LF Warriors.

So, here we are at the new address with a brand new me. Well, ish.

I'm sticking with Blogspot because it's been good to me but, as you can tell by the name of this new blog, I intend to spread content to a wider warrior audience than just tanks. The title, Piercing Howl, is a hat tip to an iconic tri-spec talent that also plays into my new race of worgen. The aim is to produce content more often, without cutting back on quality, and covering subjects that I invariably leave alone - playing Fury, Arms and (though a weak period) getting stuck into PvP. I did a bit of an Arms post a while back, but it was from the vantage point of a dabbler who played Arms as an off-spec for a bit of a laugh. Indeed, the fact I never write about Fury or PvP much is because I don't actually play Fury or PvP much. I suppose that leads onto the obvious question of how in the blue Hell do I intend to cover these subjects when I don't really play them?

I'm looking for authors!

If you love playing a warrior and want the opportunity to write about it, let me know in the comments. I'm not looking for pure-bred experts in server leading guilds who can automatically link first class parses (as nice as that would be). What I'm looking for is players who love getting stuck into a raft of content with their plate-clad deliverers of pain, and are passionate about the development of their favourite class and how its doing. Rather than the work of starting your own blog, this opportunity comes from the vantage point of an already established set up with an author of over two years experience in blogging and one who's had his work linked on WoW Insider on several occasions.

The warrior community has lost some high-class authors, and I'd like to set the ball rolling that plugs the gap. Wider and more varied content brings in a wider and more varied readership which, in turn, will hopefully inspire other authors to start writing about their favourite class in their favourite game.

I look forward to hearing from anyone interested in taking up this opportunity, and hope to start providing more top-quality content as soon as possible. If you feel like you want to pick up the baton, write me an email detailing how you'd like to go about it and fire it to the following address:

piercing_howl@hotmail.co.uk

Welcome to the ground floor!

Moving on.

Though I usually critically strike for walls of text here on the DGTG, this is a general update post about what's going to be happening in the short term as there are some pretty large changes and some less than large ones. I'll start with the smaller, I guess.

1) Your humble author will no longer be visiting TankSpot for any reason. While that has no impact on readers here, I have used this blog to comment on some of the threads there in the past and this obviously won't happen any more. The standard of raiding content has gone down significantly, and the finance behind it has caused a "quantity > quality" approach. Personally, I don't care about Lore's opinions one iota (he now dominates the site through the Weekly Marmot, PST and Legendary) and I can't be bothered putting up with a small, but prolific, forum clique of online bullies who attempt to belittle those who disagree with them.

Learn2Raid is a significantly better resource for raiding, with better players at the helm. If you happen to love Darnell (as I do), you can get your weekly fix of Blizz Blues from Gamebreaker.

2) I've bemoaned the loss of Veneretio and Kadomi from the Protection warrior world of blogs, but they're not the only ones. It seems that so many warrior posters have bitten the dust as players have lost interest in blogging, the game, or both. Some of them use Twitter, a media I struggle to see the sense of if you're interested in thought provoking debate.

The problem with my blog to date is that it's widely read, but rarely debated. It could be my style, it could be my content, it could be my lack of charm or grace... Whatever it is, I want to start plugging the gap departed warriors have left behind and I'm dreaming up ways of making this happen. If you have suggestions, please post them. :)

3) This blog will be moving to something more aptly named. Originally, I started as a Forsaken toon and the "dead good" was a play on that concept. As I'm unlikely to ever play Forsaken on my main character again, the name no longer fits and a change is needed. I can change the name of the blog easily enough, but not the address so I'll create an entirely new one and then migrate everything here across. The exact title and focus is not yet determined, as it depends on point 2 and plays into point 4...

4) I'm no longer a member of Argent Dawn, or indeed The Inner Cloister (duh!). The opportunity arose for your humble author to step up to a more progressed and more serious raiding guild, so I took that opportunity because it's not one that comes along very often at all. As I said to my friends back at Argent Dawn, moving on always means you're leaving people behind - and that's never easy. But truth be told, I'd become a little disenchanted with how things were going and I felt I needed to leave the server behind.

