Contents
Intro
This page was originally written with the intent of keeping our old
guides and updating a new set of Cataclysm guides. Since the 4.0 patch
shattered the world we decided that keeping the old guides was pointless.
As a result all of the Cataclysm warrior info is in the update guide
set and the guide on this page will not be updated. So use one one of
these links to get the info you need:
As of this writing (Sept 30) the World
of Warcraft: Cataclysm
expansion launch date has not been announced. Amazon doesn't even know the date.
Guestimates are all over the place, as one might expect.
What is more certain is that there will be a lot of changes to classes,
talents, gear, glyphs, etc. There are certainly some pretty big changes
from Wrath of the Lich King, a total rebuild of the talent and
glyphs systems for all classes, for one, but also expect changes as the
beta goes on.
It seems to me that the changes to the stat system, bonuses, talents,
etc., are intended to make the total system less confusing. Perhaps it's
also intended to make it easier on the Devs who do the actual coding.
A simpler system = fewer bugs and issues.
We'll try to keep up with the changes on this page.
Goals with Cataclysm Warriors
Here's what the Devs are shooting for, with respect to Warriors (source,)
but keep in mind that all of this may change to some degree and target
goals may or may not be hit.
Rage changes:
There are various issues with Rage that the Devs want fixed, such as
Rage Starvation at low levels and infinite Rage at high levels and gear.
The highlights are posted on this page, the full detail of what they
want to accomplish is here.
- Rage is no longer generated based on damage done by auto-attacks.
Instead, each auto-attack provides a set amount of Rage, and off-hand
weapons will generate 50% of the Rage main hands do.
- Rage from damage taken will no longer be based on a standard creature
of the character’s level, but instead will based
on the health of the warrior ... improving your gear will not
reduce Rage gained.
- We will provide warriors and druids with more instant sources of rage.
(Warriors) will have
additional methods to generate Rage in an emergency or bleed off Rage
when they have too much.
- All “on next swing” attacks in Cataclysm are
being removed. Heroic
Strike and Maul will be instant swings that cost a variable amount of
Rage. ... We will tune the ability so that it’s generally not a good
idea to hit it when you have low Rage (unless everything else is somehow
on cooldown) but becomes a more attractive button the higher your Rage.
Abilities:
- Block is being redesigned to scale better. Blocked
attacks will simply hit for 30% less damage. Block rating will improve
your chance to block, though overall block chances will be lower
than they are today.
- Parry no longer provides 100% avoidance and no
longer speeds up attacks. Instead, when you parry an attack, it
and the next attack will each hit for 50% damage (assuming they hit at
all). In other words, Dodge is a chance to avoid 100% of the damage
from one attack, Parry is a chance to avoid 50% of the damage from
two attacks, and Block is a chance to avoid 30% of the damage from
one attack.
- Armor - The way Armor mitigates damage is
not changing, but the Armor stat has been rebalanced to mirror changes
to the armor curve in Cataclysm. As a result, bonus Armor will go down
slightly overall. We are also changing the mitigation difference among
armor types so that plate doesn’t offer so much more protection than
mail, leather, and cloth.
- Strength, Agility, Hit Rating, Expertise, and
Critical Strike Rating - These will all still appear on gear
as well. Aside from situations mentioned elsewhere in this list,
in general these will function similarly to how they do now, though
the details -- such as how much Hit Rating you might need to effectively
combat high-level creatures (more on this below) -- are likely to
change.
- Combat ratings - All ratings will be much
harder to "cap out" at maximum gear levels. Ratings will be steeper
in Cataclysm, and creatures in later tiers of content will be harder
to hit or crit, similar to how level-83 mobs are harder to hit or crit
than level-80 mobs.
Warrior Tankage, Gear, expect to see:
- One of the goals is to provide better incentive for classes to wear
the armor they are intended to wear. Ideally there will be much less
reason for warriors to wear anything other than plate.
