New Level 45 Talents

Hello Gladiator's,

I've put off this post while I wrapped up doing about 25 different entries for Warlords Beta keys. I've created my own hearthstone card, created Draenor postcards? You name it. However, through use of new media coming from sites like Wowhead and MMO Champ, I will continue to provide this blog as a repository for Gladiator Warrior information aggregated from those sites. Should I end up getting into the Beta, I'll be sure to start generating some video's to go along with these posts.

Today's topic is our new level 45 Talent row. This a replacement for the removal of Staggering and Disrupting shout, as well as Piercing Howl. What they've done to provide us with a ranged snare is to add the snare to Thunderclap.

The new Talents:

Heavy Repercussions - Shield Slam deals 50% additional damage while Shield Block is active.

Previously, a glyph, this should be the more commonly used Talent with our Stance. I expect most Glad's will want to use this as Shield Block gets replaced by Shield Charge, and that will end up giving us a huge bonus to Shield Slam. 30% damage from Shield Charge and 50% from HR.

Sudden Death - Your autoattack hits have a 10% chance to make your next Execute cost no initial Rage and be usable on any target, regardless of health level.

Previously available as a baseline talent to Arms Warriors, this one should be rarely used as execute hits like a wet noodle for protection, since we don't have the Perk for Execute ( missing 20% damage ) and we're not going to be Executing that much as it is.

Unyielding Strikes - Devastate reduces the Rage cost of Heroic Strike by 6 for 6 sec, stacking up to 5 times.  Once this effect reaches 5 applications, its duration will no longer refresh.

Really the only viable alternative to Heavy Repercussions, this should result in a ton of damage from Heroic Strike. Current Parses were showing that you can actually end up doing slightly more damage with US vs HR as a talent, but remember tuning is not yet done. I'd be interested to see if we end up capping on rage using this talent.

Overall this is a pretty cool tier of choices as it will greatly affect our rotation, for not only Glad, but all of our spec's.

- Cyc

Defensive Toolkit Questions

Hello Gladiator's,

I know you're probably staring at that animated gladstance gif ( made by Archimtiros ) and getting pretty excited, but stay with me for a moment.

Right now the Alpha patch notes appear to have restricted many abilities to defensive stance only. A lot of the raid utility abilities that Fury/Arms get ( like rallying cry ) require you to stancedance to defensive stance prior to being able to cast your rally. The same sort of revision on abilities was seen on some of the Prot Only utility, like mocking banner, and spell reflection. Now, knowing that Gladiator's Resolve replaces defensive stance, raises the question:

Do we lose out on Prot Only utility when going Gladstance?

The answer is not perfectly clear.. yet.

But what I did manage to find out is that their intent is clear in that, you can expect abilities that work for Protection to work for Gladiator.

@Cyclonus_WOW Gladiator Stance is for DPS, but restricted from swapping, so will likely count as both Battle and Defensive.
— Celestalon (@Celestalon) July 4, 2014

Now obviously this doesn't give us the clarity we'd like. But it's definitely a positive response. So if you're concerned, just give the dev's time, they will update patch notes, they will address these questions. In the meantime, did you see the new gladstance animation? It's just below in gif form.


Update 7/11/2014

We've been given the clarity we requested as seen below, I hope my lucky Beta Gladiator's are wrecking it in there. I plan to do a followup post on our new Talents once the iteration appears to slow down a little.

• Warrior Stances now once again have their own action bars.
  • Attempting to use an ability that requires a different stance will now automatically switch to that stance.
• Hamstring now requires Battle Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Intervene now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Mass Spell Reflection now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Mocking Banner now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Revenge now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Safeguard now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Shield Slam now requires Defensive stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Spell Reflection now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Taunt now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Thunder Clap now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.
• Vigilance now requires Defensive Stance or Gladiator Stance.

- Cyc

Just a little post about our new Gladiator Stance Animation

Gladiator's, the Hype is REAL.

Quick Link

Hello Gladiator's.

Just a quick link to another blog that's focusing more heavily on the theorycrafting:
http://warriordpr.blogspot.com/

And from said blog comes a pretty sweet video of the new 6.0 fury showing off Headlong Rush ( which has probably already changed ). I'm not sure if you guys like this kind of stuff, but i'm getting really excited for WOD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rORmST6sdTc

- Cyc

Gladiator's Resolve FAQ

Hello Gladiator's

A lot of us are too busy defeating dragons, and slaying our enemies to read long-winded super technical blog posts. But, we do care about the Warrior class, and we definitely want to know what the plans are going to be for Warlord of Draenor. Warrior representation was all over the map during MoP in raids, and don't even get me started on pvp. I wanted to compile a list of the most common questions that I see asked, all the time, when it comes to the Gladstance talent for Prot Spec.