And play Alliance. :o

I'm now to be found plying my trade on Darksorrow, hoping to prove to my new guild mates that I'm the warrior they never knew they needed. The standard trial is a fortnight, so I hope you'll wish me well during it and I'll be seriously trying to up my game to a level I've never played at before. That said, I'd like to publicly thank those who chose to spend their time with me (in any capacity) at Argent Dawn. Time, unlike any other commodity, can be spent, but never be earned. I shun those who take my time, am entertained by those who share it, and cherish those who contribute to it.

There are friends on Argent Dawn I shall ever cherish. :)

So, onwards and upwards. A couple of announcements should be expected by the weekend. o/

Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker.

And, there it is - my very first legendary weapon is complete after finally seeing Garr drop that damn second binding I was missing.


I'll admit, it must have been more awesome in Vanilla. I'll also admit that the quest "chain" is notably weak in comparison to nowadays. But there's still something strangely hypnotic about blasting a dummy with this puppy.

"Dance" encounters Vs "Output" encounters.

I've been thinking a lot about encounter and raid design recently, and this week's news of 4.3 really got me thinking. Due to my disappointment with the raid content in Cataclysm, particularly in 4.2, it worries me that future fights may well be more complex than they already are, excluding ever more people as a result. If you can stick a pin in the "we wunt challengezor" cry that booms from the rooftops for a moment, I'll try to explain why.

I recently got reading this entry from Greedy Goblin talking about "the dance" and how an encounter's mechanics now dictate success as opposed to how well you can play your class. Of course, that doesn't imply that there aren't rough DPS checks to be found; there absolutely are. But the point is that classes are now easy enough to play that you cannot necessarily show skill simply by being good at it. Everyone is.

Now, I should quickly point out that I don't necessarily agree or disagree with the linked post. It actually makes a muddled attempt at indicting voice communications for some reason, while also managing to subversively insult those of us who use it. But the fact remains that playing your class has gotten significantly easier over time, while playing an encounter has gotten significantly harder. Statistically, these "dance" fights see far fewer successful pulls than those where perfecting your rotation (henceforth known as output) yields best results and the reason is probably pretty obvious. Take a look at these two differing "parses", assuming a ten-man raid with two tanks and two healers:

Parse 1

Fury warrior: 12k.
Retribution paladin: 12k.
Survival hunter: 12k.
Frost death knight: 12k.
Affliction warlock: 12k.
Feral druid: 12k.

Parse 2

Fury warrior: 14k.
Survival hunter: 13k.
Feral druid: 12k.
Affliction warlock: 12k.
Frost death knight: 11k.
Retribution paladin: 10k.

The difference in raid DPS is nothing - exactly the same damage is being done. However, parse 2 is seeing two people being carried by stronger players and this is why "output" fights are always going to be more casual friendly. At the very bottom line of it, worse players can be safely carried by better ones when there is no real risk of dying to a dance. Conversely, in dance-orientated fights, should players die off then even excellent colleagues cannot make up the difference.

TL, DR?

Plummeting raid success in Cataclysm is thanks to personal responsibility being flunked in dance-heavy content.

It's impossible to be sure, but I would imagine this isn't lost on the developers - yet 4.3 has got a lot more dance-content in the pipeline from what I've read. To counteract this, the LFR tool will be coming in to provide dumbed down versions of main raids so that the more casual or less skilled can get involved a lot more easily, and be more expectant of success. My problem with this is that it shifts emphasis further away from playing your class well (which I find unpalatable) and can potentially create other problems with progression, achievement-demands and, worst of all, gearing. Zarhym has already alluded to LFR tier being used to complete 4-pieces, so is it supposed to be used as a viable method for normal raiding guilds to fill out any slots?

