So speculate how long until MOP? June, August, October, December or ?

[chaos5061]

442	Armor	Melee	Back	Brilliant Cloak of Wu the Younger
442	Armor	Spell Spirit	Back	Drape of Flowing Gauze
442	Armor	Physical DPS	Trinket	Gurp's Perfect Arrow
442	Armor	Spell DPS	Neck	Shiny Hozen Rock Holder
442	Cloth	Spell DPS	Head	Hood of Alchemical Vapors
442	Leather	Spell Spirit	Chest	Robes of the Solicitious Pandaren
442	Leather	Physical DPS	Hands	Syrio's Gloves of Tutelage
442	Mail	Melee	Legs	Primalist's Leggings
442	Plate	Tank	Hands	Gauntlets of the Solemn Charge
442	Plate	Melee	Hands	Gauntlets of Blurring Fingers
442	Plate	Spell Spirit	Head	Light-Sealed Casque
442	Shield	Tank	Off Hand	Skyrider's Shining Shield
442	Mace	Spell Spirit	Main Hand	Solianti's Insect Smasher
442	Mace	Physical DPS	One Hand	Porter's Tooth-Marked Mace
442	Staff	Spell DPS	Two Hand	Staff of Broken Hopes
442	Dagger	Physical DPS	One Hand	Lhakaz's Missing Ribspreader
433	Armor	Spell DPS	Off Hand	Bone-Inlaid Fan
433	Armor	Physical DPS	Back	Aquino's Cloak of Unity
433	Armor	Spell Spirit	Trinket	Core of Decency
433	Armor	Melee	Finger	Pestilential Ring
433	Armor	Spell Spirit	Finger	Signet of the Binding Wall
433	Armor	Tank	Neck	Scabripper Necklace
433	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Shoulders	Orb-Bound Shoulders
433	Cloth	Spell DPS	Chest	Robes of the Quiet Isle
433	Leather	Physical DPS	Feet	Tesslah's Ticking Treads
433	Mail	Physical DPS	Waist	Repin's Ammo-Laden Belt
433	Plate	Tank	Head	Endwyn's Toothy Visage
433	Plate	Melee	Feet	Blackfooted Greatboots
433	Plate	Spell Spirit	Wrists	Bracers of the Neux Dawn
433	Polearm	Melee	Two Hand	Ritter's Rat Render
433	Sword	Tank	One Hand	Horrifying Meatsaw
433	Wand	Spell DPS	Ranged	Wand of Stultifying Smoke
425	Armor	Tank	Finger	Seal of a Thousand Scars
425	Armor	Melee	Neck	Gaze of the Serpent

[chaos5061]

425	Armor	Spell Spirit	Neck	Stitcher's Spare Needles
425	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Feet	Sandals of Sympathetic Healing
425	Cloth	Spell DPS	Legs	Very Manly Leggings
425	Leather	Melee	Legs	Leggings of Perfect Balance
425	Leather	Spell Spirit	Shoulders	Enokian Growth Shoulderguards
425	Mail	Spell Spirit	Waist	Spirit-Speaking Belt
425	Mail	Physical DPS	Feet	Treads of Exotic Mastery
425	Plate	Tank	Legs	Greatheart Pants
425	Plate	Melee	Head	Davidian's All-Seeing Eyes
425	Axe	Melee	Two Hand	Fellworth's Repetitive Greataxe
425	Gun	Physical DPS	Ranged	Wall Guardian's Longrifle
425	Sword	Melee	One Hand	Buc-Zakai Bugslicer
425	Sword	Spell DPS	Main Hand	Ritualistic Sickle
420	Shield	Tank	Off Hand	Yaungol Battle Barrier
420	Axe	Physical DPS	One Hand	Needlefang Throatripper
420	Mace	Melee	One Hand	Ook-Breaker Mace
420	Mace	Spell Spirit	One Hand	Pool-Stirrer
420	Mace	Melee	Two Hand	Fangcracker Battlemace
420	Staff	Physical DPS	Two Hand	Pathwalker Greatstaff
420	Staff	Spell DPS	Two Hand	Darkstaff of Annihilation
420	Crossbow		Ranged	Fishsticker Longbow
417	Armor	Spell DPS	Back	Roffle's Flowing Raiment
417	Armor	Tank	Trinket	Brooch of Munificent Deeds
417	Armor	Physical DPS	Finger	Band of Pricking Needles
417	Armor	Melee	Neck	Necklace of the Eternal Watch
417	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Chest	Robes of Forgone Hope
417	Cloth	Spell DPS	Shoulders	Spaulders of Five Rings

