Warrior Talents Updated

[Quark]

Don't pretend rogues got nothing.
- The 41 pointer in combat is about 2 - 2.5% DPS increase if I modify the damage spreadsheet accordingly.

I get 2% for my stats. Let's not forget, this is 2% for what is listed as an 8% talent. They could make it 10% and I still wouldn't like it, because the talent as it stands is boring, lame, adds nothing new, is counterintuitive, and only works because they decided to keep bumping up a damage bonus until they forced it to work. Shadow Strikes, even if it only managed to boost my DPS by 2% (just like the current Suprise Attacks), would still have been better. Blizzard cannot get a "win" for this without a talent redesign, as it simply fails compared to what could have been, no matter the numbers.

Assuming a 1.6 speed offhand and 85% hit rate, potency is looking to add around 16% energy on average, which allows for more backstabs. Assuming you still ahve to use SnD all the time and never another finisher, you still get a backstab DPS increase that is point for point is better than Lethality.

I put it in as just extra energy converted to Backstabs, as it is inconsistent, thus hard to cycle. I get 7%. This makes it better than Dagger Spec per point, worse than Relentless Strikes and Dual-Wield Spec per point (as comparison). So it gets a checkmark.

- Add in the small agility increase of Vitality

Fully buffed, .55% increase total, an incredible .275% per point! Let me get right on that!

and you're talking about a total of around 8-9% total damage increase from 10 new talent points, even counting the 'filler' points.

~9.5%. Let's compare.

First? Compare to a build I could have come up with before the talents were announced. Drop AR, only going so far as to grab WeapEx. You lose AR, one Dagger Spec (point for point a small sacrifice), and 2 filler. You finish Lethality, gain Imp Poisons, gain Cold Blood, gain far superior "filler" in the new Fleet Footed and/or Quick Recovery, and get 4/5 Seal Fate. Before Combat Potency, it wasn't even a question -> this was the far superior path. Now, it gives you the versatility Combat Dagger severly lacks (combo points), has less waste, for what will end up to be about the same damage. Using only 2 or 3 new, mid-tier talents. Remember, the first time Blizzard ever said talents would be higher tiers of current trees, it was in the Rogue forums, with a CM claiming the new tiers would help outweigh people just trying to go 30/31 and such. By the way, 30/31 is still a clearly superior Sword build (especially since Combat Potency will help them less, having slower OHs).

Second? Compare to Fire Mages. Already on equal footing for damage with Rogues. Could currently go 31/20 (high damage Fire, nice damage Frost), 30/21 (slightly less damage Fire but with Ice Block), or something like 13/31/3 (boost efficiency and keep Fire high). I can see a 10/46/3, getting 6% from Playing with Fire, Pyromaniac. My very quick-and-dirty compilation (using a T2-geared mage) got me 9% for Empowered Fireball, let's say it's 5% given some comes from Ignite and I might be wrong on calcs. That leaves Molten Fury, which will max at about 6% (if fight is long enough to fully matter). My very rough estimations are giving them over 15%. Oh, and they get a new, unique, ability on top of it.

This is why I'm looking at Mitzy right now.