To the tune of www.badgerbadgerbadger.com ;).

As I’m getting closer to putting my hands on dirty, ez mode, welfare, skillful and whatever you want to call it, S3 mace, considering I’m already 3/5 S3 with everything obtainable form honor already bought (ok, I still need to get the shield) it’s high time for me to complete my Ignore Armor Crab and get [Dory's Embrace].

First we tried Heroic Underbog, as a fresh Hunter from my guild and new 5v5 team (a lot of my ex-alliance guildies rerolled horde not so long ago) still needed cenarion rep for the head enchant. When a PvP warrior, a PvP S1 geared disc priest and a PvP S1 geared hunter with virtually no knowledge about instance begins to do heroics, a good laugh and repair bills are guaranteed. Coming with the idea that def gear is overrated and I don’t want to respec for one instance, we came with 0 defense and 0 protection talents tank into a heroic dungeon, backed up with a pvp priest with virtually no mp5 or whatever PvE stats you would like to see on a healer. We also got a random mage (can’t poly elementals, fun stuff) and PvP rogue (can’t sap elementals, more fun stuff). In result we had a long, dramatic but successful Underbog run and first 4 badges ever. Say whatever you say, but full 18 seconds of proper tanking (pain suppression followed by shield wall ;)) on a boss is better then nothing, actually, the only boss I died on was the first one. On the last boss we also got a pretty cool trinket for our priest, 33 or so resilience with 2% chance on struck to regenerate mana, don’t remember the name, sorry folks, PvE is a whole new world for me, something I didn’t intend to do at all since TBC.

Despite our initial success, we didn’t want to repeat that, especially since there are harder instances than underbog. Being the lucky bastard I’m, the pally who I 2v2 with is a raider, and with the access to PvE gear, he grabbed some tanking gear so he can do heroics with us. Our next goal: shattered halls (there was a daily quest and our priest needs the rep for his head enchant), so we went with pally tank, 2x PvP warriors, same PvP hunter and PvP priest. Trash packs in SH are pretty large, which was cool for us, aoe tanking prot pally and two warriors beating the hell of them with sweeping strikes + whirlwinds = win. The run was a blast and soon we all had 5 more badges + 2 more from the daily. Not to waste the pally’s respec money we also went into ramparts right after for additional 3 badges that day, if things are going to stay as they are, I’m going to have my cape in no time.

TS discussion highlight:

Pally: Hey, give me like 5 seconds to build agro before you guys charge in, it’s not like my consecration insta agroes them.
Me: Maybe because you don’t have Righteous Fury on?
Pally: Righteous Fury only redu… oh wait, you might have a point.

Terhix

There are things in WoW I call ancient mechanics, it’s things that are completely broken, retarded, yet still in game for some odd reason, for example one of them is the fact that deep wounds break cowering in fear effect of intimidating shout, effectively making us unable to CC someone after we crit, it’s the fact that blood craze reset whenever we get critted without giving us a tick and few other small things.

One thing that is recently floating over forums is not as minor as deep wounds/blood craze problems - it’s the Berserker Stance penalty. It was taken to public in past, before TBC, without results. We all know how berserker stance works:

An aggressive stance. Critical hit chance is increased by 3% and all damage taken is increased by 10%.

If you are not familiar with the warrior class, you can probably already smell the bullshit. 3% crit has became so minor buff since epix started to rule the world, it’s not really all that good anymore, warriors usually have extremely high crit chance, and with resilience being in game, 3% crit is not a big dps increase. Now let’s discuss this from 3 points of view: Lore, Common Sense and WoW Balance, here we go:

1. Lore

What is berserking? It’s fighting madly without worrying about self, as such berserker stance makes sense? Not really, no. Let’s take a look at similar mechanic: Barbarian’s Rage ability in mother of all rpg mechanics - D&D (3.5 version):

A barbarian can fly into a rage a certain number of times per day. In a rage, a barbarian temporarily gains a +4 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Constitution, and a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but he takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase in Constitution increases the barbarian’s hit points by 2 points per level, but these hit points go away at the end of the rage when his Constitution score drops back to normal. (…) A barbarian may prematurely end his rage. At the end of the rage, the barbarian loses the rage modifiers and restrictions and becomes fatigued (–2 penalty to Strength, –2 penalty to Dexterity, can’t charge or run) for the duration of the current encounter (unless he is a 17th-level barbarian, at which point this limitation no longer applies; see below).

And the last “ranks” of Rage:

Tireless Rage (Ex): At 17th level and higher, a barbarian no longer becomes fatigued at the end of his rage.

Mighty Rage (Ex): At 20th level, a barbarian’s bonuses to Strength and Constitution during his rage each increase to +8, and his morale bonus on Will saves increases to +4. The penalty to AC remains at -2.

