In TBC the Arms raid spec was a 33/28/0 that used swing timers to do dps. You needed quartz or some other addon that showed when your auto attack would land, then you would time your slam to hit right after the auto attack. The reason for this is because slam when it lands would reset your auto attack timer. This led to a fairly engaging gameplay that provided a useful raid buff and middle of the road dps.
Unfortunately, during the world PVP era of Classic WoW (Phase 1/Phase 2) the functionality of slam was changed due to a macro used in PVP. While Slam is being ācastā it pauses the swing timer, and when it lands it resets it. That means to work in TBC instead of timing, you just push slam after your swing hits and eat a 0.5 second delay (or more) every time.
Will we get the original functionality for TBC or will it remain ābrokenā (arguably) to stop PVP burst damage?
Sorry, Iām sure thereās a difference that is quickly explainable, how is the delay different than the reset on auto attack if both slam versions hit?
Because white attacks on say, a 3.6 speed weapon will hit every 3.6 seconds (haste adjusted) the old way, and will hit every 4.1 seconds the new way. You could time the slam cast to have them go off within 0.1 seconds, but now you have to wait for the white hit, then slam, and you lose at least 15% of your rage generation because you can no longer white hit every 3.6 seconds. You have to wait 4.1 seconds.
Unfortunately, Erothh, I donāt think theyāll revert Slam, which is a real shame, because Slam queuing and still getting auto-attacks made Slam a viable spec, but the problem is that it was not an intended feature. It was intended that you would perform a Slam instead of an auto-attack, kind of like a Heroic Strike. Slam in and of itself isnāt a horrible ability as written, but many fights require mobility, so the nerfed version of Slam is kinda DOA. The ability to get Slam with an auto-attack with a clever macro reminds me of using a cancelaura macro on Bloodrage, which would remove you from combat long enough to use Charge. Clever, but unintended, and therefore nerfed. The difference is, of course, Bloodrage was still a good ability, but Slam is only okay if you can stand perfectly still, and even then youāre not getting rage-gen the way off-hand attacks do with Dual Wield Heroic Strikes.
Yeah, so basically Slam always reset the swing timer, BUT it didnāt use to pause your current swing, so if you timed it properly your white hit could go off before slam connected and you would keep your normal swing rotation.
An example on how Slam worked in retail TBC, lets say you have a swing timer of 3.6 seconds (ignore all haste effects).
When you are 3.1~ seconds into your swing (usually 3.2), you cast slam which has a 0.5 second cast time. Your auto-attack lands at 3.6 seconds, then your slam lands at 3.7 seconds and resets your auto attack timer back to 3.6 seconds. Effectively you only lose the margin between slam landing and your auto attack.
It was like playing a rhythm game and sometimes became dynamic depending on haste buffs, akin to hunters in Legion with the vulnerable windows.
You donāt bring arms because of itās DPS, you bring them for exactly the same reason as Ret, the raid buff they are for physical DPS, namely hunters and every raid will likely have an arms warrior because itās good.
You donāt bring any class for its personal dps, but what it adds to raid DPS. If Arms warriors are sub 2K personal dps, then itās higher raid dps to just bring another 3k pumping hunter.
What tier you talking? T4? No warrior is doing 2K average across T4. Simply the gear doesnāt exist for that to happen, and Iāll qualify this with across ALL T4, not individual boss fights or one specific instance but all 3. Itās hard pressed for a hunter to break 2K on average in T4 trim, most will not be able to meet that standard.
But letās drop the details a moment, Warrior DPS is actually good, itās by no means bad in T4, T5, T6 or even SWP, and that raid buff is really good. 4% damage is no joke because not only does it help DPS but it also helps your tank make more threat. Threat is actually something people tend to forget about, and in TBC itās more important than in Vanilla because tank threat is less amazing than Vanilla. Not sure what they changed, but it like not going OOM is a thing in TBC.
Damn I feel bad for warriors, 3rd best tank in later tiers (bottom), fury meme spec, arms only 1 brought and with this slam thing even worse than beforeā¦