1. Rage Generation Rage is the bread and butter of the Warrior class.

It is your pool from which you draw points to activate all of your skills, second only in importance to your Hit Points (without which you would be dead). Warriors live and die by spending their Rage Points so naturally there are a few things to consider about Rage generation. A Warrior will have zero Rage Points in a completely neutral state. When you attack an enemy you accumulate rage, and how much rage generated is determined by the amount of damage dealt. Critical Hits will also deliver additional rage on top of that as well. As a rule of thumb, two-handed weapons will deliver you the greatest amount of rage per swing. However, this is not to say that you can't also generate rage quickly while hitting rapidly with a one-handed weapon or dual wielding one-handed weapons. There are alternatives. Alchemists have the ability to craft potions that grant you large portions of Rage instantaneously, and the Warrior has innate abilities that instantly generate Rage as well: Charge Instant Cast 10-25 yard range 15 second cooldown Requires Battle Stance Charges an enemy and generates rage, stunning them for 3 seconds. Cannot be used while in combat. Rage generated depends on skill rank. Bloodrage Instant Cast 1 minute cooldown Grants 10 Rage Points in exchange for Hit Points, and grants additional Rage for a 10 second duration. User is considered in combat for the duration of the skill. There are also talents that grant additional Rage. These will be reviewed further in the guide. Remember that out of combat, your Warrior's Rage Points will slowly decay. 2. Stances Warriors have three stances available to them: Battle Stance - Granted to you as a Level 1 Warrior upon creation of your character. A well balanced stance with no bonuses or penalties to stats. Useful in most all circumstances. Defensive Stance - Granted to you as a Level 10 Warrior upon completion of a quest granted by your Trainer. While in Defensive Stance Warriors generate more threat, deal 10% less damage but take 10% less damage as well. Ideal for parties. Berserker Stance - Granted to you as a Level 30 Warrior upon completion of a

quest granted by your Trainer. While in Berserker Stance, Warriors have their Critical Hit rate raised by 3% and take 10% more damage as well. Useful for soloing, or in parties based on configuration. Warrior skills are distributed among these three stances. Some skills are usable while in all stances, while others are restricted to only one or two. Charge listed above for example, is only useable when a Warrior is in Combat Stance. Bloodrage however has no stance requisite, and is therefore accessable at any time. Most of the Warrior community agrees that the key to a successful Warrior is knowing when to be in the right stance at the right time. Also, changing stances at the drop of the hat is pivotal to unleashing the full potential of your character. Bear in mind that when you change stances your Rage Points will drop immediately to zero. The Tactical Mastery talent (explained later) will help you with this. Take some time getting familiar with what each stance has to offer, and get used to moving in between the three stances. If you need any further help on interface options for streamline stance-switching, the link to Landrain's Macro Guide contains lots of useful info for creating an interface you can get comfortable using. 3. Talents When distributing points into your talent trees, it's a good idea to bear in mind what kind of a Warrior you are aiming to create. Are you trying to build a Warrior that dual wields two weapons and hits your enemy fast and hard? Or would you rather go for a more defensive based warrior and reap the benefits of using a shield? Or perhaps you would like the satisfying burst damage that a hefty twohanded weapon can provide? Whatever you chose, bear in mind what talents you have available to you as a Warrior. Talents contain commentary and are rated with asteriks on a scale from 1 (being the lowest) to 5 (being the highest) with the following guidelines: * - Not a very helpful talent in it's current incarnation, only recommended as a sink for spare points if at all. ** - A marginally useful talent that could help improve performance to a small degree, generally too narrow for general use or doesn't fit into a scheme. ***- A semi-useful talent that is either too specific, or is only proven useful by a small niche of players, but still worth consideration. **** - A good talent that provides bonuses and abilities for specific talent builds, or talents that nicely fit into a Warrior's general repitoire. ***** - The ideal talent for either all around use, or for character designs based on tree-by-tree talent specialization. Arms Talents

This tree provides Warriors various bonuses to existing weapon skills, access to new weapon skills, and training in weapon proficiency. Talents are as follows: -Improved Heroic Strike: Reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike ability by 1 Rage Point. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 with a maximum cost reduction of 3 Rage Points. *Heroic Strike costs 15 Rage and has your next strike deliver weapon damage, plus a bonus based on skill rank. Many Warriors agree that at this point in time, Heroic Strike does not yield enough damage to constitute investment in this talent. After the next patch things may change, but for now you might be better served investing those points into something else in the Arms Tree. Rating - * -Deflection: Increases your chance to Parry an attack by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% chance to Parry. *Additional chance to completely negate melee damage is never a bad thing. A guaranteed must for any Warrior planning on continuing further into the Arms tree. Rating - ***** -Improved Rend: Increases the bleed damage caused by your Rend ability by 15%. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 a maximum increase of 35% bleed damage. *Rend is a Warrior's only Damage over Time skill (herafter reffered to as DoT), with bleed damage based on skill rank. Rend itself doesn't deliver amazing damage but is immensely useful as an instant cast attack that can aid in your battles, as well as hamper a Rogue's ability to stealth. Improved Rend unlocks Deep Wounds and Impale, two incredibly useful talents in the Warrior arsenal. Rating - **** (Only because it's a requisite for more useful talents). -Improved Charge (requires 5 points in Arms Talents): Increases the amount of rage generated by your Charge ability by 3 Rage Points. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 with a maximum increase of 6 additional Rage Points generated. *Charge is one of the Warriors most useful abilities. Not only does it generate Rage Points, but it stuns the opponent and allows you to enter combat from a distance. Warriors will be using Charge to begin the vast majority of their battles, and the additional Rage to begin the battle never hurt. Some preffer to invest in other talents, but Improved Charge is definitely worth consideration. Rating - **** -Tactical Mastery (requires 5 points in Arms Talents): You will retain up to 5 Rage Points when switching stances. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum retainment of up to 25 Rage Points. *Tactical Mastery is an absolute must for almost any Warrior. This talent will allow

you to change your stance and retain Rage Points in order to use abilities, and bridges the gap across all your stances allowing you full access to most all of your abilities at a moment's notice. This allows you to get the most out of everything your Warrior will have to offer you. If you go no further into the Arms Tree, at least pick up this gem! Rating - ***** -Improved Thunder Clap (requires 5 points in Arms Talents): Increases the damage caused by your Thunder Clap ability by 8%. Can be upgraded to a maximum of 25%. *Thunder Clap can be a useful skill to reduce the amount of DPS your Warrior receives by 10%, but the damage caused by it has always been trivial. Most Warriors will advise you to lean away from this talent, as even a boost of 25% damage will hardly shift the outcome of your battles. This is another skill that is being reworked in the upcoming patch, and could deserve investment afterwards. Rating - * -Improved Overpower (requires 10 points in Arms Talents): Increases the Critical Hit rate if your Overpower skill by 25%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 with a maximum increase of 50% Critical Hit Rate. *Overpower is among the most powerful attacks for a Warrior. For a mere 5 rage, you get a free attack whenever your opponent dodges an attack. The Overpower attack cannot be dodged, parried, or blocked. This results in a quick Damage Per Second (hereafter reffered to as DPS) surge as well as a near guaranteed hit. Overpower can still miss however, but a Critical Hit has a 100% chance of landing for greatly increased damage. A wonderful talent for most any Warrior. Rating ***** -Anger Management (requires 10 points in Arms Talents, 5 points in Tactical Mastery): Increases the time required for your Rage Points to decay while out of combat by 30%. *This isn't too bad a skill to take straight up as it allows you to keep your Rage pool fresh between battles. There is currently a bug that generates a Rage Point per second in combat if you have this skill. Considering that this is more than likely to be addressed at some point, Anger Management is still an extremely useful tool when grinding for only a singular talent point investment. Rating ***** -Deep Wounds (requires 10 points in Arms Talents, 3 points in Improved Rend): Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 20% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 with a maximum effect of 60% of your melee weapon's average damage. *Deep Wounds is another bleeding DoT like Rend, but can stack on top of Rend for

even more damage. Combined with Rend this kind of damage adds up really quickly, and is a great compliment to your arsenal. As you increase your level and use more powerful weapons, the potency of this skill will also increase. Nigh mandatory for anyone planning on delving further into the Arms Talents tree. Rating - ***** -Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (requires 15 points in Arms Talents): Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% damage dealt. *The majority of Warriors who specialize in the Arms Talents tree will be using two-handed weapons, making this selection quite viable. The extra damage certainly helps in drawn out fights, but bear in mind that with a 5% increase in damage, the amount of extra damage you deal at the cost of five talent points is questionable. The classic example is that if you take 5 points in Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, and deal 1000 damage in a single hit, you will only get an additional 50 damage. This number is almost ignoreable in the grand scheme of things. However, this is still a viable choice for any Warrior. Rating - *** -Impale (requires 15 points in Arms Talens, 3 points in Deep Wounds): Increases Critical Hit damage done by your abilities in Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stances by 10%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 a maximum increase of 20% Critical Hit damage. *If you have invested the points necessary to unlock this skill, Impale still proves rather useful. Critical Hits are where the big damage factors in, and weapon skills such as Whirlwind, Overpower, and Mortal Strike (for those that invest fully into the Arms Talents tree) will yield the most use from this talent. Remember that with Improved Overpower you already have an additional 50% chance to inflict a Critical Hit with your Overpower ability, so these two talents synergize well together. Fairly useful, especially so if you plan to climb further down the Arms Talents tree. Rating - **** -Axe Specialization (requires 20 points in Arms Talents): Incrases your chance to land a Critical Hit with an Axe by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% Critical Hit chance. *Of the Weapon Specializations, this has proven to be a favorite becuase of the coveted Arcanite Reaper, the heaviest-hitting weapon currently available. Orcs will enjoy investing in this choice as well, further promoting their mastery with Axes. Again, Critical Hits are imperative while in combat, and increasing the frequency of them in tantamount. A great choice! Rating - ***** -Sword Specialization (requires 20 points in Arms Talents): Gives you a 1% chance to deal an additional attack after dealing damage with a Sword. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 yielding a maximum chance of 6%.

