Warrior guide for WoW Forever

The warrior is the melee class by definition: no mana, no pet and no self-healing. Everything revolves around rage, which builds up when you hit and get hit and is spent on abilities. That makes the warrior scale enormously with gear and turns the first few dozen levels into the hardest stretch in the game: with a poor weapon and little armour, every two-mob pull is a decision.

Arms (damage)

Two-handed damage. This is the spec of big, slow hits: a heavy weapon, Mortal Strike once you reach it and, in Forever, a Slam on a cooldown that fits the rotation better. It is the most comfortable tree for leveling because every hit matters and you do not depend on two weapons.

Fury (damage)

Dual-wield damage from level 20. It lives off crit thanks to Flurry and punishes misses, since wielding two weapons adds an extra 19% miss chance. It is the tree for dungeons and buffed groups; solo it struggles more until you own two decent weapons.

Protection (tank)

Shield tank. It builds threat with Sunder Armor and survives with defense, dodge, parry and block. It is the most sought-after spec from the very first dungeons and the one that deals the least damage solo, so almost nobody levels with it from start to finish.

With five documented changes in build 1.60.1.70009, the warrior is one of the classes that moves the least from Classic. What does change all points the same way: giving Arms a real rotation and letting Protection progress earlier.

The key change for anyone leveling as Arms is Slam. In Classic it was a 1.5-second cast with no cooldown that hardly anyone used in melee; in Forever it gets an 18-second cooldown, and Improved Slam no longer shortens the cast but cuts that cooldown by 1.5 or 3 seconds. On top of that comes Bloodthrill, a new Arms talent that used to trigger 2-10% of the time in the beta and now triggers 4/8/12/16/20% of the time, only from main-hand attacks. The result is that Arms has something to do besides waiting for Mortal Strike to come back.

For Protection the change is one of order: Bastion (a Forever talent) drops to row 6 and Focused Rage moves up to row 5, so it becomes available earlier. And for the whole class, Sunder Armor gets its threat values corrected on every rank plus a small attack power increase: fewer surprises when tanking with the low ranks.

Recommendation: Arms from 10 to 60, with a detour into Fury only if you always play in a group. Arms uses a two-handed weapon, the easiest thing to keep upgraded while leveling (quest rewards and dungeon blues), and with this build's Slam and Bloodthrill changes it has the most complete rotation of the three trees on the way up. Dual-wield Fury shines with two good weapons and group buffs, but solo it misses too much until you have hit on your gear. Protection only if you plan to tank dungeons back to back: tanking is the fastest way to find a group and the slowest way to clear quests.

Recommended talent order, broadly:

• From 10 to 20, the Arms talents that raise damage and rage: this part of the tree has no hard decisions, and the 16-point milestone (new in Forever, with two class presets if you would rather not think about it) arrives around level 25-26.
• Take Improved Slam as soon as you use Slam regularly: 3 seconds less cooldown shows on every pull.
• Max Bloodthrill before heading down to Mortal Strike if your weapon is slow; it is where you get the most extra damage per point in this build.
• From 40 you can spread into Fury for Flurry if your crit is already decent. Switching trees costs only 1 silver during the beta, so experiment.

Pacing tips for Forever:

• No level scaling: zones keep their fixed level. If a quest is orange, drop it and come back two levels later; the warrior is the class that benefits most from this.
• Spend your Legacy Points (16 per character at launch) if this is your main: Well Rested, the example perk Blizzard has shown, gives more rested experience, which is time you do not spend fighting four wolves at once.
• Use the campsite: the basic campfire sets up vendors and repairs, and other players can craft you up to three objects with one-hour buffs. Repair before every dungeon, because a warrior wears plate down quickly.
• Dungeon blues are your real damage upgrade. Shadowfang Keep (22-30) and the Scarlet Monastery (34-45) are the two mandatory stops; the full list is below.

