The Warriors Path. :Warrior Guide

[Kaos(KoP)]

Warriors are one of the most popular classes in World of Warcraft; mostly because they are versatile, loveable and available to every race in the game. Though they are quite gear dependant, there are clear differences between beginner warriors and veterans of the class. Being one of the more important classes (Priest tops the list), warriors can effectively tank (they do this better then anyone else), do great damage (berserker stance) as well as solo (going battle stance or berserker stance will increase your damage-per-second, coupled with an insane amount of armor will make soloing a breeze). Easy soloing, group compatibility and a solid role within the game… what’s not to love?

Basic Warrior Information

Allowed races: All

Standard Bars: Health/Rage

Equipment: Shields, Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate (Plate available at level 40)

Weapons: Daggers, Bows, Crossbows, Guns, 1-Handed Swords, 2-Handed Swords, 1-Handed Maces, 2-Handed Maces, 1-Handed Axes, 2-Handed Axes, Fist Weapons, Staffs

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Class Role

Class role is a very gentle topic with warriors. A lot of warriors (for some apparent reason) want to be like a rogue – dealing insane amount of damage and somehow keep their insane armor count. Doesn’t work that way fellas or gals. Warriors were designed not to have the greatest flexibility or the greatest damage, they were built to take damage and to give some too. A lot of warriors like dual wielding and going pure berserker rage (the 3 stances will be explained later on) and want to be the damage dealers – of which there are better classes to do the job (Mages, Rogues, Hunters). During the closed beta-test, there were a lot of arguments whether or not warriors should be allowed in groups for the purpose of damage-per-second, and for the most part people agreed when a warrior is invited into an instance/raid group – he is expected to be taking the hits.

Though this guide won’t limit you to what the general populace expects, the class role for Warriors is generally to tank – meaning to make sure the monsters are all hitting the warrior who is presumably getting healed by a Pally, Priest or Druid (or a combination of the three). If you find two really good 1-handed weapons, you can also get berserker rage and become a DPS machine – dishing out the damage while your armor keeps you breathing easy. Alternatively you can pick up a 2-handed weapon and slowly tear apart great chunks out of your opponent. And yet you can still can go with a 1-handed weapon and shield for the extra defense and survivability. It’s all up to you, and that’s the beauty of the warrior.

Strengths

* Able to equip all armor types (plate at level 40) and every type of weapon except wands
* The most amount of hitpoints and armor – meaning you can take the most damage without dying
* A lot of equipment options and diversity
* Great close range melee skills
* Ability to learn guns/bows, which can help you pull monsters from a crowd
* Accepted into groups quite readily

Weaknesses

* No method of healing other then first-aid
* Gear-dependant – meaning to be a good warrior you will need the best gear possible
* It is difficult to separate yourself as a skilled warrior from someone else, while it is easier to separate the skilled and non-skilled players of another class

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Rage

The Warrior has a red Rage bar. During combat the Warrior generates Rage based both on damage done and damage taken/prevented. You may also generate Rage using specific abilities. The Rage bar continues to fill as the Warrior fights. Once the Warrior has enough Rage points, the Warrior can use different skills that require Rage. When not in active combat, the Warrior's Rage slowly fades to 0. The Warrior also loses all accumulated Rage if the Warrior switches stances (Unless they invest in the Tactical Mastery talents), so plan ahead and avoid changing stances mid fight!

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Stances

Every class has 5 attributes that determine their. Each attribute helps each class differently. Let’s look at how each of the stats affects Warriors:

Battle Stance: Easily the most versatile stance, this will be your “default” stance. You attack and defend to your full capability, taking no penalty or benefits, and are able to use most special abilities. Used mainly for soloing. You start World of Warcraft with this stance.

Defensive Stance: The stance of choice for tanks, you take a 10% damage dealt penalty but in turn take 10% less damage from hits. You are able to generate more threat in this stance, and are given a wider variety of defensive moves, if losing some of the offensive abilities.

Berserker Stance: The stance of choice for the damage dealer, you will take 10% more damage but in turn can deal with the increased 3% critical hit chance. You lose out on many defensive abilities, but gain some cruel offensive ones.