Armor Class is not what Armor in WoW is, AC increase one’s avoidance and is used for describing everything like dodge chance from Dexterity, Monk’s increased avoidance from Wisdom, Duelist’s increased avoidance from Intelligence and (of course) AC from Armor protecting body and/or shield. So, in the end how does Rage affect Barbarian in D&D? Let’s make a break down:

• Increases his damage thanks to increased STR.
• Temporarily increases his HP thanks to increased CON (I died once in D&D: Online when my rage ended while I had like 8 hp left).
• Increases Will saves to help against spells that work against mind (fear, charm, paralyze etc.)
• Reduces avoidance due to lowered AC.

Barbarian becomes stronger and uncontrollable but is unaware of attacks, you don’t care about taking a hit when in Rage, but does it says anywhere that you take more damage while in Rage? No, if anything you are tougher due to temporary hit points.

Now WoW doesn’t work same way, but we can see some similarities, while in berserker stance we can use berserker rage ability that breaks fears (Will saves from morale in D&D), we have, technically, slightly higher damage done due to 3% crit (woohoo!) and take a whooping 10% more damage then everyone else in the game. Death Wish, which (despite of being moved to Arms) is a similar category of abilities also increase damage done, and again increase damage taken by 5%. It’s worth to note that in past Death Wish used to lower our Armor and Resistances by 10%. I find it funny that original developers of WoW assumed we would have some spell resistance on our gear in endgame when implementing this ability, I mean, it would make sense for a tank class to be durable against spells back in the past, but since Kalgan is taking care of WoW PvP logic is not a strong part on Blizzard. From Lore PoV it would make sence if Berserker Stance lowered our dodge/parry chance, or even lower our armor (increase damage taken against physical attacks), being Berserk means you are going offensive, you don’t defend yourself, but there should be no penalty against things (spells) you already can’t defend against.

Read the rest of this entry »

Terhix

With patch 2.3 players may be deciding to create new characters to take advantage of the improved leveling from 20-60. In my previous post a player asked for some advice on leveling his warrior, and I figure a single post with some of the basics could be a useful resource for other players. I’m not going to get into every little detail. If you’re that desperate go subscribe to one of those guides-for-noobs websites.

Note that you should level your warrior where you have level 70 friends and then transfer him somewhere else if possible. If not you’re going to have a more painful experience getting the instances/gear you want.

WEAPONS

As a warrior, you live or die by your weapon. Luckily there are powerful, easy-to-get weapons placed along your leveling path. You can also use thottbot to track down what weapons you can easily get for each level bracket. Basically though:

Deadmines will give you either [smite's mighty hammer] or [taskmaster axe], which is sufficient until level 30.

At 30 get a higher level character to help you complete the quest for [whirlwind axe]. Which in turn will do you until 40-45.

You can then either buy something cheap on the AH like [blight] or get something out of SM/Uldaman.

If you don’t it’s fine, because at 51 go win a single AV and pick up your [ice barbed spear].

At 58 head to outlands, grab [hellreaver] out of ramparts or [warsong howling axe] out of furnace.

At 65 if you have 4 friends go do ring of blood quests for gold, potions, and the [honed voidaxe].

At 66 get a sethekk halls run and enjoy your [terokk's quill]. 93.3 dps is the standard for blue level 70 weapons, so you’re set with the quill until you craft, pvp, or raid for an epic.

Put crusader enchant on your whirlwind weapon (I think you still can), your ice barbed spear, and possibly your hellreaver/howling axe. Once you’ve got the quill pop savagery on it if you can afford it.

TALENTS

Notice a trend? From level 30-70 the easy to obtain weapons are polearms or axes, so you guessed it - use arms with poleaxe spec for leveling. You shouldn’t need a step-by-step talent spec. Start with 5/5 cruelty then go to arms tree. Probably go 3/3 heroic strike, then 2/3 imp rend (I think you basically use these for dps until you have MS anyways so might as well take them over parry early on - mobs don’t hit that hard). 2/2 imp charge, 3 points wherever. Deep wounds 2/2, anger management 1/1, and 1/2 imp overpower. Get impale 2/2 and 2h wep mastery 3/5. Get death wish, then axe spec, then probably swing back down to finish up 2h wep mastery and imp overpower. Finally your time has arrived and you now have the infamous zomg mortal strike upon which this site is based. Get all the good arms talents - 2nd wind, blood frenzy, imp MS, and even Endless rage before heading back to fury. Be sure to grab blood craze when you can, it’s helpful for soloing. By the time you’re 61 you may want to respect to 31 arms 21 fury, and then work your way back through the arms tree as you level to 70.

STATS/ARMOR
For armor and jewelry, again check thottbot for blue items around your level and chase down any easy-to-get quest rewards. You might want to hit up some pvp early on and get enough rep for the trinkets/rings in your 20’s since you won’t see many of either until later on. Stat wise focus on strength/AP followed by crit and stamina. Don’t place too much importance on agility, pound for pound crit and strength are much more potent for your warrior. For the most part green armor is sufficient for leveling, and you do not need enchants on it. Buy cheap armor kits or something if you want to put things on your gear. As a rule only enchant armor you know you’ll be using for a long time, otherwise it’s a waste of gold.