For both damage trees, the weapon rules: each point of two-hander DPS is worth about 6.5 strength, and for Arms slow weapons are rewarded because Mortal Strike and Slam deal weapon damage. Then come strength (1 strength = 2 attack power), hit up to 9% against bosses (8% with a two-hander and the talent) and crit, which weighs more for Fury thanks to Flurry. Keep in mind that in Forever melee hit and crit are separate stats from spell hit and crit, so check that the piece says plain "hit".

Protection flips the order: stamina as the base, defense above it because every point adds avoidance and reduces crits taken, then dodge, parry and block. Armour weighs enough that mail and plate always beat leather, and strength only counts for threat.

At level 20, the beta cap, the warrior's BiS set is mostly Blacksmithing: six of the equipped pieces in each of the three trees are Blacksmithing recipes, almost all new in Forever: for Arms and Fury, the "veteran's" chain set with its boots, the Patterned Bronze Bracers and the Cracked Blacksmith Hammer in the ranged slot; for Protection, the guard's and protector's pieces. The two dungeon pieces that complete the damage set come from Wailing Caverns (Cobrahn's Grasp, waist) and Shadowfang Keep (The Axe of Severing, the two-hander that defines level 20). Protection adds the Rift Bracers from Shadowfang Keep, the Defias Renegade Ring from The Stockade and Doomspike from Blackfathom Deeps.

Higher up, the stops with the most BiS pieces for the class are the Scarlet Monastery, with 9 different items across the three trees (Scarlet Leggings and Boots, Raging Berserker's Helm, Aegis of the Scarlet Commander, The Frozen Clutch…), Blackrock Depths with 3 and Razorfen Kraul with another 3. The full list per dungeon is right below, and the BiS per level with alternatives per slot is on the warrior BiS page.

The two new beta dungeons, Hall of Thanes (13-18) and Ruins of Lordaeron (15-20), do not have BiS-marked loot for the warrior in our data yet: their boss tables exist, but the loot is not in the WoWSims database. When it is, it will show up here automatically.

The warrior is the only class every race can play, including the Skyborne of both factions, the class's only new combination. The Skyborne start on Zephras Isle with their own level 1 to 12 adventure and, like every race in Forever, have two active and two passive racials; the specifics for a Skyborne warrior are not in the beta notes yet. Among the racials changed in this build, the one that touches the warrior is the gnomes' Eureka, now a 10% discount on rage abilities for every class. Everything else is the Classic races with their usual racials: pick by faction and looks, you will not feel the difference while leveling.

Mining + Blacksmithing is the obvious pairing for a warrior in Forever, and this time with data behind it: six of the level-20 BiS pieces are Blacksmithing recipes. Forever adds more than 600 new recipes overall and every profession gains a passive bonus, so crafting your own gear stops being a luxury. Legacy also has its own Professions tree, although its perks are not detailed yet.

If you would rather make gold, Mining + Skinning sells well from day one and leaves Blacksmithing for later. First Aid is mandatory for a class with no heals, and Cooking is worth it because crafted food gives a small experience bonus. Each profession's leveling path is in the profession guides.

• Leveling with a shield from level 10. It is the slowest way to play a warrior. Carry the two-hander and switch to the shield only to tank dungeons.
• Neglecting the weapon. A warrior with a weapon five levels behind loses more than with any other piece. Check weapon quest rewards before anything else and run Shadowfang Keep for The Axe of Severing.
• Using Slam the Classic way. In Forever it has an 18-second cooldown: use it whenever it is up and let Improved Slam shorten it, do not save it.
• Skipping Sunder Armor while tanking. It is still your main threat tool and this build corrects its values on every rank.
• Forgetting bandages. First Aid replaces food between pulls and costs nothing.
• Walking past the campsite. Repairing and receiving three one-hour buffs before a dungeon is free in Forever; take advantage on every run.
• Pushing orange quests. Without level scaling, two more levels change the outcome of every fight. Rotate zones instead of dying.
• Being afraid to respec. A reset costs 1 silver in the beta: try Fury at level 40 and go back to Arms if it does not convince you.