The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Starved for Choice

The current Wrath of the Lich King beta has had a lot of ups and downs. At present, since you can't say any class is finished and talents and abilities are subject to change at a moment's notice, all that can really be done is to evaluate what's currently the situation with the class. (As a warning, everything beyond this sentence will most likely be full of spoilers.)

My general overview would be 'flawed, but with a good deal of potential'. I've covered my favorite talent to death, and the situation remains the same as it did last week, so I'm not going to belabor that particular deceased equine. I should point out that I'm still using the talent in my current build at level 75, and doing very good DPS in instances, tanking, and soloing with it too. I try and respec every day and have that day be dedicated to testing out talents and abilities, but when I decide to push for the next level, I always go back to a heavy fury TG spec. The burst damage potential of TG itself is half of the equation, but the other half is how wildly improved Bloodthirst is. To put it succinctly, I can now regain about 1000 health every 6 seconds. Sometimes, I actually end fights healed from when I went into them. Mortal Strike will probably remain the king of PvP, but for leveling I cannot imagine not taking bloodthirst now. You will bandage maybe one fight in ten. You will eat to get a food buff. It's that good.

I'm going to try and go over as many comments from last week and answer what I can, and when I can't answer them I'll try and be up front and say so. I've not had a chance to do everything: I'm trying to level a shaman and a warrior to 77 as fast as possible and that's while still MTing for my guild for a full raid schedule.

Last week Blayed asked:

When questing/killing mobs (PvE server, so don't factor world PVP in here) is 2 2handers or 2 one handers better? I was thinking 2handed main hand and fast offhand. The 2hander/shield seems interesting, how does it's damage vs. uptime compare to 2hand/2hand, 2hand/fastOH, or MH/OH?

Right now, I'm using two 2h weapons as my primary grinding spec. While the 2h in your main and the shield offered some tantalizing possibilities for Bloodthirst/Shield Slam rotations, the damage I gain through Whirlwind and Incite-Boosted Cleaves on multiple mob pulls (I often find myself with two or three mobs on me at any given time) makes 2 2h's optimal, in my opinion. I tried using a fast sword in my offhand, but while the rage generation did become smoother, it didn't really feel like it was going up (this is in part due to the fact that, currently, I can't use my best offhand, the Vanir's Fist, because fist weapons don't work with Titan's Grip: it has to be an axe, mace or sword) - and the damage I lost from my burst abilities didn't seem worth it.

It's been stated by Ghostwalker that Titan's Grip is expected to be the default for fury warriors. You're supposed to want this talent if you're this far into the tree.

Jeremy commented: Why the love for the Prot tree? Are bosses stunable now? And, if not, does Shockwave damage them or give you threat?

Shockwave does indeed damage them. Tanking in my PvP epics (not even the good Season 4 stuff, remember, I shelved this tauren a year ago, he's in Season 1/Karazhan gear) I've seen shockwave crit for 1.5k. Combine this with thunderclap (now scaling with AP), incite giving my HS, thunderclap and cleave an additional 15% chance to crit, and the lovely benefit of Sword and Board (seriously, I love this ability, it seems like it's constantly proccing) and while warrior AoE tanking is still far more involved than paladin tanking (and still, in my opinion, needs some tweaking upwards) it's also very fun and engaging. You have to be somewhat positionally aware, but I can pull a group, turn my back to the sheep, and then hit Shockwave to AoE threat everything and not break the CC.

The stun doesn't do jack against bosses or mobs immune to stun, but even without a crit shockwave does significant damage to groups. I'm really fond of it.

To clear up an issue from several commenters: yes, while Bladestorm is up, you can't do any other damage, just the Bladestorm effect. You cannot do any white damage or specials while Bladestorming.

Poster tchernobyl put forth a very long comment that I'll address in pieces. I apologize in advance for not replying to the whole thing, but it was very long.

Fury... is okay. It is as strong as it has been in the past, but there is still no synergy for raids. No real reason to bring a fury warrior except for DPS. As for the new talents, well... getting more threat when hit? Why should a fury warrior be getting hit in the first place? Or the threat reduction talent? equally worthless, because if points are put into it, you're wasting them, and won't be causing enough damage to do much threat in the first place.
Bloodsurge... worship this talent. It is made of WIN.