[chaos5061]

417	Leather	Spell Spirit	Waist	Melador's Mercurial Wrap
417	Leather	Physical DPS	Shoulders	Mantle of Bestial Force
417	Mail	Spell Spirit	Hands	Toremu's Crackling Grips
417	Mail	Physical DPS	Wrists	Misty Morning Wristguards
417	Plate	Tank	Feet	Sollerets of Immovability
417	Plate	Melee	Waist	Waistguard of Flaming Words
417	Plate	Melee	Legs	Legplates of the Wandering Warrior
417	Plate	Spell Spirit	Hands	Errick's Woundbinder Gauntlets
417	Shield	Spell DPS	Off Hand	Don Carlos' Drifting Shield
417	Axe	Physical DPS	One Hand	Axe of the Iron Price
417	Dagger	Melee	One Hand	Sharpened Multi-Prong Dagger
417	Wand	Spell Spirit	Ranged	Wand of the Exiled Path
409	Armor	Spell Spirit	Trinket	Spiritwhisper Conch
409	Armor	Spell DPS	Trinket	Grakl's Gleaming Talisman
409	Armor	Tank	Finger	Signet of the Scorned
409	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Wrists	Glowing Wind Bracers
409	Cloth	Spell DPS	Hands	Toad-Slime Gloves
409	Leather	Physical DPS	Wrists	Star-Carrier Bracers
409	Mail	Spell Spirit	Legs	Leggings of the Scorched Man
409	Mail	Physical DPS	Head	Hexu's Amplifying Helm
409	Plate	Tank	Chest	Deathspite Breastplate
409	Plate	Melee	Shoulders	Shoulderguards of Honest Labor
409	Plate	Melee	Wrists	Zoid's Scorched Bracers
409	Plate	Spell Spirit	Waist	Cheng's Irrepressible Girdle
409	Axe	Physical DPS	One Hand	Scalebreaker Axe
409	Gun	Physical DPS	Ranged	Penate's Penace-Procuring Pistol
409	Mace	Physical DPS	One Hand	Ced's Crusher
409	Sword	Melee	Two Hand	Bjam's Door-Breaker
409	Staff	Spell Spirit	Two Hand	Matsuba's Breadmaker
409	Dagger	Spell DPS	Main Hand	Ravenclaw Harbinger
115	Mace	Physical DPS	One Hand	[PH] Orc Microphone
115	Mace	Physical DPS	Two Hand	[PH] Troll Guitar
90	Miscellaneous		Head	Mist-Piercing Goggles
1	Leather		Hands	Tiger Palm Wraps

[chaos5061]

Misc New Items

For a full list of new items in this patch,

check WoWDB.

1	Key		N/A	Ancient Guo-Lai Cache Key
1	Key		N/A	Ancient Mogu Key
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Crane Wing Inscription
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Ox Horn Inscription
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Minor Ox Horn Inscription
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Minor Crane Wing Inscription
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Minor Tiger Claw Inscription
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Minor Tiger Fang Inscription
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Scribe's Inscription of the Ox Horn
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Scribe's Inscription of the Crane Wing
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Scribe's Inscription of the Serpent Pearl
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Scribe's Inscription of the Tiger Claw
90	Item Enhancement		N/A	Scribe's Inscription of the Tiger Fang

[chaos5061]

Client Strings

This patch finally brings us support for BattleTags and maybe even Item Upgrades!

