Those that have played World of Warcraft for quite some time likely remember when Fury Warriors were specialists in wielding two one-handed weapons at once. However, there was also an optional talent – Titan’s Grip – which allowed them to take a small penalty to wield two two-handed weapons instead.
Both complimented different playstyles: One-handed warriors – or Single-Minded Fury warriors – attacked much faster and were a bit more mobile, but had less raw damage and weapons that were generally less powerful. Titan’s Grip warriors were slower, but did a bit more damage overall, all other things equal.
Unfortunately, as part of the pruning that Blizzard did quite some time away, the ability to choose to wield one-handed weaponry was removed. Titan’s Grip became innate with the Fury specialization, meaning that the only way for a warrior to wield a one-handed weapon was to choose Protection, which focused on tanking instead of damage.
This was generally an unpopular choice, as players enjoyed having the option to play as whichever playstyle they chose. It was made a bit worse from the fact that Arms – the third warrior specialization – was based on a single two-handed weapon rather than two, making it feel as if there was little to no choice.
Thankfully, though, Blizzard has announced that they’ll be changing this decision with the Shadowlands alpha builds. This is far from the only change like this they’ve made, as they recently announced that Frost Death Knights would soon have the ability to choose to wield two-handed weaponry again instead of being forced to dual-wield one-handed weapons as they currently are.
Dual Wield One Handed Weapons – Single Minded Fury Warriors Return in Shadowlands#Shadowlands#Warcrafthttps://t.co/qWScgVZXyw pic.twitter.com/P81ypLpJX2
— Wowhead💙 (@Wowhead) June 17, 2020
In the Shadowlands alpha build, the following ability was added along with the rest of the changes to warrior:
Single-Minded Fury: While dual-wielding a pair of one-handed weapons, your damage done is increased by 8% and your movement speed is increased by 5%.
With the Single-Minded Fury ability being added back in, the difference between the two is clear. Titan’s Grip simply allows the dual-wielding of two-handed weapons, providing no other stat bonuses alongside the option.
Single-Minded Fury, however, clearly gives some other incentives. The increase to movement speed – while extremely minor – can make plenty of tasks easier, such as transmog runs through old content that players can’t mount in.
The increase of damage by 8% can also help close the gap between one-handed and two-handed weaponry, increasing exponentially due to the much faster attack speed that one-handed weapons offer. Overall, Single-Minded Fury warriors are likely to return as a faster, more hectic playstyle than the slower, devastating damage that Titan’s Grip offers.