Attributes

Every class has 5 attributes that determine their. Each attribute helps each class differently. Let’s look at how each of the stats affects Warriors:

Strength: Adds to your Attack Power, Damage-Per-Second (DPS). Strength does not affect Critical Hit chances at all. Strength does not improve your chance to block, but rather the amount blocked when you succeed. This amount is determined in part by Strength (and the other part by your shield).

For either the defensive or offensive warrior, this should be the second talent looked at. Albeit increasing damage less then agility does, it offers a sensible enough boost. Strength really only shows its full capability in a longer fight, of say over a minute at the least.
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Stamina: Increases Health points.

The mainstay talent for those that are interested in fulfilling the “tank” role predominantly required for instance groups. The more Stamina a warrior has the longer they will survive and the more hits they will be able to absorb. The most important stat for any defensive warrior, while the third most important for an offensive based warrior.
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Intellect: Increases Mana points as well as chance to Critical Hit with magic spells. Intellect also grants a higher chance to increase melee skills. (It does not affect trade skills though.)

The last skill that should be increased, this offers no benefit for a Warrior. It is easily the most useless skill for the warrior regardless of specialization.
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Spirit: Increases Health and Mana regeneration. Spirit affects all characters' Mana and Hit Point regeneration rates in and out of combat. Spirit also increases your chance to 'proc' with weapons.

The second last skill that should be increased regardless of specialization, as you move up in level you will not be able to regain health enough with spirit to really warrant it, and it only otherwise helps weapon procs, and negligibly at that.
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Agility: Increases all characters' chance to Critical Hit. Agility affects dodge. Agility adds directly to Defense.

For the offensively minded warrior, the first skill of choice. To bring full warrior offensive-prowess out requires a reliance on critical hits, and Agility directly increases the chance to land one. If one is however more interested in taking a defensive stance for grouping and what not, the third talent that should be picked.

Skills

The warrior class has three talent trees like all other classes – Fury, Protection and Arms. Each skill (combat ability) goes under one of those three categories. Also note that while Battle Stance is associated with Arms, Defensive Stance with Protection and Berserker Stance with Fury, skills in each branch can sometimes be used by another stance (for example “Rend” from the Arms tree can be used in Berserker stance).

Arms

Arms is the main PvP branch of skills, associated with slowing down opponents and damaging them in great, but slow, chunks. All while not breaching the integrity of your defense.

Protection

The Protection tree offers a wide range of useful abilities that mostly pertain to using shields to reduce damage, making your opponents weaker and houses the useful “taunt” ability that is widely used in instance groups and raids.

Fury

The Fury line has to do with dealing a lot of damage quickly, enhancing your skills and houses several shouts the warrior can utilize, which can help in groups.

[Kaos(KoP)]

Talents


Talents are an essential part of developing your warrior. As you know, there are three talent trees: Arms, Protection and Berserker. The Arms tree is for the PvP-oriented. It helps sustain efficiency with different weapons, as well as develop arms abilities like Heroic Strike, Rend, Charge and more.

The Protection tree mostly pertains to improving your efficiency with a shield as well as improving shield-related abilities and other protection abilities. You can also improve your taunting abilities with the taunt talent. You’ll find almost all protection-specced warriors carry shields.

The Fury tree is all damage, no defense. Everything has to do with shouts, damage-dealing abilities or critical strikes. If you want to be giving out pain, this is where to invest your points. A lot of PvP’ers will begin to spill-over their extra points in the Fury tree for some extra punch.


Talent Builds

You can build your Talents in numerous ways. Here are some samples of builds others have used to some success.


~PvP (Arms) Build – “The Mortal Strike”~

Arms Talents (31 points)

Deflection (Rank 2)
Increases your chance to Parry an attack by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% chance to Parry. Improved Rend (Rank 3)
Increases the bleed damage caused by your Rend ability by 15%. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 a maximum increase of 35% bleed damage.

Improved Charge (Rank 2)
Increases the amount of rage generated by your Charge ability by 3 Rage Points. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 with a maximum increase of 6 additional Rage Points generated.

