Warrior Wednesday: Patch 3.2 Changes, On-Time-For-Once Edition!

Here we are on Wednesday again, and for once, my post is on time! Hooray! Warriors rejoice! Okay, enough celebrating. What's more important to celebrate about are the changes that are planned in Patch 3.2 for us warriors that have been announced in the past few weeks. Those changes that have been added are the following:

• Bloodrage: This ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The health cost is unchanged.
• Execute: This ability now never costs more than a total of 30 rage. The tooltip for Sudden Death has been revised to remove reference to that maximum, since the ability now behaves that way even when untalented.
• Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.
• Talents
• Fury
• Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text.
• Protection
• Devastate: Weapon damage increased to 60% and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 20%.
• Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block.

Well, those are certainly a lot of additions! So, I'll break them down bullet by bullet:

Bloodrage: This ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The health cost is unchanged.

A very welcome change. All types of warriors use their Bloodrage ability. More rage means more chances to use our abilities! The health cost is unchanged as well, which is still good, but most of us use the appropriate glyph anyway (you do use it, right? I thought so...)

Execute: This ability now never costs more than a total of 30 rage. The tooltip for Sudden Death has been revised to remove reference to that maximum, since the ability now behaves that way even when untalented.

Well then, This could be good in the fact that DPS warriors have some more usability with this, erm, ability. Still, the way that Execute works is that the more rage you have, the more of it is consumed, and the more damage it does. With a maximum limit set in place, this will probably lower our DPS, which is rather unfortunate. :(

Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.

Putting diminishing returns on Block Value? WHAT?! This isn't entirely good people. I mean sure, we probably won't hit the diminishing returns through just gear as warrior tanks, but when we use Shield Block, according to Ciderhelm of Tankspot.com, we will most likely pass this point with only a few pieces with the stat on them, meaning we get less benefits than usual from block value, meaning we generate less threat. That, my friends, is the warrior tank's shot in the chest with the nerf gun.

Now for talents:

Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text.

Very minor, seeing as most people use some sort of addon to replace the Blizzard floating combat text, let alone using it at all if they don't replace it. Moving on...

Devastate: Weapon damage increased to 60% and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 20%.

Previously the weapon damage for devastate was 50%, and the bonus being increased is great as well. Wonderful for our threat and damage output, but it hardly makes up for the shield block nerf in my opinion.

Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block.

Oh crap! We're going to be more angry than ever! And when I say angry, I mean we're going to have more rage to use than ever. Not only do we generate more rage per action than before (increased from 2 to 5), but we get this every time we block, dodge, or parry instead of just blocking, which is AMAZING. More rage = more abilities thrown at mobs = more threat = more happy warrior tanks! Nice!

What a vast array of changes we have so far. Okay, so they're not as vast as some other class changes going on next patch (See Druids and Paladins. Good God!), but there are some very important things going on with warriors, especially with the tanks. It's good to know that Blizzard seems to be paying at least some attention to their players as well as noticing some problems themselves.

Next week, things! Maybe even more things! Eh, I don't know, I'll have something. Maybe a second part to a guide I suppose. Not entirely sure. Anyways, Cláymore out!

(I finally learned the alt code to the wierd A in my name! 0225 :P)