Video summary
The video provides a comprehensive overview of the extensive rework applied to Warriors in World of Warcraft: The War Within, focusing primarily on talent adjustments rather than fundamental ability changes. A significant portion of the update involves refining rage generation and management mechanics across all specializations. For instance, new talents like Anger Management now generate rage every three seconds during combat, while Unbridled Wrath offers a chance to generate additional rage upon dealing melee damage, with two-handed weapons receiving a bonus increase. The rework also introduces "Spearing Strike," a new ability that deals extra damage to giants and mounted targets, effectively allowing players to knock opponents off their mounts in World PvP, a feature previously reliant on different spells.
The talent trees have been streamlined to create more distinct and specialized playstyles, particularly for Fury and Protection warriors. In the Fury spec, talents like Dual Wield Spec drastically increase off-hand damage and rage generation, while Improved Cleave reduces its overall rage cost significantly when paired with other talents. The Arms specialization sees benefits in critical strike chance with axes and polearms, whereas Protection gains substantial buffs to threat generation and survivability. Notably, the Protection tree now grants a 100% chance to generate rage upon blocking attacks, and talents like Mastery of Events allow for rage generation when dodging or parrying, addressing previous issues where these defensive stats did not contribute to resource gain. Additionally, long cooldown abilities such as Retaliation and Shield Wall no longer share a cooldown with Recklessness, offering more flexibility in defensive rotations.
One of the most impactful changes highlighted is the ability for Protection Warriors to use Thunder Clap while in Defensive Stance, a major quality-of-life improvement that enhances area-of-effect threat generation during tanking duties. The video notes that while the core identity of each spec remains largely intact—Fury as a fast dual-wield DPS, Arms as a two-handed DPS, and Protection as a shield-based tank—the updates aim to reduce pigeonholing by offering slight creative avenues within the trees. However, the speaker expresses concern that the rework might still be too rigid, potentially discouraging hybrid builds like a Fury tank setup due to simplified talent paths. Overall, the changes appear designed to balance resource sustainability and threat generation without altering the fundamental combat mechanics or removing key abilities like Last Stand or Bloodthirst.
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So, next we'll do warrior. Let's start
with the warrior, chat. Warrior is going
to be the first one that we look at. Uh
we're going through and we're looking at
all the talents and stuff for all of
classic plus,
for all of wild forever. I'm going to
run through them much more quickly than
I was paladin. Improved heroic strike,
uh deflection, reduces the rage cost of
uh heroic strike by one, increases parry
by 1%, you know, by up to 5%. Improved
rend, increases the bleed damage done by
rend by 36%. Improved charge, six more
rage on a charge. Improved tactical
mastery. Tactical mastery lets you
retain up to an additional three rage
when you change stances. So, tactical
mastery is now built in, baseline.
Anger management generates one rage
every 3 seconds while in combat, reduces
rage loss while out of combat by 30%.
Deep wounds, cri- critical strikes cause
your opponent to bleed at dealing 20% of
your weapon your melee weapon's average
damage over 12 seconds.
This is all for rank one. Improved
overpower, increases the critical strike
chance of overpower by 25%.
So, you you see some movement in the
tree. They've moved it around a little
bit.
Oh, this is new. Spearing strike, a
brutal attack that deals 40% weapon
damage, deals an additional 80% weapon
damage against giants, dragonkin, and
mounted targets.
Mounted targets are dismounted.
What? World PvP talent.
You can knock a guy off his mount. That
is cool.
That is a cool talent.
What we used to use in vanilla, we would
we would use uh disco rays, or whatever
they're called. Uh discombobulator rays
to knock people off their mounts.
Two-handed weapon spec, 3% more damage
with two-handed weapons. Impale,
increase the critical strike damage
uh
bonus of your abilities by 20%.
More crit damage.
Is how impale works. Blood thrill, your
melee attacks against targets affected
by your rend have a 10% chance to
activate your overpower ability for one
attack on your current target. So, if
you have a rend on somebody, then every
attack has a 10% chance to instant
overpower within the next 6 seconds.
Yeah, well, you're saying it's a waste
of rage. It's it seems like it's a free
overpower. I don't think it's a waste of
rage. Sweeping strikes, your next five
melee attacks strike an additional
nearby opponent. So, weapon master
give your we melee weapon attacks a
benefit depending on the weapon.
Give your melee weapon attacks a benefit
depending on the weapon. Axe/polearm,
increase your critical strike chance by
1%.
So, up to 5%. OH!
SO, you're getting all of the specs. So,
5% more crit for axe/polearm.
15% armor pen for mace or staff.
Sword, you have the same sword spec.
Okay.
