Warrior FAQ (WoW)  

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Warrior FAQ
Written by RPZip

Welcome to the Allakhazam Warrior Forum FAQ, your one stop shop for all of your warrior questions! I've been on these forums for quite some time and I've been playing my warrior for even longer, and I figured it was time that I finally got around to sitting down and writing the FAQ I'd mentioned writing months ago.

So...Ta-da! I hope you find it helpful. If you have any corrections or questions, feel free to post in this thread or shoot me a PM and I'll do my best to answer it.

Warrior Basics

So you want to be a warrior?

The warrior class is, at its heart, the king of melee. Warriors are capable of standing in front of a mob and both taking and delivering a beating to its opponents. To quote from the official class description;

Warriors can be a raging berserker or an iron-clad juggernaut, capable of withstanding tremendous attacks while protecting their allies from harm. They have a wide variety of attacks that do everything from cripple their enemies, to dealing massive amounts of damage in a single retaliatory blow, and enhancing their allies' fighting ability with battle shouts. They excel at fighting multiple opponents at once, gaining rage from every blow dealt or received to unleash their attacks. Warriors are a versatile class with a variety of play-styles to choose from.

The Warrior can be a defensive, shielded tank, a damage-dealing powerhouse, or a mixture of the two. Their abilities obviously pertain to the art of close combat; their stances carry with them different moves for different situations and party setups. All in all, the Warrior is one of the prime candidates to capture and hold the attention of creatures while they die to sword and spell.

Warriors are Warcraft's primary tanking class as well as being capable of producing very strong melee DPS using either two-hand weapons or dual wielding one-hand weapons. Warriors use the unique Rage combat mechanic in order to use their abilities, which I'll describe in more detail further in this section, and have a wide variety of abilities that they can access through use of the stance system.

Warriors are a fairly easy class to play. Even with bad gear, even if you're not playing that well, you can use a Warrior with some modicum of success (although vastly less than you could get with a pet class, such as Warlocks or Hunters). They are also one of the most complex classes in Warcraft, and require real effort in order to master the use of stances and to monitor your rage. Easy to play; hard to master.

So what are the bad points? Warriors are immensely gear dependent - because you have no real ways to avoid damage, you cannot compensate for weaker gear in the way that Hunters, Warlocks, Rogues or Mages can by simply not getting hit. Especially in solo play, once you've started combat you're essentially locked in for the duration with a very limited number of escape tricks if the combat turns against you. There are a wide variety of tricks you can use to enhance your survivability, but if you're running around in outdated greens you ARE going to take a beating every fight.

Warriors are very dependent upon support classes for PvP. While you certainly can have some success as a solo PvP warrior, in most cases you will find yourself crowd-controlled in some fashion and completely unable to produce any real damage. As a corollary to that, though, if you have good support (a Paladin in particular is absolutely wonderful to pair with a Warrior) you can smash faces in.

And, finally...tanking isn't easy. You have to deal with bad healers, DPS classes that will ALWAYS pick three different targets - none of them yours - and complain when you can't keep the entire pack on you. Moreover, as the tank, you will traditionally take command of the group, which is both a blessing and a curse depending upon your point of view. You won't have to deal with a real moron leading the group (unless...you're the moron, but given that you're reading my guide I'll be charitable!) but you do have the job of whipping the idiot pickups into shape every instance run. On the other hand, at least you'll know that the tanking job will be done well... find a good healer buddy if nothing else - DPS is replaceable, and fairly easily trained - and you'll do fine.

Rage Mechanics
GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

The basic defining characteristic of the Warrior class is the Rage mechanic. You will use (or gain) Rage for nearly all of your abilities. You'll need Rage to attack your opponents and to defend yourself, to apply debuffs and to buff your party. (See III - Abilities for a more detailed description of your abilities and their rage costs).

So... how do you gain Rage? Rather simply, actually - barring a few special abilities and potions (namely Charge, Bloodrage and Rage Potions) the only time you will gain Rage is by either dealing or receiving damage. I've included a more detailed description of the exact Rage mechanics at the bottom of this section in the Math Sidebar, but for the moment that basic description will suffice. You'll gain rage by either beating the crap out of your opponent, getting the crap beaten out of you or some combination of the two.

Of course, this has several interesting implications... namely that the more damage you deal or receive, the more damage you'll deal due to the greater Rage supply. This is one of the aspects that makes Warriors so deadly in PvP - should you get a beating but survive it due to a support class healing you, you'll come out of it with a full Rage bar and the ability to beat the smack out of the next thing that comes close to you. This is also the foundation of the "warriors scale better with gear" line that you've probably heard bandied around a lot - and it does apply, as more damage creates even more damage from the additional Rage generation.

Math Sidebar!
Prior to the 2.01 patch, Warriors gained rage according to some rather simple formulas. Namely;

Rage Gained = Damage Dealt / (Level * .5) - or Rage = Damage Dealt / 30 at level 60. Rage Gained = Damage Received / (Level * 1.5) - or Rage = Damage Recieved / 90 at level 60.

I should state that, for the sake of completeness, these formulas are likely to only be approximations. According to some of the Blue posts, the actual coefficient at 60 should be Damage Dealt / 30.75 - but it's 'good enough for government work', as the saying goes, to use the old formulas as they were understood.

After the 2.01 patch, the formula for Rage generation was changed to a new formula that 'averages out' the rage generation with a fixed number based upon weapon speed. Interestingly enough, the Blue post used the following formula;

For Dealing Damage:
Main Hand Normal Hits: Factor=2.5 Main Hand Crits: Factor=5.0 Off Hand Normal Hits: Factor=1.25 Off Hand Crits: Factor=2.5

Rage Conversion Value (note: this number is derived from other values within the game such as a mob's hit points and a warrior's expected damage value against that mob):

  • Rage Conversion at level 60: 230.6
  • Rage Conversion at level 70: 274.7

Expansion Rage Gained from dealing damage = ((Damage Dealt) / (Rage Conversion at Your Level) * 7.5 + (Weapon Speed * Factor))/2

...and that formula is complete and utter crap. It was, as far as I can tell, written in such a way as to use as many idiot coefficients and to make it as confusing as possible to the average viewer as to be worthless. Note the apparently random use of the 7.5 multiplier... and... well, it's idiocy. A much, MUCH cleaner way to write the new formula is;

  • Rage Gained = Damage Dealt / (Level Coefficient) + Weapon Speed * 1.25 - or Rage = Damage Dealt / 61.5 + Weapon Speed * 1.25 at 60

Which has all sorts of interesting side-effects. The most important side-effect was the massive, unilateral nerf to Warrior rage generation. Notice how low the weapon speed multiplier is? With a 3.8 speed weapon (such as The Unstoppable Force), you will generate 4.75 rage per swing that deals any damage, with the remainder of the rage coming from the damage dealt. Of course, in order for the new rage generation system to be equivalent to the old one, you'd have to have generated 9.5 Rage on a normal hit with your Unstoppable Force... which works out to an average hit of 285. Or, to put it another way, you'd have to be using the Unstoppable Force while naked, without Battle Shout and with your innate character Strength gained while leveling somehow removed via a debuff. Even if you factor in Endless Rage (which requires a 41-point Arms talent), you'd have to have had an average hit of 356 - so you can use Battle Shout, but still no armor.

