Class Wishlists for Midnight
Death Knight Wishlist
Druid Wishlist
Hunter Wishlist
Mage Wishlist
Monk Wishlist
Shaman Wishlist
Warrior Wishlist
For a brief breakdown of the changes coming to each specialization in Midnight, check out our Midnight Class Survival Guide.
Midnight Class Survival Guide
Warrior Wishlists for Midnight
Our Warrior Writers, Archimtiros (Arms & Fury) and Nomeratur (Protection, discuss the most significant issues plaguing their specs as well as the must-have changes they'd like to see prior to Midnight's launch in just a few short months.
Arms Warrior Midnight Wishlist
Top 5 Midnight Wishlist
Wishlist
1.
Need More Rage
2.
Less Cooldown Bloat
3.
Consistent Cooldown Alignment
4.
Diversity Between Heroes
5.
More Meaningful Utility
Need More Rage
Get used to hearing this, since it comes up a lot in Midnight. With all of the various talent tree changes and rearrangements, Arms Warriors have lost several supplemental sources of rage generation, including Battlelord, Skullsplitter, Finishing Blows, Warlord's Torment, Avatar, and Ravager. Combined with generally less Tactician and Sudden Death procs, this leaves Arms in a position where its very easy to rage starve just by following a normal rotation.
Resource management hasn't been a particularly important part of gameplay in a very long time for most classes, but while it is an interesting concept, it's also an extremely hard needle to thread. Too abundant resources makes it feel meaningless, but there's also no worse feeling than wanting to press buttons but being unable to due to artificial limitation. It only feels good when there's meaning behind it, when you're choosing to forgo one action in order to get a bigger payout elsewhere, but just keeping Mortal Strike on cooldown and sometimes pressing Slam or sometimes watching the GCD go by isn't particularly exciting.
Skyfury helps, since those extra swings still count as auto-attacks, but it also leaves Arms Warriors feeling dependent on having a Shaman around, which isn't always guaranteed in smaller group content.
Consistent Cooldown Alignment
A recurring complaint throughout The War Within was the descync between various cooldowns affected (or not) by several different forms of cooldown reduction. While Midnight has improved this to a degree simply by removing some cooldowns, it also continues the trend by introducing yet another form of cooldown reduction with the new Master of Warfare apex talent.
Slayer continues to juggle Colossus Smash being affected by Anger Management and Bladestorm reduced by Unrelenting Onslaught, though the removal of Thunderous Roar does simplify things a bit. Although Avatar was briefly removed, it has since returned and is now also affected by Anger Management, though the introduction of the apex talent means it will end up misaligned with Colossus Smash regardless.
Colossus has gone from bad to worse. Not only is it also juggling the new apex, Anger Management, and its own unique Dominance of the Colossus, it also has a new version of Ravager which is not affected by anything. Although Blizzard set out to reduce the impact of cooldown alignment, the only step actually removed was Thunderous Roar, while everything else got worse.
While adding a little more consistency would go a long way toward streamlining cooldown use, arguably even more important is simply removing more redundant cooldowns. The new version of Avatar is the very definition of bloat, featuring no talent or gameplay interactions whatsoever. Ravager was returned to offer a Colossus-themed alternative to Bladestorm, but Demolish already fulfils the same role - all Ravager does is add an extra step to the rotation every 90 seconds... also no longer aligning with anything else in the process.
More Meaningful Utility
Utility has been a curse word for Warriors for quite some time. Truth is, Warriors actually have a great deal of special effects available to them - breaking fear, removing shields, providing minor movement speed, several slows, multiple stuns, an AoE tether, a low-cooldown interrupt, and now even a ranged silence... though very rarely is any of it particularly unique or important in modern PvE content.
With the advent of Mythic+, there has been a conscious effort to ensure that most group compositions will have the tools to deal with the presented threats, meaning that the ability to slow, interrupt, or stun have become universal to almost every class. Countering more niche threats, like breaking fear or removing shields, simply isn't something that comes up very often anymore, so that Warrior or Shaman aren't considered required to complete a particular dungeon. Because of this, when those threats do show up, they're often so minor that it isn't even worth investing the talent points in countering one encounter mechanic over the course of a thirty minute dungeon.
As a result, Warriors are sort of a jack of all trades, bringing a lot of little tools that can be overshadowed by bigger and better effects. Rallying Cry is nice, but unlikely to be the difference between life or death in any particular situation. The new effect on Piercing Howl will help speed players between packs, but it isn't a replacement for Stampeding Roar. The stun lockout changes allow Warriors to get more use out of Storm Bolt and Shockwave, though so too does every other class. This doesn't leave Warriors in a bad place, but it would be nice to use the rest of those sidelined tools a little more often.
Arms Warrior Guide
Fury Warrior Midnight Wishlist
Top 5 Midnight Wishlist
Wishlist
1.
More Interactive Gameplay
2.
Diversity Between Heroes
3.
Consistent Cooldown Alignment
4.
Better Damage Tuning
5.
More Meaningful Utility
More Interactive Gameplay
Since Battle for Azeroth, Fury has been the prime example of gameplay that doesn't need to be complicated in order to feel engaging, though while that still holds true today, there isn't a whole lot to get excited about in Midnight. More so than anything else, the rotation and various options to customize it have been pared down significantly, resulting in just one general way to play. Instead, the talent tree is now filled with various circumstantial buffs - increased Bloodthirst damage after Rampage, increased Rampage damage after Execute, increased Raging Blow damage after Bloodthirst crits, and the like.
