Gladiator Warriors : To Execute or Not to Execute

Gladiator's

The latest simcraft results have been posted for the different ilvl groups and we're doing extremely well! Glad is a top parsing spec currently, and I'm sure you've all heard the hype that seems to only build every day since WoD launch. 

Remember though, that Simcraft results are dps in a vaccuum, with 0 movement and no mechanics, or a Patchwerk style fight. They simulate encounters and should always be taken with a grain of salt. Just because a spec might be low on simcraft doesn't mean that the spec is worthless either. I'm sure everyone had those moments in 5.4 when a Boomkin or Arcane mage destroyed the meters, and the fury warriors cried WHAAAT? It can happen, and to be fair, 5.4 was a large minigame of using trinket proc's effectively once you were done gearing.

Execute is viable. But Optional.

What I found the most interesting was that Execute was re-introduced to the gladiator warrior rotation! Sub 20% it is a DPS increase, a small one ( only a few hundred dps ) to execute under a few conditions. So because this change is only a few hundred dps, this is an optional rotation.

BASIC Rotation ( about 200 dps increase seen in current simC doing this )

BB+SC+SS > Revenge > Execute > Devastate

ADVANCED Execute Rotation :

BB+SC+SS > Revenge > Devastate > Execute if SS CD is 1.5-2s remaining

Only use Execute when Shield Slam is about to come off CD, and resetting via Devastate won't speed it up.

Example:
You are sub 20%, Revenge has 5s left, Shield Slam has 2-1.5s left, you're above 60 Rage, and might or might not be inside a Shield Charge. Then you Execute.

Also I've updated the rotation/stat priorities post to include execute and linked it to this post as well.

One other caveat in the use of Execute within your rotation ( sub 20% ) is that it changes the APM required for the spec, so you end up pressing less buttons. I know most of you will want to do the most dps so you'll already be wearing out hands/mice/keyboards spamming heroic strike with unyielding strikes, so this might be a nice change if you're looking to slow it down a little without costing too much dps.

Cyc

Gladiator Optimization : Stat Priorities and Rotation * Updated Jan 20,2015*

Hello Gladiators!

Now that we are getting closer to the end of Beta, and actual release of the new stance, I'm happy to provide some of the basics that should hopefully be our bread and butter when we ding 100 and equip our shield again. Blizzard has addressed quite a few of the concerns I've had for Gladstance and it is definitely nice to be heard. They've buffed Execute, given PVP Gear Bonus Armor and delivered on a very fun spec to play.

This is just basic information I've collected through use of Simcraft and actual play in Beta, and it's very possible that changes in tuning might skewer these steps. Be warned that I may be editing this post :)

Stat Priority and Weights

With the 6.0.3 Changes. I've updated the scale factors. It still holds true that you need a bit of haste to get that extra GCDs inside Shield Charges. This factors in that you have the 5% haste buff as well. But going forward into Heroic and Mythic gear the values change a bit. I've detailed this below.

The basic stat priority is when gearing up to raid Highmaul :
250 Haste > STR > Bonus Armor > Haste to 700 > Crit > Haste  after 700 > Multistrike > Versatility > Mastery >

Here are the new stat weights:


630 ilvl

WDPS	250 Haste	STR	Bonus Arm/AP	700 Haste	Crit	700 Haste+	Multistrike	Versatility	Mastery
1.43	1.2	0.95	.90	.44	.42	.41	.36	.32	.30

665 ilvl

WDPS	250 Haste	STR	Bonus Arm/AP	700 Haste	Crit	700 Haste+	Multistrike	Versatility	Mastery
1.32	1.2	0.95	.90	.60	.53	.49	.48	.41	.38

695 ilvl

WDPS	250 Haste	STR	Bonus Arm/AP	700 Haste	Crit	700 Haste+	Multistrike	Versatility	Mastery
1.26	1.2	0.95	.90	.62	.62	.58	.55	.48	.45