If someone tells you that their rage generation went up as a result of the patch, they are full of it. /rant off

Math Sidebar Addendum!
As of 2.0.10, Blizzard got their head out of their collective ass and rebalanced Warrior Rage Generation to a reasonable number once again. The weapon speed numbers were adjusted upwards to 3.5 on a mainhand hit, with the same ratios applying (7.0 on a mainhand crit, 1.75 on an offhand hit, 3.5 on an offhand crit). This makes the new formula;

Rage = Damage Dealt / 73.2 + Weapon Speed * 1.75 at 70

End Math Sidebar!

Stances

The other basic defining characteristic of the Warrior class is the Stance system. Different Stances will give you access to different abilities, but also have their own innate characteristics.

Battle Stance is your normal, balanced stance with no special penalties or bonuses to attack or defense. Some of the Warrior's most powerful and iconic abilities are located in this stance - Charge, Overpower and Mocking Blow.

Defensive Stance is your typical tanking stance, with a 10% reduction in damage dealt and received as well as a threat modifier. In both Battle and Berserker Stance, your damage and abilities generate 80% of normal threat - but in Defensive Stance they generate 130%, which can be further increased through the Defiance talent. The vast majority of the moves you will use when tanking are located in this stance - Shield Block, Revenge and Disarm, plus several others.

Berserker Stance is your 'offensive' stance, with a 10% increase in damage received and a 3% increase to your critical strike chance. Unlike Defensive Stance, as you may have noticed, the modifiers are not equal - you'll receive more damage, but the increase in output from the Stance alone won't alone compensate for the increased damage input. However, Berserker Stance has some of the Warrior's best abilities - Berserker Rage and Whirlwind.

For descriptions of all of the above abilities, see III - Abilities below. For descriptions on how to acquire these stances, see V - Quests, further below.

Warrior Abilities

General/Mixed-Use Abilities

  • Heroic Strike
    • All Stances - 15 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: A strong attack that increases melee damage by 208 and causes a high amount of threat. Causes additional damage against Dazed targets.
    • Talent References: Improved Heroic Strike (Arms), Focused Rage (Protection)
    • Description: One of your first attacks, and one of the most versatile ones. It turns your next autoattack into a special (or ‘yellow damage') attack that deals additional damage, as well as causing additional threat. Because it is a special attack, however, you will gain zero rage from that attack - and because it's an on-hit ability, it effectively 'consumes' the next autoattacks rage generation, leaving this ability with a deceptively low rage cost compared to the actual cost of using the ability. After level 60, the new ranks of Heroic Strike will cause double bonus damage against Dazed targets (i.e. adds 416 instead of 208 at max rank).

Heroic Strike has two distinct uses, depending upon if you're using a two-hand weapon, dual wielding or a sword and board. If you're using a two-hand weapon, this ability... is as close to useless as you can possibly get. The only reason to use it with a two-hand weapon is when you don't have anything better, which is a good description of your situation until you can get Mortal Strike (or Bloodthirst, or Slam, or... almost anything) or in a situation where Rage is absolutely unlimited (being focus fired in PvP).

With a dual wield setup you still gain no rage on the next attack - HOWEVER, because it is a special attack it bypasses the normal base miss rate of 24% while dual wielding, and instead uses the much more favorable 5% base miss rate for special attacks - leading it to create a much larger damage difference than appearances would lead you to believe.

Finally, while using a sword-and-board it's a fairly effective threat generation ability that does NOT trigger the global cooldown - allowing you to help dump your rage in a high-damage tanking situation where you have more rage than you really know what to do with, which is a pretty good description of most multi-mob or boss tanking situations.

  • Cleave
    • All Stances - 20 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: A sweeping attack that does your weapon damage plus 70 to the target and his nearest ally.
    • Talent References: Improved Cleave, Focused Rage
    • Description: Much like Heroic Strike, Cleave is an on-next-hit ability that will increase the damage dealt (although not to the same degree as Heroic Strike will) with the same caveats, and it costs more Rage. So why use it? Because it will also make your next attack hit another target that is close to you. When you're in an AoE situation this is... really, really useful since you're doing slightly more than doubling your normal attack damage. Additionally, Cleave does cause some additional threat despite what the tooltip says, making it very useful for tanking multiple mobs. A very handy ability that should be used when possible for some nice double damage.

  • Battle Shout
    • All Stances - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: The warrior shouts, increasing the melee attack power of all party members within 20 yards by 305. Lasts 2 minutes.
    • Talent References: Booming Voice, Improved Battle Shout
    • Description: Battle Shout is amazing. It gives your entire group massive amounts of melee attack power (with max talents, 381 AP - or increasing DPS by 27.2) for a paltry rage cost. It should be up ALL the time until you get Commanding Shout, and even then in most situations it will behoove you to keep using Battle Shout. (For a more detailed explanation of why, see below). A truly wonderful ability.

  • Commanding Shout
    • All Stances - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Increases total health of all party members within 20 yards by 730. Lasts 2 minutes.
    • Talent References: Booming Voice
    • Description: Commanding Shout is a very handy ability, although there are some factors that will prevent you from using it in all situations; namely, it precludes the use of Battle Shout, at least from the same Warrior (you can only have one shout up at the same time - two warriors in one group can keep both shouts active). Moreover, the benefits it provides aren't as strong as Battle Shout's - it provides the equivalent of 73 Stamina to the group, whereas Battle Shout provides the equivalent of 152.5 Strength.

Most useful in groups, where others may not benefit from Battle Shout's attack power boost, or in tanking situations where the increased survivability outweighs the increased threat/damage from Battle Shout.

  • Thunderclap
    • Battle Stance - 20 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Blasts nearby enemies with thunder slowing their attack speed by 10% for 30 seconds and doing 123 damage to them. Will affect up to 4 targets.
    • Talent References: Improved Thunderclap
    • Description: Thunderclap is one of the best Warrior abilities. At its base rank it deals some fairly middling damage to up to four targets within 8 yards and slows their attack speed by 10%. However, when combined with the Improved Thunderclap talent it becomes extremely strong - dealing some rather efficient damage and slowing all of the targets it hits by 20%, which significantly reduces the damage you'll be taking from the mobs. It's worth using in grinding even on solo mobs, but once you start getting more than one it's always worth keeping up. As of 2.0.10, this ability has been useable in Defensive Stance, making it a truly fantastic AoE threat tool that Warriors otherwise lack. Imp. Thunderclap is a tanking and grinding necessity, and very nearly no build should be without it.

