WoW Warrior Guide

When you think of MMORPG classes the first that comes to mind is the warrior, it is very common in any fantasy-based MMORPG. In World of Warcraft the warrior is the classic tank and my personal favorite. Unlike other classes, the warrior does not use mana, energy, or runic power. They use rage which is generated by damage dealt and damage received. Although, warriors are not all about tanking. The fury spec for a warrior can be very dangerous and can deal very high DPS in raiding.

There are a few pros as well as cons to being a warrior, the first of which is their ability to wear any type of armor and wield any type of weapon (except for wands of course) and they also have increased hit points. Their ability to switch between stances is also very nice for raiding if the main tank dies they can switch from berserker to defensive stance and pick up the tanking if need be. Warriors also have several stun abilities depending on their talent specialization but no matter what they still have a couple.

The cons of being a warrior would include one of the pros which is the ability to wear plate but with that comes very high repair bills so you have to be ready to dish out a lot of cash especially if you plan on being a tank. Warriors also really have no good healing abilities unless you choose to be a draenei and you can use your racial heal. Also in raiding warriors have no good way to drop threat if they are about to pull aggro so they need to completely stop DPSing if they are close to pulling aggro, although they can switch stances until the tank is able to regain aggro which doesn’t make this too big of a deal.

What Racial Abilities are good for Warriors?

The warrior class is available to almost every class in WoW, it is available to every race in the Alliance faction and every race in the Horde faction with the exception of the Blood Elf race. Before choosing your race you may want to consider if you want to be a tank or a DPS or if you want to strictly PvP. Racial abilities are not the most important choice you will make but they do make a difference when doing raiding/PvP.

Beginning with the Alliance, the Human has a 3 point expertise bonus with 1h and 2h swords as well as an ability to remove all movement impairing effects making the human a good choice for anything. Gnomes are definately not a good choice for a warrior as the only thing they really have going for them is the escape artist ability to remove immobilization or movement speed reducing effects, they do have a 5% intellect increase but that does nothing for warriors. The dwarf makes an excellent choice for a warrior tank because of the stoneform ability which removes bleed, poison, and diseases effects while increases armor by 10% for 8 seconds which makes it useful in both tanking and PvP. The night elf is also a good choice for both tanking and PvP, the quickness passive reduces the chance to be hit by 2% which is good for tanking and the shadowmeld is great for PvP as it is with any class. The Draenei’s racial heal is nice for leveling and even adding an extra heal on yourself in PvP or tanking/DPS during raids.

As for the Horde and starting with the Orc, the Blood Fury effect will increase damage done based on level for 15 seconds making this a nice choice for DPSing. They also have an expertise bonus of 5 with 1h and 2h axes. The troll is decent for tanking and DPS, the berserking ability will increase attack speed based on your current health for ten seconds and also increases health regeneration by 10% and allows 10% of normal health regeneration during combat which is helpful while tanking. The undead is really only useful for PvP and certain tanking situations if you are ever feared, put to sleep, or charmed because Will of the Forsaken can remove theses effects. The tauren is an excellent choice for a warrior tank because of the 5% base health increase, as well as the war stomp makes it nice in PvP being able to throw an extra stun out there.

Which talent spec should I choose as a Warrior?

The three different talent specializations for the warrior is Arms, Fury, and Protection. Fury is the DPS spec, protection being the tanking spec, and the arms spec being a little of both as well as decent PvP spec. So I’ll start out with the Arms spec, as I said before it’s a little mix between protection and fury. The Strength of Arms talent will increases your total strength and stamina by 2/4% as well as your expertise by 2/4. The sudden death talent is a very fun one, it allows your melee hits to have a chance to allow the use of your Execute ability regardless of your opponents health and only uses a maximum of 30 rage. The Endless rage talent will also generate 25% more rage from damage you deal. The last talent you learn in arms is Bladestorm which performs a whirlwind every 1 sec for the next 6 sec. During Bladestorm you are able to move but cannot use any other abilities, and you are immune to all crowd-control effects (stun, fear, root, snare, polymorph, incapacitate, horror).

Next I will discuss the fury specialization which is a great DPS spec and can be used in PvP as well. A talent you learn early on is Dual Wield Specialization which will increase the damage done by your offhand weapons by 5/10/15/20/25%. Another good talent you can learn is Flurry which will increase attack speed by 5/10/15/20/25% after dealing a critical hit. Intensify Rage will deacrease the cooldown on Bloodrage, Berserker Rage, Recklessness, and Death Wish by 11/22/33%. Unending Fury will increase the damage you do with Slam, Whirlwind, and Bloodthirst by 2/4/6/8/10%. The last talent you will learn as Fury is one of the main reasons anyone specs into fury and that is Titan’s Grip which will allow you to equip two-handed swords, maces, or axes in each hand.

The last talent specialization I’ll talk about is Protection which is the ideal tanking spec. Currently I am leveling a protection warrior and it makes leveling pretty fun and easy. Early on you learn an ability called Last Stand which when activated grants 30% of maximum hit points for 20 seconds but after it expires the hit points are lost, this is really useful in tough situations where you are running out of health and healers cant get enough heals off (this is learned after just 10 protection points so can be learned with other specs as well) some great tanking talents learned in protection exist as well, Toughness will increase the armor gained from items by 2/4/6/8/10% and the Shield Mastery will increase your block value by 15/30% as welll as reduce the cooldown of Shield Block ability by 10/20 seconds. You will also learn Concussion Blow which will stun your opponent for 5 seconds and deal a decent amount of damge that is based on your attack power. Sword and Board is an awesome ability which increases the critical strike chance of Devastate and gives your Revenge and Devastate hits a chance to complete the cooldown of Shield Slam and make your next Shield Slam cost no rage. Shockwave is the last talent you will learn and it is an ability that sends a shockwave in front of you dealing damage to all enemies 10 yards in front of you and stunning them for four seconds.

What stats are important for a Warrior?

The stats you want to have as a warrior depend on whether or not you want to be a tank, dps, or pvp warrior. As a tank you will want (like any other tank) to have a lot of dodge and defense as well as stamina and agility. As a DPS warrior you want a lot of strength agility and some stamina as well as attack power, critical strike rating, haste, and of course being hit capped as like any other DPS specialized class. As PvP you will want a lot of stamina, strength, agility, and of course resilience as well as Attack Power and Critical Strike Rating.

What Professions should I chosse as a Warrior

Well warriors do wear plate and especially tank warriors will have common high repair bills so you may want to pick up a gathering profession such as mining, herbalism, or skinning. Blacksmithing is nice to be able to create your own weapons to use as well as engineering always has some nice gear you can benefit from. I wouldn’t recommend enchanting as a warrior because it just isn’t really a warrior type of profession. Alchemy is good to be able to make your own potions and flasks which can be pretty important as a tank. But as with any class professions are mainly a personal preference and won’t have a major effect on how your character is played.