In Legion, Holy and Protection Paladins are going to be losing Holy Power, but Retribution will still be using it. I know it's a kind of controversial thing - Holy Power did not exist in Vanilla, BC, or Wrath, and a lot of people have been hoping for it to go away. I'm not among them, as I think that the rotation was pretty formless in Wrath - you basically hit all your abilities when they came off cooldown and that was it.
Ret's re-oriented much more toward melee strikes in Legion, but still has most of the same basic look - you hit with a bunch of attacks to generate Holy Power and then spend them on Templar's Verdict or Divine Storm, with some talents providing new or altered finishers (if you, for some strange reason, miss Inquisition, there's something similar to that in talents.) The main thing, though, is that you're going to be hitting things with your weapon more. Also, what I've seen of the new combat animations are really impressive (Judgment, which I think is your only ranged attack left, looks much more like Maraad's did in the "going through the Dark Portal" cinematic as you begin the Tanaan Jungle intro.)
As always, this is Alpha, so don't be surprised by changes.
Crusader Strike look identical to how it is live, 4.5 second cooldown, generates one Holy Power.
Judgment no longer generates Holy Power, but it now causes enemies to take 30% extra damage from your Holy Power generators for 6 seconds, and has a 12-second cooldown.
Templar's Verdict is the same, costing 3 Holy Power to deal physical damage.
Blade of Justice is a new attack that deals Holy damage and generates 2 Holy Power, on a 12-second cooldown.
Divine Storm looks pretty much the same, dealing AoE Holy Damage around you, and costs 3 Holy Power.
Hands and Blessings have been redesigned. Hand spells are now things that you cast on enemy targets, while Blessings are beneficial spells you cast on allies. There are a number of these. Notably, now that party/raid-wide buffs are gone, Blessing of Might, Blessing of Kings, and Blessing of Wisdom (which we haven't seen since Wrath, i think) are now single-target buffs, giving useful bonuses for DPS, Tanks, and Healers, respectively. You can have only a total of three of these blessings up at a time (and I think they have to be cast on other players.) So that flavor of Paladins helping support the group will be retained. There are other blessings, like Protection or Freedom, as well as offensive Hand Spells that don't do damage, but generally debuff enemies to make it beneficial to attack them.
Conviction is a passive that gives your Crusader Strike and Blade of Justice a 20% chance to generate an additional Holy Power.
Avenging Wrath is still your major cooldown, though with no Hammer of Wrath anymore, it merely boosts all damage and healing by 50% for 20 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown.
Retribution is a kind of flavorful passive, giving you 100% increased damage when a raid or party member within 40 yards dies. This could be very powerful in PvP, where players drop more frequently, but on raid fights it will probably not be a terribly significant boost.
So before talents and artifact traits, I think the rotation is something like this:
1. Templar's Verdict at 3 Holy Power - you probably don't want to bank it, as Conviction might send you over the 5-HoPo limit.
2. Judgment if you can do both a Crusader Strike and a Blade of Justice while the debuff is up (given that Judgment and Blade of Justice both have a 12-second cooldown, you can probably just always hit BoJ right after Judgment.
3. Crusader Strike
I do wonder a bit if this is complete. Right now it looks like Ret's only AoE/Cleave is Divine Storm, and while that's historically been pretty powerful, it's not much of an AoE rotation to just switch out one finisher. There are also a bunch of talents that are simply baseline Protection spells, like Consecration and Divine Steed. The former is something I'm sure a lot of Rets would want back after all these years (and it would make the AoE rotation somewhat more robust,) but I suspect we're going to be seeing some changes here.
Also, to be clear, this is all coming from the WoWHead Legion talent calculators, which means there could be missing abilities on their website. Still, as a look at the general shape of the spec, I think we've got some interesting things going on.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Breaking Down the Insanity of the New Shadow
Shadow Priests have always hinted at being connected to the same powers as the Eldritch Old Gods, and things like Void Tendrils or really just the fact that they assault their enemies' minds has played into that. That theme of craziness at the center of their gameplay is getting put front and center, with new resource that replaces Mana called Insanity. There are also no longer any Shadow Orbs.
Insanity is actually pretty odd as a resource, as you have a lot more control over how you generate it than how you spend it. Your spells will generate different amounts of Insanity until you hit 100. Then, you will automatically shift into Void Form (Shadowform will be always-on while you're specced Shadow.) Void Form reduces the cooldown of Mind Blast by 3 seconds (to 6) and increases all Shadow damage you deal by 30%.
While in Void Form, you'll get 1% Haste every second, and this buff will last for 20 seconds after Void Form ends.
While in Void Form, you'll lose Insanity at a faster and faster rate over time, until it becomes impossible to maintain it and you'll drop back down into the old Shadowform, but of course, with that 20 second buff to your haste. You'll still be able to generate Insanity while in Void Form, but it will drain faster and faster.
Many of your spells should look pretty familiar.
Shadow Word: Pain remains an 18-second DOT the does Shadow damage.
Mind Flay remains your channeled filler spell, dealing Shadow damage and generating 10.02 (weird number) Insanity on its full duration.
