Post by Vangelis on Dec 12, 2005 15:44:39 GMT -5
VANGELIS' SHORT GUIDE TO THE WARRIOR
[Note: this guide updates and replaces my comments in the "Warrior's Way" thread.]
[Note#2: Edited for BC 1/23/07]
This guide has nothing to do with roleplaying. If you want to play a barbarian who charges headlong into battle, with no skills apart from being able to char boar meat over a fire (*cough* Menshk), knock yourself out. Literally. But I digress.
This guide is written for those players like myself who, in addition to loving their RP, also like to have an effective and efficient character. Having leveled my first warrior (Vangelis) despite doing most everything wrong, when it came to my second (Tatoo)I really enjoyed being finally able to do it all right. This article is a summary of my most important discoveries to date.
PART 1: GETTING STARTED
Warriors have one and only one weakness: no healing. The good news is that with First Aid and Cooking you CAN do something about this! My advice is to learn both, because with a bandage and a piece of food you can go from near-death to full health in about 15 seconds of resting.
Regarding tradeskills you can do what you like, but if you want to know what works best for a leveling warrior there is no question about Herbalism/Alchemy. I'm sure that at one time Blacksmithing was another reasonable option, but with the Auction House economy having become as skewed as it is, the bottom line is that you can sell spare herbs for better gear than you could make for yourself as a smith.
For efficient leveling, the optimal level of difficulty for your questing involves maximum xp for minimum down-time. I have suggested that warriors stick to green-rated quests when soloing, which was certainly true for Vangelis with no potions, no first aid and no cooking. With all of these things in place, however, Tatoo breezed through yellow-rated quests and even some orange ones.
There are two types of optimal gear for Warriors: "of the bear" and "of the tiger". Bear is better for tanking, Tiger for damage. I think Bear is more effective overall (crafted Green Iron armour from blacksmiths is generally ideal for its level, and the Green Iron Hauberk is optimal at level 31).
If you can team up with a healer you will be well-nigh unstoppable.
Use your rage: a full rage bar means you're wasting your potential.
Relative to their difficulty, the armour from the special Warriors' quests suck. Normally I am opposed to getting high-level help, but the sense of accomplishment in achieving your Fire Hardened Hauberk at level 29 is somewhat diminished when you realize it's a really good item for someone who's level 24. The Fire Hardened Gauntlets quest (from Klockmort Spannerspan) is the only one that is barely worth pursuing after the Hauberk. If you want to do these quests you must start with the "Yorus Barleybrew" quest from Wu Shen (the weapon trainer) in Stormwind, available at level 20.
PART 2: ABILITIES & TALENTS
Spending rage on Heroic Strike is great at low levels (up to the early 30s).
Do not forget Shield Bash (and Pummel, at higher levels) for interrupting enemy spells!
Maximum effectiveness requires stance-switching while in combat, so the ability to retain rage through a stance switch is crucial. Since the BC expansion this can partly be done by way of simple ability training, but those three points in Tactical Mastery (in the Prot tree) are well worth it.
Given the large amount of time spent soloing, I would not recommend a Protection focus for new warriors. Focusing on offensive talents will not limit your ability to tank in any low- or mid-level instance if you know what you're doing. Dual-wielding seems best for damage between levels 20 and 40.
If you have no particular preference the standard warrior build is the race to Mortal Strike (Arms). 5 points in Cruelty (Rage) are points well spent along the way. Once you have Mortal Strike, you will will want a big, SLOW two-handed weapon for maximum effectiveness. Look at the weapon's base damage as well as its DPS.
Since the Burning Crusade expansion, a Fury focus is now just as viable as Arms for damage-dealing warriors (who can tank part-time). Your main hand weapon can be either fast or slow, but the offhand weapon must be a fast one.
