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(→‎Normal stats: Updated for current itemization and talent information. Also cleaned up redundancies and added links as appropriate)
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! [[Hit Rating]]
 
! [[Hit Rating]]
| Increases the chance for the warrior to hit his enemy. Hit rating is 32.79 per 1% of hit for physical damage. Raid bosses require an additional 8% chance to hit for you to never miss.
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| 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.
 
|- class="alt"
 
|- class="alt"
 
! [[Expertise]]
 
! [[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 12% chance to parry.
+
| 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).
  +
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  +
! [[Crit Rating]]
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| 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.
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|- class="alt"
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! [[Armor Penetration]]
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| 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.
  +
|-
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! [[Haste]]
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| 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 autoattack. At level 80, a Warrior requires 32.79 Haste Rating to gain a 1% increase in attack speed.
 
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Revision as of 05:30, 25 August 2009

Classes Deathknight Demon hunter Druid Evoker Hunter Mage Monk Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
Class races DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Quests DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Abilities DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Trainers DK DH Dr - Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Armor sets DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Useful macros DK DH Dr - Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Class Halls DK DH Dr - Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
For related articles, see Category:Warriors.

Warriors are the premiere melee tanking class in World of Warcraft. Unlike other melee classes, such as the energy using rogue, warrior abilities depend on their rage. Rage is generated through damage being dealt by (or to) the warrior, and is capped at 100. Warriors also have many talents that increase rage generated by different means.

Warriors have the ability to select from three combat stances, Ability warrior offensivestance [Battle Stance], Ability warrior defensivestance [Defensive Stance], and Ability racial avatar [Berserker Stance]. However, many abilities have a stance-requirement which gives a situational element to game-play, both in a PvE and PvP setting. Warriors can wear any type of armor (plate armor becomes available at level 40), are able to use shields, and can wield any weapon with the exception of wands, idols, sigils, totems, and librams.

The primary warrior attributes are strength and stamina. While leveling, Agility is also useful as Crit Rating is rare. Towards end-game, Warrior-oriented gear may also include Hit Rating, or Expertise Rating, with damage-oriented gear also potentially including Crit Rating, Armor Penetration, or Haste. Warrior-oriented tanking gear usually includes the primary attributes and some combination of Defense Rating, Block Value, Block Rating, Dodge Rating, or Parry Rating.

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).[1] 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 in lore

Races

The warrior class can be played by the following races:

Alliance Crest Alliance

Horde Crest Horde

Until Cataclysm expansion, blood elf players were the only race that could not 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.[2]

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: Inv gauntlets 03 [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: Ability rogue trip [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, Gnomes warriors are useful in PvP environments, since inexperienced or careless opponents can be quickly hit by Hamstring, Thunder Clap, and Sunder Armor before they have any idea as to what happened.
  • Night elves: Quickness adds an extra layer of survivability to night elf warriors. The enhanced nature resistance is always nice. Ability ambush [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: Spell holy holyprotection [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. Racial orc berserkerstrength [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: Racial troll berserk [Berserking] increases damage output, useful for all warriors and particularly DPS warriors. In addition, Beserking's effects are whatever your health was when you triggered it, so you can still be healed after you've used it. 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 Voodo 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.
  • Forsaken: The increased shadow resistance is always useful, as is Ability racial cannibalize [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. Spell shadow raisedead [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: Ability warstomp [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.

Starting attributes

File:HumanWarrior1.jpg

Male human warrior

Race Strength Agility Stamina Intellect Spirit Health
Human 23 20 22 20 21 60
Gnome 18 23 21 24 20 50
Dwarf 25 16 25 19 19 90
Night elf 20 25 21 20 20 50
Draenei Bc icon 24 17 21 21 22 50
Orc 26 17 24 17 23 80
Tauren 28 15 24 15 22 80
Troll 24 22 23 16 21 70
Undead 22 18 23 18 25 70

Rage

File:TaurenWarrior.jpg

Female tauren warrior

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 switches their stance. At level 20, the passive ability Spell nature enchantarmor [Stance Mastery] allows them to retain 10 rage through a stance change, and the Spell nature enchantarmor [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
ArtTaurenWarrior

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.

