Kazaganthi
10-06-2007, 09:38 AM
Steel and Fire- A Warrior Arena Guide
"Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." ~ Vince Lombardi
This is a guide for any warrior interested in competing in arena. First, a little history about me. I have played this game since day one. I first logged on as a dwarf hunter, named Dagnabit. I played him for over a year mostly for pvp. He was respected and known on both sides of the line as a fierce opponent. However, something was missing. In that year, I became friends with the horde that I fought so valiantly. Because of that, I rolled a tauren warrior named Kazaganthi on the horde side. I leveled him up strictly through pvp; you got experience for turning in marks back then. Since that time, I have leveled up three more warriors. I have faced some of the best pvpers there are in the Bloodlust battlegroup on Pwentt, and the Stormstrike battlegroup on Kazaganthi. Between all my characters I have over 330k honor kills. On Kazaganthi, I broke into Gladiator level in 2s and 3s. We just missed it in 5s. Near the middle of season two my guild moved to Bleeding Hollow on the Ruin battlegroup due to Ysondre’s low population.
This guide is the sum of my experiences in the two seasons of play, movies I’ve studied, and finally tricks I have learned. If this guide helps you win one arena, I’ll consider it a success. Remember, arena is a place where two seconds can mean the difference between winning and losing, living and dying.
1. Building Your Warrior
A. Speccing your warrior
For a warrior, proper spec is extremely important. There are several talent builds that make or break arena warriors. They all include mortal strike. Mortal strike is the single most beneficial talent a warrior brings to the arena. Yes we can take a beating and do excellent damage, but a 50% healing debuff shines in arena. Fury’s dps can’t match it, and there is no way to force a team to attack a prot warrior. I will go over the pros and cons of a few ms specs here.
a. Survival Spec- 35/25/3
Survive (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502134201502200120005500131005012 00000000300000000000000000000)
This spec is my personal favorite. It is built to help your team keep you alive. A dead warrior is a warrior that does no damage. In season two, it seems like 4 dps teams are the norm. These teams thrive on being able to kill the warrior right at the start. This spec provides several ways to help you survive that.
First it gives you second wind. Second wind is divine in arena. It basically provides you with your own renew. It is triggered when you get stunned or immobilized. This means that things like frost nova trigger it. It also scales as your health increases.
It also gives you bloodcraze. At 12k health bloodcraze gives you about 360 health over six seconds. This may not sound like much, but it activates every time you get crit. Over the course of an arena battle, or when you are focused by a four dps team and extra health is good health. It actually adds up to quite a bit of healing over time.
Tactical Mastery is the final survival talent this spec provides. TM provides you with options. You can switch stance and immediately disarm or shield reflect. Disarming a rogue or in the near future a fellow warrior or reflecting a spell at the right time can mean the difference between winning and losing. It also means that you can pop back out of defensive and immediately have rage to begin thrashing the enemy.
b. Max damage Spec 31/30
Burst (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502134201502000100005050104025012 05000000000000000000000000000)
This is a spec for any one who wants to maximize their damage in arena. It is popular with warriors in 4 dps teams and in the 2s and 3s bracket.
Flurry is a huge buff to your dps. It increases your attack speed by 25%. This lets you maximize the damage your do to the opposing team.
Commanding presence is a very nice buff to your attack power or to your health if you use commanding shout. At 4/5 it provides a 20% increase to either your battle shout or commanding shout.
c. Mix and Match 35/23/3
Noktyn (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?3200502132201502301120005050104005012 00000000300000000000000000000)
This is an interesting spec. It is used by Noktyn of Power Trip, a warrior well known for his arena domination. It provides several useful tools for the arena warrior.
This spec provides you with improved hamstring. With 3/3 in it the talent gives a 15% chance to root the target in place for five seconds. This can mean life or death in arena. If it procs and your target is out of line of sight of his healer, he is a deadman. It can also help save your allies if it allows them to slip away from who is on them. If you run a melee heavy team the blood frenzy provides another nice damage buff to you and your teamates.
d. Mix and Match 33/28
Serennia (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502132201502200120055000131025012 03000000000000000000000000000)
This is another interesting spec. This spec is used by former #1 warrior in the world Serennia. Using it Serennia maintained a stranglehold on BG9's top spot for most of season 2.