Mind Blast looks largely the same as well, with a 9 second cooldown and a 1.5 second cast time, dealing a bunch of Shadow damage and then generating 20 Insanity.
Void Bolt is a new spell, instant on a 6-second cooldown that deals shadow damage to the target and extends the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch on the target by 3 seconds. This can only be cast in Void Form.
Vampiric Touch is slightly different, a DoT that heals you for all the damage it deals, with a 1.5 second cast time and a 24-second duration. If dispelled, the dispeller flees in horror for 3 seconds.
Shadow Mend is a heal that costs 10 Insanity if you have it (though if you have none, it costs nothing,) healing the target for a large amount but then placing a DoT on you that deal half the damage it had healed for over five seconds, though if you leave combat, the DoT will end (and presumably not even start if you're already out of combat when you cast it.)
Shadow Word: Death is instant on an 8-second cooldown, only usable on targets below 20%, and does a bunch of Shadow damage. If you kill the target with it, you gain 30 Insanity.
Shadowy Apparitions remains a passive that causes you Shadow Word: Pain crits to summon an apparition that flies toward the enemy and deals shadow damage.
Shadow Fiend is a 3-min cooldown that summons a... wait for it... shadowy fiend to attack your target for 12 seconds.
Mind Sear remains as a channeled AoE and seems more or less unchanged, but it does not appear to generate any Insanity.
There are a number of utility spells as well, but that's it for rotational ones.
So, before talents or artifact traits, the rotation seems not too different to where we were before:
1. Keep up Shadow Word: Pain
2. Keep up Vampiric Touch
3. Mind Blast on cooldown.
4. Mind Flay to fill gaps.
When you're Insane, you can alter it a bit, using Void Bolt about once every three seconds to keep the DoTs running and then try to keep generating as much Insanity as you can to get that buff to stack up. I don't know that there's even a cap on the buff.
While it's certainly different, given the lack of Devouring Plague, most of the bones of the rotation seem pretty untouched.
Insanity is actually pretty odd as a resource, as you have a lot more control over how you generate it than how you spend it. Your spells will generate different amounts of Insanity until you hit 100. Then, you will automatically shift into Void Form (Shadowform will be always-on while you're specced Shadow.) Void Form reduces the cooldown of Mind Blast by 3 seconds (to 6) and increases all Shadow damage you deal by 30%.
While in Void Form, you'll get 1% Haste every second, and this buff will last for 20 seconds after Void Form ends.
While in Void Form, you'll lose Insanity at a faster and faster rate over time, until it becomes impossible to maintain it and you'll drop back down into the old Shadowform, but of course, with that 20 second buff to your haste. You'll still be able to generate Insanity while in Void Form, but it will drain faster and faster.
Many of your spells should look pretty familiar.
Shadow Word: Pain remains an 18-second DOT the does Shadow damage.
Mind Flay remains your channeled filler spell, dealing Shadow damage and generating 10.02 (weird number) Insanity on its full duration.
Mind Blast looks largely the same as well, with a 9 second cooldown and a 1.5 second cast time, dealing a bunch of Shadow damage and then generating 20 Insanity.
Void Bolt is a new spell, instant on a 6-second cooldown that deals shadow damage to the target and extends the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch on the target by 3 seconds. This can only be cast in Void Form.
Vampiric Touch is slightly different, a DoT that heals you for all the damage it deals, with a 1.5 second cast time and a 24-second duration. If dispelled, the dispeller flees in horror for 3 seconds.
Shadow Mend is a heal that costs 10 Insanity if you have it (though if you have none, it costs nothing,) healing the target for a large amount but then placing a DoT on you that deal half the damage it had healed for over five seconds, though if you leave combat, the DoT will end (and presumably not even start if you're already out of combat when you cast it.)
Shadow Word: Death is instant on an 8-second cooldown, only usable on targets below 20%, and does a bunch of Shadow damage. If you kill the target with it, you gain 30 Insanity.
Shadowy Apparitions remains a passive that causes you Shadow Word: Pain crits to summon an apparition that flies toward the enemy and deals shadow damage.
Shadow Fiend is a 3-min cooldown that summons a... wait for it... shadowy fiend to attack your target for 12 seconds.
Mind Sear remains as a channeled AoE and seems more or less unchanged, but it does not appear to generate any Insanity.
There are a number of utility spells as well, but that's it for rotational ones.
So, before talents or artifact traits, the rotation seems not too different to where we were before:
1. Keep up Shadow Word: Pain
2. Keep up Vampiric Touch
3. Mind Blast on cooldown.
4. Mind Flay to fill gaps.
When you're Insane, you can alter it a bit, using Void Bolt about once every three seconds to keep the DoTs running and then try to keep generating as much Insanity as you can to get that buff to stack up. I don't know that there's even a cap on the buff.
While it's certainly different, given the lack of Devouring Plague, most of the bones of the rotation seem pretty untouched.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Breaking Down the new Subtlety
Yeah, I know we're going back to Rogues before handling Priests or Mages, but I'm not super interested in Priests and Mages are getting rather subtle changes. You know what spec is not getting mere subtle changes? Subtlety! Yes I went there.
