Blizzchat Warrior Q&A

So last night was the Developer’s Q&A from Blizzard on the new Class/Talent/Mastery stuff. I actually stayed up all night to throw some questions at them. Sadly the ones I would really loved to see answered, didn’t get answered. So I’m still in the dark about the viability of Titan’s Grip now that 2-handed weapon specialization is Arms only and I still don’t know why the hell Improved Slam is still in the Arms tree (I mean, come on! No one ever speccs that -.-). Anyway I would like to make a post here about the Warrior Q&A where actually one of my questions came through!

Q. Will rend (sigh) be refreshed by Thunderclap on all targets used with Blood and Thunder?
A. Yes. The idea is that you Rend once and then Thunder Clap from then on. We still hope it’s an optional talent, not the only way warriors can AoE tank.

I think this is a big sigh of relief by prot warriors. Having to apply Rend is consuming a global cooldown which could be used on a more usefull ability (think Heroic Strike or Shield Slam).

Q. Slam’s design is pretty archaic and not very fun. Is there any chance of Slam becoming an instant-attack baseline ability?
A. We think it makes the ability feel different. Slam as an instant attack isn’t very different from some of the other attacks. As it’s designed though, Fury shouldn’t use Slam at all without procs and Arms should only use it with the Improved Slam talent. We tried (briefly) making Slam a low-level ability, but weren’t happy with it.

I have to agree with the blues on this. Slam is an optional attack. Not required for the rotation of Arms and only usable when procced for fury. It stands out for being a “casted” attack. I like it the way it is because it makes you more alert to your procc on it as fury (aka when you see a castbar Slam, take a step back immediatly!).

Q: Will Whirlwind still be a part of a Fury warrior’s rotation on single mobs or will it be multi-mobs only?
A. Multiple mobs only.

This ^ was my question. Since the new ability isn’t implemented yet you do still use Whirlwind on single targets in the beta. Good to know that by the time Cataclysm hits it will be for trash only and the new ability will be implemented. Speaking of which…

Q: Are Fury Warriors still going to see a new attack to fill the loss of Whirlwind? Any insight?
A. Yes! It’s called Raging Blow (at least for the moment), because we wanted to distance is a little from the old Enraged Assault. It’s Fury-only and can only be used when Enraged, but does not consume the Enrage. It does indeed strike with both weapons (including the animation).

I like! Not only will this replace the loss of Whirlwind but it will be the replacement talent of Impending Victory too. Basically this talent will be up when you use any of your “enrages”. Bloodrage, Berserker Rage, Death Wish and Recklessness are all considered Enrages. I think this is also Blizzards way of saying “Specc into Enrage!” for Fury warriors since it will probably be up 24/7.

Q: Concussion Blow is rarely used these days outside of PvP. Any plans for it? Will you unlink it from Vigilance?
A. It’s pretty useful on Mr. Lich King….

Apart from the fact that it is pretty useful on the Valkyrs in the Lich King fight, it’s  an useful talent to have as Prot warrior overall. What if there’s no CC and there’s healers in the instance? You as warrior then have an ability to stun them. And trust me, there are a lot of healy things in the dungeons in Cataclysm. I see a revival of this talent. Maybe not now, but it will definately come in handy in Cataclysm.

Q: How is Heroic Leap working so far? Is it progressing better than your last attempt at putting it in-game?
A. We’re pretty happy with it so far. The version we have right now lets the warrior target where they want to leap, so they can use it as an escape tool as well. We all know paladins would never retreat from a battle, but warriors have been known to do so.

I like this. I was squeeling with joy when I saw this ability would be available to Warriors. Looks like Blizzard is working hard on the ability to make sure it doesn’t only have an offensive feel but also a defensive feel. Escaping from enemies = good. Crushing that healer 20 yards away = also good. I definately like where this is going.

Q. Why does fury have two 31-point talents? Wouldn’t it be simpler to merge them so one doesn’t have to re-specialize when new weapons drop?
A. We feel the decision on which of these two talents to choose is based on play style (two fast weapons, or two slow two-handed weapons), not based on which weapons most recently dropped (like the former Arms weapon specialization talents which have been cut).

We expect the player to decide which type of dual wielder they are and collect weapons and gear that fit that type.

This question was a double, I just took the one that explained most to me. Essentially going for 1handers or 2handers is your own choice. However in my opinion Titan’s Grip HAS to change before you can even make that choice. At the moment I myself are leaning towards using 2handers because they just look better. However we’ll see what is better when Cataclysm hits. As far as viability/usability for leveling goes (as far as I’ve seen in the beta atleast) it’s safer to stick with 1handers and just see what the Dungeons/Raids will drop.

Q: Hi, it’s me Rend! I’m sort of terrible, but if tanks are having to use me in Cataclysm, may I be a good ability now?!
A. Get back to the back of the bus, Rend.

In all seriousness, though, we don’t want Rend to be the answer to Protection warrior threat. It isn’t going to keep mobs glued to you. We do think we have room to boost its damage though, even for warriors with a DPS specialization. One change we’ve made is letting it do a tick of damage immediately, so that you see and feel damage right on the application instead of waiting for the first tick.

Basically the same answerish as the first question in the Q&A. What I like is that it does immediate damage. Not only useful to Prot warriors but also to Arms in PvP.

Q: What do you think warriors will be more unique for in PvP now that Mortal Strike is available to other classes and reduced to 20%?
A. We don’t think warriors need a unique ability that is so awesome that you just have to have a warrior on your Arena team. That is bad mojo for all the other classes. We do want warriors to be useful in PvP, however. One ability we are trying out for Arms is “Throwdown,” which lets them knock an opponent to the ground for five seconds. Since it’s usable in Battle Stance, they can also use it as a Pummel in a pinch.

THANK YOU! THANK YOUUUUU. Interrupt in Battle Stance HELL YEAH. THIS IS GOD. No longer having to switch to Berserker Stance to interrupt. THANK YOU GHOSTCRAWLER. Best announcement so far.

Q: You mentioned “Disarming Glare isn’t likely to make it. Could you expand on this a bit?
A. We cut it in exchange for the Throwdown talent above.

Ok this is a  bummer since a 10 second unbreakable fear after a Disarm would be awesome but I do get why it’s too overpowered. They’re replacing it with a really good ability though so not that much complaining here.

This was the Warrior section on the Blizzard Q&A. They’ve enlightened a lot, made me even more enthousiastic about Arms PvP in Cataclysm and took away some Prot tanking worries of my boyfriend. All in all a lot of new information to ponder.

The quoted questions are copied of wow.com who have put them all nicely under their respective category.