Warrior talents

From WoWWiki

This article or section contains information that is out-of-date. Please replace the old information with up to date information. This may include rewriting sections to ensure they are clear and concise, and wikifying.

This article or section is a talent stub. You can help expand it by editing it. You might want to use the talents boilerplate to fill in this article (see WoWWiki:Boilerplates for help). Alternatively, you might want to import some information from a database site - see Fansites for listings.

Classes:
Class races:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Quests:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Abilities:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Trainers:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Talents:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Talent builds:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Tactics:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Armor sets:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Starting a:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
PvE guide:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
PvP guide:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr
Useful macros:	Dk	Dr	Hu	Ma	Pa	Pr	Ro	Sh	Wl	Wr

The warrior talent trees are designed in principle to offer all-out offense (Fury), all-out defense (Protection) and the "golden middle" (Arms). In reality, Fury and Arms both lead to DPS heavy specs, whereas Protection is basically the only possible spec for warrior tanks.

PLEASE NOTE: These talents have changed extensively in Patch 3.0.2. The following information may not be applicable to the live game, even where the talent names are the same.

Contents 1 Arms 2 Fury 3 Protection 4 Talent Choices 4.1 General Talent Advice 5 External Resources

Arms

Arms talents tend to be useful for all Warriors, containing much that helps with soloing or PVP. Slow two-handed weapons often benefit the most from Arms talents, although many different weapon specializations can be found in this tree. Mortal Strike is the trademark move of any Arms build.

Talent	Prereqs	Ranks	Description
Improved Heroic Strike	none	3	Reduced rage cost for Heroic Strike.
Deflection	none	5	Increased Parry chance.
Improved Rend	none	3	Increased bleed damage by Rend.
Improved Charge	Arms 5	2	Increased rage from Charge.
Iron Will	Arms 5	5	Increased chance to resist stun and charm effects.
Improved Thunder Clap	Arms 5	3	Reduced cost for Thunder Clap plus increased damage and slowing effect.
Improved Overpower	Arms 10	2	Increased critical strike chance for Overpower.
Anger Management	Arms 10	1	Generates 1 rage per 3 seconds.
Deep Wounds	Arms 10	3	Critical strikes will cause bleed, dealing damage over 12 sec.
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization	Arms 15	5	Increased damage for two-handed weapons.
Impale	Arms 15 Deep Wounds 3	2	Increased critical strike damage bonus on yellow attacks in all stances.
Poleaxe Specialization	Arms 20	5	Increased critical strike chance with Axes and Polearms.
Death Wish	Arms 20	1	When active, increases physical damage dealt by 20% and grants immunity to Fear effects, but increases all damage taken by 5%.
Mace Specialization	Arms 20	5	Mace hits gain a chance to generate 7 rage and stun the opponent for 3 sec.
Sword Specialization	Arms 20	5	Upon dealing damage with a Sword, an extra attack may be gained.
Improved Intercept	Arms 25	2	Reduces the cooldown of your Intercept ability.
Improved Hamstring	Arms 25	3	Gives Hamstring a chance to immobilize the target for 5 sec.
Improved Disciplines	Arms 25	3	Reduced cooldown on Retaliation, Recklessness, and Shield Wall and increases their durations.
Blood Frenzy	Arms 30	2	Rend and Deep Wounds will also increase all physical damage dealt to that target.
Mortal Strike	Arms 30 Death Wish 1	1	Deals weapon damage plus X and wound the target, reduce effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 10 sec.
Second Wind	Arms 30	1	When struck by a Stun or Immbolize effect generate rage plus a percentage of total health.
Improved Mortal Strike	Arms 35 Mortal Strike 1	5	Reduces the cooldown of Mortal Strike by 1 second and increases its damage by up to 5%.
Endless Rage	Arms 40	1	Generate 25% more rage from damage dealt.

Fury

Fury talents tend toward PvE Warriors. Properly specced and equipped Fury warriors are among the top damage dealers in endgame boss fights.

