#1 - Oct. 3, 2016, 8:04 a.m.
Introduction
Here we are again, bringing up Warrior DPS specs. This time however the Warrior Community(Thanks everyone from the Warrior section, MMO-Champion, and the Warrior Discord for feedback) has recognized that Fury is in dire need of help. In week 1 of Emerald Nightmare, Fury was one of the lowest specs in raid content. We received our tuning pass which was a pittance of a buff somewhere between 3-5% - the problem is, that since Old War was nerfed by 33%, and since most other classes recieved a similar or in some cases a significantly better buff, we ended up in the same exact spot, right there at the bottom of the charts.
This isn't complaining about sim data, this is drawing conclusions based on real world log data. Constructive feedback is constantly asked for, here it is - and nobody can say we didn't try.
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Buffs/Changes
Juggernaut - Increase buff duration to 12-15 seconds. Decrease maximum stack count to ~20 and increase per stack damage to 10%
The current duration at 6 seconds is far too short for realistic use in a raid setting. Mechanics can and do happen sub 20%, and losing juggernaut stacks is a massive dps loss. A few quick examples that would cause this would be Renferal Feeding Time, Ursoc charge on you, or Nythendra rot. We shouldn't be punished so harshly for playing correctly.
In progression right now I'm lucky if I get over 20 stacks, when farm rolls around, I'll probably only get around half that. Juggernaut gets dramatically weaker as content ages - right now it's significantly weaker than Arms execute, in a few months Fury will be practically left in the dust. In addition Juggernaut is almost entirely useless on 5 man bosses, execute phase is simply too short for Juggernaut to do any significant amount of damage.
Furious Slash - Increase damage by ~100%
Furious Slash may not be used much, but boy would it sure be nice if our single target filler did at least as much damage as Whirlwind on a single target. I think it was forgotten that off-hand attacks deal 50% damage.
Taste for Blood - Increase stack duration to 20s, increase bonus crit chance per stack to 25%, Whirlwind hitting 2+ targets also triggers Taste for Blood
I think Furious Slash usage was greatly overestimated when initially designing the ability, the duration is so short right now that the stacks are equally as likely to fall off before BT has a chance to consume them, as the effect to actually work. In addition, very rarely do players reach more than 1 stack before it either falls off or gets consumed, and as such 15% is far too low to have a meaningful impact. On the issue of Whirlwind, it's entirely intended to replace Furious Slash in any cleave scenario, so should it not also proc the same benefits? On 2+ targets if FS received a buff and did the same amount of damage as WW per target, WW would still be the more efficient ability due to at least twice the damage, while also cleaving your next BT/Rampage, so does it not make sense for TfB on 2+ targets to reflect that intention?
Enrage - Reduce damage taken to 20% base, 15% with Warpaint
An extra 30% damage taken might have been acceptable in a time when BT was a 5% heal, we had significantly more HP while enraged, and the Bloodcraze trait was much stronger - but now that time has passed. It does not feel good to play perfectly and still look at log after log where I'm holding the #1 spot below the tanks in damage taken. Incidentally the 30% damage taken makes Warpaint a mandatory talent in raiding even when I would like to have the utility of one of the other two talents.
Odyn's Champion - Buff CD reduction back to 2s per ability, Buff from 20% chance on Rampage to 1.0 rppm for more consistency
Odyn's Champion really is a weak trait, the only reason it's taken first is because of Helya's Wrath, and the other fairly good minor traits in the middle row leading up to it. In its current state at a 20% proc chance on Rampage with 25% haste you can achieve 5 abilities and thus 5 seconds seconds off CDs within the proc window. This amounts to around 3.5 seconds off your CDs per minute on average. For a gold trait, this is extremely lackluster. The new numbers would net around 10s/minute on average, and with a change back to rppm we'd see much more consistent procs, and not half a fight with none, and then 8 back to back. I assumed the whole reason the rppm system was designed was to get rid of clunky complete RNG mechanics like % chance.
Rage of the Valarjar - Increase chance to proc from 10% on Rampage/Execute to 1.0 rppm
Contrary to Odyn's Champion, Rage of the Valarjar is a decently potent buff, after all it's around half the effectiveness of the T17 Fury set bonus. The problem is - it just doesn't proc enough, or consistently enough to feel rewarding. Rage having a % chance to proc off of Rampage AND Execute presents the unique problem that it has a rather low proc rate above 20%, but once execute phase starts(With Massacre, since that is the go to talent right now) the chance that you'll proc Rage increases significantly, around twice as much on average. I'd much rather see a more consistent proc rate with rppm over an oddly skewed rate that will only indirectly nerf the trait as kill times decrease and execute is shorter. We already have enough pseudo execute mechanics, I'd rather help out the upper 80% of the rotation.
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To Conclude
I don't want Fury to be #1, tippy top spec, but I do want to be a viable choice when my guild gets around to stepping into Mythic. I've heard story after story of players who are being told to swap to Arms or sit when entering into Mythic progression. This isn't guilds being nasty, it's a logical thing to do - after all we're nearly the worst spec in the game, with only Frost mages who are HFC Survival hunter tier right now consistently below us; add on that we're inherently taking more damage and thus using more mana and it's a fairly easy choice to make. When you have 20 slots, and more than 20 people to fill them, you have to choose what players will have the highest chance of downing bosses. I want Fury to have a fighting chance at being one of those 20.