Importable for Ask Mr Robot(edit depending on ilvl):

If you can Reach 7% Haste:
MainHandDps               1.32
Strength                  1.00
AttackPower               0.94
BonusArmor                0.94
Haste          < 7%    0.60
CriticalStrike            0.53
Haste          7% +    0.49
Multistrike               0.48
Versatility               0.41
Mastery                   0.38



What this means for us when we hit 100 is the following:
1. Use the Draenic Armor Potion, this is because you get a lot more stat then you would with a strength potion.
2. Use Crit enchants on cloak/neck/rings. This is assuming you made that 700 haste breakpoint with your gear.
3. Get Bonus Armor gear on your Neck, Rings, Cloak and Trinkets, otherwise use the stat priority for the rest of your gear.
4. Mark of the Thunderlord is your best bet for DPS. The Mark of Blackrock looks like it could be competitive, but you don't want to be trying to drop to 50% hp to set it off.


Talents

Level 15 : Juggernaut / Double Time / Warbringer

This is definitely just your preference. I like the mobility of Double Time so I usually choose that.

Level 30 : Enraged Regen / Second Wind / Impending Victory

Impending is a DPS loss, Second Wind isn't as powerful as it used to be, and Enraged seems to be the best with my own testing thus far. I'd still go with Second Wind if I was soloing old content or fights where I was low on health for long periods.

Level 45: Heavy Repercussions / Sudden Death / Unyielding Strikes

US is currently going to net you the most dps. You should try out heavy repercussions, sudden death and unyielding strikes to choose here. They greatly affect how the rotation feels and if I had to choose, I would do the following:

HR/SD for PVP where burst is needed.
Otherwise, US with the Cleave Glyph.

Level 60 : Storm Bolt / Shockwave / Dragon Roar

The DPS Difference is enough that I would recommend Dragon Roar. Especially if using Bloodbath below.

Level 75 : Mass Spell Reflection / Safeguard / Vigilance

I've used MSR all through levelling and dungeons, it's been awesome. But in raids I'd go with safeguard. It's hard to top the 20% damage reduction all the time on your tanks/comrades.

Level 90 : Avatar / Bloodbath / Bladestorm

Bloodbath unless you have waves of 3+ adds every minute. Avatar if you overgear the fight so bad you won't see a second CD needed or the raid needed some intense dps burn every 3mins.

Level 100 : GLADIATOR STANCE!!!!!

Rotation

The Glad rotation will primarily be the similar to the one Protection Warriors have been using all through 5.4. However with the addition of shield charge, it is better to pool rage until you are within a Shield Charge.

Unyielding Strikes Rotation:
Devastate if under 6 stacks of US and US is about to Fall Off > Bloodbath + Shield Slam + Shield Charge > Revenge > Dragon Roar > Devastate

Heavy Repercussions Rotation:
Bloodbath + Shield Slam + Shield Charge > Revenge > Dragon Roar > Devastate

Sudden Death Rotation:
SD Execute > Bloodbath + Shield Slam + Shield Charge > Revenge > Dragon Roar > Devastate

Optional Execute Rotation:
Simply Execute (Sub 20%) before Devastate at the end of each rotation. Adding in Execute is optional and I cover reasons for and against in another post HERE.
Example:
Bloodbath + Shield Slam + Shield Charge > Revenge > Dragon Roar > Execute (Sub 20%) Devastate

For All Rotations Use Heroic Strike to prevent capping rage, or when you get Ultimatum Proc's. Unyielding Strikes users will be using Heroic Strike a lot. Be sure to dump your rage during Shield Charge using Heroic Strike.

Note: Remember that you can hit Shield Charge and Slam at the same time, and should. You can delay a Shield Charge for 1 Second to allow for an extra Slam inside the charge, but should NEVER Delay Shield Slam.

