#0 - June 23, 2009, 11:45 p.m.
My short bio is simply to show that I have considerable experience with the warrior class and understand modern raiding concerns.
In a recent Ghostcrawler response, the warrior community was challenged to begin new discussions on some of our concerns. The number one concern to me, as exhibited by the title of this thread, is "quality of life."
By quality of life, I am referring to the enjoyment and feeling of accomplishment while performing one's role in a raid. This has very little to do with being 'underpowered' or 'overpowered' (although quality of life would be very low if your class was completely inept). Instead, we're simply going to talk about class mechanics here.
It is my assertion that warrior quality of life could use some help. In fact, we have needed some help in this area for quite some time. There are a plethora of areas where we could begin this discussion, but we'll start at perhaps the most painful issue, heroic strike, and branch out from there.
For me, playing video games is fun. WoW is no different. I enjoy this game and I enjoy playing my various characters. The lone exception is heroic strike, or rather the way in which heroic strike is utilized on raids. From the moment I engage a boss until that boss is dead, I feel like I am performing two rotations - warrior tank rotation and heroic strike spam. Because warrior threat numbers are (apparently) designed around a warrior combining heroic strike with a fast weapon (1.6 speed or less), heroic strike spam is not optional, nor is there any alternative. Heroic strike spam is firmly embedded in the warrior tank mechanics.
The biggest problem with this is that with raid buffs, parry haste, and bloodlust, in order to maximize heroic strike usage, a tank is unable to strategically hit heroic strike whenever it pops. Our weapon speed is too random and does not coincide with the GCD of our other abilities. Thus, most warrior tanks end up spamming heroic strike for the entirety of a boss encounter. As Ghostcrawler has admitted in the past, this is not fun.
There are several ways to maximize heroic strike spam. Some players press the hell out of their heroic strike key (I do this, and my finger gets physically tired during raids.) Some bind it to their mouse wheel and simply scroll the mouse while fighting. Some macro it to every hotkey they press (although I would argue this is inefficient). Perhaps the best idea, if you have the equipment, is to use a gaming keyboard and create a toggle switch for heroic strike spam.
And that bothers me. When having a gaming device automate a large portion of your threat capabilities becomes a viable (and appealing) option, it is indicative of a significant problem with warrior mechanics.
There are, of course, solutions to heroic strike, and with the release of every set of patch notes, I find myself praying for some relief, and I end up utterly disappointed. Some suggestions include:
- making heroic strike a toggle ability
- making heroic strike a buff that reduces rage generated by white attacks while increasing damage
- increasing the rage cost of heroic strike
- changing heroic strike into an execute-style ability
- increasing the threat of heroic strike and implementing a longer cooldown
- removing heroic strike altogether
Before you scoff at the last suggestion, consider that of all three warrior specs, arms is the most fluid rotation and (in my opinion) the most fun to play. Why does heroic strike even have to be part of our rotation? So that we have a rage dump, correct?
