Blizz, bring back the Gladiator build for warriors
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man was so much fun in wod
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People really need to stop pretending Gladiator Stance was some misunderstood masterpiece. It was busted. Thatâs why it existed for five minutes and then got quietly removed.
Tank durability plus real DPS numbers is not clever design, itâs a balance problem. It either dominated everything or felt terrible once it got nerfed. There was never a version of it that worked long term.
Blizzard removed it because it broke PvE balance, PvP balance, and gearing all at once.
The only reason itâs remembered fondly is because being overpowered feels good.
That doesnât mean it belongs in the game; it proves that it never worked in the first place.
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Tbf, it was âoverpoweredâ for the first week or so of the first tier until they reverted the unwarranted nerfs to Arms and Fury that they copped during the pre patch. That was the only reason it was ever ahead of either DPS spec for like a week.
After that, Glad Stance was just a spammy degenerative mess of a gameplay loop that got old fast once you played it more than a couple of hours.
The gameplay it provided in being heavily oGCD based will never come back to WoW in any spec unless blizzard have a drastic shift in design philosophy of which the recent midnight changes suggest will be likely to happen when hell freezes over.
3 Likes
Yeah thatâs valid.
I think most of the âbring it backâ people genuinely just abused it in PvP and want to be able to again. It was essentially a cheat code in PvP and a nightmare to play against (at least for a while).
It ended up being janky white noise in PvE to your point.
True it was a bit of a noob stomper in random bgs. I donât remember it being widely played in the Arena scene at higher levels.
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it was garbage in pvp because you couldnât swap to D stance unless you played a night elf. you just got trained and died.
I should have been more clear; it was garbage in arenas/organized pvp but you could abuse the hell out of it in random bgâs (which Greil mentioned).
I would have continued Gladiator Stance had they kept it, and Iâll gladly play the spec again. If it were to become available again.
By far the greatest spec in the game, ever !
Worst troll attempt Iâve seen all week.
Saw this before you deleted it, you okay?
With the 'evolution" of transmogs going forward, focusing more on appearance/visuals/thematic we could safely make Arms transmog one hand and a shield to give the gladiator feel.
And Prot with a 2h+shield
This would actual fit the weapon master as warrior is, and would help to give us some uniqueness related to visuals since we dont have magic and other shenanigans to be fancy
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I mean I personally donât love it but I see no reason why it shouldnât be available to people that do.
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But thats the gig, having options so the player can customize their gameplay/experience.
Im sure many people dislike using one handers as fury, but others love it
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It never left. It was disguised as Arms
I am Deviation (Xansion - Azshara).
I see a lot of people asking to bring back Gladiator Stance/Spec. I played âShield Armsâ for years. I was somewhat of a proponent of the build on these forums. I publicly came out and explained the benefits, showing the sheer damage potential of resetting Overpower 12+ times in a single burst window.
The âBrokenâ Mechanic (Why it got nerfed): The reason it was so overpowered was specific:
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Off-GCD: Ignore Pain and Shield Block are OFF the Global Cooldown.
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Two Charges: Shield Block has two charges.
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The Loop: I could dump massive amounts of Rage between global cooldowns without ever stopping my rotation. This forced Tactician to reset Overpower instantly, over and over again.
The âCombat Tableâ Logic: As I said in my original post years ago: It doesnât matter if you canât use Mortal Strike. Why? Because my main attack is Overpower. It is spammable, and it cannot be dodged, blocked, or parried. While 2H Warriors are getting parried or dodged, I am landing 100% of my hits. Consistency beats big numbers that miss.
The State of âShield Armsâ Today: You can no longer spam infinite Overpowers via Shield Block and Ignore Pain (Blizzard nerfed that specific interaction in 10.2). However, the spec is NOT dead. You can still force massive Overpower resets if you use Slam or Whirlwind as your rage dump. If you stack Haste, you can achieve a similar velocity to the old buildâit just relies on offensive spending now.
