So while I usually talk about changes to the class, possible suggestions for new ideas or mechanics, I'd like to actually take a step back and look at this amazing class that I play for a second and really get down to what defines a Warrior in most fantasy worlds, as well as our own.
The Warrior. Undoubtedly the most "realistic" of any fantasy game's class portfolio. Warriors have existed from the dawn of time across a myriad of species, from Ants to Beetles, and from Lions and Tigers to Humans. There's a certain archetype that keeps cropping up of this strong, ruthless individual that destroys anything in the way of them and their goals. The diversification goes further if we just look at our own species, we've had the Shogun and the Samurai, we've had Vikings and Crusaders, and Warrior hero symbolism from Genghis Khan to Charlemagne. Being a Warrior (to an extent) is in the blood of our species, and it's easy to identify with Warriors in games for a lot of people because they're so real.
Transfer this to a video game. Darksiders, Warcraft, Borderlands, Fable, God of War, Warframe, Monster Hunter, Dark Souls. All of these games I just reeled off like it was nothing. You can pick up a big weapon (Melee or Ranged) and mash, carve and saw a path through any amount of enemies in your way. The "final form" of the Warrior, so to speak. And while a core part of the Warrior is to chop their opponent into Meaty Bits™, they're also a stalwart defender of their allies, regardless of whether they defend their friends with a shield or just by killing whoever is threatening them. My point here is that Warriors aren't just one or the other, they're versatile and can/will do whatever the situation requires of them.
Now here's where a lot of people will probably stop reading. I don't think what Carbine Studios have called a Warrior is a Warrior at all. One of the main things that irks me about Wildstar is that you are limited to 8 abilities, you can't use more, but you can use less if you want. This, to me, is irritating to no end. Like I mentioned earlier, I feel that Warriors are versatile and can do whatever the situation demands of them regardless of their primary role, whether they're normally a Tank-style Warrior that puts on his big-boy boots and stomps some faces, or a DPS-style Warrior that throws on an aggro modifier (see: Defensive Stance or Stance: Juggernaut) to save one of their allies. To be blunt, Wildstar Warriors don't have this flexibility in my opinion.
People might read that and say "But you can use any ability you have in a situation, just put it in your Limited Action Set". And yes, while you can use any ability you have for any situation, you have to give up something else in return. The most powerful argument I could possibly have here is for Power Link and Smackdown, which I'll explain for people that don't play a Warrior in Wildstar.
*deep breath*
Power Link is an instant cast spell with a 25 second cooldown and a Range of 20.0m, it requires at least Level 18 and throwing all your AMP points (think pre-MoP talents) into Utility, rather than Assault (DPS) or Support (Tank). It grants you and 4 party members (chosen at random if there's more people) an Empower, increasing all their damage dealt by 18% (baseline) for 10 seconds. At maximum rank, it increases damage dealt by 25.3%, and adds an extra effect that gives you a stack of Storing Power every time you land a direct attack (stacks to 3), after the Power Link expires, it combines 14.63% of your Assault Power and Support Power together, and deals that as Technology Damage to 5 foes within 10m.
*breathes*
And Smackdown, for all intents and purposes is basically an instant cast Shattering Throw. That hits 5 targets. On a 10 second cooldown. And the effect lasts 10 seconds. ~100% uptime, AoE, Shattering Throw. Okay then.
Now you can probably see where I'm going with this argument. In terms of any kind of 5m+ group content, why would you not run with these two abilities? They're undoubtedly idiotically strong and so even without wanting to, Warriors get to be the class that has the two amazing buffs that everyone needs, at the cost of less damage coming from the Warrior than anyone else *cough* Tier 14 *cough*. Why at the cost of personal damage you say? Well because that's two abilities that you will have to take. That means you only have 6 abilities left for yourself. If we say that this Warrior is a tank, then he also has to have a taunt, lowering his abilities to 5, and in a raiding situation, there's probably no reason to ever not have Defense Grid (AoE 25% damage reduction, Shield restore every 2 seconds and 2.5% Deflect chance), so that drops our humble Warrior tank down to 4 abilities. Now I don't know about you, but I'd like to have more choice than 4 abilities when I'm tanking.
