And it’s currently bullshit anyway. Warriors can’t take nearly as much damage as a Paladin (nor should they imo, but right now it’s way out of whack).
Warriors are very good at dealing damage, and lots of it, with a lot of tactical options. Rogues do far more damage, and have more strategic options for combat, but while the fight is going on, a Warrior has a great deal of choices. This is probably why I enjoy it so much, there is no hitting Attack and going out for a sandwich here. I am finding a Warrior in WoW to be literally as much effort and fun as being an Enchanter in EQ was.
Yeah, I fished up a 12 lb mudjaw. But what good does it do? I’ve got it equipped in my off-hand, but my hunter never swings it. Do I need dual wield to enjoy the true benefits of the equippable fish?
Or is it always for show?, in which case I’m taking it straight to the auction hall. I don’t remember being this horribly broke in CB.
There is a good write up about the last patch having fucked Warriors here http://www.nurfed.com/ Scroll down a little, but its on the front page as of right now.
I’m a relative MMO newbie but I’ve been playing with some expert players recently and have really learned a lot about how even “dumb” classes like Warrior can be more nuanced than I’d expected, particularly when playing in a group. I had toyed with being a Warrior initially because I liked the idea of being a class where I didn’t have much responsibility to the other players in my group other than knocking the shit out of every monster we come across. But as I’ve since learned, Warriors DO have responsibility, it’s their duty to hold as much aggro as possible and basically keep the weaker classes alive… which is not easy when, for example, a mage in your group is dishing out more damage than you with high-level nukes.
The different battle stances available to a Warrior and the rage system definitely make monster-bashing a more sophisticated experience than the “Gauntlet-on-steroids” I’d expected from that class.
Warriors can be interesting in WoW. Like Gary says, they have to hold aggro, they have offensive and defensive stances, they have rage management, combat styles, etc.
Definitely. Once the stances come into play, you have to start making strategic decisions based on the situation. Many abilities can only be used with a certain stance, and changing stances in battle removes any accumulated rage (though you can retain some if you put points into a certain talent).
The last beta patch fucked Warriors, it made them a lot less fun to play in a group. Their ability to hold aggro now, assuming the party is all the same level and has good gear, is much more dependent on how the rest of the people in the group play their class than the Warrior’s own skill level. Prior to the changes, Warrior was one of the most challenging classes to play well. Now, its still challenging, but the challenge lies in getting people to not cast, turn off attack, use different heals, etc.
They completely overhauled aggro and by doing so invalidated all of the content balancing that had been done up to that point.
Sounds like they were trying to avoid EQ-itis where, as long as you had a warrior and enough healers to keep him propped up, everything became trivial to kill. Too bad they didn’t manage to hit some middle ground.
How long did that take?[/quote]
Hard to say. I hit 50 (working mining and smithing up at the same time) the level cap at the time I started the character, in just under 7 days /played.
As far as the actual content, the ‘end game’ kept changing in the beta, because of the level cap and them adding stuff to do. It took a week or two to beat the ‘new’ content, but then the farming began which lasted weeks.
Sounds like they were trying to avoid EQ-itis where, as long as you had a warrior and enough healers to keep him propped up, everything became trivial to kill. Too bad they didn’t manage to hit some middle ground.[/quote]
Maybe. But it was way late in the game to make those kinds of changes. The current high level encounters were balanced on the old aggro management. Not to say the current stuff will be impossible, but it will definitely involve a completely different (more boring) method of gameplay. And it will be a lot more frustrating to the average player. There were plenty of folks who thought Sunken Temple, BRD, BRS, Strat, etc. were too hard before. Now, with the current aggro mechanics? Those places are all much more difficult, impossible for the casual gamer and his pickup group.
The only purpose of the equippable fish is as a trophy. You can hold it in your hand to take fishing picture screenshots or for bragging rights on fish size. Or, as I do, you can keep it equipped in your offhand as you fight monsters to add that little extra bit of oddness to any passers by. I’m currently toting around a 27 pound catfish. Beat THAT!
Sometimes I switch it for a boquet of begonias that I received as a quest reward.
I’m not a warrior but my friend (Fyst) who I group with all the time is. The changes seem to be for the better. Now his taunt is guaranteed to pull the mob off of me instead of it just adding some aggro towards him.
I must admit I have noticed this too. Even after I give the group’s tank ample time to build up some Rage (and you can see it building in the group window) I’m afraid to fire off a high-level nuke because more often than not it turns the mob onto me. That doesn’t seem quite right.
