[Xav]

Lots and lots of warrior changes, I'm only going to cover the protection ones.

This post wont have the best formatting or look pretty because these changes *just* went public and I want to consolidate them here for now.

New Onslaught and Sunwell tank pieces, warrior only, but yes, paladins had changes to their gear also.



First off: Some massively nice new talents.

Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Block combined into Shield Mastery, Tier 3, 2 talent points, same overall effect. (30% block value, -20 sec cd)

Puncture is on Tier 4, 3 talent points again, so sunder/devastate again cost -3 rage.

Improved Shield Wall changed to Improved Disciplines, 2/2, -60 sec cd on wall, reck, and retal. No more damage reduction improvement on wall, shield wall is Reduces all damage taken by 60% for 12 sec baseline now.

Gag Order, 2/2, new tier 5 talent, it's Improved Shield Bash + new stuff. Shield Bash + Heroic Throw (our new pull ability) now silence the target for 3 seconds, and we get the +10% shield slam bonus that the old shield bash talent used to grant.

Concussion Blow changed to 75% AP - I do believe it was 50% before this.

Vigilance's "threat-siphon" feature they mentioned isn't implemented yet, or at least on the talent screen it isn't.

Vitality, 3/3, you gain 6% stamina, 6% strength, and 6 expertise. So, it's overall a buff, and we save talent points.

Warbringer talent tooltip confirmed, they changed their mind (again), it reads: "Your charge ability is now usable in combat and in any stance."

Sword and Board: 3/3 Increases the critical strike chance of your Devastate ability by 15% and when your Devastate ability deals damage, it has a 30% chance of refreshing the cooldown of your Shield Slam ability and reducing its cost by 100% for 5 sec.

Pretty much overhauled, very nice buff. The Devastate crit bonus is ridiculously huge - this helps both prot tanking and prot DPS significantly. Not to mention the increased proc chance will cause us to very reliably fit in repeated shield slams, and slopping up our rotation because of it wont matter because of how much more threat Dev and Shield Slam are causing now.


Damage Shield 2/2, new talent next to S&B: Whenever you take damage from or block a melee attack you cause damage equal to 20% of your Block Value.

If I'm reading that right, it's a deep-prot warrior thorns. Permanently, as long as we have block value. (Might only work while a shield is on, though). So as long as something hits us and we take damage (or if we block it), we're going to be reflecting back hundreds of damage. However, the damage shield apparently wont be proccing off hits that miss you, or you dodge, or you parry, which is how normal damage shields work anyway.

Shockwave unchanged, same long cooldown, stun, and annoying cone effect - except now it's 75% AP as well.


Likely very common spec now:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warr...00000000000000

Protection-oriented glyphs

Glyph of Heroic Strike - You gain 10 rage when you critically strike with your Heroic Strike ability.

Glyph of Devastate - Your Devastate ability now applies two stacks of Sunder Armor.

Glyph of Sunder Armor - Your Sunder Armor ability affects a second nearby target.

Glyph of Resonating Power - Increases the maximum targets affected by your Thunder Clap ability by 4.

Glyph of Thunder Clap - Increases the radius of your Thunder Clap ability by 2 yards.

Glyph of Shield Slam/Blocking - Increases your block value by 10% for 10 sec after using your Shield Slam ability.

Glyph of Revenge - After using Revenge, your next Heroic Strike costs no rage.


Overall: Happy. They're giving us AoE tanking via Damage Shield and Thunder Clap buffs, and Shockwave will be a periodic nice AoE threat tool, but only if they fix the way you use it. Frontal cone will never work due to mob follow mechanics. It has to be a PBAE or it will only be a very situational tool and unreliable.

We're going to have a lot more rage, and a sickening amount of threat output. I absolutely cannot wait for these changes to go live.

[Ciderhelm]

Am in love. Am in love. Am in love.

[Xav]

Source: Ciderhelm Am in love. Am in love. Am in love.

Pretty much, yes.

Only qualms is that they haven't made Shockwave a PBAOE yet. I want my 51 pointer to not make me frustrated when I try and use it, please!

[Lyci]

Uh yeah. I'm like sitting here reading and giggling. And giggling. Occasionally, a belly laugh ensues, like when I read about the GLYPH OF RESONATING POWER.

[Llyrian]

I have to admit I'm very happy with the new talents. Its awesome.

I love how there are now extensive options on how to spec for different scenarios. (I can think of two very distinctly different specs for 5 manning and for raiding). They give you a lot of fun tools to play with.

As they have alluded to, they may have buffed us too much and we may be seeing some decrease on how hard our hits actually hit for, but I think the mechanics are pretty solid.

[Mangea]

Virtually every one of these changes made my eyes pop out of my head. Especially with the glyphs, I had to stop at each one and be amazed at how beneficial they were.

I. Can't. Wait.

Thunderclap hitting EIGHT targets!?!??! GAINING rage when HS crits?!??! 15% more crit on Shield Slam AND Devastate!??!? I'm thrilled right now, absolutely thrilled!

[Donnelle]

Source: a44v589 Uh yeah. I'm like sitting here reading and giggling. And giggling. Occasionally, a belly laugh ensues, like when I read about the GLYPH OF RESONATING POWER.

O HAI

[Norrath]

Source: Ciderhelm Am in love. Am in love. Am in love.

0_0

So. GOOD.

[Slobash]

^^ Much happier tank

[mero12513]

This is beyond comprehension. I want the talents. I want them all. They said they were going to reduce bloat in the prot tree. What they actually did was make a tree where there are exactly 3 talents I don't care about: imp. bloodrage, tactical mastery, and vigilance. QQ vigilance is pretty useless. At this point, I don't care.

