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The Queue: Why does Blizzard hate warriors?

Matthew Rossi
Updated ·6 min read
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Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today.

Look, as soon as you saw the question yesterday, you knew I was going to answer it. Let's not play games - it's beneath us.

MichaelVakian asks:
Q4tQ: (age old question) Why does blizzard hate warriors so much? On a side note, maybe it's just me because my main is a frost mage and I have 3 warrior alts. :(

Hi, Michael. I'm Matthew Rossi. I've played a warrior a few times over the years. What I'm going to say now may surprise you - I don't think Blizzard hates warriors. However, I'm willing to say the following:

  • Blizzard has not done a fantastic job of keeping warriors balanced over the years.

  • Blizzard nerfs warriors too quickly when they're powerful in outdated content that doesn't matter any more. We saw similar nerfs at the end of Wrath of the Lich King.

  • Warriors get more complaints from other classes when they are strong than any other class. I'm not sure why this is. Should warriors top the DPS meters, there will be wholesale wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth.

  • Rage is, as it has always been, both a boon and a curse. We have to wait to generate it before we can unleash our best attacks, it often costs too much to do what we need it to do, and yet because it's such a malleable resource it tends to get very good once we're geared to a certain point.

  • Warrior still are weak until they're in the best possible gear.

Let's not pretend warriors were weak when 6.0.2 launched. They weren't. Were the nerfs we've seen warranted? No. They were too harsh. Far, far too harsh. But I can't with a straight face sit here and say we didn't have some nerfs coming. However, I also think those nerfs could have waited - there was really no reason to nerf us in SoO content.

So in short, no, Blizzard doesn't hate warriors, but it sometimes feels like they're ridiculously quick on the nerf switch when it comes to us.



raidjoiner1 asks:
Anyone else think Blizz is pruning abilities and combining others in an effort to release WoW on consoles? Have to have fewer buttons to push as controllers only have so many. And given Diablos transition, it makes me wonder.

Nope, don't think that's it at all. For one thing, WoW is ten years old. Even with all the upgrades over the years (including the new graphics and file systems) I don't see packing ten years of content into a console release. WoW is a huge game, and to even consider having all those dungeons and raids accessible for a console port seems unlikely. No, I think they pruned abilities and combined others for the reasons they already stated - to streamline play and give WoW room to grow.

MaroeskavanVeen asks:
I barely dare to ask, but will the warrior's dps specs ever be interesting again? I cannot let my main rest in piece, but wow, warrior is so uninteresting at the moment that I'm surprised they haven't nerfed everything about it BUT slam. If only slam would be a viable option it might be bearable.

I'm going to assume you're talking about arms. Because fury doesn't get Slam. So if you're talking about arms, here's my answer - arms is actually relatively okay. It still has Mortal Strike, Colossus Smash, and now has Rend to keep track of (I do suggest getting a DoT timer for that.) My main problems are the use of Whirlwind as a filler and the choice between a talent that gives you rage when you use Rend, a talent that lets you Execute randomly, and a talent that lets you spam Slam after the CS window. Whirlwind as a filler attack is something we had for fury back in Wrath and we knew it was a bad idea then, I don't know why we're bringing it back now. None of the level 45 talents are great, with slam having just got hideously nerfed (30%? Uuugh.) I'm not feeling terribly chuffed about any of them.

Honestly, though, in terms of interesting play we lost Overpower and got Rend, it's not that big a change. Now fury, if you want to talk uninteresting, fury is right there. Having to wait till level 100 and burn a talent to get Siegebreaker just so we have another button to hit? Uuugh.

And yeah, that's two warrior questions.

Also, I didn't copy paste your name, despite it being pretty hard to remember.

Armenius asks:
So, Q4TQ: If WoW implemented last names, would your character have one and what would it be? My main wouldn't have one, but now that I've started giving my OC's last names I would gladly change my priest to Jutte Lorenz.

No.

fallenmwarrior asks:
Do you think there is any chance that old pvp rewards will be available for gold like old justice awards? Makes it hard to get some old transmog when i have spend as much honor on old gear as i do on new gear

I would like them to, but they're not going to. Honor still exists, and having old PvP sets cost honor gives you a reason to farm it, which means it gives you a reason to PvP. Believe me, I wish we could still trade JP for honor, that's how I got most of my transmog PvP sets.

I'm counting this as a warrior question just because of your name.

Bugboy asks:
Q4tQ: Who is Hodor?

I don't know.

Fraug asks:
What major lore character would you kill off if you could control the story? For example, Thrall could die, you could get rid of Sylvanas, but you need to write a suitable end for them. So Sylvie might be killed by the Horde in retribution for her plague attack on Silvermoon, and Thrall could sacrifice himself to stop the heat death of the Universe... thus ascending to godhood (because seriously, we all know Thrall is going to stay around somehow).

So who's dead and gone with you at the wheel? And more importantly, how'd they die?

I'd kill Anduin Wrynn. His constant attempts to broker peace with the Horde despite the Horde showing zero interest in peace over the years would finally catch up with him, and he'd get skewered by a forsaken who would take his body to Sylvanas, who would immediately raise him as forsaken and send him back to Stormwind to mock his father.

Maybe I'm still a little bitter over how he charged off to fight Garrosh with nothing but a mallet, optimism, and me.

That's the Queue for me. See y'all next week.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!