I have a special fondness for Subtlety, as my Rogue was Sub when he was was my main through much of Burning Crusade. He was my first toon to hit a then-current level cap. However, some time during Wrath, though I committed more fully in Cataclysm, I decided I liked the playstyle of Assassination more. I loved the idea of a Rogue stepping out of the shadows, striking, and disappearing again, and Sub's "focus on finishers" gameplay just didn't fit that fantasy.
Well, that's changing bigtime, thanks to a redesigned Shadow Dance and a new focus on Shadow damage. Poisons and Bleeds are now both Assassination-only (which I might cover eventually,) but while Stealth is still available to all Rogues, Sub's got a real clear focus on it.
As always, this is Alpha, so you can expect changes.
Let's get into abilities!
Backstab is still the main single-target CP generator, but it has been modified to allow you to use it while soloing. It does more damage when you use it from behind or the side, but it is still usable if your foe is facing you. Also, you can replace it with a talented upgrade at level 15 that removes any positioning elements if you still can't stand that stuff. It costs 35 Energy and generates one Combo Point.
Eviscerate is still your main damage finisher, and looks unchanged (though it's now Sub-only.)
Shadowstrike is a replacement for Ambush that includes a Shadowstep effect automatically if you aren't already in melee range. It costs 40 Energy and generates 2 Combo Points, and requires Stealth.
Shuriken Toss is baseline for the spec, giving you a ranged option, though I'm sure you'll want to remain in melee range when you can for auto-attacks and the superior damage of your melee strikes. It costs 40 Energy and awards 1 CP, and doesn't do anything to your auto-attacks.
The big change to the spec is that Shadow Dance is now a passive. Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per CP (so 100% if you use it at full CPs) to put you back into Stealth, which does not break from damage or auto-attacks for 3 seconds. It also summons a little shadow decoy for your enemy to attack (presumably so that enemies out in the world you fight while soloing don't just immediately reset.)
Shadow Techniques is a passive that gives your auto-attacks a chance to generate a CP, which gives a nice bit of variability to the spec.
Vanish gets the cooldown reduced by 30 seconds for Subtlety baseline.
Nightblade is your major "maintenance" finisher, a DoT that does Shadow damage and slows the target.
Master of Shadows gives you 60 Energy when you enter Stealth, which should make it very easy to pull off those Shadowstrikes when Shadow Dance procs.
Shuriken Storm is basically Fan of Knives, costing 35 Energy and generating a CP for every target hit.
Shadow Blades is your big cooldown, working just as it did in Mists by making your auto-attacks deal Shadow damage and making each of your CP generators generate an additional CP.
The rotation seems pretty straightforward.
Finishers:
1. Maintain Nightblade.
2. Eviscerate.
Generators:
1. Shadowstrike (using either Vanish or Shadow Dance, the latter of which will go off very frequently.)
2. Backstab.
And then you can multi-dot Nightblade for cleave situations or in big groups, go nuts with Shuriken Storm. I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of Crimson Tempest equivalent, but given that there are still references to Fan of Knives and Poisons, I suspect that we don't have a totally complete picture here.
Still, tons of Shadow Damage and you'll be dipping in and out of Stealth constantly, which is pretty awesome. (Note: in PvP, Shadow Dance will merely allow you to use Stealth abilities - you aren't going to be un-targeting yourself constantly, as that would be way OP.)
Breaking Down Blood
While I've been more of a Frost Death Knight since the beginning of Mists, I'm going to focus more on Blood here, because Frost is actually probably the least-changed DK spec - essentially, the 2H rotation of Warlords will be the baseline one, and you can talent to make it more like the current Dual-Wield one.
Blood is getting more changes, particularly in that it's becoming refocused on melee strikes, though there are certainly some other big re-jiggerings of the spec. It's still very much based on self-healing and absorption, but the manner in which you achieve these things is changing.
Before we get to all of that, though, let's touch on the change to Runes. Gone are individualized Blood, Frost, or Unholy Runes. All Runes are now effectively Death Runes, though we just call them Runes now. They each have a kind of icy-blue skull as the symbol. You'll still only be able to regenerate three at a time, but I don't think they're paired up the way they are now. As usual, each Rune spent generates 10 Runic Power unless otherwise noted.
And here's the usual caveat - this is Alpha, so things can and will change.
Blood Plague is now your only disease (each spec gets a single disease.) It deals shadow damage and heals you for as much as it damages, making it potentially very effective when spread between many targets.
Blood Strike returns. costing 1 Rune and dealing physical damage, applying Blood Plague and also generating a bonus 10 Runic Power (so a total of 20.)
Death Strike has gotten some big changes. It now costs 40 Runic Power instead of Runes, becoming your main RP-spender. It's back to the Mists/Cata version in which it heals you based on the damage you've taken in the last 6 seconds (which is needed now that Resolve is gone,) with a minimum heal of 7% of your max health, but also, if you're below 35% health, it will consume all Runic Power you have to enhance the heal by an amount proportional to the extra RP consumed. Given that it now costs Runic Power, the availability of the strike will be a little more predictable.
