The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[WoW-Warriors] Blizzard's perfect class. Envy us.
JustinSane07
Really, stupid?Brockton__BANNED USERS regular
Really, stupid?Brockton__BANNED USERS regular
"Given enough time, any man may master the physical. With enough knowledge, any man may become wise. It is the true warrior who can master both....and surpass the result." - Tien T'ai
This is the new Warrior thread. Same as the old one. Things haven't changed much for us. Very minor changes since 3.0. We're pretty much the untouchable class.
Last Updated 11/16/2009
Prot
Specs
Impale and Deep Wounds - Highest Threat Generation Spec
No Deep Wounds - Highest Avoidance Spec
Shield Wall Spec - For those fights when a 2 minute Shield Wall will save your ass.
Gearing
Prot gearing is relatively simple. Your number one goal is a defense of 540. This makes you uncrittable to raid bosses. Your second goal is 26 expertise. At 26 expertise, your attacks become dodge capped and it lowers the amount you are parried. Past 26 expertise, both Hit and Expertise offer the same amount un-boss-avoidance (seriously need a word for that). All three stats I mentioned are harder to get on early gear (ilevel 200 or less) but you'll be drowning in all 3 stats in higher gear levels (ToC/Uld). Beyond that, Stamina is your next most important stat. It's your health bar. Unfortunately WoW is suffering from discrimination in tanking. A lot of people won't take a tank with less than 30k hp, which is easy for Druids, DKs and Pallies to reach but much harder for Warriors. I do not recommend gemming/enchanting for stamina over defense if you're below 540 but if you find yourself dealing with a lot of dicks about your HP, you may have to. Also, as a last tip, don't gem for dodge, parry or block. Your avoidance will come with your gear.
Fury
Specs
Standard 18/53/0 spec - Points in Booming Voice, Commanding Presence, Weapon Mastery, and Heroic Fury are swing points. I recommend points in Cleave instead of Weapon Mastery and Heroic Fury.
Gearing
Two handers. Two handers. Two handers. Obviously Titan's Grip means you want two handers. Gearing for Fury is relatively easy. Because of your talents, you only need 5% hit to be special capped. 4% if you're a space cow (or raid with one frequently). Beyond that, hit will help your white hits but it shouldn't be prioritized for. 26 expertise is again needed to be dodged capped, a key when you have a offhand. Beyond that, you lower the amount of parries you deal with but it's not a bigger boost. The other three main stats for Fury are Crit, Strength and Armor Penetration. You want to aim for roughly 55% ArP if you have a Grim Toll or Mjolnir Runestone. Strength increases your AP by a lot because of the Imp. Berserker Stance talent and Crit, is well, it's Crit. You can't ever crit too much. Your biggest DPS increase will always be your weapons though. Jumping from a 226 to a 245 weapon will always be worth it, no matter what stats are on there. Except for speed, slower weapons are better.
Arms
Specs
Starter PVE DPS
Incite Build for higher gear levels
Gearing
Now I'm a bit biased because I'm an Arms warrior when I DPS, but I think Arms is the most complicated of the three Warrior specs. The main DPS stat is Armor Penetration. 100% is the goal, no joke. This is really tough to reach at lower gear levels and will require you dropping into Mail* and Leather to achieve it. At ToC/Uld levels, you can achieve this much easier. 2 pc Tier 9 is your best friend (6% ArP) and Banner of Victory (another 6% ArP) should be your first epic trinket. Arms Warriors need 8% hit because we lack the talent and other wise build up Crit and AP. Strength is less important for than it is for Fury, but AP is what is needed. Expertise is an odd stat for Arms, if an Arms Warrior gets dodged, it procs Overpower. Yes it will suck to lose that previous hit, but 30% crit, Overpower has an 80% crit chance. It's a guaranteed Crit practically, which keeps Deep Wounds rolling. New thoughts seem to be not to actively gear for Expertise, but if it comes your way, don't deny it. It's low on the priority list. As far as weapons go, Arms Warriors look for 2 Handed Axes and Polearms. Poleaxe spec is the best but if you're using a 200 Axe and a 245 Mace becomes available, don't be stupid and pass it up. Take it. You can always get a Justicebringer or Archon Glaive later.
*-Mail gear has Int, so I know what you're thinking, but Int is budgeted out of Stamina. So you're not losing anything.
Other
Solo Old Content
So this spec was brought to my memory again. Basically what the spec does is allow you to have Bloodthirst so you can solo older content much easier. Level 70 heroics, Level 60 raids, etc. Floater points in Fury are Unbridled Wrath and 1/2 Imp. Intercept. Blood Craze, Enrage and Dual Wield Spec are worthless though. You'll be wearing 540 defense so you won't ever proc Blood Craze and Enrage is better handled for 2 points in the Prot tree. You'll be Sword & Boarding for this spec so no need for Dual Wield Spec. The Prot tree gives you many of the good lower tier Prot talents. The floater points are Imp Spell Reflect. Other suggestions are Imp. Disciplines or Imp. Bloodrage. You still need to maintain 540 defense because bosses are still Skull level, but mixing in as much DPS gear as possible would help your kill speed. I've personally used this spec to solo level 60 Onyxia.