Talent	Prereqs	Ranks	Description
Booming Voice	none	5	Increases the area of effect and duration of Battle Shout, Demoralizing Shout, and Commanding Shout.
Cruelty	none	5	Increases the chance to get a critical strike in melee.
Improved Demoralizing Shout	Fury 5	5	Increases the attack power reduction of Demoralizing Shout.
Unbridled Wrath	Fury 5	5	Gives a chance to generate an additional Rage point when dealing melee damage with a weapon.
Improved Cleave	Fury 10	3	Increases the bonus damage done by Cleave.
Piercing Howl	Fury 10	1	Causes all close by enemies to be dazed for 6 sec.
Blood Craze	Fury 10	3	Regenerates a health percentage over 6 sec after being the victim of a critical strike.
Commanding Presence	Fury 10	5	Increases the Attack Power bonus of Battle Shout and the health bonus of Commanding Shout.
Dual Wield Specialization	Fury 15	5	Increased damage by offhand weapon.
Improved Execute	Fury 15	2	Reduces the Rage cost of Execute.
Enrage	Fury 15	5	Melee damage bonus for 12 sec up to a maximum of 12 swings after being the victim of a critical strike.
Improved Slam	Fury 20	2	Decreased casting time for Slam.
Sweeping Strikes	Fury 20	1	The next 10 melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent.
Weapon Mastery	Fury 20	2	Decreases the chance that the opponent will Dodge your attacks by 1% or 2% depending on rank.
Improved Berserker Rage	Fury 25	2	Berserker Rage will generate rage when used.
Flurry	Fury 25 Enrage 5	5	Increased attack speed for the next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike.
Precision	Fury 30	3	Increased chance to hit with melee weapons.
Bloodthirst	Fury 30 Sweeping Strikes 1	1	Instant attack dealing damage equal to 45% of attack power. Additionally, the next 5 successful melee attacks will restore health within 8 sec.
Improved Whirlwind	Fury 30	2	Reduced cooldown of Whirlwind.
Improved Berserker Stance	Fury 35	5	Increased attack power and reduced threatwhile in Berserker Stance.
Rampage	Fury 40 Bloodthirst 1	1	Increased attack power by most successful melee attacks for the next 30 seconds.
Titan's Grip	Fury 51	1	Allows you to equip two-handed axes, maces and swords in one hand. Also reduces your chance to hit with damage-dealing abilities that require a weapon by 5%.

Protection

Protection talents are generally very useful for Main Tank group work, allowing the Warrior to put up with more punishment than otherwise possible. This does come at a cost however, and the Protection Warrior is generally slower to make longterm progress when soloing as a result. Always use a shield while tanking!

