Warrior

Classes
Class races	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Ev	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Quests	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Abilities	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Trainers	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Armor sets	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Useful macros	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Class Halls	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior

For related articles, see Category:Warriors.

Warriors are melee fighters highly trained in the arts of weaponry. They are strong and quick on the battlefield. As such they can deal large amounts of damage; they are also capable of withstanding large amounts of damage to protect other party members. Warrior abilities depend on rage generation. This is different to all but one melee class, which is the druid; specifically a druid in bear form. Rage is generated through damage being dealt to and by the warrior and is capped at 100. Warriors have several talents capable of aiding rage generation.

Warriors can change between three combat stances: Battle Stance, Defensive Stance and Berserker Stance. Many abilities have a stance requirement. However, stances give the class a fluid play style allowing the player a variety of responses to any given PvE or PvP situation. Warriors can wear any type of armor; plate armour becomes available at level 40. They are able to use shields and can wield any weapon with the exception of wands and relics.

The primary warrior attributes are strength and stamina. Agility is also useful while levelling as critical strike rating on gear is rare until later levels. Warrior-oriented gear found towards end-game provides a wider range of attributes. Gear oriented specifically to damage dealing warriors may include critical strike rating, armor penetration or haste. Gear oriented to warrior tanks usually includes some combination of defense rating, block value, block rating, dodge rating or parry rating. Hit rating or expertise rating are also commonly found on gear and can be useful for warriors performing either role. It can be difficult to find rings or cloaks with the relevant attributes. As such warriors may improvise; for example, damage dealing warriors may seek "rogue" items that contain agility and attack power in place of elusive items containing strength.

Background

See also: List of warriors

As long as war is waged on Azeroth, there will be men and women who fight those wars. The warrior is no mere sword-swinger; they are skilled combatants, combining strength of arm, knowledge of weaponry and practiced maneuvers to slice or bludgeon their foes into little red bits. The warrior is the most versatile of the combat classes, and they supplement their fighting prowess with the ability to rally their allies and spur them to victory, but not only can they rally their allies into victory; they can themselves charge into the heart of the battle, take several lives and live to tell the tale. All races fight, and all races boast many warriors in their ranks. Warriors are common among dwarves, Forsaken, humans, and orcs, but are less so among the other races. Masters of swords, spears, and weapons of all kinds, warriors share a common way of life on Azeroth. Using their abilities to deal pain and cause bloodshed, warriors are deadly adversaries and welcome friends in violent times (which seem to be all the time in recent decades). Warriors have existed in every race, from the murlocs to the tauren. Anyone willing to take up arms to defend their people can be classed as a warrior. A knight is the warrior elite among humans.

Notable warriors

• Kargath Bladefist
• Cairne Bloodhoof
• Magni Bronzebeard
• Muradin Bronzebeard
• Orgrim Doomhammer
• Eitrigg
• Shandris Feathermoon
• Finnall Goldensword
• Garrosh Hellscream
• Grom Hellscream
• Sir Anduin Lothar
• High Tinker Mekkatorque
• Daelin Proudmoore
• Kur'talos Ravencrest
• Broxigar the Red
• Varok Saurfang
• Danath Trollbane
• Kurdran Wildhammer
• King Varian Wrynn

Races

Main article: Warrior races

The warrior class can be played by the following races:

Race		Strength	Agility	Stamina	Intellect	Spirit	Armor	Health
	Draenei	24	17	22	20	22	34	60
	Dwarf	28	16	23	19	19	32	70
	Gnome	18	22	22	24	20	44	60
	Human	23	20	22	20	20	40	60
	Night elf	19	24	22	20	20	48	60
	Worgen	26	22	22	16	19	?	?
	Blood elf	20	22	20	24	19	?	?
	Forsaken	22	18	22	18	25	36	60
	Goblin	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Orc	26	17	23	17	22	34	70
	Tauren	28	16	23	16	22	32	71
	Troll	24	22	22	16	21	44	60

Until the Cataclysm expansion comes out, blood elf players are the only race that cannot be warriors. Blood elf warriors are a standard class for blood elves in the RPG. Some blood elves become warriors (or scouts or hunters) — especially those seeking to be spell breakers, demon hunters, and rangers. Upon the release of Cataclysm, warriors will be the first non-hero class to be available to all races.

