So I finally got access to the beta thanks to an awesome friend of mine, and I decided to get some first-hand experience with what the Warrior has become.
Arms
So I was dreading this and yet was excited for it. I'm a massive lover of Arms, the aesthetic, the actual playstyle, the whole shabang. So I just bound everything to where it usually is and already noticed that I was using 2/3 the buttons I usually have bound. Shouldn't complain because I knew that was coming, but it was still a shock to get used to while running around killing wolves for 10 minutes getting used to the standard UI again.
It's good. And when I say good don't think "OMG Exhil! Arms is terrible and slow and you spend time doing nothing, you're bad OMG!". I've had some time to come to terms with the fact that the Devs have a vision for Arms and nothing the players can or will say will change that, so I tried to go into the spec pretty open-minded.
Rend isn't that bad, strange having back after not having it for two years, but I'll live.
Mortal Strike consuming rage doesn't bother me considering it hits pretty damn hard.
Colossus Smash consuming rage doesn't bother me considering it hits like a truck.
In fact, the only thing I've had to get used to was pressing Whirlwind as a filler instead of Slam, and that was pretty easy to do. The game, to me at least, does feel better. Actions are more responsive, and at least now it does feel like Mortal Strike is an actual attack, rather than just something I press on cooldown.
If I rate live Arms as a 6/10, I'd give this an 8/10, though could still be improved upon a lot.
Fury
So basically Fury was mutilated compared to live and it just feels horrible. Spamming Bloodthirst is the only playstyle that's even legitimate due to the massive nerfs to Bloodthirst's crit chance at higher levels and slight buffs at lower levels of gear. Due to this playstyle, it literally doesn't matter if you don't proc Enrage, because you can just press Bloodthirst again and the spec does actually turn into a slot machine of annoyance. Wild Strike is still the ability that nobody wants to press, still sounds like crap, and currently (I might be slightly off with this one so I'll correct if neccessary) is actually doing less DPR than Whirlwind.
So that's both DPS specs using Whirlwind as a filler/rage dump. Yay.
In other news, Enrage lasts 8 seconds and Colossus Smash is extended by Raging Blow! But that doesn't matter seen as Raging Blow only costs 10 rage so you still rage cap while using it because Wild Strike is trash and literally does nothing besides dump a lot of rage at once. BUT OH WAIT it doesn't do that all the time because the spec has a proc which makes your rage-dumping ability completely free. Yes. Marvellous. Lets completely ignore this bad design and just go into a numbers tuning pass where we'll just throw damage onto the spec until people want to play it.
Awesome, thanks.
Live Fury I'd actually say is a very solid 9, and a 10/10 in some cases, in which case, I'd give beta Fury a 4/10.
All in all I'm really not impressed with either of these specs. Blizzard in the past has been very open to feedback in regards to whether something is bad design or not, even having some of the best Warlocks in the world help them redesign Warlocks when they got a rework. This time around it feels like they just wanted to have their way with Warriors and disregard any feedback that was constructive, and even feedback that might not have been constructive, but was still relevant. Many of the more prominent Warrior Theorycrafters, Forum-Posters, and some of the best players in the world have all been more-or-less ignored by the class designers, and in some cases have even been told "give it a chance, you'll like it".
They've then tried it, disliked it, and still been ignored anyway.
Warlords of Draenor has so many aspects to it that could very well make it the best expansion we've seen since (in my opinion) Burning Crusade, and yet the biggest letdown is how much the Devs are actually listening to the people who play their game.
If anyone from Blizzard reads this, I'd like to hope that I've opened your eyes. Warriors are sad that we have to deal with this gnarled up corpse of a class that we've enjoyed for so many years now. I just hope that we'll see some intensive care to deal with the burns we've received during Alpha and Beta testing.
Until then, I guess I'll just get back to gearing my Windwalker, because that's so much more fun to play compared to Arms and Fury on Beta.
Monday, 25 August 2014
Sunday, 10 August 2014
10 Years, 10 Questions.
So, it's very rare for me to write a post that's not explicitly about Warriors in some way, shape or form, however I've had the distinct pleasure of talking with a certain fairy godmother of the community that many of you may know by the name AlternativeChat. I had read her blog a few times during some of my research for articles with PVP Live, and even had the honour of trying to reformat one of her posts to fit our site (as I recall it was about Pet Battles having more PvP options available).
So without further adieu, I give you my 10 Years and 10 Questions. A little bit of background on the idiot that writes this blog.
______________________________________________________________________________
1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?
I started playing Warcraft back in Vanilla Beta, a friend of mine from school had been a massive Warcraft 3 fan and he mentioned that his brother had access to the beta for "World of Warcraft" and I was immediately drooling. I was so used to games like Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Pharoah, that a different genre of game interesting me was a new experience. I went around to his house one evening and we prodded his brother until he gave us a mess around on his Beta account and I was immediately in thrall of this game. I'd never experienced anything like it, and I think even back then I had a feeling that I'd be playing this game for a long time.
My sub history has been a bit of a rollercoaster, as I was unsubbed for a lot of Wrath of the Lich King in order to actually focus on school, but I've been actively playing for about 8 years, give or take a few months.
2. What was the first ever character you rolled?
The first character I ever rolled was actually a Night Elf Warrior though I played it until level 10 or so then realised I didn't actually like it at the time and opted to try something different, an Orc Warlock, which ended up being my main from the start of the game until the first time I was forced to quit.