- No more Defense on gear. Existing Defense becomes
Dodge, Parry, or Block Rating.
- No more Block Value on gear. Existing Block Value
becomes Block Rating.
- You’ll have as much Stamina
as you’re used to,
though you may notice your tanking plate has a bit less Stamina than
a comparable piece of DPS plate, since we tend to take the gem budget
out of your most attractive stat.
- Bonus Armor on gear will go down slightly.
DPS Warrior Gear Goals:
- A lot more Stamina.
- Strength if you wear plate. Agility if you wear
mail or leather.
- Existing Attack Power becomes Agility and Stamina.
Armor Penetration becomes Haste or Crit.
Devs: Many lower-level items with nonsensical
combinations of stats, such as Agility and Spirit, will be changed.
We're also updating quest rewards, trade skills, and loot drops to
support better itemization for class builds that weren't widely available
or used prior to The Burning Crusade (such as Balance druids).
Mastery & Talents
This is a new ability that will allow
players to become better at whatever makes their chosen talent tree
cool or unique. It's directly tied to talents, so what you gain from
improving this stat is entirely dependent upon your class and the talent
specialization you choose.
The talent system is also being heavily revised. There will be a lot
fewer talents, for one, and a lot less in the way of "filler talents." Another
aspect of this system is that you are locked into
one tree until you
hit the bottom of that tree, then you can branch out into the other trees.
it takes 31 talent points to hit that top tier talent, until then your
warrior will be either Arms or Fury or Protection.
To take the pain away, from being locked into one specialization, Mastery is
a reward (dog biscuit?) for specializing in that one tree. As an example
of what it does, Mastery might
offer an addition of X% damage to certain abilities. Mastery
rating is
appearing on beta gear and increasing amounts of rating will increase
the bonus, just like your crit rating adds to your crit chance.
At level 10 you will pick your specialization. As you advance in that
tree you will gain other abilities, beyond just the talents. Since exact
numbers are likely to be kicked around a bit before the expansion arrives
we may not show all the talent numbers or levels available.
Arms in 4.0 & Cataclysm
You're the master of the two handed weapon, using it to smash opponents
down while leveling, in raids, and in PvP.
- At level 10 you'll get Mortal Strike as your main attack
- As you progress down the arms tree your skill with two handers will
progress to the point where you're doing 10% more damage with them.
- Anger Management is another specialization ability which allows
for greater rage generation
- Mastery: Strikes of Opportunity: Each melee attack has a
chance to trigger an additional swing for 75% damage. Additional Mastery rating
will increase this chance.
Arms Talents:
- War Academy - increases the damage from Heroic strike, Victory
Rush, Slam and Cleave
- Field Dressing - increases points gained from heals and self
heals.
- Blitz - Your Charge ability gains additional rage
and also stuns an addional nearby target
- Tactical Mastery - retain some rage when stance switching
- Second Wind - Gain some rage and health when stunned or immobilized
- Deep Wounds - your crits cause the opponent to bleed for
6 seconds.
- Drums of War - reduces the rage cost of Shield Bash,
Pummel, and and shouts which use Rage.
- Taste for Blood - Improves Overpower and allows
Rend to activate Overpower
- Sweeping Strikes - Your melee attack strikes an additional
opponent
- Impale - increases the crit chance of Mortal Strike,
Slam, and Overpower
- Improved Hamstring - when reapplying Hamstring you
will immobilze the opponent for a short time.
- Improved Slam - Decreases the cast time of Slam and
increases its damage
- Deadly Calm - for the next 10 seconds none of your abilities
cost Rage, but you will continue to generate Rage.
- Blood Frenzy - Improves your bleeds and your auto-attacks have
a chance to generate additional rage
- Lambs to the Slaughter - After dealing a Mortal Strike -
your next Martal Strike, Overpower, or Execute will
do some additional Damage.
