Skumball’s Warrior Q&A

Skumball’s Warrior Q&A

A few questions answered, and some thoughts on the Warrior class.

Contents:

• User Submitted Questions
• Frequently Asked Questions

Note: FAQ and Cataclysm changes will be incoming soon, I just haven’t had the time to put it all into this yet. It’s partly done, but partly is about as good as 0. Hence I’ve not included it yet 😛

For anyone looking for an answer to any question Warrior related, no matter the issue – this is for you! I’d like this to be a comprehensive Q&A on the Warrior class, and I’ll continually add to it so keep your questions coming – you can PM me to my inbox or write in the comments below 🙂

What I won’t go into right now, is detailed analysis of Cataclysm talent builds and rotations – we’re still in an ever changing Beta and even if all of that is set, the numbers still need tweaking and so we’re not at the optimal level to determine anything concrete yet. It’s planned for the furture though so don’t worry – either in here or another guide, it shall be done though.

User Submitted Questions

Phlegathon wrote:

Thanks for addressing this, it’s definitely a worthy topic, and the number of warrior guides (2!) compared to other classes is pretty startling. I’d appreciate a general approach to the whole subject. Here are a couple questions that come to me right off. With Cata coming out soon, it seems to make more sense to me to address general issues, versus gear / defense rating etc.
It used to be that Fury was the best way to level, but how does that compare to Arms now? What about PVP, I hear arms is way better, but why? Talent allocation, both leveling and end-game?
What about tanking as a warrior? What’s the priority of shield slam -> revenge -> devastate etc.? Best way to tank multiple mobs? What about talent allocation?

I know these are a lot of questions, but I thought you might appreciate some food for thought. The great thing about WoW-Pro is it’s an amazing resource for everything WoW. I really like that I can come here and usually get all the information in a logical and intuitive layout, but the warrior section is definitely lacking with that. I’d offer to help, but I just picked the game up after a long break, some I’m not really a credible source. Thanks for your work!

 

Indeed the Warrior section is lacking, but then if you look at the other classes sections – they are too in a different way. Alot of guides will become out of date upon the release of Cataclysm, and some are really too small and the information is just a repeat of another to be considered a guide. This isn’t all however, just some. But fear not, I have spoken to Jiyambi about this and there will be a resort of the out of date guides in the coming weeks to prepare for Cataclysm. The questions are appriciated, and I shall answer them below 🙂 And yes you’re right about WoW-Pro, it’s an amazing community full of people like yourself and I who come to seek knowledge and understanding, or to pass ours on to others. Answer time then…

To your first question, Fury is still widely considered the best way to level as the majority of your abilities are available pretty early on and as you progress and level, your newer abilities and talents buff the older ones and so it just gets better as you progress. I will say though it is entirely your own preference.

In my eyes the Arms tree gives the Arms spec it’s utility which obviously without it, it wouldn’t have, and so makes it great in both PvE and PvP. Arms is about developing your utility whereas Fury is more along the lines of focused damage. That’s not to say that Arms has no damage output (the damage can sometimes be above Fury), but the way I see the 2 specs is that Arms has alot more utility and so generally fares better in PvP over Fury. In a PvE context, both specs offer different ways to accomplish things. Arms is highly Bleed-damage orientated and getting the bleeds up to buff your parties and your own damage, whilst providing a fairly in-depth playstyle where you have to manage different abilities and cooldowns but a good solid damage output on your own abilities. Fury can buff your group through improved shouts, but the main focus here is charging in and hitting things, Hard. To me Arms is more the PvP spec because of the utility, and can be fun in a raid environment too due to the indepth playstyle. Fury as I see it is what a ‘typical’ fictional Warrior or Barbarian is… A raging behemoth on a rampage. Both specs do very similar damage however, so the choice is entirely yours and should be based on how you would like to get things done.

Onto the tanking side and the Prot spec, it is highly enjoyable to play and you can do an immense amount of damage and provide alot of utility if you can get to grips with the very indepth playstyle of it. I must however also put forward the arguement for Prot as a levelling spec. The damage and survivability is absolutely insane and you can go for days, I remember going for 4 hours continuous fighting as Prot once in 4-6mob AoE pulls. Total downtime was around 90 seconds. There are classes and specs that can do it better, but Prot is very, very fun! I highly recommend you give it a try.

Note: I did say I wouldn’t include a section like this yet, but seeing as the only major changes Prot’s are getting in Cataclysm are the addition of Rend and Victory Rush to the rotation, and these are purely speculative right now and based on personal usage and spec preference, then there won’t be much if any at all deviation from this in Cataclysm.

For tanking, the very basic rotation revolves around the talent Sword and Board, Shield Slam is your hardest hitting and highest threat-generating ability you have. You hit that as often as humanely pissible, and when you’re not able to hit it, you should be spamming Revenge and Devastate (Revenge if it’s available, Devastate if it’s not – Revenge gets priority as it produces more than double the threat of Devastate currently) to proc S&B. Obviously we have other abilities, but the basic fundamentals of the Warrior tanking system is based around Shield Slam and Sword and Board. You should also be popping Shield Block every single time it comes off cooldown, it’s a great utility for survival, but also the Block Value you gain from it makes your Shield Slam hit Alot harder. In a single target fight you should also throw in Shockwave and Concussive Blow as well whenever they are off cooldown – both generate a mass amount of threat and deal a tasty amount of damage too. Though you should prioritise your abilities in their threat list order, and whenever Shield Block is active you should purely concentrate on Sword and Board to the exclusion of your other abilities – Shield Slam hits like an entire army of freight trains, and mobs tend to get angry about that and want their revenge on you 😛 In short, you should follow this priority list and hit the first thing available to you:

• Shield Block
• Shield Slam
• Revenge
• Shockwave (if no active Shield Block, skip if so)
• Concussive Blow (if no active Shield Block, skip if so)
• Devastate
  

Heroic Strike every single attack once you are above 60 rage.