  • Bloodrage
    • All Stances - Generates 10 Rage, then 10 Rage over 10 Seconds
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Generates 10 rage at the cost of health, and then generates an additional 10 rage over 10 seconds. The warrior is considered in combat for the duration.
    • Talent References: Improved Bloodrage
    • Description: One of the few ways that a Warrior can generate Rage on demand (the others being Charge, Potions or the Improved Berserker Rage), this ability is especially handy while tanking where you may often be starved for rage and/or unable to Charge, usually because it will lead to you getting your ass handed to you by some irate mobs you didn't REALLY mean to pull with that pack. Useful for soloing and PvP as well because... well, it's additional Rage and the health cost isn't extremely high. A very handy ability.

  • Intimidating Shout
    • All Stances - 25 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: The warrior shouts, causing the targeted enemy to cower in fear. Up to 5 total nearby enemies will flee in fear. Lasts 8 seconds.
    • Talent References: None
    • Description: A very, very, VERY useful ability that most people don't know how to use properly. It will fear targets near you, but it also provides an Intimidating Shout effect to your current target that works the same way Gouge does. The target will stand there, unable to move or use any abilities, until they take damage of some kind (and yes, Rend/Deep Wounds will break the effect). So, what's so useful about this?

Intimidating Shout has a 10 yard range. It's a ranged gouge. Mage Frost Nova'd you then backed out of range? Intimidating Shout him and you can stroll over and smack him in the face once Frost Nova wears off. Hunter annoying you? Intimidating Shout his PET, then follow the Hunter around while the pet stands there looking like an idiot and you beat the crap out of his master (this also works with Warlocks or Mages with Frost Elementals!) Rogue trying to Rupture kite you? Zing, Intimidating Shout, ker-pow! (Yes, PvP really is like old Batman reruns). Moreover, because it's a Gouge effect even against one target (assuming there's no bleed effects) it can buy you some previous time... namely, enough time to use a full bandage (or close to a full bandage), which will help immensely when trying to kill difficult elite mobs.

  • Berserker Rage
    • Berserker Stance - Free
    • Max Rank Tooltip: The warrior enters a Berserker Rage, becoming immune to Fear and Incapacitate effects and generating extra rage when taking damage. Lasts 10 sec.
    • Talent References: Improved Berserker Rage
    • Description: A fantastic tool for PvE and PvP. Berserker Rage will make you immune (or remove any current) Fear or Disorient (sap, gouge) effects from you, which is... rather handy, for obvious reasons. Additionally, you generate more Rage from incoming damage while under the effects of Berserker Rage, giving you more damage tools to work with. This ability, more than anything else, is why as a Warrior you will be in Berserker stance 90% of the time in PvP - so as to have access to your fear break when needed. Moreover, it's useful in PvE so as to fear-break against bosses that use that ability as well as to provide huge amounts of Rage when in an AoE situation. Get used to using this one, a lot.

  • Shield Bash
    • Battle and Defensive Stance - 5 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Bashes the target with your shield for 63 damage. It also dazes the target and interrupts spellcasting, preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 6 seconds.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Shield Bash
    • Description: Shield Bash is your only available interrupt until you receive Pummel, and thus very useful against casters. Unfortunately, the requirement for the shields makes it rather tricky to use when not tanking (read: PvP or solo grinding). It provides a long interrupt against that spell school (a full six seconds), although the longer cooldown than Pummel balances this out somewhat. (It's worth noting that the cooldowns are indeed linked - but Pummel only has a 10 second cooldown, Shield Bash will trigger the full 12 second cooldown). Past level 60, Shield Bash will trigger a Daze effect on the target - increasing the damage done from some abilities (only Heroic Strike for Warriors) as well as providing a temporary snare.

  • Pummel
    • Berserker Stance - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Pummel the target for 50 damage. It also interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage
    • Description: Pummel will be your primary interrupt from the moment you get it. It doesn't require a shield, and thus is much more likely to be available for use in most situations. It has a shorter cooldown (and a shorter spell-school stoppage) than Shield Bash, and is far easier to use. And... well, it's an interrupt - nothing more or less complicated than that.

  • Offensive Abilities
    • Charge
    • Battle Stance - Generates 15 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Charge an enemy, generate 15 rage, and stun it for 1 seconds. Cannot be used in combat.
    • Talent References: Improved Charge (Arms)
    • Description: One of your best abilities, Charge will stun your current target for one second (in practice, just about long enough to actually travel to your target) and use the game's admittedly often buggy pathing system to put you next to your target. Moreover, it will instantly get you started with fifteen rage to begin the fight with. The only downside to the ability is that you have to be out of combat in order to use it - which is less of a hinderance in PvE than it is in PvP, where you can be put into combat from well outside the range of your charge ability. Still, it's one of the cornerstones of Warrior's grinding, since it lets you get the fight started without having to wait to start using abilities.

  • Intercept
    • Berserker Stance - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Charge an enemy, causing 105 damage and stunning it for 3 seconds.
    • Talent References: Improved Intercept, Focused Rage
    • Description: One of the Warrior's most useful abilities in PvP - it will bring you to your target, stun it for three seconds and deal some piddling damage. This stun is rather useful, as your target cannot dodge or parry while stunned, letting you open with some strong damage. This is also very useful for tough solo mobs (hamstring, back up, Intercept) and group play (intercept a mob heading for the healer or the overnuking mage).

  • Rend
    • Battle and Defensive Stance - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Wounds the target causing them to bleed for 182 damage plus an additional (.052 * Weapon Damage) over 21 seconds.
    • Talent References: Improved Rend, Focused Rage, Blood Frenzy
    • Description: Rend is rather useful in your lower levels, but its value becomes progressively worse and worse the higher in level you go. In the lower levels it will provide some significant damage relative to the rage cost - once you get past around level 40 or so, though, the damage starts to become so pitiful it's not worth using. It does now scale - slightly - with your weapon damage, but as you can see from the formula the degree of scaling is absolutely terrible. It does still have its uses, however - in PvP it will prevent Rogues or Cat Druids from restealthing, as well as classes with effective crowd control (Hunters, Warlocks and Mages) from using some form of CC on you and then bandaging themselves because the DoT tick will interrupt it. If you have the Blood Frenzy talent and cannot seem to get a crit off, it will trigger that 4% bonus to all physical damage that you can otherwise get with Deep Wounds.

  • Hamstring
    • Battle and Berserker Stance - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Maims the enemy, causing 63 damage and slowing the enemy's movement to 50% of normal speed for 15 seconds.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Hamstring
    • Description: One of the Warrior's most useful abilities in PvP, as well as being rather handy in PvE against tough targets or humanoids, which I'll get to in a minute. It is, rather simply... a snare. It deals some small damage and snares your target, which makes it almost always the first ability you should use in PvP. It also has uses in solo PvE to slow down targets that run at low health (although Execute is typically your most effective weapon there) as well as to allow you to kite harder targets - Hamstring, run away and Intercept back in to get a free stun in on the target.

Hamstring also has use in high-end DPS because it can proc extra attacks (via Windfury or Sword Specialization, to name a few) as well as to proc Flurry should it crit, which makes it rather handy in situations where you have quite a large amount of rage but your other abilities are on cooldown. With enough chance to get an additional attack ( i.e. having Windfury), it can actually on average generate more rage than you put into the ability.

