Leveling a Warrior...

[Kayla 10]

Not fun!

[Xudojnik 904]

Begin with 7-0-0, invest to fury and level in instances with best available gear.

[levran 146]

Begin with 7-0-0, invest to fury and level in instances with best available gear.

 And get DW at 37, BT at 47lvl? No thx, too big price for Tactical Mastery. 

[Xudojnik 904]

It is a pain to tank without Tactical Mastery.

If you are not going to tank, it will be pain to find a group to level only in instances.

Actually you can choose any talents. You are warrior after all. Unlike pallys you can succesfully tank in any spec and without special gear.

[TheFishyOne 9]

Tactical Mastery is only helpful in fights where you get feared. Pallies can frontload their threat as well as generate threat just from getting beat on, but a War without a Dorf Priest/Tremor Totem who can't stance dance might lose aggro while feared if your group is filled with trigger happy Gnomes and huntarded Nelficans (or the Horde equivalent thereof).

Wars have much freer reign to spec what they want and still tank than Pallies do when leveling up. No need for a full Prot spec until you're ready to raid. Once you start doing DM, you should be fine with Tactical Mastery, Blood Craze, and a sword and board.

If you can't reliably find instance groups, try duoing with a Pally or Shaman. Also, DWing doesn't surpass 2h until you get a bit of hit chance, and an Arms spec can come in handy in the event of unplanned world pvp.

Edited August 25, 2016 by TheFishyOne

[Xudojnik 904]

You can find 2 points in tactical mastery useful because of three reasons:

1) You can start with Charge and change stance to Defence without losing rage.

2) lvl 16+ You have second Taunt ability named Mocking Blow. It costs 10 rage. Might be handy when your regular taunt resists or on cooldown.

3) lvl 30 you get Intercept. It costs 10 rage too. It might be very helpful in situation when you need to aggro mob far away from you.

[TheFishyOne 9]

That's true. I didn't think about Charge, and I thought you could MB and Intercept in Def Stance.

That said, if you don't have Tactical Mastery, couldn't you just use Bloodrage before the pull? And although MB and Intercept are nice, as a Prot Pally with vanilla raid tanking experience, I can assure you that neither one is a substitute for trigger happy DPS just bringing the aggro to you. However, as a Tankadin, I would prefer having an Intercept over a Taunt, so take it for what it's worth.

[Xudojnik 904]

I never use Bloodrage before the pull. It used for "Oh my god, i really need some rage".

You also need it in situation when you pull from distance and mobs running to manaspring totem or to healer who healed some warlock.

Bloodrage+Battle shout and mobs running to you (Hi, Ossirian!)

 

I use named intercept and mocking blow with macro like this

 

 

/run if(UnitMana("player")<10) then CastSpellByName("Bloodrage");end;CastSpellByName("Intercept");

 

Sometimes I use bloodrage when I need to interrupt spellcast.

 

You also want bow. Aren't you?

Edited August 26, 2016 by Xudojnik

[TheFishyOne 9]

Bow?(!) Pfft, why would I want a meager bow when I can chuck nades?

=)

[DownToFarm 0]

If you dont plan on doing instances go 2h fury. I do ALOT of grinding. The faster you get imp cleave the faster you don't die when you pull more than 1 mob. With imp cleave You can take 2 no problem often 3 if they are green. Use retaliation on cd to fight camps of 4 or 5 gnolls or whatever is clustered. With him cleave and retal and a healing pot its no problem. I tend to stick to fighting beasts because they don't run. Running while fighting multiple mobs is almost always a death especially if they pull more. Piecing howl will save your life almost every-time you get into a jam. Don't even bother with the whirlwind axe if you're alliance. The quest takes long and is not good xp/hr, better off just grinding/questing it out until 34 and get someone to boost you through sm for the bonebiter axe. At 41 if you can get your hands on executioners axe thats a good one, or even warmonger at 47, although its much faster you wont hit as hard but you will hit more (3%hit) and its decent enough dps.

