Feedback: Slayer Warrior

Classes Warrior
4

Cool theme, and I enjoy the concept of marrying Execute’s single target focus with Bladestorm’s multitarget, though a few odd potential issues stand out.

  • Unless there are some particularly interesting visuals attached to Slayer procs, there doesn’t appear to be much cosmetic impact on Slayer, compared to Mountain Thane’s lightning effects and Colossus’ increased size and Demolish animation.
  • Constant Pressure and Slayer’s Focus both reducing the cooldown of OP/BT by 10%(this was apparently edited, and Focus now increases their damage by 10% instead - though the rest of the feedback is still valid), which doesn’t do much since reducing rotational cooldowns by a fraction of the GCD is generally benign (you need to wait for the full GCD to be up anyway).
    • The effect is also undermined by cooldown reset procs like Tactician, to the point where I don’t see a whole lot of value in these bonuses absent other major baseline changes to those abilities.
  • Frenetic Fury auto-casting Bladestorm sounds like it will not interrupt normal ability casting, which is very important to not impinging upon normal gameplay. That said, even a mid-gcd channel is potentially disruptive (can’t leap, use cooldowns, etc), so it may be better as a completely passive trigger, though I don’t really mind either way.

  • Tunnel Vision resetting on target change is a very problematic limitation. Good players will simply use mouseover macros to avoid the downsides, while less knowledgeable players will be disproportionally punished.

    • I highly recommend either removing the limitation entirely, or changing it to “attacking a new primary target,” although that is only a partial fix since it can also be undermined by mouseover macros (see: Fury’s Frenzy talent). Of course, a more simplistic option to drop the bonus after after so many seconds of not attacking would also work, but whatever the solution, the end goal should be avoiding “macro knowledge” problems.
  • I’m also not crazy about Tunnel Vision and Thrill of the Kill being a choice between basically the same thing. Presumably, Tunnel Vision is meant to be better under perfect conditions in which it doesn’t fall off, but figuring out that breakpoint becomes a weird math problem.
    • The choice between Slayer Reflexes reset proc and Constant Pressure cooldown reduction is very similar in that ultimately both are giving you more casts of Bloodthirst/Overpower.
  • Overwhelming Blades doesn’t specify that it stacks outside of Unrelenting Onslaught, though I’m sure this is just a tooltip error; considering that nothing appears to consume the buff, I imagine it is intended to be a time limited buff that can be stacked but not refreshed. I’m also curious if Imminent Demises’ +1 Bladestorm strike affects the auto-casted ones or not.
  • Unrelenting Onslaught reducing the cooldown of Bladestorm is… interesting, but I’ll have to see how it plays out alongside other spec changes before passing judgement. It sounds like it could end up quite a bit of CDR, which makes me question whether Anger Management will still reduce the cooldown of Bladestorm.
  • Relentless Pursuit and Vicious Agility are awesome. I’ve been wishlisting a movement speed increase after charge for years, and I really like the rotational symbiosis of charge and heroic leap reducing one another.
  • Curiously, Mountain Thane and Colossus both offer more lockdown/control bonuses with their emphasis on stuns, though I don’t think it’s an inherently bad thing that Slayer doesn’t. Especially if both Arms and Fury will be using Bladestorm in TWW, Slayer’s ability to interrupt and stun while Bladestorming provides its own inherent lockdown value.
  • No mention of Ravager makes it seem as though it will be removed entirely for Fury, and I’m curious how the community will react to the return of “forced channeled downtime” from hardcasted Bladestorms after an expansion of moving away from it.
    • There may be some concern that Slayer being the only spec that can stun or interrupt during Bladestorm could emphasize it too much compared to Mountain Thane in some content, though this can be compensated by having good knowledge of when interrupts and stuns are/not needed.
    • I also like Artunias’ suggestion of linking hardcast Bladestorm and Enrage, but we’ll have to wait till alpha to see how much of a problem that will be in practice.

Overall, a very exciting reveal, and I’m really looking forward to testing this one.

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