Tactical Mastery (Rank 5)
You will retain up to 5 Rage Points when switching stances. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum retainment of up to 25 Rage Points.

Improved Overpower (Rank 2)
Increases the Critical Hit rate if your Overpower skill by 25%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 with a maximum increase of 50% Critical Hit Rate.

Deep Wounds (Rank 3)
Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 20% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 with a maximum effect of 60% of your melee weapon's average damage.

Two-handed Weapon Specialization (Rank 3)
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% damage dealt.

Impale (Rank 2)
Increases Critical Hit damage done by your abilities in Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stances by 10%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 a maximum increase of 20% Critical Hit damage.

Axe Specialization (Rank 5)
Incrases your chance to land a Critical Hit with an Axe by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% Critical Hit chance.

Sweeping Strikes (Rank 1)
30 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 30 second cooldown. Requires Battle Stance, and user must be wielding a melee weapon. Your next 5 melee weapon swings will strike an additional nearby opponent.

Improved Hamstring (Rank 2)
Gives your Hamstring ability a 5% chance to Immobilize the target for 5 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 for a maximum 15% chance to Immobilize the target.

Mortal Strike (Rank 1)
30 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 6 second cooldown, 5 yard range. User must be wielding a melee weapon. Deals a vicious strike that deals weapon damage plus 85 and wounds the target, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 10 seconds.


Fury Talents (20 points)

Cruelty (Rank 5)
Increases your chance to land a Critical Hit by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% Critical Hit chance.

Improved Demoralizing Shout (Rank 5)
Increases the attack power reduction of your Demoralizing Shout by 8%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 40% attack power reduction.

Piercing Howl (Rank 1)
10 Rage cost, Instant Cast. Causes all enemies near the Warrior to be dazed for 6 seconds.

Improved Battle Shout (Rank 4 )
Raises the attack power bonus of your Battle Shout ability by 5%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum 25% increase to your attack power bonus.

Enrage (Rank 5)
Grants you an 8% melee damage bonus lasting 12 seconds, for 12 swings any time you are the victim of a Critical Hit. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 40% melee damage for 12 strikes over 12 seconds.


This build is considered the “cookie-cutter” of the warrior in PvP, emphasizing critical strikes with 2-handed weapons to cause the greatest amount of damage at once, and being thus most likely to tear through an opponent.


~Fury/Dual Wield Arms Build – “The Berserker”~

Arms Talents (21 points)

Deflection (Rank 2)
Increases your chance to Parry an attack by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% chance to Parry.

Improved Rend (Rank 3)
Increases the bleed damage caused by your Rend ability by 15%. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 a maximum increase of 35% bleed damage.

Improved Charge (Rank 2)
Increases the amount of rage generated by your Charge ability by 3 Rage Points. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 with a maximum increase of 6 additional Rage Points generated.

Tactical Mastery (Rank 5)
You will retain up to 5 Rage Points when switching stances. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum retainment of up to 25 Rage Points.

Improved Overpower (Rank 2)
Increases the Critical Hit rate if your Overpower skill by 25%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 with a maximum increase of 50% Critical Hit Rate.

Anger Management (Rank 1)
Increases the time required for your Rage Points to decay while out of combat by 30%.

Deep Wounds (Rank 3)
Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 20% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 with a maximum effect of 60% of your melee weapon's average damage.

Impale (Rank 2)
Increases Critical Hit damage done by your abilities in Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stances by 10%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 a maximum increase of 20% Critical Hit damage.

Sweeping Strikes (Rank 1)
30 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 30 second cooldown. Requires Battle Stance, and user must be wielding a melee weapon. Your next 5 melee weapon swings will strike an additional nearby opponent.


Fury Talents (30 points)

Cruelty (Rank 5)
Increases your chance to land a Critical Hit by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% Critical Hit chance.

Improved Demoralizing Shout (Rank 5)
Increases the attack power reduction of your Demoralizing Shout by 8%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 40% attack power reduction.

Unbridled Wrath (Rank 5)
Gives you an 8% chance to generate an additional Rage Point when you deal melee damage. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 yielding a maximum 40% chance to generate an additional Rage Point.

Piercing Howl (Rank 1)
10 Rage cost, Instant Cast. Causes all enemies near the Warrior to be dazed for 6 seconds.