Q Will Gladstance be viable DPS?

A Yes, confirmed over twitter by Celestalon ( and covered in a post below ). We are going to be meant to not only viable, but competitive with Arms and Fury.

Q Can I tank in Gladstance?

A No, you cannot tank in gladstance, and if you somehow figure out a way to do it, they will fix it. Blizz devs have confirmed the intent is to be a DPS in tank spec. Fulfilling the fantasy of playing a DPS while still wearing a shield.

Q Can I switch stances to tank?

A Yes, but only once out of combat.

Q Do I wear Tank Gear or DPS Gear for Gladstance?

A Tank Gear all the way. Remember though, with dodge/parry gone from gear, everyone will be hunting for Bonus Armor, Mastery, Crit, Haste, etc.

Q Do I care about Bonus Armor as a stat?

A Yes, it was confirmed that it would be an "above-par" stat compared to crit/mastery/haste. You can expect to be in actual tank gear for doing dps in Glad Stance.

Q Why don't we get Rallying Cry or Demo Banner if we're DPS?

A This is intentional, you get other utility, like shield barrier, shield wall, did I mention the shield and probably excellent parry rating? Oh and the ability to literally hit 1 button ( out of combat ) and become a 3rd tank.

Q Will I be too Overpowered in Battlegrounds?

A This is blizzard, if you're too overpowered, that's the plan. Everyone will be Overpowered! But seriously, running a flag in BG's will be the same. You'll still want to get into defensive stance ( out of combat ) before you start taking a ton of damage.

Q Does this mean I can do Blood DPS, Shaman Tank, Warlock Tank, Prot Paladin DPS, or Holy Paladin DPS?

A No. But this IS an experiment, so if you're interested in this experiment, talk about it on twitter, the forums, everywhere, let Blizzard know this is an awesome idea, and let them know what works/doesn't so we can hopefully see this on live. If the experiment went well, of course they'd consider those other classes! They probably talk about it all the time :)

Once again, the amazing painting is by Miguel Coimbra from http://www.miguelcoimbra.com/myblog/folio.php

Gladiation Station : Bonus Armor = A top DPS stat

Hello Gladiator's,

Thanks for visiting! I've been keeping up with the latest over twitter and class changes mentioned for Warriors over the past month and we haven't seen a lot of iteration for Gladiator's Resolve changes. I just wanted to do a quick post to highlight some of the current plans for our newest DPS spec.

• Bonus Armor will be MORE attractive for us than the other stats. I asked Celestalon, "Is bladed armor gear expected to be sub-part to dps stat gear?"

Celestalon@Celestalon

@Cyclonus_WOW No, above par. Bonus Armor will be your most valuable secondary stat as a Gladiator. (ie, same as Defensive Protection)

2:34pm · 6 May 2014 · TweetDeck

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• Since it will be more attractive itemization for us,  it's important to note that this stat is going to only be available on a few specific slots:

Celestalon@Celestalon

@SoukieBillard We're not adding Spirit of Bonus Armor to any armor slot equipment, only ring/trinket/cloak/neck.

10:14am · 7 May 2014 · TweetDeck

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Finally, this awesome picture is by Miguel Coimbra. This guy is definitely a Gladiator :).  Check out his amazing work here: http://www.miguelcoimbra.com/myblog/folio.php

In a Fit of Rage

"In a fit of Rage."

Twas the night before Patching.
All through the Auction House,
The Warriors were Raging,
Frothing at the Mouth.

Changes are Coming!
Warriors will be good!
Our damage will be stunning!
Our enemies in the mud!

We'll be the M.T.
We'll get all the loot
Or its a damn travesty
Warriors will be moot!

Then patch day hit
Warriors did rout
We rocked that sh*t
The rest started to pout

Then we got nerfed
Warriors started to cry
War tanks got turfed
The forums asked why

Nerf Patch Buff
Damage PVP Survival
Cry Huff and Puff
Soon, the Warrior revival.

I know, that was bad, but somehow accurate though written last summer. The stunning pun was 100% unintentional, I had a rogue get pretty mad at me for that. Something about GG-Bladestorm in pvp. I originally posted this one on the WOW forums a while back. Thought this would be a good place for this silliness as well. I thought the title was so perfect, I stole the title from this funny post on our warrior forum.