So, we were promised to have Charge/Intercept/Intervene breaking snares (for all the idiots out there - frost nova is NOT a snare, snares are slowing effects ONLY), this was supposed to be in already, but…

The published version on the website will be accurate. However, the notes pushed out that will appear on completion of downloading will have an inclusion that did not make it into this patch.

“Charge”, “Intercept”, and “Intervene” now remove all snaring effects.

The technology for this has not been completed, so we are holding off implementation to a future patch. We are still working to get this functionality into the game, but simply couldn’t finish it for this patch’s cut off date.

…Tseric explained why it didn’t make it into the game. Now that we got new PTR patch notes online for quite some time, it doesn’t say a squat about snare breaking. Will we ever get rid of Intercept bug?

Terhix

In my previous post I sang the virtues of going sword spec in the arms tree, rattling off the (often overlooked) benefits of the spec.

One of our visitors argued I had missed the most important drawback of sword spec - and he was right. No minor drawback either, it reduces the effectiveness of the proc by something like 25-33%.

The theory was that when your sword spec procs it resets your swing timer. This is no problem for procs off of white hits, since the timer would be at 0 anyways. But for yellow hits, having a sword proc when you were 0.1 seconds away from your next white swing anyways means you get next to nothing. A 0.1s faster swing. You are not actually getting “an extra attack” as the tooltip suggests. Rather you are getting “your next attack immediately”. So its still good if it procs early in your swing timer, but the farther into your timer you get the more the proc becomes a very minimal haste type buff (for 1 swing) than it does an “extra” attack.

Frankly this is mind boggling. The tooltip is misleading, and with this knowledge the spec is strictly inferior to axe or mace. It is like spending 5 points in axe spec for 3% crit, since a good chunk of the procs will be basically wasted. Any proc off a yellow will be a haste-proc, not actually an extra attack. Sadly one of the biggest advantages I was arguing for in sword spec was that it gave a nice damage buff on hamstring and pummel procs, and gave rage on all yellow procs. Now we see a lot of those “procs” are damage you were about to get anyways, rather than free damage.

The evidence below:

The screenshot shows this:

45:16 - victory rush (proccing ss)
45:17 - SS proc.
45:21 - white hit (+4 seconds since SS proc)

45:24 - white hit
45:26 - hamstring proccing SS
45:26 - SS proc
45:30 - white hit (+4 seconds since SS proc, +6 seconds since last white hit)

The first proc came 4 seconds after the last white hit (you cant see the previous hit unfortunately). Sword is 3.6 speed so this is what we would expect if the swing timer was reset after the proc.

The undeniable proof is in the second proc. If the timer was not reset my next white hit should have come either at 45:27 or 45:28 (3.6 secs after the previous white hit). However it came at 45:30 - SIX seconds after my previous white hit, 4 seconds after my Sword spec proc.

What blizzard was thinking in doing this boggles the mind. But do I care enough to go back and craft the ugly looking axe?

Veritas

In a previous article I discussed the crafted blacksmithing weapons, arguing that thunder was the optimal pvp weapon, while axe and sword are great for those doing some pve and some pvp with axe having the advantage if you specced for flurry.

Personally I use a [Lionheart Champion] with sword spec. Swords get a bit of a bad rep with a lot of warriors. My personal opinion is that this is because your 5% chance for an extra attack does not show up anywhere on your stats sheet. I’ve had people tell me that axe is better because you can stack crit. This is nonsense, a 5% chance to crit and a 5% chance for an extra attack both have the same chance of proccing.

The damage breaks down like this for axe vs sword (white dmg - for yellow damage axe does 10% more from impale, and another few % more if its MS or Slam due to the bonus damage of these abilities):

Crit: dmg + dmg
SS proc: dmg + dmg
SS proc crit: dmg + [dmg + dmg]

Say you hit for 500

axe crit: 1000dmg (+procs)
SS proc: 1000dmg
SS crit: 1500dmg (+procs)

So really when you go sword spec, you’re hoping for that 50% damage bonus. This is the “burst potential” that sword users are always talking about. What better way to counter a healer than to surprise them with a sudden extra 1.5-2k damage out of nowhere?