I have to hand it to Ghostcrawler: she said "Leave the balancing to us. Tell us how to make it fun." I can't imagine anything more fun right now. It's so fun I'm just trusting them to make sure all the boring, high-end tanky stuff is balanced.

THANK YOU GHOST. WE KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING.

[Slobash]

There's still plenty of room for individuality too, lots of warriors will put points in different places. My instinctual build looks different from the two builds other people posted and yet all 3 of us were happy, now all they need to do is fix vigilance and balance us with the other classes in whatever ways they need to and we'll be smiling

[Leytur]

Source: Xav Improved Shield Wall changed to Improved Disciplines, 2/2, -60 sec cd on wall, reck, and retal. No more damage reduction improvement on wall, shield wall is Reduces all damage taken by 60% for 12 sec baseline now.

I'm sorry, did you say SIXTY SECOND cool down? :O Awesome.

Gag Order, 2/2, new tier 5 talent, it's Improved Shield Bash + new stuff. Shield Bash + Heroic Throw (our new pull ability) now silence the target for 3 seconds, and we get the +10% shield slam bonus that the old shield bash talent used to grant.

:O We get a ranged pull that forces casters to melee range? Awesome.

Damage Shield 2/2, new talent next to S&B: Whenever you take damage from or block a melee attack you cause damage equal to 20% of your Block Value.

Reactive damage that isn't the Sporegar shield or a shield spike? :O Awesome.

Thanks for all the info.

[Norrath]

Did anyone notice that (aside from Revenge and Shockwave) all our primary abilities will have 20% crit chance, purely from talents? ([url=http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warrior=35000301200000000000000000000000503510250 321252033001332105000000000000000000000000]14/5/52[/quote])

Leytur, it was minus 60 seconds -- total 4 minutes.

[Mardran]

One minor change you may have over looked: Improved Taunt is gone. Base taunt is now an 8 second cooldown. Not a huge bonus, but a bonus regardless.

A couple skill changes I just noticed, again minor: Shield block doesn't seem to cost any rage anymore. Thunder Clap base damage looks higher too.

Sword and Board just keeps looking more appealing, I was a fan of the original version as well, but the new version is crazy.

Glyph of Resonating Power adding 4 additional Thunder Clap targets? Yes please. Combine that with Glyph of Sunder Armor, the new Damage Shield Talent and a Shield Spike... The AoE threat we can potentially generate is looking pretty good now.


A few other Glyphs that could be decent for tanking as well are:

Glyph of Barbaric Insults - Your Mocking Blow ability also taunts the target.
Glyph of Cleaving - Reduces the rage cost of Cleave by 5.
Glyph of Rapid Charge - Reduces the cooldown of your Charge ability by 20%. (Along with Warbringer)
Glyph of Spell Reflection - Reduces the cooldown of your Spell Reflection ability by 2 sec.
Glyph of Taunt - Increases the chance for your Taunt ability to succeed by 8%.

[Norrath]

I fail. -_-

14/5/52

[Minaba]

List of skill changes to sort through from WoW Forums -> 8905 Changes

Skills
Weapon Throw - renamed Heroic Throw, cooldown increased to 1 min but is now instant cast. Damaged reduced from 100% of ap to 50%.
Thunderclap - damage increased for all ranks by 50%
Enraged Assault - now Enraged Regeneration, regens 30% of your total health over 10 sec, consumes all rage effects on you
Shield Wall - increased to 60% DR from 50%
Taunt - cooldown decreased to 8 seconds from 10

Arms Talents
Bladestorm - 1 whirl/sec for 6 sec, up from 1/1.5 sec
Imp MS - Enraged Assault refreshing MS portion has been removed
Mace spec - gives 3/6/9/12/15% ignore armor instead of chance to generate rage

Fury Talents
Furious Attacks - changed to ppm instead of 50/100% chance to apply
Imp WW - Increases WW damage by 10/20% instead of reducing cooldown by 1/2 sec

Prot Talents
Shockwave - damage increased to 75% of ap up from 50% of ap
Sword and Board - reduced to 3 ranks, increases crit chance of devastate by 5/10/15% chance and has 10/20/30% to refresh and give a free shield slam
Vitality - Reduced to 3 ranks, increases str/sta by 2/4/6% and gives 2/4/6 expertise
Shield Mastery - Reduced to 2 ranks and merged with imp shield block, increases block value by 15/30% and reduces cooldown on Shield Block by 10/20 sec
Imp SW - Now Improved Disciplines, reducing cooldown of sw/ret/reck by 30/60 sec
Conc Blow - Damage increased to 75% of ap up from 25% ap and extra threat bonus removed
Imp Shield Bash - Now Gag Order, gives shield bash and heroic throw 50/100% chance to silence for 3 seconds, and increases damage of shield slam by 5/10%
Improved Taunt - removed, baked into base taunt (See above)
Last stand - Cooldown decreased to 5 minutes from 6.
Damage Shield - Whenever you take damage from or block a melee attack you cause damage equal to 10/20% of your block value.
Charge - Now Warbringer. Your Charge ability is now usable while in combat and in any stance.
Puncture - 3rd rank added, reduces rage on sunder/devastate by 3 rage.

[Minaba]

Forgot to add /drool
Still taking all this in

[bludwork]

Much better improvement imo, question will concussion blow still do damage if the target is immune?

[Urhan]

Wow, just wow. My only concerns now are the inevitable "nerf prot warriors" complaints and how to get to the upper stages of the tree at 70. Glyphs look good, too.

[Slobash]

So currently mocking blow just forces the target to attack you but doesn't level out threat, is that right? So the glyph makes it include the 'taunt' mechanic?