The fact that this spec gives you near 31/30 damage with survivability options is the key to it's success. Blood craze and second win provide much needed healing to blunt "gib" teams burst damage. The 3/5 flurry and improved execute allow you to pile on the damage while staying alive. The only downside is that without tm you cannot do an instant disarm or shield reflect. This is more of a weakness in 2s than in 5s. With smart play the loss really isn't an issue.
e. Mix and Match 36/25
Kaziganthi (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502132201502302120005050131025012 00000000000000000000000000000)
This is the spec I currently use. It works best with other melee b/c of the 4% damage bonus from blood frenzy. It also has high survivability with both second wind and blood craze. The improved hamstring can be a life savor if you teamates are trying to escape another warrior or rogue. This is a very strong build if you plan on running warrior/druid in 2s.
B. Which weapon's spec is for me?
a. There are three weapons specs that you must choose from to be an arms warrior. They are axe, sword, and mace. Each of these has it's benefits and weaknesses. You must decide which is the best for you.
1.) Axe Spec
This is a great spec for PVE damage. The extra crit is a huge bonus as you tackle any boss fight. However, while it was very strong in Season 1, axe spec no longer shines in arena. The problem here is the effect of resilience on crit. Resilience effects both the amount of times you crit and the size of your crit. This means that on a 490 resil target, you hit with a Season 2 weapon for about 1500 on a crit. Because of this, you see very few axe wielding warriors in high level arenas.
2.) Sword Spec
This is my favorite spec for arena. Unlike axe, sword does not suffer double damage from reslience. Sword spec gives you a 5% proc rate for an extra attack. This extra attack can also crit. The burst this provides in arena can be invaluable. I have won many matches because of a lucky proc.
3. Mace Spec
Many people assumed maces would fade away with their 2% proc rate nerf. However, reports from the field seem to all agree, mace is still strong with Stormherald. The stun proc that this spec gives you is invaluable in 2s and 3s, and is still strong in 5s. Basically it causes frustration to your opponents. This gets them off their game and like a druid abusing cyclone, makes you smile. This is also the spec for 1v1 fighting. If that is your thing, spec mace.
C. Gearing your warrior
a. The arena warrior must strive for balance in his gear. If you have tons of attack power but no stamina, you won’t survive long. If you have tons of crit but no attack power you will hit like a mage with his sword. Dreasus has an excellent article on this in his pvp guide so I won’t go very far into it. A good rule to aim for is 1600 unbuffed AP, at least 30% crit in zerk, over 12k stam, and over 300 resilience. Dreasus’s guide can be found here. TheorySpot - Dreasus PVP (http://www.tankspot.com/index.php?pageid=DreasusPVPGuide)
2. General advice for arena
A. The Basics
If you take nothing else from this guide, memorize the next paragraph and apply it. The single most important aspect of arena play is your teammates. You must always be aware of what is happening to them while you are dpsing. You must constantly watch everything that is happening; your head must be on a swivel so to speak. Protecting your teammates is your job in arena. This can mean hamstringing the rogue on your teammate, intercepting at a key time to allow a teammate to escape, or a well timed fear to save your allies. You also must make sure that you do not go out of line of sight of your healer. I can’t tell you how many games I have won because the opposing team’s warrior charged too far ahead and then was led out of line of sight of his team.
There are a few basic things that you can do to immediately improve your play. First key bind everything. You must be able to use all of your abilities while watching what is happening in the battle. A clicker cannot do this effectively. You may be a good players as a clicker, but key binding will transform you into a pvp monster. You should also get familiar with turning using your mouse. This allows you to spin, run out and jump intercept, and all around be far more effective then wasd. You should also setup a macro for weapons swap on stance switch. I do this with a built in feature in outfitter, but Mozman has a macro for it. This can be found at
WoW Warrior Macros - TheorySpot (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/theory-articles-guides/31899-wow-warrior-macros.html)
Now as a warrior you must utilize all of your tools to shutdown the other team. If they have a healer, you can completely lock him down for at least 30 seconds at some point in the fight. When you see him casting a heal, pummel the first one. Then run out to range and intercept back in when he starts casting his heal again. Once the stun wears off and he heals again you can pummel again. When he begins to heal again blow your intim shout on him. When he gets out of that, pummel him one more time. Finally intercept one more time if needed. By that point unless he is a paladin who bubbled, you have probably won the match.