Leveling
So what spec is best to level with? The nice thing about Warriors is that all three specs are viable to level with. Senshi summed this up pretty well, I think.
Well, all specs have their advantages. It's basically
do you enjoy large swords? Arms.
do you enjoy zero downtime? Fury.
do you enjoy pulling all the mobs for the quest at once? Several times over, maybe? Prot.
and another one for fun: do you enjoy steamrolling low-level battlegrounds? Prot.
Mods
Rating Buster - Converts all those pesky values into percentages so you know where you stand. It also compares what you're wearing to whatever you mouse over. Great mod.
Useful Websites
Elitist Jerks Warrior Subforum - http://elitistjerks.com/f81/
Tankspot - http://www.tankspot.com
JustinSane07 on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
I fear that I have something to apologize for.
I just remember you being a bit too serious about the game sometimes heh.
Also, you remember me being a bit too serious? Surely you jest.
If you remember Drak he took a big quit for a while though, dunno if he's come back or not.
Justin, here's the Arms PVE spec I'm currently using. It is pretty standard I think.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LhbGbfIt00bRdGuioGx00xb:msqz0M
Improved Execute build. Use this one if you're just getting started.
Incite build. May require a slightly higher gear level, as it relies on good rage generation.
It has glyphs in, too! Swing points can be put where they're needed (Imp. Execute, Improved Bloodrage, Heroic Fury, Furious Attacks, or Improved Intercept)
Glyph of Execute can be switched to glyph of Cleave if you're mainly doing heroics or just want to look good on meters.
I also have 37 expertise, wtb gloves off anub and a new ring.
I'm dead serious."
It all depends on whether or not it's an MT or an OT, doesn't it? The more frequent cooldowns is great for the MT, whereas the extra AoE threat is great for an OT. Shit, I dunno.
HALP
Rather than bloodrage I'd take glyph of thunderclap, to help combat mobs being stupid with their positioning.
The last major glyph for prot largely depends on what your warrior mainly tanks. Raids? Shield wall is a good idea. Heroics? Glyph of Cleave will go a long, long way toward holding shit off trigger-happy AoE DPS. Revenge is always a good glyph, too. Don't get Resonating Power, since 5 rage off thunderclap is insanely significant while tanking elites of any sort.
Major: Blocking, Shield Wall, Last Stand
Minor: Thunder Clap, Charge, Commanding Shout
When I was farming heroics constantly and my gear wasn't as good I ran blocking/devastate/cleave, but now my focus is hard modes so I switched to shield wall and last stand for 2 minute CDs.
It's so little damage, though, if it makes the difference between life and death then the Bloodrage wasnt the problem anyway. A mob being just outside of your TC and gibbing your healer is a much bigger concern to me really.
Edit: And for hard mode/progression shit, you pretty much have to glyph for the shorter cooldowns and be dependent on them.
Well how much damage reduction is the armor on the shield?
Of course, Paladins are the bake everything in tank. Attack speed slow, AP debuff, it all gets baked into abilities they already use, so I don't know why it would make any more sense for Warriors to have it easy in the CD department.
Does Frost Presence also account for Defensive Stance?
edit: I can understand why someone would feel squishier as a DK. Having a shield helps you feel like you can handle more then not having a shield. I also know that Blizzard tries to compensate for it with various skills and abilities.
The damage bloodrage does is pretty insignificant. 1300 isn't going to be your margin of survival against bosses that hit for 10k+, and if it is, you should know better than to bloodrage while at low health. Rage for heroic strikes, between focused rage, improve heroic strike, and getting a full rage bar every time you're smacked, is pretty much a nonissue.
Finesse matters little when mob pathing is being retarded, I think. I've had mobs walk through me to stand behind me and attack, after pulling them, so many times that I'm going to do everything I can to prop up my lackluster AoE threat's area.
I'm running into this CONSTANTLY. I don't feel like it's realm lag or anything, since I'm typically 20-30ms latency. I'll have something in front of me, and it'll do whatever it can to get behind me. May be a bug from the patch that made pets do that? It's doubtful since it doesn't happen every time, but annoying as hell. Groups yell at me to stop moving the boss/mobs around... but I'm not as effective when I'm completely surrounded.
On typical packs of mobs, I solve this by backpeddling until they're all in front, then Shockwave to stun them in place while I stand where I want.
I wonder if it's a global issue or if I'm just spectacularly unlucky
I have found this happening to me as well, what tends to help me is letting the mobs settle and then tapping my key to step back a tiny bit. I couldn't give you a theory about why it is happening except that it reminds me of some of the wierd stuff that would happen when I would charge at a mob that was running towards me.
I really don't have a clue how mobs walking behind you presents issues for your Thunderclap range, either.
I am, however, primarily a heroic tank, I only tank raids when it's absolutely necessary, since I really dislike warrior tanking. The only reason I tank heroics as often as I do is because I don't feel like waiting in LFG for an hour and a half with the other 30 DPS in the system
But we also have really good rogues and hunters in my guild.