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Warrior
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Warrior Leveling

The Warrior Leveling Guide
for Cataclysm 4.3

 

Important Notes:

  • This page is obsolete and is here just for legacy's sake. Go here for our real Mage Leveling guide, fully updated for the latest expansions.


  • Patch 5 (Mists of Pandaria) is live.
  • For the most recent updates, including into Mists of Pandaria and beyond, see our new Warrior leveling guide. That's the page that will be updated for all future patches and expansions. If you have a link to this page please change it to the new page.
  • While this page is updated for the latest Cataclysm patches, it will not be updated further.
  • Changes are coming with Mists of Pandaria.
  • This page will probably be left up for legacy sake.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled guide:

 

Contents:

Warrior Leveling Guide

Other Warrior Guides

 

Introduction

Undead Warrior, level 40ishWarriors are one of my favorite classes to level and they provide the fun gaming style of non-stop death-dealing combined with a decent overall leveling speed that can come in narrowly behind rogues and hunters, if done correctly.

Warriors do need to be geared well at all times, perhaps more than most classes, but Auction House gear will serve you well. Keep your weapons updated and you will level quickly enough to have a great time.

Then you charge, main, rend, mutilate, crush, kill, and destroy the opposition. They don't run, dodge, heal much, or otherwise avoid any situation where they can smash things. At higher levels you become a whirlwind of death, what's not to like? PvP, raiding, you can do it all and you'll be doing it with two 2-handed weapons. You're not a tank, healer, or cowardly Rogue. Your job is to crash into the enemy and destroy them.

Buffs and Nerfs: As the world of Azeroth moves through the Cataclysm all of the various classes will suffer from the buffs and cheer at the nerfs... waitaminute... reverse that. The point is that if at any point Warriors are the Gods of SMASH! or doormats probably isn't something we'll comment on here.

Why? Because it will likely change in a couple of days due to a hotfix.

Looks for the same buff/nerf stuff in Mists of Pandaria and the patches and expansions that come after that.

 

Warrior Leveling -Quick Notes

This section covers the Warrior basics, more detail is available below this section.

Race: Pick the one you like. They all have something that will benefit a Warrior, either in PvE, PvP, or both. The Troll's increased damage Vs. beasts will allow them to level a bit faster than other races.

Professions: Skip the crafting professions. Get Mining or Herbalism and Skinning. Max out your First Aid.

Builds:

Gear:

  • Stats: Lots of strength and Stam , regardless of spec.
  • At 40 you'll wear plate. Never wear cloth or leather. 50+ avoid mail armor.
  • Weapons: Slow, high DPS hard hitting weapons in both hands (if you're Fury.) Big honking slow two-hander, if you're Arms. Slow, high DPS weapon and a Shield if you're Protection.
  • More about Gear & Stats

Gems and Enchants:

  • You won't see gem sockets until 60+. Just get cheap Strength (or Stam) gems to put in all sockets.
  • Enchants: Sometimes enchant scrolls can be found for cheap on the AH. Get those that add Str, Stam, or Attack power. Don't worry about it if you don't have the gold.
  • In the end-game (raids, dailies, PvP) you can use the +40 Str (or +50, if you're rich) gems.

Food, Potions, Etc.

  • Always carry the best food you can afford.
  • Consider keeping a stack of healing potions on your action bar.
  • Scrolls of Strength can usually be had for cheap.
  • More

Really basic rotation:

  • Charge > Rend > strike > strike > chop off head (Execute)
  • Charge, Smash, Victory Rush next opponent, smash, Charge, Victory Rush...

Click here to level even faster

 

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Talents - Fury - Arms - Prot - Gear - Level Faster

 

Race Choice for Warriors

Since Cataclysm, all of the WoW races can be warriors. Of course, only Humans, Night Elves, Undead, and Orcs can be real Warriors, but there you go. Yes, even Pandarens can be Warriors.

Most of the racial abilities will make very little difference while leveling, and not even that much in the end-game. 1% Hit or Crit or some escape ability just doesn't count for much while questing. If a Gnome or Goblin works for you, then go for it.

Blood Elf: You have the best hair, does that count?

  • Arcane Torrent restores some rage and interrupts casters, so is actully a pretty decent Warrior ability for leveling, PvP, and Pve.

