This topic was originally posted by doomblast
I have had a lot of experience in retail and overall playing a warrior, with 2.5k arena xp. This has made me want to create an in-depth guide that analyzes every aspect of the warrior (spec, gear, enchants, abilities, glyphs, rotation, etc). Also, stop telling me I donated for my warrior, I DID NOT!
My stats:
Damage: 2372-2870 unbuffed
AP: 5057
Hit: 218. I still miss sometimes but very rarely
Crit: 31.79%
Arp: 80.88% with Mace Specialization
Resilience: 1010
Lets Begin! How to Perfect Arms in PvP!
Talentry
Arms Tree:
- 3/3 Improved Rend
- 2/5 Deflection (filler talent)
- 3/3 Iron Will
- 3/3 Tactical Mastery (essential for stance-dancing)
- 2/2 Improved Overpower
- 2/2 Impale
- 3/3 Deep Wounds
- 3/3 Two-handed Weapon Specialization
- 3/3 Taste for Blood (essential talent!)
- 1/1 Sweeping Strikes (combine this ability with Bladestorm for extra rage)
- 5/5 >choose< Specialization (Poleaxe or Mace spec HIGHLY preferred)
- 2/2 Weapon Mastery
- 3/3 Improved Hamstring
- 2/2 Trauma
- 1/1 Mortal Strike
- 2/2 Strength of Arms
- 1/1 Juggernaut
- 1/1 Endless Rage
- 2/2 Blood Frenzy
- 5/5 Wrecking Crew
- 1/1 Bladest000rm
Fury Tree:
- 3/3 Armored to the Teeth
- 2/2 Booming Voice (talk more about this talent later on)
- 5/5 Cruelty
- 1/1 Piercing Howl
- 3/3 Blood Craze
Glyphs
Major:
- Glyph of Mortal Strike (this is a must)
- Glyph of Enraged Regeneration (increases healing done by 10% of this ability)
- Glyph of Bladestorm (cooldown reduced by 15 seconds)
*Note: these are merely the Major Glyphs that I use.
You may also use the following other glyphs depending on your own personal choice, (but keep Glyph of Mortal Strike):
- Glyph of Rend (very useful against ranged/caster dps)
- Glyph of Overpower (ability procs when parry)
Minor:
- Glyph of Bloodrage (no longer sacrifices health when used)
- Glyph of Mocking Blow (because Mocking Blow is bugged and does damage in PvP :eek:)
- Glyph of Command or Battle, your choice. (I use Command)
Notable Stats
Armor Penetration:
I am sure this is old news to most of you, but in PvP, armor penetration is the highest priority in gearing. It is what will make your damage hit like truck and leave your enemies in dust. Be careful though not to sacrifice too much resilience for armor peneration.
Hit Rating:
My hit rating is 218, but you can easily get by with atleast 200 Hit.
Resilience:
An ideal amount of resilience for arenas/BGs and PvP in general is 900-1100 resilience. If you plan on playing around 900, try to balance out a defensive playstyle. If you are over 1100, try to balance out by playing with a more offensive playstyle. Commanding Shout = Less than/around 900 resil. Battle Shout = Over/around 1100 resil.
Critical Strike Rating/Chance:
Don't worry about Crit too much, as it will come naturally only from your Gear/talents, etc. DO NOT gem for crit! The expected amount of crit though for PvP is roughly 30-45%. If you are within this range, do not worry about crit at all. If you are under it, make sure you aren't wearing any haste gear that could be swapped out for crit. Haste is useless for Warriors.
Expertise:
Don't worry about expertise too much in PvP. It takes a lot of expertise to counter an agility-based player's dodge/parry chance. It is generally best to leave it out, but if you have a really nice item that has nice expertise, go for it until you get an ArP item to replace it.
Stamina:
DO NOT gem or enchant for Stamina, as it will come naturally at a high amount from your passive gear stats.
Strength:
Strength is a very nice stat to have for warrior PvP. It is an essential stat of course, but it is NOT a higher priority than Armor Penetration and Resilience.
Gemming/Enchanting
Gemming:
Red Slots: +20 ArP (MOST IMPORTANT!)
