Warrior talents
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| PvE guide: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| PvP guide: | 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.
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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. This talent is most frequently taken by non-Arms builds, Arms builds usually just stick with Deflection. |
| Deflection | none | 5 | Increased Parry chance. Great talent for a tank build. |
| Improved Rend | none | 3 | Increased bleed damage by Rend. |
| Improved Charge | Arms 5 | 2 | Increased rage from Charge. Useful in PvP, less so in PvE. |
| Iron Will | Arms 5 | 5 | Increased chance to resist stun and charm. Good PvP talent. |
| Improved Thunder Clap | Arms 5 | 3 | Reduced cost for Thunder Clap plus increased damage and slowing effect. Great talent for tanks and nice to have in PvP. |
| Improved Overpower | Arms 10 | 2 | Increased critical strike chance for Overpower. Very good for PvP builds. |
| Anger Management | Arms 10 | 1 | Generates 1 rage per 3 seconds. Always take this, 1 point is very cheap. |
| Deep Wounds | Arms 10 | 3 | Critical strikes will cause bleed, dealing damage over 12 sec. Mostly taken as a prerequisite for Impale, and still useful in itself. Helps keep rogues out of stealth in pvp seeing as rend just sucks. |
| Two-Handed Weapon Specialization | Arms 15 | 5 | Increased damage for two-handed weapons. Any 2H build should take this. |
| Impale | Arms 15 Deep Wounds 3 | 2 | Increased critical strike damage bonus on yellow attacks in all stances. Highly recommended. |
| Poleaxe Specialization | Arms 20 | 5 | Increased critical strike chance with Axes and Polearms. Which weapon type specialization to take depends greatly on play style and personal preference. |
| 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%. Great talent for 1 point as it is useful for PvP, Arenas and Raid DPS. |
| Mace Specialization | Arms 20 | 5 | Mace hits gain a chance to generate 7 rage and stun the opponent for 3 sec. Which weapon type specialization to take depends greatly on play style and personal preference. Preferred Arms talent for PVP. |
| Sword Specialization | Arms 20 | 5 | Upon dealing damage with a Sword, an extra attack may be gained. Which weapon type specialization to take depends greatly on play style and personal preference. Preferred Arms talent for PVE. |
| Improved Intercept | Arms 25 | 2 | Reduces the cooldown of your Intercept ability. Since a Warrior's effectiveness ends at the at the tip of their weapon, being able to Intercept more often is extremely useful in PvP. |
| Improved Hamstring | Arms 25 | 3 | Gives Hamstring a chance to immobilize the target for 5 sec. Very useful in Arena. |
| Improved Disciplines | Arms 25 | 3 | Reduced cooldown on Retaliation, Recklessness, and Shield Wall and increases their durations. Marginally useful. |
| Blood Frenzy | Arms 30 | 2 | Rend and Deep Wounds will also increase all physical damage dealt to that target. Very good talent for PvE boss fights. |
| 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. The signature talent for the whole Arms tree. The most damaging single attack a warrior can have. Best used with a big slow 2H weapon. |
| Second Wind | Arms 30 | 1 | When struck by a Stun or Immbolize effect generate rage plus a percentage of total health. Great PvP talent. |
| Improved Mortal Strike | Arms 35 Mortal Strike 1 | 4 | Reduces the cooldown of Mortal Strike by 1 second and increases its damage by up to 5%. Makes the best attack just a little better, but not imperative to put 5 points in it. |
| Endless Rage | Arms 40 | 1 | Generate 25% more rage from damage dealt. As the name says - greatly increase rage generation. |
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. A talent rarely taken, the warrior buffs are fine without it, and Cruelty is superior. |
| Cruelty | none | 5 | Increases the chance to get a critical strike in melee. There's hardly a warrior without this - even full protection warriors like to take this talent. |
| Improved Demoralizing Shout | Fury 5 | 5 | Increases the attack power reduction of Demoralizing Shout. Can be good for reducing a raid bosses damage output even more. |
| Unbridled Wrath | Fury 5 | 5 | Gives a chance to generate an additional Rage point when dealing melee damage with a weapon. Great talent for any warrior, but particularly so for dualwielders. |
| Improved Cleave | Fury 10 | 3 | Increases the bonus damage done by Cleave. Non-scaling marginal damage increase, rarely taken. |
| Piercing Howl | Fury 10 | 1 | Causes all close by enemies to be dazed for 6 sec. Good for PvP, less useful in PvE. |
| Blood Craze | Fury 10 | 3 | Regenerates a health percentage over 6 sec after being the victim of a critical strike. Very useful in pvp, still nice in other situations. Useless for tanks as they should be crit immune. |
| Commanding Presence | Fury 10 | 5 | Increases the Attack Power bonus of Battle Shout and the health bonus of Commanding Shout. Nice talent, particularly in raid groups. |
| Dual Wield Specialization | Fury 15 | 5 | Increased damage by offhand weapon. Mandatory for dualwielders. |
| Improved Execute | Fury 15 | 2 | Reduces the Rage cost of Execute. Since Execute converts remaining Rage after the cost into damage, this subsequently increases Execute's damage output by a noticeable amount. |
| 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. Many PvP warriors spend 20 points in this tree just to get this. In PvE it's not that useful, but since it's a prerequisite to Flurry, it's taken anyways. |
| Improved Slam | Fury 20 | 2 | Decreased casting time for Slam. This substantially increases DPS when using a big and slow 2H weapon - see Slam Rotation. |