As far as I see it, the distinction between output content and dance content could easily be where the casual and not-so-casual raiders differentiate. I support the introduction of the LFR tool, just not the fact it's being used to counteract a problem with a more sophisticated solution. Namely, why not make the normal raid the output raid and then introduce the dance as part of the heroic content? From what we've seen in the Firelands, very little actually changes from normal to heroic in most cases other than more damage and health to deal with. As a result, why couldn't normal raids be the more output based encounters of WotLK that encourage casual play, while heroic encounters introduce the dance that separates those more committed?In this way, we can keep the two difficulty settings while adding in the LFR tool for cross-realm raid matching. Not only does this mean less development and maintenance work, it deals with all the other logistical problems that would accompany three settings.

Moving on, though, Gevlon does make a very interesting point that should be borne in mind. Currently, the idea of personal progression is diluted because it only lasts as long as an individual boss survives. They're all sufficiently different enough to cause raids to pretty much need to start again once they've downed one encounter and moved onto the next to start the learning process. I must admit I'm totally with him here, as I'd like to see something that links the encounters in a raid zone intelligently and provides that "raid progressive" feeling that comes with killing associated bosses.

Unashamedly, I'm in love with the idea of shared mechanics where it makes sense. Something that happens across every encounter in a zone and ties them all together. This could be in the form of a bar, such as Cho'gall's corruption mechanic being applied to every fight in the Bastion of Twilight, or a buff/debuff that persists and has a similar impact depending on the mechanics of the fight. I'll try to paint an example of what I mean and I might as well use the aforementioned Bastion of Twilight and the current Firelands.

Cho'gall's corruption bar is present in all four encounters in the zone. Against Halfus Wyrmbreaker, players stack corruption when hit by Shadow Nova, meaning there ain't much that can impact them. While fighting Valiona and Theralion we could see Dazzling Destruction, Deep Breath and Fabulous Flames increasing corruption. Imagine also a heroic version where Blackout is added to the list, giving a little corruption to everyone or a lot to one person... With that person getting 100 being quite deliberate as was often seen in heroic Cho'gall strategies. We then get to the Ascendant Council where there are a myriad of avoidable sources of corruption for you to avoid. In this scenario, the mechanic is introduced slowly at first but ramps up throughout the raid and links it all together.

As another idea, take Ragnaros' Burning Wound and put it into every other fight. Replace Jagged Tear for Shannox, Widow's Kiss for Beth'tilac, replace the stacking damage from Sparks of Rhyolith, use it for Inferno Blades on Baleroc, give the ability to Voracious Hatchlings who throw a Tantrum against Alysrazor and have Staghelm applying it when scorpion cleaving or using Leaping Flames. It would replace the abilities that have similar effects while, once again, tying the whole instance together.In both cases, not only does it make the bosses in a zone "feel" more linked to one another, it also gives players a chance to learn how certain mechanics work throughout a raid and know what to look for. Heck, in the Bastion of Twilight example, it could potentially see new and compelling strategies being worked out.

All told, as a raider, the content I play in will dictate how much I enjoy playing the game. And because subscriptions are falling in Cataclysm, it's reasonable to assume that the change in standard of the largest hook for players is the cause. I'm not arguing that the new dance heavy direction is wrong, merely that it doesn't look to be popular and it's not hard to figure out why. More importantly, I think it's important that we as a player base try to highlight what we think isn't working as well as it could be, then try to suggest potential ways to improve it.

Of course... It's not as if I'm known for keeping quiet. :)

Warrior: Feedback.

[Posted on the official forums, as requested.]

I'm a career Protection warrior, focusing on heroic raids and heroic dungeons. I also play DPS occasionally, as well as some PvP; but I'll leave commentary on that to those of more experience. This is all personal opinion based on my own musings.

1) The talent revamp for Protection was an overwhelming success. There are meaningful choices throughout the Protection tree which have an impact on performance and playstyle, with compelling talents to be found in the Fury and Arms trees depending on the content you're running.

2) Sentinel should provide expertise as well as its current effects, similar to Veteran of the Third War.

2) Incite is too good. The additional critical strike chance to Heroic Strike is in line, but the guaranteed follow-up makes the talent incredibly strong and the biggest contributor to single-target threat. While my preference of nerfing this talent to let other attacks hit harder is a personal preference, it doesn't alter how powerful Incite really is.