âGladiatorâ was secretly baked into the Arms Warrior tree. Blizzard didnât delete the playstyle; they just hid the components inside the Arms talents.
The âHybridâ Mechanic (Weapon Swapping): This is where people get it wrong. They think you are locked into one weapon. I play both. I use Bladestorm as a bridge to switch combat roles instantly via Action Bar Paging macros.
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Tactical Swapping: Itâs not just a gimmick.
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I can spin into 2H Mode for burst to chain abilities together to use after Bladestorm (Executioners precision) which your 1h attacks will proc sudden death more often for you to always have available on the target kinda confusing them( if pvp) so they wont know when you will hit them with a 2h MS because your using a 1h weapon + shield.
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I can spin into 1H+Shield Mode out of a Blade storm and now i have access to different abilities and so on, you can do alot with this switching in mid combat
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The âExecute Godâ Mechanic (Why 1H+Shield Wins): You might think 1H is weaker. Wrong. It is actually superior for Execute phases.
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Free Speed: One-handed weapons are faster, and we get 2 Stacks of Wild Strikes plus a 20% Attack Speed bonus baked into the tree.
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The âHasteâ Cheat: Because you get so much free attack speed from the spec, you do NOT need to stack Haste.
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You can stack pure Versatility and Mastery.
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You hit harder, bleed harder, and take less damage, but you still attack fast enough to drown in rage remember Arms warrior has â(Seasoned Soldier) Your auto attack critical strikes generate 10% more rage And damage taken from Area of Effect attacks reduced by 5%.â The fact that you are so much faster with a one handed weapon and you have wild strikes it will make your one handed critical strikes generate rage faster than you can ever generate it with a 2 handed weapon.
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Juggernaut: With this faster attack speed generating Rage, you can maintain Juggernaut stacks easily. You become an Execute machine that attacks fast but hits with the weight of a Vers/Mastery truck.
The âSecretâ (How it Works):
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Stat Density: A 1H + Shield is TWO item slots. That means more stats than a 2H. Your Bleeds and Thunderous Roar tick harder because of it, not to mention you have way more armor and warriors having a natural 10% block chance which still works btwâŚ.
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Barbaric Training: We take this to buff Slam. Since we generate ALOT of Rage via Shield Slam and Skullsplitter,Auto Attacks, we spam Big Slams between cooldowns.
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Demolish: The Hero tree gives us access to Demolish, allowing you to channel a massive beatdown while holding a shield and is not affected by you using a 1h weapon like mortal strike does you can cast it with a 1h weapon unlike mortal strike requiring a 2h weapon.
The Talent build example:
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P.S. If YOU HAVE NOT NOTICED Look at the icon for Recklessness when it is cast and how it appears over your character. What do you see? It is a Sword and a Shield driven through the face of a Gladiatorâs Helmet. The spec never left. Itâs been staring you in the face every time you pop cooldowns you just havenât noticed it yet.
P.P.S. If you want the âFastâ playstyle back, check my other thread on Dagger Fury. I found a way to break the Rage formula with daggers your attacks speed is not affected by the gcd limit so my attacks with autos can get as fast as 0.54 a swing with 87.53% haste and fury has no auto attack reduction anymore so it works again
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Deviation - Agamaggam
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formerly ~ Xansion-Azshara
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if you have any questions feel free to ask im usually in the current expansion training grounds.
Just fwiw, the vast majority of procs do not trigger from white hits, so 1hrs do not actually result in more frequency than 2hrs (and even if they did, the overall amount of procs would still trend towards the expected PPM anyway).
It sounds like your playstyle lends towards using abilities with your shield equipped, while conserving rage with your 2hr, so that might be giving the impression youâre getting more procs with the 1hr.
Rage generation is multiplied by base attack speed, so that 2h weapons generate more rage slower while 1h weapons generate less rage faster. This means you will generate effectively the same amount of rage over time, though the 1hr might feel smoother. This will vary a little more with hectic PvP situations of varying uptime, though if anything that should typically favor the slower/spiker rage generation of a 2hr, since the time between swings is still counting down while off target, youâre less likely to lose as many swings.