Improved Battle Shout (Rank 4 )
Raises the attack power bonus of your Battle Shout ability by 5%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum 25% increase to your attack power bonus.

Improved Execute (Rank 2)
Reduces the Rage Point cost of your Execute ability by 2 Rage Points. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum decrease of 5 Rage Points.

Enrage (Rank 5)
Grants you an 8% melee damage bonus lasting 12 seconds, for 12 swings any time you are the victim of a Critical Hit. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 40% melee damage for 12 strikes over 12 seconds.

Death Wish (Rank 1)
10 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 3 minute cooldown. When activated, increases your melee damage by 20%, grants immunity to Fear, but lowers your defense against all types of attacks by 20%. Lasts 30 seconds.

Flurry (Rank 5)
Increases your attack speed by 10% for your next 3 swings after a critical strike. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 30% attack speed.


The popular Fury build, excellent for high DPS in PvE


~Protection Build – “The Iron Wall”~

Arms Talents (10 points)

Deflection (Rank 5)
Increases your chance to Parry an attack by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% chance to Parry.

Tactical Mastery (Rank 5)
You will retain up to 5 Rage Points when switching stances. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum retainment of up to 25 Rage Points.


Fury Talents (5 points)

Cruelty (Rank 5)
Increases your chance to land a Critical Hit by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% Critical Hit chance.


Protection Talents (36 points)

Shield Specialization (Rank 5)
Increases your chance to block an attack with your shield by 1% and has a 20% chance to generate 1 Rage Point when a block occurs. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum 5% increased chance to block and 100% chance to generate 1 Rage Point when a block occurs.

Improved Bloodrage (Rank 2)
Decreases the health cost of your Bloodrage ability by 25%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum cost decrease of 50%.

Toughness (Rank 5)
Increases Armor Value from your items by 2%. Can be increased to Rank 5, for a maximum increase in Armor Value by 10%.

Last Stand (Rank 1)
Instant Cast, 10 minute cooldown. When activated, temporarily grants your Warrior a 30% bonus of your maximum Hit Points for 20 seconds. After the effect expires, the Hit Points are lost.

Improved Shield Block (Rank 1)
Allows your Shield Block ability to block an additional attack, and increases the duration of your Shield Block ability by 0.5 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 for a maximum skill duration increase of 2 seconds.

Improved Revenge (Rank 3)
Gives your Revenge ability a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 with a maximum 40% chance to stun the target.

Defiance (Rank 5)
Increases the threat generated by your attacks in Defensive Stance by 3%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum 15% increase in threat generation.

Improved Sunder Armor (Rank 3)
Decreases the Rage Cost of your Sunder Armor ability by 1 point. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 for a maximum Rage Cost reduction of 3 points.

Improved Taunt (Rank 2)
Reduces the cooldown timer of your Taunt ability by 1 second. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum cooldown timer reduction of 2 seconds.

Improved Shield Bash (Rank 2)
Gives your Shield Bash ability a 50% chance to Silence the target for 3 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum 100% chance to Silence the target.

Concussion Blow (Rank 1)
15 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 45 second cooldown. Stuns for 5 seconds.

One-Handed Weapon Specialization (Rank 5)
Increases the damage you deal with one-handed weapons by 2%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 10% weapon damage.

Shield Slam (Rank 1)
30 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 5 yard range, 6 second cooldown. Slam the target with your Shield, causing 288-352 damage and has a 50% chance of dispelling 1 magic effect on the target. Also causes a high amount of threat.


The standard and popular build for the strongest tank in the game.

[Kaos(KoP)]

Tips

Rage Generation

For a Warrior, this is your bread and butter – almost everything is handled through rage. Sure, you can taunt, use some normal hits, but almost every noteworthy ability requires some rage. A warrior with a full rage bar is a fearsome beast, whilst one without rage isn’t much of a threat.

Rage is generated when you attack your foe, and how much is obtained per hit depends on the amount of damage done, with a bonus being applied for critical hits. Slower weapons deal more damage, while faster ones pepper the opponent with lighter blows, and this balances out your generation. However, due to this, dual-wielding warriors (typically Fury) have a wondrous rage generation potential. Secondarily, rage is garnered whenever an opponent blocks, dodges or parries any of your blows, and a slight amount is given to you when you are hit as well.

