wow Warrior Hero Talent Tree Changes: May 14th

[Staff 1,488]

Blizzard made some changes to the Warrior Hero Talent trees this week. The most notable updates are to Mountain Thane, which Blizzard has explained in more detail.

Here are the latest Warrior changes that went live today on the TWW Alpha, taken from the development notes:

(Source)

• WARRIOR
  • Colossus
    • Practiced Strikes now also affects Cleave and Revenge.
    • Rally has been redesigned – When your health is brought below 35%, you gain a Second Wind, healing you for 12% of your max health over 2 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60 seconds.
    • Dominance of the Colossus damage taken debuff reduced to max of 5% (was 10%).
    • Mountain of Muscle and Scars damage taken reduced by 2.5% (was 5%).
  • Slayer
    • Slayer’s Reflexes renamed to Lethal Reflexes – Now resets the cooldown on Raging Blow for Fury (was Bloodthirst).
    • Constant Pressure replaced with Opportunist – When Tactician resets Overpower’s cooldown or Raging Blow resets its own cooldown, your next Overpower or Raging Blow deals 10% more damage and 10% more critical damage.
    • Slayer’s Focus renamed to Slayer’s Malice – Now affects Raging Blow for Fury (was Bloodthirst).
    • Tunnel Vision replaced with Culling Cyclone – Each strike of Bladestorm deals an additional 20% damage evenly split across all targets.
    • Thrill of the Kill replaced with Brutal Finish – Your next Mortal Strike or Rampage after Bladestorm ends deals 50% additional damage.
    • Frenetic Flurry renamed and slightly redesigned to Reap the Storm – Overpower and Raging Blow have a chance to cause you to unleash a flurry of steel, damaging all nearby enemies and applying Overwhelmed. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
    • Unrelenting Onslaught now allows you to use Pummel and Storm Bolt while Bladestorming.
    • Death Drive’s healing decreased to 15% of damage dealt by Sudden Death (was 50%).
    • Slay renamed to Show No Mercy.
    • The Culling Cyclone/Brutal Finish and Lethal Reflexes/Opportunist choice nodes have swapped positions.
  • Mountain Thane
    • Lightning Strikes’ chance for a lightning strike increased to 30% (was 25%). Lightning Strikes occur 30% more often during Avatar (was 50%).
    • Strength of the Mountain has been updated – Shield Slam damage increased by 10% (was 20%) and now causes Demoralizing Shout to reduce damage enemies deal to Protection Warriors by an additional 5%.
    • New Talent replacing Valarjar Training: Snap Induction – Activating Protection: Demoralizing Shout/Fury: Recklessness grants a charge of Thunder Blast.
    • Flashing Skies has been updated – Thunder Blast calls down a Lightning Strike on an enemy it hits.
    • Steadfast as the Peaks has been updated – Stamina increased by 5%. Victory Rush increases your maximum health by 10% for 5 seconds. When this health increase expires, you heal for any amount of the original Victory Rush that healed you in excess of your full health.
    • Keep Your Feet on the ground now additionally increases your Armor by 8%.
    • Thunder Blasts now generate 10 Rage for Protection and Fury (was 5).
    • Thunder Blasts deal 20% increased damage for Protection Warriors.
    • Burst of Power’s chance to trigger from Lightning Strikes reduced to 15% (was 20%).
    • Burst of Power now causes affected Bloodthirsts to deal 25% increased damage and generate 2 additional Rage for Fury Warriors.
    • Steadfast as the Peaks/Keep Your Feet on the Ground choice node position swapped with Flashing Skies/Snap Induction.
  • Protection
    • Battle-Scarred Veteran has been updated – When a damage event reduces your health below 30%, the portion of that damage event that would apply to the last 30% of your health is also reduced by 80%.
      • Developer’s note: For example, if you are at 50% health and receive damage for 40% of your health, your damage taken will be 20% + 20% * (1-0.8), or 24%, and you will have 26% health remaining when Battle-Scarred Veteran activates." Additionally, this change will be deployed to the 10.2.7 environment over the next few days.

Kaivax explains the main goals behind the latest round of changes for the Mountain Thane Hero talent tree.

• Adjust tuning of ability damage and Rage generation.
• Improve defensive bonuses for Protection Warriors.
• Revise underutilized talents based on community feedback.

(Source)

Hello Warriors!

We have a few goals for this round of Mountain Thane changes.

Mountain Thane

• Lightning Strikes: Chance for a lightning strike increased to 30% (was 25%). Lightning Strikes occur 30% more often during Avatar (was 50%).
• Strength of the Mountain updated. Shield Slam damage increased by 10% (was 20%) and now causes Demoralizing Shout to reduce damage enemies deal to Protection Warriors by an additional 5%.
• New Talent replacing Valarjar Training - Snap Induction: "Activating [Protection: Demoralizing Shout][Fury: Recklessness] grants a charge of Thunder Blast.”
• Flashing Skies design updated: “Thunder Blast calls down a Lightning Strike on an enemy it hits.”
• Steadfast as the Peaks design updated: “Stamina increased by 5%. Victory Rush increases your maximum health by 10% for 5 seconds. When this health increase expires, you heal for any amount of the original Victory Rush that healed you in excess of your full health.”
• Keep Your Feet on the ground now additionally increases your Armor by 8%.
• Steadfast as the Peaks / Keep Your Feet on the Ground choice node position swapped with Flashing Skies / Snap Induction.
• Thunder Blasts now generate 10 Rage for Protection and Fury (was 5).
• Thunder Blasts deal 20% increased damage for Protection Warriors.
• Burst of Power’s chance to trigger from Lightning Strikes reduced to 15% (was 20%).
• Burst of Power now causes affected Bloodthirsts to deal 25% increased damage and generate 2 additional Rage for Fury Warriors.

First, we adjusted the tuning of ability damage and Rage generation to reward the intended rotation. We generally want Thunder Blast to be worth pushing whenever its available in ST and AOE.

Second, we added some more defensive bonuses that are primarily of interest to tanks to make Mountain Thane’s defensive value for Protection Warriors comparable to the defensive values of other tank Hero Talent trees.

Lastly, we revised the designs of some talents you told us were less exciting, like Valarjar Training, Flashing Skies, and Steadfast as the Peaks. Randomness is part of Mountain Thane’s identity (it’s only possible for non-shamans to control lightning so much, after all), but we’ve added Snap Induction as a tool for players who are looking for a little more control or reliability.

Thank you for your testing and feedback.