3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?
Factions never really bothered me that much originally, it was just a case of Red vs Blue and I was used to that anyway, I was more interested in the races themselves. Being a bit of a Dungeons and Dragons nerd Night Elves had that Dark Elf grim, magical edge to their appearance and I liked that about them. Horde however just ended up being the best fit in terms of symbolic aesthetic attraction (try saying that with your mouth full).
4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?
Oddly enough it was going through Ashenvale on that very Orc Warlock that I mentioned. I was just wandering around exploring when I was a higher level and noticed a place that I had never seen before with a load of demons there. I saw this big clickable rock and went for a look and read the inscription on Grom's grave.
Now, bearing in mind Orcs were my favourite race in Warcraft 3, I loved the story, the look, the angst but drive for salvation feel around them, so the cutscene where Grom sacrificed himself to try and get rid of his own Blood Curse and then in his last seconds finding out that he's actually saved everyone just by being who he is, was probably the most emotional I've ever been in a video game.
Looking back, I think I cried at that inscription.
"Here lies Grommash Hellscream, Chieftain of the Warsong Clan.
In many ways, the curse of our people began and ended with Grom. His name meant "Giant's Heart" in our ancient tongue. He earned that name a hundred-fold as he stood alone before the demon Mannoroth - and won our freedom with his blood.
Lok'Tar Ogar, Big Brother, may the Warsong never fade.
- Thrall, Warchief of the Horde"
5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?
My favourite aspect of the game is and will always be raiding. There's something just so cool about being the guy that goes and slays big monsters for a living. A list of my other favourite games includes Monster Hunter and Darksiders in first and second place respectively. I sense a pattern here.
6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?
Links back to question 3. At the back end of Orgrimmar there's a very tall cliff with almost a circular area on top of it that overlooks Orgrimmar on one side and Demon Fall Canyon on the other. If I'm lurking in Orgrimmar waiting for something, I'll be there.
7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?
On my Main at the moment, my Warrior:
Total time played: 190 days, 7 hours, 45 minutes, 32 seconds
Time played this level: 148 days, 15 hours, 28 minutes, 16 seconds
I have only had this character since 4.2, hence the ridiculous amount of time spent at level 90. Honestly I think it'll be the only character I actually care for as I no longer have my original Warlock.
8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?
I do if it's something I have an interest in, I'll probably read a lot of it in Warlords of Draenor as it's the core of my love for Warcraft. Orcish History. Mmmmmmmm.
[Drooling Intensifies]
9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?
My single regret is deleting my only two characters on my account when I quit the game near the end of Burning Crusade. I had too many memories on those characters that I'll never get back now and I kick myself for it every day.
10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?
It enabled me to get my position in PVP Live, made me meet some amazing people, and have some of the most hilarious moments of my life so far.
I honestly don't know where I would be if not for this amazing game. As much as I might rag on at the Developers for design decisions, they've still made the game that I've been playing for close to half my life, and for that they deserve my respect.
So without further adieu, I give you my 10 Years and 10 Questions. A little bit of background on the idiot that writes this blog.
______________________________________________________________________________
1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?
I started playing Warcraft back in Vanilla Beta, a friend of mine from school had been a massive Warcraft 3 fan and he mentioned that his brother had access to the beta for "World of Warcraft" and I was immediately drooling. I was so used to games like Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Pharoah, that a different genre of game interesting me was a new experience. I went around to his house one evening and we prodded his brother until he gave us a mess around on his Beta account and I was immediately in thrall of this game. I'd never experienced anything like it, and I think even back then I had a feeling that I'd be playing this game for a long time.
My sub history has been a bit of a rollercoaster, as I was unsubbed for a lot of Wrath of the Lich King in order to actually focus on school, but I've been actively playing for about 8 years, give or take a few months.
2. What was the first ever character you rolled?
The first character I ever rolled was actually a Night Elf Warrior though I played it until level 10 or so then realised I didn't actually like it at the time and opted to try something different, an Orc Warlock, which ended up being my main from the start of the game until the first time I was forced to quit.
3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?
Factions never really bothered me that much originally, it was just a case of Red vs Blue and I was used to that anyway, I was more interested in the races themselves. Being a bit of a Dungeons and Dragons nerd Night Elves had that Dark Elf grim, magical edge to their appearance and I liked that about them. Horde however just ended up being the best fit in terms of symbolic aesthetic attraction (try saying that with your mouth full).
4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?
Oddly enough it was going through Ashenvale on that very Orc Warlock that I mentioned. I was just wandering around exploring when I was a higher level and noticed a place that I had never seen before with a load of demons there. I saw this big clickable rock and went for a look and read the inscription on Grom's grave.
Now, bearing in mind Orcs were my favourite race in Warcraft 3, I loved the story, the look, the angst but drive for salvation feel around them, so the cutscene where Grom sacrificed himself to try and get rid of his own Blood Curse and then in his last seconds finding out that he's actually saved everyone just by being who he is, was probably the most emotional I've ever been in a video game.
Looking back, I think I cried at that inscription.
"Here lies Grommash Hellscream, Chieftain of the Warsong Clan.
In many ways, the curse of our people began and ended with Grom. His name meant "Giant's Heart" in our ancient tongue. He earned that name a hundred-fold as he stood alone before the demon Mannoroth - and won our freedom with his blood.
