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 1.60.1.70009) and Blizzard's September 24 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.
- 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.
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. Deals an additional 80% weapon damage against Giants, Dragonkin, and mounted targets. Mounted targets are dismounted.
- 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.