PART 3: TANKING
The first rule of tanking is to accept the fact that you are not going to do damage. Put away your gigantic weapon, slap on a shield, and prepare to spend your time in Defensive Stance. Forget spending rage on Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst, and learn how to inflict THREAT (or "aggro") upon your enemies. Pay attention to the powers described as "generating a high amount of threat".
Here are the threat attacks, in order of importance: Revenge, Sunder, Heroic Strike. The purpose of Taunt is to give you time to apply these attacks; it does not work by itself!
If you have a second warrior assigned primarily to damage-dealing, they should do the Hamstrings and the Battle Shouts. Otherwise those are going to be your job, too. Demoralizing Shouts are always the responsibility of the main tank.
To get the attention of a group of enemies, you can: (a) charge first, (b) be the Puller, or (c) pull the enemies off of the Puller. Option (a) is the quick-and-dirty method, and will get the job done well enough if the group is not too challenging. Option (b) is still easy but more controlled. Option (c) is best, because the best puller is a Hunter or a sapping Rogue, but requires the most skill.
Thunder Clap is a powerful threat-gatherer but must not be done near sapped or sheeped enemies. If you are not sapping, the mage can wait until you Thunder Clap (which should be the first thing you do after the charge or the pull) before sheeping. If the rogue is sapping, stand back from your group in order to charge when the rogue gets closer, so you can Thunder Clap safely away from the sapped enemy. In the case of an "add" (additional enemies who surprise you during a fight), a quick Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap is the best way to get them to stick to you rather than your healer.
Other defensive-stance techniques that are not to be ignored are Disarm and Shield Block. Disarm is obvious. Shield Block not only protects you from your opponent, but also sets up an near-automatic Revenge attack! Optimizing the Shield Block technique would involve a shield spike and the Improved Revenge (Protection) talent.
Despite being available only in Berserker stance, the "Intercept" ability is an essential Tanking tool - don't forget it when you need to get to your healer or mage quickly!
Fear ("Intimidating Shout") should never be used in an instance except in certain rare situations. When outside fighting groups of enemies, on the other hand, it can give you essential time to bandage yourself up and win an otherwise unwinnable fight!
[Note: this guide updates and replaces my comments in the "Warrior's Way" thread.]
[Note#2: Edited for BC 1/23/07]
This guide has nothing to do with roleplaying. If you want to play a barbarian who charges headlong into battle, with no skills apart from being able to char boar meat over a fire (*cough* Menshk), knock yourself out. Literally. But I digress.
This guide is written for those players like myself who, in addition to loving their RP, also like to have an effective and efficient character. Having leveled my first warrior (Vangelis) despite doing most everything wrong, when it came to my second (Tatoo)I really enjoyed being finally able to do it all right. This article is a summary of my most important discoveries to date.
PART 1: GETTING STARTED
Warriors have one and only one weakness: no healing. The good news is that with First Aid and Cooking you CAN do something about this! My advice is to learn both, because with a bandage and a piece of food you can go from near-death to full health in about 15 seconds of resting.
Regarding tradeskills you can do what you like, but if you want to know what works best for a leveling warrior there is no question about Herbalism/Alchemy. I'm sure that at one time Blacksmithing was another reasonable option, but with the Auction House economy having become as skewed as it is, the bottom line is that you can sell spare herbs for better gear than you could make for yourself as a smith.
For efficient leveling, the optimal level of difficulty for your questing involves maximum xp for minimum down-time. I have suggested that warriors stick to green-rated quests when soloing, which was certainly true for Vangelis with no potions, no first aid and no cooking. With all of these things in place, however, Tatoo breezed through yellow-rated quests and even some orange ones.
There are two types of optimal gear for Warriors: "of the bear" and "of the tiger". Bear is better for tanking, Tiger for damage. I think Bear is more effective overall (crafted Green Iron armour from blacksmiths is generally ideal for its level, and the Green Iron Hauberk is optimal at level 31).
If you can team up with a healer you will be well-nigh unstoppable.
Use your rage: a full rage bar means you're wasting your potential.
