Warriors gain 100% more Rage from critical strikes

Update, October 1: later the same day, Blizzard raised that crit bonus from 75% to 100% and fixed the hit-chance bug listed below as a known issue. The rest of that Warrior update reworks Fury and Protection, takes the off-hand hit off Dual Wield Specialization, and stops the Fury talent Unbridled Wrath from giving two-handed weapons twice as much Rage.

As first posted, the October 1 notes gave Warriors 75% more Rage when a basic attack lands a critical strike. Rend and Sunder Armor now tap an enemy to the Warrior the moment they land, and queuing Heroic Strike no longer raises off-hand hit chance.

Fury’s Dual Wield Specialization no longer boosts the off-hand weapon’s Rage generation, which it did by 20% to 100% across its five ranks. The same notes fix Unbridled Rage triggering less often than intended. Arms’ Spearing Strike no longer needs a two-handed weapon, but it now needs Battle Stance.

The notes also listed a known issue, since fixed: Dual Wield Specialization gave both hands its 2/4/6/8/10% hit chance, where it should give only the off-hand.

Before either forum post, Blizzard’s Aidan Moon wrote on social media, as Wowhead reported on the morning of October 1, that a bug affecting dual-wielding Warriors had thrown the team’s tests off and would be fixed. He told players to expect 100% more Rage on crits and 50% more off-hand Rage from the Dual Wield talent. His crit figure matches Kaivax’s later update, but the notes take Dual Wield Specialization’s off-hand Rage bonus away rather than setting it at 50%.

Our copy of build 1.60.1.70170’s files matches the notes as first posted: Dual Wield Specialization has lost its Rage effect, and Spearing Strike accepts one-handed weapons and asks for Battle Stance. It does not have the later Warrior pass. Dual Wield Specialization still gives its 2/4/6/8/10% off-hand hit there, Unbridled Wrath still gives two-handed weapons 2 Rage instead of 1, and Gore Drinker, Lingering Rage and Furious Precision are not in the files. The files have no talent called Unbridled Rage: their only Fury talent with a chance to generate extra Rage is Unbridled Wrath (talent 105937), so we take the notes’ Unbridled Rage and the later update’s Unbridled Wrath to be one talent. Our Warrior talent calculator shows these trees. Datamined wowforever.ninja — Forever's client files, build 1.60.1.70170

Why it matters: Rage now comes faster on a lucky swing, while dual-wielding Fury loses the off-hand Rage it relied on.