Lok'Tar Ogar, Big Brother, may the Warsong never fade.
- Thrall, Warchief of the Horde"
5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?
My favourite aspect of the game is and will always be raiding. There's something just so cool about being the guy that goes and slays big monsters for a living. A list of my other favourite games includes Monster Hunter and Darksiders in first and second place respectively. I sense a pattern here.
6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?
Links back to question 3. At the back end of Orgrimmar there's a very tall cliff with almost a circular area on top of it that overlooks Orgrimmar on one side and Demon Fall Canyon on the other. If I'm lurking in Orgrimmar waiting for something, I'll be there.
7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?
On my Main at the moment, my Warrior:
Total time played: 190 days, 7 hours, 45 minutes, 32 seconds
Time played this level: 148 days, 15 hours, 28 minutes, 16 seconds
I have only had this character since 4.2, hence the ridiculous amount of time spent at level 90. Honestly I think it'll be the only character I actually care for as I no longer have my original Warlock.
8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?
I do if it's something I have an interest in, I'll probably read a lot of it in Warlords of Draenor as it's the core of my love for Warcraft. Orcish History. Mmmmmmmm.
[Drooling Intensifies]
9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?
My single regret is deleting my only two characters on my account when I quit the game near the end of Burning Crusade. I had too many memories on those characters that I'll never get back now and I kick myself for it every day.
10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?
It enabled me to get my position in PVP Live, made me meet some amazing people, and have some of the most hilarious moments of my life so far.
I honestly don't know where I would be if not for this amazing game. As much as I might rag on at the Developers for design decisions, they've still made the game that I've been playing for close to half my life, and for that they deserve my respect.
Friday, 8 August 2014
The Current State of Warriors: Part 2 - Arms
Warning: Lots of opinion beyond this point, please ensure your pinch of salt is ready for use. Also, I'm writing this assuming that the reader (that is, you) know relevant details that I may mention.
Continuing on from yesterday, I'd like to go into Arms Warriors on Beta, and why Gastropods are petitioning Blizzard to have their speed reduced to compensate. Arms in Mists has been a bit of a rollercoaster, from the Taste for Blood fiasco in 5.0, to Slam being a truck with spikes on in PvP in 5.4, to the kind of "meh" period in the middle where everyone played Fury anyway.
Arms in Warlords is a completely different beast. Gone are the multitudes of attacks from Opportunity Strikes, fast Overpowers and Deep Wounds ticking all the while. Gone are the days of proccing multiple CS resets and being able to have Colossus Smash rolling for an entire Bloodlust. Instead, you have Mortal Strike, Colossus Smash, Rend and Whirlwind. Riveting isn't it?
Obviously there's talents and whatnot to fill this out but is that what Warriors have been reduced to now? Talents are meant to be a cool extra, something that provides some flavour or adds something to your rotation. They shouldn't be there to either:
A) Turn your rotation from boring to engaging.
B) Add spells to your rotation so that you actually have something to press when you play like trash and waste resources.
C) Be a bandaid fix to a core class issue.
Unfortunately, this is the current deal with the Level 45 Talents for Arms in Warlords of Draenor. Lets go a bit into detail here.
Taste For Blood - Gives you 3 Rage per tick of Rend. Does what it says on the tin, amazingly boring, ensures that you can press Whirlwind a bit more than you were before. Makes Rend rage neutral after 9-12 seconds of being on the target and generates you 8 Rage total if it runs it's full duration.
Sudden Death - Lets you Execute people above 20% health. This was recently nerfed so that it doesn't consume any extra rage to deal damage, meaning it's a 120% WDmg attack. It's 1/3rd of a Mortal Strike for free, very meh.
Slam - The new Slam is Arcane Blast for Warriors except the buff is 2 seconds long which means you have to keep Slamming to maintain the buff, as of yet Theorycrafters haven't worked out if it's worth keeping the aura or just using a /cancelaura macro on Slam to make sure it never hits 2 stacks. Fantastic, already working against the idea of the talent itself to make it good.
This is a major issue, and one that again, the developers seem to either be ignoring or unable to process why the players don't like these talents. I understand that they're trying to cut the game right back and then add flavour to it, but replacing a utility tier of talents for these is amazingly bad. We lost an AoE snare (Fury happens to keep Piercing Howl for some reason) an AoE Root, and an AoE Interrupt in favor of 3 pretty bad talents.
I've seen the idea thrown around somewhere (if it was you, let me know and I'll edit the article) that these talents should actually all just be baked into Arms and the utility tree brought back, and honestly I think that would be a very good idea. No class should have utility options removed in order to make room for bandaid fixes that should have been dealt with in the initial stages of a class rework. If they wanted to rework Warriors a la Warlocks then they should have contacted a few prominent Warriors for each spec and worked with them to redesign each spec. Not this half-assed monstrosity that now Warriors are going to have to deal with until either:
A) An actual rework arrives.
B) We get bandaided throughout all of the next Expansion.
I hope that someone at Blizzard gets a copy of these two blogs that I've written from Warriors because while I normally don't like to be rude to people who are doing things for me, I honestly don't have a bloody clue what they were thinking with these Warrior changes. To reiterate from the last blog, Warriors did not need sweeping changes. They needed small QoL changes and then they'd be fine. They spent a lot of Mists working on getting Arms to a state where it was enjoyable, competitive and not overpowered, and while they might not have gotten there, the time spent working on the spec for Warlords could have done that.