  • Execute
    • Battle and Berserker Stance - 15 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Attempt to finish off a wounded foe, causing 925 damage and converting each extra point of rage into 21.0 additional damage. Only usable on enemies that have less than 20% health.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Execute
    • Description: Ahh... one of the best Warrior abilities. Execute can be used on any target at 19% or lower health ('weakened' opponent) and will turn all of your rage into pure damage. Execute can and does hit very, very hard, and will in most cases (if you have a little rage saved up) end a fight immediately. It's... awesome, honestly. It's also very good against bosses with huge amounts of HP, since it does massive amounts of damage for very little rage cost and you can 'Execute spam' until it dies, giving you quite a bit of DPS. Note, though, that your best bet for Execute is to use lots and lots of 'small executes' rather than a few big executes - given that a 15 Rage Execute will hit for 925 but doubling that to 30 Rage will only make Execute hit for 1,240. If you're going to use Execute against a boss, hit it as often as possible. Against weaker targets, you'll probably just want to ensure you have enough rage to end the fight once they get low enough, rather than worrying about the spamability of Execute.

  • Overpower
    • Battle Stance - 5 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Instantly overpower the enemy, causing weapon damage plus 35. Only useable after the target dodges. The Overpower cannot be blocked, dodged or parried.
    • Talent References: Improved Overpower, Focused Rage
    • Description: One of the Warrior's most feared tools in PvP, and an absolutely superb grinding tool. Assuming that your hit rating is high enough to negate the standard miss chance (i.e. 5% versus an equal level opponent) it's guaranteed damage - more importantly, with Improved Overpower it's guaranteed-and-very-likely-to-crit damage. This will be your primary tool against Rogues (and, to a lesser extent, Hunters and Feral Druids) because it can punch through their evasion and deal some serious damage. It's also incredibly useful when grinding, since it seems to light up nearly all the time (a factor of fighting higher level mobs for quests - higher dodge rates). A fantastic damage tool.

  • Slam
    • All Stances - 15 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Slams the opponent, causing weapon damage plus 140.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Slam
    • Description: A rather interesting ability, Slam. It, unlike nearly every other Warrior ability, has... a casting bar. And, more than that, it even resets your swing timer when used, which is rather unfortunate. It provides good damage, but because it DOES reset your swing timer you have to be careful in your use of it. Effective use of Slam requires you to use it immediately after a normal autoattack swing (use of a swing timer mod is highly recommended). Proper Slam play requires attention to detail and watching yet another bar in combat, which may not appeal to many, but when used properly Slam provides astounding DPS possibilities for a two-hand Warrior. When directly after an autoattack, it also provides the highest damage per rage conversion rate of any non-AoE Warrior ability.

  • Whirlwind
    • Berserker Stance - 25 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: In a whirlwind of steel you attack up to 4 enemies within 8 yards, causing weapon damage to each enemy.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Whirlwind
    • Description: A very handy Warrior ability, to be sure. Whirlwind is fairly effective against a single target, causing weapon damage - but the best use is against multiple targets, where the Whirlwind damage starts to really pick up. It provides mass amounts of DPS, is one of the few weapon-damage abilities available outside of talents, and... well, it hits hard and it doesn't require all that much Rage to use. Use it often. It's strong even when dual wielding, at least with a slower weapon, but when using a two-hand weapon the damage it puts out skyrockets.

  • Victory Rush
    • Battle or Berserker Stance - Free
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Instantly attack the target causing (AP * .35) damage. Can only be used within 15 sec after you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor. Damage is based on your attack power.
    • Talent References: None
    • Description: Victory Rush is one of the better TBC abilities, and it becomes 'light up' (active) whenever you get the killing blow on a mob or player that is green or higher to you. A simple grinding ability, although it can be hard to use depending upon how far you have to travel between mobs. It hits fairly hard (tooltip regardless - the actual damage is 35% of your Attack Power) although not excessively so... but best of all is that it's free. Use it whenever you can for the free damage, but don't worry about it excessively - if you have to bandage after a pull, doing so is likely to end better than trying to hit that mob and get that Victory Rush in.

  • Defensive Abilities
    • Taunt
    • Defensive Stance - Free
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Taunts the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you.
    • Talent References: Improved Taunt
    • Description: Taunt is one of the most useful Warrior tanking abilities, for obvious reasons. It will instantly give you 'snap aggro' on your current target and KEEP it stuck on you for several sections. Moreover, as of 1.11 you no longer need to overcome the 'threat gap' in order for the mob to remain stuck on you - see the vastly expanded section in the Guide To Tanking on the uses and math behind this ability. Suffice it to say that, as the tooltip says, it's utility when use a mob already attacking you is limited - but it will simply grab your target and stick it on you if he's not already smacking you.

  • Mocking Blow
    • Battle Stance - 5 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: A mocking attack that causes 114 damage, a moderate amount of threat and forces the target to focus attacks on you for 6 seconds.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage
    • Description: Much like Taunt, this ability will force your current target to 'stick' onto you for the duration of the effect. Unlike Taunt, however, Mocking Blow does not 'set' your threat to a higher level - once the debuff wears off, the mob is likely to go back to its original target unless you've managed to outpace their threat by that point through other means. A handy ability to use when a pull goes wrong and multiple mobs go running off towards your healer - Taunt one, Mocking blow another, Sunder the third and you'll get them stuck onto you, at least temporarily, and give you time to generate threat and prevent them from returing to their original target.

  • Challenging Shout
    • All Stances - 5 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Forces all nearby enemies to focus attacks on you for 6 sec.
    • Talent References: None
    • Description: Essentially an area of effect Mocking Blow with a longer cooldown. Very useful on large pulls where you'll want someone to AoE (and, preferably, not die an immediate, horrible death) to keep the mobs off them. However, as with Mocking Blow it provides no real additional threat - once the debuff wears off, the mobs are likely to go look for other, squishier targets unless you've found another way to generate the threat needed to keep them on you.

  • Sunder Armor
    • All Stances - 15 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Sunders the target's armor, reducing it by 520 per Sunder Armor and causes a high amount of threat. Can be applied up to 5 times. Lasts 30 seconds.
    • Talent References: Improved Sunder Armor, Focused Rage, Devastate
    • Description: A Warrior's primary threat-building ability, as well as one that is useful for the simple fact that it reduces the target's armor (and, therefore, increases all physical damage against that target). It will stack up to five times, and (contrary to 'common knowledge') will provide the threat bonus every time it's applied, even if Sunder is fully stacked against that target. Not, in most situations, useful in solo play (save for the odd soloing Protection Warrior) but something you will be using almost all the time when grouped. As with Taunt, there is some more description of the benefits and downsides to Sunder Armor in the Guide To Tanking section.

  • Revenge
    • Defensive Stance - 5 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Instantly counterattack an enemy for 99 to 121 damage and a high amount of threat. Revenge must follow a block, dodge or parry.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Revenge
    • Description: One of your most useful tanking abilities - it can only be triggered after evading an incoming attack, but especially with Shield Block it should almost always be up assuming you're getting hit by a mob. Revenge causes a VERY high amount of threat for very little Rage cost, and should be used... often. Very, very often. Improved Revenge is a rather nifty ability, as it allows almost a "Warrior stunlock" to take place if it procs, although it's nearly useless in most raid situations as the important targets are likely to all be immune. Still. Revenge rocks.

