• 1.0 - The Warrior
  • Races
• 2.0 - Warrior Abilities
• 3.0 - Leveling
• 4.0 - PvP
• 5.0 - Raiding
• 6.0 - 1-80 Warrior Leveling Guide

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the Warrior class. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource on the Warrior, updated for Wrath of the Lich King, check out this guide.

Also take note of our other warrior guides: our Warrior leveling guide, and the arms, fury, and protection guides, and our new Warrior PvP guide.

1.0 - The Warrior

The Alliance Races

Humans

We’ll start with the Alliance choices, firstly Humans and Diplomacy.  The ability Diplomacy grants you a solid 10% increase to all faction reputation gains.  Initially you might scoff at this being a warrior racial, but quite honestly since WoW incorporates so many faction grinds with each new expansion this ability’s been elevated to a nigh ‘must have’ status.

• Diplomacy - great for leveling faction, not so hot otherwise
• Perception - nice in PvP and occasionally while leveling.
• Escape - Very nice in PvP, only occasionally useful otherwise.
• Spirit increase- Low wut? Warrior have no spirit and need none.

Night Elves

Nextly, Night Elves gain both Shadowmeld and Quickness as far as effective abilities go, the wisp spirit racial(increased movement speed when dead) is fairly pointless unless you plan on dieing frequently, which you shouldn’t as long as you play your cards right.

Quickness is a 1% increase to dodge, seemingly worthless initially, but this 1% easily counts for multiple pieces of gear bonuses (especially useful for tanking) at level 70+, take note of it.  Secondly, Shadowmeld gives you a stealth of sorts, allowing you to wait and ambush others in PvP, or even just avoid being targeted while AFK or resting.

• Shadowmeld has it's points, mostly to eat or go AFK safely, but also useful for ambushes. Meld, lurk in wait, charge.
• Quickness- with the 3.2 patch nerf to Dodge Rating that 1% to quickness counts for just that much more. Nice for tanking.

Dwarves

Dwarves have a nice PvP ability that has some use in raids, but their other abilities add little to being a Warrior.

• Stoneform removes bleeds, poisons, and diseases which gives Dwarves much needed PvP utility against Rogues, Death Knights, and other bleed using classes. It also adds 10% to armor which is situationally useful in morest areas of play.
• Treasure finding has little utility.
• Mace Expertise is useful if you're looking for every last point of expertise on your gear, but most will never notice.

Draenei

Draenei present probably the most contestable rank amongst warrior race choices, some say the HoT(Heal over time) is easily worth it, acting as a secondary bandage – Others however disagree, and I must admit it becomes somewhat weaker with level, becoming at 70+ when you have over 16,000 HP.

However, Draenei also gain a 1% +hit aura for both themselves and all party members within 30 yards, nothing to scoff at in both PvE (raiding) and PvP, this will be especially relevant to those desiring to run with a dual-wield Fury build at higher levels.

• The Hit Aura increases the hit chance for the entire team or raid, so may be the most useful racial of all, Horde or Alliance.

Gnomes

Finally, Gnomes, also the ultimate PvP warrior race despite what you might think at first glance, purely because of escape artist: a handy 1-minute 45 sec. cooldown racial ability allowing Gnomish Warriors to free themselves from a root or snare effect. Their small size also makes them more difficult for some people to target (especially compared to, say.. Taurens.)

Outside of that one ability Gnomes bring nothing special to Warriors.

The Horde Races

Orcs

On the flipside, there is the Horde and the Orcs: Orcs are the race most consider the deadliest warrior race at 80.  Orcs possess an interesting racial ability called Bloodfury, which increases their attack power by a significant amount.  However, this also reduces healing effects by 50%. A good ability for leveling and certain PvP situations, not so good as a tanking ability, where heals are essential..

Additionally, and making them only more favored as a warrior race, Orcs possess Hardiness, a 15% resistance to all stuns and knockout effects. What with warriors already having an anti-rogue arsenal, Orcs stand as the greatest rogue slayers of all.

• Enrage increases damage by a significant amount at the cost of reduced healing.
• Resistance to Stuns is most useful in PvP, but sometimes useful otherwise.
• Expertise with Axes is useful for min-maxers, but not a major ability
• Increased damage with pets - Now if you could just make that Death Knight your pet...

