Sell me on being a Warrior

I am looking to make a Melee exclusive character for the first time and take them from 1-120. The Warrior (along with Paladin) are my main considerations.

So why should I pick Warrior over Paladin?

Warrior has charge.

Paladin has sparkles.

How does charge top sparkles though?

If you have to ask, is warrior really an option?

Dang you might be right

Seriously though how is the class in terms of leveling experience?

They’re both super easy to level. Warrior mobility is a bit better, paladin can heal. Both have a stun. Both of them can tank which means fast dungeon queues.

I don’t think the levelling experience is really worth considering in detail in modern WoW. It’s so fast, you couldn’t make it hard if you tried on any class, even as a dedicated tank/healer, and if you run a lot of dungeons, it’s arguably faster to be a tank/healer.

At max level, both of them are great tanks. Both of them are great melee dps in PVE and PVP. There are some drawbacks to both in certain areas of high level content, but those kind of issues don’t come into play until you’re going for gladiator (PVP), very high m+ keys or mythic raid progression and aren’t really in the scope of this thread.

So I would choose based on aesthetics. Which brings us back to charge, and sparkles.

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Is Rage a hard resource to manage?

Not really.

As fury, all of your spells build rage so you can’t really go wrong. Just spend it (on rampage) as often as you can.

As arms, your rage comes from auto attacks, which adds some complexity. You should use your rage primarily for mortal strike/execute, and don’t waste it on slam unless you have surplus. Arms is not a spammy spec, it is slower and more methodical and takes some time to master. Personally my favourite spec.

As Prot rage income comes pretty steadily, just don’t waste on revenge unless you have plenty or a free revenge proc. Spend on shield block and ignore pain for the most part.

Compared to a paladin, I guess rage is complicated, but paladin is one of the easiest classes in the game.

Okay. So Fury is spammy. Arms is Methodical. Prot is…Prot.

But Paladin is easier? What makes it easier? Just more forgiving due to the self heals?

Fury is methodical as well, however in a very different way.

One thing to consider is this - you have states this is going to be your only melee toon. Whilst that may change in the future, in the hear and now warrior offers you three melee specs vs paladin’s 2. Unless holy paladin is a big plus for you, warrior gives you more playstyle options

Well Holy is just a bonus as I see it. The most time i have spent in this game on any one character is my Resto Druid. So I kind of see Holy as a possible back up plan if for any reason I don’t like Ret or Prot.

But I keep hearing that Paladin os predictable and therefore boring. I hear the opposite about Warrior.

My understanding is that Ret is a pretty bland/simple spec.

Yes i heard the same.

I might just have to make one of each and get it to 20 or so and see how I like it.

The general shape of Fury and Ret is pretty similar. You have several short cooldown abilities that build resource and a powerful spender that delivers a big hit. It’s the execution that’s very different.

Fury Warriors fill a Rage meter so that you’re not counting the exact Rage gain from each button too closely. Ret Paladins build Holy Power, where much like Combo Points you have precisely five and keeping track of exactly how many you have is important. Fury wants to hit their spender as soon as it lights up, because Rampage also gives you an Enrage buff that super charges you. Ret’s spender is almost its lowest priority, because as long as you’re not capped on HP it’s more important to use your builders as soon as they come off cooldown. Fury gets a steady stream of AoE from weaving Whirlwind in so your attacks cleave. Ret gets all its AoE in huge bursts by using the AoE spender instead of the single target one.

As always, I will offer a reminder that Class Trial is an option the game offers now. You can roll a trial character at Level 110 and go hit a target dummy to your heart’s content. It’s a great way to sample the rotation, not to mention the animations and vocal emotes for whatever race and gender you’re considering.

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Warrior rotation tends to be quicker than paladin’s rotation. Also with 2 dps specs, at least one of them is usually good. Prot war tanks are also in a good position for mythic plus.

I main prot and my main alt is a prot paladin so I can speak on the differences of those two.

Protection warrior requires a proactive approach; using your mitigation/abilities before the attack or hit comes.

Protection paladin requires a reactive approach; taking a big hit and healing yourself up quickly

That’s the short of it

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