[WOW] Warrior Spec advice

[brooksd01]

My new warrior alt hit 11 last night, and I could use some spec advice.

The interesting bit is that he will pretty well always be duoing with my wife's new balance / resto druid.

Obviously my first 5 points are going into Cruelty, but I'm not sure where to go from there.

I see myself sword and boarding a lot for the extra armor and ability to spell interrupt, so maybe a protection build of some sort? I'm fairly stumped as to which way to go, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Pasha]

If you really want to use a one-handed weapon and a shield, I would put more points into the arms tree. There are a lot of useful talents there, which are very good for regular questing.

However, if you're going to be duoing the entire time (especially with a healer!), it might be better to drop the shield and pick up a nice two-handed weapon and go an Arms spec. You can get fantastic dps this way, and with the healer you'll never have to worry about losing health. But it's up to you ^^.

[IceShadow]

You can spell interrupt with pummel without a sword and board, so it's not needed.

Really, I would recommend leveling with a 2h weapon. DW is fun, but you don't have enough +hit to really make it worth it. Do an arms build and use a 2h weapon, the slower the better. :)

[brooksd01]

You can spell interrupt with pummel without a sword and board, so it's not needed.

Really, I would recommend leveling with a 2h weapon. DW is fun, but you don't have enough +hit to really make it worth it. Do an arms build and use a 2h weapon, the slower the better. :)

Some of the idea is to let her be more balance and less resto for a while, but suppose I should look at arms at this point. I wasn't really considiering Fury due to the dearth of +hit mail / plate until later in the game.

On pummel, it's 27 levels away at this point, so does anyone have a macro to switch to sword and board and shield bash?

[IceShadow]

There's quite a few mods out there that will let you set up a weapon and a shield (if needed) for each stance, so that you could just swap to defensive and hit shield bash.

In any case, doing more DPS will kill things quicker, and you can still switch to def and taunt if you need to. I'd still recommend an arms build. :)

[Pasha]

>> Some of the idea is to let her be more balance and less resto for a while, but suppose I should look at arms at this point. I wasn't really considiering Fury due to the dearth of +hit mail / plate until later in the game.

She doesn't have to be resto to heal as a druid. Even dropping a HoT spell on you from time to time would probably suffice. I duoed with a warrior on my feral druid, only popping out of catform to heal when necessary. Right now I'm duoing with another warrior on my enhancement shaman, and it's working out fine with me healing only when necessary.

[brooksd01]

She doesn't have to be resto to heal as a druid. Even dropping a HoT spell on you from time to time would probably suffice. I duoed with a warrior on my feral druid, only popping out of catform to heal when necessary. Right now I'm duoing with another warrior on my enhancement shaman, and it's working out fine with me healing only when necessary.

Yeah, I have a 70 Druid that has been every spec mix other than tree form at one time or another.

I am advising her to go balance for damage rather than feral as paying attention to health and dancing forms as appropriate is a fair bit more challenging than just switching between offensive and healing spells.

I also like the idea of us being able to just add DPS for a instance run and balance makes for much easier healing once you get up a bit for mana regen. It also allows her to only build one set of gear early on, which is nice.

[Shawn]

I'll suggest playing around a bit in the next 5 levels before deciding. Personally, I found waiting around for my big slow two handed weapon to swing monumentally boring. Yes things get super cool once you get Mortal Strike, but man was waiting to get there dull. At least to me.

Even though we get no love, I'd say go Protection. Once again you don't get the cool tricks until later, Concussive Blow, Shield Slam, Devastate, etc. Just have your wife go more explodey and less healing for a while, and you'll do fine.

[Gaffa]

My new warrior alt hit 11 last night, and I could use some spec advice.

The interesting bit is that he will pretty well always be duoing with my wife's new balance / resto druid.

Obviously my first 5 points are going into Cruelty, but I'm not sure where to go from there.

I see myself sword and boarding a lot for the extra armor and ability to spell interrupt, so maybe a protection build of some sort? I'm fairly stumped as to which way to go, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Well, again, It's All Up To You (TM), but spell interrupts are also found in the berserk skill tree (as noted upthread). You say you want extra armor, which does mean protection -- but don't neglect the ability for arms to do fine with one-handed weapons (or even dual wield).

