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6.1 - Tactics + Techniques

Primary Early Warrior Technique

My primary early level technique with the Warrior depends really on what the fight is against in combination with what you have chosen to specialize in. Early level characters should really try and avoid fury and berserker stance, since this is primarily meant, and most of the abilities obtained in the higher levels, and at this stage, you cannot afford the extra damage you take. Players will often opt for the more reliable defensive or battle stance/ trees and will solo to 60 trying to better them self at their job. Though, in my honest opinion, battle stance with a good 2 handed weapon, or dual wielding is the best and fastest way to take down mobs, compared to the slow but safe grind of attacking with a 1 -hander and a shield. Make sure you have your battle and demoralizing shouts up for the best combat results, and if it is a higher level than you, sunder armor stacks work wonders. You have spell stoppers in pummel or shield bash, which can really help in fights against casters, remember, make sure to do it when you see their hands glow. Rend is great for long drawn out fights and heroic strikes are very important for getting in that extra damage. Hamstring humanoid mobs that run and can bring friends along, and DONT FORGET TO TAKE FIRST AID! With your massive hitpoints, recovery time can be a drag.

Aggro Management

The art of holding aggro, where to begin? By playing a Warrior, the biggest lesson to learn is how to keep mobs off your friends, and if you can't learn how to do that, practice until you can. Defensive stance is the best way to achieve complete aggro, and in it, the best abilities which cause high threat. Taunt is key, but can be overcome by heavy damage output by your party, so it is important how to use your character in the time it takes for the cool down to come off. Sunder armor is your best friend. This ability cause huge threat and makes the mob more vulnerable to your party's damage. Consider it a second taunt button and remember it takes 15 rage for a sunder and it stacks 5 times. In instance, never stop stacking until it hits 5 for secure aggro control. Other options you may ask? Revenge is a great high threat attack, as well as heroic strike, which add an extra bit of punch to your combat. You have an aoe effect taunt on a 10 minute timer, so be careful and use it sparingly, it is called challenging shout, and it can be the decider in a party wipe. Keep an eye on mobs, if they break from fighting other members and go after cloth, make sure you intervene and pick them up, get aggro and pull them away. Your someone the group looks for leadership, so don't disappoint.

Rage Management

Your play style will decide how you use your rage. I have seen the best of the best in DPS and Tank breeds of Warriors fight, and will tell you straight up that there is no right or wrong way to use your rage. Cautious tanks save their rage and spend it as new threats or mobs appear, and some use it up the second it appears to make sure they have complete aggro. DPS Warriors use it and gain it much faster than tanks, waiting and only using several abilities such as whirlwind and mortal strike. For some instance boss fights, when you see the target hit 40% health, you will save all your rage for the 100 rage execute at 20% health. Bloodrage and enrage will help you max out your rage in a fight, so try not to forget to use them when they finish off their cool down.

6.2 - Your U.I. Setup

Your setup will be based solely on how you are spec'ed. Since unlike most classes, your abilities can only be used in specific stances, so you have a lot of free room to maneuver for your setup. Just make sure that Stance-specific abilities aren't taking up space on stance bars they're not compatible with. Always have your important abilities on the top most bar, so while you change stances, they will never move on you. Have your extra weapons, and shield available on the top bar as well, so it is just a click away for a change if a situation occurs. ALWAYS have your information section near your portrait show you your exact hp count and rage count, for most Warriors know how to push their class to within 5 hp, and it is dire for them to always know exactly how many hp they have at all times.

6.2.1 - Warrior UI Mods

Here's a few addons I enjoy. New to mods? Head to the Ten Ton Hammer UI Mod / Addon FAQ for more info.

• Titan Panel, CTMod, and CT_RaidAssist - Warriors and every class can benefit from these general UI-enhancing mods.
• ItemRack - This mod lets you build unlimited "sets" of equipment, weapons, jewelry, etc. that your character may switch to with a click, keypress, or as part of a macro. A must-have for when you have to switch from a DPS to an MT role during a battle.
• Atlas - Being a tank means you'll be leading the party through the instance. Download Atlas to save yourself the embarrassment of getting the group lost!
• Scrolling Combat Text - Give you more detailed combat info on-screen (above characters' heads) as opposed to in a clunky combat log. Offers a visual reminder for the Execute ability - very handy.
• Warrior - includes a handy set of keybinding for things like changing stance and assisting the most wounded party member, as well as a number of useful slash commands. It's popularity is largely due to the auto-cast ability, which allows warriors to set a class of spells to be auto-casted with a keybinding if a certain rage threshold isn't exceded.
• Tank Analyse - Provides a number of stats on tanking. Not recently updated, but continues to work for me.
• The Ten Ton Hammer Quest Database Addon - I'd be remiss not to include this one! Help us build a bigger, better, gold ad-free WoW database.

6.2.2 - Macros

Warrior gameplay doesn't have the positional aspects of rogue combat nor the complexities of managing a hunter or warlock's pet, so most common scripted macros aren't helpful. The most essential ones are included with the Warrior addon, so I'd encourage most Warriors to start there.

I do enjoy keeping my "downtime and pulling abilities" (e.g. bandages, food / drink, ranged combat) on a seperate bar than my melee abilities. This macro will flip the hotbar to that particular hotbar page with a click:

 /script CURRENT_ACTIONBAR_PAGE = X; 
 /script ChangeActionBarPage(); 

Where X is replaced by skillbar number. The bar you start with is 1, using the 'down' button on the default UI will show you bar 2, the next is 3, etc. Paste it all in one macro, make a button, drag it to your non-melee hotbar, and you're good to go!

6.3 - 1 Hand vs. 2 Hand vs. Dual Wielding weapon debate

There is a huge debate on which is a better option for characters. To me it all comes down to character role. If you play a tank role then you should use a single-handed weapon and a shield. If you are aiming to do damage then a two handed weapons is the way to go, as well as dual wielding. One big factor with 1 handed vs. 2 handed weapons is that in general 1 handed weapons are significantly faster than 2 handed weapons. While their damage per hit may be significantly less, this is sometimes not the whole picture. Especially once you start playing with buffs and other damage bonuses. Any buffs or bonuses (like sharpening stones or weight stones) generate bigger bonuses on single-handed weapons due to generating additional hits with them. While you do not get the satisfaction of seeing huge damage numbers on the screen, you see more damage numbers come up more often. For dual wielding, you must remember that your off hand weapon does significantly less damage, and misses far more than your main hand weapon, so it is best to place a very fast weapon in that hand, for more chances to hit and deal damage, and a slower weapon in your main hand. You acquire the most rage when dual wielding.

The biggest factor and reason to use a big 2 handed weapon is that because they are slower they generally 'proc' at a higher percentage than faster weapons. Abilities 'proc' a specific number of times a minute, therefore the faster you swing the lower percentage chance per swing that the special affect with process. With a slower weapon there is more chance per swing that the effect will happen. Also many people use 2 handed weapons for PvP because they deal damage in huge bursts, crit for insane numbers, and when using instant abilities, can be absolutely devastating. There are many other factors that come into play and I will expand on these later.

Continue to the "Where to Adventure" Guide

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? We would love to hear from you! Please post in our Warrior Class guide forum, or email me at ethec@tentonhammer.com.