Blue Slots(gloves slot not included): +10 Arp/+15 Stam
Yellow slots: +20 Resilience
Glove Blue Socket: Nightmare Tear (+10 stats)
Enchanting:
Head: +50 AP +20 Resil (buy this from Wintergrasp Quartermaster for Triumph Emblems)
Shoulder: +40 AP +15 Resil (buy this from Wintergrasp Quartermaster for Triump Emblems)
Cloak: Flexweave Underlay if you are an Engineer, or +22 Agility if not
Chest: +20 Resil
Wrist: +50 Attack Power
Gloves: Handmounted Pyro-Rocket if you are an Engineer, +44 AP (crusher) if not
Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle for an extra socket slot (put +20 Arp in it), as well as Frag bomb enchant if you are an engineer
Legs: +75 Attack Power + 22 Crit (Icescale Leg Armor)
Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality (for Arena especially), or Rocket Boots if you are an engineer. Personal choice for this one. *Note, you cannot use Rocket Boots in Arena.
2-Handed Weapon: Berserking
1-Handed Weapon: Blood Draining
Shield: +12 Resil
Ranged (not that it matters :p): +40 Crit
Proper Gear Setup
For a proper gear setup as a warrior, you need to achieve a good balance between resilience and armor penetration. This is an important speculation that must not be overlooked. To achieve this ideal balance between offensive ability and defensive ability, you will want 5/5 or 4/5 of a mainset PvP set, (the fifth pice being an armor penetration item). As for offpieces, try to lean more towards PvE armor penetration item. This includes the ashen band ring, Arp boots (take a look at Hellfrozen Bonegrinders), Arp belts, Might of Blight, and Deathbringer's Will. For your PvP trinket, use the ilvl 264 resilience trinket. Also, use the Wrathful pendant of sundering, which gives +60 ArP. A good collection of ICC ArP items should leave you at about 50-65% ArP, and 900-1100 resil roughly. This is the ideal balance I am talking about.
To achieve 200ish hit rating, there are 2 specific items you will need, and the remaining hit needed but be obtainined through any other offpiece item. You will want the Wrathful Cloak of Victory, giving +60 hit, and the Ashen Band Ring of Endless Might, giving 59 hit. This gives you a total of 119 hit, leaving you to obtain the remaining 81 hit through other items such as cryptmaker (which is what I use), or some other offpiece item. Tip: try to get [Scalpel-Sharpening Shoulderguards] from ICC 10, they are great shoulders that give Hit and ArP.
What weapons should you use, both 1-handed, and 2-handed? It doesn't matter a whole lot between PvP and PvE weapons what you use, but I like to use the PvE 2 Handers because they give Arp and deal loads more damage than the PvP 2-Handed Weapons. For your one-handed item and shield though, definately go for the wrathful items. The One-Hander being the slow hitting 2.60 speed ones. For the gem slot on it, I like to equip it with a +20 resilience gem, to get the most defensive use I can out of it
PvP Proffessions
Proffessions can play a significant role in your performance as a warrior. Almost every proffession will benefit your warrior in one way or another
Enchanting: Attack Power ring enchants
Blacksmithing: 2 extra socket slots on your gear
Engineering: Flexweave Underlay, Frag Bombs, Frost Grenades, Hand-Rocket, Rocket Boots, other fun stuff ;)
Leatherworking: +130 Attack Power to bracers. 80 AP difference compared to regular enchant.
Jewelcrafting: Dragon's Eye gems, allowing you to use three +34 Armor Pen gems on your gear
Tailoring: Swordguard Embroidery
My Proffessions are Jewelcrafting for the Dragon's Eye gems, and Engineering for the beneficial gadgetry. I believe these 2 proffessions are ideal for PvP, but choose your own path that you think best suits you.
PvP Rotation and Arms Tips
This is the general rotation arms warrior will use to their offensive ability:
Charge > Hamstring OR Rend (but both MUST be up) > Mortal Strike > Overpower
-Keep Mocking Blow and Heroic Thrown on cooldown, but only use them when MS and Overpower are on Cooldown
-Plan your bladestorm attacks, dont just charge in and do it. Wait for a good time to make efficient use of it, such as when an enemy has blown a certain cooldown, or is unable to escape it
-It is recommended to keep up Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout in dps vs. dps fights
-Keep Hamstring and Rend up on your target AT ALL TIMES!
Special Ability/Talent Point Analysis
Talent: Booming Voice - know that this talent is NOT a filler talent to get to Piercing Howl and Blood Craze. This talent increases the radius of not only your helpful shouts (commanding, battle), but also increases the radius of Demoralizing Shout. This helps the chance of exposing stealthed/prowled players such as rogues and druids, which really comes in handy at most times.
Talent: Unrelenting Assault - keep in mind that if you hit a target with overpower during their casting time, they will get a 50% spell effect reduction for 5 seconds. So against healers especially, you can try to time your overpower hits with their casted abilities, but note that this might sometimes not help you if they dont actually cast anything.
Ability: Piercing Howl - This ability is not meant to replace the purpose of Hamstring, but rather a ranged slow. Think of it as a hamstring you can use on someone when you aren't quite close enough to actually hamstring them. This proves useful when you are slowed/snared, or are chasing a fast-paced moving player such as a rogue or a druid.
Ability: Retaliation - This ability proves extremely useful when fighting a melee player who is attacking you back, especially if they do significant damage. What this ability does exactly is it counterattacks your target for what they are hitting on you, while the effective stacks of retaliation are still active. This can be used in arena to peel a player off of you as protection, or for raw offensive purpose, in killing the target. It is an extremely useful ability with a long cooldown, so use it at an ideal time.
Ability: Shattering Throw - The soul purpose of this ability is to dispel a mage's Ice Block effect, and a Paladin's bubble. It has a 1.5 second long cast time that cannot be interrupted. It has a long cooldown of 5 minutes like Retaliation, so use it only for the purpose of dispeling Ice Blocks and Pally Bubbles, not for its dps aspect.
Abilities: Berserker Rage and Enraged Regeneration - Zerker' rage is an instant fearbreaker, and Enraged Regen is a HoT that regain a certain amount of health (depending on your base HP). These abilities CANNOT be used together, so be aware of timing your use of them during PvP encounters
Ability: Intimidating Shout - Use this ability in a defensive manner as to help peel a target off you. In a 1v1 situation, you may want to use it as a method of interrupting a dangerous cast such as Chaos Bolt, when you are unable to Shield Bash or Spell Reflect.
Abilities: Shield Block/Shield Wall usage - Do not use Shield Block and Shield Wall together unless it you are certain you will die without both up. Try to spread them out so you will be ready in case a second large burst of damage comes your way. The same thing goes for Enraged Regen. These are your only cooldown-based defensive abilities, do NOT blow them all at once.
Ability: Disarm - Use this to peel a target off you, or to help self-survival against a dangerous ability like Bladestorm.
Ability: Intervene - This ability is mainly used for self-defense as an escape method. For example, if you are about to die versus a melee or a caster, intervene a nearby player that is standing by a pillar or something you can hide behind that will keep you safe until you are ready to fight again.
Ability: Spell Reflect - Use spell reflect only to counter the following spells: Chaos Bolt, Lava Burst, Frostbolt, Scorch, Fireball, Pyroblast, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Death Coil (if you are able to predict when it is being cast), Cyclone, Polymorph, Hex, and Entangling Roots.
Offensive melee abilities to stay away from: Heroic Strike, Cleave, and Slam (none of them are instant cast abilities)
Useful Macros That I Use
1. For all your offensive melee abilities such as rend, overpower, mortal strike, etc use:
/startattack
/cast <Offensive Melee Ability>
*Note, this macro will make it so you never have to right click a target to put them on autoattack, you just have to press a button. You can shift click abilities from your spellbook to get them into your macro lines fast without typing it all out
2. Shield Bash (interrupt):
#showtooltip Shield Bash
/equip <1-Handed Weapon Name>
/equip <Shield Name>
/cast Shield Bash
3. Spell Reflect:
#showtooltip Spell Reflect
/equip <1-Handed Weapon Name>
/equip <Shield Name>
/cast Spell Reflect
4. Bladestorm
#showtooltip Bladestorm
/equip <2-Handed Weapon Name>
/cast Sweeping Strikes
/cast Auto Attack
/cast Bladestorm
This Macro is better than the original bladestorm because combined with Sweeping Strikes, you will actually get rage out of using it. Also, if you spam this macro for Bladestorming, you will also do auto attack white damage to the target along with the bladestorm damage, thus resulting in extra damage.
5. Shattering Throw
/cancelaura Bladestorm
/cast Shattering Throw
6. Charge
#showtooltip Charge
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Charge(Rank 3)
/cancelaura Bladestorm
7. Ranged, (learned this macro from Swifty :p):
/cast Heroic Throw
/cast Shoot or Throw
/use <Name of Gloves> <--------(ENGINEERS ONLY: ROCKET GLOVES)
8. Intervene Macro (for Arena mainly, wouldn't recommend using this in BG's):
/target <Name of player>
/cast Intervene
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That about covers the overview of what you need to know about the warrior class in PvP. Of course I can go even more in-depth and discuss certain strategies for warrior situations, but that is too far into the purpose of this thread.
I hope you learned something you didn't already know about warriors, if so, I have done my job.
If you have any questions regarding the topic you can ask me on my warrior, Pitix, or reply to it in the thread. Have fun and peace out.
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