Aidan Moon explains a Warrior Dual Wield bug that skewed rage tests, and Blizzard raises crit Rage to 100%
· ForeverDB
Game designer Aidan Moon said on X, as reported by Wowhead, that a Dual Wield Specialization bug threw off Blizzard's rage tests for Warriors. Blizzard's Warrior notes on October 2 confirmed the bug fix and raised the extra Rage from critical strikes to 100% (was 75%).
Fury Warriors on the beta have been arguing about rage since the big rework. On October 1 Aidan "Zirene" Moon, a game designer on the WoW Classic and Forever team, posted an update on X, and Wowhead reported it. Blizzard's own Warrior notes followed on October 2 and confirmed the fix.
Aidan Moon's words reach us only through Wowhead's report of his X post, which we couldn't check word for word, so we give them in our own words below. These are beta values and can still change.
What Aidan Moon said, as reported by Wowhead
According to Wowhead's report, Moon said a bug in the Dual Wield Specialization talent was giving Warriors 10% hit chance on all their attacks, not just off-hand ones. Because of it, Blizzard's practical tests of how much Rage critical strikes generate were off, and a fix was on the way.
Wowhead reported the post-fix numbers Moon gave as +100% Rage on critical strikes and +50% off-hand Rage from the Dual Wield talent.
What Blizzard's notes confirm
Later on October 2, Kaivax posted Warrior Updates in Today's Beta Build, additions to the development notes for that day's build:
Additional Rage generated from landing Critical Strikes increased to 100% increased Rage (was 75%). Fixed a bug that was causing Dual Wield Specialization to grant its increase to Hit Chance to both weapons. Kaivax, Community Manager
Because of the above bug, our tests needed some correcting, so we did another pass on Fury Warrior. Developers’ notes, posted by Kaivax (Community Manager)
That matches Moon's explanation and his 100% figure. It also moves on from the Priest and Warrior class deep dive of September 30, which set the critical strike bonus lower:
In the launch beta, we gave no additional Rage for dealing critical strikes. We are re-adding that. Critical strike will now give 75% more Rage than non-critical strikes. Developers’ notes, World of Warcraft: Forever Class Deep Dives — Priest and Warrior
The +50% off-hand Rage figure isn't in Blizzard's notes. The October 1 notes removed the talent's off-hand Rage bonus:
Dual Wield Specialization no longer provides a 20/40/60/80/100% increase to your Off-Hand weapon’s Rage generation. Developers’ notes, posted by Kaivax (Community Manager)
And the October 2 Warrior notes say Dual Wield Specialization no longer grants hit to your off-hand attacks, with a new Fury talent, Furious Precision, giving off-hand hit chance instead.
Not confirmed. The +50% off-hand Rage figure comes only from Wowhead's report of Moon's post. Neither Blizzard's posts nor the client files show it, and Rage generation is worked out on Blizzard's servers, so the files can't settle it.
In the client files
In the beta client (build 1.60.1.70170) Dual Wield Specialization's top rank, Dual Wield Specialization, still reads "Increases your chance to hit while dual wielding by an additional 10%." Its five ranks give 2/4/6/8/10%, and the spell has a hit chance effect only, with no Rage effect. The new Fury talents from the October 2 notes are in the client: Furious Precision Furious Precision (4% off-hand hit chance at rank 1), Lingering Rage Lingering Rage and Gore Drinker Gore Drinker.
For every Warrior change in that build, see Level 30 build goes live, and the Warrior class page.