Cataclysm Beta: Warrior stance changes and mastery

Beta build 12759 has arrived, and with it, a host of changes. Mastery has finally been implemented. Some talents and abilities have been revamped. And our stances, long the defining mechanic differentiating a tanking warrior from a DPS warrior, have also seen significant alterations.

How significant? For starters, armor penetration has been utterly removed from Battle Stance. Instead, it now simply grants a warrior an extra 5 percent damage dealt and 5 percent less damage taken. Defensive Stance grants 45 percent additional threat and -10 percent damage taken, with no damage dealt penalty, and Berserker Stance grants 10 percent damage dealt and no damage taken. In many ways, this is merely a way to make the stances all seem positive (much as how rested XP was changed from a penalty to XP when you didn’t rest to a bonus when you did), but it’s still nice to no longer take more damage than anyone else just because you decided to DPS as a warrior. Tanking without a damage penalty no other tank pays will just feel better.