Marrowrend is a new ability that costs 2 Runes, dealing physical damage and giving you three charges of Bone Shield. I suspect this will be the main thing you spend Runes on once Blood Plague is up.
Death's Caress is a kind of ranged Blood Strike, costing 1 Rune, dealing Shadow damage and applying Blood Plague. It's less damage than Blood Strike, though, so when in melee you'll want to use that.
Blood Boil remains unchanged, but of course you'll only use it in multi-target situations now that we have Marrowrend and other stuff to spend Runes on. It still spreads and refreshes diseases, so basically any time you have more than one target, you can probably just sub this in for Blood Strike once the disease is applied.
Death and Decay works pretty much the same, but standing in it causes Blood Strike to hit all nearby enemies (much like the HotR/Consecration combo for Protection Paladins.)
Crimson Scourge now causes autoattacks on targets afflicted with Blood Plague to have a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Death and Decay, which of course will be easier to cast since all Runes are universal now.
Dancing Rune Weapon remains, but it now buffs your parry by a full 50%.
Anti-Magic Shell remains, I believe largely unchanged.
Vampiric Blood has a much longer, 3-minute cooldown now, but it increases your health and healing received by a full 100% (which is arguably the same as cutting the damage you take by 50%.) But there's no more Icebound Fortitude (at least for Blood.)
Putting it all together, and this is of course before talents and artifact traits, the rotation seems like a lot of similar elements to what exist now, but in different places.
Runic Power Spenders/Active Mitigation:
Here's the easy part:
1. Blood Strike.
Done.
Rune Spenders:
1. Blood Strike to maintain Blood Plague.
2. Death and Decay.
3. Marrowrend if you have 7 or fewer Bone Shield charges.
4. Blood Strike (which you'll probably want to use instead of Marrowrend if you can, given the bonus RP from it.)
Actually, that's not too bad. You'll obviously be able to use Death's Caress to get your disease ticking on distant enemies, giving you a bit of threat and healing if you can't or shouldn't Death Grip them to you.
In AoE, you'll use the same abilities, but probably swap out Blood Strike in favor of Blood Boil once the diseases are ticking.
Blood is getting more changes, particularly in that it's becoming refocused on melee strikes, though there are certainly some other big re-jiggerings of the spec. It's still very much based on self-healing and absorption, but the manner in which you achieve these things is changing.
Before we get to all of that, though, let's touch on the change to Runes. Gone are individualized Blood, Frost, or Unholy Runes. All Runes are now effectively Death Runes, though we just call them Runes now. They each have a kind of icy-blue skull as the symbol. You'll still only be able to regenerate three at a time, but I don't think they're paired up the way they are now. As usual, each Rune spent generates 10 Runic Power unless otherwise noted.
And here's the usual caveat - this is Alpha, so things can and will change.
Blood Plague is now your only disease (each spec gets a single disease.) It deals shadow damage and heals you for as much as it damages, making it potentially very effective when spread between many targets.
Blood Strike returns. costing 1 Rune and dealing physical damage, applying Blood Plague and also generating a bonus 10 Runic Power (so a total of 20.)
Death Strike has gotten some big changes. It now costs 40 Runic Power instead of Runes, becoming your main RP-spender. It's back to the Mists/Cata version in which it heals you based on the damage you've taken in the last 6 seconds (which is needed now that Resolve is gone,) with a minimum heal of 7% of your max health, but also, if you're below 35% health, it will consume all Runic Power you have to enhance the heal by an amount proportional to the extra RP consumed. Given that it now costs Runic Power, the availability of the strike will be a little more predictable.
Marrowrend is a new ability that costs 2 Runes, dealing physical damage and giving you three charges of Bone Shield. I suspect this will be the main thing you spend Runes on once Blood Plague is up.
Death's Caress is a kind of ranged Blood Strike, costing 1 Rune, dealing Shadow damage and applying Blood Plague. It's less damage than Blood Strike, though, so when in melee you'll want to use that.
Blood Boil remains unchanged, but of course you'll only use it in multi-target situations now that we have Marrowrend and other stuff to spend Runes on. It still spreads and refreshes diseases, so basically any time you have more than one target, you can probably just sub this in for Blood Strike once the disease is applied.
Death and Decay works pretty much the same, but standing in it causes Blood Strike to hit all nearby enemies (much like the HotR/Consecration combo for Protection Paladins.)
Crimson Scourge now causes autoattacks on targets afflicted with Blood Plague to have a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Death and Decay, which of course will be easier to cast since all Runes are universal now.
Dancing Rune Weapon remains, but it now buffs your parry by a full 50%.
Anti-Magic Shell remains, I believe largely unchanged.
Vampiric Blood has a much longer, 3-minute cooldown now, but it increases your health and healing received by a full 100% (which is arguably the same as cutting the damage you take by 50%.) But there's no more Icebound Fortitude (at least for Blood.)
Putting it all together, and this is of course before talents and artifact traits, the rotation seems like a lot of similar elements to what exist now, but in different places.
Runic Power Spenders/Active Mitigation:
Here's the easy part:
1. Blood Strike.
Done.
