it's simply not *necessary* any more.
I've been leveling a warrior tank after the latest threat changes and it's rather ridiculous how easy it is to get and hold threat. I'm not complaining, mind - with the low-level pugs one gets it's *necessary* to be able to easily peel off half a dozen mobs from the warlock who pulled two more packs while you were gearing up to attack the first one - but it's certainly easier. That ease has given me the confidence to *start* tanking, and made it actually kinda fun. Previously my own experience at tanking was a run or two during Wrath as a prot paladin, and old raids as a frost DK, so it's good to be able to learn the role from the ground up.
I've also started PVPing on my fury warrior following your article on fury PVP. It is exhilarating crazy screaming fun, very different to the frost DK pvp I'd been doing. Raaar!
Fletcher Oct 1st 2011 8:45PM
Also, if anyone can suggest something to transmog to for my worgen fury warrior, I'd be most grateful. He is hard as hell to pick clothes for.
lsprof4 Oct 1st 2011 9:35PM
I've almost got my whole Deathbone set from Scholo... I just think it looks kewl
Natsumi Oct 1st 2011 10:00PM
For male Worgen, I chose the T4 Helm with the T5 Armor with matching off pieces. I hate the T5 helm's stupid horns, which they reused in T8 which I think was a terrible looking set to begin with. Cataclysm's Edge is a really awesome looking sword that goes well with this match up, though if you don't have a sword you may need to get a Torch of the Damned (mace) or a Singing Crystal Axe (BoE world drop) or Torn-Heart Axe of Battle (SMV Quest reward, you probably haven't done it on a Worgen).
For female Worgen, I couldn't recommend much beyond the ToC purple Plate set with Armageddon, Torch of the Damned, or Dark Edge of Insanity. Yes, that's technically a DK style set, but it looks good so why not use it? Note: You REALLY have to like purple for this. lol
Other than that I can only recommend you visit http://roleplaygear.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/stylish-plate-sets/ for more options. Weapons not included. :p
VSUReaper Oct 1st 2011 8:48PM
Not gonna lie, I'm scared shitless about not having a real personal cd (as it stands, only having enraged regen). As it is, I'm constantly arguing with with my raid lead about if I should burn my last stand when I need it, or if I should rely on my healers to keep me up so I can use RC 45 seconds later.
Honestly, Blizz needs to leave our CDs alone.
Lasse Havelund Oct 1st 2011 9:07PM
I main a prot pally, and I understand exactly what you mean. I feel much less squishy on my Paladin than I do on my Warrior, simply because I have so much more utility to work with. The Warrior has his advantages; more maneuvrability, for one, but I just feel like *I* have more control over my own fate.
That, and having Divine Guardian and my other CDs on seperate cooldowns makes it much easier to blow a cooldown if need be.
paulmewis Oct 1st 2011 9:38PM
Why do these share cd's... honestly?
Natsumi Oct 1st 2011 10:05PM
@paul
So you don't stack them and gain crazy amounts of health and pop enraged Regen/Victory Rush to keep yourself up when your healers are dead on a 1% wipe. Also for PvP.
I've actually saved the raid once or twice with a well timed Rallying Cry, and saved the tanks at least a dozen more. I kind of like having that kind of utility/power as a DPS Warrior, please don't take that away from me, other than my DPS that's all I have :p
VSUReaper Oct 1st 2011 10:25PM
@Natsumi no one is saying take away RC, just don't make us (the tanks) choose between us and the raid. My example is a perfect example of why this is a bad thing: my raid leader is telling me don't use last stand b/c he wants RC later on.
Doesn't seem like an issue, but then I get low and need a cd, I then have to choose between me or the raid.
Right now, the situation is in-elegant. It works, but not well. Tying shield wall into a raid cd should be a talent or a glyph, not a set bonus. That way, it's a choice and us not being forced.
Natsumi Oct 1st 2011 11:03PM
@VSU
Get yourself a DPS Warrior for the raid, they bring all kinds of useful stuff to it. I bring 4% physical, 30% bleed, Str/Agi, Rallying Cry, a reliable interrupt, and if asked nicely Shattering Throw (really only useful if there are several Physical DPS dealers) in addition to my solid raid performance. Alternatively I can bring Str/Agi or Health, 5% crit, Rallying Cry, and a reliable interrupt in addition to my solid raid performance (though I'd rather stay Arms, it is the superior spec after all ;) ). In addition to all my super fun utility and damage you get to use your Last Stand when you need it, thus making your raid leader and yourself happy.
