#1 - March 30, 2012, 9:12 a.m.
Thunder Clap has been changed, and no longer scales from a percentage of attack power, instead dealing a static amount of damage. While I immediately worried when I read about this change to TC it surprised me nonetheless how utterly neutered the spell is currently in beta.
As Fury and Protection, I took my warrior on a pair of rampages through Halls of Lightning - TC's damage barely compared to what it did in the T8-T9 raids of Wrath. And that's with the significant 'power' advantage of an 85 raid-geared warrior in a level 80 dungeon. In short, we basically have Thunderstomp (the pet version of TC that didn't scale at all from 80 to 85 and was basically a waste of a pet talent point) aside from the fact that it applies Deep Wounds.
I understand that there are small adjustments to Cleave and Revenge that allow them to hit a slightly higher number of targets (3 for Rev, up to 5 for Cleave if enraged) but this doesn't allow either to serve the core role of Thunder Clap, which is cementing initial aggro on a pack of adds or an unexpected/swarm-type group of adds. TC is our go-to tool for that and has been for some time. With its damage so incredibly low (currently 1700-1800 damage for prot which barely got the job done at 80, hence the constant requests to have TC buffed/adjusted) Thunder Clap risks losing its ability to perform that role. Even at a 5x threat multiplier, that wouldn't suffice against anything other than the most moderate of heals and certainly not against any kind of worthwhile dps.
Thunder Clap is a core warrior spell with a legacy and an important/consistent role: it concerns me to see it so utterly wrecked in the very first pass of beta. Even if the damage has to come out of something else - like when Revenge and Deva got buffed at the expense of the far-too powerful Shield Slam we had in Catac. beta - please adjust TC so that it continues to scale meaningfully with warriors. Either through attack power or weapon damage. The current damage/lack of scaling, or anything close to it, will simply not suffice at 85+.
Again, not meant to be a QQ post. Just really shocked to see TC back to to this kind of state. And I figure better to speak up now than to wait until Mists goes gold and is being manufactured.