Talent	Prereqs	Ranks	Description
Improved Bloodrage	none	2	Increases the Rage generated by Bloodrage.
Shield Specialization	none	5	Increases the chance to block with a shield and has a chance to generate 2 rage on successful block.
Improved Thunder Clap	none	3	Reduced cost for Thunder Clap plus increased damage and slowing effect.
Incite	Protection 5	3	Increases critical strike chance for Heroic Strike, Thunder Clap, and Cleave
Anticipation	Protection 5	5	Increased chance to dodge
Last Stand	Protection 10	1	When activated, this ability temporarily grants 30% of maximum hit points for 20 seconds. After the effect expires, the hit points are lost (Active).
Improved Revenge	Protection 10	2	Increases damage of Revenge, and gives Revenge a chance to stun the target for 3 sec.
Shield Mastery	Protection 10	2	Increases block value, and reduces cooldown of Shield Block.
Toughness	Protection 10	5	Increases armor value from items, and reduces duration of all movement slowing effects.
Improved Spell Reflection	Protection 15	2	Reduces chance to be hit by spells, and when Spell Reflection is used, will reflect the first spell cast against the 2/4 closest party members.
Improved Disarm	Protection 15	2	Reduces the cooldown of Disarm and causes the target to take additional damage while disarmed.
Puncture	Protection 15	3	Reduces the cost of Sunder Armor and Devastate.
Improved Disciplines	Protection 20	2	Reduces the cooldown of Shield Wall, Retaliation, and Recklessness
Concussion Blow	Protection 20	1	Stuns the opponent for 5 sec and deals damage based on attack power. (Active).
Gag Order	Protection 20	2	Gives Shield Bash and Heroic Throw a chance to silence for 3 sec. Also increases the damage of your Shield Slam.
One-Handed Weapon Specialization	Protection 25	5	Increases the damage you deal when you have a One-Handed Melee Weapon equipped.
Improved Defensive Stance	Protection 30	2	Reduces all spell damage taken while in Defensive Stance, and gives you a chance to become enraged, dealing more damage as a percent, whenever you block, dodge, or parry and attack.
Vigilance	Protection 30 Concussion Blow 1	1	Reduces the target party or raid member's damage taken, and transfers some of their threat to you. Whenever they are hit by an attack, your Taunt cooldown is refreshed. Can only affect one target at a time, lasts 30 minutes.
Focused Rage	Protection 30	3	Reduce rage cost of all offensive abilities.
Vitality	Protection 35	3	Increase Stamina, Strength, and Expertise.
Safeguard	Protection 35	2	Reduces damage taken by the target of your Intervene for 6 seconds.
Warbringer	Protection 40	1	Allows you to use Charge in any stance, and in combat. Also causes your Charge, Intercept, and Intervene abilities to remove all movement impairing effects from you.
Devastate	Protection 40	1	Instantly cause 50% of weapon damage plus X and additional threat for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. In addition, renews the timer on all Sunder Armors stacked on the target. Sunder Armor stacks up to 5 times. (Active).
Critical Block	Protection 40	3	Successful blocks have a chance to block double the normal amount. Also increases the critical hit chance for Shield Slam.
Sword and Board	Protection 45 Devastate 1	3	Increases critical strike chance of Devastate. Also your Revenge and Devastate criticals have a chance to refresh the cooldown of Shield Slam, and make your next Shield Slam cost no rage. Effect lasts 5 seconds.
Damage Shield	Protection 45	2	Taking damage from, or blocking a melee attack causes you to deal a percent of your block value.
Shockwave	Protection 50	1	Sends a wave of force in front of the Warrior, dealing damage based on attack power, and stunning all enemies within 10 yards in a frontal cone for 4 seconds. (Active).

Talent Choices

Main article: Warrior builds

While all Warriors can buy all of the standard abilities, Talents force the Warrior to make choices, as there are not enough points for everything. Naturally, this leads to great debate on which are better than others. Also, the class talent trees are something Blizzard tend to review and revise quite often, so 'the perfect build' can change often.

However, there is always the option of Respecing if you end up with something that doesn't suit you. Visit the Warrior Trainer for this option, which will allow you to respend your points from scratch, for a cash fee.

General Talent Advice

Initially, the talent trees can seem rather bewildering, but choosing how to spend your points is easier than it might seem. The talents are laid out in obvious 'Tiers' within each tree, and usually, a certain number of points will have to be spent in each tier to access the next tier down.

e.g: To gain access to Tier 2 of Protection, at least five points will need to be spent on either Shield Specialization or Anticipation, or a combination of both.

This means a choice between only two different talents. Examine each and decide which is best for you. To get the most effect out of a chosen talent, it is usually best to buy as many ranks in it as available, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, etc. (with the notable exception of Improved Shield Block)

A good strategy to create a Talent Build is to look at the three 'end talents'; Endless Rage, Rampage and Devastate, pick one, and then work backwards through the requirements, picking the most useful intermediate steps as you go. This will take about 30 points; the rest can then be used to pick out particularly useful other skills from different trees, or enhance existing effects in the main tree.

External Resources

• Official World of Warcraft Warrior Forum

• The Protection Warrior Guide at elitistjerks.com. Comprehensive resource for all aspects of tanking as a warrior, from mechanics to talents to gear.
• Warrior Talent Calculator at merciless-gilde.com
• Warrior Blog

v • d • e Playable classes Classes Death knight · Druid · Hunter · Mage · Paladin · Priest · Rogue · Shaman · Warlock · Warrior Warrior Warrior races · Warrior quests · Warrior abilities · Warrior trainers · Warrior talents · Warrior builds · Warrior tactics · Warrior sets · Starting a warrior · Warrior PvE guide · Warrior PvP guide · Warrior macros Warrior category