The Perfect Pull

Charge
Bloodbath+Berserker Rage+Shield Charge+Shield Slam
Heroic Strike + Revenge
Heroic Strike + Dragon Roar
Heroic Strike + Devastate
Shield Slam


Also one side tidbit I found funny with some other Warriors on Twitter was that because some races perform pretty visual jumps, twirls, flips etc on heroic strikes you might be able to look fairly hilarious playing as glad :)

- Cyc out :)

* Spoilers * More Tweets, Armor Blades, New Tier, Final Boss! * Spoilers *

Hello Gladiators!

Redesigns are the talk of the week, and will continue to be for months before release. I should probably warn that the entire Glad Stance idea COULD be cut right out of the game, and our hearts. However, this looks to be an exciting experiment, so I will do my damndest to test the hell out of it come Beta ( if I can get in. ).

First, I'd like to draw attention to one of my favorite shows on the internet, FinalBoss.TV. If you're reading my blog you're probably already interested in Endgame content, and Prot Warriors. This happens to be an awesome talk show where they've interviewed a few of the more vocal Prot Warriors from the MMOC message boards. I had actually rallied for another Prot War Ep as the first one was a much different format of show from what I've come to love in the current episodes. Be sure to go show your support @ the Finalboss site too! Here is the Ep!

* Spoilers * Second, Our new Tier was Datamined. Well We think its our new tier, and it looks AMAZING! Thanks to the MMO Champion Team for this! Don't fret if its not quite fitting your new Tauren Model face right now. I'm sure they'll fix that. * Spoilers *

 

Finally, the Glad Stance Related Changes:

The latest patch notes had a few interesting changes. Riposte and Blood Craze:

Blood Craze is a new passive ability for Protection Warriors.
Blood Craze causes Multistrike auto attacks to trigger a Blood Craze, which regenerates 3% of the Warrior's health over 3 seconds. When this effect is refreshed, the remaining duration is added to the new effect.

Riposte has been redesigned.
Riposte now gives the Warrior Parry equal to their Critical Strike bonus from gear. gives the Warrior +100% to Parry chance until they Parry an attack after getting a critical strike with an Auto Attack.

I'm thinking this means we're going to have a metric ton of parry to keep us nice and survivable for some of those niche situations where we'll drop a Mocking Banner and get beat on for a few seconds ( Protectors of the Endless Sun's Bubble ). The Blood Craze change is huge though! We should be healing a ton as we're going to be loving Multistrike already for the extra damage, and extra passive healing is a nice bonus.

Remember they've changed second wind so you will be less able to kite for 5 seconds and climb back to 35%.

This leads me to the last point, and to me, the most exciting:

@Cyclonus_WOW Bonus Armor will actually provide DPS value for tanks. Yes, it's part of the item's budget.
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) April 21, 2014

@Tengenstein A passive, Bladed Armor. Increases Attack Power by 100% of your Bonus Armor. (NOTE: Just *Bonus* Armor, not ALL Armor)
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) April 21, 2014

This is another trade of defensive stats for offensive stats. And I think this sounds great. Not only do we get to continue to look for gear with tank stats on it, straight up Plate DPS gear will also be useful. This sort of versatility in our gearing strategy also means we're going to need to do a ton of testing :). Remember our SPEC ( protection ) is going to be deciding how our gear rolls. So we should also expect that the Tier Set bonuses for the tank gear are going to be useful to us as well. 

- Cyclonus

Blue Tweets: Gladstance is Confirmed Competitive DPS!

Hello Gladiators!


There have been a few informative Blue Tweets on our new DPS spec that I wanted to review.

First, there was definitely some needed clarity on whether we are still intended to be able to tank with the Gladiator's Resolve Talent. Other than the obvious lack of being able to switch out of this stance in Combat, it needed to be said. Matthew is a WowInsider Editor who blogs about Warriors as well.

