Yes it’s another WoW related thread.
Sluggo made the suggestion in the 1.7 patch thread, thought my lowly level 43 NE warrior could use all the advice from the seasoned veterans here. [/shameless buttering up of lvl 60 warriors on the forum]
So what’s your secret? What strategies do you use to distinguish you from the pack?
Wear cloth!
Warriors are hard to play well. The biggest tip I can offer you is learn to swtich stances. Yes you lose most of your rage, but to play well you need to do this often.
Tactical Mastery is a must-have ability for all warriors, which lets you retain rage better when you switch stances.
How do you guys handle stance switching? Do you have a key bound to each stance, or macros for them?
It really depends on if your intending your warrior for instances or pvp. I personally don’t use macros, but have all of my abilities on seperate toolbars. That way they are all up and I can see when they are useable. My warrior is specced for instances so my usefulness in pvp is somewhat limited because of low dps. However in the new bg skill is playing a much greater role, and use of thunderclap is essential.
So my intial question is, what tips are you looking for?
pro-tip: You can get by without tactical mastery if you have the improved berserkers rage from fury stance. That’s only if you spec high fury, however. There is also a benefit to speccing tactical mastery, and that is Anger management. The tooltip is misleading and makes you believe it only slows decay of rage out of combat. It actually generates rage for while you’re in combat too.
When I played my warrior I used F, Shift+F and R as my keys bound to my stances. It worked really well having the keys just one press away.
Yeah, Alt and 1, 2, 3. Since I started using the stances all the time my combat has really improved. Switching to berzerk to pummel casters, to defence to disarm warriors and rogues, and then back to battle stance whenever anyone dodges, allows me to maximise my abilities. Personally I went for a uber-crit build, because I am in PvP and warriors seem to get owned there, especially if they go for a tank build. With a crit build I am dealing maximum damage, and now can pretty much crit every time I attack something.
I’d recommend going to Badlands and doing the This Is Going to Be Hard series of quests. This will gain you the Nifty Stopwatch trinket, which grants you a speed bonus every 30 minutes (50% for 10 seconds I think). This is an absolute must have for a warrior in PvP and very useful for getting out of scrapes even with mobs.
Ignore the WoW Warrior boards. 90% of the people there are clueless and will tell you things like “YEAH MAN 38 FURY IS WHERE IT’S AT, I GOT BLOODTHIRST FLURRY AND IMPROVED SLAM, I’M A FUCKIN MACHINE!”
the stop watch is very useful while leveling up too… especially if you play on a PvP server.
I found the need to switch stances quite often while leveling up. I just can’t see getting by w/o TM. I’ve since grouped with other tanks with alts, the biggest problem is when a warrior isn’t aware of his surroundings, and of aggro. Completely ignoring those other 2 mobs that have jumped their party is is currently killing the priest and mage, while he ignores and fights the single seperate mob.
That being said, now at 60. I don’t change stances nearly as often. often on raids, I’m not the primary tank (those that have been 60 months and months longer then I have with killer equipment are) I’m usually secondary tank, and able to stay in berzerker stance to cause as much damage as possible.
My keybind is different because I’m a lefty… they are all bound to the numpad. My primary bar for each stance contains 2 keys that switch to the other stance. So my Berzerk bar contains one key for Def and one for Battle, etc.
I’m mostly prot specced and pvp very little. Shieldblock/revenge combo is my “meat and potatoes” for holding agro on a single mob. Still need to work on holding agro well on multiple mobs, and I could do a better job of keeping an eye on the squishy guys…
At the beginning of a pull, a Demoralizing Shout can help to get everyone beating on you, although it doesn’t add much agro and you will need to put something more on each creature if you don’t want the rogue/mage/priest pulling them away from you.
One stance-switch thing I do a lot is go Battle when mobs are low in health, to put hamstring on them for runner control. Obviously if the group is on the ball and you have a rogue with Crippling Poison, a mage using Cone of Cold, etc., then hamstring is superfluous. But I’ve wiped enough times on poor runner control that I prefer to err on the side of hamming.