Rune Spenders:
1. Blood Strike to maintain Blood Plague.
2. Death and Decay.
3. Marrowrend if you have 7 or fewer Bone Shield charges.
4. Blood Strike (which you'll probably want to use instead of Marrowrend if you can, given the bonus RP from it.)
Actually, that's not too bad. You'll obviously be able to use Death's Caress to get your disease ticking on distant enemies, giving you a bit of threat and healing if you can't or shouldn't Death Grip them to you.
In AoE, you'll use the same abilities, but probably swap out Blood Strike in favor of Blood Boil once the diseases are ticking.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Breaking Down Protection (Paladins)
Well, I had to go for my own main's mainspec, didn't I? We're now getting into some specs that aren't getting changed all that radically. Protection will, in some ways, be very similar, and in other ways be totally different.
The main culprit is the loss of Holy Power. HoPo is now Ret-only, much as Chi is now Windwalker-only. Instead of tracking resources, we'll be more concerned with the cooldowns on Shield of the Righteous and the new Light of the Protector, which replaces Word of Glory as our self-heal.
Here's the usual caveat - this is Alpha and things are subject to change. Of course, things even change after going live, but generally that's more of a numbers and tuning thing rather than an ability design level.
Let's talk active mitigation abilities first:
Shield of the Righteous remains our go-to AM ability, with 3 charges on a 12-second recharge and no other resource cost. The damage reduction is still 25% baseline, but now lasts 4.5 seconds. Also, with no Word of Glory, there's no Bastion of Glory to stack up.
Light of the Protector is simply a 15-second cooldown ability, healing us for half of our missing health. Naturally, this is more effective when you're on the brink of death, but the relatively short cooldown means you can use it somewhat liberally. It does mean that the days of Bastion-buffed WoGs healing us from 10% to full look like they're coming to an end.
For our offensive abilities, there are some familiar names.
Hammer of the Righteous now fully replaces Crusader Strike. It has 2 charges on a mere 3-second recharge, meaning we'll be able to hit it nearly any time we need it. However, at least at this stage, it only does its AoE damage if we're standing in our Consecration. I'm not really happy with this kind of design, at least unless they allow us to have the Glyph of the Consecrator effect, but there is a talent that fixes it.
Avenger's Shield is pretty much its same old glorious self, with a 15 second cooldown but also the Grand Crusader passive to sometimes reset it. It also now buffs your next Shield of the Righteous or Light of the Protector by 20% - a buff I suspect you'll wan to always keep up (you might even delay those abilities to ensure you have the buff if it's not an emergency.)
Judgment is now on a 12-second cooldown, and oddly there still seems to be the passive Judgments of the Wise, which causes it to generate Holy Power, but since Prot doesn't use HoPo anymore, that can't be the case. Not sure what they'll do with it, but there you go.
Consecration remains, and I believe is unchanged, with a 9-second cooldown and duration. Of course, you'll also need it to buff HotR so that it causes AoE damage. And if you have, like I have, gotten used to Glyph of the Consecrator, there's no guarantee that that will still be available. (Though there is a talent that makes HotR always AoE and have no cooldown, so we might be ok on burst-AoE threat.)
Guardian of Ancient Kings looks unchanged. Ardent Defender has only a 1 minute cooldown, but only heals you back up to 12% if you would take lethal damage. Divine Protection is I think the same as always, or maybe it's the glyphed version? Whatever - it's the 20% to all damage version, and has a 1-minute baseline cooldown, no talent needed.
Divine Steed is a pretty cool new mobility... ability. It's pretty much just Speed of Light, but it's baseline and causes you to mount your Charger (or Kodo or Elekk, presumably, depending on race) for 100% additional speed for 4 seconds on a 1 minute cooldown. And yes, you can use this indoors.
Redoubt is a passive that gives your autoattack critical strikes a chance to give you a charge of Shield of the Righteous or Light of the Protector. That's a little confusing, as currently LotP simply has a 15-second cooldown. I wonder if, like Brewmasters, they'll have the two share charges and recharge, mimicking the way that Shield of the Righteous and Word of Glory currently compete for Holy Power.
So, to break down the rotation, as usual reminding everyone that this does not include talents and artifact traits, which will switch some of this up and add new elements.
Active Mitigation:
1. If you're really low on health, use Light of the Protector.
2. Otherwise, just use Shield of the Righteous.
Offense:
1. Consecration
2. Avenger's Shield (especially on procs)
3. Judgment
4. Hammer of the Righteous.
Just as it's always been, you'll have to juggle cooldowns a bit - though certainly less than in the past, what with Hammer's very short recharge and twin charges.
And on one last note: there's a fun talent called Final Stand, which reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield by 50% and also causes you to taunt any enemy within 15 yards for 8 seconds when you use it. Basically this lets you get rid of the old taunt-and-cancel macro and gives you an awesome AoE taunt coupled with invincibility every 2.5 minutes.
The main culprit is the loss of Holy Power. HoPo is now Ret-only, much as Chi is now Windwalker-only. Instead of tracking resources, we'll be more concerned with the cooldowns on Shield of the Righteous and the new Light of the Protector, which replaces Word of Glory as our self-heal.