Considering that your first one or two respecs are pretty gosh-darn cheap, I'd say build up your first build organically. After capping off Cruelty, take a look around at what one would most help you right now, or most appeals to your style of play. Take it. Play with it for a while, see if it feels better. Make sure to experiment with all three ways warriors can fight (shield, dual, 2-h). This will let you get a feel for what warriors can do -- and remember, warriors really don't start "feeling" complete until you get to your mid-40s or so for levels.

Building up this way also lets you change your mind as you see what your wife is capable of doing as she gains levels on her druid. A build that makes a lot of sense when you're both rather pathetic (if charming) teens might make less sense in your 50s.

Again, the build with the best spell interrupts, resistances, and durability is (duh) protection. Don't be afraid to spec that if that's where your interests as a warrior lie. Don't neglect a few of the other low-lying fruits on the other trees, though -- Deflection 5, from Arms, is as vital to all good tanks as any talent in Protection, for instance. In fact, it's probably more important than Cruelty.

Is your wife going to be the main DPS as she zorches things with spells from her Balance build while you tank? Then Protection and/or Arms is probably the way to go. Are you going to be equal partners in slaughter, with her popping a heal now and then to keep things going? Then nearly anything might work -- Fury might actually slightly edge ahead, as its point is sustained DPS, and includes the class's best self-heals to keep you going longer.

Again, the cliches for each talent tree:

Arms -- Big Damage! Big Risk! Arms is traditionally the home of the diehard PVP warriors (the huge burst damage from a series of crits from our huge 2-h weapons is nearly impossible to heal around, especially with Mortal Strike added in), and is also the home for most 2-h users. Arms is a great place to buy talents if you have no other idea where to put them, though, as an Arms warrior can also do quite well dual wielding or with sword'n'board. Arms has the best generic tricks for any gear build for any sort of weapon you might like. Disclaimer: I'm an Arms warrior (and main tank).

Fury -- Endless Rage! Fury is about keeping your rage and damage nice and constant. Thus, heavy Fury builds are best at fighting computer opponents, where a steady, constant stream of damage and rage generation is better than the burst effects of Arms. As such it's the traditional home of the off-tank and the secondary PVP build (the "rogues in plate" are all Fury warriors). Fury is the home of most dual wield warriors, although some particularly clever lads are quite good at 2-h fury. Fury is not good, however, when you're using a shield.

Protection -- Ultimate Tanks! If you want to have access to the best Talents in the game for tanking, this is your tree. Protection is nearly useless for any generic PVE role, but it actually is a pretty darn good PVP build -- Protection warriors have nearly as many ways to shut up a spellcaster as a rogue, and are considerably tougher to kill. Unsurprisingly, Protection builds are probably best with sword'n'board, but you can get by using a 2-h or dual wield while grinding without too much trouble, as your increased durability will help mitigate your lack of offensive oomph.

[Bradford C. Walker]

For Zuraiza, my first 13 talent points went as follows:

* Arms: Deflection 5/5
* Protection: Stance Mastery 3/3
* Fury: Cruelty 5/5

+5% to Parry & Crit, and retaining up to 10 Rage when stance-dancing, are a set of bread-and-butter abilities that no warrior should be without regardless of final spec. You will need to master stance-dancing, again regardless of final spec, because no one stance has all that you need at any given moment while playing and having far more Rage after a stance-shift than otherwise would be the case if a very good idea.

Honestly, you can tank just fine through most of the pre-Outland game so long as you carry a one-handed weapon and a shield on you; you need not worry about specific gear or spec until you near 70 and endgame. For leveling in general, I highly recommend Arms over the other two trees both while grouped and while soloing; the bag of tricks and cost-reductions that this tree provides has proven excellent value to me. Finally, know that your potency is greatly tied to your gear; keep it current by upgrading every few levels as best you can. Learn to pull, learn to estimate aggro, and you will be well on your way towards being a very skilled warrior.

[JustJo]

I don't think you need to worry about stance dancing until you at least have berserk stance at level 30 (and probably not much even then for awhile). So your main goal is to try out dual wielding and 2 handers to see which one you like, then try to get to either mortal strike or flurry & bloodthirst to see how the spec really plays (since they're largely defined by those talents).


Basically you don't need points in protection to tank at low levels. If you like the look of the tree and want to try it, go for it and have fun. But don't feel that you have to right away.

