World of Warcraft: A Warrior's Guide

World of Warcraft, if you haven't tried playing it, you have definetly heard of it as it is one of the best selling (and most addicting) games in history! I am here to discuss what I feel is the most efficient and fun class in the game, the warrior. Through this guided discussion I will cover the following:

The Basics

1. Picking the best race for your warrior.

2. General guidelines for choosing equipment during your weeks of leveling to 60.

3. The most efficient talent point builds for leveling.

The End-Game Warrior

1. Top level 60 warrior talent builds.

2. End-game raiding and what to expect with your warrior.

3. Strategies and concepts for main tanking in a raid.

So you want to start a warrior, but you have no idea what race to make it. Lets first dicuss the best combinations for warriors. First of all, you must decide if you favor Alliance or Horde. The Horde have some of the best racials in the game for warriors, specifically orcs and taurens. By racials I am referring to the unique passive abilities of each race. To make the most out of your warrior, you are going to want to look into the future, what are your goals for your warrior? Do you want to be a blood thirsty beserker cutting through your enemies on the battlefield? Or would you prefer to be the backbone of your guild, going face to face with huge dragons and the like, where every action you take (or fail to take) could mean certain disaster for your friends? These are questions you need to ask yourself. Of course you could build your warrior to do both, however you would be sufficiently lacking in both areas and game play would not be maximized.

But let's get back to the concept of choosing the best race. As far as horde goes, orcs are by far the best race for warriors who plan on engaging in a lot of player versus player combat (PvP). Orcs have a passive racial which grants 25% chance to resist stun effects. In PvP, there are numerous ways to stun an opponent, and having such a high chance to resist these stuns can at times, make the orc warrior completely unstoppable. Orcs also have a racial ability which increases their attack power (AP), and is on a very short cooldown. Attack power is one of the key stats for a warrior, significantly increasing ones damage. The 25% stun resist and the AP racials make orc warriors far superior to any other race in the game in PvP.

On the otherhand, if you decide you are going to be a tank for your guild engaging in Player versus Environment (PvE) gameplay, a tauren warrior would be much more suitable. Taurens have extremely valuable racials that contribute heavily to success in PvE. They begin the game with a +10% stamina racial. Stamina is extremely vital to the warrior who aims to be a major player in their end-game guild. The whole concept of tanking revolves around one warrior facing off against a boss of immense proportions, with the healers of the party keeping the warrior alive. The more stamina you have, the longer you can survive, and the easier it is for you're guild to keep you alive. It sounds easy, however it is very difficult at times, especially once you climb the content ladder and begin experiencing the more complex encounters. Taurens also have a warstomp ability, which stuns all targets in a small radius around the warrior for several seconds. This ability is very handy for fighting trash mobs, the monsters before a boss who usually appear in large numbers at one time.

However, you may not fancy making a warrior on the Horde side. If that is the case, the Alliance have several races that make prime warriors. Although not as duty specific as the horde races, humans and night elves both have some nice racials that compliment the warrior class. Humans start with an ability called perception, which increases stealth detection for a short period of time. They also have a passive racial which grants +5 to maces, swords, and their two-handed counter parts. The +5 to weapon skill racial is very nice for reducing the amount your swings you miss, therefore increasing your damage. The perception ability is also very nice in PvP combat, giving the human warrior a big advantage over classes that utilize stealth or invisibility such as rogues, druids, and mages once the expansion launches. Night elves also have several nice abilities suited to a warrior. They begin with a passive ability that increases the chance to dodge by 1%, and have an ability to stealth called shadowmeld. Shadowmeld is particularly useful when setting up an ambush against other players. The warrior can stealth and wait, and when the time is right charge their opponent, catching them off their guard.

Warriors are probably the most gear-based class in the game, and choosing the right gear is vital to your success. During your journey to level 60 there are some things you want remember when you obtain new armor or are considering buying a new piece of equipment; mainly that you need to focus on armor pieces high in stamina and strength. Stamina will increase your hit points, and strength will increase your attack power, which will increase your damage output. These are the two main stats you need while you are leveling your warrior. Warriors begin the game with the ability to wear mail type armor, the second strongest armor type in the game (tiers being cloth, leather, mail, and plate). At level 40 you will gain the ability to wear plate, and should upgrade your gear accordingly.

Talent points are another key concept to making a successful warrior. When you reach level 10 you will gain access to all three of the talent trees (Arms, Fury, and Protection) and also the first talent point. On the road to level 60 there are 51 different talent points to distribute within these trees. Understanding a good talent build is very important, and will save you a lot of money in the long run. When deciding where to distrubute your points as you progress, keep in mind that you have only one goal - to reach level 60. Therefore, it is important that you maximize your talents in such a way where you gain the highest damage increase, critical hit chance, and rage generation that is possible. As a general rule you will never put points into the Protection tree while you level, it has no benefits until you reach end-game.

So you've finally reached level 60 with your warrior! Now what? Well it's time to decide if you want to be a PvP powerhouse or a main tank for some lucky PvE guild. Once you decide that, it's time to pick an appropriate build. If you desire to indulge in massive amounts of PvP, some of the best builds include, but are not limited to the following talent point placements; 31/20/0, 18/33/0. The first set of talents is a two-handed mortal strike build, one of the hardest hitting builds in the game if you have a decent weapon. The second one is a dual-wield fury build, very efficient in rage generation and utilizing bloodthirst. Keep in mind, the bloodthirst ability has its damage based on your attack power, so having a high AP is a must for this build.

Perhaps you would rather progress through end-game content with your warrior. To do the end-game content, you will need to join a guild. Most decent guilds that concentrate on PvE only recruit warriors who share that focus, and who are built accordingly. A good PvE warrior is specced mostly in protection, with minor amounts in arms and fury to retain rage. A good talent build for a protection warrior who aimed to tank would be something like 11/9/31, allowing for maximum rage generation and retainment as well as all the great survivability aspects of the protection tree that are needed to excel as a protection warrior. This build can of course be varied with preference, as it is only a generalized preference.

End-game raiding is unlike anything else in the game. It also happens to be the most exciting for a warrior, especially if you are the main tank. A main tank is the person who engages the numerous bosses, and has the responsibility to maintain proper positioning so that the rest of the raid can do their job accordingly. Getting hate, or "aggro", is the main priority of a tank. The rest of the raid depends on the tanks to engage the monsters and generate enough hate so that it does not stop attacking him. If the tank loses aggro, the monster will usually go on a rampage and could quite possibly destroy the rest of the raid, so it is up to the tank to make sure he/she utilizes all abilities such as sunder armor, revenge, heroic strike, shield slam, and taunt. All the previously listed abilities are the main ones you will use to generate hate on a monster. Sunder armor is key however, it stacks up to five times so the tank must be sure to keep it current and active at all times. Shield block should also be kept up after every use, this will mitigate damage dealt to the tank and allow for better survivability.

Like all things in life, becoming good at something takes time and practice. Playing a warrior is very complex and can be challenging, but in the right hands can be a devastating force in all aspects of the game. Keep in mind when you create your own warrior, that it is best to focus on one aspect of the game at a time. You will have much more fun this way and will make the most out of your warrior. I urge anyone interested in playing World of Warcraft, or who is playing but has never tried a warrior to try one!