Warrior Class Overview (2024)

Last updated on May 07, 2024 at 00:00by Abide

Masters of combat, Warriors are a stapleof war since the beginning of time. Combining strength, leadership and a masteryof all weapons and armor, Warriors aim towreak havoc in combat. Arming themselves with sturdy shields or deadlyweapons, a Warrior must harness theirRage in order to inflict devastating attacks upontheir foes.

Warriors are a melee oriented class, having aunique resource system called Rage.Rage is generated through combat from bothdealing and taking damage. The more damage you deal or take, the moreRage you generate. Most of the abilitiesavailable to Warrior costRage to use, so always be mindful of how muchyou have available at all times.

In addition to Rage,Warrior also has a second unique mechanic,stances. Each of these stances offers a different buff and has a general,unique purpose. Mastering these stances and utilizing them properly is requiredto unlock the full potential of your Warrior. Battle Stance is mainly used while leveling, and by the Armsspecialization. Defensive Stance is almost exclusively used by ProtectionWarriors. Berserker Stance is the main stance used when speccing into theFury talent tree. Regardless of the specialization you choose,you will want to know about all three of your stances and use them at theappropriate times.

Warriors can fulfill either the damagedealing role, or the tanking role depending on which specialization you choose.Having the option to tank if needed can make it much easier to find groups, asthe tanking role is often in short supply. Warrior is able to choose from threespecializations: Arms, Fury, and Protection.

• Arms —Seasoned experts of two-handed weapons, utilizing devastating attacks and intenseferocity to vanquish their adversaries.
• Fury —Enraged berserkers brandish a weapon in each hand, unleashing a rapid onslaughtof strikes to dismantle their adversaries.
• Protection— Resolute guardians who choose to arm themselves with a shield to defendtheir allies from harm.

Each specialization available to Warrioris unique and has its' own playstyle. Ultimately the spec that you find themost enjoyable to play will come down to your own personal playstyle; werecommend trying out each spec on your own to get a feel for them and see howmuch you enjoy them.

Arms is the primary spec in Cataclysm for both PvE and PvP content,focusing on dealing damage with 2-handed weapons. This spec has multipledifferent procs, giving it a very active playstyle that will keep you alwayswatchful and ready to act. In addition, this specializations playstyle revolvesaround small "burst windows", where you will have multiple, powerful abilitiesready to use back-to-back. This makes Arms especially deadly inPvP, as you can easily burst down your target by catching them off guard.

Rather than using a single weapon, Fury chooses to wield aweapon in each hand. You can choose between Titan's Grip, which allowsyou to wield a 2-handed weapon in each hand, or Single-Minded Fury,which increases your damage dealt when wielding two 1-handed weapons instead.Fury has a very active playstyle, always having anability ready to use. Unfortunately, this spec does not start off strongand requires very high end-game gear to fully unlock its potential.

Protection is the tank specialization, where you will focus on taking damageas your primary goal rather than dishing it out. Protection canbe classified as easy to learn, hard to master. This spec only has a few mainabilities in its rotation, but it also has multiple procs that require quickreactions to utilize. The nature of a tank also requires high awareness of thesituation at all times, as you will need to be ready to adapt to anything thecontent throws at you.

Warrior is very viable in Cataclysm.Arms is one of the strongest DPS classes in the game throughoutall phases. Fury is fairly weak starting out and only reallydoes well towards the end of the expansion in full end-game gear, but remainsa decent "middle ground" DPS option otherwise. Protection isstrong enough to clear all content in the game, but falls behind other tanks dueto a low number of defensive cooldowns, limited utility, and generally arelacking crucial stats until obtaining later raid gear.

Warriors are the only class in the gamethat can be played as any race, giving you a very wide selection of options tochoose from.

• Dwarves have a few notableracials. Mace Specialization grants 3 expertise skill when wearing amace. At level 85 it takes 30 expertise rating to equal 1 expertise skill, makingthis racial only worth 90 stats, being on the weaker side of racials. The mainappeal of this race is Stoneform which removes all poison, disease andbleeds when activated and reduces all damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds,making this an extremely powerful race for Protection.
• Humans are weaker overall inCataclysm compared to previous expansions. They still have Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization, giving 3expertise skill when wearing a mace or sword. As mentioned before, 3 expertiseis 90 expertise rating at level 85, making this a weaker racial at max levelwhen compared to others. Will to Survive remains as a PvP trinket andkeeps Humans as one of the best races overall for PvP gameplay.
• Night Elves are the best racefor the Protection spec as they have Quickness,helping them reach the 102.4% easier and increasing your critical blockchance.
• Worgens are one of the twonew races added in Cataclysm. Viciousness is the main racial offered,granting 1% crit chance. At level 85, 1% crit chance is 180 stats,making this the best racial for both Arms andFury Warriors on Alliance.You will also get Darkflight, giving you a 2 minute movement speedcooldown.

• Goblins are one of the two newraces added in during Cataclysm. Their main racials are Rocket Jump and Rocket Barrage. Both of these abilities share a cooldown and are on theglobal cooldown, which makes Rocket Barrage almost completely useless.Rocket Jump is a powerful movement cooldown that will come inhandy whenever a boss encounter has high movement mechanics.Goblins also have Time is Money,giving 1% attack speed, but this is a weak stat forWarriors. Protection has noreal best race for Horde, making Goblins a good choice for the additionalmovement ability from Rocket Jump.
• Orcs remain the preferredchoice for Horde DPS Warriors. They offer Axe Specialization and Blood Fury;Axe Specialization gives 3 expertise skill, which is 90 stats at level85, making this a fairly weak stat value. Blood Fury gives 1169Attack Power at level 85 and can be used with other cooldowns. OverallOrc is the best option for maximizing DPS forboth Arms and FuryWarriors because of the Blood Furycooldown. Axe Specialization has minimal value as none of your best inslot weapons are Axes.
• Taurens are technically thebest tank race for the Protection spec, as they offer Endurance, giving you 5% base health. Note thatthe base health is only the raw health that you gain from levels and does notscale with your gear at all, making this only about a 1% increase in totalhealth at maximum level in raiding gear. War Stomp is also a handy AoEstun that you can use when tanking trash in dungeons or raids.

Warriors are able to wear Cloth, Leather,and Mail armor by default, and are able to wear Plate after reaching Level 40.While you can wear any armor, you will want to primarily focus on wearing Platearmor exclusively to take advantage of either Plate Specializationif you are specced as either Arms or Fury, or Plate Specialization if you are playing asProtection.

Warriors are able to equip all weapons inthe game aside from Wands. This allows many different weapon choices, such aschoosing a weapon that matches your specific racial bonuses, if you have any.In Cataclysm you will typically want to aim for the highest item level weaponwith Strength on it as this will usually be the highest DPS weapon you canget.

Both Arms and FuryWarriors desire the same stats, letting youmostly use the same gear if you are interested in playing both specs. Yourmain stat priority will be: Strength > Hit Rating (8%) >Expertise (26) > Critial Strike > Mastery. Followingthese stats will grant you the highest damage output possible and truly maximizeyour character.

Protection Warrior willwant to focus on tank stats exclusively, following a main stat priority of:Stamina = Mastery > Parry > Dodge.Threat is no longer an issue in Cataclysm as Defensive Stance has beenbuffed to increase all threat generated by 500%, making threat stats nolonger needed, letting you entirely focusing on defensive stats.

Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life during Cataclysm.Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help getthe most out of your time playing the game.