[Parvink 2]

five rules of leveling warriors club

1) best weapon for current lvl: 18-30 mr smites hammer -> 30-43 ww axe -> 43-51 executioners cleaver -> 51-60 ice barber spear (AV soon)

2) stack maximum stamina, get blue items in every slot (from dung or ah) 

3) 2h fury before 40 https://elysium-project.org/?talent#LZVVzA0xoV

4) abuse enrage with /sit macros

5) respec to arms at 40 https://elysium-project.org/?talent#LMGxbAio0z

ez life

Edited September 24, 2016 by Parvink

[DownToFarm 0]

five rules of leveling warriors club

1) best weapon for current lvl: 18-30 mr smites hammer -> 30-43 ww axe -> 43-51 executioners cleaver -> 51-60 ice barber spear (AV soon)

2) stack maximum stamina, get blue items in every slot (from dung or ah) 

3) 2h fury before 40 https://elysium-project.org/?talent#LZVVzA0xoV

4) abuse enrage with /sit macros

5) respec to arms at 40 https://elysium-project.org/?talent#LMGxbAio0z

ez life

 

I have to disagree with 2 (UNLESS you tank dungeon ALOT) and 3.

 

2) Stacking stamina will keep you alive sure, but you'll also take a lot longer to kill mobs, combine that with that spec and you'll have trouble fighting 3 mobs at once maybe even 2. You will have extremely low xp/hr if all you have is herioc strike and stamina. Aside from a few good blues that are easy to get, gun for bear>/=tiger>monkey gear. Killing mobs faster will both help your xp/hr but also help keep you alive as well. (you know the cliche best defense good offense blah blah blah).

 

3) The biggest pain for a lot of warriors leveling, especially those that level arms, is that you can almost never fight more than one mob at a time or else you die; especially in the 20-30 range. This problem goes away @ 23 if you take imp cleave. You CANT skip imp cleave. If you don't have it you almost always have to run if you accidentally pull 2 mobs. If you have imp cleave, you can almost always just pull to mobs (and I'd suggest doing it, basically allows you to hit 2 HS, for slightly more damage, on 2 separate mobs in one swing). You either drop 3 points out of imp battle shout, (it doesnt do too much at low levels anyways) or out of blood frenzy. I personally just skip blood frenzy. Blood frenzy might work if you're stacking stamina as suggested but (assume level 30) even if you have 2k (more likely to have 1k) hp it will only heal you for 60 damage (3/3). That won't even heal you the entirety of the damage just taken via crit. If you have average gear it wont even heal you for half of the crit. You are better off just DPSDPDSPDPS the фекал out of the mobs in front of you, eat/bandage quickly, and begin anew. 

 

I'd spec closer to https://elysium-project.org/?talent#LMGx0IbZVVuV0xoVo (swap unbridled wrath for booming voice for convience if you feel like it)

Edited September 25, 2016 by DownToFarm

[Undertanker 88]

If Warrior will be your main:

 

Professions:

 

Pick up cooking and first aid.   Fishing can help level your cooking up to 100 pretty easily as rate of catch is high and many cooking items at low level call for fish.  Fishing after 85 skill starts to slow and will slow down your leveling.   At this point, when you are grinding, kill beast for what is gonna level your cooking and humanoid for cloth.   DO NOT SELL YOUR CLOTH.   Cooking will allow you to always have the "well fed" buff to give your warrior more stamina and some spirit (helps hp regen between mobs, minor but it comes with the buff so w/e)

All cloth should be made into bandages.  Even when you get the next level bandages, if you already made lesser ones, still use those first, don't vendor them.  You WILL use them all. If you're mid HP after a fight, use a lesser bandage for a few sec, if you fought 2 things and are low, use your best bandage.

Alch/Herb:

Herbing is annoying to level at the start, so fight through it, especially on a new server roll-out.  Fight through it and while you hunt forever you can still grind the mobs lower level than you, get used to this practice (see lack of hit above) it will give you the extra early exp needed so you can complete your quest in the next zone without crying due to "the struggle".  Pick up alchemy as well to pair with it.  HP potions are easy to make and will save you SOOOOOOO many times from death.  Keep about 20 on you and stash the rest in the bank.   Make the agility and str potions as well, and fort pots for more stam (it isn't a lot but when paired with well fed buff, you are in good shape) the str and agil pots make up for having gray/green gear.   Use these buff potions when you grind in safe zones or away from high traffic areas when in contested zones.   You will get pissed off if you pop 4 1-hour potions to get ganked right after.   I usually kept 1 stack of mana pots which I would give to the healer if I do an instance, most times they don't have them and it can save a wipe = less down time.   Until your guild is ready to raid and you can afford a Force Reactive Disk, stay with these at 60 and farm up as many raid consumables as you can yourself.  Stash these on an alt bank.