However sword spec is a lot better than that, for 2 primary reasons:

1. When sword spec procs off a hamstring or pummel you get a full weapon hit, probably 500-700 damage non-crit. If your axe spec results in a hamstring or pummel crit you get a lousy 50 extra damage.
   
   
2. Every sword spec proc generates rage! This is the most overlooked benefit of sword spec. SS procs off of yellow abilities will net you your 14-15 rage, much more if the proc is a crit. Your axe spec will never do this (although it will proc impale on yellows).

I have heard arguments that this is balanced by the fact your sword spec proc can be dodged, parried, or just plain miss. I discount miss because you should be running with 5% to hit anyways. As for the other two, your initial hit could also be dodged or parried discounting the chance for a crit, so the point is pretty minor.

Ultimately I always say people should take the wep spec they personally enjoy more. I am not saying sword spec is absolutely superior to the others. I do feel though that a lot of players overlook the benefits of sword spec: higher burst potential, more damage on procs off hamstring and pummel, and more rage generation.

Veritas

Johnny is an Arms/Fury warrior, he has got up to Second Wind in arms and is now picking fury talents to get deathwish and improved Intercept. Johnny got 10 points in fury and now has 5 points to spend before he can pick Enrage, so he put a point into piercing howl instantly as it’s wtfpwn and start thinking what to choose: 3/3 Blood Craze and 1/5 Commanding, or 4/5 Commanding. Johnny’s little brain tells him that 20% increase in his shouts is woohoo and 3% self heal after a crit, over 6 seconds, that doesn’t even stack and gets reset when you get crit often is meh. Is Johnny right, or is he another mentally handicapped kid? Let’s take a look.

Commanding shout gives 1080 hp untalented, Battle shout rank 8 gives 305 attack power untalented. Now we are looking at 3 points increase in the talent, as the difference is to have 1 point in it, or to have 4 points in it. 3 points are 15%, so going 4/5 Commanding Presence gives Johnny 46 attack power or 162 hp advantage over 3/3 Blood Craze guy. I mean - HOLY SHIT! 162HP! THAT’S LIKE ALMOST MY ONE DEEP WOUNDS TICK! Pure awesomeness.

Ok, so what do you gain for loosing those 162hp? Let’s take a look at Johnny’s health bar, every warrior with half of a brain should stand on, at very least, 10k HP with commanding shout alone. That means Johnny would regenerate 300hp with just one proc of Blood Craze. Let me repeat it in case you missed the point - it’s just one proc. How often are you getting critted in pvp? Ever heard of “perma enrage”? Blood Craze is not that far behind it. In many fights you will see it ticking constantly, giving you 1% hp every 2 seconds (occasionally stacked with Second Wind giving you total 3% hp every 2 seconds). The longer the fight is and the more you get crit, the better Blood Craze is.

So where is the hack? There are two. First - the obvious one - blood craze works only on yourself while commanding presence is whole party. Second - resilience is bugged now, and if you have Blood Craze and Enrage, whenever a crit will be reduced to a hit due to resilience, you will get either Enrage or Blood Craze, but not both of them! Take your pick.

Terhix

From European boards: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=263836810&sid=1

The following changes to cleave have been made for the 2.1.0 patch.

–Cleaves will only hit people in front of the creature.
–Cleaves will have a chain length equal to the combat reach of the creature.

We still don’t have an exact estimate on when this patch will be ready but development is wrapping up and the test phase should begin relatively soon. As a reminder, the patch undergoes internal testing before public, PTR testing.

Note this does not seem to be something that will affect our cleave, but rather something that will make melee dps more viable in a lot of encounters. Currently the amount of 360 degree cleaves in the game make it tough to use rogues, enhance shamans, ret pallies and dps wars. This change will allow you to stay out of cleave as long as you are behind the mob, thus an indirect buff to arms (and fury) warriors!

Veritas