Most of my experience comes from casual groups, PUGs, and I have never maintanked anything higher than LBRS, so everything I know is (relatively speaking) pretty noobish.
My warrior is now a protection warrior, but I originally started as a cookie cutter Mortal Strike/Enrage warrior. At level 60 and in the “swarming” dungeons (Stratholme, Dire Maul, Scholomance), I spam demoralizing shout/piercing howl to hold aggro on multiple mobs. If anything takes off running and taunt hasn’t refreshed, I just smack it with a Sunder Armor, which 90% of the time brings it back on me. It works really well and rarely does something jump off me unless it’s a rogue,shaman or mage deciding not to shoot the main target.
Im a level 52 but have not really done any significant instances so I’m still learning my role in an instance. I have specced my warrior for the standards arms/fury build simply because I hate protection; I like to hurt things! But alas, I know this is going to have to change once I get into the higher level raid groups, so I have slowly been getting used to the protection stance and have maxed out my 1h sword style.
When fighting a large group of mobs, should a warrior even bother to draw hate from the main, or should he just concentrate on the adds?
And you “hunt and peck” with the mouse?
Not all groups have a clear “main” but if you want to keep tanking any mob, you will have to take some action via sunders/revenges/whatever if he is receiving DPS from other party members, otherwise he will go to them. Even if he isn’t being attacked by anyone, the healer might draw his agro so keep an eye out.
edit: Perhaps I misunderstood what you meant by “main.” You mean the main assist’s target? In that case if he dies quickly enough perhaps it’s less urgent that you tank him, but other more experienced warriors could probably give better advice on that. If he could live long enough to start beating on the mage or something, you still want to have your Taunt ready etc.
edit edit: yeah disregard all this, I misunderstood your question and aren’t offering anything helpful. My experience comes from PUGing with people who don’t designate (or at any rate follow) a main assist and where I do my tanking in a less organized way.
Concentrate on adds, let the Main Assist player and others kill their target and slowly pull adds off you for subsequent butchering. Rinse. Repeat.
I hated Protection Spec too, but added Shield Slam does about as much damage as Mortal Strike, so I can live with it.
I think the biggest decision is if you want to be a PvP warrior or an instance warrior.
Arms/Fury for PvP
Protection for Instances
Concentrate on adds, let the Main Assist player and others kill their target and slowly pull adds off you for subsequent butchering. Rinse. Repeat.
Hehe, in dozens of instance runs I don’t think I’ve ever had one where this sort of plan was executed properly. Usually when I ask “who is going to be Main Assist?” I get stony silence. That’s what I get for running pick up groups all the time I suppose.
LOL. I get the same thing most of the time in pickup groups. The leader will assign an MT and MA, the MT pulls, and then everyone attacks whoever the hell they want. :)
It’s not a complete horror show – Scholo and Strat have been nerfed enough so that you really have to screw up to wipe, and most of the 60’s seem to get the idea that you don’t hit sheep or shackles, when to use and when not to use AoE, and that everyone should generally focus on annihilating one mob at a time. And in raids like ZG, you have a leader who’s calling out signals, so everyone’s on the same page.
I’ve found that, as a warrior, you’re almost expected to take on a leadership role in a raid, especially if it’s a pickup. Some classes can kind of hang back and just react to pulls, but warriors really need to know how the instances work. Being able to step up and pull properly and call out orders to the rest of the team will go a long way between a sloppy raid and a smooth one … and everyone likes a smooth, fast raid. :)
Yeah, when the party members basically understand their roles, most instances are doable without serious coordination. I’d imagine the big raid stuff puts an end to that.
I’m actually using a hybrid 31/5/15 spec, and keep debating whether I want to go protection or not. I don’t really PvP, but I do solo and farm enough that I’m afraid to gimp myself, especially when I seem to do OK tanking with this build.
Anyone else have experience with this kind of setup? Did you stick with it or drop it?
Right now I’m 31/4/16 for defiance and Last Stand as I’m maintanking BWL and I like it when things go a little more smoothly.
But if you’re not doing BWL, 16 in protection is a waste, IMO. You can’t go wrong with 31/20 sword spec/ms/enrage.