Here's a list of stuff I would have changed, had I been in the Developer's Chair:
1) Visualize what I wanted Arms to be - Here I agree with the Devs, Arms should be this tactical master of weapons that carves his way through enemies with big meaty hits from a two-handed weapon.
2) Ask myself what doesn't fit this vision - That would be the 1.0s GCD Overpower which hits like a noodle, and the Mastery.
3) Implement any potential changes necessary to evolve the old spec, cut down on button bloat and still fit the vision - Merge Slam and Overpower into one button, bring back Sudden Death Executes as baseline, change the Mastery to increase damage of Overpower, Mortal Strike, Execute and Sweeping Strikes. Make Deep Wounds only apply on Mortal Strike Critical Hits, remove Enrage from Arms. Tune accordingly post-change.
These changes would then, in theory, remove 1 button (slam), add a bit more flavour to the spec with Sudden Death proccing Execute rather than Colossus Smash, which then adds value to CS, the Execute proc, and your Rage management. I haven't even done anything to the talents, and I think that this would play better than what Arms is currently Beta.
I want to say more about something but unfortunately I'm drawing a blank. Something something no beta something something.
Again, I'll take any feedback that anyone offers about my articles, you can contact me in-game via BattleTag (Exhil#2759) on Twitter @ExhilMD or by email at exhilmd@gmail.com. Alternatively, talk because I like talking about Warriors and/or I don't bite. I'm bad at Feral.
Continuing on from yesterday, I'd like to go into Arms Warriors on Beta, and why Gastropods are petitioning Blizzard to have their speed reduced to compensate. Arms in Mists has been a bit of a rollercoaster, from the Taste for Blood fiasco in 5.0, to Slam being a truck with spikes on in PvP in 5.4, to the kind of "meh" period in the middle where everyone played Fury anyway.
Arms in Warlords is a completely different beast. Gone are the multitudes of attacks from Opportunity Strikes, fast Overpowers and Deep Wounds ticking all the while. Gone are the days of proccing multiple CS resets and being able to have Colossus Smash rolling for an entire Bloodlust. Instead, you have Mortal Strike, Colossus Smash, Rend and Whirlwind. Riveting isn't it?
Obviously there's talents and whatnot to fill this out but is that what Warriors have been reduced to now? Talents are meant to be a cool extra, something that provides some flavour or adds something to your rotation. They shouldn't be there to either:
A) Turn your rotation from boring to engaging.
B) Add spells to your rotation so that you actually have something to press when you play like trash and waste resources.
C) Be a bandaid fix to a core class issue.
Unfortunately, this is the current deal with the Level 45 Talents for Arms in Warlords of Draenor. Lets go a bit into detail here.
Taste For Blood - Gives you 3 Rage per tick of Rend. Does what it says on the tin, amazingly boring, ensures that you can press Whirlwind a bit more than you were before. Makes Rend rage neutral after 9-12 seconds of being on the target and generates you 8 Rage total if it runs it's full duration.
Sudden Death - Lets you Execute people above 20% health. This was recently nerfed so that it doesn't consume any extra rage to deal damage, meaning it's a 120% WDmg attack. It's 1/3rd of a Mortal Strike for free, very meh.
Slam - The new Slam is Arcane Blast for Warriors except the buff is 2 seconds long which means you have to keep Slamming to maintain the buff, as of yet Theorycrafters haven't worked out if it's worth keeping the aura or just using a /cancelaura macro on Slam to make sure it never hits 2 stacks. Fantastic, already working against the idea of the talent itself to make it good.
This is a major issue, and one that again, the developers seem to either be ignoring or unable to process why the players don't like these talents. I understand that they're trying to cut the game right back and then add flavour to it, but replacing a utility tier of talents for these is amazingly bad. We lost an AoE snare (Fury happens to keep Piercing Howl for some reason) an AoE Root, and an AoE Interrupt in favor of 3 pretty bad talents.
I've seen the idea thrown around somewhere (if it was you, let me know and I'll edit the article) that these talents should actually all just be baked into Arms and the utility tree brought back, and honestly I think that would be a very good idea. No class should have utility options removed in order to make room for bandaid fixes that should have been dealt with in the initial stages of a class rework. If they wanted to rework Warriors a la Warlocks then they should have contacted a few prominent Warriors for each spec and worked with them to redesign each spec. Not this half-assed monstrosity that now Warriors are going to have to deal with until either:
A) An actual rework arrives.
B) We get bandaided throughout all of the next Expansion.
I hope that someone at Blizzard gets a copy of these two blogs that I've written from Warriors because while I normally don't like to be rude to people who are doing things for me, I honestly don't have a bloody clue what they were thinking with these Warrior changes. To reiterate from the last blog, Warriors did not need sweeping changes. They needed small QoL changes and then they'd be fine. They spent a lot of Mists working on getting Arms to a state where it was enjoyable, competitive and not overpowered, and while they might not have gotten there, the time spent working on the spec for Warlords could have done that.
Here's a list of stuff I would have changed, had I been in the Developer's Chair:
1) Visualize what I wanted Arms to be - Here I agree with the Devs, Arms should be this tactical master of weapons that carves his way through enemies with big meaty hits from a two-handed weapon.