[brooksd01]

Actually I'm finding myself dancing a lot at level 13 =). Mostly for taunt in defensive, and playing with stance set for a D / Shield bash combo to stop heals while still using a two-hander. I'll need tactical mastery for the latter to be effective - so that'll probably be my next few points.

Fortunately stance dancing is almost second nature coming from my feral druid, so it's more of a matter of learning to react to the correct situation and remembering to do it for abilities I'm used to having in my general "tank-form" (taunt specifically).

[IceShadow]

Tac Mast is nice, but you'll probably want to respec when you hit 40-50 so as to get to Mortal Strike quicker. :) (I recommend 45, because one cannot be without cruelty! :D)

[Ryan L.]

How important is Cruelty at 70 for a Prot-spec warrior though? It would seem a lot less useful and it would free up 5 points to go into more tanky stuff. Edumacate me on this so that when I respec I can do it smartly, instead of the haphazard spec I have now.

Thanks!

[IceShadow]

How important is Cruelty at 70 for a Prot-spec warrior though? It would seem a lot less useful and it would free up 5 points to go into more tanky stuff. Edumacate me on this so that when I respec I can do it smartly, instead of the haphazard spec I have now.

Thanks!

Extra crit = more aggro. :) That's about it, really, and there's not a lot of tanky stuff that you need...I had three points to play with and put them in improved thunderclap.

[brooksd01]

Tac Mast is nice, but you'll probably want to respec when you hit 40-50 so as to get to Mortal Strike quicker. :) (I recommend 45, because one cannot be without cruelty! :D)

I sort figured I'd respec around 40 for MS and then fill in cruelty. That's also conveniently just after you get pummel so shield bash / Tac mastery is less of a deal.

My big thing is having a spell interrupt for those annoying healing mobs. I know you can probably just DPS through the heal easily enough, but it's one of those things I *must* interrupt :D

[EndlessChase]

I'm going with Fury, and I love it. Tanking is pretty easy regardless of spec at my level, so long as there's someone there to heal. I definitly agree with the statement that fury is about endless rage and consistant damage. It seems like criticals with fury arn't so much a nice bonus as a very standard and normal part of your DPS.

[JustJo]

Actually I'm finding myself dancing a lot at level 13 =). Mostly for taunt in defensive, and playing with stance set for a D / Shield bash combo to stop heals while still using a two-hander. I'll need tactical mastery for the latter to be effective - so that'll probably be my next few points.
.

I thought you could shield bash in battle stance, but I might be remembering wrong :)

[Ryan L.]

You can shield bash in Battle stance. You'd just need to find a quick way of equipping a shield and then reequipping your primary/secondary weapon(s). I'm sure a macro could handle it but I'm not very knowledgable with macros.

[rwfloydjr]

Tac Mast is nice, but you'll probably want to respec when you hit 40-50 so as to get to Mortal Strike quicker. :) (I recommend 45, because one cannot be without cruelty! :D)

I would have to agree with IceShadow here. They changed the whole tactical mastery stuff while I was leveling Kaylyn, but Cruelty for the first five points is a must, and then I made a beeline for mortal strike, scooping in tactical mastery along the way, probably within 10 to 15 pts after I had put the 5 in cruelty.

At 66 I now am all the way maxed in the Arms tree and have picked up the improved shield Block capability in the protection tree. With my last 4 pts going to Defiance (3/3) for more threat generation by my attacks in defensive stance, and Last Stand (1/1) to give me a chance to hang on when it is getting rough, I should function pretty well as an arms specced tank. I do wish I had a few more points for the Improved Thunder Clap though. I love using that for holding onto mutiple mobs in a fight while tanking. That and the shouts.

[brooksd01]

You can shield bash in Battle stance. You'd just need to find a quick way of equipping a shield and then reequipping your primary/secondary weapon(s). I'm sure a macro could handle it but I'm not very knowledgable with macros.

Yeah, I might work on a macro for it, but I have a stance set addon (came with titan bar) already so I was playing with that.

Also, I seem to be dancing to D for taunt anyway, so Tac mastery will be nice there.

[JustJo]

The advantage of having a weapon swap macro that doesn't also swap stances is that you don't have to blow the rage if you don't need to.

Anyhow, take the talents that are useful for the way you play :) I know I didn't use taunt much until I started in instances back in the days I was levelling my warrior, and if I needed it, mocking blow did the job.