• BATTLENET_UNAVAILABLE_ALERT - The Battle.net service is currently unavailable. \n\nYour Real ID and BattleTag friends will not show up. You will also not be able to send or receive new Real ID or BattleTag friend requests. A game restart may be required to re-enable functionality.
• BATTLETAG_INLINE_TOAST_FRIEND_ADDED - \124TInterface\\FriendsFrame\\UI-Toast-ToastIcons.tga:16:16:0:0:128:64:98:127:2:29\124t%s is now a BattleTag friend.
• BATTLETAG_INLINE_TOAST_FRIEND_REMOVED - \124TInterface\\FriendsFrame\\UI-Toast-ToastIcons.tga:16:16:0:0:128:64:2:29:34:61\124t%s is no longer a BattleTag friend.
• BATTLETAG_REMOVE_FRIEND_CONFIRMATION - Are you sure you want to remove %s as a BattleTag friend?
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_1 - Drop
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_10 - Blizzard Pet Store
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_2 - Quest
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_3 - Vendor
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_4 - Profession
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_5 - Pet Battle
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_6 - Achievement
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_7 - World Event
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_8 - Promotion
• BATTLE_PET_SOURCE_9 - Trading Card Game
• BN_BLOCK_FAILED_TOO_MANY_RID - You have already blocked the maximum number of Real ID and BattleTag players.
• BN_BROADCAST_TOOLTIP - Send a Broadcast message to your Real ID and BattleTag friends.
• BN_WHISPER - Real ID and BattleTag Whispers
• BN_WHISPER_MODE - New Real ID and BattleTag Whispers
• CHALLENGE_MODE_MEDALNAME1 - Bronze Medal
• CHALLENGE_MODE_MEDALNAME2 - Silver Medal
• CHALLENGE_MODE_MEDALNAME3 - Gold Medal
• CHALLENGE_MODE_NEW_BEST - %s - New Best!
• CHALLENGE_MODE_NEW_RECORD - New Record
• CHI_COST_PER_TIME - %d Energy, plus %d per sec
• DUNGEON_FLOOR_ANCIENTMOGUCRYPT1 - Upper Burial Chamber
• DUNGEON_FLOOR_ANCIENTMOGUCRYPT2 - Crypt Depths
• DUNGEON_FLOOR_PROVINGGROUNDS1 - Arena of Annihilation
• ERR_BATTLETAG_FRIEND_REQUEST_SENT - BattleTag Friend request has been sent
• ERR_CANNOT_IGNORE_BN_FRIEND - You cannot ignore Real ID or BattleTag friends.
• ITEM_UPGRADE - Valor Upgrade
• ITEM_UPGRADE_MISSING_ITEM - Drag an item here to Upgrade it.
• OPTION_BN_WHISPER_MODE_INLINE - Real ID and BattleTag Whispers will be displayed in your regular chat tabs. They may be moved to a new window by right-clicking on the player's name in chat.
• OPTION_BN_WHISPER_MODE_POPOUT - New Real ID and BattleTag Whispers will be displayed in a new tab.
• OPTION_BN_WHISPER_MODE_POPOUT_AND_INLINE - New Real ID and BattleTag Whispers will be displayed in a new tab and in your regular chat tabs.
• OPTION_TOOLTIP_SHOW_TOAST_BROADCAST - Displays a Battle.net message when a Real ID or BattleTag friend updates their broadcast.
• OPTION_TOOLTIP_SHOW_TOAST_FRIEND_REQUEST - Displays a Battle.net message when you receive Real ID or BattleTag friend requests.
• OPTION_TOOLTIP_SHOW_TOAST_OFFLINE - Displays a Battle.net message when a Real ID or BattleTag friend goes offline.
• OPTION_TOOLTIP_SHOW_TOAST_ONLINE - Displays a Battle.net message when a Real ID or BattleTag friend comes online.
• QUEUED_STATUS_IN_PROGRESS - |cff19ff19[In Progress]|r
• QUEUED_STATUS_LISTED - Listed
• QUEUED_STATUS_PROPOSAL - Ready To Enter
• QUEUED_STATUS_QUEUED - Queued
• QUEUED_STATUS_ROLE_CHECK_IN_PROGRESS - Role Check
• QUEUED_STATUS_SUSPENDED - Paused
• QUEUED_STATUS_UNKNOWN - Unknown
• SHOW_TOAST_FRIEND_REQUEST_TEXT - Real ID and BattleTag Friend Requests
• TOGGLE_BATTLEFIELD_MAP - Toggle Zone Map
• TOGGLE_SCOREBOARD - Toggle Scoreboard
• TOOLTIP_BATTLE_PET - Battle Pet
• UNITNAME_SUMMON_TITLE18 - %s's War Banner
• UNITNAME_TITLE_WAR_BANNER - %s's War Banner