 

Spec:

 

You will find a lot of controversy on this.  I've leveled 8 warriors on this patch and finally got it down (IMO) with the 8th one.  Only 2 respecs from lvl 1 to lvl 59.  Here it goes.  DO NOT DUEL WIELD!

 

Level 1 - 39:

 

Get 5% Crit, Unbridled Wrath, Blood Craze - This will increase your damage, rage gain rate, and help you stay alive.  Keep a 1h and sword with you and a weapon swap from your 2H for fighting a caster/healer.  You will not access to pummel pre 30, and it will make these low armor mobs better exp and not make your life hell due to their high magic damage/OP heal.  Swap back mid fight when you get the hang of this.

 

Continue down until you get Enrage and Deathwish - 1/3 imp cleave over 1/5 imp Battle shout so you can kill more than 1 mob w/o having to drink when you pair with deathwish. Piercing Howl will save your life a lot when you pull too much, and help you in some world pvp if you rolled that server.  The important thing here is Enrage talent and understanding the synergy with Blood Craze.  You will want to make a macro for "/sit" and put it on your action bar.  Reason being, when you are sitting, you have a 100% chance to be crit, and you will automatically stand up after being hit.  So you can manually trigger this extra 25% damage for 100% uptime!!!  You may think, "OMG a crit, will lower my HP too much adding down time".   Not at all, because of Blood Craze.  (remember you should be grinding mobs 2-3 levels lower than you) If you compare a normal hit, vs a crit - the amount Blood Craze will heal you for, on most mobs you actually take LESS damage.  It is a small difference, but usually is less. Unless you get crit again while standing up and don't get full use out to Blood Craze from the first crit taken.   Take this to the bank.

 

Finish up with maxing out Cleave, then getting Flurry and Imp Bezerker Rage - Once you get the 3/3 Imp cleave, paired with keeping Enrage up, you can now grind 2 mobs at once VERY quickly.  The damage output far exceeds 3/5 imp battle shout.  Furry and Imp Rage is self explanatory.  Grats on reaching level 39.

*Note no weapon dependency.  Equip what you can find, but keep it a 2H - weapon speed does not matter here.  Only the DPS of the weapon.  Duel Wield gives you a large chance to miss penalty that isn't worth it until raiding. Rend is good at the start of a pull on high armor targets pre-lvl 40**

 

Level 40-60

 

TIME TO RESPEC:

 

Time to get Mortal Strike and Axe Specialization - by level 40 you should have already completed your WW axe quest.  If you are alliance, you can also get the SM Axe quest, slightly better.  Focus on Mortal Strike on single targets, and on multiple targets, use Sweeping Strikes > Whirl Wind.  If you get Stoneslayer from Uldaman or Warmonger from luck/AH, you can respec to sword specialization.  Otherwise stay with your slow 2H for Mortal Strike.  (Top end damage is what matters on your weapon).

 

Start down the Fury Tree for more crit and rage gains - You'll notice the specialization is now Polearm.  This is for when AV is released, jump into one at lvl 51 and go the struggle for a Korrak kill for your Ice Barbed Spear.  This will be your last weapon until 60.  Not sure when it will release, but eventually it will and this is your best weapon when it does.

 

Finish the way you started in the fury tree, getting Enrage and Blood Craze - Time to bring that /sit macro back out.  You can stay this spec until you get better fury duel wield gear, since Sweeping strikes is really good for 5 mans.

 

Note you only respec 2 times, unless you got a good sword mid 40s, then it is 3 times total.  Killing 2 mobs becomes much easier mid to late 20s.  By the time you got 3/3 imp cleave, you should aim to grind 2 at once when you can.

When you have the choice of what type of human, kill lower armor targets.  Beast typically have higher armor so only grind on them when you need the meat for cooking.

 

While people advocate just run instances, it is by far the worst EXP per hour thing to do in Vanilla.  Run an instance only when you have the quest and get your blue item from it.  Otherwise the long time investment for a CHANCE at an upgrade that you may lose a roll on, will not increase your leveling time vs grinding lower lvl mobs. 