*Sword Specialization panders to a different crowd than Axe or Polearm users. Rather than raising your Critical Hit chance, you might get a free additional attack. Potentially, this has the power to be very devastating, as both attacks have an equal chance to land a Critical Hit. The difference here is that Swords in general have a lower damage frequency then Axes do. Using an Axe will get you larger attacks out of your weapon damage abilities such as Deep Wounds, Overpower, Cleave, Whirlwind, and Mortal Strike, just to name a few. However, it is rumored that even using skills like thse can set off the 6% chance for a free attack as well. If you want to try something different, this is definitely worth considering. Rating **** -Mace Specialization (requires 20 points in Arms Talents): Gives you a 1% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds after dealing damage with a Mace. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum 6% chance to stun. *This is the least chosen path of the weapon specilizations. The stun ability can be nice, but does not contribute large amounts of burst DPS that other specializations can provide. It should also be noted that consecutive stuns do not last the full duration, but have their duration timers reduced. Some success has been had with this specialization by Warriors here in the community, but it is the least recommended by most of the same. Still could prove to be useful. Rating - *** -Sweeping Strikes (requires 20 points in Arms Talents): 30 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 30 second cooldown. Requires Battle Stance, and user must be wielding a melee weapon. Your next 5 melee weapon swings will strike an additional nearby opponent. *This ability is useful, and does prove to be slightly better than Cleave should you invest this far into the Arms Talents tree. It allows you to deal damage to multiple enemies at once, which can greatly improve your performance when grinding monsters, or in group PvP. However, it's greatest use is in that it is requisite to the single most coveted Warrior weapon skill, Mortal Strike. Rating - **** (Again, only because it is a requisite skill). -Polearm Specialization (requires 25 points in Arms Talents): Increases your chance to land a Critical Hit with a Polearm by 1%. Can by upgraded to a maximum of Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% Critical Hit chance. *Much like Axe specialization, this talent focuses on raising the frequency of Critical Hits in your fights. Polearms are harder to find than the other weapon specialization types, but are very potent weapons and can boast some damage compareable to Axes. For example The Doomsaw, a high-end polearm is quite often used by Warriors late in the game. By the time you can train this weapon specialization, there should be some nice Polearms up in the local Auction House for your browsing. Remember however, that unlike the rest of the weapon

specializations this requires you to have 25 points in Arms Talents before you can begin to train it which will require slightly different Arms Talents build variants. Still very solid. Rating - **** -Improved Hamstring (requires 25 points in Arms Talents): Increases the slowing effect of your Hamstring ability by 5%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 with a maximum of 10% increased slow effect. *Hamstring isn't the most useful skill when you're fighting non-humanoids in a PvE situation. However in PvP, Hamsting is most useful in almost every situation in order to keep up with your enemy. You can further prevent your enemy from running too quickly from you, and can quickly bring down opponents without letting the fight get too messy. Worth investing in if you have the talent points available. Rating - **** -Mortal Strike (requires 30 points in Arms Talents, 1 point in Sweeping Strikes): 30 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 6 second cooldown, 5 yard range. User must be wielding a melee weapon. Deals a vicious strike that deals weapon damage plus 85 and wounds the target, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 10 seconds. *Mortal Strike is the end-all of the Arms Talents tree and is arguably the most powerful attack available to a Warrior. Not only does it deal a massive amount of damage instantaneously, but it severly weakens all healing effects your opponent may try to use. Please note that you can purchase additional skill upgrades from your class Trainer, yielding a maximum of weapon damage plus 160 when used. A wonderful skill in *any* situation if you have 30 Rage ready. This skill is the reason Warriors invest fully into the Arms Talent tree, and doesn't fail to impress. Rating - ***** Fury Talents This tree provides Warriors a bolster to their Shout abilities, bonuses to existing weapon skills, new abilities, and also contains many passive "trigger" talents that revolve around dealing and receiving a Critical Hit. Talents are as follows: -Booming Voice: Increases the duration of your Battle Shout and Demoralizing Shout abilites by 10%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 a maximum increase of 50% Shout duration. *While your Battle Shout and Demoralizing Shout abilities are fairly good, their 2 minute duration/30 second duration (respectively) are usually more than enough to cover your Warrior's needs. You can invest in this talent should you feel you want to get more mileage out of these abilities. Rating - ** -Cruelty: Increases your chance to land a Critical Hit by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 5% Critical Hit chance.

*Much like Deflection, increased Critical Hit chance is a wonderful thing and this talent is probably your best investment of five talent points so early into the Fury tree. A definite must for most any Warrior of any build. Rating - ***** -Improved Demoralizing Shout (requires 5 points in Fury Talents): Increases the attack power reduction of your Demoralizing Shout by 5%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 with a maximum increase of 25% attack power reduction. *Demoralizing Shout is a frequently used Warrior ability that reduces the attack power of nearby enemies based on skill rank. Investing points into this skill leads into Piercing Howl, a very useful PvP tool, as well as providing you a bolster to an already useful ability to lower incoming DPS. Quite useful! Rating - **** -Unbridled Wrath (requires 5 points in Fury Talents): Gives you an 8% chance to generate an additional Rage Point when you deal melee damage. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 yielding a maximum 40% chance to generate an additional Rage Point. *This skill is really useful because it helps Warriors generate all the Rage they're going to need for their skills. The only problem is, that investing 5 talent points into this skill still won't guarantee that you're going to get that additional Rage Point on even half of your attacks. A very useful investment overall if you plan on furthering into the Fury Talents tree. Rating - *** -Improved Cleave (requires 10 points in Fury Talents): Increases the bonus damage caused by your cleave ability by 20%. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 with a maximum increase of 60% additional bonus damage. *Much like Improved Thunder Clap, the bonus damage provided by Cleave is very little. Most of it comes from your base weapon damage to begin with, with only a small amount added on by the Cleave ability itself. Unless they improve the additional damage on Cleave, you would probably find yourself better served by placing your talent points into something more useful. This is not to detract from the helpfulness of the actual Cleave skill itself. Rating - * -Piercing Howl (requires 10 points in Fury Talents, 5 points in Improved Demoralizing Shout): 10 Rage cost, Instant Cast. Causes all enemies near the Warrior to be dazed for 6 seconds. *For a single talent point, this is a very useful PvP tool. Again, like Improved Hamstring you won't find yourself using this ability very often when grinding experience save versus humanoids. However, dazing an enemy slows their movement speed by 50%. This is a great PvP tool (especially group PvP) worth spending the talent point if you've invested 5 points into Improved Demoralizing Shout already. Rating - ****

-Blood Craze (requires 10 points in Fury Talents): Allows 5% of your Health Regeneration to work during combat for 20 seconds after being the victim of a Critical Hit. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 allowing a maximum of 15% of your Health Regeneration to work during combat. *Health Regeneration is an excellent thing to have during long fights, and normally this is the kind of ability that should deserve lots of attention. However, in World of Warcraft the majority of your battles will be fought in a matter of 1045 seconds. Another thing to keep in mind is that your Health Regeneration is based on your Spirit stat, which most Warriors do not pay much attention to when considering equipment. The lower your Spirit is, the less you will be able to utilize this skill to it's true potential. With the correct equipment this could be a very potent skill. Doubly so when combined with Troll's innate regenerative abilites. Still worth sinking a few talent points into to move further down the Fury Talents tree. Rating - *** -Improved Battle Shout (requires 10 points in Fury Talents): Raises the attack power bonus of your Battle Shout ability by 5%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum 25% increase to your attack power bonus. *Many Warriors will tell you that this is mandatory if you plan to advance further into the Fury Talents tree. Battle Shout increases the attack power of yourself and nearby party members based on skill rank, making it a valuable part of a Warrior's repitore. The upcoming patch will decrease the Rage cost of this skill, making investing points into this talent very valuable indeed. Rating - ***** -Improved Execute (requires 15 points in Fury Talents): Reduces the Rage Point cost of your Execute ability by 2 Rage Points. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum decrease of 5 Rage Points. *Execute is another important skill available to Warriors that can end messy fights after the opponent is at 20% life or less. Using this skill drains your entire Rage bar, and converts it into additional skill damage. As important of a skill as Execute is, reducing the Rage cost will only slightly impact the effectiveness of the skill. Spending two talent points to get the most out of this choice will yield an additional 5 rage to convert to damage. The overall difference won't be game impacting. If you have a spare talent point to spend, this is a viable choice. Rating - ** -Enrage (requires 15 points in Fury Talents): Grants you an 8% melee damage bonus for four swings any time you are the victim of a Critical Hit. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 40% melee damage. *This is another one of the passive "trigger" talents available in the Fury Talents tree. Enrage will drastically increase your DPS while active, and is another ability like Deep Wounds that will become more potent as you come into new and more

powerful weapons. Also requisite of Flurry, another excellent skill in the Fury Talents tree. Rating - ***** -Improved Slam (requires 20 points in Fury Talents): Decreases the casting time of your Slam ability by 0.1 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum decrease of 0.5 seconds of casting time. *Slam is a nifty ability with a 1.5 second cast timer that automatically deals weapon damage to your opponent. This is quite a useful skill when using large two-handed weapons with three second swing times and up, essentially allowing you a comparitively quick hit. The innate problem with the Slam ability is that because it requires casting time, you are not allowed to move while preparing the skill. It can be a useful ability in a PvE situation, but be aware that in World of Warcraft's PvP involves lots of movement, thus disallowing liberal use of the Slam ability. This could be a very useful talent in the hands of a very experienced player, built to get the most out of their use of Slam. Otherwise, this talent is mediocre at best. Rating - ** -Death Wish (requires 20 points in Fury Talents): 10 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 3 minute cooldown. When activated, increases your melee damage by 20%, grants immunity to Fear, but lowers your defense against all types of attacks by 20%. Lasts 30 seconds. *Careful use of Death Wish can give you a severe edge versus some types of opponents. Immunity to Fear is a useful tool for PvP, much like the Undead ability Will of the Forsaken. The increase in damage dealt will help end your battles quickly, which makes up for the increase in damage. However, this ability is hamstrung by its own purpose. Death Wish seems ideal versus caster classes that have lower hit points, and take more damage per hit. The immunity to Fear will turn around battles specifically versus Priests and Warlocks as well. The problem lies in that the increase in damage will also apply to magical damage which these clases rely on, and the Warrior class without equipment to raise magic resistance (such as Thorium plate) are practically defenseless. Useful however, if used with trepidation. Rating - *** -Improved Intercept (requires 20 points in Fury Talents): Reduces the cooldown time of your Intercept ability by 5 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum cooldown reduction of 10 seconds. *Intercept is an invaluable PvP tool that works mechanically the same as Charge in that it rushes and stuns the opponent from a distance, but consumes Rage Points rather than generating them. It can also be used mid-combat, and requires your to be in Berserker Stance. These are most notably helpful versus ranged oriented classes such as magic users and Hunters. These classes will try to put as much distance between them and you as possible, as they can't last as long as a melee class in toe to toe combat. A useful investment, but not always necessary.