Another excellent trick is to wait until both the opposing players are together. If you are killing their dps, you can either pop off him for a well timed pummel, or use intimidating shout to fear both of them. Too few warriors use things like demo shout, piercing howl, and sunder armor properly. Each of these can frustrate opposing teams and destroy their game plan. Demo shout reduces how much they hit for. Piercing howl if used in the right place can slow an entire arena team, allowing your players to kite them away. Sunder armor is huge if you get into a mirror match battle. It is a much more efficient rage dump than heroic strike. As a side note you can sunder in zerk stance. Very few warriors think to sunder up the opposing warrior in such a match. Even fewer think to sunder warlocks or priests. This can be a huge mistake. The sunders allow you to out dps their warrior even if he out gears you. On a warlock the MS + sunders basically allows you to out dps the incoming heals. One break on the heals and that lock is toast.
Sweeping strikes is now usable in zerk stance. If you can get a group of the enemy together, use this ability. If you use it with cleave you are guarunteed double damage on your targets. It seems to be a bit buggy with whirlwind, but use whirlwind with it also for lots of pretty numbers. This provides a ton of burst damage to multiple targets. If the opposing healers aren't on the ball, you can work down two players simultaneously. If they only focus on healing one, you can quickly target the other and kill him before they can react.
Lastly, use intervene if you or your teammate gets in trouble. This is a skill used by too few warriors. It can pull you out of line of site of their dps, provide a quick respite to a beleaguered teammate, or pull you back to your healers if you get too far ahead. Arena is a dynamic game where every second counts; every mistake can be a loss. You win by minimizing your mistakes, and maximizing how you interact with your team.
B. 2v2 arena
If you enter 2v2 arena planning on being the best, you need to consider class makeup first. There are many class compositions that can work, but there are only a few that usually push into the high level brackets. There are other groups that can work, but these are the ones I have seen be most effective. Many warriors do well with either a paladin or druid paired with them. 2s is all about smart play. A single mistake often makes or breaks the game.
a. Warrior/Druid
This is one of the most dynamic pairings in the game. A skilled druid can wreak havoc on an opposing team. They can cyclone, root, feral charge, and kite better than any other healer. The best part is that they can heal you with hots while they are doing all of that. This allows you as a warrior to play your game without worrying about your healer. That said, you should still hamstring or stun the opposing dps to make it easier on your teammate.
b. Warrior Paladin
The paladin warrior pair is one of the most feared combos in the game. They are the perfect complements to each other. The paladin provides you with blessing of freedom, at least 10 seconds of uninterrupted heals, almost limitless heals, and they wear plate.
C. 3v3 Arena
3v3 is a bit more forgiving on class makeup. There are several teams that work very well together. Most high level teams fall into two categories. The “scrub” team, two healers and a warrior or a warrior, one dps, and a paladin. Depending on how you utilize them, both makeups can be deadly in arena. Truth be told there is no such thing as a “scrub team.” There are only winners and losers.
a. Warrior, Ice Mage, Paladin
This combo can be extremely strong. It was used by Powertrip in the early WSVG days with devastating success. It gives you great damage, and great control over the match. This is the ultimate option combo. Your ice mage can easily shut down two players on the opposing team at a time.
b. Warrior, Elemental Sham, Paladin
This is a devastating damage combo. The elemental shaman has purge for bop, bloodlust, windfury, and amazing damage of their own. This team is not a finesse grouping. They are the ultimate brute force in arena with the highest burst damage potential in the game.
c. Warrior, Lock. Paladin
Warlocks are a very strong class by themselves. If you pair them with the warrior paladin combo, good things happen. In this setup the warlock usually serves as a “tank.” Through drain life, amazing health, and stacked resilience, they are near impossible to kill quickly. In addition they provide excellent damage and cc through dots, fears, spellocks, and pet damage.
d. Warrior, Resto Sham, Paladin
My all time favorite threes combo. This is the combo I ran to get my Gladiator title in threes. To run this correctly, you need an extremely geared warrior since he is the sole damage dealer. The shaman usually tanks to damage while earth shocking their healer and providing the warrior with windfury. In addition he can also heal the heck out of himself if needs be.
