[Mordok]

Added dps scores and Crusader proc data for level 52.

[Mordok]

Hey folks.

Patch 2.4 is upon us, and I'll be spending the next several days running various experiments which will include:

(1) DW dps with and without Crusader
(2) DW dps with same speed MH/OH vs different speed MH/OH
(3) Endless Rage builds for Arms
(4) Revisit of BT-opener vs traditional slam sequence. What is the dps vs healing tradeoff?
(5) Revisit of "rage efficient" grind vs "kill it quickly." What is the dps tradeoff, and how much additional dmg are the warriors taking by being "rage efficient?"
(6) Sunder opener in the warrior combat sequences.


If you have ideas on other dps experiments which you'd like to see for a level 52 warrior feel free to post them; I'll see if I can squeeze em in!

[phenk]

Hi Mordok,

This is an amazing guide, thanks so much for all the effort you put into the research and write-up. Lots of great information here.

-Phenk

[Amoklauf]

Great guide Mordok,

New to a warrior and this has been very helpful during leveling. Have gone DW Fury. Searched and may have missed in post, but what talents do you recommend from 50-70 for a DW Fury build Thanks....

[Rampart]

Refer to this thread.

Generally though, the 17/44/0 build is for max raid dps. I would switch to it once you actually do start raiding. Until then, I would recommend something like 5/41/15 so that you have a better ability to tank, since usually in 5 mans, dps warriors are not brought along. A build like this will make tanking less strenuous as well as allow you to complete dailies quickly and efficiently. Once you have the gear to raid, switch to the 17/44/0 build and have at it!

[Guardiangin]

Just wanted to say thankyou for a fantastic guide.
Cant start to imagine the time and effort it took to make this.
So refreshing to see people trying to benefit others from their knowledge as opposed to just trolling L2P everywhere.
just dinged 20 on my warrior and i'm going to swap to DW as soon as i get chance.
just one question though, is DW still a viable option if i dont stance dance? just i play on a laptop and i cant swap that quickly.
Thanks once again to Mordok and also to Ciderhelm

[Guardiangin]

forgot to ask another thing.
with the level progression being alot faster between 20 and 60 now what sort of level would you suggest forking out for the crusader enchants.
i have a main and cash isnt a massive problem but i dont want to waste too much on enchants if the weapon will be replaced in a few levels.

[mkramer]

Great work! I registered just to post that. I'm coming back to WOW after a few years absence, on a new server, with no main. My friends are there and I am leveling to catch up with them and get into their heroic group. Google lead me here, and I followed the basic recommendations of the guide regarding talents, skill sequencing, and gearing. The leveling has been fast! Albeit, I attribute a lot of this to the huge quest exp rewards that 20-60 quests give now, but I'm glad I went DW Fury. I'm sure I would have gone 2h Fury or Arms if I had listened to the conventional wisdom, and though I have no basis for comparison, I can attest that the mobs of my usually explode in front of me. Although my old twink rogue with remorseless/ambush leveled faster, I doubt I could have found a better way to level a warrior. Thanks for your scientific rigor, it's much appreciated!


Edit: How do you create wowhead item links? I want to do an alliance gear guide, because we don't have the same options that Mordok was using.

Edit: notes for later editing

Thrash blade [45 - Quest chain - stormwind]
Strength of the High Chief [52 - Quest chain - Winterspring]
Earthslag Shoulders [47 - BRD drop]
Ring from princess [50 - Maura Drop]
Fist of Reckoning [61 - BOE] - crusader
ST / Fallen Hero trinket [50 - Quest chain - swamp of sorrow]
Axe of Legion [63 - BOE] - crusader
Ravenguard Greaves of Battle [63 - BOE] - no replacement, best plate dps for a long time
Thorium Flight Blade [45ish - Quest - Uldaman]
Tenacious Defender [60 - Drop] - rigid golden draenitex2
Ironblade Gauntlets [61 - Drop] - rigid golden draenitex2
Jade Warrior Pauldrons [60 - Quest]
Sedai's Necklace [? - HH Quest]
Invader's Greathelm [? - HH Quest]
Perfectly Balanced Cape [? - HH Quest]
Amaan's Signet [? - HH Quest]
Spined Ring of the Soldier [59 - BOE]
Magistrate's Greaves [ ? - HH quest]
Greaves of the Iron Guardian [ 63 - Drop]


Talenting suggestion. These are the key fury talents. Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft. They are the ones that will really increase your dps, I recommend getting them all before leaving the tree. After that, I recommend

46-49 Tactical Mastery

Get TM because you need practice w/ stance dancing. With TM you can end a fight in zerker with a little rage, charge or imp charge and switch back to zerker to, e.g., pummel a caster. It makes the flow of grinding much faster and more efficient. In fact these three skill point will add the most rage of any three you take during solo grinding. Other uses for TM include shifting to battle and immediately mocking, shifting to defensive and immediately spell reflecting, shifting out of defensive to execute, etc.