 

I hope this helps anybody who has never done the Warrior Grind, or has done it, and felt is was painfully unbearable.  It is tough, don't let anybody lie to you.  I didn't have such a guide during my day and did the all types of leveling, including protection tree in 2005, duel wield, mix between the 3.   Learn from my mistakes and growing pains and enjoy the journey.

 

[Aquamaria 1]

Here's an alternate take on leveling a warrior up until level 40. I level all my warrior as protection... You all probably think that's crazy, but you should hear me out.

 

Leveling with a few key talents from the protection tree gives me nearly zero downtime, a lot higher survivability and it makes my class a lot less worse in PvP before level 36. In my experience I actually gain quite a bit more experience an hour aswell. 

You all know the horrible grind from level 1-36 as a warrior. We play hoping that the RNG won't make us miss the next hit. We constantly run away from mobs and we die A LOT. Prior to getting our first instant ability at level 36 all we can do is auto-attack the mobs.

If you look at the talents improved shield block and improved revenge from the protection tree you should be able to envision yourself having a lot higher survivability. With a shield and two guaranteed blocks plus a 45% chance of stunning the mob every fifth second I get very close to having zero downtime while grinding mobs. I can even take on 3-4 of them at a time without being worried I'll die. I'll post a video of my character leveling in stranglethorn valley down below to give you guys a demonstration. And by the way, being jumped by a rogue with these talents is no longer any threat as I mitigate all their damage. I love watching them break themselves upon my shield.

In the video I have a Silverblade with a fiery enchant and shield spikes on, which boosts my damage quite a bit, but prior to getting those items I still leveled quite a bit faster as protection as opposed to wielding a two-hander. If you get Meteor Shard/Silverblade and shield spikes on your shield your damage will increase by a lot. If you have the gold to get a fiery weapon enchant and shadow oil aswell you'll fly through the mid-levels as if they were nothing.

Appologies about the cheesy music. When I taped it I wanted to show off to a friend so I put on a dramatic song.

https://youtu.be/zyzxj8ZgRzw

Edit: Here's the talent spec for those of you who wanted it http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#LZZxbus. The rest of your talents should go in the fury tree like usual.

 

Edited March 8, 2017 by Aquamaria

[Nocturn 4]

The fastest way to level is 2h Fury. Other specs offer different benefits but if your goal is to down mobs as fast as possible and reach 60 asap then spec into 2h Fury.

 

It's actually pretty simple. Those 5 points in cruelty are worth 10 maybe even more points in Arms at those early levels. 

 

My Spec (this is with a 2h the whole way and using the /sit)

 

• http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#LZVVzuMx  Level 31 spec

 

• http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#LVhbbIbZVVzuMgoVo Spec to 60

 

Notice the 2 points in improved slam. When timed right this will give you a free hit. Time it as soon as you see the mobs health drop (Vanilla has a lag where the mobs health will drop before your swing animation starts)

 

On the arms side, any points in improved HS, weather its an Arms or Fury build are just a total waste of points. 5/5 deflection is much better (When you parry an enemy's attack, your hasten your next attack known as "Parry Haste" by 50%. So you want to parry an enemies attack).

 

Only need 2 points in TM since you'll mostly be in Berserk stance anyways and this will just help keep that extra rage after a charge or swap for OP.

 

You could take a point or two out of improved two-hand weapon specialization and put them into improved berserker rage for that extra rage gain too.

 

Some other points:

 

• Tactical Mastery is not required for tanking while lvling.
• Even with a healer, SS + OP/WW is less efficient than a warrior with fury spec and just using WW.
• Anyone who argues for fighting multiple mobs doesn't seem to take into account the downtime for eating/bandaging after. Focus on 1 mob at a time and blast them down. This will be much quicker
• It is faster to level without running multiple dungeons. The xp/hour will be much faster when you solo and grind/follow a questing guide. However with a good group of people that you could quickly put together running Ulda/ZF and maybe ST with all the quests can be beneficial (not worth without the quests or spending hours looking for a group)

[Shaylin 6]

 

The fastest way to level is 2h Fury. Other specs offer different benefits but if your goal is to down mobs as fast as possible and reach 60 asap then spec into 2h Fury.