For non-combative alternate sources, Alchemists can make Rage or Greater Rage potions for instant gain, a few warrior specific items generate instantly a set amount (Warrior level 30 armor for example), and Warriors themselves also have some inherent abilities to generate rage such as:

Charge
Instant Cast
10-25 yard range
15 second cooldown
Charges an enemy and generates rage, stunning them for 1 second. Cannot be used while in combat. Rage generated depends on skill rank.
(Charge rage generation value can be increased through talents)

Bloodrage
Instant Cast
1 minute cooldown
Grants 10 rage in exchange for Hit Points, and grants additional rage for a 10 second duration. User is considered in combat for the duration of the ability.

Be aware that no matter your rage value, when out of combat it will slowly decrease till the bar is empty, so Bloodrage is often a great ability for holding onto that extra rage.
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Solo-Play

This varies between the build chosen, Arms and Fury warriors tear through mobs quickly, while sustaining a fair amount of damage, while Protection warriors take longer, but take much less damage. In general, Arms of Fury are considered the best talent lines for solo play, while Protection is best for group play.

While playing in solo you will most likely find yourself primarily in Battle Stance, the most balanced offense to defense stance allowing you to dish out damage while still minimizing how much you take. However, flipping stances often can often be a great asset, Disarm from the Defensive Stance can often dramatically drop the damage of a weapon carrying monster, Berserker Rage and the variety of abilities from that Stance often can find their places in combat and give you that extra edge in rage.

While always good for a Warrior, it’s often important to have food and bandages for bonuses and that healing edge, so it’s a great idea to take up Cooking/Fishing and First-aid to keep you supplied.

Grouping

Be aware that generally when you group you will be asked to tank, so its wise to carry around a “sword-and-a-board” (1-handed weapon and a shield) to soak up some of that extra damage on a difficult encounter. Generally this means your going to spend a substantial amount of time in the Defensive Stance for the extra threat generation and damage mitigation.

Due to you being the person responsible for holding the attention of your opponents, your going to have one of the more demanding, if not the most demanding role, in the party. Keep a close eye on where all the mobs are, nearby mobs (have to watch for any running situations or incoming patrols that you will have to be prepared to deal with), and who everything is facing and fighting. You want them on you, not your more squishy friends. Don’t be afraid to use snap-aggro abilities (something that instant forces the mob to fight you like Taunt or Mocking Blow) and a liberal use of debuffs like Demoralizing Shout.

Maintaining Aggro

The primary concern of any Warrior in a group, you need to get the opponents attention, and then hold onto it. If you have Tactical Mastery (A wise choice for any warrior), try to open with a rage generation ability like Charge out of the Battle Stance line, flip over to Defensive and throw in a Demoralizing Shout to start it off, then start laying in with Sunder Armors. Its best to charge in and lay a Sunder (or three) on the mob that the group will be taking first, then flipping to the sub-targets in kill order, and then back to main target, gathering aggro on the entire group. This means that not only when your healer does his job of keeping you alive they will not bee-line for him, but that when your group starts to work on the other targets you will have a degree of hate on them already and be able to hold onto it all the easier.

Don’t be afraid to use less damaging abilities like Revenge, it generates a decent amount of threat for a very small rage cost. The primary mistake of many warriors is to just try spamming Heroic Strike, while it does help it is based on the weapon speed, unlike Sunder Armor which is instant.

Be prepared that no matter how good you are at building hate, many classes have the ability to generate a massive amount hate rapidly through sheer damage or special effects, so keep your finger on that Taunt button when you see a mob turn.

PVP (Player vs Player)

The place for a Warrior to shine, and my favorite part of the game by far is PvP.

General Play

Arms
This is the standard PvP spec for a Warrior, allowing big burst damage to chew through players quickly, and Mortal Strike to help take down those healing or being healed targets.

Fury
Less common to see but still popular Warrior build, chew through opponents with your high DPS value.

