[Feedback: Warriors] - Blue Tracker

#1 - March 4, 2016, 10:16 a.m.

Starting a feedback thread for Warrior PvP. Below will be a rough outline of positives and negatives.

Fury:

The good:
-PvP talents really smooth out the spec (presumptive). There a good choices in the PvP tree for different styles of play or potential comps. It feels very warrior. Blood Thirst might be too strong.
-Rampage feel good to hit (carnage basically mandatory still).

The bad:
-No off GCD slow. This is going to make the spec impossible to play competitively.
-Enrage.... The damage taken debuff is crippling.
-War Paint being mandatory.
-Awkward talent tree choices (non pvp talent tree)

Solutions/Changes:
-Also the normal talent tree is still in need of a rework to avoid forced choices.
-Fury either needs a passive slow or hamstring back.
-Maybe redistribute some of the self-healing into a Blood Craze mechanic.
-Give Fury D Stance.

Arms:

The good:
-Really fun to play and get burst phases off with CDs.
-Talent tree choices are better polished for arms.
-Bladestorm is back to being amazing.

The bad:
-Mastery might be scaling a bit too well. Outside of BGs the spec feels weak, inside BGs with the extra mastery CS turns into a massive buff.
-Warbreaker still on the GCD, makes the rotation awkward.
-Self healing from Touch of Zakajaz is pitiful compared to what fury has to play with.
-Battle Cry might be too strong... 50% blood bath + free rage + 100% crit.... dang that's a lot.

Solutions/Changes:
-Increase base damage of all abilities slightly
-Lower mastery scaling
-Warbreaker off the GCD
-Give Arms another self heal of sorts.

General:
-Charge needs to be a shorter CD, it felt way too easy for classes to kite around a warrior.
-Give the spec a passive self heal similar to old school Second Wind (heal and rage when stun/rooted) or a Blood Crazy mechanic (heal when getting crit).

Phalanx

Game Designer

#3 - March 4, 2016, 11:20 p.m.

Philosophically we're okay if some of the core talents aren't super nail biting choices all the time for PvP. I think in an ideal world every core talent and honor talent is an interesting choice in all aspects of the game, but if talents such as War Paint become the de facto talent in PvP (not saying it is or isn't right now) it's not that big of deal to us. It's challenging to create core talents that are competitive, interesting choices in PvE let alone both PvE and PvP.

Our design direction with Arms vs Fury is that Arms should have more burst or "frontload" damage, while Fury is stronger at sustained and has better mobility. While Fury does take more damage while enraged, that's being factored into the balance of the spec overall. You'll have higher health and self-healing. (Note: Tuning is still in progress)

Regarding mobility, it's very much a hot topic with us currently. Arcane Mages and Sub Rogues are engineered by us to have some of the highest escape tools out of the specs, but they're intended to be glass cannons and countered by specs that can dampen their burst damage (Tank specs, Paladins) or where their escape tools aren't as strong (Warlocks, Hunters). That said, their mobility/escape may be too out of line right now and may need changes. If we're going to do mobility changes it's likely going to be us toning down the stronger specs rather than buffing the weaker ones.