Racial advantages

• Humans: Increased expertise with swords and maces, two very popular warrior weapons. Perception passively gives the ability to detect stealthed units, which can be useful for those in PvP situations. Humans also gain the "racial PvP trinket" – Every Man for Himself – effectively freeing up a trinket slot which warriors might find more useful equipping the alternative PvP trinket which heals.

• Dwarves: [Stoneform] blocks poison and bleed damage, and increases armor by 10%. Both of these can be very useful in PvE fights. The addition Frost resistance is always useful. Increased expertise with maces provides additional threat generation when using them. Though warriors will not primarily be using guns as their main weapon, they can be useful for a pull, and Gun Specialization helps with this category. Lastly, warriors are notorious for their high repair bills. Treasure Finding can help alleviate some of this payment, though it is minimal at best.

• Gnomes: [Escape Artist] can be very useful, primarily in PvP situations, but also in PvE situations. Warriors being the prototypical tank often have to lead mobs and bosses away from the healers and ranged fighters, thus making Escape Artist very useful. Gnomes also benefit from increased Arcane resistance, which is always useful. Because of their small size, gnome warriors are useful in PvP environments, posing a difficulty to target. Inexperienced or careless opponents can be quickly hit by Hamstring, Thunder Clap, and Sunder Armor before they have any idea as to what happened.

Gnome Warrior

• Night elves: Quickness adds an extra layer of survivability to night elf warriors. The enhanced nature resistance is always nice. [Shadowmeld] provides an interesting element to night elves, who can stealth to avoid mob detection (more useful for solo play). In addition, in PvP settings, Shadowmeld can be devastating. Stealth, Charge, Hamstring, Thunder Clap, etc., and Ta-da! You just became a rogue in heavy armor! An additional bonus to Shadowmeld is the ability to temporarily drop threat in combat, and possibly even save your life (if you're the last person standing).

• Draenei: [Gift of the Naaru] reduces downtime for warriors who are soloing, and helps conserve the mana of the group. The extra shadow resistance is always welcomed. Heroic Presence can help Off tanks or the Main tank perform better, depending on what role you may be fulfilling. For a DPS warrior, Heroic Presence will also reduce the amount of gear you (and your party/raid) need to dedicate to reaching hit caps.

• Orcs: Axe Specialization increases expertise by 5 when wielding an axe. This is equal to 41 expertise rating, and reduces player's chance to be dodged/parried by 1.25%. Hardiness reduces stun duration, which can save a warrior in PvP settings, or save their group in PvE settings. [Blood Fury] increases either spell power or attack power, (depending on class) and scales with the players level. The formula for scaling attack power is [(level*4)+2]. The spell power formula is [(Level*2)+3]. This grants 322 AP or 163 spell power at level 80.

• Trolls: [Berserking] increases attack speed by 20% for 10 seconds, useful for all warriors and particularly DPS warriors. Regeneration can help keep you alive during PvP fights, or boss battles, and the increased healing can reduced down time for soloing players. The increased damage against beasts can be useful, since beasts are located almost everywhere in the world. [Da Voodoo Shuffle] reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 15% as well, and the less time you spend walking to something then the more time you spend hitting it.

• Undead: The increased shadow resistance is always useful, as is [Cannibalize], which can reduce down time while soloing, and save your healer's mana. The increased Underwater Breathing is also useful, especially when soloing, where a warrior might not have access to an alchemist or warlock. [Will of the Forsaken] is one of the best racials in game, and can be the difference between life and death in both PvP and PvE settings.

• Tauren: [War Stomp] is a useful form of crowd control. Endurance provides tauren with extra health, meaning tauren warriors can have the highest possible HP of any warrior tank. The additional nature resistance is always a plus.

Rage

Main article: Rage

By default, a warrior's rage bar is empty. Warriors can gain rage by being struck in combat, dealing damage, drinking rage potions, or using certain abilities. Most of their abilities require a certain amount of rage in order to be activated - this makes rage the warrior's equivalent of mana. When a warrior exits combat, any left-over rage slowly decays until the bar returns to empty. The rate at which rage decays can be controlled through talents. A warrior's rage bar will drop to 0 immediately if they switch their stance. At level 20, the passive ability [Stance Mastery] allows them to retain 10 rage through a stance change, and the [Tactical Mastery] talent increases this by 5 rage per rank up to a maximum of 25 rage.

