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Warrior builds

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This page lists the standard warrior builds, of which many have several variants (personalized builds), but the idea is the same. Get the same key talents and everything else is left to be personalized with the player's style. If you are having trouble deciding, look to other 80 warriors for spec advice or look up a well know warrior on the WoW armory to see what works best. Note: Do not post personalized builds unless they are dramatically different than an existing or popular build.

Contents

Selecting Your Talent Tree

Warriors have the choice of three talent trees: Arms, Fury, and Protection.

Arms is known for Mortal Strike and Bladestorm which makes it popular for PvP, along with Juggernaut, which allows you to use charge while in combat.

Fury is known for Titan's Grip and has higher sustainable single target damage than Arms, making it popular for PvE DPS, as well as PVP.

Protection is the tanking tree. The introduction of Shockwave as part of WotLK has increased a Warrior's ability to simultaneously tank multiple targets and, combined with Warbringer, removed the "PVE-only" tag from Protection tree.

Arms Warriors use one 2H weapon, whereas Fury Warriors dual-wield 1H or 2H weapons. Protection Warriors use one 1H weapon and a shield.

Leveling Builds

Protection Levelling Spec

Until your warrior has Shield Slam at level 40, leveling Protection will definitely be slower than Arms or Fury, and probably will continue to be until he or she picks up Sword and Board at level 55-58. All warriors' essential threat abilities are baseline until at least level 50, when Devastate is available, but all specs remain viable for threat production until at least level 60. Truth be told, warriors at level 80 have all the essential abilities to hold threat on single targets, regardless of spec, but beginning at level 60 you will notice the absence of mitigation, avoidance and threat talents. However, if you don't wish to respec while leveling or don't want to level both 1-handed and 2-handed weapon skills, this guide should help:

  • Fundamental level 65 protection tanking build. This is commonly considered the must-have talent set for effective tanking. The only flexibility here is in Improved Revenge, Toughness, and Improved Thunder Clap, depending on your priorities. Puncture and Improved Spell Reflection are viable alternatives, though less so in Puncture's case.
    • Levels 10-14 : Definitely get Improved Bloodrage. Shield Specialization is good, especially if you want to grind with a 1-hander and shield to avoid building up those weapon skills in addition to 2-handers. Improved Thunder Clap is only good this early if you plan on tanking lots of instances as you level, but don't use it while grinding unless you're attacked by multiple foes. Slower enemy swings = less rage & fewer avoided swings = slower grinding.
    • Levels 15-19 : Getting Glyph of Revenge would be wise if you're using mostly Defensive Stance. Battle Stance may prove more productive since it allows Overpower and doesn't have a damage penalty, at least until you fill up those avoidance talents. Incite is good for Heroic Strike and the occasional Thunderclap when tanking. Put 2 points into Shield Specialization.
    • Levels 20-24 : 2/2 Improved Revenge is next because you'll be using it to do most of your damage in the early levels. After picking up 2/2 Shield Mastery, put your last point for this tier into Anticipation or Shield Specialization, if you still have room, to up your Revenge openings.
    • Levels 25-29 : Use the next few levels to finish out Anticipation. Last Stand and Improved Thunder Clap are good candidates for you last point, but only if you've finished out your avoidance talents.
    • Levels 30-34 : Definitely grab Concussion Blow, a great tool for dealing damage and stunning. Gag Order won't show it's usefulness until Shield Slam is available at 40, but remains a good choice at these levels. If you haven't finished out Shield Specialization or Anticipation, do that. Otherwise, finishing Improved Thunder Clap will prove useful for tanking.
    • Level 35-60 : The rest of the talents fall into place from here on. Pick up everything except for Safeguard and possibly Vigilance. You'll have a spare point to spend to get from tier 8 to 9 - put it in Last Stand or something unfinished.
    • Level 61-65 : Put 5 points in Deflection from the Arms tree. More avoidance is good for tanking and Revenge openings.

Your grind will be a little slow, even after picking up Devastate, until Sword and Board is available at level 55-58, making you a shield-slamming powerhouse. Open with Charge, Devastate, and Demoralizing Shout if you want to take less damage. From there, your hierarchy of attacks is Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate. If you've got Glyph of Revenge, use Heroic Strike after a successful Revenge. If you have spare rage, use Heroic Strike, or Shockwave and Concussion Blow if you have a LOT of rage.

For your 15 more talent points, consider filling up the Fury tree to enhance your shouts or heading down the Arms tree for Deep Wounds. There are several other talents that will improve tanking, like Improved Demoralizing Shout or some of the Protection talents you may have left unfilled. Puncture makes Devastate more useful, and Last Stand is a great panic button. improved Spell Reflection is a great way to reduce damage from magic sources.