Tauren

Taurens are the greatest tank race, for all those wishing to focus on maximising potential as opposed to looks, a 5% increase to base health becoming amazingly useful at high levels for any prospective tank. 

Also useful is war stomp, an almost strictly PvP ability, but also useful for leveling, that gives them a crucial short range AoE stun, highly valuable.

Trolls

Trolls are something of the weaker choice, although I must admit they gain innumerable points for style and uniqueness. Despite this their abilities are some of the weakest when considered as a Warrior. 

• Berserking increases attack speed by a small amount (when healthy) which doesn't add much, but is useful in raiding where the fight is long enough to make a differernce.
• Regeneration - Very little help in combat and your bandages will probably take care of the out of combat part. So while any regen is nice, it's hardly significant.
• Increased crit with throwing and bows - nice for Hunters, but since you're only using thrown wpns and bows for pulling it's not very interesting.
• Do Voodoo Shuffle reduces movement altering effects, such as from Slow (ice) spells.

Undead

Finally, Undead, another race with one great PvE ability and one great PvP to match.  Will of the Forsaken is one of the greatest racials PvP wise, granting a free break from fear, sleep, and charm effects every 2 minutes, yet PvE wise it’s almost useless, aside from specific boss fights.

Cannibalize grants undead great post-fight regeneration ability, making them faster than other warrior races in long-term grinding.  Finally, underwater breathing has helped in the odd-scenario of being rooted underwater by an enterprising alliance druid, not to mention a few underwater quests.

Overall

All in all I’d recommend you consider whether you value looks or maximized power first, and then take your pick of either Tauren for tanking, Gnome or Human for PvP, although admittedly undead also have a strong case for being PvP champions as well. Then, of couirse, we have the Draenei for raiding with their not insignificant 1% hit aura.

Tradeskills

Another large consideration when beginning your warrior is what tradeskills to pick up, and making this decision will seriously affect the future of how you obtain both gear and cash for the grinds to 80..

Epic flying mounts require over 5000 gold, for mount and training, your ground epic mount a much smaller, yet still high amount.  To reach these requires often dedicated gold making, and for that pursuit I’d recommend picking up a combination of harvesting skills such as Herbalism, Skinning, or Mining.

The crafting professions are all very expensive to level up and you should probably wait until 80 to seriously level any of them.

If you have to work on a crafting skill as you level... Either Engineering, or much more likely Blacksmithing, come to mind.  Engineering provides both enjoyment and PvP effectiveness in the form of numerous trinkets and utilities.

Blacksmithing allows you to craft powerful endgame armor or weapons with materials gathered personally and on the auction house/through raids.  Generally blacksmithing creations are more useful PvP wise than PvE, but this isn’t always the case.

2.0 Warrior Abilities

Warriors are in the possessions of numerous ability choices, sectioned off into three distinct tree’s much like other classes, each with potential benefits and drawbacks based upon your desired style of play and generally lined up to focus on synergy with a specific talent tree.

However, above all, Warriors ability usage and capabilities are both improved and hindered based upon the current stance they utilize, those being: Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stance.  Each is focused upon a specific forte of the warrior, General Combat, Tanking, and Damage output respectively.

Depending on which stance you currently use your selection as to which abilities to use will be noticeably hindered with the sole exception of battle stance, which allow the usage of almost all attack types, although this too is with a few exceptions.

Defensive Stance

Defensive stance is the first stance warrior’s gain, starting battle stance aside, and is the cornerstone of all tanking from levels 10, when you first receive it via quest, up to the level cap   This stance gives you a solid 10% decrease in all damage, increase in aggro generated, and an equal 10% decrease in damage dealt

This stance requires you do a short and usually easily completed solo-quest given by the class trainer in either the second town you encounter (EX: Goldshire) or from your trainer in a primary city, such as Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

All in all defensive stance is useful more so to those intending to team up or instance early on. Anyone planning to put those pursuits on hold until reaching maximum level will rarely find Defensive Stance helpful, much less required.

Berserker Stance

Berserker stance is a notably more difficult to complete quest reward, first available at level 30 (although many hold off on this to make things notably easier by putting on three or four levels.)  This will likely be determined by your gearing level, desire for the stance, and whether you can call in any outside help.