Goblin: Two goblins were shipwrecked and stranded on a small island. When rescued they had both become rich by trading their boots back and forth.

  • Increased Haste is actually a so-so ability for Warriors and Rocket Jump is a nice escape which might set you up for a Charge/Intercept.
  • Your size is actually a virtue in PvP. Some people click their targets and being short makes their job a bit more difficult.
  • As a tank your size makes you a bit hard to find in a crowd.

Orc: Big, gnarly, and just the right attitude for war.

  • Enrage actually is a nice ability while leveling, since you can pop it when you need it. Add it to a macro to use when you charge and/or with your opening strike.
  • Resistance to stuns is good if you're PvP leveling, and is pretty situational if not.
  • Increased expertise with axes (and fist weapons) has its uses.

Tauren: Besides being cute, cuddly, and well horned, they can do a...

  • War Stomp, which stuns nearby opponents. This is a generally useful ability.
  • The increased health is nice at mid-levels, but doesn't scale well at very high levels.
  • The herbalism skill has a small heal and the Tauren's get an herbalism bonus.

Troll: Best tusks, laid back, but make pretty good warriors.

  • Berserking is a good leveling ability. Add it to a macro with your opeining attack(s.)
  • Increased damage Vs Beasts, while it doesn't apply to Worgen, may be the best of all leveling racials given the vast number of beasts you'll be killing on the way to 85.
  • Resistance to movement impariing effects, like the Orc ability, has its uses in PvP, but less so elsewhere.

Undead: You're one of the prototypical Warriors and you can um, well, er... Well, Ok, you have nothing that increases leveling speed, or DPS, or anything, but you look right and that's what really counts.

  • Canibalism can reduce downtime and means that you don't have to carry food along while leveling.
  • Will of the Forsaken is a very nice PvP ability, but you'll find little use for it elsewhere.
  • There are a few underwater quests in the old world and more when you hit higher levels. Your nderware Breathing ability will help in those areas.

 

Draenei: Your (male) shoulders make a human look puny.

  • +1 to Hit racial is a good one for all situations.
  • The self-heal is nice while leveling and in other situations. It's not a big heal, but every little bit helps.

Dwarf: So Runt, Ya wanna be a Warrior?

  • Your Stoneform washes away bleeds and reduces damage, making life just that much tougher for that Rogue who just popped up. Also helps elsewhere, when too many mobs appear.
  • Expertise with Axes is nice if an axe is the best weapon available.

Human: You look good in the right armor. Now go kill a blood elf, because she looks better than you. It should be easy since your sword arm (and those 36" biceps) is bigger around than his/her entire body.

  • Your escape ability is nice for PvP and it allows you to use two DPS trinkets, or grab more Resilience, but the ability is pretty situational when leveling.
  • Diplomacy if great is you have any interest in building Rep with any of the bazillion WoW factions.
  • Expertise with Sword/Mace might have some end-game value.

Gnome: Besides being the butt of "short jokes" your size does have PvP value in that some people click on their targets. As a tank your size makes you a bit hard to find in a crowd.

  • Expertise with daggers and small sowrds means that you should have picked a Rogue as your class.
  • Escaping from Speed Altering Effects (slows) has its uses in PvE and PvP, but only rarely while leveling.

Night Elf: You look good in armor and you know it.

  • Shadowmeld will let you drop out of combat or lurk in wait for a Charge out of the shadows. It's not Vanish, but it has its uses.
  • 2% increased dodge is nice while tanking.

Worgen: One word: Fleas. Ok, another word: Snuffling.

  • Increased crit chance is nice and
  • moving quickly is a useful ability.

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Talents - Fury - Arms - Prot - Gear - Level Faster

 

Talent Builds for Warrior Leveling

Human Warior, Looking to smash some Horde!Just a note on leveling builds - the idea is to kill mobs ASAP, with as little downtime as possible. This means that your leveling build won't usually be the same as your level 85 PvP or Raid builds (although those builds will work just fine.)

In a Raid setting you will, as Fury, focus far more on damage and much less on survivability talents, since some healer will be keeping you healthy. Tanking, of course, requires major damage mitigation skills and the ability to keep the Boss's attentions away from everyone else. PvP requires more survivability and control.

For leveling (questing) you want some survivability and as much damage as you can get.

When you hit level 10 you pick from one of the three specializations: Arms, Fury, and Protection. Once you pick a spec you are locked into that spec until you buy 31 points worth of talents. (You can reset everything, and change specs, at your trainer, anytime, for a small charge.)

You do not have to buy the top tier talent to open up the other trees, you just need to have spent the 31 points.

Picking up the dual build ability at 30 (10 gold) gives you the choice of picking two builds. Tank a dungeon as Protection, or DPS as Fury, then switch to Arms and smash some face in PvP. (You do have 10 gold at 30+, right? If not, check out our gold guide or our tycoon addon review. )

Picking a spec at level 10 also gives you some bonuses. Each spec of each class will have its own bonuses and each one will have a Mastery ability. That ability increases some aspect of your other abilities. For example, for a Fury Warrior, Mastery buffs the benefits you get from being Enraged.

Note: After you get the 31 point talent and start grabbing talents from the other specs you do not get the special abilities from those trees. For example, if you go 31 fury & 10 Arms you do not get Mortal Strike.

Mists of Pandaria will completely revise the talent system, again, and will also do away with Prime glyphs. In addition, abilities will change and glyphs will change.

  • You will get a bunch of general Warrior abilities, as you do now.
  • You will get ten or so abilities unique to your spec (Arms, etc.)
  • All Warriors will be able to pick talents from a common pool. There are six tiers (at level 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90) with three choices each. Any warrior can pick any of the three. At level 90 you will have six talents.
  • There are no points to spend in any abilities or talents. When you pick one up you pick up the whole thing.
  • You will have six total glyphs, down from Cataclysm's nine. New glyphs will be introduced and some old one's will be changed and others might disappear (as they did when Cata launched.)

Fury Warrior Leveling Spec

Remarks

Fury is the dual-weilding engine of destruction. You're a berserker with no fear of death. Eventually you get Titan's Grip and can weild a 2-handed weapon in each hand.

Upon picking Fury you will recieve Bloodthirst as your level 10 ability. Bloodthirst is a hard hitting strike that heals you slightly. As you progress you will eventually pick up:

  1. Dual Weild Specialization: Increases your off-hand damage.
  2. Precision: Increases your chance to hit and your auto-attack damage.
  3. Mastery: Unshackled Fury - Various enraged/berserker abilities provide a benefit and Mastery increases that benefit. Additional Mastery Rating increases the benefits further.

Cataclysm Fury Leveling build 7/31/3 (click to view)

  1. 2/2 Cruelty - increases the crit chance of Bloodthirst, Shield Slam, and Mortal Strike by 10%
  2. 3/3 Battle Trance - various strikes have a chance to cause the next special attack cost no rage.
  3. 2/2 Executioner - Your Execute strikes have a chance to hasten you by a small amount for a few seconds. Can stack for greater speed.
  4. 2/2 Booming Voice - Reduces the cooldowns of Battle & Commanding shout by 30 sec and generates additional rage when using them.
  5. Piercing Howl - All enemies within 10 yards are dazed for 6 seconds, reducing movement by 50%
  6. Death Wish - 20% more damage at the cost of taking 5% more damage
  7. 3/3 Flurry - increases attack speed after dealing a critical strike
  8. 1/3 Enrage- Your melee hits have a chance to Enrage you, giving you a damage bonus for a few seconds.
  9. Raging Blow - Strike with both melee weapons
  10. Rampage - increases your crit by 2%, increases the group's crit by 5%
  11. 2/2 Die by the Sword - 100% parry for a few seconds when dropping below 20% health. No more than once per 2 min.
  12. 2/3 Enrage
  13. 2/2 Meat Cleaver - damage done by Cleave and Whirlwind increases further damage from those two abilities.
  14. 2/2 Intensify rage - reduces cooldown of Berkserker Rage, Recklessness, and Death Wish by 20%
  15. 3/3 Enrage
  16. 3/3 Bloodsurge - Bloodthirst hits have a chance to make your next Slam instant.
  17. 2/2 Skirmisher - reduces cooldowns of Heroic Leap and Intercept
  18. Titan's Grip - Weild 2-handed weapons in one hand or take SIngle Minded Fury which gives you added damage and slam hits when you use two 1-handed weapons.
  19. You can now pick talents from the other specs.
  20. 3/3 Incite (protection) - 15% added crit chance to Heroic Strike and guarantees that the next three Heroic Strikes are crits.
  21. 3/3 War Academy (Arms) - Added damage to Heroic Strike, Cleave, Visctory Rush, and Slam

  22. Levels 81-85:
  23. 2/2 Blitz (Arms) - Charge generates more rage and stuns an additional opponent
  24. 2/3 Deep Wounds (Arms) - Your crits cause the opponent to bleed

Glyphs are learned permanently. Buy all that might be appropriate and switch them in as the situation demands.

In order to swtch them you will need some supplies from your friendly neighborhood Inscription Supplies Vendor.

  • Vanishing Powder, if you're level 80 or lower
  • Dust of Disappearance from 81 to 85
  • Tome of the Clear Mind from 86 to 90.

Good Glyphs for Leveling:

Prime Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Bloodthirst - Increases the damage of Bloodthirst by 10%.
  2. Glyph of Overpower - Increases the damage of Overpower by 10%.
  3. Glyph of Raging Blow - Increases the critical strike chance of Raging Blow by 5%.

Major Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Cleaving -Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1.
  2. Glyph of Long Charge - Increases the range of your Charge ability by 5 yards.
  3. Glyph of Death Wish - Death Wish no longer increases damage taken.

Minor Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Bloody Healing - Increases the healing you receive from Bloodthirst by 40%.
  2. Glyph of Enduring Victory - Increases the window of opportunity in which you can use Victory Rush by 5 sec.
  3. Glyph of Battle - Increases the duration by 2 min and area of effect by 50% of your Battle Shout.

Stats

  1. Strength
  2. Crit

 

Cruelty provides us with a staple damage increase. It also gives us the much needed critical strikes that become oh-so-very-important at the later levels, largely due to Flurry.  It’s probably one of the best talents in the tree despite occupying the first tier. By the way, that added 10% crit is very hard to get at high levels.

Flurry is the real killer, however. It rounds out the build's damage abilities with a massive, consistent increase of damage throughout practically every fight.  Just one thing: you might not notice it being quite as good as I’m playing it up to be, until you’ve - A) maxed it out, 3/3, and B) built up a decent critical rating.

Are you going to cool your heels and explore the new world? Or are you going to blast to 85, leaving a trail of dismembered bodies in your wake? Scroll down for gear notes and leveling tip.

wow warcraft alliance horde cataclysm leveling guide

Level up, fast

 

 

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Talents - Fury - Arms - Prot - Gear - Level Faster

 

Arms Warrior Leveling Build

Remarks

You're the two-handed weapon expert, smashing down your opponents with the best of them.

Once you pick Arms as your talent specialization you will get Mortal Strike as your "bread and butter" attack. As you progress down the Arms tree you will automatically get:

  • Two handed weapon specialization - your damage from 2-handers increases by 12%
  • Anger Management - Gain 1 Rage per 3 seconds and 25% extra rage from damage dealt.
  • Mastery: Strikes of Oppoprtunity - Grants a chance for your melee strikes to trigger an additional melee strike for 75% damage. Additional Mastery rating increases the chance of this happening.

Note: For those of you who just have to be pure Arms, 39 talent points buys everything in the Arms tree.

Arms Leveling Build for Cataclysm

(click to view)

  1. 3/3 War Academy - Added damage to Heroic Strike, Cleave, Visctory Rush, and Slam
  2. 2/2 Blitz - Charge generates more rage and stuns two extra opponents

  3. 3/3 Deep Wounds - your crits cause the enemy to bleed
  4. 2/2 Second Wind - getting hit by a Stun or Immobize effect causes you to gain rage and some health

  5. 2/2 Impale - Increases the critical damage bonus of Mortal Strike, Slam, and Overpower
  6. Sweeping Strikes- For 10 seconds your melee attacks strike an additional opponent
  7. 2/3 Taste for Blood - Greatly improves the crit chance of Overpower and gives your Rend damage a chance to pop Overpower

  8. 2/2 Blood Frenzy - Your bleeds cause the target to take a little more physical damage and quite a bit more bleed damage. You auto-attacks now have a chance to generate additional rage.
  9. Deadly Calm - for a few seconds none of your abilites cost rage, though you willcontinue to generate rage.
  10. 3/3 Taste for Blood
  11. 1/2 Field Dressing- get more from any healing effect.

  12. Juggernaut - Your Charge is now usable in combat, but the coolddown is increased by 5 seconds. In addition, your next Slam or Mortal Strike has a 25% increased chance to crit if used in the next few seconds.
  13. 3/3 Lambs to the Slaughter - After your Mortal Strike hits your next MS, Overpower, or Slam will do 30% more damage
  14. 1/2 Sudden Death - Keep 5 Rage after using Execute and your melee hits have a chance to reset the cooldown on Colossus Smash

  15. 2/2 Wrecking Crew - Your Mortal Strike crits will Enrage you, increasing all damage by 10% for 12 seconds.
  16. Throwdown - Slam the target to the ground and stun it for 5 seconds
  17. 2/2 Sudden Death
  18. 2/2 Field Dressing

  19. Bladestorm - become a whrling storm of destruction

  20. You can now pick talents from the other trees

  21. 2/2 Cruelty (Fury) - increases the crit chance of Bloodthirst, Shield Slam, and Mortal Strike by 10%
  22. 3/3 Battle Trance (Fury) - various strikes have a chance to cause the next special attack cost no rage.

  23. Levels 81-85:
  24. 3/3 Blood Craze (Fury) - After taking any damage you have a chance to regenerate some health
  25. 2/2 Tactical Mastery (Arms) - Retain Rage when switching stances

One of each glyph is obtained at levels 25, 50, and 75. Here is a suggested glyph set and the order in which to take them.

Prime Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Mortal Strike - Increases the damage of Mortal Strike by 10%.
  2. Glyph of Overpower - Increases the damage of Overpower by 10%.
  3. Glyph of Bladestorm - Reduces the cooldown on Bladestorm by 15 sec.

Major Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Long Charge - Increases the range of your Charge ability by 5 yards.
  2. Glyph of Sweeping Strikes - Reduces the rage cost of your Sweeping Strikes ability by 100%.
  3. Glyph of Cleaving - Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1.

Minor Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Battle - Increases the duration by 2 min and area of effect by 50% of your Battle Shout.
  2. Glyph of Enduring Victory - Increases the window of opportunity in which you can use Victory Rush by 5 sec.
  3. Glyph of Intimidating Shout - All targets of your Intimidating Shout now tremble in place instead of fleeing in fear.

Scroll down for gear notes and leveling tips

wow warcraft alliance horde cataclysm leveling guide

Click here to get leveled, fast

 

 

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Talents - Fury - Arms - Prot - Gear - Level Faster

 

Protection Warrior Leveling Spec

As a Protection Warrior your basic abilities are:

  • Shield Slam - Whack the opponent with your shield causing damge, high threat, and dispelling one magical effect. When fighting bosses you should be slamming all the time.
  • Sentinel - Increases Stam and Black chance, increases Rage generated by attacking targets that are not attacking you.
  • Vengeance - Damage taken increases your attack power.
  • Mastery: Critical Block - Improves your chance to block

Protection Warriors aren't so hot in the questing department, though with decent gear you'll be Ok. It's a damage thing. However, you will do quite well in the area effect damage. While questing you can round up groups of mobs and kill them well enough to more than make up for any single target issues.

Where you'll blow the doors off of everyone else is in the dungeons. Master the tankage and you'll have very short waits for dungeon queues and you'll level quickly. You'll be able to level all the way to 85 without even leaving the city.

Recruit a friend and get 3x XP when you and your buddy are together. You're the tank, she's DPS or Heals, you're both getting 3x XP, how soon do you think you'll hit 85? Pretty darn fast.

Two of our group used Heirlooms, a leveling guide, and Recruit a Friend and went 1-85 in two and a half days (in-game time.) A Prot. Warrior and Friend in the dungeons should be able to match that.

Take a look at our protection warrior page for info on builds, tanking, etc.

 

 

Gear, Stats, Leveling Notes for Warriors

Attack Rotation:

Keep in mind that, while questing, your opposition will frequently expire before you finish any kind of rotation. Too bad that doesn't happen in PvP, hmmm?