Rating - *** -Improved Berserker Rage (requires 25 points in Fury Talents): Increases the duration of your Berserker Rage ability by 3 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum duration increase of 6 seconds. *While active, Berserker Rage makes your Warrior immune to Fear and knockdown effects for 10 seconds. Like Death Wish, this can give you an edge versus Warlock and Priest in PvP combat, except it leaves you less vulnerable. Increasing the duration of Berserker Rage is never necessary, but if you want to get more bank for your buck this would be the way to do so. If you happen to be an Undead Warrior however, this talent has little to offer you. Marginally useful, but you might be better served placing your talent points elsewhere. Rating - ** -Flurry (requires 25 points in Fury Talents, 5 points in Enrage): Increases your attack speed by 10% for your next 3 swings after a critical strike. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 30% attack speed. *Flurry is a very powerful "trigger" talent that like the requisite Enrage skill, will vastly increase your Warrior's DPS. This shines brightest when paired with a hefty two-handed weapon for quicker swings, or even dual wielding to quickly rain attacks on your opponent. These extra attacks could in themselves provide additional chances for Critical Hits as well. If you plan on investing a large number of points into the Fury tree, then Flurry will increase the damage performance of your character greatly. Rating - ***** -Bloodthirst (requires 30 points in Fury Talents, 1 point in Death Wish): Activates after dealing a killing blow. Your next melee weapon attack will deal 100% increased damage. *Bloodthirst is the end-all of the Fury Talent tree. However, it lacks in the usefulness that other end-tree talents such as the potent Mortal Strike and helpful Shield Specialization can grant. This talent does garuntee a large damage increase when transitioning into further battles, but can only really help during experience grinds. In a group situation, it will only be marginally helpful and will prove the same in a PvP situation. Of the end-tree talents, Bloodthirst could stand some improvement. Rating - ** Protection Talents This tree provides Warriors with superior defensive capabilities, bonuses to existing weapon skills, access to shield specialization, and increased threat generation. Talents are as follows: -Shield Specialization: Increases your chance to block an attack with your shield by 1%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum 5% increased chance to block.

*Shield Specialization is a firm place to start when furthering into the Protection Skill tree. Many Warriors spending more than 10 points in the Protection Talents tree are likely putting themselves in a group situation, where damage mitigation is key. This provides additonal mitigation of damage, which makes it an excellent talent to have. Keep in mind that this skill requires a shield, and that blocks don't always negate damage entirely. Rating - ***** -Anticipation: Increases your Defense skill by 2. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum Defense skill increase of 10. *Warriors who are not focusing in Protection Talents and plan on Dual Wielding or using a two-handed weapons will probably preffer using this talent as an allaround alternative to Shield Specializtion. Your Defense rank helps in calculating your chance to Block attacks with your shield, your chance to Parry attacks, your chance to Dodge attacks, and lessens your chance to be the victim of a Critical Hit. Full investment won't raise your overall chance in any of these catagories by a full 1%, but again, Anticipation proves useful if you do not plan on using a shield. Rating - *** -Improved Bloodrage (requires 5 points in Protection Talents): Decreases the health cost of your Bloodrage ability by 25%. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum cost decrease of 50%. *Bloodrage is an ability I previously mentioned that allows the instantaneous generation of Rage. This makes it a useful ability, however the Hit Point cost of the skill is rather high and can hurt your Warrior and increase downtime during questing/killing. Improved Bloodrage helps to soften this blow, and makes your Bloodrage skill itself much more cost effective. For Protection-based Warriors, Rage generation can sometimes be an issue. This talent greatly helps to fill that gap. Rating - **** -Toughness (requies 5 points in Protection Talents): Increases Armor Value from your items by 2%. Can be increased to Rank 5, for a maximum increase in Armor Value by 10%. *The majority of Warriors not going further into the Protection Talents tree end here. Toughness is an excellent talent that gets you the most bank for your buck out of everything that you wear. This provides enourmous bonuses when your Warrior starts equipping Plate armor, and when maxed contributes as much AC as an additional armor slot. An excellent talent! Rating - ***** -Iron Will (requires 5 points in Protection Talents): Increases your chance to resist Stun and Charm effects by 3%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 15% resistance. *You won't find yourself in a great deal of circumstances in which you will need to