The stance provides +3% to your critical strike chance and causes you to take and additional 5% damage from attacks. The quest starts from your respective warrior trainer, in a primary city such as Orgrimmar and Stormwind, sending you off to Fray Island, located southeast off the coast of ratchet.  While the fight used to be difficult, currently you will fight a series of level 26-27 gladitors and then one level 30 gladiator, who isn't an an elite or anything. If you have decent green gear, some bandages, and maybe a healing potion you should nail this on your 1st try.

Berserker stance opens up a lot of new options when fighting, make certain to give your new abilities a workout along with the stance, this’ll allow you to determine which of the three you favor most for leveling, although berserker is an obvious choice for fury warriors.

The Whirlwind Weaponry

Although this is technically not an ability, this quest is the follow-up to completing your berserker stance quest line.  The whirlwind weapon quest chain, despite the level you pick it up at (30,) is not for anyone expecting to complete it as this level without lots of help.

I personally have run many a warrior through this quest chain, just try and find a helpful guild member or even just another high level warrior, they’re more likely to be understanding to your request of help than those of another class.

My personal favorite happens to be the whirlwind sword, however for DPS purposes most will find the axe more to their desire, it does actually do slightly more, especially for Mortal strike/arms talent specialized warriors.

Hitting the big 40

Hitting Level 40 was once impressive due to the sudden increase in travel speed from a mount should you be capable of affording one.  However, that’s no longer the case as mounts were moved to level 30 (20 with the 3.2 patch) for ease of use and generally making leveling a whole lot easier at an earlier stage of the game.

Despite this, level 40 remains an important milestone on any warriors path due to the addition of plate mail as well as a large amount of new weaponry available from 40+ dungeons and quests.  Additionally, we gain access to Mortal Strike or Bloodthirst, should you have placed 30 points in any sole talent tree up to this point.

Mortal strike remains an impressive PvP ability not to mention its large PvE presence as a staple move for Arms DPS.  An instantaneous large amount of damage plus a large (50%) decrease in healing effectiveness will never get old – Never.

Bloodthirst, on the other hand, is valued for slightly different reasons.  Fury warriors utilize this attack to fill a swift attack rotation combined with its admittedly small healing effect (more healing never hurts, right?) and the ability to pump out large numbers with its newly improved attack power to damage values.

Shield slam is a rather unimpressive attack in comparison I must admit, but it remains a staple of any protection warrior's tanking and damage rotations.  Large amounts of threat and instant damage are yet again as useful as ever.

Core Abilities

When talking about core warrior abilities, one specifically comes first to mind, Heroic Strike, the equivalent of a warriors old-faithful, our starting special attack, and useful all the way up to 80.

Heroic strike is one of the greatest usages for those with excess rage when grinding and even tanking, dealing a good amount of damage combined with improved threat comparative to our normal white damage strikes.

Next would be either thunderclap or cleave, both are generally utilized in similar scenarios, notably those when tanking or simply grinding through groups of mobs.  Cleave is an easy aggro puller for those desiring to pick up 2-3 mobs, thunderclap augments this with an additional amount of threat combined with lowered enemy damage output for the duration.

The biggest complaint would be the breaking of crowd control in tight situations (in instances or raids) where every mob possible needs to be locked down. Both abilities will break crowd contraol effects and this is where many new tanks make mistakes that possibly wipe the group and give both abilities a bad reputation, in some cases.

Use caution when firing off your multiple-target attacks and you should never have a problem taking multiple mobs every pull of your tanking career.

Taunt

Taunt, is definitely a core ability, but is complicated enough as to deserve its own section.  Taunt is one of the tank's greatest aids when dealing with either higher level party members pulling aggro or a few trigger happy hunters or mages.

What this ability does is not pull aggro for a set duration before releasing the mob, rather it brings your threat levels to an exact equal to whoever is currently holding the mobs attention, meaning that by following up taunt with revenge, shield slam, or a sunder, you solidify your hold on its aggro so long as you continue to output more threat than the other player.

This can be used to your advantage by waiting to taunt until the offending mage, warlock, or hunter in your group has unloaded with all cooldowns and major damage abilities, building up major threat within the space of a few seconds.  By taunting immediately afterwards, you effectively gain all of the threat they just built up plus your own after the taunt.