e. Warrior, Priest, Paladin
I have seen this combo be effective, but I do not think it is quite on the level with the other setups. In this combo, the priest attempts to tank damage while mana draining the opposing teams healers. If the paladin can keep the priest alive it can be very effective, but the warrior must work very hard to put out great damage. He lacks the windfury of the group makeup d.
f. Warrior, Druid, Paladin
Druids are an amazing class. A skilled druid can effectively shut down an entire threes team. This combo relies completely on how strong their druid is. He can cyclone, root, heal through hots, and if played correctly is untouchable. They can out kite or los any class in game and have a snack while doing it.
g. Warrior, Warrior, Shaman
This combo has the potential for great damage, but lacks control. The two warriors combined with windfury is terrifying, but they are easily ccable and have little cc of their own. This combo absolutely must kill someone within the first minute, or they are done.
h. Warrior, Disc Priest, Resto Druid
This is the class makeup I ran to get Gladiator in season 2. We easily coasted to a 2300 rating and had the potential to climb much higher. The warrior provides damage, ms, and debuffs on the opponents. The priest tanks and mana burns. The druid provides unparreled cc and healing. The true power of this team however lies in drinking. It is extremely easy for the druid to drink with this makeup b/c every one focuses the priest. The priest sucks away all the enemy's mana. Unfortunately my druid had to move on to bigger and better things so unless I find a new one(and finding on that good would be a chore,) I won't get to push this makeup to it's potential. I truelly believe it could be a prospect for #1 in any battlegroup.
D. 5v5 Arena
5v5 arena is the most dynamic, challenging, and all around fun arena. It is the ultimate test of teamwork and innovation. 5v5 teams usually fall into three categories. These are 4 dps teams, 3 dps teams, or for warriors 2 dps teams. Each setup has it’s own unique challenges and weaknesses.
a. The 4 dps team
The 4 dps team has become very popular in season two arena. This makeup provides unhealable dps. It functions on the premise of the quick kill. These teams focus fire to achieve domination. They usually focus either the warrior or priest on the opposing team and kill them within the first 20 seconds of the match. If they are unable to do this, they usually end up losing. If you plan to use this combo, you need to have one player that every one assist on. You usually cc one or two of the opposing team, then turn and burn. This team has one fear; 3 healer two warrior teams. It is excellent for taking out the cookie cutter 3 dps, 2 healer teams. Also since resilience is capped at 490 this team makeup will only get better as gear improves. Their damage will increase while the other team’s resilience cannot.
b. 3 dps, two healer teams
This is the cookie cutter makeup of arena. This makeup was extremely popular in arena one and has proven to be very strong in season two as well. This makeups strength relies on options. They usually have strong cc in the form of an ice mage or warlock. In addition, many have an elemental shaman for the added burst of bloodlust. The two healers are near impossible to lock down completely. Most teams focus on killing this team’s priest first. If left alone, not only does the priest heal, but he focuses on mana draining the opposing team’s healers. Many of these teams use the warrior to work down one target while the other two dps kill another. This is particularly effective on 4 dps teams.
c. 2 warrior, 3 healer teams
I’m not a fan of this combo, but it does have its strengths. It is the bane of the 4 dps team. A cookie cutter makeup of this setup would be 2 ms warriors, one resto shaman, and two paladins. The paladins make the warriors virtually impossible to cc. The shaman provides windfury to the warriors, grounding totems for enemy spells, and usually ends up tanking the match as well. What makes this team so strong is that with windfury the two warriors can nearly match a 3 dps teams damage output, but every one on the team is near impossible to kill due to the 3 healers.
The end
That’s all I have for now. In conclusion, remember that arena is a dynamic game that focus’s on teamwork. There are many great warriors out there, many of these can’t even break 2k. If you want to succeed in arena, you must take care of your team, work with your team, and most importantly communicate with you team. There is no I in team.