2) Ask myself what doesn't fit this vision - That would be the 1.0s GCD Overpower which hits like a noodle, and the Mastery.
3) Implement any potential changes necessary to evolve the old spec, cut down on button bloat and still fit the vision - Merge Slam and Overpower into one button, bring back Sudden Death Executes as baseline, change the Mastery to increase damage of Overpower, Mortal Strike, Execute and Sweeping Strikes. Make Deep Wounds only apply on Mortal Strike Critical Hits, remove Enrage from Arms. Tune accordingly post-change.
These changes would then, in theory, remove 1 button (slam), add a bit more flavour to the spec with Sudden Death proccing Execute rather than Colossus Smash, which then adds value to CS, the Execute proc, and your Rage management. I haven't even done anything to the talents, and I think that this would play better than what Arms is currently Beta.
I want to say more about something but unfortunately I'm drawing a blank. Something something no beta something something.
Again, I'll take any feedback that anyone offers about my articles, you can contact me in-game via BattleTag (Exhil#2759) on Twitter @ExhilMD or by email at exhilmd@gmail.com. Alternatively, talk because I like talking about Warriors and/or I don't bite. I'm bad at Feral.
Thursday, 7 August 2014
The Current State of Warriors: Part 1 - Fury
Warning: Lots of opinion beyond this point, please ensure your pinch of salt is ready for use. Also, I'm writing this assuming that the reader (that is, you) know relevant details that I may mention.
So, Warriors.
Warriors are in a particularly messed up state right now on Beta, and that's fact, rather than opinion. Fury is in a gnarled, twisted imitation of what it was purely by chance, and Arms is amazingly boring with little to no depth whatsoever, just press buttons if you have Rage and they're off cooldown. Fantastic gameplay, if you like either carpal tunnel or naps while raiding.
I don't have access currently, and I'm honestly not even sure if that's a bad thing. Normally I love to dive into Betas for WoW, see what's what, what's changed, and provide feedback either directly, or to people that can word it a lot better than I can so that they end up inadvertently posting my feedback along with theirs. However this time I feel that there's no point in justifying this, and I shouldn't feel this way at all.
When a game goes into Beta and it's Devs tell the people on the Beta to provide them with feedback so that they can make appropriate changes, you'd expect them to react to lots of people saying the same thing, however this doesn't seem to be the case with Warriors whatsoever. Right now on the Live Servers, I don't know a single person (Emphasis on me not knowing them, I know there are exceptions) that dislikes how Fury is designed, and all of the Warriors I know in Heroic Raiding guilds like how Fury plays right now. In my own opinion, Fury is perfect, it does not need any serious change. A few things could be changed as QoL issues but they're not drastic, sweeping changes.
Drastic, sweeping changes is exactly what Fury got. It was unfairly gutted, despite the cries of Fury Warriors the world over asking the Devs what they were doing with Fury. Apparently the idea was to make Fury more "furious", and instead only succeeded in making the people behind the keyboards furious instead. I mentioned earlier that Fury on beta was a gnarled and twisted imitation, and I wish I was joking. Spamming Bloodthirst (Via Unquenchable Thirst talent) for tonnes of Enrage uptime and Raging Blow procs and dumping any excess Rage with Ignite Weapon, which for some reason is a thing even though they were insistent that Heroic Strike was a bad ability and needed to go, is some of the worst decision making I've seen in a long time in regards to class design. To evolve what Warriors are on live, they need either minor tweaks or a solid overhaul that should have been done before even entering a tuning pass.
What we have now for Fury is a nasty mix of MoP Fury and this... thing in the corner that I don't want to talk about. It's the elephant in the room that everyone can see except the developers. I really don't even want to go into Wild Strike because I'll start to get annoyed somehow, but almost -all- the Warriors I've seen tweeting say they don't like it and that it needs to be changed is ignored, and Celestalon retweets the one guy who says he likes it, even though that guy mains a healer. I think that's a pretty bad way to go about the situation. Sure the Devs can say "No this is better, trust us, you'll like it this way!" and yes, this is their game to do with as they please, but when you have a majority of players saying that it's bad design and it's not fun, not engaging, and in some cases possibly health affecting (bit extreme, but possible) that's just an idiotic way of going about it.
I shouldn't go on and on about it, because at the same time, these are the Devs that brought us MoP Fury, they designed the brutal beast that smashes bosses in the face and takes names for a living. They designed the spec that is cruel and calculating and destroys enemies during Colossus Smash windows with use of abilities and weaving in Heroic Strikes to manage it's resource.
I'd honestly love to get a detained response explaining why they have made every single change to Fury, but I know I probably won't get one. None of the other Warriors asking before me got one, and none of the hundreds of Warriors with Beta access who know how this new Fury works inside out, who have played it to see if it can be even the slightest bit fun, who understand that while "change is good" this change is frustratingly horrible, are probably going to get a response either.
Blizzard have made their minds up, and the Warrior player base right now is up in arms about it (no pun intended). Until we get a solid response for all of the changes, it looks like Fury can sit on the backburner until it's worthy of picking up it's sword and fighting for a place in our hearts again.
So, Warriors.
Warriors are in a particularly messed up state right now on Beta, and that's fact, rather than opinion. Fury is in a gnarled, twisted imitation of what it was purely by chance, and Arms is amazingly boring with little to no depth whatsoever, just press buttons if you have Rage and they're off cooldown. Fantastic gameplay, if you like either carpal tunnel or naps while raiding.
