Warrior abilities

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Classes:
Class races:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
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Abilities:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
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Useful macros:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr

Warrior abilities typically revolve around their rage bar. Many abilities can only be used in a certain stance. The abilities listed below specify which stances can use which abilities. Also see more warrior tactics.

Contents 1 Trainable Abilities 2 Talent Granted Abilities 2.1 Arms 2.2 Fury 2.3 Protection 3 Abilities by type 3.1 Aggro management 3.1.1 Threat 3.1.2 Taunt 3.2 Counterattacks 3.3 Damage over Time 3.4 Buffs 3.5 Debuffs 3.6 Direct Damage 3.7 Protection 3.8 Shouts 4 Timing

Trainable Abilities

These abilities are available to all Warriors at the appropriate level, regardless of Talents.

Icon	Ability	Level	Stances	Description
	Heroic Strike	1	All	A massive strike dealing X additional damage to your normal attack. Causes a high amount of threat. Need to have 15 Rage to use.
	Battle Shout	2	All	Increases nearby party members' attack power by X for 2/3 minutes. Need to have 10 Rage to use.
	Charge	4	Battle Defensive* Berserker*	Charges an enemy, closing the distance between them instantly. Generates X rage. Cannot be used in combat. * - only with points spent in warbringer talent , which also allows to use Charge in combat.
	Rend	4	Defensive Battle	Wounds the target, making them bleed for X damage over 9 seconds (up to 15 seconds at higher levels). Need to have 10 Rage to use
	Thunder Clap	6	Defensive Battle	Slows nearby enemies' attack speed by 10% and deals X Physical damage. 4 targets maximum. Need to have 20 Rage to use.
	Hamstring	8	Battle Berserker	Causes X damage and reduces the target's movement speed to Y% for 15 seconds.
	Bloodrage	10	All	Generates rage over time, at the cost of health.
	Sunder Armor	10	All	Sunders the target's armor, reducing it by X per Sunder Armor and causes a high amount of threat. Can be applied up to 5 times. Lasts 30 sec. Need to have 15 Rage to use.
	Taunt	10	Defensive	Taunts the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you.
	Shield Bash	12	Defensive Battle	Deals minor damage and interrupts spellcasting. Also prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 6 sec.
	Overpower	12	Battle	Only usable after opponent dodges. Deals X additional damage to the standard attack, and cannot be avoided by dodge/parry/block.
	Demoralizing Shout	14	All	Reduces the attack power of all nearby enemies by X.
	Revenge	14	Defensive	Instant attack immediately after you dodge, block or parry. Deals X damage and causes a high amount of threat.
	Mocking Blow	16	Battle Defensive	Deals X damage, forces opponent to focus attacks on you for 6 seconds, and causes a moderate amount of threat.
	Shield Block	16	Defensive	Increases chance to block and block value by 100% for 10 sec.
	Disarm	18	Defensive	Disarms your opponent for 10 seconds.
	Cleave	20	All	Deals normal damage + X to both your opponent and 1 nearby target on your next swing.
	Retaliation	20	Battle	Instantly counter-attack the next 30 melee attacks for 15 seconds (excludes attacks from behind).
	Stance Mastery (Passive)	20	All	You retain up to 10 of your rage points when you change stances.
	Intimidating Shout	22	All	Causes nearby enemies to flee, except for the currently targeted mob.
	Execute	24	Battle Berserker	A finishing blow, dealing X + (Y * remaining rage) damage. Only usable on opponents under 20% health. Uses all rage.
	Challenging Shout	26	All	Taunts all nearby targets to attack you, but has no effect on targets that are already attacking you.
	Shield Wall	28	Defensive	Reduces all melee, ranged and spell damage taken by 75% for 10 seconds.
	Intercept	30	Berserker Battle* Defensive*	Charge an enemy, causing X Physical damage and stunning it for 3 seconds. * - only with points spent in warbringer talent.
	Slam	30	All	Deals weapon damage + X.
	Berserker Rage	32	All	Immunity to fear and knockouts. Generates extra rage when taking damage.
	Whirlwind	36	Berserker	Attacks nearby enemies for weapon damage. 4 targets maximum.
	Pummel	38	Berserker	Pummel the target for X damage. It also interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4 seconds.
	Shield Slam	40	All	Slam the target with your shield, causing X to Y damage, modified by your shield block value, and dispels 1 magic effect on the target. Also causes a high amount of threat. Prior to Patch 3.0.2, this ability was only obtainable through a Protection tree talent; now it is available to all warriors.
	Recklessness	50	Berserker	The warrior will cause critical hits with most attacks and will be immune to Fear effects for the next 15 sec, but all damage taken is increased by 20%.
	Victory Rush	62	Battle Berserker	Instantly attack the target causing (AP*45/100) damage. Can only be used within 20 sec after you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor. Damage is based on your attack power.
	Spell Reflection	64	Battle Defensive	Raise your shield, reflecting the next spell cast on you. Lasts 5 sec.
	Commanding Shout	68	All	Increases total health of all party members within 20 yards by 1080. Lasts 2 min.
	Intervene	70	Defensive	Run at high speed towards a party member, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them.
	Shattering Throw	71	Battle	Throws your weapon at the enemy causing X damage (based on attack power), reducing the armor on the target by 20% for 10 sec or removing any invulnerabilities.
	Enraged Regeneration	75	All	Heals the warrior for 30% hp over 10 seconds. Consumes enrage effects and prevents them from affecting the warrior during ER.
	Heroic Throw	80	All	Throw your melee weapon at a target.