Kaz
< Dreasus' Guide for PvP Warriors >
TheorySpot - Dreasus PVP (http://www.tankspot.com/index.php?pageid=DreasusPVPGuide)
< Mozman’s Macros >
WoW Warrior Macros - TheorySpot (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/theory-articles-guides/31899-wow-warrior-macros.html)
"Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." ~ Vince Lombardi
This is a guide for any warrior interested in competing in arena. First, a little history about me. I have played this game since day one. I first logged on as a dwarf hunter, named Dagnabit. I played him for over a year mostly for pvp. He was respected and known on both sides of the line as a fierce opponent. However, something was missing. In that year, I became friends with the horde that I fought so valiantly. Because of that, I rolled a tauren warrior named Kazaganthi on the horde side. I leveled him up strictly through pvp; you got experience for turning in marks back then. Since that time, I have leveled up three more warriors. I have faced some of the best pvpers there are in the Bloodlust battlegroup on Pwentt, and the Stormstrike battlegroup on Kazaganthi. Between all my characters I have over 330k honor kills. On Kazaganthi, I broke into Gladiator level in 2s and 3s. We just missed it in 5s. Near the middle of season two my guild moved to Bleeding Hollow on the Ruin battlegroup due to Ysondre’s low population.
This guide is the sum of my experiences in the two seasons of play, movies I’ve studied, and finally tricks I have learned. If this guide helps you win one arena, I’ll consider it a success. Remember, arena is a place where two seconds can mean the difference between winning and losing, living and dying.
1. Building Your Warrior
A. Speccing your warrior
For a warrior, proper spec is extremely important. There are several talent builds that make or break arena warriors. They all include mortal strike. Mortal strike is the single most beneficial talent a warrior brings to the arena. Yes we can take a beating and do excellent damage, but a 50% healing debuff shines in arena. Fury’s dps can’t match it, and there is no way to force a team to attack a prot warrior. I will go over the pros and cons of a few ms specs here.
a. Survival Spec- 35/25/3
Survive (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502134201502200120005500131005012 00000000300000000000000000000)
This spec is my personal favorite. It is built to help your team keep you alive. A dead warrior is a warrior that does no damage. In season two, it seems like 4 dps teams are the norm. These teams thrive on being able to kill the warrior right at the start. This spec provides several ways to help you survive that.
First it gives you second wind. Second wind is divine in arena. It basically provides you with your own renew. It is triggered when you get stunned or immobilized. This means that things like frost nova trigger it. It also scales as your health increases.
It also gives you bloodcraze. At 12k health bloodcraze gives you about 360 health over six seconds. This may not sound like much, but it activates every time you get crit. Over the course of an arena battle, or when you are focused by a four dps team and extra health is good health. It actually adds up to quite a bit of healing over time.
Tactical Mastery is the final survival talent this spec provides. TM provides you with options. You can switch stance and immediately disarm or shield reflect. Disarming a rogue or in the near future a fellow warrior or reflecting a spell at the right time can mean the difference between winning and losing. It also means that you can pop back out of defensive and immediately have rage to begin thrashing the enemy.
b. Max damage Spec 31/30
Burst (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502134201502000100005050104025012 05000000000000000000000000000)
This is a spec for any one who wants to maximize their damage in arena. It is popular with warriors in 4 dps teams and in the 2s and 3s bracket.
Flurry is a huge buff to your dps. It increases your attack speed by 25%. This lets you maximize the damage your do to the opposing team.
Commanding presence is a very nice buff to your attack power or to your health if you use commanding shout. At 4/5 it provides a 20% increase to either your battle shout or commanding shout.
c. Mix and Match 35/23/3
Noktyn (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?3200502132201502301120005050104005012 00000000300000000000000000000)
This is an interesting spec. It is used by Noktyn of Power Trip, a warrior well known for his arena domination. It provides several useful tools for the arena warrior.
This spec provides you with improved hamstring. With 3/3 in it the talent gives a 15% chance to root the target in place for five seconds. This can mean life or death in arena. If it procs and your target is out of line of sight of his healer, he is a deadman. It can also help save your allies if it allows them to slip away from who is on them. If you run a melee heavy team the blood frenzy provides another nice damage buff to you and your teamates.
d. Mix and Match 33/28
Serennia (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502132201502200120055000131025012 03000000000000000000000000000)
This is another interesting spec. This spec is used by former #1 warrior in the world Serennia. Using it Serennia maintained a stranglehold on BG9's top spot for most of season 2.
The fact that this spec gives you near 31/30 damage with survivability options is the key to it's success. Blood craze and second win provide much needed healing to blunt "gib" teams burst damage. The 3/5 flurry and improved execute allow you to pile on the damage while staying alive. The only downside is that without tm you cannot do an instant disarm or shield reflect. This is more of a weakness in 2s than in 5s. With smart play the loss really isn't an issue.
e. Mix and Match 36/25
Kaziganthi (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?0500502132201502302120005050131025012 00000000000000000000000000000)
This is the spec I currently use. It works best with other melee b/c of the 4% damage bonus from blood frenzy. It also has high survivability with both second wind and blood craze. The improved hamstring can be a life savor if you teamates are trying to escape another warrior or rogue. This is a very strong build if you plan on running warrior/druid in 2s.
B. Which weapon's spec is for me?
a. There are three weapons specs that you must choose from to be an arms warrior. They are axe, sword, and mace. Each of these has it's benefits and weaknesses. You must decide which is the best for you.
1.) Axe Spec
This is a great spec for PVE damage. The extra crit is a huge bonus as you tackle any boss fight. However, while it was very strong in Season 1, axe spec no longer shines in arena. The problem here is the effect of resilience on crit. Resilience effects both the amount of times you crit and the size of your crit. This means that on a 490 resil target, you hit with a Season 2 weapon for about 1500 on a crit. Because of this, you see very few axe wielding warriors in high level arenas.
2.) Sword Spec
This is my favorite spec for arena. Unlike axe, sword does not suffer double damage from reslience. Sword spec gives you a 5% proc rate for an extra attack. This extra attack can also crit. The burst this provides in arena can be invaluable. I have won many matches because of a lucky proc.
3. Mace Spec
Many people assumed maces would fade away with their 2% proc rate nerf. However, reports from the field seem to all agree, mace is still strong with Stormherald. The stun proc that this spec gives you is invaluable in 2s and 3s, and is still strong in 5s. Basically it causes frustration to your opponents. This gets them off their game and like a druid abusing cyclone, makes you smile. This is also the spec for 1v1 fighting. If that is your thing, spec mace.
C. Gearing your warrior
a. The arena warrior must strive for balance in his gear. If you have tons of attack power but no stamina, you won’t survive long. If you have tons of crit but no attack power you will hit like a mage with his sword. Dreasus has an excellent article on this in his pvp guide so I won’t go very far into it. A good rule to aim for is 1600 unbuffed AP, at least 30% crit in zerk, over 12k stam, and over 300 resilience. Dreasus’s guide can be found here. TheorySpot - Dreasus PVP (http://www.tankspot.com/index.php?pageid=DreasusPVPGuide)
2. General advice for arena
A. The Basics
If you take nothing else from this guide, memorize the next paragraph and apply it. The single most important aspect of arena play is your teammates. You must always be aware of what is happening to them while you are dpsing. You must constantly watch everything that is happening; your head must be on a swivel so to speak. Protecting your teammates is your job in arena. This can mean hamstringing the rogue on your teammate, intercepting at a key time to allow a teammate to escape, or a well timed fear to save your allies. You also must make sure that you do not go out of line of sight of your healer. I can’t tell you how many games I have won because the opposing team’s warrior charged too far ahead and then was led out of line of sight of his team.
There are a few basic things that you can do to immediately improve your play. First key bind everything. You must be able to use all of your abilities while watching what is happening in the battle. A clicker cannot do this effectively. You may be a good players as a clicker, but key binding will transform you into a pvp monster. You should also get familiar with turning using your mouse. This allows you to spin, run out and jump intercept, and all around be far more effective then wasd. You should also setup a macro for weapons swap on stance switch. I do this with a built in feature in outfitter, but Mozman has a macro for it. This can be found at
WoW Warrior Macros - TheorySpot (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/theory-articles-guides/31899-wow-warrior-macros.html)
Now as a warrior you must utilize all of your tools to shutdown the other team. If they have a healer, you can completely lock him down for at least 30 seconds at some point in the fight. When you see him casting a heal, pummel the first one. Then run out to range and intercept back in when he starts casting his heal again. Once the stun wears off and he heals again you can pummel again. When he begins to heal again blow your intim shout on him. When he gets out of that, pummel him one more time. Finally intercept one more time if needed. By that point unless he is a paladin who bubbled, you have probably won the match.
