The Warrior is the only class every race can play in WoW Forever, the new Skyborne included on both sides: High Order Skyborne for the Alliance, Windshaper Skyborne for the Horde. Tactical Mastery becomes a trainer spell at level 14, Victory Rush and a new first rank of Slam arrive at level 20, and all three trees get new talents, such as Weaponmaster, which takes over from the weapon specializations in Arms. Here is what the beta client (build 1.60.1.70205), Blizzard's Warrior and Priest deep dive of September 30 and its September 24 and October 1 beta notes show.
What every Warrior gets
- Tactical Mastery at level 14: You retain up to 10 Rage when you change Stances. In Classic Era it was an Arms talent; that talent keeps its place in the tree as Improved Tactical Mastery, below.
- Victory Rush, new at level 20: an instant, melee-range ability with a 30-second cooldown that heals you for 10% of your maximum health, usable for 20 sec after you kill a non-trivial enemy, Blizzard's deep dive says.
- Slam starts at level 20 instead of 30: the beta client adds a new first rank, for weapon damage plus 16, ahead of the four ranks Classic Era has. It has a 1.5-second cast and an 18-second cooldown; Blizzard's September 24 notes raised that cooldown from 15 seconds.
- Sunder Armor: the same notes correct its threat values on all ranks, with a small increase to the threat it generates from Attack Power; the deep dive adds that it now works on a target with Expose Armor.
- Rage, in the deep dive: Rage from damage taken ignores armor and absorbs, so Power Word: Shield no longer cuts it, and critical strikes gave 75% more Rage. The October 1 notes raise that to 100% more Rage for critical strikes with basic attacks.
- Cooldowns and shouts: Recklessness, Shield Wall and Retaliation no longer share a cooldown, and Shield Wall and Retaliation drop to 15 minutes. Rend and Thunder Clap gain significant scaling from attack power, Thunder Clap works in Defensive Stance on a 6-second cooldown, and Battle Shout gives less attack power but includes Improved Battle Shout's bonus.
- The October 1 notes also make Rend and Sunder Armor tap enemies instantly, stop queued Heroic Strikes from raising off-hand hit chance, and bring Berserker Rage to level 30 instead of 32; the client still lists 32.
Gearing changes too. Blizzard's Deep Dive recap says spell, melee and ranged hit chance are combined, as are the three critical strike chances, which lets Warriors benefit when they improve the reliability of tools such as Taunt. Weapon skill works as it always has, but items that grant it offer less of it each, and some items can reduce the chance for your attacks to be parried or dodged.
Arms: Weaponmaster and Spearing Strike
- Improved Tactical Mastery (5 points in the tree, 5 ranks): Tactical Mastery lets you retain up to an additional 15 Rage when you change stances, 25 in all. In the client, it is Classic Era's Tactical Mastery talent under a new name: the same spell in the same spot.
- Spearing Strike (15 points in the tree, 1 rank), the 16-point talent: A brutal attack that deals 40% weapon damage, plus an additional 80% weapon damage against Giants, Dragonkin, and mounted targets. It costs 15 Rage on a 20-second cooldown, says the deep dive. The level 30 build drops its dismount, and the October 1 notes say it no longer needs a two-handed weapon but requires Battle Stance.
- Weaponmaster (20 points in the tree, 5 ranks): Gives your melee weapon attacks a benefit depending on the weapon. Axe/Polearm: Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Mace/Staff: Your attacks ignore 15% of your target's armor. Sword: Your successful melee attacks have a 5% chance to trigger an extra attack on the target.
- Bloodthrill (20 points in the tree, 5 ranks): Your Main Hand melee attacks against enemies afflicted by your Rend have a 20% chance to allow the use of your Overpower ability on the target. Lasts 6 sec. Blizzard's September 24 notes doubled the chance, to 4/8/12/16/20% from 2/4/6/8/10%, and limit it to main-hand attacks, Cleave and Heroic Strike included; the beta client already shows these values.
- Improved Slam (25 points in the tree, 2 ranks): Reduces the global cooldown and cast time of your Slam ability by 0.5 sec. In addition, Slam no longer interrupts or delays your melee swing and Slam's cooldown is reduced by 3 sec. The September 24 notes give the same cut, 1.5 then 3 seconds by rank. In Classic Era it was a 5-rank Fury talent at 20 points.
Improved Overpower now opens at 5 points instead of 10, and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization drops from 5 ranks to 3, for 3% more damage with two-handed melee weapons. Improved Thunder Clap has moved to Protection, and Mortal Strike is still the 31-point talent.