 

It's actually pretty simple. Those 5 points in cruelty are worth 10 maybe even more points in Arms at those early levels. 

 

My Spec (this is with a 2h the whole way and using the /sit)

 

• http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#LZVVzuMx  Level 31 spec

 

• http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#LVhbbIbZVVzuMgoVo Spec to 60

 

Notice the 2 points in improved slam. When timed right this will give you a free hit. Time it as soon as you see the mobs health drop (Vanilla has a lag where the mobs health will drop before your swing animation starts)

 

On the arms side, any points in improved HS, weather its an Arms or Fury build are just a total waste of points. 5/5 deflection is much better (When you parry an enemy's attack, your hasten your next attack known as "Parry Haste" by 50%. So you want to parry an enemies attack).

 

Only need 2 points in TM since you'll mostly be in Berserk stance anyways and this will just help keep that extra rage after a charge or swap for OP.

 

You could take a point or two out of improved two-hand weapon specialization and put them into improved berserker rage for that extra rage gain too.

 

Some other points:

 

• Tactical Mastery is not required for tanking while lvling.
• Even with a healer, SS + OP/WW is less efficient than a warrior with fury spec and just using WW.
• Anyone who argues for fighting multiple mobs doesn't seem to take into account the downtime for eating/bandaging after. Focus on 1 mob at a time and blast them down. This will be much quicker
• It is faster to level without running multiple dungeons. The xp/hour will be much faster when you solo and grind/follow a questing guide. However with a good group of people that you could quickly put together running Ulda/ZF and maybe ST with all the quests can be beneficial (not worth without the quests or spending hours looking for a group)

 

can you explain more about the slam technique and when to time it? i have seen numerous articles saying to time it right before or after a swing so that it hits right?

[Undertanker 88]

Slam you can get knock back timer of a mob hits you, best used after you after hit and after you have swung. It pauses your Auto attack swing timer so if you are within the time it would take to cast slam would delay your Auto attack you should wait.

Example: 3.5 second weapon, my swing will go off in 0.4 seconds, do not use slam.

If your swing isn't scheduled to go off for 3.0 seconds, use slam right after the mob hits you.

That us what the are referring to with "timed correctly"

[Shaylin 6]

Tanker what's your take on the imp slam leveling that Nocturn threw out here? It deviates from your spec a little bit, but is also well thought out and put together

[Undertanker 88]

It works if you got a slow 2h.  It is the only thing that makes 2H fury weapon speed dependent until you swap to Arms at 40. Which by that point will be ax specialization using WW ax.

 

When fighting 2 mobs, do not use it, can't avoid getting pushbacks on the cast time.   It speed things up slightly using slam but can take a mental drain on you quickly when grinding for lvls having to focus so hard to avoid pushbacks and time it after you get hit and not to delay auto attack timer.    Rather just /sit and crit  Drink some beer and repeat.

[Nocturn 4]

It works if you got a slow 2h.  It is the only thing that makes 2H fury weapon speed dependent until you swap to Arms at 40. Which by that point will be ax specialization using WW ax.

 

When fighting 2 mobs, do not use it, can't avoid getting pushbacks on the cast time.   It speed things up slightly using slam but can take a mental drain on you quickly when grinding for lvls having to focus so hard to avoid pushbacks and time it after you get hit and not to delay auto attack timer.    Rather just /sit and crit  Drink some beer and repeat.

All true. I always advocate focusing on only one mob at a time since it's faster than the downtime of having to eat/drink fighting 2 or more mobs.

 

Yeah slam can be frustrating and is tough to learn, but once you get the hang of it it's not so bad and you get used to it.

 

 

Slam you can get knock back timer of a mob hits you, best used after you after hit and after you have swung. It pauses your Auto attack swing timer so if you are within the time it would take to cast slam would delay your Auto attack you should wait.

Example: 3.5 second weapon, my swing will go off in 0.4 seconds, do not use slam.

If your swing isn't scheduled to go off for 3.0 seconds, use slam right after the mob hits you.

That us what the are referring to with "timed correctly"

Not quite.

 

When auto attacking, the mobs HP drops before the white damage displays on your screen due to server lag.