Protection
More of a PvE then a PvP build, but still viable in its own ways. You’ll usually be on a defensive role, holding a flag area in Arathi Basin, carrying the flag in Warsong Gulch, such things like that.

Remember however, in a Battle-ground at the least there’s more to winning than killing the other team, so you’ll often be called on to control the opponents with Hamstrings, Piercing Howl, and Intimidating Shouts. Regardless of build, you can still be asked to defend, or to carry the flag as a plate wearer will have more armor then anyone else.

For actual combat, make sure to keep moving at all times. While moving does not actually affect your dodge chance or anything of the sort, it mucks with the player. They can’t attack something behind them, so slow them down and move through and around them as much as possible, maintaining melee range but keeping out of their main attack. This will slow attacks for melee and often foul up spells for casters. For PvP as much as anything Tactical Mastery talent really helps as you often change stances to deal with situations. Remember however, you’re a Warrior, you have the highest armor and health points, but your damage isn’t as high as a Rogue or a Mage and people are not likely to be focusing on you, so use it to your advantage, take out some cloth wearers or keep a high threat target busy for your side.

Warrior vs…

Druids
A battle with a Druid can be one of the most entertaining and annoying battles of all. By use of a Druids shapeshifting they can constantly change how they are engaged – you can start off fighting an almost-priest who becomes an almost-warrior and then an almost-rogue. And then start all over again. Engaging first is often a great advantage for a Warrior in almost every battle because of the bonus rage, but often particularly useful against Druids. If you engage first, throw in a Hamstring to slow them down, but be aware that if they change form they lose that effect. If they engage first, chances are your going to be rooted at a distance where you can not be a viable threat. The Rank 2 Warrior PvP trinket or a Free Action Potion from Alchemy comes in use here, or even better yet, use of both (Free Action Potion to make yourself immune, PvP Trinket to drop the root).

Once you enter melee range with a druid, especially if under the influence of a Free Action Potion (FAP), chances are they will enter their bear form and melee. As you get them to half health or near it, most players will switch to their base Druid (healing form). Watch for a healing spell to start (their hands will glow green), and then hit them with a Pummel or a Shield Bash to interrupt and silence them. If you have Mortal Strike from the Arms talent tree, the free damage and healing debuff can be particularly useful.

Hunters
As a melee class, you’re not going to harbor any love for Hunters, a class specializing in holding their opponents at range where their powerful ranged ability (and pets) can quickly dig into your armor. Until you get Intercept at 30, chances are your not going to stand much of a chance against a Hunter at all, but after that make sure to close distances with Intercepts (at an angle is best due to most hunters laying traps). As soon as you get close, drop a Hamstring and a Rend on them and y in as much as you can. Hamstring will retard their movement, and the importance of Rend is not only a secondary source of minor damage, but it stops them from using Feign Death or Aspect of the Cheetah (Feign Death will often not work if a DoT is on, and they will receive a Dazed effect if Rend procs while in Aspect of the Cheetah).

If the Hunter is specialized as a Beast-Master, its often important to try and land an Intimidating Shout on the Hunter when your close, causing the pet (and a massive source of his damage) to flee. Regardless of their spec, it’s a useful tactic, but due to timer often best saved for Beast-masters. If possible, always try to approach a Hunter from an angle, or if they seem to be trying to draw you somewhere avoid it – Freezing Traps can quickly ruin your day.

If you’re an Engineer, another extra ability for closing distances is a Gnomish Net-gun or Goblin Rocket Helmet. An Alchemists Free Action Potion can really help against Hunters, as it stops their ability to control you generally. Be warned however: Free Action Potions do not stop Freezing Traps or Scattershot as those count as Confused effects, not stuns or slows. As a side-note for Engineers, for a cheap laugh you can mind control a Hunter with a Gnomish Mind Control Helmet and force him to kill his pet for you.