[chaos5061]

As soon as they clean up the class changes I'll post them.

[chaos5061]

Death Knight (Forums)

• Death Coil now costs 40 runic power, up from 35.

Unholy

• Sudden Doom now has an additional effect, which reduces the cost of Death Coil by 20%.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Bone Shield was renamed Glyph of Icebound Fortitude. Reduces the cooldown of your Icebound Fortitude by 50%, but also reduces its duration by 75%.
• Glyph of Heart Strike was renamed Glyph of Unholy Frenzy. Causes your Unholy Frenzy to no longer deal damage to the affected target.

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Death Strike was renamed Glyph of Corpse Explosion. Teaches you the ability Corpse Explosion.
• Glyph of Rune Strike was renamed Glyph of Army of the Dead. The ghouls summoned by your Army of the Dead no longer taunt their target.
• Glyph of Scourge Strike was renamed Glyph of Foul Menagerie. Causes your Army of the Dead spell to summon an assortment of undead minions.

Druid (Forums)

• Faerie Fire now grants a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Mangle when cast from Bear Form.
• Lacerate now grants a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Mangle, up from 12%.
• Thrash now grants a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Mangle, up from 12%.

Guardian

• Rip is now a Guardian spell, not Feral.

Hunter (Forums)

• Steady Shot now generates 14 Focus, up from 9.

Talents

• Exhilaration now heals for 5% of your total health, down from 15%.
• Spirit Bond will regenerate 1% of total health every 2 sec, down from 3%.

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Fetch (New) Teaches you the ability Fetch. Command your pet to retrieve the items on a nearby corpse.

Mage (Forums)

• Alter Time now allows the mage to revert their state before the 6 seconds are over.
• Arcane Brilliance now works on a target and not all party and raid members.
• Dalaran Brilliance now works on a target and not all party and raid members.
• Conjure Familiar (New) Conjures a familiar stone, containing either an Arcane, Fiery, or Icy Familiar. 20 yd range. 3 sec cast. 5 min cooldown.

Talents

• Cold Snap When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown of your Ice Block, Frost Nova, and Cone of Cold spell. spells.

Frost

• Summon Water Elemental now has a 1.5 sec cast time.

Minor Glyphs

• Arcane Brilliance has been renamed Porcupine. Your Polymorph: Sheep spell polymorphs the target into a porcupine instead.
• Conjuring has been renamed Conjure Familiar. Teaches you the spell Conjure Familiar. Conjures a familiar stone, containing either an Arcane, Fiery, or Icy Familiar.

[chaos5061]

Monk (Forums)

• Blackout Kick now has an additional effect for Brewmasters: Causes you to gain Shuffle, increasing your parry chance by 30% and your Stagger amount by an additional 20% for 6 sec. Bonus damage when the target is 50% health or below was removed from all specs.
• Expel Harm had the 10 yd range removed.
• Grapple Weapon now also disarms the ranged weapon.
• Provoke no longer provides an AoE taunt for Windwalker and Mistweaver.
• Spinning Crane Kick now costs 5.5% base mana, up from 2%.
• Zen Pilgrimage (New) Your spirit travels to the Peak of Serenity in Pandaria, leaving your body behind. Use Zen Pilgrimage again to return to your body. 10 sec cast. 15 min cooldown.
• Zen Pilgrimage: Return (New) Returns your spirit back to its body, returning you back to where you once were. Leaving Peak of Serenity will automatically return your body to your spirit, causing you to be unable to return back to where you were. 10 sec cast.