Here's the usual caveat - this is Alpha and things are subject to change. Of course, things even change after going live, but generally that's more of a numbers and tuning thing rather than an ability design level.
Let's talk active mitigation abilities first:
Shield of the Righteous remains our go-to AM ability, with 3 charges on a 12-second recharge and no other resource cost. The damage reduction is still 25% baseline, but now lasts 4.5 seconds. Also, with no Word of Glory, there's no Bastion of Glory to stack up.
Light of the Protector is simply a 15-second cooldown ability, healing us for half of our missing health. Naturally, this is more effective when you're on the brink of death, but the relatively short cooldown means you can use it somewhat liberally. It does mean that the days of Bastion-buffed WoGs healing us from 10% to full look like they're coming to an end.
For our offensive abilities, there are some familiar names.
Hammer of the Righteous now fully replaces Crusader Strike. It has 2 charges on a mere 3-second recharge, meaning we'll be able to hit it nearly any time we need it. However, at least at this stage, it only does its AoE damage if we're standing in our Consecration. I'm not really happy with this kind of design, at least unless they allow us to have the Glyph of the Consecrator effect, but there is a talent that fixes it.
Avenger's Shield is pretty much its same old glorious self, with a 15 second cooldown but also the Grand Crusader passive to sometimes reset it. It also now buffs your next Shield of the Righteous or Light of the Protector by 20% - a buff I suspect you'll wan to always keep up (you might even delay those abilities to ensure you have the buff if it's not an emergency.)
Judgment is now on a 12-second cooldown, and oddly there still seems to be the passive Judgments of the Wise, which causes it to generate Holy Power, but since Prot doesn't use HoPo anymore, that can't be the case. Not sure what they'll do with it, but there you go.
Consecration remains, and I believe is unchanged, with a 9-second cooldown and duration. Of course, you'll also need it to buff HotR so that it causes AoE damage. And if you have, like I have, gotten used to Glyph of the Consecrator, there's no guarantee that that will still be available. (Though there is a talent that makes HotR always AoE and have no cooldown, so we might be ok on burst-AoE threat.)
Guardian of Ancient Kings looks unchanged. Ardent Defender has only a 1 minute cooldown, but only heals you back up to 12% if you would take lethal damage. Divine Protection is I think the same as always, or maybe it's the glyphed version? Whatever - it's the 20% to all damage version, and has a 1-minute baseline cooldown, no talent needed.
Divine Steed is a pretty cool new mobility... ability. It's pretty much just Speed of Light, but it's baseline and causes you to mount your Charger (or Kodo or Elekk, presumably, depending on race) for 100% additional speed for 4 seconds on a 1 minute cooldown. And yes, you can use this indoors.
Redoubt is a passive that gives your autoattack critical strikes a chance to give you a charge of Shield of the Righteous or Light of the Protector. That's a little confusing, as currently LotP simply has a 15-second cooldown. I wonder if, like Brewmasters, they'll have the two share charges and recharge, mimicking the way that Shield of the Righteous and Word of Glory currently compete for Holy Power.
So, to break down the rotation, as usual reminding everyone that this does not include talents and artifact traits, which will switch some of this up and add new elements.
Active Mitigation:
1. If you're really low on health, use Light of the Protector.
2. Otherwise, just use Shield of the Righteous.
Offense:
1. Consecration
2. Avenger's Shield (especially on procs)
3. Judgment
4. Hammer of the Righteous.
Just as it's always been, you'll have to juggle cooldowns a bit - though certainly less than in the past, what with Hammer's very short recharge and twin charges.
And on one last note: there's a fun talent called Final Stand, which reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield by 50% and also causes you to taunt any enemy within 15 yards for 8 seconds when you use it. Basically this lets you get rid of the old taunt-and-cancel macro and gives you an awesome AoE taunt coupled with invincibility every 2.5 minutes.
Breaking Down Brewmaster
Finally, a tank spec! Brewmasters are getting a rework in Legion, focusing, appropriately enough, a lot more on Brews and less on dodging and absorbing absurd amounts of damage. As always with these breakdowns, remember that we're still in Alpha (though it's a blurry line between Alphas and Betas these days) and thus all these things could change through iterations on the design before they go live.
Much like the other Tank/Melee/Healer hybrid, the Paladin, the big secondary resource for the class is now going only to the dps spec, though in the case of Monks, this is a bit more radical because unlike Paladins, Monks have always had another resource - Chi. No longer!
Brewmasters are still built around the use of Stagger as a mechanic, but other things are being pushed into the background while that aspect of the spec and the two main brews that interact with it are getting moved to the forefront.
Let's talk active mitigation first!
Ironskin Brew and Purifying Brew share 3 charges and a 20-second recharge. Purifying Brew works just as it always did (but with no resource cost other than these charges,) purging your Stagger damage. Ironskin Brew increases your Stagger amount by 60% for 6 seconds. So clearly, Ironskin makes Purifying a lot better.
Fortifying Brew remains a major defensive cooldown, but I believe the big change for all tanks is that these major cooldowns also count as active mitigation for bosses like Mannoroth.