Talent Granted Abilities

Arms

Icon	Ability	Reqs	Stances	Description
	Sweeping Strikes	Arms 20	Battle Berserker	Your next 10 melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent within 10 sec.
	Mortal Strike	Sweeping Strikes 1 Arms 30	All	A vicious strike that deals weapon damage plus X and wounds the target, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 10 sec.
	Bladestorm	Arms 50	All	Instantly whirlwind all nearby targets and for the next 6 sec you will perform one whirlwind attack every 1 sec. While under the effects of Bladestorm, you can move but cannot perform any other abilities but you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless you are killed.

Fury

Icon	Ability	Reqs	Stances	Description
	Piercing Howl	Fury 10	All	Causes all enemies near the warrior to be dazed for 6 sec.
	Death Wish	Fury 20	All	When activated, increases your physical damage by 20% and makes you immune to Fear effects, but increases all damage taken by 5%. Lasts 30 sec.
	Bloodthirst	Death Wish 1 Fury 30	All	Instantly attack the target causing damage equal to 45% of your attack power. In addition, the next 5 successful melee attacks will restore X health. This effect lasts 8 seconds.
	Heroic Fury	Fury 40	All	Removes any Immobilization effects and refreshes the cooldown of your Intercept ability.
	Rampage	Bloodthirst 1 Fury 40	All	Warrior goes on a rampage, increasing attack power by X and causing most successful melee attacks to increase attack power by X. Lasts 30 seconds. This ability can only be used after scoring a critical hit.
	Titan's Grip	Fury 50	All	Allows you to equip two-handed axes, maces and swords in one hand. While you have a two-handed weapon equipped in one hand, your physical damage done is reduced by 10%.

Protection

Icon	Ability	Reqs	Stances	Description
	Last Stand	Protection 10	All	When activated, this ability temporarily grants you 30% of your maximum hit points for 20 seconds. After the effect expires, the hit points are lost.
	Concussion Blow	Protection 20	All	Stuns the opponent for 5 sec.
	Vigilance	Conc. Blow 1 Protection 30	All	Focuses your protective gaze on a group or raid target, reducing their damage taken by 3% and transferring 10% of the threat they cause to you. In addition, each time they are hit by an attack, the cooldown on your Taunt ability is refreshed. Lasts 30 min. This effect can only be on one target at a time.
	Devastate	Protection 40	All	Sunder the target's armor causing the Sunder Armor effect. In addition, causes 100% of weapon damage plus X for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. The Sunder Armor effect can stack up to 5 times.
	Shockwave	Protection 50	All	Sends out a wave of force, dealing damage and stunning all enemies in a frontal cone for 4 seconds.

Abilities by type

Aggro management

Aggro control is a key part of being a Warrior, and abilities to aid this come in two types:

Threat

Many Warrior abilities, in addition to their stated purpose, cause various amounts of threat, an underlying in-game statistic which is used by enemies to determine which party member they will attack.

In group work, the tanking Warrior is different in that they actually want to cause as much threat as possible. Warriors engaged in high damage output, on the other hand, want to avoid causing too much threat.

High Threat: Sunder Armor, Heroic Strike, Shield Slam, Devastate, Revenge, Thunder Clap

Low Threat: Slam, Rend, Hamstring, et al.