While these types of effects are not inherently bad, the ones Fury uses have very little rotational impact. Each of them are automatically triggered and consumed with the normal rotation, so there's no need to track them, but it also means there's nothing to look for in the rotation - no big moment to work up to or look forward toward. This also extends to the new Rampaging Berserker apex talent, which is basically a second version of Frenzy, also completely passive with no rotational consideration whatsoever.
This isn't to say that Fury needs a particularly complicated rotation either, but it would be nice to have something special to look for.
Consistent Cooldown Alignment
A recurring complaint throughout The War Within was the descync between various cooldowns affected (or not) by several different forms of cooldown reduction. While Midnight has improved this to a degree simply by removing some cooldowns, it also continues the trend by introducing the new four-piece tier set bonus.
Slayer is the worst offender, with Recklessness affected by Anger Management, Bladestorm reduced by Unrelenting Onslaught, and now Odyn's Fury adjusted by the tier set. No longer having access to Avatar or Thunderous Roar does reduce the number of cooldowns that need to be aligned, and its generally better to use them as soon as they're available rather than delay for better alignment... but that still doesn't mean it feels good to watch one cooldown come up moments after another has ended.
Mountain Thane has actually gotten better, since Avatar is now reduced by Anger Management to match the cooldown of Recklessness. In some ways this makes the two cooldowns redundant, since they're likely to be macrod together, though Snap Induction still gives players some choice in whether or not to purposefully misalign them.
Some players also find complaint with the variable nature of Anger Management, as opposed to flat cooldown reduction offered by other class talents, though it's beneficial just as often as it is detrimental. We could also argue that without variable CDR there would be next to nothing left to look at or track in the rotation whatsoever!
More Meaningful Utility
Utility has been a curse word for Warriors for quite some time. Truth is, Warriors actually have a great deal of special effects available to them - breaking fear, removing shields, providing minor movement speed, several slows, multiple stuns, an AoE tether, a low-cooldown interrupt, and now even a ranged silence... though very rarely is any of it particularly unique or important in modern PvE content.
With the advent of Mythic+, there has been a conscious effort to ensure that most group compositions will have the tools to deal with the presented threats, meaning that the ability to slow, interrupt, or stun have become universal to almost every class. Countering more niche threats, like breaking fear or removing shields, simply isn't something that comes up very often anymore, so that Warrior or Shaman aren't considered required to complete a particular dungeon. Because of this, when those threats do show up, they're often so minor that it isn't even worth investing the talent points in countering one encounter mechanic over the course of a thirty minute dungeon.
As a result, Warriors are sort of a jack of all trades, bringing a lot of little tools that can be overshadowed by bigger and better effects. Rallying Cry is nice, but unlikely to be the difference between life or death in any particular situation. The new effect on Piercing Howl will help speed players between packs, but it isn't a replacement for Stampeding Roar. The stun lockout changes allow Warriors to get more use out of Storm Bolt and Shockwave, though so too does every other class. This doesn't leave Warriors in a bad place, but it would be nice to use the rest of those sidelined tools a little more often.
Fury Warrior Guide
Protection Warrior Midnight Wishlist
Top 5 Midnight Wishlist
Wishlist
1.
Indomitable
2.
Adventure Journal
3.
Spell Reflect
4.
Stagnant Gameplay
5.
Hero Talent Balance
Indomitable
Indomitable and many other "self-heals" have been nerfed at the beginning of The War Within. This led to seemingly never playing this Talent outside of specific boss encounters to deal with consistent DoT damage. Paired with the continuous effort to reduce our rage generation and slowed down general gameplay, Indomitable has become a forgotten talent. A revert of the nerf from 6% maximum HP to 10% Maximum HP gain and going back to 10-Rage per 1% heal seems almost necessary if the talent remains at its current position in the Talent Tree, competing with other gameplay-defining talents.
Adventure Journal and Spell Reflect
As stated with the removal of Spell Block in 11.2, one requires extensive knowledge of the effects and abilities Spell Block is effective against. This burden of knowledge, however, isn't exclusive to Spell Block; it pertains to regular Block and especially Spell Reflect as well.
I wish the Adventure Journal would clearly state, in its highlighted abilities, whether they are Blockable/Reflectable/Parryable to help the player tackle the encounter. In the past, we've had a handful of abilities stating which abilities are intentionally not blockable or parryable. This, however, does not automatically imply that the rest of the mechanics are blockable or parryable.Spell Reflection should not be exempt from this; in the past, and famously so, Spell Reflect has been the focal point of timing very high Mythic+ dungeons and often very tough Dungeon Bosses to deal exorbitant amounts of damage back to the enemy, saving precious seconds on the timer. My wish for this is to have encounter and dungeon design be thoughtful, with abilities and mechanics that are reflectable, deflectable, or unaffected by this to be reflected in the Adventure Journal in the future!
Stagnant Gameplay
With the expansion of the Hero Talent Trees, coming from The War Within, we are actually not seeing a change in gameplay, but rather a reduction of it. While it is great to see the inclusion of old Tier Sets being brought back as hero Talents, it does not feel great seeing what was previously a normal talent be locked behind a specific Hero Talent. The additional removal of important offensive cooldowns, like Thunderous Roar, for example, does hamper the experience and further emphasises the generic 1-2-3 button spam with minimal deviation. The removal of Thunder Clap from Violent Outburst doesn't help this case.Anger Management is in a similar situation where the effectiveness of the Talent is essentially halved; going from 10-Rage per 1 second reduction to 20-Rage per 1 second reduction will lead to relatively unengaging and straightforward gameplay.
My wish is for more reactive and proactive gameplay, centered on efficient rage management and aggressive cooldown usage. Anger Management was a huge part of this, which, instead of being further embellished, has been reduced and made less impactful.
Protection Warrior Guide