Improved slam
reduces the global cooldown and cast
time of slam by
max rank, half a second.
In addition, slam no longer interrupts
your melee swing time.
Arms slam DPS warriors
Now, interesting, I feel like
slam
Why didn't they not put this in
two-handed fury?
Or sorry, in fury, but two-handed fury.
Up slam is a recent update. That's what
it is.
It no longer interrupts your melee
swing.
Uh mortal strike
improved hamstring
Okay, same thing. Okay, mortal strike is
uh it's the same. Mortal strike is
effectively the same. Where's just like
a 50% debuff instant strike plus damage.
Booming voice, increase the radius of
your battle shout and demoralizing shout
by 50%. Cruelty, 5% melee crit.
Iron will, reduce the duration of stun
and fear by 15% max rank.
Unbridled Wrath at max rank is going to
give you a What is this? 60% chance to
generate one additional rage when you
deal melee damage with it. This effect
is increased to two rage for two-handed
weapons. Is that new? Two rage for
two-handed weapon, is that new? I think
it is. Also, yeah, Iron Will used to be
in Prot. It's kind of weird that it's in
Fury, right? Cuz I thought before it was
one rage for everything. But I What I'm
saying is that new, the two rage for
two-handed? Two rage for two-handed is
new. Okay, yeah. That's That's what I
That's what I thought. Improved Cleave
uh reduces the rage cost of your Cleave
by three.
Piercing Howl, same as before,
50% 6-second daze AoE. Blood Craze
regenerates 3% of your total health over
6 seconds after being the victim of a
critical strike. Dealing damage with Oh.
Oh. Dealing damage with Bloodthirst or
suffering more than 20% of your maximum
health from a single attack.
Interesting.
Okay.
This seems like pretty nasty for your
sustain. Every Bloodthirst
So, you're If you're Bloodthirsting on
cooldown, which you're not always going
to be able to, you're getting 3% of your
health
every 6 seconds. That's a lot of
self-healing. Cuz it's going over your
Bloodthirst or if you just get hit.
Boundless Rage increase your maximum
rage by 30.
That's big. That's big.
30 rage.
Dual Wield Spec, uh increase your
off-hand weapon damage by 5%.
Off-hand rage generation by 20%. So,
it's going to be Off-hand weapon damage
by 25%. Off-hand rage generation by 100%
and chance to hit with off-hand attacks
by 10%. So, it's like
That's insane. That is a gigabuff.
Raging Blows cause your Whirlwind to
also strike with your off-hand weapon.
Wow.
Raging Blows, Whirlwind if you're dual
wielding with Whirlwind, you now hit
with both weapons. Reduces the rage cost
of Cleave by two in addition to that. So
that is a passive paired with improved
cleave, your your cleave now does five
less requires five less rage overall.
And rage gives you a 30% chance to deal
2% increased physical damage for 12
seconds. So 10%.
Is that a nerf?
After being the victim of any damaging
Oh, of any damaging attack. Is that a
nerf? I think it I think it's a nerf. So
it's a nerf in value, but it's all it's
not crit only.
Uh
That's probably a buff cuz it used to be
25% on crits.
Depending on what you're doing, this
could either be a buff or a nerf. Uh
reduces the rage cost of execute by or
five. Uh improved intercept, 10 less
rage for intercept. Death wish, when
activated increase your physical damage
dealt by 20% and makes you immune to
fear, but increases all damage you take
by 5%. That's the same. Precision
increases your chance to hit with all
attacks and abilities by
>> [clears throat]
>> 2%. So fury dual wield fury warriors are
going to have 13% hit built into their
spec. So if you have 13% hit built into
your spec,
that's kind of insane. Oh, chance to hit
with off hand. That's how it
That's how it works, right? 30% off
hand. Still I mean it's still insane.
Improved berserker rage Improved
berserker rage ability will instantly
generate five rage 10 rage
and has a 50% chance to remove all
movement impairing effects when
activated.
Yeah, 100% for two points.
Uh fury PvP spec. But also if you get
stuck in a root or something in in uh
like a dungeon, who knows. Increase your
melee uh melee attack speed by 25% for
the next three swings after dealing a
melee critical strike.
Bloodthirst, instantly attack the target
causing damage equal to 35% of your
attack power plus 30 and increasing your
move speed by 10% for 10 seconds. Okay,
so that's that's the same Is that a
nerf? Actually wait, that's a nerf. So
okay, now finally let's look at the prot
tree. Shield spec, increases your chance
to block attacks with your shield by 5%
and grants you a 100% chance to generate
five rage when you block.
Anticipation, okay, they they made these
all in the Burning Crusade versions.