Fury Levelling Spec

A recommendation for how the talents might be placed as you level up:

Obtaining Titan's Grip as soon as possible is the main focus of this spec, to maximise damage output. Shouts are also talented to improve their effectiveness, which is helpful both when solo or in a group. Many fury DPS initially go for Two-Handed Weapon Specialization and Impale, although the benefit from them is not as significant at lower levels and obtaining Titan's Grip by level 60 will be far more vaulable.


Arms Levelling Spec

Before the addition of Taste for Blood and the improvements to Rend, Arms was a poor leveling build until a warrior acquired at least Mortal Strike at level 40. With these improvements, however, Arms is a very capable leveling spec with the ability to make up for typical leveling woes like opponents dodging attacks.

  • Levels 21-30 : Impale is an excellent talent, as it allows the taking of Deep Wounds. You won't be critting a lot as an early warrior, however, so Improved Overpower provides more damage until gear improves. Filling out Taste for Blood makes Overpower an even more useful attack, and makes Deep Wounds more attractive, though filling it out is not as important as some deeper talents. Hold off on Two-Handed Weapon Specialization for now, you'll need your utility first by picking up Sweeping Strikes, useful when you are faced with multiple enemies.
  • Levels 31-40 : Get your weapon specialization first (if you don't have an heirloom weapon, skip this as you'll change often, and go for 2H spec/Deep Wounds instead), then Trauma. The last points before level 40 (and MS) can go back to filling out Deep Wounds and 2H Weapon Specialization. Warriors without heirloom weapons should pick up Weapon Mastery as filler, and toss the last point into anything they might want (Iron Will or Deflection are decent leveling filler). Pick up Mortal Strike at 40.
  • Levels 41-50 : Improved Slam basically gives you another attack you can use - Slam is usable anytime and is relatively cheap compared to the monstrosity that is the 30 rage cost of Mortal Strike, but the loss of swing time that Slam's casting forces on you is crippling until the talent reduces it, so don't use Slam until you have both points in this. Fill out Strength of Arms (Expertise at a low level is handy, plus it provides strength and stam which are both important leveling stats) and take Juggernaut next. This will help with chain pulling, as you won't have to wait for something to die before getting to get some rage while starting a fight (i.e. target will bleed to death, ignore it and move on). Unrelenting Assault makes the amazing damage of Overpower even more so, and lets you put out good damage while wearing a shield by allowing you to use Revenge rapidly whenever it is available. Points into Improved Mortal Strike as filler to get to Endless Rage. At this point 90% of your rage problems should be gone and you should be getting a good idea of what the real Arms playstyle is like.
  • Levels 51-61 : Sudden Death gives you the last piece of the single-target Arms DPS playstyle puzzle. Blood Frenzy provides some extra damage most of the time (Rend should be up as much as possible unless a target is near death, though the passive attack speed is always present regardless). Wrecking Crew gives you 10% damage most of the time, and as your crit improves it will eventually reach 100% uptime except very early in fights. Chain pulling helps keep it active, and the last two points can either fill it out first or collect Bladestorm first, which gives you excellent short term limited AoE that is prone to pulling aggro in instances, so use it carefully. Use the last point to get the other one.
  • Levels 62-71 : Now that we have the important Arms talents, we move into Fury. Cruelty should be first, followed closely by Armored to the Teeth which is a solid dps talent that improves with your gear. The last two points can go into either Booming Voice, which is a passable choice, or Unbridled Wrath which is probably better for leveling.
  • Levels 72-80 : Getting into the final talents, you already have most of the tools you'll need, and these are just gravy. Cleave isn't quite as important at this point as AoE killing is really only worth it with Bladestorm and Sweeping Strikes, and hopefully you're not being crit TOO much, so Commanding Presence makes a good case over Blood Craze and Improved Cleave, though at this point it's a bit of a toss up, except Piercing Howl, which is largely a pvp talent and not really helpful for leveling. As soon as you can, get Improved Execute, which basically provides a scaling boost to a solid finishing move. The last couple points can go wherever, and you should being looking at instancing and raiding builds for when you hit 80.

Overall, Arms is a little less capable than Fury when it comes to multiple targets but makes up for it with good rage management ability and quicker recovery though not being in Berserker Stance while fighting.

Level 80 Builds

WotLK This section concerns content exclusive to Wrath of the Lich King.

Note: Do not post builds unless they are dramatically different than builds listed below. Do not delete others' builds.

