WoW Forever: warrior crits now give double rage

Blizzard posted a second set of development notes in the early hours of 2 October, Central European time, covering warrior changes that went into the same beta build as the level 30 update. The headline change applies to every warrior: landing a critical strike now generates 100% additional rage, up from 75%. Blizzard also fixed a bug that was giving Dual Wield Specialization a hit chance bonus on both weapons rather than the off-hand only, and says Fury warriors were retuned afterwards to account for the fix.

Fury takes most of the work. Booming Voice now widens the area of effect of shouts by 10 to 50% across its ranks and cuts their rage cost by 5 to 25%, where before it only reduced the cost. Unbridled Wrath no longer grants double rage to two-handed weapons, and Blood Craze no longer triggers from Bloodthirst. Bloodthirst itself hits harder: its attack power ratio goes from 35% to 45%. Whirlwind now strikes with both weapons without any talent spent on it, and Berserker Rage becomes available at level 30 instead of 32.

Two Fury talents are gone and two new ones take their place. Improved Cleave and Boundless Rage have been removed. Lingering Rage delays the point at which rage starts to decay after combat by 2 to 10 seconds, and Furious Precision raises the chance to hit with off-hand attacks by 4, 7 or 10%. A third addition, Gore Drinker, sits on row 6 and restores health after certain rage abilities. Raging Blows now also takes 3 rage off the cost of Cleave and Whirlwind, Flurry no longer needs Enrage but does need Death Wish, and Improved Berserker Rage moves down to row 5.

Protection gets no new abilities, only a reshuffle: Iron Will and Improved Bloodrage move to row 1, Anticipation and Improved Revenge to row 2, Improved Disarm to row 3 and Improved Shield Bash to row 4. Toughness has been removed outright. None of this is final — the beta runs until 21 October, and talent rows have already moved more than once since testing began.