!!! Kaivax thank you for responding to the thread and I hope you and the team are doing well!
I and many others are still going to standby Devastate and Strategist being brought back to 30%. This is still a non-negotiable. Because Prot Warrior is essentially a two button class for it’s core rotation, we need that higher reset chance. As someone else said in the thread, Shield Slam → Thunder Clap → No reset → No reset → No reset → Thunder Clap → No reset is absolutely awful (and it happens more often than you’d think). If not then we need to make SS and TC have charges similar to Judgement and Blessed Hammer to allow for smoother resource generation and better rotational decision making.
As someone who changed their key binds due to prot’s rotation I do understand the APM challenge you are trying to tackle. I agree with other people in the thread that Thane vs Colossus should be our choice between higher and lower APMs and I would love to see that continue to be the case. The extra rage gen on SS in Colossus is great but still isn’t going to compare to the extra rage from thunder strikes, thunder blasts and the three free SS’s we get from Thane. Colossus still ends up massively out performed in survivability.
I get SS being a higher priority than “Revenge!” and “Sudden Death” procs being weird but if that’s the case then why did we change Execute to no longer give stacks of Colossal Might? That just makes it even less valuable. Also I don’t think taking Sudden Death into consideration for balance/rotation is valid. Maybe I’m totally wrong but I don’t think that is taken much in raid and it is a dead talent in M+ so we shouldn’t be thinking about it at all.
I think in order for you to achieve the goal you want Ignore Pain needs to be reworked. Making it a passive and like I said in an earlier post and someone else mentioned, we generate a shield based off the damage we do. Then we have to balance rage between Shield Block and Revenge for more damage/resets = more damage and when we are in execute we actually use Execute. This also makes Sudden Death a useful talent in M+ and it would narrow the chasm between Colossus and Mountain Thane. It’s possible we would need some other skill to “choose” to dump rage into as - ultimately we are going to press Shield Block relatively off CD and there isn’t much choice in how we would spend our rage outside of saving enough for Shield Block uptime - but it’s a start.
This could also allow for a talent node to allow for a faster or slower APM that’s already in our talent tree. Barbaric Training is never taken over Sidearm but if Ignore Pain generated a shield based of dmg done then this talent could allow for players who want more APM to take Sidearm and players who want a slower playstyle to take Barbaric.
I think this change to Ignore Pain would be a massive W for prot but would require a LOT of testing. I think right now Prot should remain largely unchanged/buffed from it’s current state on live and this rework is saved for season 3 or later on when the team has more time to flush it out and then a full PTR cycle for feedback.
Regardless ty for posting! It is genuinely great to know the team has seen this at the very least. I know there is a lot of bureaucracy but I would love for you to feedback to whomever that the post you made in this form should’ve been in the original changes. We want and deserve this level of transparency and the amount of context it provides is so helpful. These changes went from being entirely unprovoked and senseless to having a solid reason behind them and being planned. It also allows for more curated feedback to help you all get the changes right!
P.S keep buffing Brewmaster pls 