Arms

In general, Arms builds focus on using a single two-handed weapon and attacking in Battle Stance using whatever abilities are available between Mortal Strike, Overpower (via Taste for Blood's effect), and Execute with Slam as filler. They also prioritize the application of Rend and use Heroic Strike when necessary to avoid wasting any rage that might have been generated over the 100 rage maximum. The three weapon specialization talents available in the fourth tier are typically interchangeable depending on what type of weapon the warrior is using. Typical glyphs are the Glyph of Mortal Strike, Glyph of Execution, and Glyph of Rending, though an AoE Cleave-focused build would likely use the Glyph of Cleaving in favor of the Rend improvement.

  • PvE Arms Build (55/16/0)
    • Beginning raiding build, focuses on rage generation by taking Weapon Mastery and Unbridled Wrath over Improved Slam and Execute.
    • Has higher-than-normal mobility due to not using Slam, but trades this for lower damage.
  • PvE arms build (56/18/0)
    • Improved Cleave and Unbridled Wrath give this build better AoE damage than others.
    • The lack of Improved Slam lowers the single target DPS potential of this spec.
  • PvE Raid Build (54/17/0)
    • This build requires that you have reached the expertise (-dodge) cap with gear and Strength of Arms.
    • Also requires you are capped on hit to maintain rage generation.
    • Generally regarded as having the highest single-target DPS potential once the above gear requirements are met.

Fury

  • PvE Raiding Build (18/51/2)
    • Maximizes rage generation as of 3.2
    • No Commanding Presence as this is made for 25 man raids where Blessing of Might is usually found.

Protection

Generic Endgame Tanking Spec

This spec (15/3/51) includes all essential Protection tree talents for tanking as well as 3/3 Armored to the Teeth in the Fury tree and up to 3/3 Deep Wounds in the Arms tree for improved threat/DPS while tanking. It is based on work done at TankSpot and is an excellent general purpose spec.

Two points are unallocated in this build -- depending on your needs and playstyle, they may be placed into Cruelty, Improved Spell Reflection (highly advised for tanking Malygos in Phase 2), putting more points into Shield Specialization, or Puncture (not recommended except for tanks who spend a lot of time soloing), or, for tanks who wish to PvP more effectively without retalenting, Improved Disarm, Safeguard, or Iron Will. (These are only a few suggestions. Nearly any talent available under this build for these two points may have some utility. Where these points go is truly up to the individual Warrior tank.)

Some tanks may wish to forego Deep Wounds in favor of Cruelty or to fully spec into Shield Specialization, however with 3/3 Incite and in a raid environment with full buffs it is important to realize that Deep Wounds will have nearly 100% uptime on bosses and can contribute over 5% of a Warrior tank's total DPS (which is no longer insignificant to a raid). The Warbringer/Improved Charge combo can also be extremely powerful in non-raid environments.


Getting Started


Full Builds

  • Raid Boss Tanking Build (5/15/51) by Tristan of Aerie Peak
    • Designed for progression tanking and focuses on improving a warrior's debuffing capabilities (Improved Thunderclap, Improved Demoralizing Shout) and maximizing survivability (Commanding Presence for extra health, Improved Disciplines and Last Stand/Shield Wall glyphs to bring cooldowns in line with encounter timers). Rage generation is of little concern due to large amounts of incoming damage from raid bosses. Points may be shifted depending on the nature of the encounter, with Improved Spell Reflection being a good candidate should one wish to forgo points in Improved Revenge or Gag Order.
  • Blood Craze Build (5/15/51)
    • Has all of the needed prot tree talents for tanking as well as Cruelty for higher crit chance for high dps and more threat. This spec also has Armed to the Teeth for more damage, improved demo shout for less damage taken, and 2/3 Blood Craze for minimal health regain. The reason I didnt go down the arms tree for improved rend and the like is only becasue the +20% damage for rend isnt that much when it isnt that much to start out with.
      • Blood Craze should only be talented if the player does not have 540 defense, making them uncrittable.
  • Hybrid Auto-healing Tank (5/31/35)by Akatsume of La Croisade Écarlate (Europe)
    • Effective talent build in raids (has been used to clear Naxxramas and Sartharion 10/25 player). Pretty much Godmode for questing, and little downtime. This is specially a build for the Fury build lovers who want to tank with a mix ;) The very interesting part about this build is the possibility to tank without a shield. The very fast attack speed and 4 sec cooldown to Bloodthirst (improved by glyph) makes it a very self-sufficient build due to self-healing. For good aggro building, cycling of Thunder Clap, Improved Cleave, Improved Sunder Armor is enough. Stamina determines your self-heal therefore it should be priorized. For optimal performance, choose items not related to shield capacities.
  • PvE Build (12/5/54) by Tuskeron of Uldaman
    • Does about 1.2-1.5k DPS and holds threat well with multiple target mobs. Glyph of Devastate, Glyph of Sunder Armor, and Glyph of Blocking are recommended with this build. Rotation should have Heroic Strike, Revenge, Shield Slam, Devastate, Thunderclap, and Concussion Blow. Cleave and Rend are recommended on mobs with more than 4 targets once threat is established on skull (your main target). Uses Iron Will
  • Raid Tanking Build (15/5/51) by Zegai of Aerie Peak
    • More points spent (at Arms tree), but, it input more chance for a Critical Strike, which offers more chances of more threat and it includes decently 2 point for Cruelty, on Fury tree, and a 3/3 Armored to the Teeth, more AP gives more Block Value, and, Shield Spec. is for 2, using decent 3 points for Sword and Board.
  • Raid/Hc Instance Build (5/13/53) by Furyous of Dragonblight (EU)
    • This build is not used many by warrior's, how ever i personally highly recommend it to those who have trouble with AoE tanking in heroic's. Since Cleave does 120% more dmg of [Improved Cleave) and the Glyph which makes Cleave hit a 3rd Target. for the rest it got all the needs a warrior need. all avoidance points you can use.
In my expierience this build works excellent for tanking in all kind of ways. and likely never aggro loss.
  • General purpose build for PvE and PvP (7/8/53) "by Phenom of Lightbringer (EU)"
    • This build was mage first for PvE but I found it was highly effective in PvP. In TBC I always found the same issues with warriors, you could not stack enough mitigation and keep a guaranteed rage supply, then WotLK handed me perfection, when it used damage and hit produced rage produced by the warrior on the amount done. Since it hit 80 I have spent about 2 months changing my spec until i fixed this issue permanently. This is my favored outcome, close to maximum threat output, damage output is good, and rage generation is brilliant. I have never found my rage too low, or been easy to kill with this spec, and anyone using it will be very pleased. The improvements to damage and crit will keep rage high, while the rest of the tree holds every mitigation talent that will make you unkillable.