I don't have access currently, and I'm honestly not even sure if that's a bad thing. Normally I love to dive into Betas for WoW, see what's what, what's changed, and provide feedback either directly, or to people that can word it a lot better than I can so that they end up inadvertently posting my feedback along with theirs. However this time I feel that there's no point in justifying this, and I shouldn't feel this way at all.
When a game goes into Beta and it's Devs tell the people on the Beta to provide them with feedback so that they can make appropriate changes, you'd expect them to react to lots of people saying the same thing, however this doesn't seem to be the case with Warriors whatsoever. Right now on the Live Servers, I don't know a single person (Emphasis on me not knowing them, I know there are exceptions) that dislikes how Fury is designed, and all of the Warriors I know in Heroic Raiding guilds like how Fury plays right now. In my own opinion, Fury is perfect, it does not need any serious change. A few things could be changed as QoL issues but they're not drastic, sweeping changes.
Drastic, sweeping changes is exactly what Fury got. It was unfairly gutted, despite the cries of Fury Warriors the world over asking the Devs what they were doing with Fury. Apparently the idea was to make Fury more "furious", and instead only succeeded in making the people behind the keyboards furious instead. I mentioned earlier that Fury on beta was a gnarled and twisted imitation, and I wish I was joking. Spamming Bloodthirst (Via Unquenchable Thirst talent) for tonnes of Enrage uptime and Raging Blow procs and dumping any excess Rage with Ignite Weapon, which for some reason is a thing even though they were insistent that Heroic Strike was a bad ability and needed to go, is some of the worst decision making I've seen in a long time in regards to class design. To evolve what Warriors are on live, they need either minor tweaks or a solid overhaul that should have been done before even entering a tuning pass.
What we have now for Fury is a nasty mix of MoP Fury and this... thing in the corner that I don't want to talk about. It's the elephant in the room that everyone can see except the developers. I really don't even want to go into Wild Strike because I'll start to get annoyed somehow, but almost -all- the Warriors I've seen tweeting say they don't like it and that it needs to be changed is ignored, and Celestalon retweets the one guy who says he likes it, even though that guy mains a healer. I think that's a pretty bad way to go about the situation. Sure the Devs can say "No this is better, trust us, you'll like it this way!" and yes, this is their game to do with as they please, but when you have a majority of players saying that it's bad design and it's not fun, not engaging, and in some cases possibly health affecting (bit extreme, but possible) that's just an idiotic way of going about it.
I shouldn't go on and on about it, because at the same time, these are the Devs that brought us MoP Fury, they designed the brutal beast that smashes bosses in the face and takes names for a living. They designed the spec that is cruel and calculating and destroys enemies during Colossus Smash windows with use of abilities and weaving in Heroic Strikes to manage it's resource.
I'd honestly love to get a detained response explaining why they have made every single change to Fury, but I know I probably won't get one. None of the other Warriors asking before me got one, and none of the hundreds of Warriors with Beta access who know how this new Fury works inside out, who have played it to see if it can be even the slightest bit fun, who understand that while "change is good" this change is frustratingly horrible, are probably going to get a response either.
Blizzard have made their minds up, and the Warrior player base right now is up in arms about it (no pun intended). Until we get a solid response for all of the changes, it looks like Fury can sit on the backburner until it's worthy of picking up it's sword and fighting for a place in our hearts again.
Monday, 30 June 2014
Heroic Strike
I shouldn't have to say this, but give it back.
http://www.heroicstrike.org/
Please Blizzard, listen to the Warrior community.
Monday, 23 June 2014
The Warrior
(Disclaimer - I may seem like I'm ranting at some parts, but rest assured that I'm writing this while I'm calm, even if I wasn't calm when I first discovered some of these things)
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:
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.
Thursday, 19 June 2014
Alpha Changes, and The Direction of Arms Warrior
I guess I need to preface this article with a disclaimer of:
So straight off the bat (unless I've missed anything) we've already dropped 6 sources of damage from Live (Slam, Overpower, Deep Wounds, Strikes of Opportunity, Heroic Strike, Thunder Clap), 4 of which required us to press the button to do anything anyway. But what have we gained in return?
I know the first thing that would pop into your head is "why not have Overpower back instead of Whirlwind?". On the Live servers, I'd disagree completely, I really don't like Overpower as an ability, it's quick, doesn't hit very hard, and it's only gimmick is that it can't be dodged or parried. However, in Warlords we have the option to change bad things about the spec, and take good ideas and run with them before they eventually land in 6.0. Whirlwind is -not- a Single-Target damage ability. It is an AoE ability. If I wanted to be an AoE machine I would take Bladestorm, Ravager and Dragon Roar and jump into a crowd of enemies and chop them into bits. I don't want to be using Whirlwind against one target, it doesn't feel very Warrior-like to me, and I know some people might disagree.