Some won't like this, but let me just compare this to a Warrior Tank in Warcraft as of right now (Patch 5.4.3), I'll try and use what I consider the equivalent abilities in WoW as what I've listed above:
- Has Skull Banner
- Has Shattering Throw
- Has Rallying Cry
- Has Taunt
- Has more than 4 buttons left to press
I'm one of the few that doesn't mind how many buttons my class currently has, I don't mind having (roughly) 36 buttons bound, because it's neat on my screen (12x3) but that's just my opinion. The main issue I have is that I have all these cool abilities on Wildstar like Defense Grid and Breaching Strikes and Grapple and Leap and Augmented Blade... But I can't use them all whenever I want to, and I wish the game had been designed so that I could. Warriors are masters of all weaponry and all tactics, whether they choose to become a human/monster/alien battering ram, or protect their allies against one.
Needless to say, it's kind of ironic that Warriors are one of the classes that are getting the 3% Versatility buff in 6.0. Many people would class a Hybrid as a Tank/Healer or a DPS/Healer, but Warriors are probably the best Hybrid DPS/Tank in the game (excluding Druids with Heart of the Wild). Fury Warriors have the second highest non-tank health in the game (Beaten by, of course, Warlocks), have one of the best defensive abilities to tank a boss with (Die by the Sword) and can abuse the fact that they're tanking something in order to do more damage (Berserker Stance). I think Collision previously simmed out that sitting in Defensive Stance for a Patchwerk-style fight as Fury barely dropped our DPS at all.
"He's kind of a nuclear-powered Swiss Army Knife, attached to a... pro wrestler." - Warrior Devspeak for Wildstar
I'll agree with this statement for one reason only: Have you ever tried using more than one part of a Swiss Army Knife at the same time? Doesn't work, probably never will.
And why would you want that in a class? I tend to play more supportively than most other Warrior players, and I'd rather use my defensives to keep someone else alive (when I'm not tanking), and I'd rather line up my Skull Banner/Shattering Throw with other people's cooldowns to get the most benefit out of them. I like being able to support my group and help them do better than they would have if I wasn't there. Many would then ask why I don't like the "Support Warrior" that Wildstar could maybe offer?
I don't like it because I can either support, or do lots of damage myself, and never both. I don't like it because I can either DPS or Tank, but never really both. You have to commit yourself to specific roles for every encounter, whether that's "Oh we need your Defense Grid for this fight" or "Oh there's burst AoE so you have to throw 8 Tiers into Power Link". If you want to play half tank and half DPS you can, but at a crippling cost of DPS for the sake of a bit more survivability. If I wanted to play a true Hybrid I'd stick to WoW and main a Druid.
Why can't I just commit to being a Warrior? With WoW you pick a Specialisation, what you specialise in. That doesn't prevent you from doing anything outside of it, it just means you'll do it worse than someone who specialises in that area of the class. Imagine a Fire Mage never being able to use Mirror Images or Time Warp because those are Arcane Spells, imagine a Frost Death Knight never being able to use Raise Dead or Death Strike because those are Unholy and Blood spells. Your class and your skill with that class should define what you can pull off with it. I played Fury when I was progressing on Lei Shen during 5.2, and being able to solo soak a Static Shock by jumping into Defensive Stance and popping Shield Wall to prevent the other people in my quarter taking any damage at all is supportive gameplay from a pure DPS spec. Something that I feel Wildstar needs to learn from.
I know Wildstar is young and in its Vanilla stages and I sure as hell know that Vanilla wasn't nearly this good when it was first released due to bugs and whatnot, but if Wildstar wanted to have Warriors be true Warriors, I feel that they should be able to be tanky, do some meaty damage if they want to and still be able to help their allies, rather than only picking one of them. Many won't like the fact that I compared Wildstar Warriors to WoW Warriors, but they should be comparable.
They're both called Warriors, aren't they?
I love to hear feedback on anything I write, so feel free to leave a comment below or on my Twitter at @CM_Exhil.
They're both called Warriors, aren't they?
I love to hear feedback on anything I write, so feel free to leave a comment below or on my Twitter at @CM_Exhil.
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