Warriors need to be in combat or use a rage-generating ability to generate rage. The longer the battle, the more rage a warrior can accumulate. This often leads the warrior to the strategy of "filling up" their rage bar on a weaker foe before moving on to a more powerful enemy. A warrior with a full rage bar can quickly unload a large amount of damage.

Stances

Main article: Stance

A tauren warrior in art.

The warrior has different stances for different situations. Which stance to use will also be determined by the warrior's talents.

• [Battle Stance]: The standard starting stance for all warriors. A balance of offensive and defensive abilities (-20% Threat Generated) and also increases Armor Penetration by 10%.
• [Defensive Stance]: As it suggests, more defensive oriented and fewer offensive damaging moves. Best used when playing in the main tank role (-10% Damage Received, -5% Damage Inflicted, +45% Threat Generated).
• [Berserker Stance]: All out attack with little regard to the warrior's own health. Best used when somebody else is tanking and you need full-on DPS (+3% Crit, +5% Damage Received, -20% threat Generated).

Some warrior abilities are not available based on which stance you are in, so choose wisely! Remember that your rage is reduced to 10 whenever switching stances unless you have Tactical Mastery.

Abilities

Main article: Warrior abilities

The warrior has various abilities, which are typically limited to certain stances.

• In Defensive Stance, the warrior can use abilities such as [Revenge] and Taunt. These abilities are useful for keeping aggro.
• In Battle Stance, the warrior can use a balanced array of abilities. [Mocking Blow] temporarily redirects threat to the warrior, while [Overpower] and [Retaliation] are useful for dealing damage. Some abilities usable in Defensive and Berserker Stances are also usable in Battle Stance.
• In Berserker Stance, the warrior is focused on maximizing damage potential with abilities such as [Berserker Rage] and [Recklessness].

How stats affect the warrior

(Original can be seen at WoW: World of Warriors)

Normal stats

Stat	Affect
Strength	Increases the warrior's Attack Power, thereby increasing the warrior's damage. Strength also increases the damage that a warrior can block with his shield. 1 Strength = 2 Attack Power 2 Strength = 1 Block Value The protection talent Vitality, when maxed, increases strength by 6%. The arms talent [Strength of Arms], when maxed, increases strength by 4%. The fury talent [Improved Berserker Stance], when maxed, increases strength by 20% while in [Berserker Stance].
Stamina	Increases health points. This is critical for warriors due to their melee range restriction and inability to significantly heal themselves while dealing damage, as well as to absorb the large amounts of damage mobs will try and cause against a party while tanking. 1 stamina = 10 health The protection talent Vitality, when maxed, increases stamina by 6%. The arms talent [Strength of Arms], when maxed, increases stamina by 4%.

Mitigation and avoidance stats

Stat	Affect
Armor	Armor augments a character's health to a higher number (if the armor is positive), which represents the amount of physical damage a player can withstand. For instance, a character with 5000 health and 50% armor would be able to absorb 10000 damage before dying.
Defense	Defense rating reduces the chance to be critically hit by attacks from PvE mobs. At the lvl 80 defense cap, you will effectively reduce this chance to 0%. Defense Rating also increases your chance to Dodge, Parry or Block.
Dodge	The warrior moves out of the way of the enemy's attack, and takes no damage from it. It is extremely useful to have a trinket which increases dodge rating for a short time to help healers keep up with healing. (If you're not getting hit, you don't need heals.) A warrior can only dodge frontal attacks. Attacks from behind cannot be dodged.
Parry	The warrior parries the enemy's attack and takes no damage from it. Parrying attacks increases the warrior's melee haste rating, causing him to hit faster than normal. A warrior can only parry frontal attacks. Attacks from behind cannot be parried.
Block Rating	The warrior raises his shield and blocks the enemy's attack. Block rating increases a warrior's % chance to block. Unlike dodge and parry, blocking an attack only reduces the amount of damage done to the warrior. A warrior can only block frontal attacks. Attacks from behind cannot be blocked.
Block Value	The amount of damage a Block reduces depends on the block value of your shield, any enchantments, talents and strength. Damage reduced by blocking is calculated after other damage reducing factors, such as armor, which increases the effectiveness of blocking. In addition, block value increases the damage dealt by shield slam.

