Someone might be able to do a basic test using the 2piece feral t5 by shifting, auto attacking and casting a regrowth.

Edit: This is in relation to an instant slam resetting swing timer. Such a test wouldn't really be conclusive, but I'd still love to know what happens.

Instant cast spells will always reset your swing timer for all classes except Paladins and Shaman.

That is, a Fireblast will reset a Mage's swing timer, as will a Moonfire resetting a Druid's. A Shaman casting Earth Shock or a Paladin casting Exorcism will NOT get a swing timer reset, however.

Spells with a casting time will also always reset your swing timer, even for Shaman and Paladins.

Specifically for Shaman, you will still get a swing timer reset even if you use Nature's Swiftness to turn a spell into an instant cast. That is, an Earth Shock will NOT reset your swing timer, but an NS'ed Healing Wave/Lightning Bolt will.

At least, that is how current casting/swing timer mechanics worked.

I would not be surprised in the least if Blizzard makes a specific exception for Blood Surge - even if it turns Slam into an instant cast, a swing timer reset would still put it on the level of current Steady Shot-esque obtuse mechanics, which they have indicated a desire to steer away from.

EDIT: Beaten, in a way. Are there any Shaman/Paladin talents that turn a cast spell permanently instant?

Ok, answered just while I was posting.

Anyways I do agree with above posters that blizz might wanna change the mechanics if they realized the problem with hunter mechanics already, so bloodsurge becomes a viable talent to pick that far up in the tree. I can't imagine a pure fury build outperforming 33/38 otherwise, unless MS and BT inherit the same cooldown (and assuming rage supply is sufficient with proper gear).

For those of you that was wondering about what impact the new Shield Block will have on crushing blow immunity, the answer will be none. Because afaik crushing blows will be totally removed from the game in WorLK

I've wondered the same thing. I've heard speculation that MS & BT share a cooldown, but I've seen no confirmation of that as of yet.

One thing I am concerned about when it comes to the prot tree is the fact that "Defiance" seems to have been removed.

This talent gave "15% more threat generated from attacks while in defensive stance and 6 expertise".

The 6 expertise I'm not overly bothered about, but 15% threat removal kind of destroys tanking for us.

Anyone any ideas if this will be put in somewhere else? I.e. When you are in defensive stance you just generate more threat without having to talent for it?
Or if it will be trainable tor something?

Aaah well... I think warrior will need a big boost in defense skill then, because if crushing blow are'nt there anymore, druids will be far superior for high end physical tanking. Crushing avoidance was a big part of the warrior tanking skill, and, even, a part of the fun (at least for me).

Well, we will see, its only alpha after all.

Bf, Bt build is very solid. No need for compromises.
Coocie cutter arms build.(remember sword spec 5s CD)

But fury build is lot harder and you have to make lot's of serious trade offs. You want 2h spec, dw spec and max titan grip. More bang of the buck?(2%haste vs 1% crit/sword vs 1% hit vs imp execute vs sweeping strikes)
Sample 2h Fury spec.

I hope spell made instant by talents/buff do ignore swingtimer in WoltK

With 2 same speed 2H, you could take imp slam and play it like arms. Though low hit rating could mean some pretty bad miss strings.
Also with slow attack speed they have to change rampage in some meaningful way. Any 2h fury wars could tell when they refresh rampage?

MS and BT have shared cooldowns forever. People on private servers have verified this for a very long time. You won't be able to spec 31/31/0 and get 2 instant attacks.

The announced Steady Shot change pretty much assures that instant Slams granted by Bloodsurge will not reset your swing timer. The talent simply wouldn't work any other way. We don't know what's going to happen with non-instant slams though. Even with this change I'm not sure that TG won't fall behind a standard 2h build later in itemization since it's only going to provide a free slam times a minute, but for one point it's a no-brainer. We're going to have to wait to see how the bottom of the Fury tree shakes out before we'll know whether or not TG will be worth it. The haste penalty really is awful for scaling and requires a much heavier reliance on yellow damage than any other warrior build.

There's still too many questions regarding tanking mechanics to have any idea what's going to really occur.

Interestingly, Bladestorm appears to hit all targets in range and is stanceless which gives Arms warriors a real niche job on AE pulls. Arms will probably go back to the preferred offspec build because of this and the 2 second Revenge cooldown granted by Unrelenting Assault despite getting bunko for single target DPS. Sudden Death doesn't count since Execute is pretty much the worst way to spend your rage when you have other options.

We also have no idea what's going to happen to Windfury in its transition to a non-weapon buff; this may have a strong impact on warrior DPS.

Crushings are gone in WotLK.

The prot tree looks very nice, they really made it better this time.
I don't like the arms/fury trees. Besides Titan's Grip the talents are boring or pvp toys.