  • Shield Block
    • Defensive Stance - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Increase chance to block by 75% for 5 sec, but will only block 1 attack.
    • Talent References: Improved Shield Block
    • Description: A simply incredible ability. It will boost your block % to the point where, assuming you're not wearing terrible tanking greens, you should have every incoming attack either parried, dodged or blocked. This has some very important implications because, at least in PvE, a blocked attack cannot crushing or crit. This is hugely significant in terms of mitigation, as it's one of the only ways to mitigate crushing blows from higher level mobs and will greatly reduce the chance of a critical strike. Improved Shield Block bumps this to two blocks per cycle - and since a 'cycle' is only five seconds, this means it should be up nearly all the time. Moreover, Shield Block does not trigger the global cooldown and can be used independently of it, allowing you to use it every five seconds without fail while still generating threat.

  • Demoralizing Shout
    • All Stances - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Reduces the attack power of all enemies within 10 yards by 300 for 30 seconds.
    • Talent References: Booming Voice, Improved Demoralizing Shout
    • Descrpition: Demoralizing Shout is one of the basic Warrior tanking/soloing tools; reducing the attack power of your nearby targets will reduce the damage they deal to you or others, making this typicially worthwhile in both soloing (your mileage may vary) and always worth keeping up while tanking. Additionally, it's one of the only AoE threat tools a Warrior ever receives, making it worth spamming against many mobs to retain aggro on all (or at least most) of them.

  • Disarm
    • Defensive Stance - 20 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Disarm the enemy's weapon for 10 sec.
    • Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Disarm
    • Description: A nifty ability, since most disarmed mobs (and especially players) deal rather horrible melee damage when Disarmed, assuming the mob actually has a weapon and is not immune. Worthwhile to attempt on pretty much anything that's not a spellcaster to cut your incoming melee damage. Just a forewarning - Improved Disarm is as close to a worthless talent as you can get, since the benefit is so minimal compared to the required talent point investment. One of the Warrior's most forgotten abilities in PvP, even though it shouldn't be, since very few players (save Arms Warriors) are likely to have Disarm Immunity, especially while leveling. Use it well, and you'll beat the crap out of your opponents.

  • Spell Reflect
    • Battle or Defensive Stance - 25 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Raise your shield, reflecting the next spell cast on you. Lasts 5 seconds.
    • Talent References: None
    • Description: One of the more interesting abilities that came with TBC, Spell Reflect can be either an amazing tool or a liability depending upon how it's used. Proper use requires good attention to detail and a solid understanding of just _how_ the ability works. But guess what I'm going to give you!

The upside is that it does exactly what it says. With a shield equipped, it will reflect the next spell cast on you. Except… it goes deeper than that. There are three important factors that relate to the use of Spell Reflect and why it does more than it appears, and I'll go into all of them.

First, it reflects the next spell cast upon you… but, much like grounding totem, if multiple spells are mid-flight at the same time _it will reflect all of them_. A short word on grounding totem; the little-understood Shaman totem has been the bane of Mages and Warlocks for some time. They've discovered that if they finish a spell with a flight time (Fireball, Frostbolt, Shadowbolt, Lightning Bolt, Boltbolt – just kidding) and then cast other spells _before the first spell physically arrives_, the totem will continue to absorb them. The same principle applies to Spell Reflect. If the first spell that is cast upon you has no travel time (for example, Moonfire or very nearly any debuffing spell) then it will instantly be bounced back to its point of origin and the buff will expire.

However, if the first spell _does_ have a travel time, then things get interesting. If a Mage nails you with a Fireball and then launches off a Fireblast before the Fireball lands, _both_ will be reflected back to him. If he throws off a Pyroblast, then Presence of Mind's up another Pyroblast before the first lands _both_ will be reflected. If a Mage hits you with a Frostbolt and before it lands a Druid launches off a Moonfire, _both_ will be reflected.

If a Mage launches a Fireball at you and before it lands 80 Warlocks cast Death Coil on you… well, those 80 Warlocks are in for a surprise, and you're in for some QQing on your server forum.

Secondly, as of 2.0.10 Spell Reflect is _not_ on the Global Cooldown. Much like Shield Block, it can be activated at any time, no matter if you've just used an ability or not. More importantly, it can be activated _during the weapon switching global cooldown_... which is to say, you can put a shield on and then instantly reflect a spell. For a very, very useful macro to do so, see the Macro section.

Third, and many people don't realize this, is that you can Spell Reflect from Battle Stance. Yes, indeed; Battle Stance. This makes it much, much more potent as a potential offensive reflect, as you still retain all the useful abilities of Battle Stance (Overpower, Hamstring, Execute, no damage reduction) while being able to reflect potentially deadly spells back at their origin points. This is especially handy against Elemental Shaman and Moonkin opponents, as those matches are often pure slugging matches where you have to power through their high armor and damage to drop them before they drop you. Nothing like bouncing back one of those Lightning Bolts or Starfires to turn the tide in your favor.

A quick caveat about PvE: Spell Reflect is oddly selective. For example, it won't reflect many, many mob abilities… but sometimes it will, for ones you wouldn't always expect. Most spells that aren't player equivalents aren't reflectable, but sometimes mob AoE volleys are (especially common in Black Morass). Quagmirran from Slave Pens (and Serpentshrine Bog Lords) can have his channeled Acid Spray reflected by a Warrior, which is extremely potent. Some Sentinels in Tempest Keep can have an Overcharge ability reflected, which helpfully hits them back for 17,000 damage (!), and some Nagas in Serpentshrine can have their Sunder Armor ability bounced back at them for a huge damage increase for your raid. Attumen the Huntsman's Curse which increases your chance to miss can be reflected, which is very useful (nothing like a boss who can't hit you at all for 12-15s). It's curious, to say the least.

  • Intervene
    • Defensive Stance - 10 Rage
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Run at high speed towards a party member, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them.
    • Talent References: None
    • Description: Intervene is an interesting new ability, although rather hard to use in its default form. When cast upon a friendly target, you will run to their location and take the damage of the next physical attack instead of the person you Intervened. The problem, of course, is that it requires you to click on the FRIENDLY target... but this is easily solvable through the use of the Macro system (see Warrior Macros for the ones I've written). It also lacks some effects that you can achieve through Intercept - namely that Intercept actually stuns the mob, which is considerably better than just absorbing the next melee attack. On the other hand, Intervene works considerably better on some finicky mobs that are Stun immune by making SURE you get to the mob and in location to taunt the mob who is moving towards your healer. Moreover, you can use them all in conjunction with each other - giving you two Intercepts that are useable from within combat, limited as one of them might be.