Really basic rotation:

  • Charge, Smash, Victory Rush next opponent, smash, Charge, Victory Rush...
  • Charge > Rend > strike > strike > chop off head (Execute)
  • Start with charge to generate initial Rage.
  • Use Hamstring whenever you're fighting opponents that live long enough to run
  • Use Victory Rush whenever you can
  • Warriors can fight several opponents effectively with the use of their cooldowns, for example: Retaliation. Use them, do not save them "for later," unless you have a specific fight coming up. When they activate and it's appropriate use them.

Start attack macro - this will initiate your attack even if you don't have the rage to use your opening attack. This way you can switch targets or attack new ones and start whacking them before the rage builds.

You can use this with Bloodthirst, Mortal Strike, Shield Slam, or any other attack you might use to initiate combat.

#showtooltip Heroic Strike
/startattack
/cast Bloodthirst

Every now and then Rend is the first key I hit. This helps:

#showtooltip Rend
/startattack
/cast Rend

If you're an Orc and/or have some kind of damage cooldown. Heck, use both.
If you're a Troll use the Berserking ability instead of Bloody Fury.


#showtooltip Charge
/startattack
/use TrinketName
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Charge

 

Gear

  • Ranged: Get a bow (or gun or throwing knife or...) Use it to pull mobs from groups or to shoot runners. You're not a Hunter and you're not trying to do damage, just get their attention. So any weapon will do. Body-pulling (moving just close enough to attract one opponent) has its uses, as well.

  • Weapons: At the very least keep your weapons as up to date as possible, it will make a big difference. Other gear can slide a bit if you're broke (and go read our gold guide if you are.)

  • Get Mounts at 20 and 40 and 60. Get them, don't ask questions. If you can't afford them then get mining or herbalism and work those skills until you can afford your mounts. They're not that expensive. Epic Flying, at 70, is nice is you can afford the price.

Stats:

  • Top 3 Stats: Strength, Strength, and then more Strength.
  • Stam if you're tanking or PvPing.
  • Resilience only if you're PvPing

Secondary Stats:

You don't really have to worry about these until high level. Hit's nice because missing isn't.

  • Hit to 8% (7% for Draenei) if you're tanking, 5% for same level PvP.
  • Attack Power if you can find it.
  • Dodge & Parry if you're tanking
  • Crit is always good.
  • Expertise (ignores opponent's dodge) is nice, but don't worry about it too much until the end-game.
  • Mastery starts at level 80, but don't worry about it until the end-game.
  • Forget Agility, Int, and Spirit forever. Warrirors need power, not brains, and dodging is for rogues.

  • Arms & Fury: Hit and Crit
  • Protection (dungeon tanking:) Dodge, Parry, Mastery

While Leveling...

Al low level: stack Stamina. The one or two points of Stength that you can pick up aren't worth nearly as much as Stam, though they frequently come with the Stam anyway. Of the Bear is good gear to look for.

Mid levels - gear with decent Strength starts to appear. Strength at this point is your first priority, it increases attack power, and in doing so, your base damage values. It also increases your Parry.

Stacking massive amounts of strength is effective at mid levels and slowly improves up until 80, then with the new Cataclysm rules Strength starts to scale up more quickly. Keep the Stam and get more if you're constantly getting smashed (as in hit, not drunk.) (Mining increases Stam by a bit.)

Higher levels - Attack power, crit rating, and hit rating start to appear.

At level 40: you get to use plate mail gear, but you may find that a chain item has better stats, depending on what drops off mobs of the Auction House. One practice that has been followed occasionally at higher levels is the usage of mail and/or leather armor that possesses the greater damage stats. Cataclysm has a system to award wearing the "correct" armor, which you get at level 50 and which adds 5% to your Stength, which should mean fewer 40+ warriors in leather.

Offense Vs. Defense? Unless you are doing a lot of PvP and/or tanking you will find the offensive stats to be much more valuable than the defensive ones. While leveling stick to the massive offense and carry enough food (unless you're Undead) and bandages with you to minimize downtime. However, you should stack enough stam that this doesn't become painful.

For Fury Warriors: Critical rating and raw Attack Power come at about an even par. However, in the end I’d say Critical Rating edges out +Attack Power, because Crit Raing increases how often Flurry procs, thereby increasing white damage significantly. (The Skinning profession will increase your crit rating. )

For Arms Warriors: Stength and Attack power rule. Everything else is "the rest.".

 

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Talents - Fury - Arms - Prot - Gear - Level Faster

 

Warrior Food, Potions, Enchants, Etc.