Relative to their difficulty, the armour from the special Warriors' quests suck. Normally I am opposed to getting high-level help, but the sense of accomplishment in achieving your Fire Hardened Hauberk at level 29 is somewhat diminished when you realize it's a really good item for someone who's level 24. The Fire Hardened Gauntlets quest (from Klockmort Spannerspan) is the only one that is barely worth pursuing after the Hauberk. If you want to do these quests you must start with the "Yorus Barleybrew" quest from Wu Shen (the weapon trainer) in Stormwind, available at level 20.
PART 2: ABILITIES & TALENTS
Spending rage on Heroic Strike is great at low levels (up to the early 30s).
Do not forget Shield Bash (and Pummel, at higher levels) for interrupting enemy spells!
Maximum effectiveness requires stance-switching while in combat, so the ability to retain rage through a stance switch is crucial. Since the BC expansion this can partly be done by way of simple ability training, but those three points in Tactical Mastery (in the Prot tree) are well worth it.
Given the large amount of time spent soloing, I would not recommend a Protection focus for new warriors. Focusing on offensive talents will not limit your ability to tank in any low- or mid-level instance if you know what you're doing. Dual-wielding seems best for damage between levels 20 and 40.
If you have no particular preference the standard warrior build is the race to Mortal Strike (Arms). 5 points in Cruelty (Rage) are points well spent along the way. Once you have Mortal Strike, you will will want a big, SLOW two-handed weapon for maximum effectiveness. Look at the weapon's base damage as well as its DPS.
Since the Burning Crusade expansion, a Fury focus is now just as viable as Arms for damage-dealing warriors (who can tank part-time). Your main hand weapon can be either fast or slow, but the offhand weapon must be a fast one.
PART 3: TANKING
The first rule of tanking is to accept the fact that you are not going to do damage. Put away your gigantic weapon, slap on a shield, and prepare to spend your time in Defensive Stance. Forget spending rage on Mortal Strike and Bloodthirst, and learn how to inflict THREAT (or "aggro") upon your enemies. Pay attention to the powers described as "generating a high amount of threat".
Here are the threat attacks, in order of importance: Revenge, Sunder, Heroic Strike. The purpose of Taunt is to give you time to apply these attacks; it does not work by itself!
If you have a second warrior assigned primarily to damage-dealing, they should do the Hamstrings and the Battle Shouts. Otherwise those are going to be your job, too. Demoralizing Shouts are always the responsibility of the main tank.
To get the attention of a group of enemies, you can: (a) charge first, (b) be the Puller, or (c) pull the enemies off of the Puller. Option (a) is the quick-and-dirty method, and will get the job done well enough if the group is not too challenging. Option (b) is still easy but more controlled. Option (c) is best, because the best puller is a Hunter or a sapping Rogue, but requires the most skill.
Thunder Clap is a powerful threat-gatherer but must not be done near sapped or sheeped enemies. If you are not sapping, the mage can wait until you Thunder Clap (which should be the first thing you do after the charge or the pull) before sheeping. If the rogue is sapping, stand back from your group in order to charge when the rogue gets closer, so you can Thunder Clap safely away from the sapped enemy. In the case of an "add" (additional enemies who surprise you during a fight), a quick Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap is the best way to get them to stick to you rather than your healer.
Other defensive-stance techniques that are not to be ignored are Disarm and Shield Block. Disarm is obvious. Shield Block not only protects you from your opponent, but also sets up an near-automatic Revenge attack! Optimizing the Shield Block technique would involve a shield spike and the Improved Revenge (Protection) talent.
Despite being available only in Berserker stance, the "Intercept" ability is an essential Tanking tool - don't forget it when you need to get to your healer or mage quickly!
Fear ("Intimidating Shout") should never be used in an instance except in certain rare situations. When outside fighting groups of enemies, on the other hand, it can give you essential time to bandage yourself up and win an otherwise unwinnable fight!