resist Charm effects, however, Stun is a near constant worry in your PvP battles. It is said that currently, this only checks your innate ability to resist Stun and Charm effects, and raises that percentage by the talent percentage. What you're left with is a very diminishing return on your talent point allocation. Until this issue is entirely clarified or resolved, it could be wiser to invest your talent points else. Could be worth it in very rare circumstances, or further down the road. Rating - ** -Last Stand (requires 10 points in Protection Talents, 2 points in Improved Bloodrage): Instant Cast, 10 minute cooldown. When activated, temporarily grants your Warrior a 30% bonus of your maximum Hit Points for 20 seconds. After the effect expires, the Hit Points are lost. *Last Stand has a very long cooldown time, but can be quite useful versus Instance bosses, and in PvP fights. In a snap you can gain large amounts of Hit Points and turn the tables in your favor. For example, if your character has 1000 maximum Hit Points, and activates Last Stand, you will then have 1333 maximum Hit Points and recover the 333 Hit Points gained. When the effect expires, you will lose 333 Hit Points, and your maximum Hit Points will revert to 1000. If this reduction of 333 current Hit Points would kill your character, your Hit Points will instead drop to 1. Not a tactic you can solely rely on, but very potent when you need it. Rating - **** -Improved Shield Block (requires 10 points in Protection talents, 5 points in Shield Specialization): Allows your Shield Block ability to block an additional attack, and increases the duration of your Shield Block ability by 0.5 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 for a maximum skill duration increase of 2 seconds. *Improved Shield Block much like Shield Specialization is fantastic if you plan on using a shield. Shield Block grants a bonus 75% chance to block the next attack, and lasts an obnoxiously short 5 seconds. If you activate Shield Block and your parry or dodge the next attack, the 10 Rage Points you spend on the ability can potentially go to waste. This talent essentially allows you a little more leniance when using Shield Block, while granting an additonal block for use against quick attackers. Perfect for the defensively inclined Warrior, but keep in mind that you're getting two benefits from the first point dropped in the talent, and only receving additional duration for further investment. Rating - **** -Improved Revenge (requires 10 points in Protection Talents): Gives your Revenge ability a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 with a maximum 40% chance to stun the target. *Revenge is a counter-attack ability that is useable only in Defensive Stance immediately following a Block, Parry, or Dodge of an attack. Using a shield grants maximum use of the Revenge ability, and when paired with Shield Block is almost guaranteed. Stunning is a very powerful skill in World of Warcraft, and Improved

Revenge is also requisite for Concussion Blow, another very powerful stun attack. A must for any who wish to invest further into the Protection Talents tree. Rating ***** -Defiance (requires 10 points in Protection Talents): Increases the threat generated by your attacks in Defensive Stance by 3%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum 15% increase in threat generation. *Defiance is a helpful talent in providing insurance that your character will have attention of the enemy, namely in instance dungeons. However, Warrior already has a great deal of "snap-aggro" skills such as Taunt, Intimidating Shout, Challenging Shout, and Mocking Blow. Between these skills, the threat already generated by your attacks, and with practice, you should have no trouble keeping the full attention of your enemies. That said, this is a beneficial talent that you can use in order to further improve your tanking prowess. Rating - *** -Improved Sunder Armor (requires 15 points in Protection Talents): Increases the armor reduction of your Sunder Armor ability by 10%. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 for a maximum bonus reduction of 30%. *Sunder Armor is a handy skill that allows stackable decrease of your opponents damage mitigation, which is most helpful when fighting in Elite dungeons. Note that it also provides a great deal of threat, and is an ideal skill when tanking while in a party. It has been said that Improved Sunder Armor will also increase the amount of threat generated by your Sunder Armor skill, which certainly never hurt. Take note that this talent is being changedd in the upcoming patch however, and will only reduce the Rage point cost of the Sunder Armor ability rather than enhance the effectiveness. There is also going to be a cap put on the amount of armor class rating you can reduce (I beleive it was said to be 1800). A very useful talent, but is currently undergoing changes. Rating - **** (This may change based on performance post-patch). -Improved Disarm (requires 15 points in Protection Talents): Increases the duration of your Diasrm ability by 1 second. Can be upgraded to Rank 3 for a maximum ability duration of 3 seconds. *Disarm is an incredible tool in a PvP sitation, or against an Elite instance boss who can deal heavy damage with their weapon. In the case of the Warrior it does require you to be in Defensive Stance however. The extra three seconds certainly does help, but only noticeably versus toe to toe melee oriented classes in Pvp such as Paladin, Shaman, Warrior, and Rogue. When Disarm already provides a 10 second ability duration, the additional 3 seconds can be questionable in determining how useful maxing this talent might be. Still, Improved Disarm is a potentially helpful investment. Rating - *** -Improved Taunt (requires 15 points in Protection Talents): Reduces the cooldown