Charge & Intercept.

These two serve a dual-purpose for both grinding and tanking, with charge being a staple rage-builder when mowing down mob after mob as well as reducing travel time slightly.  Charge also aids tanks in building the rage required to hold aggro on multiple mobs early into the fight.

Interception is much more of use in PvP for the most part, however when a mob starts chasing your healer, this ability can be easily used to catch up and either taunt or blast a shield slam onto the offending mob before they can catch their own target.

Other similar abilities include Intervene and Victory Rush, however these are covered later on.

3.0 Warrior Leveling

Note: For more a more in-depth look at leveling a warrior, check out our Warrior Leveling Guide

Leveling a warrior has become more easily accomplished with almost every patch, leading to the current status of warrior leveling nigh matching that of all other quickly leveling classes, most likely due to the increased emphasis on questing as opposed to long-term grinding.

As far as speed and style, this will largely depend on which talent tree you choose to emphasize, Fury being first amongst leveling speeds, arms second, and protection a very distant third.  However, all things considered, each suits a differing player and variety of ‘fun.’

Fury Warriors

Fury leveling is focused on killing quickly and effectively through extremely fast attack speeds combined with a high critical and +hit rate, if possible.  These stats combine to generate a blender-speed whirlwind of (insert two weapons of choice) when mowing down mobs.

Downtime is probably least with this build as well, lending itself to taking down opposition with minimal time spent and thus lessening the time the enemy spends beating on you, always helpful.  When combined with bandaging, this reduces downtime to almost nil.

Although the traditional build of fury is indeed dual-wield, there is also the variant of two-handed fury that boasts a leveling speed somewhere between that of dual-wield and an arms build, yet for many this difference in play style is more interesting/more fun for leveling regardless.

In my experience 2-handed fury builds are a good change of pace from the usual fury grind and mix the blinding speed of dual-wield with the big hits of an Arms build, the result is pleasing and a undeniably viable choice for all looking for something a bit more unique.

Arms Warriors

Arms build is the second fastest leveling style, however it also presents itself as the greatest PvP build for both leveling and battlegrounds/arena’s, making it one of the more viable choices for those playing on PvP servers.

Mortal Strike is where this build really picks up as prior to gaining an instant attack arms DPS is sorely lacking as well as being exceedingly dull for the most part. A big turn off for most players is hitting 1 or 2 buttons from 1-40.

Fortunately, post 40 a mortal strike build picks up significantly, finally starting to catch up to the otherwise blinding speed of fury from 20-40 and becoming a great equalizer in any PvP battles you encounter while running about questing zones.

All in all this is a good change of style/pace for those tired of dual-wield or being slaughtered by other players frequently. Still, for those seeking to maximize leveling speeds, go fury.

Protection Warriors

Protection is by far the slowest solo-leveling specialization for any warrior, no matter the gear nor personal playing ability, protection is simply too low on the damage output and downtime management to be a viable solo-alternative to either fury or arms.

However, when teaming frequently (for instances and aids) this becomes an entirely different matter. Any warrior with some good friends, seeking to spend more time in instances than outside, will find protection suddenly that much more viable.

Instances aren't necessarily the fastest way to level, but they can be more fun for many players, and the gear to be had is much better than what is found through leveling. Additionally, when questing, a tank can always come in handy for tougher/elite group quests, making protection ideal for someone with at least one or two buddies at all times.

I won’t recommend it for leveling personally, but it’s definitely the party-players build of choice should they desire to soak up damage. Then again, a damage build makes killing speeds that much faster, it’s all up to you.

What Gear and When

Gearing is fairly simple thankfully, our core statistics being those of strength, +crit, agility, and finally stamina, as everyone can use a little more health, tanks most of all.  I’ll cover the fundamental increases and priorities, but the more specific build guides flesh this out further.

Strength is easy, more strength means more attack power and by connection more damage.  More damage is faster killing, less damage taken, and overall increased leveling speed with less downtime.

Critical is a stat generally lacking in earlier levels, the first appearing somewhere in the 40’s and even then in low amounts.  This stat plays best when combined with large amounts of strength, preferably picking up gear that has both stats in high amounts if possible.

Agility is more effective prior to picking up significant +crit, thereafter it slowly declines in usefulness aside from adding some dodge and other defensive stats.  Although never unwanted, agility is less important than strength or +crit generally.