DPS/ Threat boosters

Stat	Affect
Hit Rating	Increases the chance for the warrior to hit his enemy. Hit rating requires 32.79 per 1% of hit for physical damage. Raid bosses require an additional 8% chance to hit for you to never miss.
Expertise	At level 80, every 8.2 points of expertise rating grants one point of expertise. One point of expertise decreases the chance that melee attacks made by the warrior will be dodged or parried by 0.25%. This stat is useful for tank and DPS warriors. When a warrior tank is parried, it may trigger a boss to begin to swing faster, causing burst damage. Raid bosses have a 6.5% chance to dodge your attacks, and approximately 15% chance to parry (varies).
Crit Rating	Increases the chance for the warrior to critically strike his enemy, dealing double damage. At level 80, 45.91 Critical Strike Rating is required to gain 1% melee crit chance.
Armor Penetration	Reduces the effective armor of the warrior's target, increasing all direct physical damage (excluding Bleed damage) done by the warrior to his target. At level 80, 12.31 points of Armor Penetration Rating are required to reduce the target's armor by approximately 1%, subject to a normalizing formula.
Haste	Increases the autoattack speed of the warrior. More commonly used by fury warriors to improve their rage generation. This stat is largely panned by arms warriors as very little of their damage comes from their auto-attack. At level 80, a warrior requires 32.79 Haste Rating to gain a 1% increase in attack speed.

Talents

Warrior talents are split into three trees: arms, fury, and protection.

Arms

• Specialties: Strong bleeding skills, high burst damage with a two handed weapon. Able to execute at any time with [Sudden Death]. Can reduce healing on enemies with [Mortal Strike].
• Strengths: High rage gain ( [Endless Rage]) and rage efficiency skills ( [Overpower]). Access to [Tactical Mastery].
• Weaknesses: At a disadvantage on fights that require constant movement due to the cast time on Slam. Must be played with skill and a fast reaction time to successfully compete with other damage dealers.

The arms tree consists of abilities which focus on slow two-handed burst coupled with heavy bleeding damage to better effect. The arms talent tree is capped by the [Bladestorm] ability, which when activated, whirlwinds every second for 6 seconds and causes the warrior to become unstoppable, unless killed, for the duration. Due to almost every arms skill being based on weapon damage, such as [Rend], [Overpower], [Deep Wounds] and [Mortal Strike], slow two-handed weapons are favored by almost every arms warrior to maximize effect. Bleeding skills are enhanced as well with the talent  [Trauma] and [Taste for Blood] allows Rend to open up opportunities to use Overpower regardless of whether the the target dodged your attacks.

Fury

• Specialties: Powerful sustained damage and can regenerate with [Bloodthirst] and [Blood Craze]. Can passively reduce healing on enemies with [Furious Attacks]. Able to wield two 2handers with [Titan's Grip].
• Strengths: Powerful sustained damage with dual wielding and capable to do high burst damage with [Bloodsurge] and [Bloodthirst].
• Weaknesses: More fragile than the other specs, taking in more damage with [Berserker Stance] and relying on two weapons to perform at best, forsaking the use of a shield save for highly situational times.

The fury tree bolsters the use of dual wielding (but does not limit the warrior in any way), to dish out the highest damage that the warrior is very capable of. Critical strikes allow the fury warrior to [Flurry], while the attacks they use most have a chance of proccing [Bloodsurge], throwing in high [Slam] burst damage with their already high sustained damage. While the cost to uphold this kind of damage taxes on rage heavily, dual wielding solves the problem. With the final talent, [Titan's Grip], the warrior is able to dual wield two 2-hand weapons, greatly increasing rage gain in bursts, allowing the warrior the needed rage.

In the past, going too deep in the fury tree was undesired for PvP due to its lack of "mortal strike healing debuff", but as of patch 3.0.0, the fury tree gained [Furious Attacks], which applies the needed healing debuff.