Talents

• Chi Burst now does 10,886 damage to all enemies, up from 1,013 damage. It also does (16,914 + 77.5% of AP) healing to all allies in its path. Chi Burst will always heal the Monk. Now has 50% AP scaling.
• Chi Torpedo had damage and healing formulas simplified, now reading: 1,519 damage to all enemies and (1,519 + 41.4% of AP) healing to all allies in your path.
• Chi Wave now will prefer those injured over full health.
• Rushing Jade Wind now has 75% AP scaling.
• Zen Sphere now does 1,171 + 71.85% of AP healing or (1,971 + 113% of AP) when cast again, up from not scaling with AP.

Brewmaster

• Stance of the Sturdy Ox now allows for you to shrug off melee attacks, rather than all attacks.
• Summon Black Ox Statue now requires the monk to do 1600% of AP damage to trigger the shield.

Mistweaver

• Enveloping Mist now heals for 65,688 + 94.5% of SP, up from 65,688 + 7.5% of SP.
• Stance of the Wise Serpent now your attack power is equal to 200% (was 100%) of your spell power, and you no longer benefit from other sources of attack power.
• Teachings of the Monastery no longer grants an additional 38.1% of SP when healing with Spinning Crane Kick.

Windwalker

• Flying Serpent Kick might have had a slight speed increase.

Paladin (Forums)

• Blinding Light now costs 8% of Base Mana, down from 23.4%.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Inquisition now reduces the damage bonus of Inquisition by 15%, up from 10%.

Priest (Forums)
Talents

• Divine Insight now the Shadow Word: Pain proc causes your next Mind Blast within 12 sec to be instant cast and cost no mana.
• From Darkness, Comes Light now the Vampiric Touch proc causes your next Mind Spike to not consume your damage-over-time effects, become instant cast, and cost no mana.

Holy

• Lightwell now heals for ((5,735 + 55.3% of Spell Power) * 3), rather than (((5,735 + 30.8% of Spell Power) * 3) * 1.15). Now also has 15 charges.

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Shadowy Friends (New) Your shadow form extends to your non-combat pets.

Rogue (Forums)

• Eviscerate had damage and AP scaling increased by 45%.
• Rupture had damage and AP scaling increased by 45%.
• Shiv no longer awards 0 combo points.
• Sinister Strike had damage and bonus damage increased by 50%.

Assassination

• Dispatch had damage and bonus damage increased by 55%.
• Envenom had damage and AP scaling increased by 48%.
• Mutilate had damage and bonus damage increased by 54%.

Combat

• Revealing Strike had damage increased by 60%.

[chaos5061]

Warlock (Forums)

• Shadow Bolt damage has been reduced by 29%.
• Soul Harvest no longer regenerates soul shards.

Demonology

• Hand of Gul'dan had damage reduced by 25%.
• Mastery: Master Demonologist had damage increase by 50%.
• Metamorphosis: Chaos Wave had damage reduced 23%.
• Metamorphosis: Demonic Slash had damage reduced 17%.
• Metamorphosis: Doom had damage reduced by 20%. Now has an additional effect: When Doom critically strikes, a Wild Imp will be summoned to attack the target.
• Soul Fire had damage reduced by 38%.

Destruction

• Chaos Bolt had a slight damage increase.
• Fire and Brimstone had a 3% damage increase.
• Mastery: Emberstorm now increases the effectiveness of Burning Ember consuming spells by 53%, up from 48%.
• Shadowburn had a slight damage increase.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Demon Hunting now reduces damage taken by 13.8%, up from 3.8%.