- Juggernaut - Charge is now usable in combat, but
has a longer cooldown. Charge also increases the crit chance
of your next Mortal Strike
- Sudden Death - Your melee strikes have a chance to reset the
cooldown on Colossus Smash and you keep some Rage after using Execute
- Wrecking Crew - Your MS crits have a chance to enrage you
cause additional damage for 12 seconds.
- Throwdown - knocks the target to the grouind and stuns it
for 5 seconds
- Bladestorm - Go into a killing frenzy and cannot
use other abilities.
Fury in Cataclysm (4.0 patch)
Whereas Arms is the two handed weapon expert, Fury is
the berserking engine of destruction.
- Bloodthirst hists your opponent for high damage and heals
you slightly. This is your initial Fury ability.
- Dual Weild Specialization: Increases overall damage by 10%
and increases the off-hand damage by 25%
- Precision: Increases your chance to hit by 3%
- Mastery: Unshackled Fury - Various enraged/berserker abilities
provide a benefit and this increases that benefit by 25%. Additional
Mastery Rating increases that percentage.
Fury Talents
- Blood Craze - regenerate a bit of health after getting hit
- Battle Trance - your next Bloodthirst, Mortal
Strike, or
Shield Slam has a chance to make your next special attack
cost no rage
- Cruelty - Increase crit chance of Mortal Strike, Shield Slam,
and Bloodthirst.
- Executioner - Your Execute strikes have a chance
to increase your attack spped for a few seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
- Booming Voice - reduces the cookdowns of Battle
Shout and
Commanding Shout, plus generates a bit of additional rage.
- Rude Interruption - Interrupting a spell with Sield Bash
or Pummel increases your damage by 5% for a short time.
- Piercing Howl - Movement speed of all enemies within 10 yards
is reduced by 50% for a few seconds. Round up some runners and howl 'em.
- Flurry increases your attack speed for s few seconds after
dealing a crit
- Death Wish - become enraged, increasing damage by a fair
amount and taking a bit more damge.
- Enrage - Your melee hits have a small chance to enrage you,
increasing damage by a small amount for several seconds.
- Die by the Sword - Increases your Parry chance to
100% for four seconds when you drop to 20% or less health. This happens
no more than once per 2 minutes.
- Raging Blow - (Requires Death Wish) a 100% damage
strike, with both weapons, that can only be used while Enraged
- Rampage - Increases the crit chance of all party/raid members
(within 100 yeards) by 5% and increases your own crit chance by 2%
- Heroic Fury - wipes immobilzation effects and refreshes your Intercept ability.
- Furious Attacks - Your auto-attacks have a chance
to reduce healing to the target for a short time.
- Meat Cleaver - Damage done by Cleave or Whirlwind increases
the damage done by those attacks for a short time. Stacks up to three
times.
- Intensify Rage - Reduces the cooldowns of Berserker Rage,
Recklessness, and Death Wish
- Bloodsurge - Your Bloodthirst hits have a chance
to make your next Slam instant
- Skirmisher - Reduced cooldowns of Intercept and Heroic Leap
- Titan's Grip - Allows you to equip 2-handed axes, swords,
and maces in one hand
- Single Minded Fury - when you dual weild one handed weapons
you get additional damage and slam hits with both weapons.
1-85 Cataclysm Leveling Guide
Cataclysm brings 85 levels to a game with heavily revised, and brand
new, content. Zones are changed, politics are changed, new races are
introduced, old quest are gone, new quests, chains, and tasks have been
created. It's a lot of quests and, just like the old series, they will
take you hither and yon all over the world. Blizzard's new internal
quest helper is pretty slick, but it doesn't tell you
which is the best path to take to knock out the quests ASAP and which
quest's are best skipped (since they aren't worth the bother.)
So if you want to get your new, or lower level, character into the new
content ASAP then you'll want to take Zygor's path to get there, and
note that Zygor's is 4.0 ready. Click
here to learn more.
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