  • 30-Minute Cooldowns
    • Retaliation
    • Battle Stance - Free
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Instantly counterattack any enemy that strikes you in melee for 15 sec. Melee attacks made from behind cannot be counterattacked. A maximum of 30 attacks will cause Retaliation.
    • Talent References: Improved Discipline
    • Description: Retaliation is the first 30-minute cooldown ability you'll receive, and it causes you to automatically counterattack (read as; weapon swing) any frontal attacks. However, it should be noted that it does NOT work on any attacks that come from behind you or if you're otherwise incapacitated (stuns). It's an interesting ability, and it has some nice utility in AoE situations (Challenging Shout + Retaliation = Big numbers!). It largely gets replaced by Recklessness in terms of damage output, though, once you've acquired that ability... and this ability is not even really useful in PvP due to the addition of the huge, incredibly noticeable "don't hit me!" circle of daggers that shows up when you use the ability.

  • Shield Wall
    • Defensive Stance - Free
    • Max Rank Tooltip: Reduces the damage taken from melee attacks, ranged attacks and spells by 75% for 10 sec.
    • Talent References: Improved Discipline, Improved Shield Wall
    • Description: Shield Wall is one of the best Warrior abilities, and it's fairly obvious why once you look at the ability. Shield Wall is a tremendous tanking asset, causing you to take extremely limited amounts of damage and giving your healers a break/letting you live through massive amounts of burst damage. It's handy as hell in PvP as well if you're attempting to defend one area (such as an Arathi Basin flag) by letting you live through pretty much anything that's sent your way, even when massively outnumbered, for the duration of the ability.

  • Recklessness
    • Berserker Stance - Free
    • Max Rank Tooltip: The warrior will cause critical hits with most attacks and will be immune to Fear effects for the next 15 sec, but all damage taken is increased by 20%.
    • Talent References: Improved Discipline
    • Description: Recklessness is crazy. It will leave you with a nearly (or actual) 100% Critical Strike rate, making you immune to Fear effects for the duration, albeit also increasing your incoming damage by 20%. A very handy move, as it allows you to take on Elite mobs that may otherwise be FAR too difficult for you to kill alone through the application of massive burst damage, as well as letting you obliterate opponents in PvP. The infamous Recklessness Execute bomb is a common feature of most raid PvE situations as well, letting you output massive amounts of damage to finish off a boss by spamming critical executes.

How to Play: A Guide To...

Well, good. You're in the right place, then. If you wanted to be a warlock, it would have been three doors down on the left.

Warriors are an extremely versatile class, capable of producing extremely high DPS numbers being the best tank in the game based upon how you spec. Warriors also utilize a unique combat mechanic, otherwise known as 'rage', and learning how to properly manage your Rage is one of the most important aspects of the class.

So, onwards and upwards! I've split this guide into two parts; one detailing how to tank, and another detailing how to DPS, with a whole load of subsections. Enjoy! For more PvP-specific information, see the PvP guide at the bottom.

Tanking

Ah, tanking... one of the warriors defining traits. All Warriors can and should (and are expected to) be able to tank in instances and groups. It doesn't matter if you have 61 points into Fury and Arms; you need to be able to tank.

(More To Come Here, I Promise)

DPS?

Ah, DPS... it's fun, it's exciting, and it's often necessary based upon the group composition. Especially while leveling, do NOT expect this to be your primary role in five-mans; where DPS really comes to the front is soloing (where, you know... the ability to get the mob's attention is kind of moot) and in raiding, which will be the primary focus of my information. I'll still try to provide separate information about effective five-man/solo DPS strategies, though!

So you want to... use a two-hander?

Ah, good old two-hand DPS. A classic form of damage that is preferred for PvP, and has some excellent AE and single-target damage capabilities. Don't be fooled - 2H DPS is far, far more viable now than it ever was pre-TBC (outside of leveling/PvP, anyway), and people who underestimate it do so at their own cost.

A caveat, though, for doing effective damage in raids as a 2Her; find a Shaman. Attach him to your hip, and have him drop Windfury. Without Windfury, the viability of 2H DPS drops down the tubes in short order; it provides a large DPS boost on its own, and helps solve the Rage starvation issues that can plague a 2H DPS warrior. With that said, though, let's get started detailing the different flavors of 2H DPS, and how to play them.

Mortal Strike/Fury Defining Points: 31/23/0

This setup functions off some variation of the above build; you can go on to pick up some combination of Blood Frenzy and Flurry for a PvE build, and Second Wind and TM (and Imp. Intercept) for a PvP build. This build allows high damage output, retains the Mortal Strike debuff (which is often rather handy, in PvP and PvE - see Karathress/Magtheridon/Maulgar for healing mobs) as well as some critical raid utility in Blood Craze. If there isn't another person with Blood Craze in the raid, do not spec 31/30/0; you will get about the same damage output out of 33/28/0 (4% increased damage, rather than 10% haste) and, more to the point, so will the rest of the raid's physical DPS. It's a far greater increase overall.

For this build, you should focus on two key factors; 1) Use Slam after every autoattack (see below for a guide on proper use of Slam), and 2) Keeping MS/WW off cooldown as much as possible. In general, your attack order should be some variation on autoattack, Slam, MS, autoattack, Slam, Whirlwind, autoattack, Slam, Hamstring, autoattack, Slam, MS, etc. (Depending upon the amount of Flurry/weapon speed and your timing, MS may be off cooldown after the Whirlwind rotation). This build gains compared to the 2H Fury build by capitalizing on Blood Craze, Sweeping Strikes for AE damage where applicable, weapon specializations and Mortal Strike interacting properly with Whirlwind.

2H Fury Defining Points: 20/41/0

This build functions off a variation of the above build, but points may be moved around where applicable (Intercept vs. Execute comes to mind). This build allows high damage output with an extraordinarily high amount of attack power; when combined with other stacking AP buffs (such as Unleashed Rage from an Enhancement Shaman) AP scores can reach absolutely obscene numbers. Moreover, with a sufficiently high AP score Bloodthirst WILL outdamage Mortal Strike, attack for attack (MS does compensate by being capable of triggering WF, which Bloodthirst is not).

For this build, you now get to focus on three key factors! 1) Use Slam after every autoattack (again, see below), 2) Keep Bloodthirst/WW off cooldown as much as possible, and 3) Keep Rampage up whenever possible. As Rampage triggers the global cooldown, this will necessitate you working it into your autoattack->slam->ability->autoattack cycles. I tend to favor hitting Rampage ~6-8 seconds before it expires, as getting a series of hits and letting it tick off is a fair DPS drop as it will take some time to rebuild the stack to full. This build gains compared to MS/Fury by focusing on insane AP totals and the inherent boosts of Rampage. It also functions well when combined with a weapon that does not benefit from weapon specialization (such as Stormherald or Worldbreaker).

So you want to... know what the hell you're doing?

Slam - A Few Words

Okay, maybe many more than a few. This is a paraphrased copy of a guide I wrote explaining how to use Slam. Enjoy!

In order to understand slam, let's first take a look at the ability itself;

Slam All Stances - 15 Rage Max Rank Tooltip: Slams the opponent, causing weapon damage plus 140. Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Slam

Slam is the only true Warrior spell, barring oddities such as racials (Warstomp and Escape Artist come to mind). It functions in the same way as a spell, although it is no longer effected by pushback effects (which is to say, incoming damage does not increase the cast time).

