Whirlwind is truly AoE, and will also hit targets directly behind the warrior.
Be careful of crowd control with Whirlwind. You shouldn't be breaking your teammates' sheep, shackle, seduce or bind.
This attack also has an additional use in PvP - due to the fact it can hit anyone in melee range regardless of where they are attacking you from, it can be used to teach a lesson to that irritating rogue who is constantly backstabbing you.
This ability is extremely effective against multiple enemies, exceeding [Cleave]'s damage and rage efficiency. If you find that you have excess rage to spend, Cleave can still be used in conjunction with this.
The slower and harder hitting your weapon(s) are, the more damage Whirlwind will deal.
Trivia[]
Whirlwind is a basic Warrior spell in Hearthstone. The flavor text reads: "The way to tell seasoned warriors from novice ones: the novices yell "wheeeee" while whirlwinding."
Patch changes[]
Patch 10.0.5 (2023-01-24): Damage increased by 10%.
Patch 10.0.2 (2022-11-15): Whirlwind no longer shows an incorrect range on the tooltip.
Hotfix (2022-09-09):Whirlwind animations will now appear while moving (was only while standing still).
Patch 9.1.5 (2021-11-02): Whirlwind is no longer maximum target capped and instead deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
Patch 9.0.5 (2021-03-09): Fixed an issue that prevented the Whirlwind buff to not be applied to the Warrior if Whirlwind was cast during [Charge].
Hotfix (2020-11-10):Additional target damage reduced to 45% (was 50%).
Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Now available to all warriors (was Arms and Fury only). Level reduced from 40 to 9.
Patch 8.0.1 (2018-07-17): (Fury) Now generates Rage per target hit.
Patch 7.2.5 (2017-06-13): (Arms) Whirlwind damage increased to 90% weapon damage per hit, now costs 30 Rage (was 25 Rage).
Hotfix (2016-08-24):The Arms Warrior talent Trauma should consistently apply via Whirlwind, even from maximum range.
Hotfix (2016-08-01):Whirlwind now hits the correct number of extra targets when modified by Meat Cleaver.
Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): No longer cost Rage for Fury and deals 6.67% more damage.
Hotfix (2014-10-30):Damage has been reduced by 30%.
[Meat Cleaver]'s effects have been merged into baseline Whirlwind for Fury warriors.
Now available only to Arms and Fury warriors.
Hotfix (2013-10-04):Resolved an issue with Whirlwind where polearms equipped in the off-hand slot were not hitting enemies.
Patch 5.2.0 (2013-03-05): Now costs 20 rage (was 30) for Arms Warriors. The cost is unchanged for Fury Warriors.
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Now only available to Arms and Fury specializations and can be used in any stance. Now cost 30 Rage, up from 25. No longer has a cooldown. Weapon damage increased from 65% to 85%.
Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Now has its cooldown reduced by 6 seconds when it deals damage to 4 or more targets. The Whirlwind effect caused by [Bladestorm] remains unchanged.
Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Now does 65% weapon damage, down from 75%.
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Limitation of 4 targets removed, now only cause 75% of weapon damage (was 100%).
Patch 2.4.2 (2008-05-13): Now has the correct sound associated with it.
Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): This ability now strikes with both weapons when a Warrior is dual-wielding.
Patch 1.8.0 (2005-10-10): Now uses normalized attack power.