Don't look at your animation, its delayed, don't look for white numbers they are also delayed. The second you see the mobs HP drop is when you cast slam. 

Helps if you get a Nameplate addon.

[gotmilk0112 10]

 

Here's an alternate take on leveling a warrior up until level 40. I level all my warrior as protection... You all probably think that's crazy, but you should hear me out.

 

Leveling with a few key talents from the protection tree gives me nearly zero downtime, a lot higher survivability and it makes my class a lot less worse in PvP before level 36. In my experience I actually gain quite a bit more experience an hour aswell. 

 

You all know the horrible grind from level 1-36 as a warrior. We play hoping that the RNG won't make us miss the next hit. We constantly run away from mobs and we die A LOT. Prior to getting our first instant ability at level 36 all we can do is auto-attack the mobs.

 

If you look at the talents improved shield block and improved revenge from the protection tree you should be able to envision yourself having a lot higher survivability. With a shield and two guaranteed blocks plus a 45% chance of stunning the mob every fifth second I get very close to having zero downtime while grinding mobs. I can even take on 3-4 of them at a time without being worried I'll die. I'll post a video of my character leveling in stranglethorn valley down below to give you guys a demonstration. And by the way, being jumped by a rogue with these talents is no longer any threat as I mitigate all their damage. I love watching them break themselves upon my shield.

 

In the video I have a Silverblade with a fiery enchant and shield spikes on, which boosts my damage quite a bit, but prior to getting those items I still leveled quite a bit faster as protection as opposed to wielding a two-hander. If you get Meteor Shard/Silverblade and shield spikes on your shield your damage will increase by a lot. If you have the gold to get a fiery weapon enchant and shadow oil aswell you'll fly through the mid-levels as if they were nothing.

 

Appologies about the cheesy music. When I taped it I wanted to show off to a friend so I put on a dramatic song.

 

https://youtu.be/zyzxj8ZgRzw

 

 

You sure that's on a regular vanilla server? You're regen'ing 3-4% of your health every 2 seconds, out of combat. That seems insanely high.

 

Is that the one server that runs patch 3.3.5 but caps level at 60?

Edited November 21, 2016 by gotmilk0112

[Aquamaria 1]

You sure that's on a regular vanilla server? You're regen'ing 3-4% of your health every 2 seconds, out of combat. That seems insanely high.

 

Is that the one server that runs patch 3.3.5 but caps level at 60?

This is on Kronos.

[gotmilk0112 10]

This is on Kronos.

Huh. Weird. Is Warrior health regen really that high? From what I remember of leveling one on Nost, I was always having to bandage/eat every pull; health regen was really slow.

[Aquamaria 1]

I'm not sure if the health regeneration on Kronos is bugged or not, but I would assume not. I used to have to bandage or eat before every fight when I was using a two-hander on Kronos as well.

 

I'm not arguing the point that this way of leveling is better than fury, as I haven't done any precise calculations myself, but I'm certainly thinking of it as a relevant alternative. With this setup you'll have a lot better survivability, near zero downtime, (even if you in-between regular fights pull 3-4 mobs at a time), and you'll get to play a bit of a different playstyle than you're used to. (I don't die, ever).

 

If you're able to invest in some shield spikes your damage will go up by a lot. With improved shield block the enemy will take extra damage just about every time he hits you - while you mitigate all his damage. If you still have gold to spare and you've gotten a hold of a good weapon, (such as Meteor shard), you could invest in a fiery weapon enchant which will boost your damage even further. By no means is the fiery enchant necessary, but it does come in handy. You should however get some shield spikes if you consider leveling like this. With enough damage modifiers you can even hold your ground against much tougher enemies which you wouldn't be able to kill otherwise.

 

Another benefit is that you can use revenge every fifth second, which is the only attack that is an instant attack during your earlier levels. However, the difference from the extra damage a heroic strike does may or may not make it a mute point. In my experience I get a lot more of a steady rage generation, much higher survivability and less downtime using revenge at the earlier levels so I'm very comfortable with it. 

 

Get shield spikes.

Get mortal strike at level 40.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Aquamaria

[gotmilk0112 10]

Yeah, taking less damage as Prot makes sense, but that health regen seemed way too high. On my 50 mage on Kronos, I'm only regen'ing 1% of my health every second. Same with my 52 Paladin.