Warrior Basics

It’s very important for any class to set a right foot forward when they begin the game. Race and class are very important decisions and that’s not different with the Warrior. As a matter of a fact, race selection with the Warrior class changes the playstyle dramatically!

Be sure to check out our Warrior forum if you ever have any questions about your Warrior  or have something to add to this guide!

The Warrior class is an outright melee class. Their only ranged attack is from a gun or other form of ranged slot weaponary. Their skillset allows them to charge in, snare, and beat down their enemies. They also get the ability to equip a shield and one-handed weapon in order to take large amounts of damage from very powerful enemies. Truly, the Warrior class is extremly flexiable when it comes to anything melee.

• Warriors deal impressive damage with duel wield (double weapons), two handed weapons, or even with just a weapon in one hand and a shield in another.
• Warriors with the right equipment are able to tank very powerful enemies that would normally one hit other players.
• Warriors can close the distance between them and an enemy in a flash, making them very powerful against fleeing enemies.
• Warriors get to use Plate at level 40 which lets them wear some of the most defensive armor in the game.
• Warriors can be crowd controlled easily, a snare, root, or other similar effect can remove a Warrior from battle. With their lack of any decent ranged offense, if they can't get near the enemy them then they can't attack.

In a quick summary, you could say the Warrior is the master of defensive and offensive fighting

Picking a race as a Warrior can be really tough. There are a lot of good choices that can change how your Warrior performs! Remember, it’s your character and you will be spending a lot of time with it, so make the choice by what you want. If you like a visually appealing (to you) race over one that seems “better”, then go for it.

Alliance

Dwarves: Cold resistance can help the Dwarf warrior resist chill effects. Stoneform can really help Dwarves survival rate while they tank high damage mobs. Small size - Dwarves can manouver around in PVP a lot easier than other races due to their smaller stature, to the point where it can affect opponents even clicking on you.

Gnomes: Escape Artist ability is useful vs NPCs that use a snare or root, and even more effective in PVP when mages use frost nova. Arcane resistance helps Gnome warriors survive Arcane Explosion in PvP. Technologist allows Gnomes to use Engineering devices sooner. Tiny size - Gnomes can easily hide behind others; and have the great reputation of frustrating PvP opponents, to the point of them stoping what they are doing to come and kill you.

Humans: Spirit bonus gives the warrior faster HP regeneration, and helps the Blood Craze talent. Sword and Mace Specialization make the Human warriors more effective with those weapons. Have the best looking frame in which armour can be viewed on.

Night Elves: Shadowmeld can allow the warrior time to eat undisturbed, prevent ganking, as well as to set up ambushes. Quickness helps the warrior avoid melee damage by dodging. Wisp Spirit shortens corpse run times for the warrior. Nature resistance reduces the effects of nature attacks. These include lightning and poison. Are the most intimidating and largest of the Alliance's Warriors, and like Tauren, comes an air of respect and fear.

Draenei (Burning Crusade): Self heal and passive to-hit makes a great Warrior!

Horde

Orcs: Blood Fury is great to increase your damage output, at the loss of your health. Make sure to have a healer or a potion on standbye when using this ability. Resistance to stun and knockout is great for any type of combat, and in higher levels, becomes invaluble in fights against rogues, or stun effect using mobs. Orcs are able to use axes more effectively with Axe Specialization, which complements an axe, Fury specced Warrior very well.

Tauren: War Stomp is great for all combat, especially PvP, and to healers a break in a time of need when there is a large mob rush. Tauren warriors can have the most hit points of all classes. Nature resistance reduces the effects of nature attacks. These include lightning and poison. Large size can be difficult to see around, but easily selected. The most Intimidating Warrior toon in the game. With such large size, people not only listen to you more, they also fear you!

Trolls: Berserking can help the Troll emerge victorious by increasing it's attack speed when severly injured. This ability is extremely effective in later levels, as your damage dealing abilities increase, the chances of you comming out of a close fight increase also. Regeneration in combat helps Trolls to outlast opponents and can give your party healers a break.

Undead: Will of the Forsaken is considered the best racial ability for PvP, making them immune to fear, sleep and charms. Cannibalize helps reduce downtime by eating nearbye corpses to regenerate health. Underwater Breathing makes underwater combat a lot easier, as well as most underwater quests - less need to surface for air. Shadow resistance helps the Undead survive certain priest and warlock attacks.

If you need additional help in leveling up or finding places to level then see these other extremely helpful resources that should aid in getting you started:

• Making Money Guide
• Alliance 1-60 Guide / Horde 1-60 Guide
• PvP Survival
• City and Starting Region Guides
• Weapons Guide
• Where to Adventure
• Must Know WoW Tips

• Herbalism and Alchemy
  A great combo, potions are very helpful for a Warrior.
• Mining and Blacksmithing
  It's best to avoid this combo until after 40, but you can make at level 70 some really nice self only weapons!
• Mining and Engineering
  Engineering is mostly useful for Warriors who want to PvP.
• Skinning and Leatherworking
  Better to just take up to gathering skills, since the Warrior shouldn't be wearing Leather and by the time you can make Mail you're at 40.
• Mining & Skinning or Herbalism & Skinning
  A combination of gathering skills is often times the best choice when starting out. Selling everything you gather on the Auction House can create enough money to fund new armor, weapons, and even a mount! This is the BEST way to go before level forty! At level forty you can drop the second tradeskill and match it with one you like.
• Talioring & Enchanting
  Decent choices, although Enchanting is costly to raise and Talioring provides little for the Warrior to use himself.

Rage is like Energy to Rouges and Mana to to casters. Rage is used by many Warrior abilities to activate. It remains at 0 and as you take hits and do damage it increases. Rage naturally decreases by 3 rage every 3 seconds, so out of combat your rage will slowly end.

Rage is gained through two ways, being hit or hitting something else. Bloodrage, Unbridled Wrath, Anger Management, and Berserker Rage are all skills that increase rage as well. The amount of damage done or taken along with your level are used to determine how much rage you get. This is why fighting bosses you will usually find a near limitless source of rage while fighting enemies who deal little damage to you or you do little damage to them can be difficult to generate rage with.

Warriors rely on many statistics, the primary ones though are Stamina, Strength and Agility. Spirit is argued by some to have a use in later levels for Warriors, but is generally ignored on the basis that health regeneration is next to meaningless when there are healers around. With most classes there are several different statistics with equal importance, but for warriors, it is a little different. During your primary leveling, Stamina comes out as the critical statistic for any stance, the more health points you have, the more hits you can take, the longer your party members live. Strength is a close second, for the extra DPS it can give your character. As you level higher, if you choose the Protecction spec, increased deffense skill and Stamina are crucial, though for Fury specc Warriors, Agility for extra critical %'s is most important for maximum damage. My recommendation though is to specialize in a few statistics that further the talent build that suits your personality, whether it is taking or doin damage.

Here's a breakdown of how a Warrior's most important stats impact your game:

Contributors past and present to this guide include: