Hey all,
I recently rolled an UD warrior, with the intent of being a tank at lvl80.
However, it's been ages since I last played WoTLK and I never played a warrior.
I've googled a bit but I couldn't find anything that helped: what spec should I use to level up? I'd like to be able to tank a bit while leveling without having to sacrifice all my firepower.
I was thinking about arms since I've been told that it has stellar single-target damage, and if I recall well it's entirely possible to tank lower-level dungeons without being specced to prot (obviously, one still needs prot stance+ shield).
However, I also read that prot has a decent clearing speed and it works wonders for taking on larger groups of mobs.
What would you suggest me?
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Member
Prot or Arms levelling?
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Member
Hi,
prot is my favourite by far. Its great once you get revenge (and even better when you get shield slam) - talented revenge / ss can almost 1 shot mobs. Its the most sturdy one.. you are going to kill single mobs a bit slower, but you will not have to heal up nearly as often, you can indeed kill several mobs at once + you can solo group quests easily and lvl up in slightly higher zones.
While its possible to tank with arms/fury talents, prot has a lot more (>double) aoe dmg at lower-ish levels (15-60), both damage dealers need gear to start hurting, prot has high base values.
First respecs aren't that expensive, feel free to experiment and find out what suits you best. (all war specs are better than most classes at lvling)Edited: November 24, 2015
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Banned
Prot can easily grab 4-5 mobs and **** them up in no time. The difference with tanking dungeons as Prot and as Arms is also quite huge. However, it struggles when it comes to one mob. Outdoor PvP will also be a little hard - meaning, you'll die to everything and anything before you get Warbringer, Gag Order, Shockwave, Concussion Blow & Spell Reflection. Even a Rogue or Feral Druid can just bleed you, then watch you die. The rest of the classes beat you automatically before you get the above mentioned spells.
Arms suffers greatly vs more than 2-3 mobs, unless you have Retaliation up, and until you get Bladestorm and Sweeping Strikes. It takes quite a lot of damage during leveling and tanking dungeons as Arms can be a bit frustrating before you get Unrelenting Assault. Even then it's a bit of a headache, but it's still possible. However, Arms can kill a single enemy far quicker than Protection. It has far more control on the fight with Rend and Overpower, compared to having to rely on avoidance in order to be able to use Revenge (considering you only use Shield Block when vs more mobs). Arms is also a king in outdoor PvP once it gets Scent for Blood, Juggernaut, Mortal Strike and Bladestorm. Keep in mind that you'll still suck before getting these and that if you're not doing dungeons for gear, you'll be dying a lot, since Warrior is the most gear-dependent class in the game.
This is actually the main reason why some people prefer Prot over Arms - Revenge hardly scales at all and it will hit like a goddamn truck regardless of your gear (around 1k crits at 35-40lvl). Arms, on the other hand, needs gear to be able to do stuff, like 1.5k Mortal Strike crits on 50lvl.
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Member
When I still played WOTLK, and I did lvl service for coins/gold, I always leveled warriors up in prot spec. Their DPS is simply ridiculous, and not only for a tank spec, but even compared to most DPS. Until levels 50-60, you will simply do MORE DPS thahn most DPS classes due to vengeance + revenge, specially when talented into and glyphed. Even later, if you prioritise avoidance stats and talents that improve the % proc of revenge, your dps will still be really high, asd the warrior prot basically becomes a revenge spamming machine. AND IT HITS HARD. REALLY HARD.
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Member
go prot for early levels , once you hit 50 switch to fury for more damage output.
if you're going to level in mop stay with prot up to level 85 or so
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Banned
It's a WotLK thread. And I'd say Fury is pretty bad for leveling. The low gear, the hit penalty and the high rage starve really bring the spec down.
If you really want to play Fury though, start out as Arms because you sure won't want to level your weapon skills from 1 to 300 once you get Titan's Grip.
In the end, at the beginning it will always be a choice between Arms or Prot. As jendah said, try both and see which one you like more. :)
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Member
Both are viable. I've always found arms more funny to play. For the stancedance!
Spoiler:Show
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Member
Fury is garbage.
Arms is meh, better in pvp coz you can actually kills casters before shield slam.
