[Warrior] Fury -- Yep, we still hate it.

I just posted over in the Arms thread, but most of what was said there applies to Fury as well, so please read that first: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/13733423442?page=8#143

Today's build includes a few important changes for Fury, which actually line up with many of the issues raised in this thread.

First, Wild Strike. Same damage per cast time, same damage per rage, just in 0.75sec chunks, instead of 0.5sec. Damage, Rage, and GCD all increased by 50%. This should help with latency issues.

Second, Ignite Weapon. Obviously, Ignite Weapon didn't work, since the ability it replaced was removed from the rotation. This new build will finally add a replacement; a fairly straightforward damage/utility button, Siegebreaker.

Third, Recklessness. It's back to 30% crit chance, to feel more impactful. And a perk now adds the 15% crit damage back as well. Straight buffed. I believe that replaced the Heroic Leap perk, which was quite lackluster as so many of you so eloquently put.

Fourth, Enrage. This isn't actually in today's build, but will be in the next. We raised the duration of Enrage to 8sec, so that there's a bit more overlap, especially so that it can cover Bladestorms and Colossus Smashes.

Also, not a change, but commentary on a previous change: The Colossus Smash extension mechanic is far from superfluous. The problem before was that you didn't have time to spend all of the resources that you saved up for a Colossus Smash, and this solves that handily. It makes a big difference, and we're pleased with how that turned out.

As I said to the Arms Warriors as well, the Warrior community has been clearly frustrated lately, and I'd like to discuss this further with you all, but please make that easy for me to do, by keeping the hyperbole and anger and useless sarcasm and generally destructive behavior out of this. Thanks.

08/18/2014 08:11 PMPosted by Zadck

Something I would like to say is that, if I'm not mistaken, the big reasoning behind the removal of Heroic Strike that led to the other changes being necessary as a result was to make it more clear what you're supposed to use as your rage dump. I guess that's okay, and as long as Unending Thirst ends up the best talent for min/maxing I could see the spec remaining quite fun. However, I, as someone who has done heavy theorycrafting and played a warrior since vanilla, am having difficulty understanding when to extend Colossus Smash and when to use up my remaining rage, due to Unending Thirst (that is, when to sneak in extra BTs to try for another 2 seconds--under new Recklessness this can result in an almost guaranteed Enrage and extension of CS). I like the talent, and the complexity it brings, but am confused why we have traded Heroic Strike complexity (Which, in my experience of coaching warriors, most warriors fully understood--and enjoyed) for a rotation that now feels far more complex and with less guidance as that 6 second Colossus Smash window is shifting, and makes the spec feel less like the organized but furious feeling of banking and using rage.

The key is that you're opting into that complexity via a talent. That's a recurring theme here: simplifying the baseline, then adding a variety of complexity/customization options via talents.

Hey Fury Warriors.

There's no doubt that this beta has had quite a lot of turmoil for Fury. I'd like to talk about an upcoming change that is surely going to be controversial.

"A furious berserker wielding a weapon in each hand, unleashing a flurry of attacks to carve his opponents to pieces."

What sorts of gameplay do you think of when you read that description?

To us, it means “relentlessly dishing out attacks as fast as you're able”. Not “conserving your resources to tactically use controlled attacks”, which is more of Arms or Protection’s style – Fury is all about pure, unbridled bloodlust.

We've had a lot of problems with the rotation and talent combinations, and most of it comes down to interactions with Colossus Smash. Fury's rotation is heavily influenced by Colossus Smash, almost entirely in ways that go completely against the true spirit of being a Fury Warrior. Colossus Smash very much epitomizes Arms’ style, not Fury’s. So, a long-term goal of ours has been to transition Fury out of Colossus Smash.

We had been planning to try to fix these rotational problems primarily with small changes over time (which we viewed as “bandaids” to some extent), and then eventually remove Colossus Smash. But, that would involve significant changes down the road, adding even more turmoil to the future of Fury. We'd rather get everything done now, instead of changing this up on you every couple of patches. So, we've decided to 'rip the bandaid off' now, so to speak. In the next build, you'll find that Colossus Smash is Arms-only.

This is not something we're doing lightly. We believe that the added complexity of the new talents will ensure that Fury stays engaging, and results in a theme-matching gameplay experience, where you're attacking in a frenzy, and reacting to procs. We'll be keeping an eye on whether the gameplay remains complex enough to satisfy players, and make changes to ensure that if need be. This is definitely more disruption, and we realize that you guys are looking for a stable platform to play on; we just think that it'll be better to get the whole disruption out of the way now, instead of doing some now, and then having to go through it all again in the future.

This is clearly a significant change to the core gameplay style of Fury. We know that some of you have grown to enjoy the pool + dump style of gameplay. And that's great; we think that pooling and dumping Rage and procs during the right time is a very solid gameplay style. But it's not the right style for Fury. We encourage those of you who really like this gameplay style to try out Arms and Gladiator (which is a fully-competitive DPS spec now). And we encourage Arms and Gladiator Warriors who disliked that gameplay to try out Fury as well. This is certainly going to result in some reshuffling of where many Warriors' preferred specs lay, and that's OK.