TBC Warrior leveling advice

Classes Warrior
1

Hi all,
I’ve been having trouble finding consistent info on ideal warrior leveling playstyle and was hoping to see what others are doing in TBC.

The Wowhead and Icy Veins guides agree that prior to getting improved slam, arms and fury rotations are similar priority lists with something along the lines of bloodrage>overpower>execute>heroic strike if capping rage. At level 40 the primary attack gained at the bottom of the relevant talent tree would go to the top of the priority list. This causes me to have a few questions though:

  • Do rend and sunder never get used as warrior DPS in TBC?
  • Should I stay in battle stance or switch between battle and berserker when overpower procs?
  • Some guides say to use whirlwind as a filler, which would necessitate stance dancing if also using overpower, or do I ignore it to save rage?

Any advice or more thorough guides on TBC warrior leveling and DPS would be greatly appreciated!

2 Likes
2

Bump. I also made a new warrior today and I’m torn between 2h arms and 2h furry. which one of the two is higher AMP and fast paced (fun to me)

3

I would recommend checking the skyhold discord warrior community, there should be good ressources to answer your questions about war tbc.

4

Oh that’s a good idea - I had thought that was reserved for retail and didn’t realize it covered classic too. Thank you!

1 Like
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It is mostly retail, but there discussion about tbc/classic in there, i think in the pin of their classic/tbc channel there a invite for another discord server with more info about tbc war.

6

Warrior is going to rely upon a good two-hander. Hopefully, you should have received your Whirlwind Axe by now (look it up on google).

Take my advice as an opinion and not as a fact as you wish, but what worked for me in leveling and dungeons:

Arms Warrior is still a viable and strong leveling spec for warriors. Yeah, I heard two-handed fury works, and suppose if it’s a matter of preference… It can work as well.

Rend and Sunder aren’t as viable and mandatory as they use to be, especially at your level. You can use Heroic Strike above at 60 rage, but most importantly you can use that rage on Demoralizing Shout, Pummel and ThunderClap, ect. Leveling isn’t just about doing high damage! In my experience, I just learn to conserve my rage and barely use Execute unless the mob is about to kill me. Literally. Note: Well, I also do like to Mortal Strike on cooldown.

In terms of dps output, I have found the highest in berserker stance. Whirlwind is an absolute monster… and I mean an absolute monster especially paired with a whirlwind totem/shaman. Try it yourself against 2-3 mobs, and you will have a WAY bigger significant dps boost than overpowering/stance dancing. The only time I got outdps was by a shaman with 3-5 leveling epics, 3 elixir buffs, and a Dragonslayer buff. Whirlwind should not be a filler, but an off-cooldown priority especially against more than 2-3+ mobs. The damage is way too good to be denied. Believe me on this.

I also still use execute when targets get really low, and usually when there are only fewer than 3 mobs left. Otherwise, the next priority after Whirlwind is Cleave. Yeah, Bloodrage should be off cooldown and I also like to pool rage for my Deathpact. Some moments, you will have conserved your rage for Whirlwind, and some moments you can be aggressive enough to use use a plethora of damage abilities like Cleave and Mortal strike. Again, this will depend on how long the mobs will live and how many mobs will be left.

Also, a simple tip way to transition from Battle Stance to Berserker Stance is with a charge to begin combat initiation. If you switch to Berserker Stance midway during your charge, you still can able to retain more rage due to auto-attacking during that stance.

1 Like
7

Go sweeping, deathwish and do insane cleave dmg not hard

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Most of these guides go under the following assumptions: You will be running a very specific build to bring 2 Arms debuffs, as well as improved slam, sweeping strikes, and some variation of improved shouts.

1> I use Rend as an opener and only as an opener to get my Arms debuff up… Other than that, Rend is not worth using or talenting in any form of gameplay. If you have no other version of armor debuff in the group, then i suppose a DPS warrior could supply Sunder Armor if needed.

2>Using that build I mentioned, you will stay in Berserker stance 99% of the time. I usually Charge->Rend->Stance swap (Unless, for some reason i have excessive rage, i may go ahead and pop my sweeping strikes or get a Cleave off before i stance swap to not waste the rage)

If you go deep arms, and use a build that utilizaes Improved Overpower as well as Tactical Mastery then its definitely worth stance dancing, just make sure you keep on eye on OP Procs and WW cooldown to get the most out of it. But for the most part, its not recommended because we want the expertise to avoid the D/B/P.