timer of your Taunt ability by 1 second. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum cooldown timer reduction of 2 seconds. *The timer on your Taunt ability is 10 seconds to begin with. Much like Defiance, Improved Taunt is not a talent that will help your character overcome any great obstacles. It is a class example of a "win-more" talent, in that it will only help you keep aggro more effectively without changing your character in any significant way. Useful if you have the talent points to spare! Rating - **** -Improved Shield Wall (requires 20 points in Protection Talents): Increases the effect duration of your Shield Wall ability by 3 seconds. Can be upgradd to Rank 2 for a maximum effect duration increase of 6 seconds. *Shield Wall is one of the 30 minute cooldown abilities available ot the Warrior class. Useable only in Defensive Stance, it reduces all incoming damage by 75%, and lasts for 10 seconds. Improved Shield Wall allows you milk another 60% of that time out of your Shield Wall ability, making it ideal for tanking instance bosses. In PvP it proves to be less useful than another 30 minute ability, Retaliation. A decent investment if you plan on furthering into the depths of the Protection Tree. Rating - *** -Improved Shield Bash (requires 20 points in Protection Talents): Gives your Shield Bash ability a 50% chance to Silence the target for 3 seconds. Can be upgraded to Rank 2 for a maximum 100% chance to Silence the target. *Improved Shield Bash is a Protection-based Warrior's best weapon versus caster classes. Shield Bash already interrupts any spell currently being cast and prevents further casting out of the same school for a shot time when used. Improved Shield Bash is icing on the cake, and an amazing addition for Warriors preffering to use shields. Rating - ***** -Concussion Blow (requires 20 points in Protection Talents, 3 points in Improved Revenge): 15 Rage cost, activates on next melee attack, 45 second cooldown. A brutal strike that deals weapon damage, and stuns for 5 seconds. *Concussion Blow is an incredible tool for defensively inclined Warriors, and allows a large window of time in which the Warrior can use for bandaging, dealing additional damage, disengaging an opponent, almost anything! A wonderful use of a single talent point! Rating - ***** -One-Handed Weapon Specialization (requires 25 points in Protection Talents): Increases the damage you deal with one-handed weapons by 2%. Can be upgraded to Rank 5 for a maximum increase of 10% weapon damage. *Having invested so far into the Protection Talents tree, a Warrior will not be able to take both One-Handed Weapon Specialization, and a weapon-type specialization

from the Arms Talents tree. Though the 10% damage isn't a vast amount in the long run, it negates the damage penalty suffered when using Defensive Stance! This means that you're dealing standard damage as well as increasing your threat generation. Highly recommended, though not mandatory. Rating - **** -Shield Discipline (requires 30 points in Protection Talents, 2 points in Improved Shield Bash): 15 Rage cost, Instant Cast, 45 second cooldown. While active, increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield by 50%, increases the amount of damage done by your Shield Bash ability by 200%, and the threat generated from your Shield Bash ability by 100%. Lasts for 20 seconds. *This is the end-all of the Protection Talents tree. Shield Discipline is useful in that it helps mitigate additional damage when block attacks with your shield. While active you greately increase the damage and threat done by your Shield Bash ability as well, virtually turning it into an additonal "snap-aggro" ability available to you. The only problem is that the damage actually done by Shield Bash is minimal, and though the increase does help it doesn't provide any sort of burst DPS you can rely on. Shield Discipline is great in partying situations where you are taking the majority of the damage and carries a nominal Rage cost. Stands improvement, but still helpful. Rating - *** 4. Warriors in the Field As a Warrior your primary role will vary from situation to situation. Solo PvE In a PvE solo role, a Warrior will primarily use the build they've chosen in order to move from enemy to enemy with the least amount of downtime throughout. Tactics can vary based on character build. Warriors who invest early in to the Arms Talents or Fury Talents will move from battle to battle with relative ease, taking a fair amount of damage from enemy to enemy. Protection Talent Warriors will find their battles to be longer in duration, with nominal damage taken during the course of a fight and almost no downtime. So which is better? The short answer would be that neither is inherently better the other in statistics alone. It will vary from player to player based on style, so get comfortable with how you play your Warrior. Berserker Stance and Battle Stance are suited for PvE soloing as both have a vast number of abilities and bonuses that focus on ending the battle as quickly as possible. Many Warriors will discover themselves most suited to killing enemies of equal or lesser level with a range from +1 to -5 for experience and questing purposes. This ensures the highest hit-rate and best downtime to experience gained ratio throughout the leveling process with either near-full or more damage mitigation than listed in your character statstics menu. It is entirely possible to kill monsters further above your current level, but be warned that you will encounter a vastly greater difficulty level when doing so, with more downtime between

