I know this is a few months old but since it’s a more appropriate thread to ask in than the other one where I was discussing it, I’m curious about whether or not Battle Shout threat actually split in the way some people describe in this thread in actual vanilla (and according to some warriors who tested it in classic, how it’s still working in classic).
In some reddit threads I see the entire reason Battle Shout was “overpowered” threat wise in actual vanilla (not talking about pservers) until it was nerfed in 2.0.1 was that it wasn’t splitting its threat between all of the enemies like a normal buff and was doing that full threat amount IE: 55/70x5 party members to every single enemy rather than splitting that threat between all the enemies.
It seems like in order for it to hold aggro on adds on certain fights referenced it would have to NOT be splitting because it’d only be doing like 45 threat or less per cast if there were 10+ adds and you were hitting 5 party members.
It also would not have needed to be nerfed in 2.0.1 as you can see in 2.0.1 patch notes if it was splitting as normal.
So basically, is Battle Shout after the hotfix (https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/demoralizing-shout-is-bugged-and-it-is-why-we-have-this-aoe-meta/295678/64) now working the way it did in real vanilla, or is Blizzard gaslighting people because they don’t want to acknowledge how broken it was in actual 1.12 and restore it to THAT version?
The thing is that according to warriors IE: https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/d6suxv/battle_shout_threat_generation/ that is only 10 days old, Battle Shout on current live classic is splitting threat the way other buffs do while many claim that in actual 1.12 it was not splitting and doing the full amount to every single target (which is why it was nerfed in 2.0.1 https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Patch_2.0.1).
So that’s the question, is Battle Shout actually now working the way it does in their 1.12 reference client, or do we have a watered down 2.0.1 version?
Well, only a blue can really answer the question, not sure how often they reply to the class forums. Clarification was asked for in the bug report forum also but didn’t get a response. I’ll take a response/clarification wherever it may come.
A blue already responded to Battle Shout indirectly. All buffs and heals should not be splitting threat between the number of targets and identified it as a bug. So Battle Shout away knowing it is as it should be.
I actually posted that exact thread/blue post in the other thread where I was talking about this, but according to some warrior posts I’ve seen recently that claimed to have tested it, it’s splitting threat between the number of enemies currently. I don’t actually play a warrior in classic to test it myself, but any classic warriors that can confirm/deny would be great.
There were also people arguing in the other thread that it is supposed to split threat like any other buff and interpreted the blue post to be talking about a different issue.
Since people were using Bshout in raids in actual vanilla to hold numerous adds over AoE spam it seems obvious that it didn’t split threat in 1.12 since if it did it wouldn’t be able to hold that many adds over AoE damage and also wouldn’t require a nerf in 2.0.1.
Where it was brokenly OP was raids, where you could stack the tank with 4 pet classes. Then it was buffing 9 people for a total of 495 baseline threat, 717.5 in defensive stance with defiance. Divided by 10 mobs and rounded, 72 per.
It still might not be able to beat AoE spam if that means the mage just immediately going ham at the same time the warrior starts. But you have to consider the number of fights in vanilla where the “difficulty” came from adds spawning in unpredictable places and “getting out of control”. There, the key is that Battle Shout had, in practice, infinite range since the person buffed just had to be in range of the mob. So if it’s Nef, and it’s supposed to be hard because the adds are supposed to run around chewing on healers, the warrior just stands in the middle of the room spamming Battle Shout and the mobs come to him. By the time the mages get rolling the warrior is already too far ahead for them to catch up. For Nef substitute Rag’s sons of flame, Ony whelps or whatever you so choose. If there are a ton of adds (11+), then when they actually get in range you might want to switch to demo shout.
It was nerfed because for the overwhelming majority of vanilla warrior AoE tanking was just non-existent. Battle shout spam was unknown. In the famous Kenco post (January 2006) on threat mechanics it isn’t even listed. Once it started filtering out through the community and Blizz released how much it trivialized many fights, they killed it.
In dungeons, you could make it work with a little patience (like pulling 5 mobs instead of 10), and maybe stack warlocks, but I am gathering that people don’t need to do that since you can AoE down even more mobs by using mage slows.
Right in a row we have one post explaining how it worked in vanilla and claiming that it did split between the number of enemies
Followed by another claim that it doesn’t split:
There’s random claims in various places that it didn’t split in vanilla and other sources that claim it did including this wiki post: https://vanilla-wow.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_Shout
The threat generated is not restricted by range (unlike Demoralizing Shout), and is divided among all the mobs that have the warrior on their hate list.
I also found a threat guide written in vanilla that does clearly state the threat is split between the number of enemies, so all the claims that it didn’t I guess were just anecdotes that misremembered?
I think the blue post talking about the threat being split wrong was poorly worded and failed to explain what the actual bug being fixed was. Unfortunately they never clarified in the bug report thread even though several people were asking exactly what that line was supposed to mean.
Since the actual guide from vanilla + the wiki states it splits in the way Agerth explains above, I believe that’s probably the correct answer.
I thought so too but the only info about it I can find from actual vanilla indicates that it works as described above where it generates threat x the number of party members buffed and then that threat value is split equally between the number of enemies you’re in combat with (or maybe more accurately the threat from each individual member buffed is split equally between every enemy they’re in combat with?).
The phrase “to incorrectly split the threat” is ambiguous. Split what threat and between what/whom? You can read it as though it wasn’t supposed to split threat at all and generate the same number for each enemy, or it could simply mean that the way it was splitting threat or the calculation was incorrect and it’s then going to be fixed to split the threat correctly rather than not at all. It could also mean it was bugged so that the threat was split between you and the party members buffed (as in actually generating threat for the people you were buffing rather than just for you) and wasn’t meant to reference the split in threat between enemies at all.
https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/d6suxv/battle_shout_threat_generation/ this reddit thread from 10 days ago basically is asking the same question and this person’s testings shows that the threat is generated as Agerth describes above currently.
Would be nice to have blue clarification, especially since the blue post is apparently misleading people into thinking it works in a way that it apparently doesn’t.
Prior to the hotfix, all buffs and healing threat were divided by the number of enemies that had you one their threat list. 3 days after the announcement I tested mark of the wild, priest shield/stam buff, paladin threat generating buffs, and even demon skin for warlock. They all generate the same amount of threat no matter the number of in combat enemies equal to what would be generated on just one target. So 10 threat before would become 5 with 2 enemies and now it is 10 threat for both. The same happens for healing. It’s really easy to test with a partner, just make sure to body pull before they whack them. P.S. Battle stance and berserker stance both have a 20% reduction in threat so that 10 threat would be 8 instead.
All I can say is that if this is the case, any warrior tank who has any abilities on his bar other than Battle Shout should be instantly kicked from any groups.
275 threat on all mobs with infinite range for 10 rage every GCD? LOL!