Because it is a spell, using the ability will reset your weapon swing timer as of the end of the channel... which is to say, if you Slam and have a 3.8 speed weapon, your next autoattack will occur 3.8 seconds after the Slam ends. This occurs no matter what point in your normal swing timer you used the ability, which means that if you Slam at the wrong point - say, 3.7 seconds after your previous autoattack - you'll gain nothing and will in fact _lose_ damage. Consider: 3.7 plus .5 means your weapon swing timer became 4.2, instead of the 3.8 it would have been if you did nothing, and that doesn't even factor in the lost Rage. This means that proper use of Slam requires _very good timing_.

Slam also triggers the global cooldown, which for Warriors is 1.5s. This means that even with 2/2 Imp. Slam, you cannot "spam" Slam more than once every 1.5s. So one might ask, what in the hell is the point of the ability?

I'm glad you asked.

With use of a swing timer mod (I heavily recommend Quartz, an Ace2 mod with a customizable swing timer) and good reactions and planning, you can Slam directly after your normal autoattack swing... which means that you're using 15 Rage in order to deal your autoattack damage over .5 seconds, plus the crit modifier. It essentially allows you to get a free "double swing" after attacks at a relatively small Rage cost.

A brief summary, before we continue: Slam requires _very good_ timing, preferably aided by a Swing Timer mod. Slam resets your swing timer when used. Slam, when used improperly, is worse than doing nothing at all.

I'm going to assume a 3.6 speed weapon for these numbers, as that is the current 'default' weapon speed - barring Smithing weapons, there are few epics that are slower than this. If you're using a Smithing weapon (that's not Sword) or a Worldbreaker, these numbers are still accurate... just more so.

You will never have perfectly precise timing, even with a swing timer modm but you can get _very good_ timing. Human reaction speed being what it is, I'm going to assume that even with the swing timer mod you're not hitting Slam until .25s after a swing. Personally, using the spell metrics mod I wrote, I'm activating Slam about .1-.2s after the swing but that's due to a good connection and a lot of practice, to the point where it's become second nature.

You're attacking the mob, and get a weapon swing. .25s later, the server gets your "omgslam" message and you start the channel... giving you a .75s "swing", at which point the swing timer resets. However, because Slam does activate the GCD you have one second before you can perform any other actions. After the GCD goes away, you hit Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst or Whirlwind. And then... you wait. To summarize;

Swing - .75 Slam (Reset) - 3.6 - 2.6 (Mortal Strike) - 1.1 (Nothing) - Swing - .75 Slam (Reset)... repeat.

Why do nothing? Simple. If you hit all of these abilities with _perfect_ timing, you will have .4s of GCD after your next ability when your Swing Timer goes up - and believe me, you will not have perfect timing. If you have Flurry, the problem becomes significantly worse as well.

One of the purposes behind using MS/BT/WW is additionally rage generation, as they are somewhat more Rage efficient than Slam is when used every 1.5s due to not interfering with the swing timer. If Slam had no GCD associated with it, Mortal Strike and Whirlwind would be obsolete in situations where you did not need the MS debuff or the AE damage on whirlwind... but you do, and a .5s Slam with no GCD trigger would be more than slightly overpowered (consider that with a full Rage bar, that's 6 Slams in 3 seconds. In PvP if nothing else, you could throw a Stun up and absolutely drop someone with nothing they could do about it at all.)

I haven't mentioned one of the primary aspects that does make this strategy work, and that is the mighty Windfury Totem. Without Windfury, your damage as 2H is going to be lacking in the extreme - it provides such a massive boost to damage and Rage Generation it allows us to easily forgo Endless Rage and actually get talents like Death Wish and Imp. Slam, which provide the huge boost in damage that we need in order to compete.

To summarize: GCD is your enemy and your friend... but mostly your enemy. Learn to manage them - GCD's are to you what Combo Points would be to a Rogue, one of your most valuable resources. Use it wisely. Keeping track of GCD and your swing timer and anything else the boss might do and keeping an eye on your threat meter is why playing a Slam warrior is far from easy. Luckily, it's extremely rewarding... but it requires considerably more concentration and attention than DW DPS ever will.

Slam after every autoattack if possible. The only time when it's advisable to spam Slam over and over is during your Death Wish/Trinket cycle if you have the rage available, and even then you should skimp on one Slam cycle every 10s to lob off a MS and Whirlwind, then go back to Slams after the next autoattack.

Damage Rotations

Using Slam as an effective damage tool is rather tricky. Doing it properly takes attention, the use of a Swing Timer mod (see the Slam guide for more details) and some knowledge of global cooldowns. I've covered most of the basics above, so I'll assume you've already read them and I won't rehash the information.

Question #1: Is it worth leaving Mortal Strike/Whirlwind/Bloodthirst on cooldown for a second or two in order to ensure Slam use right as you autoattack? Yes. Kind of. Sometimes, no. See Question #5.

Question #2: Is there a point where Slam rotations become unsustainable? Yes, actually. You can either have insufficient Rage generation to support it (possible, but with even moderate gearing and a Windfury totem it's rather unlikely) or your weapon can be too fast. Assuming zero reaction time, the fastest possible Slam/Instant Attack rotation is 2.5s. Assuming normal human reaction time and latency, any weapon speed faster than 2.75s is likely to be in some degree wasted. This would mean that any weapon at 3.4 speed or faster is wasting time and damage with full Flurry; combined with the fact that Slam isn't normalized and there's even more compelling reasons to get an extremely slow weapon. With a 3.6 speed weapon, Slam and 5/5 Flurry runs at 2.88 swing speed; add in much more haste, either from trinkets or the Haste Potion, and it's most likely largely wasted.

Question #3: What should I do during Bloodlust/Heroism? Good question. Bloodlust actually reduces the global cooldown by 30%, as well as providing 30% haste; this means that your rotations are (in theory) unaffected, although human reaction time/latency still comes into play. Other haste effects do not provide this benefit. You will also have to work in additional Slams to cover the loss of instant attacks (as the cooldown itself has not been lowered).

Question #4: Just how important is my weapon speed? Very. I run upwards of 4,000 AP raid buffed in my current 2H Fury build. With a 3.8 speed weapon (Such as, oh, a Stormherald) Slam hits for 140 + (4000 / 14 + 127) * 3.8 = 1708 damage. Even dropping down to 3.6 speed with equivalent DPS (say, the Lionheart series of smithing weapons) puts it at 140 + (4000 / 14 + 127) * 3.6 = 1625 damage. That's an aprox. 5% damage increase to Slam... and as you'll be using Slam a lot, speed matters. See also question #2 and the notations about haste.