The pvp gear rewards are some of the best warrior items along the path from 1-60, so if you like pvp at all (I assume you do since you rolled a warrior) do it along the way and spend the points for important pieces of equipment that you can’t easily or quickly replace through pve.

The rest is just details.

Veritas

I’ve done some math earlier today regarding this issue. 33/28 (blood frenzy in arms, not second wind) have improved slam, 3/5 flurry and weapon mastery while 41/17/3 provides Improved MS and ER. With 33/28 you do damage cycles like this:

Swing, Slam, MS | Swing, Slam, WW | Swing, Slam, MS | Swing, Slam | Swing, Slam, MS (WW is ready at this point, but can’t be used due to GCD conflict) | Swing, Slam, WW…

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that with 3.6s weapon and 3/5 Flurry your swings are done at the speed of 3.1s, when you add Slam to that swing, with perfect timing and 0 latency (never in reality) you will swing at the speed of 3.6, which is same speed as without Flurry. Because you have to time abilities between Slams and white hits, you are not using them every time they are ready, but rather every 2 swings = 7.2s for MS and every 4 swings = 14.4s for WW. With 41/17/3 you don’t have such problems with timing, you are using MS every 5 seconds and WW every 10 seconds, no GCD conflicts either. Here is the math done on those assumptions:

2000ap
130 weapon dps
3.6 speed

White dps: 272.8

MS damage: 471 + 468 + 210 = 1149

33/28 MS dps: 1149 / 7.2 = 159.6
41/17 MS dps: (1149 / 5) * 1.05 = 241.1

WW damage: 471 + 468 = 938

33/28 WW dps: 938 / 14.4 = 65.2
41/17 WW dps: 938 / 10 = 93.8

Slam dps: 272.8 + 140 / 3.6 = 311.7

Total 41/17 dps: 272.8 + 241.1 + 93.8 = 607.7
Total 33/28 dps: 272.8 + 159.6 + 65.2 + 311.7 = 809.3

And so 33/28 can produce up to 25% more dps then 41/17. That “up to” is the key here. First, using Slam every swing is huge rage eating. How much rage can you generate per swing? 20? 30? Sure you can Slam every swing, but you need to produce rage for using MS and WW as well. 41/17 will produce much more rage then 33/28 in this scheme of things. Also, this is assuming perfect reflexes and 0 latency, Now let’s do same thing assuming being 0.5 sec late with Slam, in this case your Flurried swings go up to 4.1second:

2000ap
130 weapon dps
3.6 speed

33/28 White dps: 272.8 * 3.6 / 4.1 = 239.5

MS damage: 471 + 468 + 210 = 1149

33/28 MS dps: 1149 / 8.2 = 140.1
41/17 MS dps: (1149 / 5) * 1.05 = 241.1

WW damage: 471 + 468 = 938

33/28 WW dps: 938 / 16.4 = 57.2
41/17 WW dps: 938 / 10 = 93.8

Slam dps: 239.5 + 140 / 4.1 = 237.6

Total 41/17 dps: 272.8 + 241.1 + 93.8 = 607.7
Total 33/28 dps: 239.5 + 140.1 + 57.2 + 237.6 = 674.4

Something as simple as being 0.5s too slow with Slam every swing is lowering your ideal dps with 33/28 by ~17%, slower swings means slower Slam and slower MS/WW cycles. Now god forbid you will have any rage issues with white hit every 4.1 second, comparing to 125% rage giving swings every 3.6 with 41/17. In normal instances and heroics I’m pretty sure 41/17 can easily compete if not beat 33/28 for dps, raidbuffed however the rage issues of 33/28 can be gone (windfury totem and whatever can you get), which allows you to use all your abilities to it’s fullest. Theorycrafting is fun, but we will have to wait a bit and see how it really works out in game, people will get right conclusions after few days.

edit: Oh, yes, you should also add ~2% more dps form WM to 33/28, which I haven’t done here.

Terhix

That was my reaction when a friend of mine linked me patch notes for 2.3. Deathwish moved to arms instead of sweeping strikes, improved intercept instead of weapon mastery? Holy jeebus, 42/5/14 (or anything around that) is going to win-them-all build, good enough to pvp (imp. MS, all arms goodies, deathwish, second wind and LAST STAND), good enough to dps in PvE AND good enough to tank (with improved threat on MS with tactical mastery and max defiance).

Fury warriors, who lost their deathwish, got a nice threat reduction and whirlwind hitting with both weapons to compensate.

It’s a clear sign Blizzard is preparing for new WotLK talents, before TBC I was scared, now I’m actually excited, excited enough to start thinking about refreshing my account…

Terhix