This guide is intended to provide a general overview of the World of Warcraft Warrior. For a far more in-depth and highly detailed resource on the warrior, check out the Killer Guide's Warrior Guide.

Also check the other Warrior guides on GotWarcraft, such as our Warrior Class Guide and guides for the specific builds of Fury Warrior, Arms Warrior, and Protection Warrior.

This page is updated for Wrath of the Lich king content.

Contents:

• 1.0 - Introduction
• 2.0 - Talents for leveling
• 3.0 - Gear & Progression
• 4.0 - Professions
• 5.0 - 1-80 Warrior Leveling Guide

Introduction

Warriors are one of my favorite classes to level, at least under specific circumstances – they provide the fun gaming style of non-stop death dealing combined with a decent overall leveling speed that can come in narrowly behind rogues and hunters, if done correctly.

One slight catch, to do so you must be geared to the teeth, at all times, and at the very least updating your weaponry every 5 or 6 levels if not more.  So have fun dropping your cash, or gold in this case, down the proverbial black hole known as the auction house.

Besides that small downer, warriors can provide a fun and engaging experience to level, especially with the somewhat recent increase to quested experience gain – this really helps make their, and any class's, leveling far easier.

2.0 – Talent Builds for Leveling

Build #1: 19/52/0 Fury/Arms Build - This is a solid level 80 leveling build, from Zygor's Guide, complete with glyphs. It's intended to get you into Titan's Grip asap. It's not intended to be a true raiding or PvP build.

1. 3 pts in Armored to the Teeth - More armor = more damage.
2. 5 pts in Cruelty - Yes, we like crits and it helps with other talents.
3. 4 of 5 pts in Unbridled Wrath - More Rage
4. 3 pts in Improved Cleave - More Cleave damage
5. 5 in Dual Wield Specialization - Use two weapons. 'nuff said
6. 3 in Precision - Hit more often = more damage and more threat
7. Death Wish - More damage. Great for DPS and leveling.
8. 2 in Improved Intercept - More frequent Intercepts
9. 5 in Flurry - more crits = more attacks = more damage and threat
10. Blood Thirst - Instant attack and restores a bit of health
11. 2 in Improved Whirlwind - More Whirlwind damage
12. 5 pts in Improved Berserker Stance - More Srength = more damage , but less threat
13. Rampage - More crits for your team
14. 3 in Bloodsurge - Your next Slam might be instant (20% chance)
15. 5 in Unending Fury - More damage
16. Titan's Grip - Weild two 2-hand weapons. What's not to like?
17. Arms Talents
18. 3 in Improved Heroic Strike - Lowered rage cost.
19. 2 of 5 in Deflection - 2% parry
20. 2 in Iron Will - Lower duration of Stun and Charms
21. 3 in Tactical Mastery - More efficient rage management, more threat in Def. stance.
22. Anger Management - More Rage
23. 2 in Impale - more crit damage
24. 3 in Deep Wounds - adds a bleed to your crits
25. 3 in Two Handed Weapon Specialization - More damage with your two two-handers

Build #2: 54/17/0 Arms + fury build. Another Warrior leveling build with better ability to fight multiple mobs, comparable DPS to Fury, but less healing, so a bit more downtime.

This allows you to pump out massive amounts of consistent damage combined with frequent critical strikes giving a near permanent flurry buff and maxing out white damage.

The build covers almost any need as far as talents go, picking up all the necessary ones and essentially going for maximum efficiency as far as a well geared fury warrior is concerned.  However, that’s not to say it’s in any way perfect for your warrior, so feel free to experiment as you go and find your match.

Cruelty provides us with a staple damage increase, it also gives us the much needed critical strikes that become oh so very important at the later levels, largely due to flurry.  It’s probably one of the best talents in the tree despite occupying the first tier.

Second tier we pick up unbridled wrath, this also helps greatly at all levels – Hilariously enough I skipped this my first time through the game, way back at release, and instead picked up booming voice as unbridled wrath seemed rather weak to me at a first glance.