Tiger Palm is the new Jab, costing 50 Energy and reducing the cooldown on your Brews by 1 second (not sure if this counts Forifying.)
Keg Smash looks largely the same, with a 40 Energy cost and an 8 second cooldown, and also reduces the cooldown of your brews by 4 seconds. It still includes the slow.
Blackout Strike replaces Blackout Kick (presumably because we'll have a staff instead of fist weapons.) It has no cost and a 3 second cooldown, and looks like it will be mainly for threat and damage.
Breath of Fire is on a 15 second cooldown (though it also says it still costs Chi, which means this could be out of date) and much like Blackout Strike, will probably be mainly for threat and damage. It also burns the target as a DoT if Keg Smash is affecting the target, just as it does now.
Zen Meditation is a major cooldown that reduces all damage taken by 90% for 8 seconds, but appears to be channeled.
Notable absence is Spinning Crane Kick, but presumably between Keg Smash and Breath of Fire, we'll have enough AoE to hold threat. Also missing is Dizzying Haze, which I get is slightly redundant with Keg Smash, but was nice for pulling.
Mastery: Elusive Brawler now makes every hit you receive increase your dodge chance, stacking up until you successfully dodge.
As always, we're setting aside talents and artifact traits for now to get the raw, bare-bones rotation.
Active Mitigation:
1. Purifying Brew if Stagger damage is Medium or higher.
2. Ironskin Brew
Threat/Damage/Resource Generation:
1. Keg Smash
2. Tiger Palm
3. Breath of Fire (depending on what kind of cooldown it has, and if it winds up being shared with Blackout Strike)
4. Blackout Strike
So yes, Guard and Elusive Brew are gone, but they're clearly focusing on making Stagger a much more significant part of Brewmaster tanking, which frees up some design space for other tanks (like Vengeance.) The loss of Guard in particular might feel like it opens you up to a lot more spiky damage, but the massive 60% Stagger (on top of 6% baseline, and half the total amount for spells) from Ironskin should help a lot in that regard.
Much like the other Tank/Melee/Healer hybrid, the Paladin, the big secondary resource for the class is now going only to the dps spec, though in the case of Monks, this is a bit more radical because unlike Paladins, Monks have always had another resource - Chi. No longer!
Brewmasters are still built around the use of Stagger as a mechanic, but other things are being pushed into the background while that aspect of the spec and the two main brews that interact with it are getting moved to the forefront.
Let's talk active mitigation first!
Ironskin Brew and Purifying Brew share 3 charges and a 20-second recharge. Purifying Brew works just as it always did (but with no resource cost other than these charges,) purging your Stagger damage. Ironskin Brew increases your Stagger amount by 60% for 6 seconds. So clearly, Ironskin makes Purifying a lot better.
Fortifying Brew remains a major defensive cooldown, but I believe the big change for all tanks is that these major cooldowns also count as active mitigation for bosses like Mannoroth.
Tiger Palm is the new Jab, costing 50 Energy and reducing the cooldown on your Brews by 1 second (not sure if this counts Forifying.)
Keg Smash looks largely the same, with a 40 Energy cost and an 8 second cooldown, and also reduces the cooldown of your brews by 4 seconds. It still includes the slow.
Blackout Strike replaces Blackout Kick (presumably because we'll have a staff instead of fist weapons.) It has no cost and a 3 second cooldown, and looks like it will be mainly for threat and damage.
Breath of Fire is on a 15 second cooldown (though it also says it still costs Chi, which means this could be out of date) and much like Blackout Strike, will probably be mainly for threat and damage. It also burns the target as a DoT if Keg Smash is affecting the target, just as it does now.
Zen Meditation is a major cooldown that reduces all damage taken by 90% for 8 seconds, but appears to be channeled.
Notable absence is Spinning Crane Kick, but presumably between Keg Smash and Breath of Fire, we'll have enough AoE to hold threat. Also missing is Dizzying Haze, which I get is slightly redundant with Keg Smash, but was nice for pulling.
Mastery: Elusive Brawler now makes every hit you receive increase your dodge chance, stacking up until you successfully dodge.
As always, we're setting aside talents and artifact traits for now to get the raw, bare-bones rotation.
Active Mitigation:
1. Purifying Brew if Stagger damage is Medium or higher.
2. Ironskin Brew
Threat/Damage/Resource Generation:
1. Keg Smash
2. Tiger Palm
3. Breath of Fire (depending on what kind of cooldown it has, and if it winds up being shared with Blackout Strike)
4. Blackout Strike
So yes, Guard and Elusive Brew are gone, but they're clearly focusing on making Stagger a much more significant part of Brewmaster tanking, which frees up some design space for other tanks (like Vengeance.) The loss of Guard in particular might feel like it opens you up to a lot more spiky damage, but the massive 60% Stagger (on top of 6% baseline, and half the total amount for spells) from Ironskin should help a lot in that regard.
Breaking Down Arms
I've made it no secret that I was really upset with the changes to Arms in Warlords of Draenor, taking my favorite Warrior spec and gutting it of all that made it interesting. Well, the good news is that they're rebuilding it in such a way that it's regaining some of the things I liked about it! It's not exactly in the place it was in Mists of Pandaria, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's worse. It's almost certainly better than it is in Warlords live right now.
As usual, the big caveats here are that this is in Alpha, and many things can change from now until Legion goes live. But we can probably expect these bare bones to work mostly the same as listed here.
So let's get into it!
Mortal Strike is still the big centerpiece of the spec, and they're sticking with the Warlords idea that this is your hardest-hitting attack that you'll want to use on cooldown, costing a modest 20 Rage, with a 6-second cooldown.
Slam you'll actually get at level 1 (players will now start off with a spec before they get to switch at level 10, and I assume Arms will be the default for Warriors.) It gosts 15 Rage and has no cooldown, but does not do as much damage as Mortal Strike, so presumably you'll use this to burn off excess Rage while MS is on cooldown.
Execute is its old self, costing 10 Rage but consuming up to 30 additional Rage to deal big damage to targets under 20% health, becoming your main Rage-spender in Execute range.
Colossus Smash is similar, but rather than letting you ignore the opponent's armor, it just increases the damage they take from you by 20% for 6 seconds, which I think works out to more or less the same in PvE. It has a baseline 45 second cooldown.
Most importantly, however, Tactician is a passive that causes your Slam, Whirlwind, and Execute to have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown on Colossus Smash, which you might remember as being more or less how the old Sudden Death worked (actually, technically speaking it was the middle-aged Sudden Death. Old old Sudden Death, from Wrath, actually worked how it does now, affecting Execute.)
Whirlwind is more or less its same old self, costing 30 Rage.
However, Cleave returns as a real ability, doing damage to all targets in front of you and increasing the damage of your next Whirlwind by 20% for each target it hits up to 5.
Recklessness is now a 1-minute cooldown lasting 5 seconds that gives you a 100% crit chance.
Mastery: Colossal Might increases the damage and damage bonus of your Colossus Smash, with 20% for both baseline.
Also, interesting to note is Defensive Stance, which reduces damage both taken and dealt by 25% until cancelled. Since all tanks will now always be in "tank mode," without the need of stances, this freed this ability up.
So the rotation is, I think, not too hard to figure out:
1. Colossus Smash on cooldown, particularly if you get the Tactician Proc.
2. Mortal Strike on cooldown.
3. Slam if you will still have enough Rage to do a Mortal Strike when it comes off cooldown.
In AoE, you might just toss everything out and alternate Cleave and Whirlwind (though given that Colossus Smash is free, you might as well toss that back in.)
Notably, both Heroic Strike and Overpower return as talents if you want to add some wrinkles and push Slam down in the priority list.
As usual, the big caveats here are that this is in Alpha, and many things can change from now until Legion goes live. But we can probably expect these bare bones to work mostly the same as listed here.
So let's get into it!
Mortal Strike is still the big centerpiece of the spec, and they're sticking with the Warlords idea that this is your hardest-hitting attack that you'll want to use on cooldown, costing a modest 20 Rage, with a 6-second cooldown.
Slam you'll actually get at level 1 (players will now start off with a spec before they get to switch at level 10, and I assume Arms will be the default for Warriors.) It gosts 15 Rage and has no cooldown, but does not do as much damage as Mortal Strike, so presumably you'll use this to burn off excess Rage while MS is on cooldown.
Execute is its old self, costing 10 Rage but consuming up to 30 additional Rage to deal big damage to targets under 20% health, becoming your main Rage-spender in Execute range.
Colossus Smash is similar, but rather than letting you ignore the opponent's armor, it just increases the damage they take from you by 20% for 6 seconds, which I think works out to more or less the same in PvE. It has a baseline 45 second cooldown.
Most importantly, however, Tactician is a passive that causes your Slam, Whirlwind, and Execute to have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown on Colossus Smash, which you might remember as being more or less how the old Sudden Death worked (actually, technically speaking it was the middle-aged Sudden Death. Old old Sudden Death, from Wrath, actually worked how it does now, affecting Execute.)
Whirlwind is more or less its same old self, costing 30 Rage.
However, Cleave returns as a real ability, doing damage to all targets in front of you and increasing the damage of your next Whirlwind by 20% for each target it hits up to 5.
Recklessness is now a 1-minute cooldown lasting 5 seconds that gives you a 100% crit chance.
Mastery: Colossal Might increases the damage and damage bonus of your Colossus Smash, with 20% for both baseline.
Also, interesting to note is Defensive Stance, which reduces damage both taken and dealt by 25% until cancelled. Since all tanks will now always be in "tank mode," without the need of stances, this freed this ability up.
So the rotation is, I think, not too hard to figure out:
1. Colossus Smash on cooldown, particularly if you get the Tactician Proc.
2. Mortal Strike on cooldown.
3. Slam if you will still have enough Rage to do a Mortal Strike when it comes off cooldown.
In AoE, you might just toss everything out and alternate Cleave and Whirlwind (though given that Colossus Smash is free, you might as well toss that back in.)
Notably, both Heroic Strike and Overpower return as talents if you want to add some wrinkles and push Slam down in the priority list.
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