Another excellent trick is to wait until both the opposing players are together. If you are killing their dps, you can either pop off him for a well timed pummel, or use intimidating shout to fear both of them. Too few warriors use things like demo shout, piercing howl, and sunder armor properly. Each of these can frustrate opposing teams and destroy their game plan. Demo shout reduces how much they hit for. Piercing howl if used in the right place can slow an entire arena team, allowing your players to kite them away. Sunder armor is huge if you get into a mirror match battle. It is a much more efficient rage dump than heroic strike. As a side note you can sunder in zerk stance. Very few warriors think to sunder up the opposing warrior in such a match. Even fewer think to sunder warlocks or priests. This can be a huge mistake. The sunders allow you to out dps their warrior even if he out gears you. On a warlock the MS + sunders basically allows you to out dps the incoming heals. One break on the heals and that lock is toast.
Sweeping strikes is now usable in zerk stance. If you can get a group of the enemy together, use this ability. If you use it with cleave you are guarunteed double damage on your targets. It seems to be a bit buggy with whirlwind, but use whirlwind with it also for lots of pretty numbers. This provides a ton of burst damage to multiple targets. If the opposing healers aren't on the ball, you can work down two players simultaneously. If they only focus on healing one, you can quickly target the other and kill him before they can react.
Lastly, use intervene if you or your teammate gets in trouble. This is a skill used by too few warriors. It can pull you out of line of site of their dps, provide a quick respite to a beleaguered teammate, or pull you back to your healers if you get too far ahead. Arena is a dynamic game where every second counts; every mistake can be a loss. You win by minimizing your mistakes, and maximizing how you interact with your team.
B. 2v2 arena
If you enter 2v2 arena planning on being the best, you need to consider class makeup first. There are many class compositions that can work, but there are only a few that usually push into the high level brackets. There are other groups that can work, but these are the ones I have seen be most effective. Many warriors do well with either a paladin or druid paired with them. 2s is all about smart play. A single mistake often makes or breaks the game.
a. Warrior/Druid
This is one of the most dynamic pairings in the game. A skilled druid can wreak havoc on an opposing team. They can cyclone, root, feral charge, and kite better than any other healer. The best part is that they can heal you with hots while they are doing all of that. This allows you as a warrior to play your game without worrying about your healer. That said, you should still hamstring or stun the opposing dps to make it easier on your teammate.
b. Warrior Paladin
The paladin warrior pair is one of the most feared combos in the game. They are the perfect complements to each other. The paladin provides you with blessing of freedom, at least 10 seconds of uninterrupted heals, almost limitless heals, and they wear plate.
C. 3v3 Arena
3v3 is a bit more forgiving on class makeup. There are several teams that work very well together. Most high level teams fall into two categories. The “scrub” team, two healers and a warrior or a warrior, one dps, and a paladin. Depending on how you utilize them, both makeups can be deadly in arena. Truth be told there is no such thing as a “scrub team.” There are only winners and losers.
a. Warrior, Ice Mage, Paladin
This combo can be extremely strong. It was used by Powertrip in the early WSVG days with devastating success. It gives you great damage, and great control over the match. This is the ultimate option combo. Your ice mage can easily shut down two players on the opposing team at a time.
b. Warrior, Elemental Sham, Paladin
This is a devastating damage combo. The elemental shaman has purge for bop, bloodlust, windfury, and amazing damage of their own. This team is not a finesse grouping. They are the ultimate brute force in arena with the highest burst damage potential in the game.
c. Warrior, Lock. Paladin
Warlocks are a very strong class by themselves. If you pair them with the warrior paladin combo, good things happen. In this setup the warlock usually serves as a “tank.” Through drain life, amazing health, and stacked resilience, they are near impossible to kill quickly. In addition they provide excellent damage and cc through dots, fears, spellocks, and pet damage.
d. Warrior, Resto Sham, Paladin
My all time favorite threes combo. This is the combo I ran to get my Gladiator title in threes. To run this correctly, you need an extremely geared warrior since he is the sole damage dealer. The shaman usually tanks to damage while earth shocking their healer and providing the warrior with windfury. In addition he can also heal the heck out of himself if needs be.