VSUReaper Oct 1st 2011 11:32PM
Unfortunately, I am the warrior in the raid, and we are melee heavy as is.
And I concur onthe strs of the dps warriors, but unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that the 4 set is ill-conceived, and needs to be changed. Don't make the tanks into selfish asshats b/c they want to keep thier CDs for themselves and not be pigeonholed into saving the cd for the raid. Make it a glyph or change a talent for each tank. Don't give it as a set bonus: it's just wrong.
Natsumi Oct 1st 2011 11:41PM
lol, tell your melee to reroll as a REAL melee class.
Jordan Oct 2nd 2011 5:00PM
My raid lead is very okay with sacking RC for Last Stand because, as he puts it, "If we need Rallying Cry we're doing something horribly wrong." - to which he has a point. Rallying Cry is something a warrior tank shouldn't worry about, but a warrior DPS should (Remember it's talentless ability... unlike Last Stand). Now a Warrior DPS can time a Rallying Cry with a Prot Warriors Last Stand and still get the effect, but like having Kings and Blessing of might at the same time you need two players in the class. Regardless if you're tanking you don't have Rallying Cry - it doesn't exist, Last Stand and Enraged Regen is too potent together to not use.
nymrohd Oct 1st 2011 9:10PM
Rage should just be replaced by focus or retrofited to work in a similar manner. Some attacks would built rage, some would spend it. Balance.
Natsumi Oct 1st 2011 10:08PM
You just described how the Sith Warrior works. Their resource is also called rage, which you generate by using force leap or one of the Rage generating moves/CDs. I think it works better than how our Rage works, but Blizzard will likely never implement it on WoW.
Arrohon Oct 1st 2011 10:50PM
I think that is the Barbarian rage system that Rossi was suggesting.
Natsumi Oct 1st 2011 11:36PM
The way the Barbarian system works is like this:
Enter combat.
Hit target and gain enough Fury to use an ability.
Use the ability and regain some Fury, possibly more than you spent.
Repeat as needed until target(s) dead.
Combat ends and Fury quickly diminishes.
Run to next fight, or loot, whatever.
The Sith Warrior is more like this:
Force Leap to target, dealing damage and gaining 4 Rage, combat begins.
Use Ability, cost is 3 Rage.
Use Rage Builder, gain 2 Rage.
Use Abilities and Rage Builder until Foe(s) dead.
Combat ends, lose 1 Rage per 5 seconds, give or take.
Loot a glowing body (this loots all nearby corpses, AoE Looting FTW)
I think the Sith Warrior way is easier to balance, you have a set Rage gain rate and abilities cost a set amount of Rage. There is a Fury system in LotRO that is fairly similar and it works well, though that class is a little overpowered as it has TONS of AE capability as well as huge single target DPS, the other classes really don't compare as well. The D3 Fury system just puts us back to the pre-Cata Rage system only worse, as our Damage increases on our abilities so does the Rage return, literally giving us infinite Rage, more so than Fury had in ICC. It would be a nightmare to balance and our DPS would grow exponentially, and we'd see nerf after nerf as each Tier comes out, only worse than we see now.
Killik Oct 2nd 2011 8:14AM
From the Diablo Fury write-up I'm not really seeing how it's a step forward from the current Rage system. It's a neat way to encourage and reward aggressive play, but it still has the same flaws.
Arrohon Oct 2nd 2011 11:10AM
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian
"Generate: 6 Fury per attack"
"Generate: 4 Fury per attack"
"Generate: 15 Fury"
Unless you also gain fury from taking hits and doing normal melee, it seems like Barbarians gain all of their fury by a set number from abilities.
Rojslade Oct 1st 2011 9:29PM
I hope they change the 4 piece dps bonus from Raging Blow to Bloodthirst for fury. Then it will actually be useful for us SMF speced warriors.
And before anyone cries "it will be too OP if the change it to Bloodthirst!" or "that will make fury warrior's dps too high!" remember, we're gonna get nerfed cause we do too much already as per the blue post.
If they're gonna nerf our damage, at least give us a decent tier bonus.