So, today I opened my Great Vault, excited to get a new 421 item for my troubles last week. As you can see, I main a Fury Warrior and have been doing pretty well all season.
Until today.
Today, I opened my Vault and was presented with the First Archblade. That 1H Strength / Agility sword from Court of Stars. I was like, “Oh, do I want to try Single Minded Fury?” Then I go and check all the usual places. Warrior Discord. Sims with blacksmithing weapons at 415. The words. The conclusion? Hot garbage.
Okay. That’s not a problem. Drops that aren’t great for you happen all the time. But why was this drop something like an 8 to 10% damage loss, even when I was specing into Single Minded Fury and its subsequent talents?
Single-Minded Fury is Designed to Placate
A brief history of Single-Minded Fury. Fury Warriors weren’t always Titan’s Gripping juggernauts; that ability was added in Wrath of the Lich King. Before then we used 1H Weapons, and when Titan’s Grip came out the Fury Warrior community wasn’t uniformly pleased with the change in aesthetic. As a compromise, Single Minded Fury was introduced in Mists of Pandaria. Then removed in Legion during the talent revamp. Then added back in Shadowlands during the great unpruning. Then removed again from the Dragonflight Beta until it was eventually placed in the talent tree at the far left of our spec tree. This seems like a great compromise, but it’s not.
Single Minded Fury was a small damage reduction in Shadowlands (about 1%, not including OP weapons like Gavel of the First Arbiter). In Dragonflight, it is a huge damage reduction for a few reasons.
Single Minded Fury is an opportunity cost. Essentially, you have to spend one of your precious talent points on Single-Minded Fury when you get Titan’s Grip for free. This means that if you want to use Single-Minded Fury, the ability to buff dual wielding 1H weapons to be about 1% lower than dual wielding 2H weapons ALSO costs you a point in a utility talent or a point in a damage talent. If you want to further buff 1H weapons, you can take a second talent point in SMF’s connecting talent, but again, that talent is balanced against every other talent in the game and as a result, it doesn’t offset the opportunity costs mentioned above.
Because Single-Minded Fury is essentially a dead talent that is never worth the choice, it means Fury Warriors are down two talents in their tree that no one ever takes. (We’re down three talents if you count that utility talent Blizzard was originally going to put on a choice node with the one that gives Heroic Leap two charges and a speed buff). We actively have fewer choices than others, all for the sake of placating part of the fan base?
What Should Be Done?
Fury Warriors should get Single Minded Fury baseline, just like Titan’s Grip. It should be changed so you get a buff for each 1H Melee Weapon you wield, rather than needing two. This way 1H Melee Weapons are always an upgrade, even if you need to do 2H in the Main Hand, 1H in the Off Hand.
Alternatively, we should get Bloodthirst for free (our current initial talent in the Fury Tree) and in its place should be a choice node between Titan’s Grip, Single-Minded Fury, and a new talent that would let us do the Gladiator fantasy from Mists of Pandaria (2H in MH, Shield in Off-Hand, with abilities letting us auto attack with Shield Slams).
I don’t really care which one we go with, but it’s ridiculous that not only do we have two trap talents in our tree, but those trap talents directly hinder our progression. The Great Vault is the progression method in World of Warcraft, and the Great Vault can just give me an item that the Developers intended to be bad for me in every situation, as was directly stated during the Dragonflight Beta? That’s unacceptable.
No it should just be choice talent at the top center of the tree in place of raging blow or rampage, then that becomes baseline. You either pick TG or SMF. The opportunity cost will be 1 talent for each and you will have to choose, but choosing doesn’t change the whole build by avoiding “must have” other talents further muddying balancing.
I never understood the current devs’ open contempt for the idea of Fury not using TG, or their desire to pigeonhole Frost DK and WW into dual wielding, for that matter. When I looked at the Fury tree and saw that SMF was a talent while TG was baseline, my thoughts were basically “What. Why.” And said talent competes with Cold Steel, Hot Blood and Vicious Contempt, which at least have their places on specific builds. Maybe if warrior mains make enough noise, Blizzard will take notice, but I think Arms is in more need of tuning.
Here’s hoping. It’s rough being a class with multiple DPS specs, because the Developers seem to think that it’s okay for a spec to underperform as long as its class has at least one competitive option, even when the specs have incredibly different playfeels.
I think that’s definitely a thing they could do. I don’t think Rampage being in our tree is a big deal, personally, since it’s not like it’s particularly hard to reach. But I would be fine if the solution was something like, “Give us Raging Blow baseline, put TG / SMF in our tree as a choice node.” That’s even one of my suggestions, where I talk about also having a Gladiator style option.
I think you should have access to both automatically like monks and frost DKs. (Someone else on the thread claims those aren’t balanced either, which if true, should be fixed.) Make your choice on the equipment screen, or just go with what dropped for you.
Talents shouldn’t be item-dependent unless it’s absolutely necessary (such as shield-based abilities for specs that can equip shields – but it is absolutely trolling to not have a shield as a Protection Warrior and everyone knows it, while Blizzard is holding up these other weapon choices as legitimate).
Also, all reasonable itemization choices should be balanced (to the best of Blizzard’s ability, at least) so that everything in your spec tree and loot pool is an actual viable choice for performing your role. Traps are for Hunters.
I’ve always thought the single minded Fury warrior was a direct slap in the face to Rogues. We would wield giant two handed weapons in a heartbeat if we could. Big poison two handed swords… just imagine it! You lucky…