Mages
For many Warriors, usually one of their toughest opponents. A ranged attack class that can quickly drop off any slowing attempt, keep you locked or slowed down, and dish out massive damage. Most often when you charge a mage, he will even Ice Nova (root you) and Blink then follow with a Polymorph or just flat out Blink and Polymorph you. It’s often wise to hit Bloodrage as soon as you charge, or when you remove sheep, as the albeit minor DoT will remove Polymorph from you quickly. If they Blink again, be quick to Intercept and Pummel the mage, and remember, mages are at their weakest in escape right after a Blink. A hamstring will stop them from moving away at any real speed, and they can not Blink off the slow for another 15 seconds. If you can keep in melee range, they are a soft squishy target, but fall out of range and you will be the one dropping rapidly.

If you’re an Engineer, another extra ability for closing distances is a Gnomish Net-gun or Goblin Rocket Helmet. An Alchemists Free Action Potion will stop slow or root effects by Mages, but not Polymorph.

Paladin
One of the most annoying classes to fight regardless of who you are, with their plate armor, self healing and various abilities to become invulnerable, they are pests to deal with. Against a Paladin is where you will very often find being an Arms Warrior useful; their Mortal Strike can really ruin a Paladins day by cutting down on their healing potential. If a Paladin is healing out of an invulnerability shield, pummel or shield bash him. Maintain a Rend for the extra added damage, and don’t be afraid to Disarm them to drop their damage even lower then normal. If the Paladin shields while fighting you, be aware its time not damage based like a Priests, so step back and Bandage. If you break attack and can charge again when it drops, all the better.

Priest
Mages and Priests (Shadow in particular) are often considered to be the very best classes overall in PvP. Beyond Shadow Priests, you will often be able to chew through them with little personal worry, just taking a bit of time. Once again being an Arms warrior is useful (See why they are the usual PvP class?) with Mortal Strike dramatically cutting down on their self-healing potential. If you see their hands starting to glow, Pummel or Shield Bash them. In general, if someone is a Shadow Priest (best way to tell: large damage through Shadow Spells, they are in Shadow Form which makes them glow purple), your main problem will be when their hands glow purple, signifying a shadow spell and thus pain. If they are a Holy Priest, your main problem will be when their hands glow yellow, signifying a healing spell and thus prolonging the battle. Those are the best times to interrupt. Its best to stay in Berserker form, and whenever feared hit the Berserker Rage ability to cancel it.

If you’re a Blacksmith, the Fear Immunity Trinket (Mithril Order) will be wonderfully useful, as will being Undead for Will of the Forsaken. PvP Trinket will also let you remove fear. As always, the Gnomish Net-gun is useful for holding the Priest down.

Rogue
If you’re an Arms warrior, this class is a joke. Anything else, watch out. Protection Warriors can last quite awhile but often lack the damage needed to drop a stun-lock rogue, and a Combat Rogue will disarm and if the warrior lacks an ability to stop that (Steel Weapon Chains, Stronghold Gauntlets, Death Grips), their damage is done. The way Fury pumps its DPS out works against them here usually, as despite the higher armor value, Rogues pump damage much, much faster, especially when stun locking and disarming their opponent. So this part of the guide will mostly apply to anything other then Arms. Free Action Potions (come up fairly often don’t they? Alchemy is a great bonus) will stop any stun locking potential by making you immune, and Disarm will drop off a good portion of the Rogues damage (especially if they are assassination – those two combinations will make an assassination rogue’s damage pitiful, the best way to tell is a dagger in main hand is assassination, sword or mace in main hand is combat). Keep a Rend on them (blocks Stealth and Disarm), and keeping a Hamstring on them to control movement also often helps. If a Rogue vanishes, hit Piercing Howl or Demoralizing Shout, depending on what ability you have ready. AoE Effects (regardless if they cause damage or not) will cancel stealth, and let you see the Rogue once more, if he’s trying to flee the advantage of Piercing Howl is it slows him again, but even without you can still Intercept or chase till combat drops off and Charge. If your in a really desperation situation, remember your Retaliation ability (30 minute cooldown, shared with Shield Wall, so be wary) – every single rapid hit the Rogue lays on you will be returned as a very hard hit.

As a final note to touch on so our Arms warriors are not left out, the reason this fight is such a joke for you is Improved Overpower. You get a +50% critical strike bonus when you use it, the average Warrior at level 60 has a base crit value of roughly 25% lets say, so 75% chance to land a critical hit. As a two-handed wielder, that can mean 1000+ damage potential, and Rogues like to dodge a lot (20% is rough base for a 60 rogue), and Overpower has a low cool down. You will literally eat Rogues.