Question #5: I have a very slow weapon, but no Flurry (or, I cannot land a crit and thus effectively have no Flurry at the moment). Should I use two instant attacks in this cycle and push Slam back slightly? Yes, if possible. Even if the second instant attack is a Hamstring. Sample cycle at 3.8 speed:

0s: Autoattack .25: Start Slam .75: Slam Completes, Reset 0: Global Cooldown 1.0: GCD Ends, Cast Mortal Strike (./Bloodthirst/Whirlwind/Whatever) 2.5: GCD Ends, Cast Whirlwind (./Mortal Strike/Bloodthirst/Hamstring) 3.8: Autoattack, Reset .2: GCD Ends .3: Start Slam

By using the Global Cooldown to help manage your timers at this speed, you don't lose much. You can effectively slam on the Slam button until GCD relents and lets it go through, and do not have to watch the Swing Timer at all. Moreover, the loss in time is comparable to that lost from human reaction speed anyway; let it fly! (Also, if you do have Flurry, the additional Hamstring proc can help bring it back up.)

So you want to... dual wield?

Warrior Quests

Coming soon!

Warrior Macros

Taken from my Macro Guide, found here.

  • Interrupt Pro
Written by RPZip This macro will use the best available interrupt (Pummel or Shield Bash), or shift you into the proper stance if you're in the wrong one at the moment. This is one of my favorite macros, personally, and I hope to have macros of similar utility for all of the classes soon; I have the most experience with Warriors, however, so we get the best of the spoils for the moment. This macro will attempt to Shield Bash if you have a shield equipped and are in either Battle or Defensive Stance; else it will shift you into Berserker stance and Pummel them. darkorange /cast (equipped:Shields), (stance:1/2) Shield Bash; (noequipped:Shields), stance:1/2 Berserker Stance; stance: 3 Pummel

  • GetThere Deluxe
Written by RPZip This macro will allow you to either Charge or Intercept, or shift to the proper stance based upon the circumstances (i.e. if you're in combat, it will shift you to Berserker Stance to charge). It will also dismount you, so if you're currently mounted you can double-tap this key to get off an easier charge/intercept. Moreover, if you have the Shift button held down it will force and Intercept use and will automatically use Bloodrage, in order to give you the necessary rage to do so if you were lacking it (i.e. put into combat from long range). You can modify the (modifier:shift to be either alt or ctl, or even replace it with (button:2) to give it the forced actions only on right-clicks.

This macro is actually split into two parts because under the current system, the macro will display the cooldown of the first listed ability – which means that you could either display the Charge cooldown or the Intercept cooldown, but never both. I chose to split it so as to be able to see both cooldowns when I wanted to. For best results, put each on your stancebars in the same location so the movement is fluid (just keep hitting the same button). A nice side effect of how I programmed this macro is that double-tapping the macro will shift you into Berserker Stance after using Charge well before you get to your target - which should mean no rage loss and leave you ready to fear-break after your charge.
/dismount
/cast (stance:1, nocombat, nomodifier:shift) Charge; (nostance:1, nocombat, nomodifier:shift) Battle Stance; Berserker Stance
/stopcasting
/cast (modifier:shift) Bloodrage

/dismount
/cast (stance:3,combat) Intercept; (nocombat, nomodifier:shift) Battle Stance; (stance:3,modifier:shift) Intercept; Berserker Stance
/stopcasting
/cast (modifier:shift) Bloodrage

  • Easy Intervene
Written by RPZip While I have hopes to include this macro into the GetThere Deluxe macro eventually, I have not yet done so due to time constraints... expect it to be consolidated in the next small update of the FAQ. In the meantime, though, this macro will Intervene as normal with a friendly target selected, but will also Intervene your target's target if your current target is hostile - allowing you to avoid selecting a party member first, and keeping your current mob selected.
/cast (help) Intervene; (target=targettarget,help) Intervene

Warrior Talents

    • Talent Builds
Have a talent build not listed here you want to submit? Post in this thread or send me a PM!

Arms-based Talent Builds [1]

Arms/Fury PvP

    • 34/24/3
    • Description: The pure Warrior PvP build, sacrificing most PvE utility for pure carnage. Mortal Strike, Death Wish, Imp. Intercept and Second Wind from Arms, Weapon Mastery and Imp. Slam from Fury (yes, it's good in PvP situationally) - you'll be throwing out some significant damage with this build, assuming any kind of decent weaponry. Note that this build sacrifices nearly all PvE utility - no Thunderclap, no Blood Frenzy - just pure PvP-focused damage. If you plan on PvPing almost exclusively... well, this build is for you. Take it out for a spin.

    • 33/28/0
    • Description: The 2H raid DPS build. Blood Frenzy, Flurry, Imp. Slam combined with Imp. Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap make for a well-rounded set of utility and damage, but especially damage. Blood Frenzy can't be underestimated in a raid environment, and unless another warrior provides it is literally invaluable.

    • 35/5/21
    • Description: A general Warrior utility build - giving you access to the damage talents of Arms, Cruelty, and picking up some of the best talents in the Protection tree - Improved Shield Block, Last Stand, Concussion Blow and Defiance. This build gives you Improved Thunderclap and Blood Frenzy and Endless Rage - letting you function as a nice PvE 'debuff-bot' and pumping out good damage, while also giving you great tanking options. Surprisingly effective since the talent-swap for Imp. Intercept and Death Wish - Concussion Blow is extremely effective, and while you do lose Enrage it's still a very handy build for PvP.

Fury-based Talent Builds

    • 17/44/0
    • Description: A Dual Wield Fury build that side-specs into Arms for Impale. Pure, unadulterated damage, in essence - you get Deep Wounds ticking, Impale for more Crit damage, plus Rampage/Imp. Zerker/Bloodthirst from Fury. The idea is to rip people apart, and... this build does it, and does it well. Updated for the talent-swaps (namely, picking up Weapon Mastery as well as fixing some obvious build errors).

Protection-based Talent Builds

    • 8/7/46
    • Description: Pure, maximum mitigation, no-frills Protection. Gets every possible mitigation talent, max effective Imp. Demo, Imp. Thunderclap and a ton of defense. If you have someone else to do it (a DPS Warrior, perhaps) drop the points out of Imp. Demo into whatever you'd like - probably maxing out Imp. Defensive and a 'freebie'.

    • 8/7/46
    • Description: Similar to the last build, but picks up some additional talents (Imp. Taunt/Imp. Revenge) that see a lot of play in 5-mans/heroics.

Tips and Tricks

Coming soon!

Warrior PvP

Coming soon!

Frequently Asked Questions

Coming soon!

Acknowledgments

Allakhazam, for this website and forums. I've been here forever and he's always been very receptive to ways to make this site even better. Keep up the good work! [1]Kenco[2], for his fantastic work on the mechanics of threat. A wonderful resource for any would-be tank interested in the math behind it, rather than just hitting buttons.

Notes

  1. ^ Adjust all Weapon Specializations to the one you're actually using! Sword Spec won't help much if you're using a Mace. Also, small adjustments can be made to most builds. 5 points in a single lower tier talent can be moved to another lower tier talent based on preference. A good example is moving Imp. Demo. Shout to Booming Voice or Unbridled Wrath, or the other way around, but I'll probably make fun of you if you do.

Parts of this page were originally written by RPZip.

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This page last modified 2010-10-03 13:41:47.
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