e. Warrior, Priest, Paladin
I have seen this combo be effective, but I do not think it is quite on the level with the other setups. In this combo, the priest attempts to tank damage while mana draining the opposing teams healers. If the paladin can keep the priest alive it can be very effective, but the warrior must work very hard to put out great damage. He lacks the windfury of the group makeup d.
f. Warrior, Druid, Paladin
Druids are an amazing class. A skilled druid can effectively shut down an entire threes team. This combo relies completely on how strong their druid is. He can cyclone, root, heal through hots, and if played correctly is untouchable. They can out kite or los any class in game and have a snack while doing it.
g. Warrior, Warrior, Shaman
This combo has the potential for great damage, but lacks control. The two warriors combined with windfury is terrifying, but they are easily ccable and have little cc of their own. This combo absolutely must kill someone within the first minute, or they are done.
h. Warrior, Disc Priest, Resto Druid
This is the class makeup I ran to get Gladiator in season 2. We easily coasted to a 2300 rating and had the potential to climb much higher. The warrior provides damage, ms, and debuffs on the opponents. The priest tanks and mana burns. The druid provides unparreled cc and healing. The true power of this team however lies in drinking. It is extremely easy for the druid to drink with this makeup b/c every one focuses the priest. The priest sucks away all the enemy's mana. Unfortunately my druid had to move on to bigger and better things so unless I find a new one(and finding on that good would be a chore,) I won't get to push this makeup to it's potential. I truelly believe it could be a prospect for #1 in any battlegroup.
D. 5v5 Arena
5v5 arena is the most dynamic, challenging, and all around fun arena. It is the ultimate test of teamwork and innovation. 5v5 teams usually fall into three categories. These are 4 dps teams, 3 dps teams, or for warriors 2 dps teams. Each setup has it’s own unique challenges and weaknesses.
a. The 4 dps team
The 4 dps team has become very popular in season two arena. This makeup provides unhealable dps. It functions on the premise of the quick kill. These teams focus fire to achieve domination. They usually focus either the warrior or priest on the opposing team and kill them within the first 20 seconds of the match. If they are unable to do this, they usually end up losing. If you plan to use this combo, you need to have one player that every one assist on. You usually cc one or two of the opposing team, then turn and burn. This team has one fear; 3 healer two warrior teams. It is excellent for taking out the cookie cutter 3 dps, 2 healer teams. Also since resilience is capped at 490 this team makeup will only get better as gear improves. Their damage will increase while the other team’s resilience cannot.
b. 3 dps, two healer teams
This is the cookie cutter makeup of arena. This makeup was extremely popular in arena one and has proven to be very strong in season two as well. This makeups strength relies on options. They usually have strong cc in the form of an ice mage or warlock. In addition, many have an elemental shaman for the added burst of bloodlust. The two healers are near impossible to lock down completely. Most teams focus on killing this team’s priest first. If left alone, not only does the priest heal, but he focuses on mana draining the opposing team’s healers. Many of these teams use the warrior to work down one target while the other two dps kill another. This is particularly effective on 4 dps teams.
c. 2 warrior, 3 healer teams
I’m not a fan of this combo, but it does have its strengths. It is the bane of the 4 dps team. A cookie cutter makeup of this setup would be 2 ms warriors, one resto shaman, and two paladins. The paladins make the warriors virtually impossible to cc. The shaman provides windfury to the warriors, grounding totems for enemy spells, and usually ends up tanking the match as well. What makes this team so strong is that with windfury the two warriors can nearly match a 3 dps teams damage output, but every one on the team is near impossible to kill due to the 3 healers.
The end
That’s all I have for now. In conclusion, remember that arena is a dynamic game that focus’s on teamwork. There are many great warriors out there, many of these can’t even break 2k. If you want to succeed in arena, you must take care of your team, work with your team, and most importantly communicate with you team. There is no I in team.
Kaz
< Dreasus' Guide for PvP Warriors >
TheorySpot - Dreasus PVP (http://www.tankspot.com/index.php?pageid=DreasusPVPGuide)
< Mozman’s Macros >
WoW Warrior Macros - TheorySpot (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/theory-articles-guides/31899-wow-warrior-macros.html)