The removal of Deep Wounds is also something that's confusing to me, especially with the consideration (and then removal) of Rend. Warriors won't have a Bleed/DoT. I'm pretty sure that'll make them the only class in the game without a DoT effect (barring Bloodbath of course), which means that they are going to need a lot of compensation in their autoattacks and abilities, causing serious problems for PvP and PvE. In PvP it means that all their abilities will be hitting considerably harder than other classes simply because they have to in order to be balanced against having no DoT effect, Warriors might end up just being able to global someone because that's how they'll be balanced, at least with a DoT effect you can take some damage away from the abilities to prevent crazy burst scenarios. In PvE it means that if they are out of melee range of any target they are worth exactly 0. They will be doing no damage at all, and if there's any "Stand Away From Boss Or Die" moments (Empowered Whirling Corruption says hello) then Warriors are going to be as useful as a chocolate teapot in a raid.
I'm going to throw down a suggestion here for possible sources of damage, and I will implore you to give me a response, whether that's here in the comments or on twitter (@CM_Exhil). I won't add weapon damage percentages or attack power numbers because that's not my job, my job in this scenario is to give feedback, not tune the game.
Mortal Strike - Costs Rage, has a cooldown, does damage and applies Deep Wounds (yes I'd like it back).
Colossus Smash - Costs more Rage, has a longer cooldown and hits a lot harder than Mortal Strike, makes all your other abilities ignore armour.
Overpower - Merge current Slam and Overpower, does damage, costs Rage, can't be dodged/parried, no CD, no Charges.
Execute - Does what it says on the tin, costs Rage, does a lot of damage, usable sub-20%.
Sudden Death - Your attacks have a % chance of allowing you to Execute the target at any % of health. If the target is under 20%, increases the Crit Chance of your next Execute by 50%
Now the next part is something that I feel should be part of the spec, but I can't decide what it should be. I'd like a passive for Arms called Unrelenting Assault that isn't the old version as honestly, it doesn't fit with the overarching meta-game for Warcraft any more. I've asked a few Warriors what they thought it should be and I've had some interesting responses, such as:
Now I know this might freak some people out, but this is a discussion, I want to know what you all think of ideas like this, and if people in the community think up a better design for the spec they need to voice it and get it shown to Blizzard.
The entire point of an Alpha/Beta testing phase of a game is that people provide feedback on things. Whether they're good things, bad things, or things that are just okay. If something is bad, you need to stand up and say "I think this is a bad design, and here's why", rather than just saying "Oh it's alpha, it'll change before launch". The Devs can't iterate on a design when everybody is assuming it'll change on it's own, it needs feedback, and as such, I'm here providing feedback.
Thank you all for reading, and again if you have any thoughts or suggestions about what I've written, leave a comment below or send me a tweet (@CM_Exhil).
- All of the following is based on the latest Alpha build as of June 19th, 2014.
- I do not have Alpha Access, so a lot of my data is either napkin math, given to me by Warriors with Alpha Access, or just pulled out of my ass in context.
- Bear with me, I will make sense eventually.
So there were some changes to Warriors in the Alpha notes, and while there was a short note above the Warrior section saying that " Arms is still undergoing heavy revision and additional information will be made available later." it still doesn't quite add up. Let's look at sources of Arms' damage on the Live servers, in no particular order:
- Mortal Strike
- Slam
- Colossus Smash
- Overpower
- Deep Wounds
- Strikes of Opportunity (Mastery)
- Bladestorm (No other T60 Talent Choice)
- Heroic Strike
- Thunder Clap
- Sweeping Strikes (Regular + Slam-Cleave)
- Auto Attacks
- Execute
So as we can see, we've got a fair few sources of damage, but the rotations/priorities for Single Target and AoE DPS are a bit different. However, based on the recent changes to the Alpha notes, what we're probably going to look at is:
- Mortal Strike
- Colossus Smash
- Whirlwind
- T60 Talent
- T90 Talent (If you pick Bladestorm)
- T100 Talent (Assuming Ravager or Ignite Weapon)
- Auto Attacks
- Sweeping Strikes
- Execute
So straight off the bat (unless I've missed anything) we've already dropped 6 sources of damage from Live (Slam, Overpower, Deep Wounds, Strikes of Opportunity, Heroic Strike, Thunder Clap), 4 of which required us to press the button to do anything anyway. But what have we gained in return?
The Tier 60 Talent of choice, more often than not, is probably going to be Storm Bolt unless Dragon Roar is significantly better than it is on Live, simply because Storm Bolt's weapon damage component will keep getting better as we get better gear, where as Dragon Roar's burst seems very reliant on "can I line it up with my enchant proc, trinket procs and Skull Banner". On top of this, due to it not scaling at all with Critical Strike, I think it's going to be debatable whether we use it at all with Recklessness active in Warlords (Reckless and Skull Banner are baked together, meaning we can't split the two for Dragon Roar's use). It might be worth considering that Dragon Roar is changed to scale with Crit like Chaos Bolt does, but this might make it a bit too cookie-cutter when everyone is decked out in full T19 Mythic gear and has 40%+ Crit on top of their other stats. Moving on!
The Tier 90 Talent is going to shift around. Assuming they're all balanced and have their niche, it'll be Avatar for tight burst windows where you just need raw damage, Bloodbath when you need that extra kick of sustained ST/AoE DPS, and Bladestorm when you need reliable burst AoE. Unfortunately that pigeonholes us into specific talents, but then again I guess Blizzard want us to use different talents for different situations. That fits the mould so I'll accept it and move on.
The Tier 100 Talents are our new toys, and we get two choices if we want an actual ability, these are Ravager and Ignite Weapon (again, as of the latest Alpha Build).