Good threat management is tricky, but essential for instance work as a Warrior. Without managing threat, one can pull the mob off the tank if you are DPSing, or lose aggro on the mob if tanking.

Taunt

In addition to threat specials, the Warrior has several temporary instant aggro abilities:

Taunt, Mocking Blow force a target to attack you for a time. Challenging Shout has the same effect on all enemies in range.

It is important to note that Mocking Blow and Challenging Shout cause little threat themselves, and the enemy will return to its original target when they expire, unless new threat is generated using other abilities. Taunt works differently by generating just enough threat to place the Warrior at the top of the enemy's hate list, making it much easier to prevent the enemy from switching back to its original target so long as additional threat generating abilities are used.

Note that currently none of the Taunt type abilities work in PvP, and Blizzard has stated that these abilities will not work, despite Distract working just fine. However, taunting does work on aggressive pets.

In addition, Intimidating Shout fears everything in its radius that isn't the target. This can be quite dangerous, but can also buy time for a hasty escape. The target will cower in fear, immobilized for the duration of the shout, but will be freed upon taking any damage. That is, if you intend to use the ability to escape combat, you should remember to stop attacking the moment before you activate it to prevent disrupting the effect.

See Tanking

Counterattacks

Warriors gain access to certain counterattacks, namely Overpower and Revenge. This requires you to be quick to react.

Damage over Time

Warriors have access to a nice DoT ability, Rend. This DoT should, as all DoTs, be applied in combats where the DoT will have time to work.

Buffs

Warriors have two long duration buffs, although they last only two minutes (three if correctly talented). Battle Shout increases attack power and Commanding Shout increases maximum health, and both of these apply to everyone in the warrior's group inside 20 yards. These buffs require rage, and since warriors don't generate rage out of combat, they cannot prepare it before fights (except if he uses Bloodrage). Altrough they have a limited amount of long term buffs compared to priests and druids, they can also gain very strong short timed buffs such as Flurry, which increases attack speed by 25% score each time the warrior scores a critical strike (fury talent) or Enrage, which increases all damage done by the warrior by 25%, activates when the warrior receives a critical strike (fury talent). All those small buffs lasts under 15 seconds, but makes the warrior a very powerful character in combat.

Debuffs

Warriors have access to quite a few debuffs, everything from enemy attack-speed reduction (Thunder Clap), attack power reduction (Demoralizing Shout, Disarm) and movement speed reduction (Hamstring) to spell interruption (Shield Bash, Pummel) and armor reduction (Sunder Armor).

In addition, Charge and Intercept could also be considered debuffs, since they stun the enemy.

Direct Damage

Warriors deal direct damage with Cleave, Execute, Heroic Strike, Intercept, Shield Slam and Slam.

Protection

Warriors can protect themselves or others with Shield Wall, Shield Block, Last Stand, Concussion Blow, and Intervene.

Shouts

Shouts generally buff or debuff multiple targets. Because of this, shouts should be used frequently but judiciously.

Timing

Certain Warrior abilities require the player to use them within a given window of opportunity. This means that extra attention needs to be paid to the hotbar, and the enemy's actions. These fall into two types:

Reactions
These hotkeys will light up when a certain condition has been met. The Warrior then has a second or two to use the ability, or it will go dark and the moment has been lost. It is worth using them whenever possible, as they either do a lot of damage, or use much less Rage than a normal attack.

Overpower - After a target Dodges.
Revenge - After a self Dodge, Block or Parry.
Execute - When target's remaining health is below 20%.

(The Revenge condition can be forced by using Shield Block beforehand. This will almost guarantee a self Block on the next enemy attack, and light up Revenge.)

Interrupts
These hotkeys are available whenever the Warrior has sufficient Rage, but are best kept for certain situations, as they will interrupt the enemy's spells. This takes some practice to get right, but can massively reduce the effort it takes to kill the enemy, either by preventing incoming damage, or stopping them healing themselves or allies.

Shield Bash - Use when enemy caster begins casting.
Pummel - As Shield Bash.

The casting charge-up noise and glowing hands effect used to be difficult to describe, but now there is an interface option to show an enemies casting bar, and the ability to silence or interrupt right before channeling completes.

Reflection
Spell Reflection - Used to reflect an enemy spell back on themselves. As for interrupts this is best kept for certain situations - eg when a high damage or Crowd Control spell is being cast on you.

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