Warriors evolved from one of the toughest classes to level in classic era and tbc, to absolute juggernauts tanking multiple enemies with ease and cleaving down hordes of mobs. With options for beginners in deep Protection spec that gives you opportunities to tank some dungeons while leveling, and hybrid Arms/Prot spec for a bit more difficult to handle cleaving monster of a tank, Warrior is a versatile class that is a joy to level.
Gameplay
From previously known as true tanks, made only to withstand big hits from bosses, warriors can now dish back a lot of AoE damage and hold threat with Thunderclap, Cleave, and Revenge. With addition of Victory Rush, you can now do some additional damage during big pulls and after charging over to the next pack.
Make sure to keep an eye on your cooldowns such as Shield Wall, Last Stand and later Sweeping Strikes if you decide to go that route, when they are available you are free to pull a bigger ball of enemies to slaughter.
Rotation
Starting every fight make sure your buffs are up and you as a warrior are responsible for Battle Shout. Use Victory Rush after you kill an enemy and Charge in to gain an initial burst of rage.
Warriors function on priority based ability rotation system, depending on rage, procs and cooldowns.
Single target priority:
- Shield Slam – if your Shield Block is active, because Shield Block doubles your block value, and that increases your Slam Damage.
- Revenge
- Shield Slam – if your Shield Block buff is not available Revenge just does more damage and to multiple targets.
- Shockwave – although only available later in the leveling process, shockwave is an excellent damage and crowd control ability.
- Devastate – is a rotation filler and has a chance to refresh your Shield Slam cooldown when you reach Sword and Board talent.
- Heroic Strike – is your rage dumping ability, use this if everything else is unavailable and you are above 60 rage.
AoE situation priority:
- Thunder Clap – is your main damage ability and is only better with improvements from talents.
- Shockwave
- Revenge – This is your third-best AoE ability thanks to Improved Revenge, making this skill hit 2 mobs instead of 1.
- Cleave – is your least priority ability used to dump rage, ideally you would use Glyph of Cleaving.
- If none of the above are available you will then follow your single target rotation until higher priority AoE ability is available again.
Stat Prio
Make sure your armor pieces are always mail and later plate when unlocked, armor value only increases your ability to stand and tank more enemies.
Strength > Stamina > Avoidance > Agility > Crit
Helpful Macros
Charge macro:
/castsequence [harm, nocombat, stance:2/3] Battle Stance; [harm, nocombat, stance:1] Charge, Defensive Stance; [harm, combat, stance:1/2] Berserker Stance; [harm, combat, stance:3] Intercept, Defensive Stance; [help, stance:2] Intervene
After you get Warbringer talent you can just use:
/castsequence [harm] reset=15 Charge, Intercept, Charge; [help] Intervene;
Sweeping Strikes cooldown macro:
#showtooltip
/cast Sweeping Strikes
/cast Defensive Stance
/stopattack
Sweeping Strikes revenge macro:
#showtooltip
/cast Revenge
/stopattack
Glyphs
Major:
Glyph of Cleaving
Glyph of Shield Wall – if you want to make your big defensive cooldown more available but weaker
Glyph of Resonating Power