Warrior players, your prayers have been answered. One of the most famous and idolized spells in World of Warcraft history is making a comeback in phase three of WoW Classic’s Season of Discovery.
That spell is Gladiator Stance, which was originally introduced to WoW as a “retail” ability in 2014 and will be making its Classic debut when SoD phase three goes live next week.
In phase three of SoD, Gladiator Stance will be another stance that Warriors will have at their disposal via a rune. Traditionally, Warriors could only swap between Battle Stance, Defensive Stance, and, depending on your talent choices, Berserker Stance. These three stances have different trade-offs and effects, with each of them focusing on specific strengths in combat, such as rage generation, damage negation, and CC immunity.
Gladiator Stance allows Warriors to have it both ways as it increases the damage you deal while equipping a shield, and it also increases your block chance. But your armor is reduced significantly while in this stance, as is the rate at which you generate threat. These buffs and debuffs make it a hybrid stance that will be usable by players looking to deal damage while still holding onto their ability to tank.
Although Gladiator Stance was never an ability in traditional Classic WoW, it was available for Warrior players to experiment with in retail WoW when the game was in its Warlords of Draenor era (2014 to 2016). At the start of the Legion expansion, the stance was removed entirely, along with Battle Stance. Gladiator Stance was widely liked by players when it first debuted, largely because of how overturned Warriors’ damage was while using the stance, but it’s unlikely that the original brokenness of the stance will make a comeback.
The version of Gladiator Stance that we’ll see in SoD phase three will work a bit differently than the one players who used it during Warlords of Draenor will recognize. That version of Gladiator Stance had far fewer trade-offs, and “stance dancing” in and out of Gladiator Stance in retail WoW was forbidden. The SoD version of Gladiator Stance, however, will allow you to “use all abilities that are restricted to other stances” while you’re in the stance.
Gladiator Stance will be engravable on the boots item slot. The rune will be added to WoW Classic SoD when phase three goes live on April 4.