Warrior (Forums)

• Demoralizing Banner now has a 30 yd range.
• Mocking Banner now has a 30 yd range.
• Raging Blow is now a baseline skill, rather than Fury.
• Recklessness no longer increases all damage taken.
• Skull Banner now throws the banner at your feet.
• Sweeping Strikes is now a baseline skill, rather than Arms.

Arms

• Taste for Blood was reworked: In addition, Overpower hits increase the damage of your next Slam by 30% damage. This effect stacks up to 10 times.

Fury

• Bloodthirsty: The chance for Bloodthirst to be a critical strike increases by 10% until it achieves a critical strike.

Protection

• Shield Barrier now absorbs ((1% of 25000% of AP) / 3) damage for the next 6 sec, rather than 1% of 3300% of AP.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Recklessness has been reworked: Decreases the critical chance of Recklessness by 20% but increases its duration by 50%.

Professions
Alchemy

• Darkwater Potion now transforms you into a Jinyu assassin, granting you greatly increased movement speed on both land and in water for 15 sec.

Archeology

• All items now allow you to crate them, which is related to the new crate items in the patch.

Blacksmithing

• Bloodforged Warfists
• Chestplate of Limitless Faith
• Folded Ghost Iron, Level 0
• Folded Ghost Iron, Level 1
• Folded Ghost Iron, Level 2
• Folded Ghost Iron, Level 3
• Gauntlets of Battle Command
• Gauntlets of Unbound Devotion
• Ornate Battleplate of the Master
• Unyielding Bloodplate

Engineering

• Synapse Springs (New) Permanently attaches synapse springs to your gloves, allowing you to increase your highest primary statistic by 2,940 for 10 sec. The gloves can be activated every minute. Requires at least 550 skill in Engineering to use. 5 sec cast. Reagents: Ghost Iron Bolts.

[chaos5061]

Pandaren Male Emote Sounds
The Pandaren Male finally had sounds added to go with the emotes!

[chaos5061]

Theramore's Fall Scenario Preview
During the last build, scenarios were enabled for ~15 minutes, allowing us to start on the Horde Theramore Isle scenario. Unfortunately they were disabled before we were able to complete it.

Important: This is a very early preview of something that wasn't ready for testing.

[chaos5061]

Horde Scenario Steps

• To the Waterline! - Rig powder barrels on all six ships.
• The Blastmaster - Inform Blastmaster Sparkfuse of your success.
• Gryphon, Down - Slay Baldruc and his gryphons.
• Tanks for Nothing! - Destroy Big Bessa and sabotage any unmanned tanks.
• Fly, Spy! - Slay Hedric Evencane and free Thalen Songweaver from Foothold Citadel.

Alliance Scenario Steps

• Find Jaina - Find Jaina Proudmoore in the ruins of Theramore.
• Cleansing the Filth - Destroy any remaining horde in the ruins of Theramore.
• Destroy the Destroyer - Destroy the Horde siege engine at the west gate.
• The Last Stand - Protect Jaina while she attunes to the Focusing Iris.
• Welcome to Theramore - Defeat the Horde in the harbor.

[chaos5061]

[chaos5061]

Balance Druid Concerns
We are in fact experimenting with adding Insect Swarm back to the rotation.

[chaos5061]

What would you do if they changed Rage to match Fury from D3?

From WoWInsider:
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

The past week I have been doing two things in terms of my video game time. I have been tanking heroic Dragon Soul, and I have been playing a barbarian in Diablo III. And frankly, they bleed together, because although World of Warcraft's story draws directly from the Warcraft RTS and setting, WoW had Diablo in its DNA. Don't believe me? Roll a paladin in Diablo II, then go take a look at what paladin talent trees looked like when vanilla WoW launched.

So for the past week, as I contemplate the Mists of Pandaria revamp to talents and specializations, the huge rage redesign, and how the class is going to work, I keep casting covetous eyes onto the barbarian I keep rocking faces on. Now, Diablo III and World of Warcraft are different games with different design philosophies. WoW tries a lot harder for balance between competing classes because it has more classes. D3 has five classes, and no two of those classes does what it does the same way. The witch doctor and the wizard and demon hunter all fight from range, the barbarian and monk both fight in melee, but how they do these things is thoroughly different, and D3 doesn't have the tank/DPS/healer trinity to consider. You chug potions, you spec for survival, and you blow stuff up.