I haven’t included Thunderclap as it is crap in a single target fight, it is level on threat with Devastate just about but you want to hit Devastate for the S&B procs. This priority listing may change in Cataclysm slightly though, but as it’s still in an ever-changing Beta then nothing is final, and so I won’t go into it here.

For AoE tanking, replace your Heroic Strikes with Cleave. You should also include Thunderclap now as it’s threat in AoE pulls is pretty significant. The new priority should be as follows:

• Shield Block
• Shield Slam
• Shockwave
• Revenge
• Thunderclap
• Devastate
  

Also the talent Improved Revenge makes your Revenge hit another target, so more AoE threat and Damage, and the Glyph of Sunder Armour also applies it’s effect to the Sunder effect of Devastate – so even more AoE threat. I haven’t included Concussive Blow on this as in a multiple mob pull it’s not as good as a Sunder-glyphed Devastate. Tab-targetting between mobs should also be highly considered once you have the initial few seconds of the pull over with and have enough sustained threat on the main target to build up more AoE threat. Usually though the opening burst and sustained AoE threat is enough, but I recommend you practice your tab-targetting as you’re gonna have to put up with a trigger happy Mage or Warlock on an AoE frenzy at some point in your adventures.

WoWSnax wrote:

Heya skumball i recently leveled a warrior to 80, infact i dinged 80 2 day ago Smiling but i was just wondering now that im 80 how do i get gear, gold and all the other things you can do at 80 Puzzled so i was just wondering if you could help me!?

Firstly, congratz on dinging 80 🙂 To get gear the best way is to get a couple of crafted pieces – the Blacksmithing boots and bracers are a must, there are options for each spec and they are very highly rated if you can get the expensive high-end ones, if not then the lesser ones are still very good choices. You should also get yourself a good weapon. For a two-hander then Edge of Ruin from Trial of the Champion Heroic is a good starter, and there’s also Tyrannical Beheader from Pit of Saron Heroic and Rimefang’s Claw available for tanking from the same boss (Scourgelord Tyrannus), or Lucky Old Sun from Forge of Souls Normal. After that, you should be grinding the WotLK Heroic Dungeons in the Dungeon finder tool, the gear from the heroics is a good start, and the emblems you get can be exchaged for even better gear. For gear, grind the heroics and get the Blacksmith crafts.

As for gold and the rest of the things you can do at 80, there are way too many ways to obtain and achieve what you want that I could be here explaining for weeks and weeks the numerous ways. If you’re after a quick and easy way – daily quests are a good source of gold (I recommend the Argent Tournament ones especially), and the heroic grinding should get you a good amount of gold too.

Jiyambi wrote:

Tell me why I should level a warrior. My highest is level 20, and they seem interesting enough, but why should I level one instead of whatever other class I might be working on? What makes them so great?

It’s all down to personal choice Jiyambi. Do you like being a giant meat-wall-raging-behemoth smashing things to a pulp? If so then the Warrior class is the best choice for this. Though I would suggest try out a few different things and level abit more until you get the full feel for the class. Alot of people level to 20 and get bored of a class, but that is before the key abilities and major fun starts. Level up abit more and try out some random dungeons and BGs abit higher up to get a full taster of the experience. This applies to all classes though, you can’t get to level 20 and fully know what the class will be like. Obviously you have your own playstyle and preferences to consider, if you like damaging a mob from a distance, or providing the healing that groups so desperately need, then the Warrior is not for you. We can provide a couple of melee DPS playstyles to choose, or we can tank, and all 3 options are hugely enjoyable in my eyes. I personally find them to be the most enjoyable class because of the whole barbarian-meat-wall-raging-behemoth aspect, you charge in shouting and bellowing and hit things with huge weapons and do some crazy damage, which is a small nutshell description of the Warrior class, but by no means the only one. It’s why I find them enjoyable though and the reason I play one. I want to be Conan, I want to be Hercules, I want to be Thor. If you want to shoot fireballs at a mob, play a mage. If you want to get involved with the natural environment, then a Shaman or Druid is the choice.

Imagine an Alterac Valley, 40 vs 40, and both sides are all Warriors. Meet in the field of strife and charge. So Braveheart-esque, and so, oh-sooo EPIC. That is the Warrior to me. If you think that sounds fun, then I suggest give it a go 🙂

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Frequently Asked Questions

Content to come when I have time to update.

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As ever, comments and feedback are all greatly welcomed and appriciated 🙂 And also any further questions you have, feel free to ask them!

And remember you can always view my other posts and submissions to the community here: Skumball’s Junkbox

Peace Out!
-Skumball*

* Batteries not included
** Each sold seperately
*** May contain extreeeme traces of NUTS!