Stamina is obvious, more health is always better, especially in PvP or when tanking, and given our utter lack of healing aside from crusader enchants, bloodthirst, and bandaging, you’ll find that large amounts of stamina saves you a lot of corpse runs and thus time.

Hit Rating isn't necessary while leveling (you'll have enough from your talents,) but is important for PvP and very important for raiding damage output.

Armor penetration has minor utility.

Haste rating is useful for long fights, such as in raiding.

Intellect and Spirit have no business being on any piece of your gear, ever.

4.0 Warrior PvP

This section covers some basics, check out our Warrior PvP Guide for more.

PvP as a warrior is probably one of the most enjoyable experiences in the game as far as I’m concerned. There is nothing better than baring down on an offending cloth wearing caster, busting out trinkets to break whatever roots and snares they possess, and dropping them in 2-3 hits with massive damage.

However, this obviously isn’t the way all or even most battles go, otherwise we’d be seeing the nerfbat quite soon. Rrather, most fights head the opposite way quite quickly, especially when caught by surprise by anything from a mage to even rogues.

Perhaps the most key element to general warrior combat is always being prepared for every single class and talent build. Preparation ahead of time gives us the ability to use our numerous counter-attacks and adjust ourselves to the opponent’s style of combat quickly enough to prevent being slaughtered by the opposition with well timed roots, snares, fear spell.

Muscle Memory

Of all the classes I’ve played in PvP, meaning every class in world of warcraft, warriors required the most instinctive play as opposed to actual well-thought out strategies, how much I played seemed to drastically improve my abilities as opposed to training myself for specific fights.

I sometimes use a Nostromo gaming pad, sometimes not, I've also experimented with special macro set-ups for specific classes, but either way I found that whether I could mash the required key before my opponent could react decided most fights before they even began.

Hitting charge before you’re forced into ‘combat’ status, mashing intercept to catch the sprinting rogue and following it up with hamstring, intervene a team-mate to gain ground or help them fight off another player, all these are determined by how well your hands know what you’re doing as opposed to conscious thought patterns.

Whether you’re Arms, Fury, or Protection, if you can master your keys and hit them in proper succession with your eyes closed, you’ve probably reached the level where you need to worry more about gear than experience.

Arms Warrior PvP

Arms and thus, Mortal Strike, is the PvP build of choice for 90% of the warriors you’ll see, likely 100% in the higher arena brackets, and this comes with good reason as well.  Mortal strike, combined with big critical strikes, is the absolute greatest utility a warrior can bring to any PvP scenario, whether you’re playing solo, in the chaos of battlegrounds, or fighting alongside well-trained allies in Arena.

Warriors will always lead the assist-train death charge, Mortal strike exposes even the strongest and well-healed players to possible slaughter within those few seconds. Given that the attack gives you a healthy (although not for your opponent) burst of damage as well, it’s nigh-unthinkable not open a fight with a Hamstring-Mortal Strike combo.

Arms warriors are essentially kill-captains, they point, everyone else jumps on the player with 50% healing, and slowed down by hamstring, to take them out before they react to their sudden lack of health.

Fury Warrior PvP

PvP as a fury warrior is considerably more difficult than that of Arms, mostly the fact that you no-longer bring a 50% healing debuff and high instant damage to the table, instead replacing it with a consistently high DPS more apt for slaying mobs than players, especially those with healers.

To make up at least partially for your lack of utility, you’ll have to be geared to the teeth and possess amazing reflexes to bring the pain to opponents constantly moving, strafing, and generally making it a pain to keep up constant DPS throughout the fight.

Protection Warrior PvP

Protection warrior PvP is, for the most part, a largely laughable enterprise, consisting of being kited by hunters and other such ranged classes as they constantly ignore your pitiful hits (of about 1/10 the damage of other warriors.)

On the flipside, you’ll be more than capable of deflecting high-damage spells such as pyroblast and other opener combo’s with more than a little luck combined with good reflexes.  Rogues will find you utterly infuriating to take down as you disarm them and slowly beat them into the ground.

Finally, you definitely have the element of surprise, 90% of warriors being Arms, 10% Fury, and that nonexistent 0% protection like yourself – Use this advantage well.

