#85 - Sept. 3, 2009, 10:34 p.m.
Q u o t e:
GC, that's patently false? Warrior tanking by design (I hope it's not accident) requires close to "infinite" rage to have decent threat output. If we're ever short rage to the point we can't refresh shouts, then we have much bigger problems. Pretty sure you had said something to this effect when you talked about how we "had" to heroic strike every swing in order to be viable.
Infinite rage is not our intent for the warrior, when dps or tanking. Rage is one of the core mechanics for the warrior along with stances. You already don't get much out of stances as a tank. If you also don't have to pay attention to resources then you're not really going to get the experience playing the class that we intend.
When I say stuff like that, the inevitable result is "OMG GC sez they're going to nerf our rage." That's not what I mean. Warrior tanks have been balanced around their current condition of having (near) infinite rage and we'd have to make additional changes if we get to the point where you need to pay more attention to it.
As an example, back when threat was a lot bigger issue in fights (think Voidreaver or Vael), then smart warriors would advocate spending some of their itemization on threat stats. I think it might have been Satrina who advocated using a dps weapon to tank since you can put survivability in every other slot. If warrior tanks generated more of their rage by doing damage than taking damage, then a lot of stuff might get fixed: dps stats would be more valued (without going back to threat-limiting fights), you wouldn't be rage-starved when avoiding or OT'ing, and tanking could be a little bit more about using the right ability at the right time and not just when it's on cooldown.
DKs don't have infinite resources at any given point in time, and while it has caused some design challenges, I think it makes for a more interesting experience overall. We can debate about whether Prot paladins have mana issues, but they still have to do something to get mana back. (As an aside, Ret paladins generally don't have mana issues, but that has also led to a system that is very cooldown-driven and one where we've had a hard time nailing both fun and balance at the same time.)
In any case, if rage mattered a little more to Prot warriors then Commanding Shout for rage would be a more interesting mechanic. Again, this is not an announced change -- just a little brainstorming to in turn encourage additional discussion in this thread.