Here's a macro that is hella useful for solo grinding. You can append to your in-game /path/to/wowfolder/WTF/Account/login/server/warriorname/macros-cache.txt file. (I think that works, otherwise recreate it in game).

MACRO 16777219 "B.Chg" INV_Misc_QuestionMark

#show Charge

/cast [nocombat,stance:1] Charge; [combat,nostance:3] Berserker Stance; [nocombat,nostance:1] Battle Stance; [combat,stance:3] Intercept

END
If you aren't in battle, but are in Battle Stance, it charges. If you aren't in battle, but aren't in Battle Stance, it switches you to Battle Stance. If you are in combat, but aren't in Zerker, it switches you to Zerker. If you are in Zerker, and are in battle, it Intercepts.

This is a great mashable button. I have it bound to Q across all my stances. Press it to A) Switch from zerk to battle after a fight is over, then mash it to B) Start the fight with Imp. Charge, C) immediately switch to zerk before your first weapon swing, thus switching with no rage loss. Finally, in battle, if something runs, mash it to intercept, if something starts casting a heal while pummel is down, back up and intercept. Extremely useful!

Skill @ 49 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

[Painapple]

Just wanted to add my profound thanks for this.

I will add that, since leveling an alliance warrior, I have used some different weapons than the ones suggested for DW.

MH Weapons:

Lvl 28 [item]Protector's Sword[/item]

Lvl 40 [item]Gryphon Rider's Stormhammer[/item]

Lvl 58 [item]Foe Reaver[/item]


OH weapons:

Lvl 22-34 [item]Crescent of Forlorn Spirits[/item]

Lvl 34 [item]Sword of Serenity[/item]

Lvl 58 [item]Shatterstone Pick[/item]

Switched out [item]Soulrender[/item] since the effort to aquire them vs the one for the weapons from outlands is too painful and time consuming.

[Surter]

Very interesting read. I am leveling a warrior at the moment. I'm not the fastest leveler in the world but not the slowest either. I started last thursday and he is 53 right now. Since I have been avoiding instances like a plague my gear is crap so I find killing mobs my level is being painfully slow (whirlwind axe at lvl 53 heh).

I've been playing with rampage a bit but find that rampage stacked with battle shout ( and possibly bom ) doesn't up my dps as much but I'm guessing thats due to my gear.

I think I might have to make a trip to the AH tonight or run an instance or two

[tobarstep]

Surter, yes you should be back to DW by your level. To be honest, I used my WW axe from level 34 to about 42 or so. Just went DW after that. There are several decent 1H quest rewards in Feralas around that level. I think I used [item]Force of the Hippogryph[/item] and [item]Zorbin's Mega-Slicer[/item] for a while. I took a break from playing for a bit, but I'm back at it now and at level 64. Currently prot spec and using 2x [item]Axe of the Legion[/item] for my solo/questing. Actually, since I haven't come across any decent tanking weapons yet, I'm using one for tanking too. It's a bit slow for that, but it's not like I need to min/max at level 64. They're awesome for solo play though. Gotta love that DW devastate spam

[Wirm]

I was noticing at lvl 34 you have the mace in your MH and the sword in your OH. Why is this? I realize the mace is (slightly) slower, but the sword has higher top end damage. I thought when people suggested using a "slower weapon in the main hand" that was only under the assumption that the slower weapon had higher top end damage. In this case, the faster weapon also has the highest damage.

Can anybody clear this up for me?

[Ogun Nagoura]

Nice guide!

[Kazeyonoma]

slower weapons means it gets multiplied by a larger weapon modifier, on instant attacks this is normalized but on non-normalized attacks it gets a larger multiplier and thus more damage.

[madkittymk2]

I think this is the most helpful thing I've ever read regarding my WoW playing experience...

