Having been fortunate enough to be chosen to be one of the first to try the MoP beta, I have to say that I am very excited! I was able to take part in every beta thus far, starting with the original beta for WoW, as well as every beta testing for each expansion. I still remember clear as day in the original WoW beta taking the sep over to Grom’gol, with one of my new in game friends who was named Wasabi (he was a super cool dude and once the game was released we lost touch unfortunately). We had no idea where the Zep would take us, and once we docked in Grom’gol we went to check out the sites and sounds of the jungle. There was absolutely no one around but the NPCs. Wassabi went ahead on the path with me following pretty far back. Pretty soon I see him running back towards me “yelling” to run back to camp. I thought what could be so bad? Behind him was this enormous crocodile that had a big X on its portrait! Talk about being being monster chow!
I will present my personal impressions of the MoP beta in the days ahead, but first I wanted to start off with sharing some of my thoughts about the Warrior class. There are quite a lot of sizable changes as you would imagine, which overall I am very pleased with. I really like the new talent system design and approach. It is very straightforward and clear to the player what the choices are for each ability. I am not one to change things just for the sake of change, but I believe this was a good forward movement which will help elevate a lot of players confusion and distraction with the talent trees.
Also of note, is the fact that many class abilities were reexamined and modified where needed. So for example, as an Arms warrior I no longer have to click Rend now, for it is removed from the game. That really helps to clean up my rotation and “flow” of fighting thankfully. So while the actual ability has been removed, it is now to be found when I use my Mortal Strike for it automatically applies “Deep Wounds” which is the new ‘Rend” like bleed effect which last for fifteen seconds.
One aspect of the Warrior class that I have been pleading for a long time and have left quite a few different forum post on is the removal of a particular stance requirement for an ability. So lets say if I wanted to use the Disarm ability, I would have to switch out of Arm and go into the Prot spec. The majority of Warriors would make use of macros to be able to do that quickly and efficiently, though to be honest I am not one who is too keen on having everything on a macro. It is a pain to say the least. Well, thankfully we don’t have to worry about that now. Disarm, Whirlwind, Intervene and Shattering Throw to name a few no longer require a particular stance! Thank goodness!
Right now my biggest wish on my Warrior wish list is my hope that Spell Reflect will be changed so that we will no longer be required to have a shield equipped in order to use that ability! That is one of my biggest gripes as an Arms Warrior, that in order to use Spell Reflect I must have equip a shield. It is utterly exasperating and vexing that we still are stuck with this game mechanic. I certainly hope that this is changed. I recognize the fact that using a shield is part of the Warrior class, but it is time to alleviate this very frustrating and non fun aspect of the Warrior game play design mechanic.
Another area that I would like to see changed is to allow Arms warrior to be able to equip an offhand weapon. As it stands now, I can only equip a two handed weapon. While I understand the reason behind this, it really limits the Arms player who might want to goof around with using a main hand and an off hand weapon for fun or for role playing purposes. I finally managed to acquire The Twin Blades of Azzinoth, yet as an Arms Warrior, I can’t enjoy having them equipped at the same time, since I am unable to equip the off hand! In order for me to equip them, I had to respect Fury! Talk about making me iFacepalm!
In terms of the actual game play and rotation as an Arms Warrior, I am pretty happy with what I have experienced so far. It feels very fluid and fun! The one comment that I would make is that while I love the fact that Slam is now an instant cast (Awesome! Thank you!), I can see there being some questions arising as to when to use it since both Slam and Heroic Strike now cost 30 rage and do just about the same degree of damage.
As far as actual talents that I chose, I went with Juggernaut, Impending Victory (I love it!!!), Disrupting Shout (seems pretty cool) and Mass Spell Reflect (Have to equip a shield to use, which as an Arms Warrior makes for frustrating game play). One of the new additions that we can choose is Dragon Roar. I have been calling this one Garlic Chili Blast…if you ever eat my beloved Garlic Chili you will get what I mean! It has been very cool and a lot of fun! It does a good amount of damage and also has a knock back, as well as a knock down effect!
Overall, I have been enjoying the MoP beta and my Warrior very much! I am very excited by what I have seen so far and what I have been privy to in terms of game play. It will be quite interesting to see how things proceed with the Warrior class and the game in general. I will definitely continue to post my thoughts and reflections in the days ahead!
Here are a few screen shots that I have taken thus far:
