Hi, I’ve seen a lot of consensus in the warrior community that arms should get a rework, because the gameplay simply is very clunky and the fantasy does not reflect the gameplay of the spec.
I personally want to suggest to rework arms thematically into something “new” that is liked by the same type of player: Blademaster. There is a lack of orcish culture in the warrior class, which is a shame, but there are many titan-themes present for humans/dwarves. The burning blade is an orcish warrior clan that have a lot in common with the samurai. Wow generally lacks the “samurai”-fantasy. We have already shinobi with Sub rogues and monks, but there is no samurai-type class fantasy present.
For example in warcraft 3 blademasters have an ability called “mirror images” which I picked up from this video (6:34 timestamp):
Giving arms warrior as blademaster some wind-type abilities could be really cool too.
I think shifting the arms warrior fantasy into this samurai-type direction with blademasters could be really cool, and it would allow to give arms warrior a very unique play style that doesn’t just feel like protection mixed with fury.
Arms is clearly inspired by the Blademaster fantasy. It even relies heavily on Blademasters ultimate, the Bladestorm, and Critical Strikes. It does not use wind-walk (short stealth window, with big damage on reveal) or mirror-images (clones). Yet, those two parts are actual interesting things you could bring into the arms kit to make it more unique from Fury Warrior as options.
Mortal Strike and Execute, heavy hits that leaves bleeds - is kinda the tag-ons that have come later. To make a more than 1 button spec that autos and create a playable spec.
So, while I agree and support the idea of getting in the two last parts of the kit into arms for flavour and spice - to say arms is not already blademaster themed seems a bit unfair.
To the consensus of the arms warrior community - there is a lot of splits. Some want empowering Mortal Strike to be more potent. Others want it to be all execute damage based, being an executioner. Some want the spec to be slower. Some want it to be basically Fury Warrior. There are very few who agree in what vision they want for it. Lastly, there is a suprising large portion of the playerbase that finds it enjoyable as is. Don’t forget the silent majority who are just happy playing the game, having a good time.
This post is purely about class-fantasy/thematic btw.
I don’t really like thematically that the spec is all about mortal strike, overpower, bleeds, and execute. I would really love it, if they tried to make a completely new design that is inspired by a samurai blademaster theme and doesn’t feel so clunky! I think most damage being bleeds just doesn’t make a lot of sense. I think it would be cooler, if we had more AoE slashes, etc. I also feel like bladestorm should be reworked as an abilities. It jusr feels clunky
Very happy for you that you as a true orc warrior are inspired by blademasters and battle orc clans, but what about warriors who don’t like this orcish themes?
Arms is my favorite spec in game, don’t want this spec to be reworked in somthing “new and shiny” like new evokers specs or something like this…
Blademaster theme will also be very cool on human, night elves, etc. The titan theme however with odyn’s fury, avatar, etc. is really boring on horde races…
No, it would be nice for Orc & Troll, it doesn’t fit Human, gnome, dwarf, Night elf, Tauren, Undead. Not even mentioning Draenei or Worgen.
Blademaster would be another class or a dedicated spec. Maybe something like Gladiator Stance but since Bliz doesn’t like to add too much complexity in their talent trees. I think you can forget about it & try to match the best transmog for a Blademaster theme instead.
Ok bro, so how does avatar, and odyn’s fury fit orcs, trolls, night elves, and tauren? Sadly it does not, and this theme is present in all 3 warrior specs… I think just having Fury as the titan warrior spec is actually fine, but then arms should also give other races lore. Blademaster if they neutralise it a little fits extremely well to nightelf warrior especially. They can make it more of a samurai, flow warrior style with mirror images and parry/dodge mechanics. I know blademaster is from orcish lore, but it represents a warrior thematic that seemingly is not present enough outside of bladestorm, while the viking/titan theme of warrior is way too present, even though the horde and elf warriors don’t really have anything to do with that.
I get your point, but imo the warrior class shouldn’t be as defined as, let’s say, outlaw. Outlaw is a pirate, and that’s it, but warriors come in many flavours.
Fury are berserker fueled by rage and blood, prots are city guardians, bulwarks and bodyguards, arms are masters of all weapons. That is in theory at least. If you go back into classic era, you can feel that in the talents. Different effects depending on different weapons, stance dancing and weapon swapping. That is what made arms cool, we don’t have it now and i miss it honestly.
You do know that Odyn’s Fury is limited to Fury spec only right?
Arms is a spec by itself (Battle hardened master of weapons), your idea of Blademaster can also be a dedicated specialization, but seems difficult to have it included in the Arms tree itself.
If we start to add an invi with Crit at exit + clone images + whatever they will think about, we will loose the whole substance of the current Arm Warrior.
Just thinking about it, it makes more sense for me to see Blademaster added as a new spec to DH than warrior.
Last point, most of the thematic in Arms & Fury is not really based on Titan but more on a Barbarian theme, few examples:
Arms: Juggernaut, Dance of Death, Massacre, Fatality, etc…
Fury: Frenzied Flurry, Warpaint, Meat Cleaver, Storm of steel, Dancing Blades, Annihilator, etc…
Not really. They can just make Avatar specific to Fury, give utility where avatar is (it’s a boring talent that everyone always takes), and then give arms/prot a new offensive CD. I don’t think Avatar should be shared by every class, but I can see specifically fury just following this theme, which would be fine. I just don’t think it should be in the general tree. Avatar should be moved to the left of odyn’s fury in fury tree imo. I would like them to replace avatar in the general tree with a war banner.
I know it may appear as a detail, but for me it’s a big vibe check. The offensive CD could be whatever they want. Just something battlemaster/juggernaut or Blademaster related. For example mirror images would be cool, but windwalker monks have them already. Otherwise they could just make Bladestorm a way stronger CD for arms and just not have something like avatar.