1. Matthew Rossi ‏@MatthewWRossi  Apr 3

   @Celestalon The way that Gladiator Stance and the talent is worded, it seems like prot warriors who take it will still be able to tank

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2. Celestalon ‏@Celestalon  Apr 3

   @MatthewWRossi If you take the Gladiator Stance talent, you can still tank, with 5% extra DR, but none of the offensive benefits.

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Second, We wanted to know if Gladiator Stance would give us the ability to compete with dps. That was confirmed as well by Celestalon, that it is not only tuned for DPS, but will remove your ability to tank all that much better than an Arms warrior.

1. Sam M ‏@JalopyWoW  Feb 21

   @Celestalon How do you plan to balance glad stance? In the essence that it's a DPS spec? Or a halfway between tank and DPS?

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2. Celestalon ‏@Celestalon  Feb 21

   @JalopyWoW Gladiator Stance will be tuned as a DPS. It will not be able to tank much more than an Arms warrior can (ie, not much).

So, to be clear, Gladiator's Resolve enables Warriors to have a 3rd DPS Spec. It will be tuned for DPS, and we can therefore expect it to compete with Arms and Fury. Thusfar, I can only think of one downside to this if you prefer dps with a shield, and simply that we as Protection are not on the list to get the Draenor Perk for 50% increased Execute damage. We're also losing Recklessness and Therefore the newly baked together Skull Banner benefit.

•Recklessness is now available only to Fury and Arms Warriors.

As with other classes, we wanted to reduce cooldown stacking. Cutting Skull Banner did a ton to help that across the whole game. But for Warriors specifically, we needed to make further changes, including merging some of the personal benefit of Skull Banner back into Recklessness. Also, to make up for Throw being removed, we modified Heroic Throw to be more frequently usable.

I managed to catch Mr Celestalon's attention today on twitter, and he confirmed that regardless of us missing out on the new Reck, and (S)Execute, we will be keeping up!

@Cyclonus_WOW Yes.
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) April 8, 2014

Here's the Protection Warrior Draenor Perks list from WOWHead:

		Improved Heroic Leap
		Improved Heroic Throw
		Improved Shield Slam
		Improved Revenge
		Improved Shield Barrier
		Improved Unwavering Sentinel
		Improved Bastion of Defense
		Improved Thunder Clap Improved Charge

Vs Fury

		Improved Heroic Leap
		Improved Die by the Sword
		Empowered Execute
		Improved Colossus Smash
		Improved Meat Cleaver
		Improved Wild Strike
		Improved Bloodthirst
		Improved Raging Blow Improved Charge

 Vs Arms

		Improved Heroic Leap
		Improved Die by the Sword
		Empowered Execute
		Improved Colossus Smash
		Enhanced Sweeping Strikes
		Improved Mortal Strike
		Enhanced Slam
		Improved Overpower Improved Charge

Welcome to Gladiator's Resolve!

Hello Gladiator's!

     I've decided to create a blog based around the new Gladiator Stance Warrior in World of Warcraft. I've played Warrior a ton since the game first came out, and like to think that I actually played its predecessor in Everquest way back in the day :). Everquest had a class named Warrior, and it's primary role was to keep threat on every single mob, and to do the most damage. A little bit like our MoP challenge modes now that I think about it :). I wanted to have a place to try to contribute back to the community! I've never seen a game with so much community support behind it, and it is awesome.

About Me:
     I've tanked and dps'd my way through Vanilla up to Loatheb in Naxx 40, and only got C'thun once. From there I've played off and on since and really started to play the most in Ulduar ( as fury ) and then Dragon Soul. Right now I've tanked my way to 11/14H in MoP in Siege of Orgrimmar and am Guild and Raid leading a casual 10man group with my Girlfriend as my OT. We are progressing on Iron Juggernaut.
In Real life I'm an IT guy. I help companies dealing with our AV Software. I like to think that the customer management and support skills i've honed sync nicely with raid leading and troubleshooting other peoples trials in the game as their raid and guild leader. WOW is definitely my primary hobby and I probably spend too much time reading patch notes. Which leads me to the reason for creating this blog! Warlords of Draenor Alpha Patch Notes are out! Along with a ton of tweets from helpful blizz staff there's a ton of new information on the coming changes, and I've never been more excited to play Warrior than I have today. Each of the new features of the class are exciting on their own, however one stands out far above the rest for me. Gladiator's Resolve. Our level 100 Talent. This talent allows us to DPS as a Protection Warrior!

