Bloodthirst

Bloodthirst
Bloodthirst (1 rank) Warrior ability 5 yards yd range 20 Rage 4 sec cooldown Instant Instantly attack the target causing [AP / 2] damage. In addition, the next 3 successful melee attacks will restore 1% of max health. This effect lasts 8 sec. Damage is based on your attack power.
Properties
Class	Warrior
School	Physical
Cooldown	4 sec
Talents
Talent tree	Fury
Talent required	[Death Wish]
Improvements	[Impale]
Related buff
Bloodthirst Successful melee attacks restore 1% of max health. Duration: 8 seconds

[[Category:warrior abilities]][[Category:warrior abilities]]

Bloodthirst is the 31-point talent for the Fury tree. It requires 1 point in [Death Wish]. It deals a large amount of damage while allowing you to heal yourself for a small amount.

Bloodthirst is a 20-Rage, Fury-Talent-Tree-based, single-target, direct-damage attack which causes a large amount of damage. Damage done is 50% of your attack power. It also gives the user the Bloodthirst buff, which cause the first 3 attacks made in the next 8 seconds to heal the user for 1% of his maximum health per swing.

There is only one rank of this ability, which is available by learning it as a 31-point Fury talent.

Notes

Requires a Melee Weapon.

Cannot be used while disarmed by a player in pvp, but can be used while disarmed from npc mobs.

The healing effects from Bloodthirst are not modified by buffs or gear that boost healing.

The healing effects from Bloodthirst ARE modified by the green beam (Serenity) in the Netherspite encounter.

Base damage modified by +5% by a 4-piece set bonus from the warrior's Tier-6 set, Onslaught Battlegear.

Tips and Tactics

While powerful, Bloodthirst is often overshadowed by [Mortal Strike]'s damage. However, it has its uses.

Bloodthirst, like much of the Fury tree, is considered to be a useful tool for grinding. This is due to the fact that many common mobs do not use healing spells at all, and a good warrior should always be prepared to interrupt it with a well-timed [Shield Bash] or more likely, [Pummel]. In this case, Mortal Strike's debuff becomes useless, while Bloodthirst's self-healing allows you to kill more enemies without running out of health.

Bloodthirst is also often useful in large raid situations. Due to the popularity of Mortal Strike builds, particularly for PvP, there will almost certainly be one warrior who has it, and only one needs to use it to add the healing debuff. Also, Bloodthirst gains about twice as much damage per Attack Power as Mortal Strike, which narrows the damage gap when fully buffed and using potions.

Bloodthirst and Mortal Strike damage will be equal when:

 W = weapon DPS
 P = Attack Power
 15.4W + 746-2/3 = P
 This applies to Two-handed weapon users of Mortal Strike only.

To give some realistic examples of this...
With an Arcanite Reaper...
(15.4)(53.8) + 746-2/3 = approximately 1575 Attack Power
With an Obsidian Edged Blade...
(15.4)(64.7) + 746-2/3 = approximately 1743 Attack Power
With an Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood...
(15.4)(81.9) + 746-2/3 = approximately 2008 Attack Power

Bloodthirst is often not as effective as Mortal Strike in PvP unless fighting a class with no ability to heal, due to the lower damage and usefulness of the healing debuff.

Another Bloodthirst and Mortal Strike comparison

 ø = MS/BT damage
 D = base weapon damage
 P = attack power
 Y = damage bonus from some rank of Mortal Strike
 K = Constant (K is 17/63 for daggers, 8/21 for 1H weapons, and 11/21 for 2H weapons)
 ø = K + [(D + Y)/P]

Although this formula covers a lot of situations, it does not take into account Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, [Blood Frenzy], or [Rampage]. To account for the first two, add up the n percent damage bonus from Talents. In the case of having max rank of both, and the target is bleeding, the total bonus would be 9%. Simpply multiply D by 1.09 before calculating. To calculate for Rampage, multiply A*B, where A is the AP given by your rank of Rampage (30, 40, or 50) and B is the number of times it is applied (up to 5) and add the sum, C, to P before calculating.

The new formula would be:

 ø = K + [(D*(n/100+1) + Y)/(P+C)]
 where:
 n = % bonus from both 2H weapon spec and Blood Frenzy
 A = AP per application of Rampage
 B = number of Rampage applications
 C = A*B

If ø is 1.20, then MS deals 20% more damage for your AP and rank of MS. If ø is 0.877, then BT deals 14% [(1 / 0.877)-1] more damage. Note that this is only a damage comparison, and does not compare the healing debuff of MS or the (trivial) healing of Bloodthirst. Bloodthirst is best for daggers, then 1H weapons, then 2H weapons (due to K), and within any of these categories it is benefitted by faster weapons (smaller D). If MS and BT used different amounts of rage, ø could be multiplied by their ratio as well to determine efficiency, but since they require the same rage to use we multiply by 1 for the same result. No accounting for rage generation difference (and MS or BT opporunities) is done. The characters who would most likely want to use BT instead of MS are those with dual wielding daggers or fast 1H weapons, or a combination.

Patch changes

• Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
  
• Patch 3.1.3 (2009-06-02): Cooldown reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds, and rage cost reduced from 30 rage to 20 rage.
  
• Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20): Charges have been decreased to 3, but the effect has been raised to 1% per charge.
  
• Patch 3.0.3 (2008-11-04): Cooldown reduced to 5 sec. Percentage of damage from attack power raised from 45% to 50%.
  
• Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Now restores health based on a % of total health.
  
• Patch 1.6.1 (2005-08-02): Damage bonus increased to 40% of attack power.
  
• Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Design changed. Bloodthirst is now an instant melee attack that causes damage equal to 30% of the warrior's attack power. In addition, the next 5 successful melee attacks will restore health.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB