3.1 Changes Preview!

[Biggensak]

I still think that rage on avoidance is just a bandaid in the wrong direction. The true problem lies in the almost binary rage intake from being hit. You're either basically infinite, or having rage flow problems. Take away rage from being hit, make rage generation a function of outgoing damage + some stat for a base regen. That's the correct direction, in my opinion.

.. Satrina for president!

Worst part of being a prot warrior right now is the huge DPS hit we take doing the OT job. More rage when getting hit for warriors is solving a non-existant problem... wonder why that is getting the love?

[Satrina]

Because a lot of people, including myself, have called for rage on avoidance for a long time. It's only relatively recently that I changed my viewpoint.

[Halgreg]

Consider the Arms warrior who has Tactical Mastery anyway. (For the times I Offtank Gluth in 10's as Arms Spec.)

Now think about Kel'thuzad and the corenr I'm pinned in when they want me to pummel as part of the interrupt rotation, but also go balls-to-walls dps. I can't do both since I lose all but 15 rage on stance dance.

now, from a full rage bar, I hop to zerker (-10 rage), MS (-30), Pummel (-5), and jump back to Arms for Overpower or refresh Rend (-10).

Even if I generated no rage in those 6 seconds, I'm still at 45 rage and can use ANY of my abilities.

That sounds pretty fantastic to me.

Pummel is cool, but you'd save more rage if you switched to a sword and board, shield bashed, then switched back to your 2 hander. Good for a macro or ItemRack hotkey.

[Lizana]

Pummel is cool, but you'd save more rage if you switched to a sword and board, shield bashed, then switched back to your 2 hander. Good for a macro or ItemRack hotkey.

Would take longer due to GCD for switching weapons

[Manßearpig]

exactly

for AOE tanking it is a mixed blessing, it will have a 100% uptime anytime there is 4 or mobs, but only every 1.5 seconds because of global, so in the end depending on how hard each individual mob hits it could be a nerf even for aoe tanking.

for single targets, it needs to have a 100% uptime or it is a nerf, and i am not confident that that will happen

Technically in an aoe situation you will only get 1-2 absorbs per gcd regardless of how many mobs you are tanking.

you can only absorb as many hits as you can crit and assuming one of your maul hits crits and one of your swipe hits crit, then every 2 sec or so you can mitigate the damage on the next 2 hits.

For simplicities sake lets say you are tanking 4 mobs and they are each hitting you once every 2 sec on an alternating pattern so every second you take 2 hits.

lets go with a 2 second swing on bear hits for simplicity also.

Timeline looks something like this.
_______Bear_____________Mob

0.0 sec Maul & Swipe _____2 Hits
0.5 sec
1.0 sec _________________2 Hits( 1 absorbed)
1.5 sec Swipe
2.0 sec Maul _____________2 Hits( 1 absorbed)
2.5 sec
3.0 sec Swipe ____________2 Hits( 1 absorbed)
3.5 sec
4.0 sec Maul _____________2 Hits( 1 absorbed)
4.5 sec Swipe

ETC

assuming at least one maul and one swipe crits each time then in a perfect situation you mitigate half of the hits.

As everyone knows this is likely not the case so maybe 30% uptime.

[Taelas]

What if they stack?

[Genova]

But does it go off white attack too? If so it might proc more than 30%?

[Craenor]

• Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a maximum of 20 rage (10 with Tactical Mastery). For example, if you have 100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition, we may change the penalties associated with some stances.

Am I reading this wrong? Because it seems like something of a nerf. It doesn't mention a lower threshold, so if I have just the 10 rage I need for an intercept, and I switch stances to use it...now I can't?

Sure it's great if you have a full rage bar, but especially in PvP, how often is that?

[Genova]

Maybe they will give warriors something like druids get with the form changing. A +10rage boost would make it seem a little bit less of a nerf.

[Manßearpig]

But does it go off white attack too? If so it might proc more than 30%?

Im using Maul glyph to hit 2 targets and double my chances of a crit instead of white attacking.

What if they stack?

The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.

[Zoal]

Im using Maul glyph to hit 2 targets and double my chances of a crit instead of white attacking.



The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.

and if you crit twice before a mob takes a swing at you?

[Taelas]

The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.

As I said, what if it stacks? Assume for a moment that each crit adds a seperate shield. 4 mobs, Maul+Swipe, 6 possible crits -- 6 possible shields.

Each hit you take completely removes one application, but if it stacks...

[Manßearpig]

I just dont think it will work like that. There is too much of a chance of abuse. Imagine any fight with multiple mobs that you aren't necessarily tanking. Perhaps a group of mobs such as Faerlina. A druid would be able to keep up the stack indefinitely. I don't think that is what is intended because then it is no different from having more armor.

[Taelas]

We'll just have to wait and see.

[Genova]

I have the maul glyph too, so does that mean there are no white attacks while maul is in queue? I mean for instance when im not building threat on something like gluth, while the other tank has him im just auto attacking for rage and to stay below his threat so it would still proc then.

[Taelas]

Maul replaces your next white attack, the same as Heroic Strike.

[Takethecake]

Am I reading this wrong? Because it seems like something of a nerf. It doesn't mention a lower threshold, so if I have just the 10 rage I need for an intercept, and I switch stances to use it...now I can't?

Sure it's great if you have a full rage bar, but especially in PvP, how often is that?

Yeah I see it as a nerf personally. As a tank I'm either full range or almost no rage. All blizzard has done is tipped the scale to the other extreme on stance changing to try to make it more appetising if you have large amounts of rage.

If I change stances to intercept when I am low on rage... I can't do it anymore. If I'm full rage and I change stances to intercept it now effectively costs me 50 rage to do it. (20 rage to change stances, 10 rage to intercept, 20 rage to swap back)

They need to find a happy median for this, making sure we have some rage if we are low and making sure it doesn't eat all our rage if we are full. Druids have been able to shift with free rage for ages now and the warrior stance system continues to be horrible.

[djiss]

I still think that rage on avoidance is just a bandaid in the wrong direction. The true problem lies in the almost binary rage intake from being hit. You're either basically infinite, or having rage flow problems. Take away rage from being hit, make rage generation a function of outgoing damage + some stat for a base regen. That's the correct direction, in my opinion.

Instead of making rage scale with the dmg received, make it so you get rage from any attack so that the only way to be rage starved is not being hit at all and make the amount of rage scale with Armor and Stamina.

So stacking stam/armor will increase the amount of rage you'll get from being hit, but will be useless if you're not a tank since it will cripple you're dmg output.

While tanking in T22, Boss in Ulduar will give the same amount of rage by attack than a boss in a reg dungeon lv 70 or a mob while farming. And it will also encourage tank to keep their "best in slot" item when doing dungeon they outgear.

Ok, fast hitter Boss will generate more rage... Give them all the same amount of attack / minutes.

Not a perfect solution, I know.

[djiss]

the only way to be rage starved is not being hit at all

I mean, not being "attacked".

[Satrina]

Instead of making rage scale with the dmg received, make it so you get rage from any attack so that the only way to be rage starved is not being hit at all and make the amount of rage scale with Armor and Stamina.

This does not help offtanks and DPS warriors.