TecRah

Blizzard Thank you all for your feedback! We take it very seriously and have listened to what you have to say.

Currently, Protector Warriors require a very high APM per minute to play, and we believe that this high APM requirement is too high.

High APM, especially the frequent use of skills that do not take up global cooldown GCDs such as Shield Block and Ignore Affliction, may be uncomfortable or even painful for some players.

One of the reasons for the high APM is the highly explosive Rage generation, which can lead to players having to dump excess Rage into Sightless Affliction. This is one of the reasons why we have made many changes to reduce explosive rage generation and shift more sources of rage to stable pathways.

This way, you should always have enough rage for damage reduction and cycling without having to deal with excess rage through non-GCD skills too often.

The other main reason for this is that Shield Bash, which is triggered via Destructive Strike and Policymaker, resets too often. Shield Bash is not only the main source of fury generation for Protector Warriors, but it is also their highest priority skill.

The more time Shield Bash is available, the fewer chances there are to use other skill-triggered effects, such as Vengeful Strike and Sudden Death, or to spend excess Rage on Vengeful Strike. The previous 30 reset chance made Shield Bash too prominent in the cycle, leading to a buildup of other triggered effects and an overabundance of Rage, while players struggled to keep up with Shield Bash’s reset frequency.

This situation also increases the reliance on non-GCD skills as a means of dumping Rage instead of completing the cycle through skills such as Revenge Strike.

We believe that reducing the weight of Shield Bash in the cycle will allow Vengeful Strike and other skills to better fill the cycle while helping to burn off excess Rage.

We’re keeping a close eye on how Shield Warrior performs, especially with the Ignore Bitterness tweak and overall damage. Changes to Rage Gain will affect other talents such as Rage Management, and we’re working to make sure that Protector remains competitive with these changes.

Tantrum’s take Blizzard seems to be saying that due to the fact that Defense Warrior’s burst effort generation is too much, resulting in players needing to vent their rage in time over Ignore Pain, this creates a complicated maneuver for Defense Warrior with too much APM, hence they nerfed Shield Bash. If Tantrum’s understanding is correct, Blizzard’s thinking is kinda odd.