They buffed them up pretty big. Improved
blood rage, 50% more, okay. Toughness,
increase your armor value by a minus by
10%. Improved Thunder Clap, okay.
Last Stand, when activated this ability
to really grants you 30% of your maximum
health for 20 seconds after the effect
expires the health is lost. Mastery of
Events, oh wait, is this new?
Grants you a 50% chance to generate five
rage when you dodge or parry while a
shield is equipped. This is kind of nice
because one of the problems right now
for warriors
is like dodge is like the worst
mitigation stat because you don't get
hit and if you don't get hit you're not
getting rage from it. So, a dodge giving
you rage is pretty nice. Parry is still
great because you get parry haste and
you swing faster so you get rage from
that. Uh increase damage dealt by
Revenge by 60%. Device increases all
threat generated in defensive stance by
an additional 15% [music] while a shield
is equipped. Okay, so you generate more
threat if you have a shield equipped.
Cool. Just outright. Uh reduce the rage
cost of Sunder Armor by one. Improved
Disarm, reduce the cool down of Disarm
by 21 seconds. Is that Wow, okay.
Vanguard, your charge ability is now
usable while in defensive stance.
Improved Shield Wall, reduce the cool
down of your Shield Wall by 11 minutes.
Concussion Blow stuns the target for 5
seconds.
Give your Shield Bash ability a 100%
chance to si- to silence the target for
3 seconds. I think that's already in
vanilla, I can't remember.
Uh
>> [music]
>> Vitality, increase stamina and strength
by 10%.
Stamina and strength by 10%. Deep in
Prot, uh Focused Rage, reduce the rage
cost of your offensive abilities by one.
Bastion, increase all damage you deal
by 10% when a shield is equipped. That's
kind of cool. Just do more damage with a
shield equipped. And then Shield Slam,
slams the target with your shield
causing damage increased by your block
value and has a 50% chance of dispelling
one magic effect on the target.
Cause a high amount of threat. I think
that's the exact same as it was.
So, I feel like warrior did not change a
lot. I'm a big believer in maintaining
the play styles that currently exist in
vanilla wow, unless they're like
completely stupid. [music] And I feel
like with warrior, you're getting
pigeonholed a lot more than how you
normally are. Fury seems like a hard and
fast dual wield spec. Arms, hard and
fast two-handed spec. Prot, hard and
fast shield and sword taking spec. And I
don't think it allows you a lot of
creativity within the the tree
to
be able to do kind of like fury tanking
build. Not necessarily dual wield
tanking build, like a fury tanking
build. Just seems like it would be giga
nerfed. It's too simplified.
Yeah. Now, I wonder if any abilities
changed. Mocking Blow two-minute cool
down.
Thunder Clap.
I think it's important to look at
Thunder Clap.
Blast nearby enemies with thunder,
increasing the time between their
attacks by 20% for 22 seconds, doing 55
damage. Affects up to four targets.
Battle stance, defensive stance,
four-second cool down. Four-second cool
down? Is that What's the cool down
normally? The number one thing to take
from here is you can Thunder Clap in
defensive stance as a warrior. So, if
you're a prot warrior,
they're making it to where you have a
little bit of better AoE threat
generation, it looks like. That is a big
deal.
So, I I don't I don't play a warrior or
I don't main a warrior or anything, but
I know one of the big problems for a lot
of warriors that's super frustrating is
that Thunder Clap can't be used in
defensive stance. And uh
yeah, so that's a big deal. Uh
Overpower, five-second cool down, makes
lots of target dodges.
You have Victory Rush in vanilla.
They put Victory Rush into vanilla.
Hamstring,
uh 45% for 15 seconds.
Rend,
66 or 18 seconds.
It's so funny cuz Rend feels so bad, but
you you kind of need it.
You need to use it, but it just feels
terrible. Retal is on a 15-minute
cooldown, and it does not share a
cooldown with Shield Wall. It does not
share cooldown with Shield Shield Wall
or probably Recklessness.
15-minute Retal.
That is
That is pretty big, dude. Shield Wall,
Retal, and Recklessness don't share a
cooldown now. Lay on Hands cooldown was
20 minutes.
So, the the really really massively long
cooldowns, they they axed them. They got
They They went They went way lower on
them. Cuz I'm looking in the spellbook,
and I just did
Retal,
and my Shield Wall is available. Now, it
requires a shield, but I'll just put on
a shield real quick, and I'll be like,
"Boom, Shield Wall." So, they don't They
don't share a cooldown anymore.
I mean, things look mostly the same
from what I understand. I was just
thinking about November. Like, a
November launch with a beta on Thursday
means that they think they are basically
done with the game, and the beta is like
almost like a marketing thing.