| Sweeping Strikes | Fury 20 | 1 | The next 10 melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. Highly useful talent, always take for just one point. |
| Weapon Mastery | Fury 20 | 2 | Decreases the chance that the opponent will Dodge your attacks by 1% or 2% depending on rank. It also reduces the duration of Disarm effects placed on the player by 25/50%. |
| Improved Berserker Rage | Fury 25 | 2 | Berserker Rage will generate rage when used. Highly useful, greatly increases "cold start" rage generation, especially in PvP. |
| Flurry | Fury 25 Enrage 5 | 5 | Increased attack speed for the next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike. The key talent in this tree, there's no Fury build without it. |
| Precision | Fury 30 | 3 | Increased chance to hit with melee weapons. Required for all dual wield builds, very good for all others. |
| 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. The main damaging attack of the fury build. |
| Improved Whirlwind | Fury 30 | 2 | Reduced cooldown of Whirlwind. Good if Whirlwind is used a lot. |
| Improved Berserker Stance | Fury 35 | 5 | Increased attack power and reduced threatwhile in Berserker Stance. Mandatory for raid dps. |
| Rampage | Fury 40 Bloodthirst 1 | 1 | Increased attack power by most successful melee attacks for the next 30 seconds. Can only be used after scoring a critical hit. Who does not want extra 250 attack power? |
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 instant Rage generated by Bloodrage. Nice talent to improve the "cold start". |
| Tactical Mastery | none | 3 | Retain additional rage points when changing stances. Used to be mandatory, is still a very useful optional talent, mostly used in PvP. |
| Anticipation | none | 5 | Increased Defense skill. Required for any warrior trying to tank, until defense capped. |
| Shield Specialization | Protection 5 | 5 | Increases the chance to block with a shield and has a chance to generate 1 rage on successful block. Good talent by itself and prerequisite for the mandatory Improved Shield Block. |
| Toughness | Protection 5 | 5 | Increased armor value from items. About every protection build uses this - mitigation from armor is very important. |
| 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). A very useful "panic button" for only a single skill point - take it! |
| Improved Shield Block | Protection 10 Shield Specialization 5 | 1 | Allows Shield Block to block an additional attack and increases the duration by 1 second. Very important PvE talent because it helps make you crushing blow immune. |
| Improved Revenge | Protection 10 | 3 | Gives Revenge a chance to stun the target for 3 sec. Bosses are immune to stuns. |
| Defiance | Protection 10 | 3 | Increases the threat generated by attacks while in Defensive Stance and increases Expertise by 2/4/6. Mandatory for any tank. |
| Improved Sunder Armor | Protection 15 | 3 | Reduces the cost of Sunder Armor. Subject to some discussion, but useful in situations where rage is low. |
| Improved Disarm | Protection 15 | 3 | Increases the duration of Disarm. Optional, usually skipped since disarm is mostly useless against bosses. |
| Improved Taunt | Protection 15 | 2 | Reduces the cooldown of Taunt. Many tanks agree that taunt should not be used that often anyways. |
| Improved Shield Wall | Protection 20 | 2 | Increases the duration of Shield Wall. Rarely taken, shield wall is good enough the way it is. |
| Concussion Blow | Protection 20 | 1 | Stuns the opponent for 5 sec (Active). Bosses are immune, thus useful only in PvP or vs. Trash, but required for the great Shield Slam, thus always taken. |
| Improved Shield Bash | Protection 20 | 2 | Gives Shield Bash a chance to silence for 3 sec. Useless in boss fights, nice in many other situations. |
| Shield Mastery | Protection 25 | 3 | Increases the amount of damage absorbed by the shield. Nice PvE talent, but not mandatory. |
| One-Handed Weapon Specialization | Protection 25 | 5 | Increases the damage dealt with One-Handed Melee weapons. More rage and threat from attacks - great talent. |
| Improved Defensive Stance | Protection 30 | 3 | Reduces all spell damage taken while in Defensive Stance. Mediocre - the reduction isn't all that great. |
| Shield Slam | Protection 30 Concussion Blow 1 | 1 | An attack with the shield, causing damage and a 50% chance to dispel 1 magic effect on the target. Also causes a high amount of threat. A must have ability for tanks, one of only two threat generators that scale with gear. |
| Focused Rage | Protection 30 | 3 | Reduce rage cost of all offensive abilities. The best rage conservation talent - always take it. |
| Vitality | Protection 35 | 5 | Increase Stamina and Strength. No brainer - simply put five points in it. |
| 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, renew the timer on all Sunder Armors stacked on the target. One of only two talents which create threat and scale with gear - must have for warrior main tanks. |
Talent Choices
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.
The Official Warrior Forum is a good place to look for general opinion, and precise builds:
Official World of Warcraft Warrior Forum
See also:
- Warrior Talent Calculator at Wowhead
- Warrior Talents calculator at the Official site
- Warrior Talent Calculator at Panda Hideout
- Warrior Talent Calculator at merciless-gilde.com
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.
Some additional thoughts:
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.
The "best" talents
An overview of talent builds and a short list of useful talents can be found at the Talents Build Guide.
External Resources
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