Prot is god. Having in mind that I bought pvp gear at appropriate levels all the time +cheap ah gear, leveling was piss easy, constantly pulled ~5 mobs and most of the time didn't even need to eat between pulls, leveled on red mobs easy. Priest and druid buddies struggled on content I did ~4 lvls lower.
Just get Glyph of revenge and glyph of heroic strike asap, grab improved thunderclap(deals real good damage at low lvls) + incite, don't aggro more than 1 caster mob and you should be golden. First aid also helps a lot.Edited: November 25, 2015
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Member
I can't really understand what you are trying to say with this sentence. Arms is a good spec for leveling. Some may say that it struggles against large group of mobs but when you will gain the Sweeping Strikes ability (which you can talent for at level 31) you will easily deal with them unless you are crazy enough to gather 10 mobs at once. Not to mention that previously you should have already spent three talent points on Taste for Blood, which will let you use Overpower, the ability with the highest chance to crit we have, just by applying Rend on one target and with no rage cost at all. If you know how to play this spec you have a large variety of abilities which you can use to control casters and melees without any problem. Leveling is not only a matter of slaying the highest number of mobs in a lower time but it's also a good training for your gaming skills. You can learn how to kite, to prevent the damage incoming from the casters, to stancedance and how to use line of sight at your advantage.
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Banned
Imo Arms is far more fun than Prot to level with. As Prot you just spam Thunder Clap and wait for avoidance RNG to proc Revenge.
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Member
Sorry if I didn't reply earlier, I was pretty busy these days :P
This far, I'm really digging prot levelling. I kinda like all that survivability, and the damage is no too shabby.
Still, there's something I still don't get: should I play in defensive stance or battle stance? This far I've been playing almost exclusively in combat stance since charge and victory rush are simply too good to pass up, but I believe that once I used up the first points of rage generated by charge, I should switch to defensive stance, isn't it?
Anyway, thanks a lot for the help :D
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Member
Quick question, I'm leveling up as Arms, currently lvl 26, I think it's pretty fun but I'm having a frustrating "problem" that wanted to ask if it is normal to more experienced warrior WotlK people. I'm constantly rage starved, specially in dungeons if somehow I can't charge because was too late, or the charge would pull some more mobs and don't want the risk it feels like i do nothing. Like im just there the guy that apply rends and basic attacks, pretty frustrating actually. So for this came a question, I never picked up "Anger Management" talent, I don't feel like it's good (without trying I know) and it's pretty damn hard to pick talents already at those levels, feels like there is always a point more usefull. Is this wrong? Anger Management wil lthis solve?
I know I should just try it and see for myself, but as my first characters, respecs can get out of hand gold wise pretty fast and I have barely anything, so can someone help me out? Is it normal to rage starve and pretty much doing nothing if Bloodrage is on CD on dungeons at around lvl 26? Furthermore and more importantly is Anger Management a solver for this or just worth picking in general?
Thanks!
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Member
Once you get Revenge (lvl 20 I think) you should use mostly def stance.
Anger Management is rly good, especially for Arms, but it doesn't solve everything. (In addition to generating a small amount of rage, it slows rage decay when out of combat.)
Don't use "Heroic Strike" when you are lacking rage. HS adds only a small amount of dmg to your next auto-attack, but it at the same time prevents your AA from generating any rage. (so your AA actually costs rage instead of generating it)Edited: November 30, 2015
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Member
I just got that skill, and I didn't expect it to hit that hard! Now I can see how this spec will turn out to be stellar.
Thanks again for the help!
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Banned
Stance-dancing for a Charge + Victory Rush is OK, I guess. But yeah, after getting Revenge you're gonna stay mainly in Def Stance for it.
@Deeluen - Anger Management does help a lot, but you basically have to discipline yourself on when to use which abilities. Rend, Overpower and Mortal Strike are your main abilities - everything else is secondary. Only use Heroic Strike when you're above ~50 rage so that you can have enough rage for the above 3 abilities, which only happens after consecutive autoattack crits or if you've aggroed mobs in a dungeon. For AoE you could go as far as to avoid Cleave too (as it works as Heroic Strike), but use Thunder Clap and stance-dance for Whirlwind too. And then there's also Sweeping Strikes. In conclusion, you have to realize which are the top priority abilities in said situation and discipline yourself in not dumping all of your rage on non-priority abilities. Once you gain this discipline, Warrior becomes a very intuitive and easy class to play.Edited: November 30, 2015
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