PvP Builds

Arms

PvP Arms builds tend to focus less on pure damage and more on mobility, control, and survival for both the warrior and his partner via utility talents like Improved Hamstring, and would glyph accordingly.

  • PvP Arms High Rage Build (55/16/0)
    • High rage PvP build via Anger Management, Unbridled Wrath, and Tactical Mastery.
    • Relies on others to help control targets due to the lack of Piercing Howl and Improved Hamstring.
  • PvP Arms Build (55/14/2)
    • Better on-demand rage with Improved bloodrage. Trades this for no root proc from Improved Hamstring.
  • PvP Arms Build (57/14/0)
    • Better versatility against casters via Taste for Blood/Unrelenting Assault but sacrifices improvements to Execute and Hamstring.
  • Arena Defensive Arms/Prot Build (44/0/27)
    • Defensive Arms/Prot build that sacrifices Bladestorm and some damage in Fury for significant defensive utility.
    • A 1H/shield should be on hand in addition to the primary weapon to take full advantage of this build.


Fury

Protection

  • PvP Protection Build 3 (7/13/51) by Amaurophile of Kalecgos (US)
    • This build is for the warrior who wants to stand a better chance in PvP situations against any class while taking as little damage possible. Like other builds, you'll charge in and do the warrior thing as you'd expect. Only instead of using Hamstring (with or without the talent and glyph), you'll instead rely on Piercing Howl to keep your enemies close to you in case your stuns fail. Piercing Howl is superior to Hamstring in PvP in that Hamstring is subject to being blocked, dodged, parried or missing. Where as Piercing Howl will likely be resisted. It's duration is much shorter, so you'll have to keep the debuff up constantly. The talented charge is just for the extra rage generation, which could be an extra Heroic Strike (which when paired with Piercing Howl does a little extra damage) Or even a timely Concussion Blow.
The real kicker here is that you're likely to be underestimated and this is where you'll show your fangs. Typical strategy is to charge, piercing howl and do whatever suits you best. Keep in mind that with a Shield in hand, you can only block against attacks that are coming from the frontal arc. So be sure to back away from the target once in a while and still keep up Piercing Howl. This helps to make sure that they stay in front of you while you block most if not all (Shield Block) of their attacks and readies a Revenge.
This build may not be able to put out damage like other Warrior builds, but due to it's high survivability thanks to your high health, armor, defensive values, and the defensive warrior skills, you'll easily outlast many of your enemies and still be respected.
I've done a few Battleground with this build-minus the 2 points in improved charge due to my being level 78- and I have to say that this has proven to be quite stout. I've also tried this build out as a leveling build and though it lacks the power of the other builds, you're always ready for a tussle with any enemy player.

Level 70 Builds

Level 60 Builds

in my experience this is a very well balanced PvP/PvE talent build for protection warriors even though it does not crit that often: http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=1&tal=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000251051225000012521330113321

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