Still, there are things I really want to see Mists steal from Diablo III. Like, say, its version of Revenge. That thing is sweet.


As cool as Diablo's version of Revenge is, what really has me intrigued is how fury works. For starters, the frenetic pace of getting and spending fury, which you can modify by selecting what your fury gathering attack is versus your fury spenders, works really well by abandoning something we're fairly used to. We hear often that rage should be a resource you manage, that the design is to make you care about rage and how you spend it.

Fury flies right in the face of that wisdom and it's a glorious, awesome experience. After playing Diablo III for a week, I'm more convinced than ever that the last thing we need or should want is to have to manage our rage. We've seen design after design for rage generation over the past seven years try to curb rage's reckless, exponential growth, and I say it's time to stop fighting it and embrace it.

Let rage flow like water. Let us accumulate it easily and spend it like wanton drunkards. I'm sure that everyone working on the Mists of Pandaria development and especially the warrior redesign is going to play Diablo III, if for some strange reason they haven't been playing it in house. Well, when they do, I sincerely hope they pay attention to how natural the fury system feels. You'll deliberately smash items around you just to get some rage. Put destruction fodder in dungeons and the world, Blizz! Steal this idea from yourselves -- it's a blast.

There's never any sense of having to wait for fury to accumulate, never an annoying period of downtime because the fury gathering attack is on cooldown. When designing a system where certain attacks generate rage, having them have a cooldown longer than a couple of seconds ends up feeling bad, even if it works perfectly seamlessly. If warriors had a secondary resource like holy power, runes, combo points or chi, sure, let some attacks generate that secondary resource while others generate rage, and give both a cooldown.


But that's not what we're seeing with Mists of Pandaria. Now, granted, I am aware of the different styles of gameplay, as I said before. I'm aware this isn't a monster crawl bug hunt with solo and group play, that there are more classes to balance and more discrete roles. I think in terms of how stances will work in Mists, for example, the design is near perfection. I like that a tanking warrior can't just slap on a shield and go into defensive stance and be just as good as a tank who gears and specs for the role. (I won't lie, though, I'd love for warriors to TG dual wield or arms tank, but I'm not arguing for it here.) That being said, I've seen it argued that warriors are designed to be limited by their rage as the vision for the class.

Well, after playing a barbarian, that's going to be hard to swallow. The barbarian isn't limited by fury; the barbarian is liberated by it. The resource system doesn't feel like a pair of leg irons holding you back; it feels like your resources are what make you powerful and destructive. I don't want rage to be something I resent because I feel like I can't get enough of it or I have to wait to use an attack that generates it. I want rage to be a seething red mist that drives me onward, that goads me into reckless abandon, that is as much a reason for my success as my gigantic shield or massive two-handed weapon.

Another concept I really want you to steal is the idea of mighty weapons. I know it would mean designing weapons that only warriors could use (you know, like agility daggers for rogues or all that intellect plate for holy paladins) -- but imagine it, a weapon so massive that only a warrior could use it at all, and then only with TG. Redefine current in-game two-handed weapons as Mighty Weapons, and let paladins, DKs and druids use them exactly as they do now, while we could still dual wield them with Titan's Grip. Then add Mighty two-handed weapons, and let us use them exactly as we do normal two-handed weapons today. You'd have to let arms warriors access them as well, so perhaps simply make TG baseline but keep the dual wielding as part of the fury specialization. Frankly, I'd want to see this extended to protection, allowing warriors to finally feasibly tank with a two-handed weapon and a shield. The idea of massive weapons seems part and parcel of the warrior aesthetic, and I'd love to see it move to the fore. A warrior tank with a shield and a Gurthalak would tickle me.

Also, wow, I want that AoE version of Revenge with the big self heal when you hit a lot of mobs with it -- that would be freaking super sweet.