Note on cash: Petty cash means one thing if you have 3 gold to your toon's name and another if you have 100k (you'd be surprised how many do.) See our Tycoon guide review or our gold guide if you need help in that area.

The better buffed you are the faster you'll level. See a buffing class running by? Ask them, nicely, if they'll buff you. Make a macro:

  • /say Excuse me, Oh Awesome One. Can you lay upon my lowly self some of your excellent buffage?

First off, can you afford the extras? If gems, enchants, etc. are petty cash then go for it. Twinks will spend hundreds of gold on weapons and enchants for low level PvP and that enhanced gear certainly won't hurt while leveling. If you can't afford it then don't worry abut it. Green gear is fine and if you keep your weapons up to your level then you'll be Ok.

 

Potions & Scrolls: Buy and keep a bunch. Healing, stength, health/stamina. Troll's Blood pots don't look interesting at first, but in the long run they'll save you from using a lot of bandages. Prices vary on the AH. If they're expensive now just keep checking every now and then and buy a pile when you can.

Scrolls of Strength are frequently dirt cheap. You can also check with an Inscriber (Scribe) and have some made for you.

Scrolls and potions do not stack. You will have to use one or the other.

Potions of water breathing will help with underwater quests or gathering. Usually the quest-giver will give you something, but not always.

 

Glyphs - prices vary wildly. One day your glyph is at 2g, the next day it's 200g (or more.) Wait for sales (or pay my inflated prices, please. ;) ,) buy all your glyphs, and then stock some vanishing dust to swap them in and out as you need to. You can probably get all of your warrior (or any class) glyphs in a package deal from your friendly, neighborhood scribe and pay a lot less money (and get them faster) than AH browsing.

 

Food: Pretty much the same. Lower level foods will buff Stamina, which is great, the highest level foods will buff stength, attack power, crit rating, etc. If they're not readily available on the AH then it may be worth your while to get cooking.

 

Enchants: Can you afford them? Get health/stam at low levels, and whatever fits your needs at the high levels.

  • Str is best for any flavor of Warrior, followed by Attack Power.
  • Movement speed enchants are nice.
  • Are you tanking your way to 85? See the Protection Warrior page for notes.

 

Gems: Gem slots are rare before 60 and occasional afterwards (while leveling.) Gem for Strength, Attack Power, and Crit Rating. Stam if you need it.

  • Like enchants, Str and AP before all else. For any flavor of warrior.
  • If you're PvPing then look into Resilience gems.

 

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Talents - Fury - Arms - Prot - Gear - Level Faster

 

Leveling Faster

Heirloom Items for Warriors

There are a variety of heirloom items available. Some or bought through your high level guild, others with honor points, and so on.

Important note: Some of the heirloom cap at 80, others 85 (such as the helm and cloak you buy from your guild vendor.)

  • Do enough PvP so that at level 70 you can get decked out in level 70 purple (epic) PvP gear from the Legacy Arena Vendors. The gear is cheap, not a lot of honor is required.
  • At 77 buy your green Cataclysm gear. The stats on these pieces are far better than any non-Cataclysm gear else you'll get, short of the best raid/pvp stuff. When you buy your Cataclysm cloak and Helm you will send your Level 80 Heirlooms to your next alts, or bank them.
  • At 81 put your level 85 Heirlooms back on. At 85 you can put them away when you start doing dungeons and PvP.

 

Questing over Grinding: Do the quests, grind a bit when you find the right areas. grab all the interesting quests (the ones you want to do) and group them so that you can knock of several at the same time in the same place. Save the city quests until you have a few, then knock them off all at once when you train.

Grinding: There are times when the grinding is good, however. Some camps of mobs have a fast respawn rate and you can spend some time there just mob-mashing and practicing your skills. This is especially effective if you have rest XP from your stay at the Inn.

Dungeons: If you have the time and interest and are Ok with groups, then dungeon leveling can add some fast XP. Just Queue up for the dungeon finder and go for it. You also will get some nice items out of it.

  • Learn to tank. Your wait times will be near zero and you will be able to level all the way to 85 without leaving the city. You might have to go back and get your flypoints and such later.
  • Damage/DPS: Your wait times will be longer, so mix it up with watching YouTube videos or questing/grinding/farming/gathering.

