Monday, April 5, 2010

Rage Changes for Cataclysm



Bornakk has announced some up coming changes to Rage on the World of Warcraft forums.  The details of all the Warrior and Druid changes have yet to be announced so we really don't have the full context of all the upcoming changes.  Apparently Blizzard thinks there are some problems with Warriors and Druids dealing with their Rage including:

  • Warriors/druids in the lowest levels of gear can be Rage-starved. 
  • Warriors/druids in the highest levels of gear no longer have to manage their Rage when it becomes infinite. 
  • Warrior/druid tanks lose Rage income as they improve their gear and take less damage. 
  • The gameplay of warrior and druid tanks loses a lot of depth when massive boss hits means never having to manage Rage. 
  • Heroic Strike and Maul are effective, but tedious abilities for using up extra Rage. 
  • In general, warriors and druids don’t have enough control over their Rage.

In order to fix these issues Blizzard is going to make these changes:


1)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. This amount is based on a constant formula which factors in the base swing speed of the weapon. This means the Rage gained should be averaged out between fast and slow weapons. The constant formula also gives us the ability to easily increase the rage gained if it feels too low (or reduce it if [it] is too high). We are also implementing the following mechanics, which will still allow rage to improve to some extent as you improve gear:
If the attack is a critical strike, it will generate 200% Rage. 
Haste will accelerate swing times to generate Rage faster.
2) 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 or druid. Again, there is a constant that is multiplied by the rage generated in order to allow for fine-tuning. This calculation ignores all damage reduction from armor, absorption, avoidance, block, or similar mechanics, so improving your gear will not reduce Rage gained. 
3) We will provide warriors and druids with more instant sources of rage. For example, the warrior shouts are changing to work more like the death knight ability Horn of Winter. Instead of Battle Shout consuming Rage, it will generate Rage but have a short cooldown. Both classes will have additional methods to generate Rage in an emergency or bleed off Rage when they have too much. 
4) 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. For example, imagine Heroic Strike costs between 10 and 30 Rage. You must have at least 10 Rage to use the attack, but it will consume all available Rage up to a maximum of 30. Any Rage consumed above the minimum will cause the ability to hit harder, and in some cases much harder. 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.
All these changes seem to be in good order, and I am most excited about the removal of "on next swing" attacks. As a Druid, Maul always felt a bit lame. This kind of mechanic separates the player from the toon by making the player feel like he is just giving commands to his character rather than playing the character directly. I welcome all these changes and hope it brings some life to Warriors and bears in the up coming expansion.


What do you think of these changes?


-unwin


source: World of Warcraft forums

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