If you’re an Engineer, Alarm-o-Matics can help detect Rogues, Gnomish Net-Guns can stop them from running, and an Alchemist will as always find their Free Action Potions useful.

Shamans
The “Jack-of-all-Trades” of the game, and one of the more annoying battles. They have mail and can use a shield, so they aren’t exactly soft, and in addition they also can heal fairly efficiently, and with their weapon enhancing, spells (mostly instant cast as likely to be in melee range) they can dish out decent damage. If a Shaman lays down a totem, if you’re a single handed or dual wielding Warrior chances are you want to destroy it, with 2-handed weapons generally you attack too slow (but if its an Earthbind totem and you don’t have a Free Action Potion, it’s a good idea as it’s a snare). However be aware that as an Arms Warrior, Sweeping Strikes extends to the totems and will destroy them as well.

Try to keep the Shaman Disarmed as it will eliminate any melee ability (Shamans can not dual-wield), Hamstring (keeping them in melee distance), and Mortal Strike (to slow their healing). If their hands glow green (healing), try to Pummel or Shield Bash them to stop the effect.

If you’re an Engineer, a Gnomish Net-Gun should help hold them down, and as an Alchemist a Free Action Potion will stop their Earthbind from working.

Warlock
Warlock battles completely depend on their build, they can swing to either easy or hard to take down. When fighting a Warlock you’ll often find yourself being Seduced by his Succubus, and he will try to Fear you while your Berserker Rage is on cooldown. Regardless, try to start off the battle from melee range to hamper their effectiveness: that means charging and dropping in a Hamstring. Maintain Berserker Stance incase a Fear slips, and if you see their hands start to glow purple, Pummel or Shield Bash the Warlock to interrupt the spell. If you still get Feared, hit Berserker Rage and come back to melee range as quickly as possible (Intercept or just run). Be happy that their Seduce and Fear diminishing timers are linked, and that they are very squishy.

As a side note it’s often important to fear their pet, especially if they have a Succubus. Land an Intimidating Shout on the Warlock while the Succubus out to make it flee and lay in while she cannot seduce.

If you’re an Engineer, the Gnomish Net-Gun will hold him down for you. However if you’re a Blacksmith, the Fear Immunity Trinket from the Mithril Order will be incredibly useful, combine that with Undead races Will of the Forsaken and the PvP Trinket and Warlocks should not be a problem at all. A secondarily amusing note; is as an Engineer you can use a Gnomish Mind Control Helmet on the Warlock and force him to kill his pet for you.

Another Warrior
Fighting another Warrior is much in line with all the other battles. Keep them Hamstrung, and keep them Disarmed. The battle is yours if you can negate their damage while you quickly deal more.

If you’re an Engineer, another useful gadget is the Gnomish Net-gun. Just lock them down, run back to break combat, then Charge.

Q & A

Q: When do we get our different stances?
A: You start with Battle Stance, get Defensive Stance at 10, and get Berserker Stance at 30. You must complete a quest to get each ability, and they are all soloable.

Q: When do we get to wear plate?
A: At level 40 you may buy the Plate Armor ability from your trainer.

Q: Can we be a ranged damage dealer?
A: No. Only Hunters and Mages are effective at ranged, a Warriors bow/gun/cross-bow will be used for pulling.

Q: Whats the best weapon type?
A: While there is no real “best”, Axes tend to dominate the 2-handed scene with their higher damage ranges and increased critical hits through specialization. Swords tend to dominate the 1-handed scene, but that’s much more varied.

Q: What is the best talent build for a Warrior?
A: Highly debatable, but each tends to fall into their own categories. Arms tends to be best in PvP situations, Fury tends to be best at dealing damage in PvE, and Protection tends to be best at tanking.


Conclusion

Powerhouses, tanks, damage dealers, warriors are very dynamic and hold their own in battle. From tanks in instances to berserking damage-dealers in PvP, you can shape your warrior to be whatever you like.