How to achieve mastery of the PvP game? You have to know your character better then than other guy knows his and if you know his character as well (or better) than he does then you have a huge edge. It also helps to know the tips and tricks of all the PvP areas (BGs & Arenas.) This guide will give you a huge leg up on achieving that PvP mastery for your Warrior. Get yours now.

Check out our Protection Warrior Guide for more in-depth information on warrior tanking

5.0 Warrior Raiding

Raiding is probably warrior’s greatest point, whether you’re a fury warrior looking to bust out big numbers and hit the top 5 on DPS charts or a protection specced tank wanting to help others bring the beat down to all manner of boss fight.

These two roles, DPS and Tank, are the only ones Warriors are capable of fulfilling for obvious reasons.  Arms warriors will sadly see themselves left out in general, although they more than make up for it in PvP.

I’ll post up the general guidelines numbers for prospective tanks looking to start Karazhan. This will get you off to a good start for post-70 raiding. (For far more in-depth Warrior raiding, pvp, and leveling coverage check the Killer Guides' Warrior Guide.)  Additionally for DPS warriors wanting to make their way into raid dungeons as well, check our Fury Warrior Guide or Arms Warrior Guide

For Tanks Pre-Karazhan:
Minimum Health = 12,000
Minimum Armor = 12,000 - 13,000
Minimum Dodge/Parry Total = 30% or 15% each
Mininmum Defense = 490

Gear List: this stuff should get you within the required numbers to begin your tanking career raid-wise

Helm:

Felsteel Helm - Crafted
Myrmidon's Headdress - Quest Reward

Neck:

Mark of the Ravenguard - Quest Reward
Strength of the Untamed - Reputation Reward(Cenarion Circle Revered)
Natasha's Battle Chain - Quest Reward

Back:

Devilshark Cape - Drop(Steamvault)
Cloak of Eternity - Crafted

Shoulders:

Shoulderguards of the Bold - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)
Warchief's Mantle - Quest Reward

Chest:

Jade-Skull Breastplate - Drop(Mechanar)
Breastplate of the Warbringer - Quest Reward
Vindicator's Hauberk - Reputation Reward(Aldor Revered)

Wrist:

Sha'tari Wrought Armguards - Quest Reward
Bracers of the Green Fortress - Crafted

Hands:

Felsteel Gloves - Crafted
Thatia's Self-Correcting Gauntlets - Drop(Random BoE)

Belt:

Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard - Quest Reward
Girdle of the Lost Vindicator - Quest Reward(Aldor Only)

Legs:

Felsteel Leggings - Crafted
Timewarden's Leggings - Reputation Reward(Keepers of Time Revered)

Boots:

Sha'tari Wrought Greaves - Quest Reward
Flesh Beast's Metal Greaves - Quest Reward

Rings:

Protector's Mark of the Redemption - Quest Reward
Wind Trader's Band - Quest Reward
Iron Band of the Unbreakable - Drop(Old Hillbrad, Caverns of Time)

Trinkets:

Adamantine Figurine - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)
Dabiri's Enigma - Quest Reward
Figurine of the Colossus - Drop(Shattered Halls)

Weapons:

Grom'tor's Charge - Quest Reward
Honor's Call - Reputation Reward(Honor Hold Exalted)
The Sun Eater - Drop(Mechanar - Heroic Only)

Shield:

Netherwing Protector's Shield - Quest Reward
Aegis of the Sunbird - Drop(Botanica)
Platinum Shield of the Valorous - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)

Ranged Weapon:

Zerid's Vintage Musket - Quest Reward
Scout's Throwing Knives - Quest Reward

1-80 Warrior Leveling Guide

Once you have the right set-up for your playstyle, consider a full blown Warrior leveling guide for your 1-80 blast. Instead of grinding or grabbing all available quests, and wondering where to go when they run out, look into Zygor's Guide. Zygor practically automates the whole leveling path, from start to finish, for your Warrior. You will never wonder where to go or what to do next.

Pick your starting point (level 1 or level 79) and the guide automatically updates and advances as you complete quests, sets a waypoint arrow automatically, and includes the important quest info. You will probably never need to look at your quest log again, much less browse sites like Thottbot.

Grab your copy of Zygor's Guide here or read our review.