3) Toughness, Shield Mastery, Last Stand, Bastion of Defence, Devastate, Sword and Board, Shockwave and Field Dressing are not optional talents. I understand getting rid of them all would make the tree very strange, but nobody is skipping these.

4) The difference between a warrior picking up Blood and Thunder/Thunderstruck, and a warrior not picking them up, is possibly too large. Blood and Thunder, however, is a great talent and I'd hate to see it changed or chopped. I think working the effects of Thunderstruck into it would make warrior AoE less punitive than the current four-point asking price, though I appreciate the impact this could have for Arms PvE which is already very powerful on AoE fights.

5) There is no longer a valid reason for Warbringer being unable to break roots using Charge and Intercept.

6) Impending Victory, though stylish, is awkward. A much smaller chance to proc, with a significantly higher window of opportunity, would see it more widely used.

7) Vigilance is horribly weak, and only contributes to conventional offtanking that Sentinel deals with. Due to the situational nature of the taunt refresh, it's essentially a dead talent.

8) Blood Craze gives a dreadful return for a hefty three-point investment. Even for Arms and Fury, it's sorely in need of a buff.

9) Mastery (both block and critical block) is too strong. Looking to 4.3, warriors are going to be significantly overpowered if this doesn't change.

10) Out of our rotational trio of Shield Slam, Revenge and Devastate, Revenge is sorely underperforming due to it's abnormally low critical strike chance. It's the only one of our main attacks that sports a baseline less than 20% and this works out to make Devastate always better on a single target.

11) Heroic Strike, as a non-rotational resource dump, is too powerful and damage should be shifted from Heroic Strike to Revenge and Devastate. Shield Slam already hits hard enough thanks to Sword and Board, but Revenge and Devastate should look more like Avenger's Shield and Crusader Strike accordingly.

12) Warriors still lack a proper damage cooldown such as Berserk, Dancing Rune Weapon or Avenging Wrath. Recklessness can only reliably be used once per fight (and is unappealing when tank damage is high).

13) Heroic Leap needs some of the coding restrictions removed, it's too unreliable. Colossus Smash is fine despite the DPS balance problems that have dogged it, but Inner Rage is a design failure. Cataclysm set out to remove Heroic Strike spam, then reintroduced it two months later. Also, I just can't see where it fits into the "active mitigation" model.

What are your biggest QoL issues?

Most of the above covers this, but Heroic Leap and Inner Rage are the biggest culprits. Low rage generation when levelling is also a pain.

What makes playing your class more fun?

Compelling talent choices not on offer elsewhere, mobility other melee dream about and unique utility that can change the face of an encounter.

What makes playing your class less fun?

Spiky rage generation and the reliance on Heroic Strike for competitive damage when we were promised the back of it in Cataclysm.

How do you feel about your “rotation”?

Heroic Strike is too strong, Revenge is too weak. The role of Concussion Blow, Shockwave and Rend is also confusing, but compelling. The Sword and Board mechanic, however, is what makes playing a Protection warrior the absolute blast that it is, while keeping the "rotation" fresh.

What’s on your wish list for your class?

Less passive mitigation, better self-healing, more damage AND THE RETURN OF WARBRINGER.

What spells do you use the least?

Concussion Blow and Rend. Due to the aforementioned Sword and Board, I almost always prefer Devastate to both (Rend particularly).

The future of hit and expertise rating.

Looks pretty bleak, if you ask me.

I don't mean to be a scaremonger, or throw around statements that insinuate a large amount of arm-waving (even though I often do), but I concede that I have to get this off my chest. What better place to do so than in my very own blog?

Essentially, I'm going to start with a very simple premise that's generally accepted; hit and expertise are not attractive stats for tanks, to the point where they'll commonly be reforged out of entirely. For healers, it's even more simple - nothing you wear will ever sport hit or expertise. Hell, even the pseudo-shockadin has a talent that directly converts their spirit into hit. Therefore, for two out of the three roles in the game, stats that essentially allow you to land attacks are unattractive to the point of being completely avoided. For tanks, the upcoming direction of "active mitigation" is probably going to end our long affair with hit and expertise because, despite my large post detailing what might happen, I tend to agree with other commentators that the likely route is using attacks to build resources that allow use of mitigation abilities.