PVP: If you like PvP then you should know that the battlegrounds have their special weekends where double honor and double XP are awarded. (Just look at the calandar by your mini-map.) If your team wins you can get some insanely fast XP.

Even when it's not the Holiday weekend, winning the Battlegrounds is still very fast XP. Losing is maybe faster than questing, but more frustrating (for us, anyway.) See our Warrior PvP page for tips.

 

Bags: big bags are good, bigger bags are better.

Banker: make an alt to live at the Auction House. That way you can mail white or better stuff to the alt instead of having to travel to the city to unload it, or dumping it at the vendor. This is a big hassle saver. Here are a few more gold tips.

More XP: Always log out at an Inn. You get the 2x "rest XP" when you come back. A longer rest = longer duration fo the rest XP.

The Titan Panel Addon has an "XP per hour" function. This lets you know how efficient you are at picking up the XP.

Recruit a friend: 3x XP, 'nuff said. Here's Bliz's FAQ page for RAF. Note that the RAF benefits now stop at level 80.

Now, if you have full heirlooms and if you are a tank and you are dungeon leveling and you have a buddy doing the RAF thing with you... You'll be 80 before you know it, and 85 not much later.

 

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Talents - Fury - Arms - Prot - Gear - Level Faster

 

Professions

If you have to level a skill then go for Blacksmithing and Mining. Blacksmithing will get you into some good gear, but it gets expensive. At high level you'll be able to make some nice stuff.

Mining is a great money maker that also provides raw materials for Blacksmithing, as well as Jewelcrafting and Engineering.

First Aid is an essential skill (for when you smash your hand with your Blacksmithing hammer.) Keep it maxed at all times.

Generally, skip the crafting professions while leveling (even Inscription,) unless you have, or can generate, plenty of gold.

  • Skinning gives you extra crit rating
  • Mining gives you more Stamina
  • Herbalism gives you a small heal and a Haste effect.

Here is a list of other money-making and useful professions:

  • Inscription - There have been some big changes to this profession. Many glyphs have changed and all classes get the two big changes:
    1. Once you install a glyph you have learned it, you will never need to buy it again. By them all, learn them, and swap them with Vanishing Dust (bought from the Inscription supplies vendors, or on the Ah at an inflated price.)
    2. All classes can now learn nine total glyphs at level 85, three each of Prime, Major, and Minor.
  • Cooking - A good skill to take. You'll be able to cook up foods that buff str, stam, and other stats.
  • Fishing - A good way to slow down your leveling speed. It does provide mats for cooking, and some fish are good gold makers (oily blackmouth, deviate fish, etc.,) but it is time consuming.
  • Gold with professions - you'll find some tips on this page.

At level 85 all of the crafting professions provide self-only buffs or items that provide about 80 extra stat points. If you really want to go the min-max rouite then grab two crafting profs.

 

 

1-90 Warrior Leveling Guide


One of the commonly seen questions in the forums and in the game chat is something like, "Where do I go to level...?" You can always grind endless groups of mobs, which a fury warrior does very well, and fall asleep from the tedium, or you can follow the quests as you find them, perhaps looking for quest details on some website.

A better option is a full blown Warrior leveling guide. Step by step, from the starting area (or anywhere else) to the end, the guide will semi-automates that path for your Warrior. You'll never again wonder about where to go or what to do.

What if you've never played before, or you're not level 1? Or you want to do some dungeon or PvP leveling along with your questing? Or you have full heirlooms and you and a pal are using Recruit-a-Friend?

No problem. Dugi's guide will automatically adjust and send you to the right place. Don't want to do a quest chain? Or you'd rather level in easy mode (or hard more?) Go into the options, click a box or two, and you're set to level the way you want to.

You just pick your starting point and the guide automatically updates and advances to the next step as you complete each step and quest, and also sets the next waypoint arrow automatically. In addition, all of the important quest info is included in the guide window. Tasks are tracked and you'll never need to switch back and forth from the quest log or any online site.

All you have to do is follow the arrow and check the guide (with its in-game window) to see what you have to do. You'll knock off the quests boom, boom, boom and you'll level with a surprising lack of stress. Get to the max level fast and join your friends and guildies in that yummy end-game content.

Grab your copy of Dugi's leveling guide here.

 


 

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