fights. Many quests will require you to kill Unique Humanoids or Monsters much higher than your current level, so be prepared for what lies ahead. Training your First Aid skill to create bandages will help keep your Hit Points plentiful and your downtime between fights to a minimal. Food consumption will also contribute to this. Remember that while soloing, you only really need to keep an eye on your Hit Points and the environment around you so as not to find yourself in an unwelcome battle. PvE Grouping This is where things change. In a grouping situation Warriors will be expected to take the majority of the damage or "tank" for the team by keeping the enemy focused on them for the duration of the battle. Defensive Stance is ideal in a situation like this as you get the greatest amount of damage mitigation, threat generation, and abilities suited for receiving damage. You will be expected to keep full attention of what you fight, and as such, it is advised that you pay close attention to the movement and focus of your enemy. While grouping with a healer one can generally concentrate on the welfare of the party and the flow of battle, as the healer will be paying attention to your welfare in return. There are times when things will go awry and keeping control of the situation can be a daunting task. Warriors excel at maintaining control as they have a vast number of "snapaggro" skills and abilities that will regain temporary control of the battle long enough to either quickly bring it to a conclusion, or establish dominance. Not only this, but debuffs such as Sunder Armor and Demoralizing Shout bring much to the battlefield. 5. FAQ Q: I'm considering creating a Warrior for the first time. What kind of benefits does this class receive? A: Warriors are a gear reliant melee class that can serve a variety of purposes. Being the only other class than Paladin that can equip Mail armor from level one, as well as the only class other than Paladin that can ever equipe Plate armor, Warriors enjoy a high armor class rating. With proper construction a Warrior can deal some very ferocious physical damage, or take even the nastiest beatings. Warriors are also one of the few classes that can equip shields, allowing them some of the best damage mitigation in World of Warcraft. Couple in the fact that Warriors have the highest number of "snap-aggro" skills, and what you end up with is a highly sought after addition to any party. Q: Throughout this guide you've mentioned "snap-aggro" more than a couple times. Can you clarify what this means? A: "Snap-aggro" is a term I use for any ability that allows you to immediately direct the attention of a monster towards you. A lot of these abilities are exclusive to the Warrior class.

Q: What are the best primary professions for Warriors to have? A: That is based entirely on what you want to do with your Warrior. Here are some examples: Mining/Blacksmithing: Allows you to make your own armor and weapons. The most common combination for the Warrior class. Mining/Engineering: Gives your Warrior a plethora of tricks from powerful guns and Goblin explosives, to quirky Gnomish trinkets that work most of the time. Alchemy/Herbalism: Gives your Warrior the ability to make Rage Potions, Healing Potions, and Free-Action Potions, just to name a few. This should not distract you from doing what you want with your character however. If you wish to make a Tailor, then by all means sew away! If you want to train your character in Skinning/Leatherworking, then go for it! This is World of Warcraft and you can do whatever suits you best. Q: What about secondary professions? Which one should a Warrior focus on? A: Many Warriors swear by First Aid as a focus for your secondary profession. Killing humanoids will yield cloth material drops, and these can be used in order to create bandages which greatly reduce downtime between fights. As most Warriors shy away from the Tailoring profession they have little other use for the abundance of cloth material they find, save for selling it to other players. Cooking is also an excellent secondary profession, as the healing from food also reduces downtime significantly as well as provide useful lasting effects. Q: Which is the best talent build for Warriors? A: This is a highly debated topic. The simple answer is that there is no single best talent build for every single situation. Each tree offers many unique skills and bonuses for your Warrior, and will shape them accordingly based on how you want your character to perform. In the end, you are the one to decide how you wish to allocate your talent points based on the kind of character you want to play. That's the most important thing to keep in mind. Q: What are some popular talent builds for Warriors? A: Here are a couple examples of the current builds enjoyed by a many Warriors. Some vary slightly: "The Mortal Strike Build" Arms Talents: 31

Deflection - 5/5 Improved Rend - 3/3 Tactical Mastery - 5/5 Improved Charge - 2/2 Improved Overpower - 2/2 Deep Wounds - 3/3 Anger Management - 1/1 Impale - 2/2 Axe/Polearm Specialization - 5/5 Improved Hamstring - 1/2 Sweeping Strikes - 1/1 Mortal Strike - 1/1 Fury Talents: 20 Cruelty - 5/5 Improved Demoralizing Shout - 5/5 Piercing Howl - 1/1 Improved Battle Shout - 4/5 Enrage - 5/5 *The build above is your cookie cutter PvP build using Axes or Polearms in order to maximize the frequency of Critical Hits. This build generally uses two-handed weapons in order to get the greatest amount of damage from the Mortal Strike skill, and uses Fury training in order to further streamline damage efficiency. Very effective build for PvP. "The Defensive Tank Build" Protection Talents: 33 Shield Specialization - 5/5 Toughness - 5/5 Improved Bloodrage - 2/2 Last Stand - 1/1 Improved Revenge - 3/3 Improved Sunder Armor - 3/3 Improved Shield Block - 3/3 Improved Taunt - 2/2 Concussion Blow - 1/1 Improved Shield Bash - 2/2 One-Handed Weapon Specialization - 5/5 Shield Discipline - 1/1 Arms Talents: 13 Deflection - 5/5 Tactical Mastery - 5/5 Anger Management - 1/1 Improved Overpower - 2/2

Fury Talents: 5 Cruelty - 5/5 *This is a Warrior that specializes in tanking instance dungeons for parties. With the use of their Protection-based talent setup, they can get a lot of mileage using a one-handed weapon and a shield for high damage mitigation, as well as dabbling in Fury and Arms for additional damage mitigation, Critical Hit rate, and Rage mangement. They should be able to keep focus on a lot of monsters while dealing some damage, but generally not as satisfying for the more bloodthirsty types.