In such a world, hit and expertise will essentially plummet to the point of being completely obsolete for tanks. Of course, it wasn't always like that.

During Wrath of the Lich King, I loved expertise; it was one of my favourite stats. In the days before vengeance, a tight rotation and decent expertise was needed to build threat that didn't unfairly throttle skilled team mates. Hit rating I ignored, as it was only half as good until the dodge cap at 26 and building beyond that was essentially pointless. Sure, there was the argument about a missed taunt but we had a glyph to cover that eventuality. During The Burning Crusade, threat throttling was a far more significant issue and warriors would spam Shield Block to avoid being crushed. This meant that, in general, both hit and expertise were more fashionable but not necessarily any more attractive than they are now.

In short, our interest in threat stats has gotten smaller as time has went on and I cannot see what role hit and expertise will fill beyond 5.0. I appreciate the notion of things like Shield Block missing has been touted, but there's very little chance we'll see that because of the outcry that would accompany such a change.

But here's the kick.

I don't think the developers will be done there. There is still one more role that values hit and expertise, but does not find it compelling whatsoever. As a result I believe 5.0 will see the removal of hit and expertise rating as we know them altogether. Of course, I need to justify myself.

There was recently (since the start of Cataclysm) a gnome mage who asked if hit rating was going to be removed due to it being a "fun tax". At the time, such a ludicrous notion seemed unthinkable. A wild blue poster appeared, I think Daxxarri, and commented that hit rating was the skeleton upon which your DPS was built. It took a bit of imagination to come up with the right amount of hit before piling on the haste, critical strike or mastery rating you liked more. Fair enough, I thought at the time. Then I started to think about it again recently in light of the new direction for tanks.

It's established tanks and healers won't want hit or expertise in the near future. For DPS, these stats can be a horrible nuisance because of the wild variations among specs that require it, as well as the amount available. I had to reforge hit rating onto every single one of my warlock's slots in order to get hit-capped; a full 17%. If only the story stopped there. Enter the hunter who is laughing all the way to the bank as he hits his measly 8% hit cap and starts pumping in as much agility as he can find. Mr. Retribution does the same, but then realises he needs to find 26 expertise to accompany it in order to avoid parries and dodges. A peal of thunder reveals an Enhancement shaman who also wants that expertise, but likely wants to shoot far beyond 8% hit to get more out of his offhand attacks. His Elemental brother laughs at expertise, but will need more than double the hit rating our mail-sharing hunter needs.

You see the point.

Making sure you can hit things is neither fun, nor compelling - especially when the stats can be terribly punitive and don't actually do anything else. In their effort to get people away from outside sources, Blizzard have actually shoved people right into things like Mr. Robot or WoWReforger so that they can hit their cap with nothing spared. We already have things like haste, critical strike, mastery and spell power considerations to make and even that is purely dependent on spec. When you toss in the variable hit required for a Fury warrior that you're supposed to "get a feel for", I'm often glad I play a tank and don't have to be bothered by it.

Of course, let's not forget that Blizzard does have previous with this. The removal of defence rating was the most blatant example that the developers don't think caps are particularly fun. I understand that defence rating wasn't really a "cap", but it fulfilled exactly the same function - it provided the baseline skeleton previously mentioned and allowed tanks to perform their job at the most fundamental level. The thing is, defence rating was actually MORE compelling if you ask me. Yes, it made you avoid critical strikes which was important, but it was still valuable beyond the minimum. It still made your avoidance higher so you couldn't technically waste it, something that the same cannot be said for regarding a great many specs out there when piling on their hit rating.