I almost quit and cried when my warrior alt hit level 20 and I saw how often I missed in my attacks. D: But then I read your guide and now I feel a bit better and will continue to level!

Thank you so much for coming up with this! <3

[Hagony]

Well, I'm lvl 35 now and my DPS (as reported by Recount) hovers in the 70s (vs my level and below) and/or the 50s (vs ~lvl 38+).

(Armory profile here The World of Warcraft Armory) My gear is pretty decent for my level (though any recommendations would be appreciated) so I figure it has to be my swing sequence . . .

I typically open with Charge(Zerker), swing, swing, HS, swing, HS (with a Demo shout or Thunderclap thrown in now and then).

I used to just stay in Battle and my order was: Charge, Rend, swing, Sunder (x2), Swing and HS as rage permits . . .

Any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

[CyCy]

Don't underestimate Battle Shout. Open your toon window and hit BS in combat and look at how your stats jump. DW with a fast off hand. This will help w/ rage especially on mobs your level that dont hit hard.

I used the axw from the stalvan chain or diplomat chain i forget which one til I got Sang the Deflector in ZF to tank with.

Also at low levels don't forget Fiery enchant 40 fire dmg is alot to a 35 and the faster the weapon the better chance for it to proc.

I wouldn't worry about your gear at 40 it's time for plate. Head to Tanaris there are some good plate greens there and get someone to run you in ST for the chestpiece and belt.

Also healing pots arent the only potions in wow superior defense strength and agility are great adds.

Ask for buffs in a town see a pally ask for might, priest get Fort etc etc. I always ask and stay buffed most of the time. at 35 straight questing and farming mats specced all prot 1.5 hours to 2 hours a lvl solo faster if you grp obviously. I try to do instances when I have several quests for one. Or run instances higher then recommended with guild members to pregear.

I wouldn't waste bloodrage to pop charge in the beginning of a fight though. Use Battle stance it generates about the same rage as bloodthrist and let's you get 2 sunders and a rend in right away. Save intercept for runners if you are hittin hard enough your cd won't be over if you started fight with it.

[Shagh]

Source: Rampart Refer to this thread. Generally though, the 17/44/0 build is for max raid dps. I would switch to it once you actually do start raiding. Until then, I would recommend something like 5/41/15 so that you have a better ability to tank, since usually in 5 mans, dps warriors are not brought along. A build like this will make tanking less strenuous as well as allow you to complete dailies quickly and efficiently. Once you have the gear to raid, switch to the 17/44/0 build and have at it!

Rampart, this answers a question I have been chewing on for some time. Where to from 50 with my talents?

My story is this is my first ever WoW character and before even playing the game I stumbled across this excellent guide. I have now hit 49 and starting joining 5 mans. Naturally, I have played as the Tank each time, even when a Pally was present who could have perhaps stepped into the role.

Anyhow, I felt I have done quite a good job of it, made more so by carrying seperate Sta+ heavy Mith type gear for such a purpose. My thought was where to from here.

I generally solo to level and might, being married with 2 kids, only be able to do a 5 man once a week.

This talent build looks great but one thing is missing for my newbie mind. How should I progress up the Protection tree? Ok, I guess from the bottom up but obviously there will be choices along the way.

Your feedback will be greatly appreciated. Perhaps this could be even built into an updated guide, or maybe a new guide. Warrior leveling demystified 50plus for the married father of 2 who can only 5 man once a week but enjoys being a tank. (Maybe shorten a little)

Cheers,

Shagh

[fastidius]

melee over lvl35 get crusader put on your weapons and your set....its just insane....sure itll cost ya 100 gold or something but its well worth it..

[Primax]

I seriously doubt the viability of Commanding Presence(CP) vs Blood Craze(BCr).

Starting at 20(level you can get CP), Battle Shout gives you:

20: 35 AP
22: 55 AP
32: 85 AP
42: 130 AP
52: 185 AP
60: 232 AP
69: 305 AP

Correspondingly, the gains made from 5/5 CP would be:

20: 8.75 AP
22: 13.75 AP
32: 21.25 AP
42: 32.5 AP
52: 46.25 AP
60: 58 AP
69: 76.25 AP

Personally this does not seem worth it to me for 5 talent points. Being crit 1-2 times per fight will result in at least 3-5% health regen. I haven't tested it yet, but I figure more health regen = less downtime = higher efficiency.