As you can see, the choices are interesting. We either get a Single Target ability that then buffs our Single Target damage (via ignoring armour), or we get targeted burst AoE damage + Defensive Cooldown all baked into one nice package. In regards to the Ignite Weapon tooltip, it doesn't actually replace Heroic Strike for Arms, as Arms no longer has access to Heroic Strike. I feel like one of these two abilities is going to end up being mandatory for any kind of competitive DPS simply because of what Celestalon has tweeted is the intended rotation as of this Alpha Build, but we'll get onto that later.
So now we get onto possibly the most thought provoking source of damage in the Warlords of Draenor Arms Warrior rotation.
Whirlwind. No I am not joking.
And honestly, I wish I was. I wasn't playing a Warrior when Whirlwind was in the rotation for Single Target, and I'm kind of glad on that part. If I was to visualise a Warrior carving someone up in true Warrior style, it would be strange to watch them drive a sword through their chest, only to pull it out and start spinning around. If I take the flavour text from the Arms spec:
A battle-hardened master of two-handed weapons, using mobility and overpowering attacks to strike opponents down.
I know the first thing that would pop into your head is "why not have Overpower back instead of Whirlwind?". On the Live servers, I'd disagree completely, I really don't like Overpower as an ability, it's quick, doesn't hit very hard, and it's only gimmick is that it can't be dodged or parried. However, in Warlords we have the option to change bad things about the spec, and take good ideas and run with them before they eventually land in 6.0. Whirlwind is -not- a Single-Target damage ability. It is an AoE ability. If I wanted to be an AoE machine I would take Bladestorm, Ravager and Dragon Roar and jump into a crowd of enemies and chop them into bits. I don't want to be using Whirlwind against one target, it doesn't feel very Warrior-like to me, and I know some people might disagree.
The removal of Deep Wounds is also something that's confusing to me, especially with the consideration (and then removal) of Rend. Warriors won't have a Bleed/DoT. I'm pretty sure that'll make them the only class in the game without a DoT effect (barring Bloodbath of course), which means that they are going to need a lot of compensation in their autoattacks and abilities, causing serious problems for PvP and PvE. In PvP it means that all their abilities will be hitting considerably harder than other classes simply because they have to in order to be balanced against having no DoT effect, Warriors might end up just being able to global someone because that's how they'll be balanced, at least with a DoT effect you can take some damage away from the abilities to prevent crazy burst scenarios. In PvE it means that if they are out of melee range of any target they are worth exactly 0. They will be doing no damage at all, and if there's any "Stand Away From Boss Or Die" moments (Empowered Whirling Corruption says hello) then Warriors are going to be as useful as a chocolate teapot in a raid.
I'm going to throw down a suggestion here for possible sources of damage, and I will implore you to give me a response, whether that's here in the comments or on twitter (@CM_Exhil). I won't add weapon damage percentages or attack power numbers because that's not my job, my job in this scenario is to give feedback, not tune the game.
Mortal Strike - Costs Rage, has a cooldown, does damage and applies Deep Wounds (yes I'd like it back).
Colossus Smash - Costs more Rage, has a longer cooldown and hits a lot harder than Mortal Strike, makes all your other abilities ignore armour.
Overpower - Merge current Slam and Overpower, does damage, costs Rage, can't be dodged/parried, no CD, no Charges.
Execute - Does what it says on the tin, costs Rage, does a lot of damage, usable sub-20%.
Sudden Death - Your attacks have a % chance of allowing you to Execute the target at any % of health. If the target is under 20%, increases the Crit Chance of your next Execute by 50%
Now the next part is something that I feel should be part of the spec, but I can't decide what it should be. I'd like a passive for Arms called Unrelenting Assault that isn't the old version as honestly, it doesn't fit with the overarching meta-game for Warcraft any more. I've asked a few Warriors what they thought it should be and I've had some interesting responses, such as:
It has to be slow and hit hard for Arms, I always liked the idea of taking a resource risk - like spend all you've got for massive damage, but risk losing a lot of Rage.I want it to be iconic. If you pick any spec in the game there's always one thing that sumarises that spec. Whether it's Raging Blow for Fury, Killing Machine for Frost DKs, Combustion for Fire Mages or Chaos Bolt for Destro Warlocks, every spec has something that just screams "I am X". For Arms, I feel it should be exactly what it says it is, something that makes you progressively smash a target into the ground, so I'd like to propose the following (you'll immediately know where the idea comes from).
Unrelenting Assault - Every time you Overpower a target, increase the damage of your next Rage-consuming ability by X%, and the Rage cost by Y%.
If this effect is consumed by Overpower, it's damage is increased by (2xX)% and the Rage cost is increased by Y%.
Now I know this might freak some people out, but this is a discussion, I want to know what you all think of ideas like this, and if people in the community think up a better design for the spec they need to voice it and get it shown to Blizzard.
The entire point of an Alpha/Beta testing phase of a game is that people provide feedback on things. Whether they're good things, bad things, or things that are just okay. If something is bad, you need to stand up and say "I think this is a bad design, and here's why", rather than just saying "Oh it's alpha, it'll change before launch". The Devs can't iterate on a design when everybody is assuming it'll change on it's own, it needs feedback, and as such, I'm here providing feedback.
Thank you all for reading, and again if you have any thoughts or suggestions about what I've written, leave a comment below or send me a tweet (@CM_Exhil).
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