For me, I recall having a conversation in guild about the removal of defence rating. I said at the time that it was a bad idea, because it was removing the need to actually wear tanking gear with which to tank in. Blizzard going that route deliberately wasn't unknown to me, but I've seen essentially Arms warriors, Retribution paladins and Frost death knights trying to tank heroic dungeons and they've been absolutely terrible. At least with defence rating, you knew they were in tanking gear that gave them avoidance and stopped them being critically struck; a decent parallel with hit/expertise where you know that, at the least, someone's attacks are landing.

There are really only two directions to go here.

1) If Blizzard are determined to keep hit and expertise rating in the game, they need to actually do something beyond the yellow cap. This would mean that they wouldn't automatically be reforged out of because there would still be a benefit to having more than the 8% you need. Sure, duel-wielders are still looking for more; but those playing Arms or Retribution might like more hit being converted into critical strike or the implementation of "heavy blows" that do a small percentage more damage than normal.

2) Hit and expertise could entirely bite the dust. Not only would a restrictive part of the game be removed (something that would assist both endgame players and those levelling through), balance would actually be EASIER for the developers to find because you would have to assume player abilities are always landing. Naturally, this would impact the active mitigation plans for tanks but that needn't be negative if it's handled intelligently... In a world where they won't be attractive for tanks, anyway.

I must admit, a lot of this makes me shut my eyes and shake my head while writing it. But the more I think about it, the more I get the feeling that the role of hit and expertise as compelling stats is long gone. As a tank, I absolutely DREAD the idea that hit and expertise are going to be important for me because I already have enough to juggle with mastery, parry, dodge, stamina and armour. Toss in hit, expertise and haste (which has been touted /shudder) and you're looking at a pot mess of things to think about that will even have tanks relying on Mr. Robot.

Much like things such as defence rating or threat, it was once unthinkable that they'd be killed off as viable considerations. Nowadays, I can no longer be sure that sweeping changes won't be made in order to further simplify and streamline concepts that are either punitive or restrictive.

Remember:

You heard it here first.

Insight for active mitigation.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting hugely excited about what the developers are planning for active mitigation.



Ghostcrawler's latest blog, Bloody Mitigation, goes into a little more detail about what they think the model might look like, but he's also happy to admit that some of the changes might be too big for even a major patch; the largest changes have "expansion" written all over them. The most compelling part of the whole blog, as a warrior, is that the language is familiar to us (further proof that warrior is the tanking class) and that they're looking at both the positive and negative aspects of what Blizzard considers the three most viable models.



Amazingly, this is high quality stuff from a development team that's floundered throughout Cataclysm. As a Protection warrior who occasionally plays Arms, I'm comfortable saying that I've been spoiled with high quality development; most of the other classes, however, simply haven't been as lucky and some examples are more glaring than others. But nevertheless, and despite some class weaknesses persisting, I'm still happy to report that playing a warrior is an absolute blast.



Despite the years put into Zell, I still love playing her (sometimes him).



But let's get to the meat and potatoes - here's the three models that the crafty crab has in store:



1) Tank DPS matters.



It's very rare these days where a DPS check factors tank damage into it. This was a significant problem back during WotLK because Protection warriors were an absolute mile behind the other classes, but it's potentially viable now (even though in 10 man content, warriors are still statistically propping up the other three). The problem, of course, is that it changes nothing; the letters "TPS" get changed to "DPS" and we proceed as we are now with very little changed.



2) DPS buttons provide mitigation.



This model makes buttons matter because they will provide mitigation. Revenge will give a short duration parry buff, Shield Slam a short duration block buff. This is being touted as "the" way and only a brave man would bet against it. Hell, it even brings back a point to hit and expertise rating. The problem, of course, is when you're not conventionally tanking - some kiting or picking up of adds, or generally moving from fire can hammer your mitigation.



3) DPS buttons build resources.



We already have this with the paladin to an extent, and the idea is the same. Your attacks build up Rage, Runic or Holy power and you use that resource for mitigation from things like Shield Block, Holy Shield, Savage Defence or Bone Shield. While this sounds good at first glance, the problem is that it could be both too formulaic (as paladins are seeing now) or simply too complicated and punitive on mistakes. There is also a huge risk of homogenisation.



And that's roughly it.



