Proposed Answer to 3.1 Rage issue.

[Arikak]

When looking for an answer to tough questions I generally look for the simplest solution. I don't believe the current proposals by Blizzard are at all simple and will probably end up hurting Warriors far more than helping the class.

So I bring my proposal here first since discussions on the WoW forums are like talking to a giant wall of stupid.

First off, an assumption I will be making:

Stance dancing and the subsequent rage starvation is only really an issue for the PvP warrior. I don't know many warriors that feel the need to stance change in PvE combat. Even if they do its easy enough to burn off rage first.

So my solution:

Provide a Major glyph that eliminates rage loss when changing stances.

As a tank, and I think I can speak for most PvE warriors/specs that this is rather unenticing since we all tend to stay in one stance for the entire encounter and there are much better glyphs to be using. Also as a tank switching to BS and Zerker is pretty much a death sentence on bosses or AE trash. However, for the PvP warrior this would mean the world.

Now the decision to change stances comes down to whether the stance penalties are worth it, and is it worth triggering the GCD, while providing the warrior more effective use of the abilities that are required for getting by at all these days in PvP.

In fact I believe eliminating the rage loss in PvP stance changing would also eliminate many of the other issues with warriors. It would now make sense to have different abilites available only in different stances since it is now a choice of taking the time to change and trigger the GCD and then change back (overall a significant amount of time in PvP) and not have to worry about being completely neutered due to being rage starved. Stances would probably not even need to be worked on at all (Exception being BS, it would be nice if that did something).

Overall, saving Blizzard an immense overhaul of warriors.

Rage starvation is the biggest issue facing the warrior class in PvP currently. While Rage is the biggest limiting factor keeping Warrior DPS in line in PvE (fear the warrior with infinite rage; ie Thaddius). This glyph would maintain the PvE balance (where Warriors are doing well) while greatly improving the warriors life in PvP.

[Superspy23]

There is the possibility that with some of the free GCD's that fury warriors have it may turn out valuable to dance into Battle stance and use rend when BT & WW are on CD. With no rage loss it may actually be a nice gain to DPS. I would love to see what this could turn out like. Even the proposed change that Blizzard has presented may have some use in allowing fury warriors some use for rend or overpower to improve their DPS.

I have no idea how to model this with how shot my brain is at the end of the work day. I'm just going to go home and drink some beer and hope the idea intrigues some of you experienced number crunchers to work out the possibilities.

To be more on topic, Bliz tends to shy away from having specific glyphs or items being mandatory for success in any part of the game. You would have no choice with this one for utter dominance in PVP. However I like the idea and would love to see some form of this glyph implemented.

[kolben]

A glyph is one way you could do it, it's certainly a less invasive way.

All of the drum beating for rage changes concerns me. Frankly, Blizzard has proven in the past with changes to rage that it's PFM. Since the only scaling that occurs to rage is from damage in/out, it's a level 1-80 change that carries a lot of potential for misery and woes for the 98% of warriors that aren't in the very best possible gear, which means T9.5 not T7. Call me paranoid lol, I'm not comfortable with them screwing around in the black box.