Warrior Changes in 8962
Usually I don’t post about changes, but this one I am extremely happy to. Some of the Warrior changes coming in this beta patch have been long awaited, and my little undead Wukki is going to be very, very, happy prot warrior.
Arms
Talents
- Trauma now affects all melee critical strike.
- Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Tier 4) has been reduced to 3 ranks. Now increases damage done with two-handed weapons by 2/4/6%. (Previously 1/2/3/4/5%)
- Justified Killing has been removed.
- Iron Will (Tier 2) now reduces the duration of all Stun and Charm effects used against you by 7/14/20%. (Previously 10/20/30%)
- Improved Thunder Clap has been moved to Tier 1 Protection.
- Tactical Mastery has been moved to Tier 2 Arms.
Fury
Talents
- Titan’s Grip now only reduces your chance to hit with damage-dealing abilities requiring a weapon. (Old – All melee abilities)
- Unending Fury (Tier 10) now reduces the rage cost of your Slam, Whirlwind and Bloodthirst abilities by 1 and doesn’t affect Enraged Assault anymore.
- Heroic Leap has been removed.
- *New Talent* Heroic Fury (Tier 9) – Removes any Immobilization effects and refreshes the cooldown of your Intercept ability. (45 Sec Cooldown)
- Bloodthirst (Tier 7) healing reduced from 1.5% of your max health to 0.6% of your max health.
- Booming Voice (Tier 1) is now 2 ranks and increases the area of effect and duration of your Battle Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Commanding Shout by 25/50%. (Old – 10/20/30/40/50%)
- *New Talent* Armored to the Teeth (Tier 1) – Increases your Strength by 1/2/3 for every 400 armor value you have.
Protection
Skills
- Intervene now reduces the target’s total threat by 10%.
Talents
- Warbringer (Tier 9) changed to – Your Charge ability is now usable while in combat and in any stance. In addition, your Charge, Intercept and Intervene abilities will remove all movement impairing effects.
- Safeguard (Tier 8 ) now reduces damage taken by the target of your Intervene ability by 15/30% for 6 sec and doesn’t affect Charge/Intercept/Intervene anymore. (Old effect merged with Warbringer)
- Vigilance (Tier 7) has unlimited charges once again.
- Improved Spell Reflection (Tier 4) no longer reduces the cooldown of Spell Reflection.
- Toughness (Tier 3) reduces movement impairing effect duration by 6/12/18/24/30%. (Old – 10/20/30/40/50%)
- Tactical Mastery has been moved to Tier 2 Arms.
- Improved Thunder Clap has been moved to Tier 1 Protection
Most of these mean nothing to me, except for a few. Thunderclap finally in the protection tree? How long did it take them to figure out that Imp TC was really never used by arms / fury except in specific cases, maybe offtanking? Tactical Mastery you almost never used in raiding, it is more an arena thing now. Intervene / Safeguard are still gimmicky, though I suppose it could help a bit better now.
Overall, the best change they did though, was add Armored to the Teeth. Once I saw Death Knights get Bladed Armor, I wondered how long it would take for Warriors to get something like it. Problem is, fully buffed with good gear, it would be like 150 AP. Is it worth that much for 3 talent points? A better question yet is, what would I get instead of Armored to the Teeth?
Edit: Forgot Strength = Block Value, Doh! Yes, it’s worth it!!!
Either way, as it stands now, this 06/08/57 looks to be my furture tanking build. We will see.
Now where are mah shaman changes?!