Now, predicting the way this is going to go in 5.0 is notoriously difficult because the developers themselves still seem on the fence about it. While there are strong reasons to go in each direction, we see the potential problems and pitfalls that can turn this positivity on its head and shove the number of tanks in the game down still further. While a percentage of tanks might really like the sound of model 2, for example, those who support model 3 might get horribly alienated by something they find too passive. The absolute key here is the Triforce (!) of game design; easy to pick up, hard to master, fun to play. Blizzard have to take the direction that carries the least risk, but will be the most enjoyable for both long term tanks and people picking up the role for the first time. That borne in mind, how the heck do they pick the right one?



Well... They don't.



They take all three.



If we lived in a world where tank damage mattered, your attacks gave you better survival and provided you with resources, just think of the repercussions. Hit and expertise become valuable to tanks, performing your rotation well is important to everyone, and intelligent use of resources will depend on the encounter while also separating the good tanks from the great tanks. The 5.0 talent tree revamp can continue to include DPS talents that will remain compelling instead of cutting them, and new tanks coming to the role will still be able to maintain a baseline of survival while they learn the ropes.



A warrior, therefore, would look a bit like this:



Our main rotational attacks are Shield Slam, Revenge and Devastate. As the latter already has a debuff attached, we'd be looking at our mitigation coming from Shield Slam and Revenge. Shield Slam will increase your block chance for 4 seconds in accordance with your mastery, while Revenge increases your parry for 6 seconds in accordance with your strength - this will ONLY apply if the attack hits, while also counting a boss parry (going for the expertise hard cap is unrealistic). I've deliberately chosen 6 seconds for Revenge to provide a bit of leeway in its application, as using it on cooldown isn't always practical. I've also deliberately chosen only 4 seconds of block, and this is for two reasons - good use of Sword and Board procs will have net benefit, but there will also be periods where you don't get a proc. This will make warriors permanently crushable again which, in my view, is a positive thing for balance.



All the while, your attacks are doing something else. They're generating rage. You know, that resource that causes it IRL? Well, this system FINALLY fixes the inherent problems with rage, at no cost. All we need is compelling choices regarding what to do with that rage... And we have them; Shield Block and Heroic Strike.



Naturally, I know what you're thinking. We've been through this with the "choice" between Shield of the Righteous and Word of Glory. It didn't work then because smart tanks always chose the heal. But then again! We're now in a world where tank DPS matters, and it's not as if the model has to be identical. Let's say whichever ability you use, your entire rage pool is depleted; Heroic Strike would do more damage the more rage went into it, while the Shield Block duration is increased rather than its strength. That way, you can keep your shield up while also weaving in more damage when you manage the resource nicely.



Of course, this still presents the problem of being too formulaic. After all, it would be mathematically worked out when to use rage to refresh Shield Block, and then how many times you could Heroic Strike in between. But we have depth in the decision whether to get off lots of smaller strikes, or meaty big ones. And also don't forget, we also have other abilities that could consume rage rather than generating it. When AoE tanking, Thunderclap could generate rage while Shockwave or Cleave uses it up. If Concussion Blow and our buff shouts generate rage, we can spend it with Demoralizing Shout, Disarm and Spell Reflect. Hell, depending on what abilities are thrown into the mix warriors could be absolutely spoiled for choice on what we want to do outside of our basic rotation.



I fully appreciate that this may get complicated. But then again, I cannot see what would be wrong with that if I'm honest. The new or (I HAVE to say it) bad tank would still at least get most of their parry and block rating covered, while invariably using Shield Block when they remember their rage bar. The more skilled a tank becomes, the more abilities he'll fit in when weaving an intricate and beautiful web of well-chosen balance between defence and offence.



I'm romanticising.



Sorry.



But at the end of the day, we warriors can look on the future with renewed hope that we'll once again be the classic progenitor that our tanking sisters are all based around. The ingredients are already in the bowl for the most delicious cake; let's just hope we get the culinary treat of a Delicious Chocolate Cake and not the gristle of an Unidentifiable Meat Dish.



Easy to pick up; hard to master; fun to play.