  • Ability warrior offensivestance [Battle Stance]: The standard starting stance for all Warriors. A balance of offensive and defensive abilities. (-20% Threat Generated) and as of 3.1 now also increases Armor Penetration by 10%.
  • Ability warrior defensivestance [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).
  • Ability racial avatar [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 Ability warrior revenge [Revenge] and Taunt. These abilities are useful for keeping aggro.
  • In Battle Stance, the warrior can use a balanced array of abilities. Ability warrior punishingblow [Mocking Blow] temporarily redirects threat to the Warrior, while Ability meleedamage [Overpower] and Ability demonhunter demonspikes2 [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 Spell nature ancestralguardian [Berserker Rage] and Warrior talent icon innerrage [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 Inv gauntlets 26 [Strength of Arms], when maxed, increases strength by 4%.

The Fury talent Ability racial avatar [Improved Berserker Stance], when maxed, increases strength by 20% while in Ability racial avatar [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 Points

The Protection talent Vitality, when maxed, increases stamina by 6%.

The Arms talent Inv gauntlets 26 [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.

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 autoattack. 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 Ability warrior improveddisciplines [Sudden Death]. Can reduce healing on enemies with Ability warrior savageblow [Mortal Strike].
  • Strengths: High rage gain (Ability warrior endlessrage [Endless Rage]) and rage efficiency skills (Ability meleedamage [Overpower]). Access to Spell nature enchantarmor [Tactical Mastery].
  • Weaknesses: No real weaknesses, but must be played with skill and be proficient with "stance-dancing" to be effective.

The Arms tree consists of abilities which focus on slow 2-hander burst coupled with heavy bleeding damage to better effect. The Arms talent tree is capped by the Ability warrior bladestorm [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 warrior skill arms-based, such as Ability gouge [Rend], Ability meleedamage [Overpower], Ability backstab [Deep Wounds] and Ability warrior savageblow [Mortal Strike] to name a few, slow two-handed weapons are favored by almost every arms warrior to maximize effect. Bleeding skills are enhanced as well with the talent Inv mace 118 [Trauma] and Ability druid ferociousbite [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 Spell nature bloodlust [Bloodthirst] and Spell shadow summonimp [Blood Craze]. Can passively reduce healing on enemies with Ability warrior furiousresolve [Furious Attacks]. Able to wield two 2handers with Ability warrior titansgrip [Titan's Grip].
  • Strengths: Powerful sustained damage with dual wielding and capable to do high burst damage with Ability warrior bloodsurge [Bloodsurge] and Spell nature bloodlust [Bloodthirst].
  • Weaknesses: More fragile than the other specs, taking in more damage with Ability racial avatar [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 Ability warlock burningembersblue [Flurry], while the attacks they use most have a chance of proccing Ability warrior bloodsurge [Bloodsurge], throwing in high Ability warrior decisivestrike [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, Ability warrior titansgrip [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 Ability warrior furiousresolve [Furious Attacks], which applies the needed healing debuff.

Protection

  • Specialties: Access to many stuns Ability thunderbolt [Concussion Blow]/Ability warrior revenge [Improved Revenge]/Ability warrior shockwave [Shockwave], able to use Ability warrior charge [Charge] and Ability warrior victoryrush [Intercept] in any stance and in combat with Ability warrior warbringer [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 (Ability warrior swordandboard [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. Ability warrior revenge [Revenge], Ability warrior swordandboard [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 will affect the raid, not just the party.

Talents

  • Ability warrior titansgrip [Titan's Grip] is a new Fury talent and allows warriors to wield a two-hand weapon in each hand.
  • Protection Warriors have a new spell called Ability warrior shockwave [Shockwave] allowing them to damage and stun all the monsters in front of them.
  • Ability warrior bladestorm [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 Ability thunderbolt [Concussion Blow]. Shield Slam is also be available to all Warriors now.

See also

Dwarfwar

Dwarven warrior

  • Warrior Twinking guide for details on making a warrior twink.
  • Warrior Instance Grouping Guide for tips in Instances.

Note

References

External links

  • 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)