I don't agree with the idea that threat reduction is ever a bad thing in raiding: we simply have no way of knowing how much damage fury warriors will be doing at 80, but we know they have no threat dump and won't be getting one. Anything that reduces the threat they generate in a raid situation is a very good idea. I'm not sure what you mean by 'getting more threat when hit' - if you mean Intensify Rage, then yes, it will most likely be useless for raiding and I would like to see it changed to simply increase rage generation somehow while in combat. A talent that increased your threat while you were being hit would just be called "Kill me faster please" or something.

Bloodsurge is in fact godly. It's an excellent talent, especially when dual wielding 2h weapons, as that instant cast slam absolutely demolishes things. The five second duration of the talent is a touch on the quick side, I'd lik to see it extended to at least 8 seconds, but that's a minor quibble.

I am definitely awaiting our class review, and hoping for the best. Arms needs a complete revamping/redesigning, the new wotlk talents for fury need revision, protection needs to be polished, and some talents revised somewhat. I've been playing this class since release, and while I've not tanked every raid in the game, I do definitely know what I'm talking about. Right now, moreso than in BC, every class eclipses the warrior. It's to the point where I'm seriously considering making a DK, if my favorite class doesn't get the attention it deserves.

I don't disagree with tchernobyl's statement about arms. Fury I think is in much better shape than he thinks it is, although I have to admit a lot of this is simply too soon to call: until we've seen more level 80 gear and watch the scaling in action we're just debating over the unproven here. Looking at Spiked Titansteel gear, for example, we see a lot of stats (a lot more stam than I would have expected) on the crafted plate DPS gear. How will raid gear stack up in comparison? I have no idea. I'd expected this stuff to compare well to the stater raid gear, and be quickly eclipsed as each level of progression passes, but there's no way to know. This level 80 blue has stats aimed right at a TG warrior. Weapons like Troll Butcherer, Saronite Mindcrusher and the level 80 crafted epic mace certainly look like they could work with a DPS spec.

I guess I'd say "give it time' before rerolling DK. I have a DK in the mid 60's now, and he bores the heck out of me. If you're really fond of warriors you may find the DK a bit cumbersome, but there's no denying that it's a powerful class at the moment.

Mahke asks about inscription: I've heard and seen inscription recipes for caster based classes, is there any reason to choose inscription for a warrior? I havent seen anything for melee classes. Maybe I've just missed them.

You and me both, Mahke. It's a big beta and new stuff is constantly dropping, but at present I haven't seen any inscriptions for warriors.

Finally, Kirigi asks: How's tanking with the completely reworked shield block? I suppose it's quite a change on the "standard" TBC rotation. Have you already tried an instance?

It does take some getting used to. I've tanked in the two starter instances, Utgarde Keep and the Nexus (I was supposed to tank Drak'Tharon yesterday, but unfortunately the server kept going down) and yes, the new Shield Block (and Shield Wall, for that matter) do take some adjustment. I find myself using revenge less simply because I can't 'force' it as much as I used to be able to. But incite seems to have made Heroic Strike more attractive than revenge anyway. When fully prot, I'm relying much more on a devastate/HS/thunderclap rotation with Shockwave whenever it's up and won't break CC (it requires a lot of turning). I still use revenge whenever I can, I just can't count on it as much anymore. I'd like to see some means to 'force' a revenge return to prot tanking, but for now it's not bad, just different.

Okay: if I didn't get to your question or comment it's probably due to time or space constraints. If there's anything you want me to cover that I missed or didn't go into enough depth on, please feel free to tell me so: I want to try and discuss whatever you're interested in. However, I also don't want to forget those of us who are looking for coverage of the game as it stands now, so expect some focus to shift away from Wrath soon and back to Hyjal, as I'm working on a tanking guide for the bosses there.

Check out more strategies, tips and leveling guides for Warriors in Matthew Rossi's weekly class column: The Care and Feeding of Warriors.