Don’t make this same mistake, the talent is yet another must have as it really shows when you’ve maxed it out and proceed to fill your rage pool *while* fully spamming  all abilities.

At one point in time I'd favored enrage over dual-wield specialization, however that time is simply no-longer present and for consistency I now pick up five points in Dual-wield spec as opposed to my prior builds - I'd recommend you do the same.

Flurry is the real killer however, it rounds out the builds damage abilities with a massive consistent increase of damage throughout practically every fight.  Just one thing, you might not notice it being quite as good as I’m playing it up to be until you’ve A: maxed it out, 5/5 – and B: build up a decent critical rating.

Bloodthirst, rampage, improved berserker stance, etc.  All these simply build upon already present damage dealing capabilities, learn to use them correctly and they truly become a boon, use them incorrectly and you’ll likely notice minimal effect.

3.0 – Gear & Progression

Fury warrior stats are quite simple. We want to maximize damage at all costs, this means picking up as much attack power, critical rating, hit rating, and strength as possible, with all other statistics taking a backseat in this regard, including stamina.

One practice that occasionally at higher levels is the usage of mail and/or leather armor that possesses the greater damage stats, however this shouldn’t become much of a factor along the road to your 60’s.

Strength is your first priority, it increases attack power, and in doing so, your base damage values.  Stacking massive amounts of strength is most effective at lower levels and slowly erodes up until 80 whereupon it about evens out against critical rating.

Unless you are doing a lot of PvP and/or tanking you will find the offensive stats to me much more valuable than the defensive ones. While leveling stick the the massive offense and carry enough food and bandages with you to minimize downtime.

Critical rating and raw attack power come at about an even par, however in the end I’d say critical rating edges out +attack power simply due to its effect on increasing how often flurry proc’s and therefore your white damage significantly.

4.0 - Professions

Skip the crafting professions while leveling, unless you have, or can generate, plenty of gold. If you have to level a skill then go for Blacksmithing and mining. Blacksmithing will get you into some good gear and mining will provide raw materials. First Aid is essential (for when you smash your hand with your hammer.).

• Inscription is, by far, the best money make of the professions and has some cool high end things that are self-only. You'll still spend plenty to level this one, but nowhere near as much as the other skills and you can easily make it all back.
• Skip all the other crafting professions.
• Mining - still a great money maker and provides raw materials for Blacksmithing and Engineering.
• Skinning - A solid money maker. Just sell everything, even the scraps. Since you're going to be killing the beasts anyway you might as well take it.
• Herbalism - A solid money maker, especially with scribes buying up tons of herbs to level Inscription.
• Cooking - A good skill to take. You'll be able to cook up foods that buff str, stam, and other stats.
• Fishing - A good way to slow down your leveling speed. It also provides mats for cooking and some fish are good gold makers (oily blackmouth, deviate fish, etc.)
• First Aid - An essential skill. Keep it maxed at all times.

5.0 -- 1-80 Warrior Leveling Guide

One of the commonly seen questions in the forums and in the game chat is something like, "Where do I go to level...?" You can grind endless groups of mobs, which a fury warrior does very well, or you can follow the quests as you find them, perhaps looking for quest details on a site like Thottbot.com.

Or you can consider a full blown Warrior leveling guide. The guide covers the entire 1-80 leveling path and it's laid out for you, step by step, Zygor's Guide automates that path, from start to finish, for your Warrior or any class you play.

Automation means you pick your starting point and the guide automatically updates and advances to the next step as you complete each step and quest, and also sets the next waypoint arrow automatically. In addition, the important quest info is included in the guide.

All you have to do is follow the arrow and check the guide (with its in-game window) to see what you have to do. You'll knock off the quests boom, boom, boom and you'll level with a surprising lack of stress.

You will probably never need to look at your quest log again, much less browse Thottbot. Grab your copy of Zygor's guide here or read our review.