- Youâll probably get slightly higher uptime on Wild Strikes, but itâs still dictated by your crit rate, so it tends to be a very small difference of just a couple %, which shouldnât have a significant impact on overall RPS.
- You are generating extra rage from Shield Slam though, so you should come out a little bit ahead overall (~1.7 extra RPS).
Assuming equal item levels, its actually the exact same amount of Strength, Stamina, and secondaries, but the 2hr has ~30% higher DPS, which factors into the AP value of all abilities. Youâre also losing the 2h weapon spec bonus.
Itâs a fun concept, but youâre not gaining raw damage by equipping a 1h + shield over a 2hr.
1 Like
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I really appreciate you taking the time to break this down. Itâs rare to get actual thoughtful feedback on off-meta builds rather than just the usual âsim it,â so I genuinely respect the insight.
I actually agree with a lot of your points regarding the math, but I think we are approaching the goal of the spec from two different angles. Let me explain the logic behind the madnessâit comes from my time playing Outlaw Rogue, where high APM and smoothing out variance is king.
1. On Rage Normalization You are spot on that mathematically, Rage is normalized over timeâa 3.6 speed 2H and a 2.6 speed 1H should end up with similar total Rage in a 5-minute window. Where I feel the difference, though, is in the recovery time. With a standard 2H swing timer (even with Haste), if I get a Miss or a Parry, that gap before the next swing feels like an eternity where the rotation stalls. With the 1H (2.6 base speed + Haste), that âpunishmentâ for a miss is much shorter. So while the total Rage might be the same on a spreadsheet, the 1H setup feels like it provides a more granular, consistent stream that lets me keep the rotation moving without those awkward âstarvedâ pauses.
2. On Sudden Death & Variance I think we are actually saying the same thing here, just looking at it differently. I totally get that RPPM caps the total number of procs I can get. Iâm not claiming to cheat the system to get double the procs of a 2H warrior. My goal is purely about Consistency. Because Iâm ârolling the diceâ more often with the faster weapon, it feels like it smooths out the RNG curve. I encounter fewer long âdroughtsâ between procs compared to when I play 2H. Itâs less about getting more procs, and more about ensuring they arrive at a steady cadence to keep the flow going.
3. The Trade-off I definitely acknowledge that Iâm trading away the higher top-end weapon damage and the raw stats of a 2H weapon. I know this likely wonât beat standard Arms on a pure Patchwerk DPS check. But for me, the goal was to shift the spec into a Fast-Paced Priority System. I wanted to create a build that feels like a âMachine Gunââlanding 100% of my hits (Overpower/Shield) and constantly reacting to resets, rather than waiting on big, slow swings.
Itâs definitely a niche playstyle choice rather than a pure numbers play, but thanks again for checking the logic on it. Itâs always good to have a sanity check.
No disrespect towards using chatgpt as it can be helpful in organizing thoughts, but Iâd tell it âno bold font, no em dashes, more human speech pleaseâ and just with that your outputs will get way better/less obviously AI.
This is why most people who would like to see it come back would like it to be a 4th spec, rather than something just tacked on to a tank spec. Itâs not asking for an overpowered hybrid mess, just a Warrior dps spec using a 1h and shield with similar high apm play to the WoD version.
1 Like
âMost peopleâ here really just means âmost people on forums,â which is already an unscientific assumption of a tiny slice of the playerbase.
The group that actually wants Gladiator back is an even smaller slice of that slice. Shield DPS was always niche.
And a 4th spec is not a small ask. Thatâs new balance targets, new tuning problems, and long-term maintenance for something with historically limited appeal.
Gladiator only worked (if you can say âworkedâ with a straight face) at all because it was boxed into Prot, and even then it got cut for being a headache.
Fun idea, but every time it comes back up itâs being massively oversold in demand and massively undersold in cost.