The soundtrack for reading this ability is as follows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IP__m7xQYOA#t=15

Gladiator's Resolve Passive Requires level 100

Increases the damage reduction provided by Defensive Stance by 5%. Also allows you to forgo your defensive role, and instead focus only on offensive capabilities, by replacing Battle Stance with Gladiator Stance.

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Gladiator Stance Level 100 Instant cast

A dauntless combat stance. Increases physical damage dealt by 20%, and replaces your Shield Block with Shield Charge. You cannot change into or out of this stance during combat

Shield Charge Level 100 20 Rage 10yd Range Instant cast 15 sec Recharge Requires Warrior Requires Gladiator's Resolve

Requires Shields Raise your shield and charge a short distance to your target, increasing the damage of Shield Slam, Revenge, and Heroic Strike by 30% for 6 seconds. Maximum 2 Charges.

At first glance, this might be somewhat confusing. You have images of 300 playing in your head, and you know you're going to be dropping BOMBS with your shield. I am so goddamn excited.

Rotation

Remember this is all hypothetical :)

Shield Charge > Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate. With Heroic Strike as your rage dump.

Setting up the shield charge to precede shield slam is very doable either with Charge itself, or Battle Shout.
Since Shield Charge lasts 6 seconds, and has two charges, we should be able to maintain an uptime around for 12s every recharge. Think of it a little bit like Colossus Smash.. WITH YOUR SHIELD.

Gear
To consider this properly we should also note that Dodge and Parry were being removed.. Prot Warriors are going to wear Mastery, Crit, and Haste gear! So we'll be able to turn around and tank if we want as well! However, please remember we'd have to switch stances, and you can only do that out of combat :)

Mastery

• Warrior
  • Mastery: Critical Block now also passively increases Attack Power by 12% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.

Mastery: Critical Block Requires Warrior (Protection) Requires level 80

Increases your chance to block by 4% and your chance to critically block by 18%.

I believe since this is a straight attack power increase, we're going to want all the Mastery we can get our hands on, especially if it continues to stack so well per point as it did in Warlords!

Haste

• Headlong Rush is a new passive ability for Warriors:
  • Headlong Rush: Haste reduces global cooldown and the cooldowns of Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, Shield Slam, and Thunder Clap.

This means we're going to have a lot faster play, which I believe will be a lot more fun. I'm already used to making sure I hit an ability every global, and now I'll get to play at the speed I've been loving on my Brewmaster for a year now!

Crit
I believe this still still be a top priority. But I think we're probably going to want to hit some sort of haste cap so we can guarantee we're able to spend all the rage we're generating. This will definitely require some testing.

Also, it should be mentioned that we're going to have some really nice defensive abilities as Glad... ( holy shit we have a shortform )

• Riposte has been redesigned.
  • Riposte gives the Warrior +100% to Parry chance until they Parry an attack after getting a critical strike with an Auto Attack. 

This is a big deal, as we're going to be able to make amazing use of our ability to Parry with add waves ( as dps ). Think of the Embodied Phase for Sun on Protectors. DPS warriors are already dropping taunting banner to help with adds, now they can parry every time they crit with an auto-attack and also block!


And thats it. I'm sure the coming Alpha is going to be exciting and I hope to keep you guys updated on how this Spec plays and changes. We might be a lot different from now till launch, but Blizz definitely has the intent to let us be Spartans :)

- Cyclonus
Cyclonüs of Area 52 - US - Horde
@Cyclonus_WOW
Cyclonus.A52@gmail.com