Protection

• Specialties: Access to many stuns [Concussion Blow]/ [Improved Revenge]/ [Shockwave], able to use [Charge] and [Intercept] in any stance and in combat with [Warbringer]. THE tank spec proficient at both AoE tanking (Damage Shield) and singular tanking.
• Strengths: All-new powerful damage that was unheard of before Patch 3.0.0, making the shield not just a defensive tool, but a powerful offensive one as well. Able to take very high amounts of damage and dishing high amounts back.
• Weaknesses: Technically rage-starved if not being hit, though speccing deep in protection allows you to make your hits crit more often, still allowing you to burst damage without rage ( [Sword and Board]). No healing debuff. Damage output very limited when not the focus of enemy attacks, due to key abilities dependent fully or partially on blocking (i.e. [Revenge], [Sword and Board].)

Tanking has been redefined by Blizzard, and so the protection tree likely got the biggest change (for the better) in comparison to the other trees.

The protection tree features the traditional one-handed weapon + shield combination with talents to improve its use. It is likely that one would think the overall damage is lower due to not using a "powerful two-hander" or "dual-wielding two weapons". But when facing a protection warrior, they need to consider the shield as well. With it protection warriors could absolutely crush anyone foolish enough to attack him/her in melee, and use it to harass and silence casters. Protection warriors now scale with attack power more so than they did in the past, causing them to do much more damage. The protection tree boosts overall survivability, but also offense with the kind of tools that prot warriors use, namely the one handed weapon and shield. And with that new offense comes higher aggro buildup, making them threat machines.

Pre Patch 3.0.0, protection warriors were almost never considered for PvP due to their lack of damage, utility against players, and lack of everything that PvP stood for, but now they return with a new style. Still lacking a healing debuff, protection warriors now focus on stunning, crippling and harrassing with their new high mobility talent, Warbringer.

Blizzard's talent calculator can be found here.[1]

Wrath of the Lich King changes

Spells

Battle Shout and Commanding Shout will affect the raid, not just the party.

Talents

• [Titan's Grip] is a new fury talent and allows warriors to wield a two-hand weapon in one hand, thereby allowing two-handed dual wielding.
• Protection warriors have a new spell called [Shockwave] allowing them to damage and stun all the enemies in front of them.
• [Bladestorm] is a new arms talent whirlwinding 4 enemies in range every 1 second for 6 seconds.

Protection

Blizzard improved the protection spec so that it is more viable outside of tanking by increasing damage, with improvements to all damaging abilities, including [Concussion Blow]. Shield Slam will also be available to all warriors now.

Underpowered debate

A lot of players have complained that the warrior is severely underpowered when compared to other classes, specifically Retribution Paladins and Death Knights. Most noteably, is their rage gain. It has been proven that rage per swing with a Two Handed Weapon differes greatly depending on gear, Armor Penetration rating, and weapon quality.

The warrior's lack of healing, aside from the Last Stand/Enraged Regeneration combo, also puts it at a disadvantage to many other class, especially paladins. Warriors have also been shown to be out-damaged by almost every other class.

But warriors have had their advantages over other classes as well. The warrior's extended immune to [Fear] and Stun effects (apart from a Paladins "Bubbles" and a Frost specced Death Knights Lichborne abilites) and their uncanny ability to cut down healing have made them a fury in PVP when played properly. If a warrior can get in melee range of a Ranged DPS class, there is very little stopping them from cutting down their health, aside from Snare effects.

See also

Dwarven warrior

• Warrior twinking guide for details on making a warrior twink.
• Warrior instance grouping guide for tips in Instances.

Note

• In the Warcraft RPG, warrior and fighter were separate classes. Warrior was an NPC class, while fighter was a core class. In the World of Warcraft RPG, the old warrior class was replaced with the soldier class, while fighter was replaced with a new warrior class for gameplay purposes.Template:Cite

External links

Wikipedia 

• Tanking Tips Tankingtips.com is a great resource for information on warrior tanking.
• TankSpot Tankspot.com is pretty much "the" website for warrior tanking information and resources.
• Warrior Guides For advanced warrior topics (although some parts are outdated)