Back from the Brief Break
Merry Christmas all, and a Happy New Years, all! Back when I was Alliance, I met a gnome warrior (and guild leader of Resolute) named Amelio. He was never a cocky player, and he was always in it for fun. That said, he always had crazy (… albeit inventive …) ideas of how WoW should play out. Among our recent conversations (hating on Druid CCs, discussing potential lunch options, and talking about Arena Strategies), we got on the topic of strong Arena Specs.
We put aside the basic 33/28 and 35/23/3 with all their variations. We even skipped the 41/x/x Arms Discussion. We went into the realm of the unknown to do …
36/4/21 - Mortal Strike + Concussion Blow (variation of 35/5/21)
Yes, Amelio, you are crazy! Yes, Amelio, this is very unusual. Yes, Amelio, you are mighty.
Why play a defensive oriented stance versus any of the more cookie-cutter builds? There is some logic to Amelio’s madness (I think).
+ Concussion Blow - 5 second stun - on demand!
+ Revenge Stun - Keep those rogues at bay.
+ Defiance - You could tank if you wanted, but you get this for the Expertise Rating.
+ Toughness - Your 10k armor becomes 11k. Anti-warriors and anti-rogue!
+ Last Stand - You won’t just fall over without a fight (20k HP … on demand!*).
+ Improved Bloodrage - Get even more instant rage … on demand!
+ Improved Sunder Armor - It’s just like buying a new car for 20% off.
+ Like 41/x/x, Enrage isn’t active all the time (See Endless Rage … or is it Endless Angst).
- No Enrage to help you fight mirror teams.
- No Tier 2 and up Fury Talents in general.
- Losing out on Disarm Immunity.
- Losing out on Sweeping Strikes.
- No Piercing Howl (Druids dash away… but it doesn’t matter since you’re cycloned)
- No Improved Battle Shout for more AP nor Blood Craze for HP Regen from “crits.”
* Your mileage may vary depending on your gear and trinket options.
Where does this fit into for Arena Teams?
“Great!” You might be thinking, “I’m going to spec into this and stun my way to victory.” Not so fast, buddy. This doesn’t fit every team setup and while this an effective use of talent points, it shares alot of Diminishing Returns with all the other stuns (Revenge, Intercept, Conc. Blow, … etc.).
+ The point of this setup is a lot like going SL/SL as warlock.
+ You become difficult to burst down (high flash-survival)
+ Your role shifts more towards CC/DPS instead of DPS/CC (yes, there’s a difference).
+ Your damage will be lower than your 33/28 counterpart.
2v2 News - Beating Druid+Warlock as Paladin+Warrior
P.S. We finally managed to beat a Druid+Warlock combo. What’s the strategy? Keep youselves fully cleansed. Keep on the warlock. Run them into the ground. Chain combo finish when the time is right.
P.P.S. I hate Druids.
-ERP-
December 27th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
I’ve only used it for a week… that being said I have barely used Revenge thus far, so I might let go of those points for imp. disarm or something. Also, Defiance expertise may not work in all stances currently, but is planned to next patch or something from what I hear.
I don’t feel like I’m missing much so far. The only real glaring thing is the weapon mastery causing me to endure double length disarms.
If you look down the fury tree you’ve got the following you’d be spending points on:
tier 1:
Cruelty - i’m still able to get this.
tier 2:
Unbridled Wrath, Booming Voice, Imp Demo - all rather worthless.
tier 3:
Piercing Howl - this is nice, but I haven’t had many problems without it so far. Concussion blow on Druids is far more useful than any piercing howl spam.
Blood Craze - I haven’t gotten this for awhile, last I knew it was bugged and would proc when enrage didn’t proc, meaning obviously there was a glitch I didn’t even want to deal with.
Commanding Presence - tiny bit more attack power or health, nothing game changing.
tier 4:
Enrage - On our 3’s of Warrior+Mage+Priest, I’m rarely the focus target, and thus I never have enrage procced anyways. Furthermore, if I as a Warrior ever am the focused target, I really can’t afford to be attacking and putting Enrage to good use. Instead, since the game has become so ass-backwards broken and Warriors have gone from best “damage soaking” class in the game to worst, I now have to turtle up in defensive stance with a shield on and spamming defensive abilities just to have a chance at surviving… again not being able to use Enrage in any way.
tier 5:
Sweeping Strikes - I play with a mage, thus SS is generally a bad ability to ever even attempt to use. The only occassion it is entirely safe is when I can dps a warlock+pet together.
Weapon Mastery - Huge loss… but Defiance when fixed will make up for the expertise/dodge loss, but the disarm protection is sorely missed.
I’d go so far as to call the majority of the fury tree talents mediocre at best. I’m not really losing any DPS since good teams know how to not Enrage a Warrior unless they intend to heavily burst him. Last Stand and Concussion Blow alone make up for the utility in fury, if not surpass it altogether. Being able to stun a druid for 5s in caster or cat form at least gives me a chance of getting them low and putting them into panic mode. Also the ability to lock down a healer for a long time is kind of funny to see… pummel->conc blow->pummel->intercept->pummel, that’s a long time w/o being able to heal.
December 28th, 2007 at 3:54 am
That sounds just crazy enough to work….!
December 28th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Yea, looks like the drain spec for Warriors. I might get worried seeing it outside of 2’s.
December 28th, 2007 at 11:21 am
HOLY HELL WHATS GOING ON ITS A MAD WORLD!!!
December 28th, 2007 at 11:34 am
A little update:
Amelio’s made 2003 in 3v3 as of last night with a hybrid of this spec (39/1/21). He currently runs a Disc. Priest and a Frost Mage.
December 28th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Only reason I went 21 prot was because our team has a lot of problems with Rogue+Mage/Warlock+Priest/Druid teams. Maybe these teams won’t be quite as hard once Prep+AR is nerfed, but for now any extra control I can get (also the reason I have Imp. Hamstring) helps us survive their initial burst.
The other spec I’ll try with my 3’s will be:
45/5/11 http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LV0xdAbqMhdioVZfxz
I really think this is about the highest DPS spec I could use for this team.