Warrior Beta Questions Provoke Intense Discussion
A thread in the official Wrath of the Lich King Beta Warrior Discussion forum has exploded with discussion from players and Blizzard poster Ghostcrawler as a long list of class questions are answered, and more questions are raised.
One question regarding the heavily random nature of the Arms tree garned an interesting response on the nature of WoW from Ghostcrawler:
"Overall we are not at all trying to minimize or reduce the random element in the game. The random element is one of the few things that distinguishes an RPG from a game of "pure skill" like an FPS. We don't want it to swamp the element of skill, but I don't think it does. With some exceptions (and discounting for abuse), the players with the highest arena ratings really are very good players. Despite the randomness of the game, they still do rise to the top. The guilds who get instances on farm (moreso than the ones who get first kills) usually really do understand the encounter and class mechanics in play. TLDR: we're not really trying to get randomness out of WoW."
Here is Ghostcrawler's initial response to the original poster's questions.
Q u o t e:
-What is the vision for the arms tree?
Hit stuff hard with a two-handed weapon. I'm not being cute. That's it.
Q u o t e:
-How do you feel about the heavily random nature of the arms tree?
There's always been a bit of that compared to Fury.
Q u o t e:
-How do you feel about the function of battle stance, and the fluidity of dancing?
I know we may be alone here, but we like dancing. As I said in another thread, we probably aren't going to change stances for LK, but it is something that has come up a lot and it may happen at some point. I do agree Battle's job as the "zero" stance feels a little dry, but that's not a vow to change it.
Q u o t e:
-WHAT do you feel is the function of battle stance compared to berserker stance?
Don't take as much damage.
Q u o t e:
-Is the stance mechanic as a whole being evaluated, or has it ever been evaluated over the course of this beta?
Covered. Sorry for the short responses, but you have many questions.
Q u o t e:
-Why does bladestorm have a self-CC element? Why doesn't it remove CC, stuns, snares or roots on use? Will this be reconsidered?
It does great dps. It would be too good if you could do other stuff too and too good if you could Intercept someone down. We might reconsider the CC issue, but really that's the kind of thing to pop out of PvP testing.
Q u o t e:
-Are there any plans to make the improved charge and improved heroic strike talents not bad? Less bad?
We buffed Imp Charge recently. Imp Heroic Strike might seem a little bland, but that may be because we've changed a lot of the old talents in various trees that used to do simple things like this. Heroic really does hit like a truck now, so I assume your issue is what the talent does to rage cost?
Q u o t e:
-Do you feel strength of arms is strong(lulz) or interesting enough for its position in the tree? I've suggested changing it into a strength-->crit rating conversion talent, any opinion on that?
A lot of trees have a talent like this. Giving warriors more crit is a little scary....
Q u o t e:
-Why was enrage's bonus damage reduced so severely? Would you consider allowing deathwish to stack again now that the bonus is so low?
Because we changed it from "be crit" to "be hurt." We might consider letting it stack.
Q u o t e:
-Does the hamstring glyph stack with the improved hamstring talent?
That is the intent.
Q u o t e:
-Have you looked at the math supplied by Torgal and company that demonstrates titans grip isn't such a massive increase as you think it is? If their numbers are correct, then what is your stance?
Our numbers say differently. I haven't looked to see where they differ. I'll try to get to that.
Q u o t e:
-You say you don't want any single talent point giving a 10% damage increase (as for example.) On 25-man Kel'thuzad and Sapphiron last night, mortal strike amounted to approximately 17% of my total damage done. On Sapphiron, slam was approximately 40% of total damage. Will mortal strike, bloodthirst or improved slam be nerfed based on your talent budgeting?
No. That's not a hard and fast rule. In your example though, if you had not used Mortal Strike or Slam you probably would have used the rage for something else. In the case of TG though we do have serious concerns about it being too good (sans a stiff penalty). While we might change our minds after more data, you're not going to change our mind by pointing out logical inconsistencies in talent trees. There are plenty of them. :)
Q u o t e:
-Do you see the glyph of resonating power (Increases the maximum targets affected by your Thunder Clap ability by 4) as being mandatory for tanking? If yes, do you feel that's acceptable? If no, why not?
It's not mandatory, and actually it only increases your radius. Thunder Clap will do what you want it to do, but that's another topic. :)
Q u o t e:
-Can you offer an approximation of the proc rate/PPM on furious attacks?
It's a frequency-based proc. It's a little complicated to explain but you might compare it to Omen of Clarity. I'll try to get back to this later.
Q u o t e:
-Are there any plans to make unending fury not bad? Less bad? Seriously, it's really really bad.
Yeah, this one doesn't feel done.
Q u o t e:
-Do you feel that Vigilance is currently worth the talent point? If no, what is being done to fix it?
It's pretty uber if we're talking about the same version.
Q u o t e:
-Damage shield is, according to some very basic testing, not generating threat from damage dealt. Can you confirm this? If so, is this intended?
It appears to generate threat based on the damage done. But there might be a bug.
Q u o t e:
-Are there any plans to buff revenge baseline so that it's worth injecting into rotations for protection?
Putting it into Sword and Board is something we are discussing.
Q u o t e:
-Do you feel that shockwave is, or should be, our be-all answer to AoE threat generation? Is there any chance of lowering the cooldown?
No, we don't want it to be your go-to AE ability, because then Arms and Fury can never tank a 5-player dungeon very well. We want it to be useful obviously.
Q u o t e:
-Is it possible to give Disarm the same functionality as rogue's Dismantle, or at least, the removed Shield Break skill?
I'll have to investigate this.
Q u o t e:
-Do you feel heroic throw is strong or interesting enough for a level 80 skill?
Yes.
Q u o t e:
-The devs seem to have originally planned several means for warriors to interact with the new enrage mechanics. Will enraged regeneration and the rend bonus be all that we see for the expansion, or is more being considered? Specifically, enraged assault.
The problem we had with Enraged Assault was our warrior testers and designers didn't feel like they had enough GCDs to work another attack into their rotations. It was just too much. I love the idea though (it wasn't mine) so I wouldn't say never.
Q u o t e:
-While you're doing numbers passes, any chance of restoring flurry to its original 30% bonus? Compare it to shamans flurry and it's clearly underbudgeted.
It all depends at this point on whether shamans or warriors are doing too much damage.
Q u o t e:
- Do you see what I did there? --------------------^
"Budgets" makes it sound like we are doing something so serious and important!
Q u o t e:
-Will we be seeing any sort of "good raid-slave" bonus for warriors who take rampage, given the overwhelming presence of feral druids across the raiding scene?
That is in the long-term plan. On the other hand, we can't really imagine a warrior skipping that talent because it is so useful solo. Mostly, we need to make sure the big raid buff overhaul really works the way we want it to.
Q u o t e:
-Why was the healing component of bloodthirst nerfed?
We thought it was too good, though to be honest, there are clandestine whispers echoing through our offices in the dead of night to change it back.
Q u o t e:
Any response at all would be appreciated, even if it's just as brief as the questions themselves. I know hell's gotta be breaking loose in there by now.
Sorry so brief, and sorry to many of the excellent follow-ups to this post that I have so brazenly ignored for now. But so many other players pointed out this thread that I wanted to stop by.