I’ve been an on and off player of WoW for roughly 13 years now (unlucky number in the US but a lucky number for my Italian ancestry!).
During that time, I’ve played mostly Warrior. Arms Warrior. And I’ve been thinking. Some of a Warrior’s abilities like their Shouts and even something like Colossus seem almost magical in nature. Meaning, there is no way those abilities are happening without some sort of supernatural power. And yet Warriors do physical damage and are not related to the Arcane. So how would everybody here on the forums classify all this? Is it just game logic we have to suspend disbelief for? Or is there lore behind say… how a Warrior turns into a giant stone man?
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Have you ever been told to suck it up or walk it off by a coach before?
Same thing.
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I headcanon that a Warrior’s Rage is just another form of Monk’s Chi. But where Monks are about spiritual balance and control, Warriors are the opposite. They use their Chi and funnel it into Rage to gain superhuman abilities.
Or you could take the racial approach where certain races use external forces to augment their physical abilities. Like Gnomes and Goblins using technology, or Nightborne using their natural affinity for Arcane to increase their strength.
Or you can just say you’re wearing magical equipment, like how Thor wears a belt that grants him increased strength.
I think that’s the beauty of Warrior’s abilities not having an explicit explanation. It gives some wiggle room for players to decide for themselves how their Warrior can perform these superhuman abilities.
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Warriors embody the Mythic Classic Hero.
Varian Wynn dives from a skyship and one shots a Fel Reaver on his way down. Warriors are the Conans, the Samsons, the Hercules of the franchise.
Don’t try to look at the warrior as some kind of Mage. Their abilities are literally the stuff of Legends and Heroes and thats as far as you go.
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For the physical stuff, my read, and one that I apply to other fantasy settings as well, is that the upper limit of physical potential in Azeroth is just much higher than on Earth. It’s not magic, it’s not some obscure spiritual energy, it’s just strength. In the real world no amount of training will make you strong enough to shatter a boulder, but on Azeroth there is a way to get your body to that point.
The reason warriors are able to face magic-users and win is not because they’re secretly magic-users as well, but because physicality has as high of a ceiling as magic does.
For shouts and the like, I think it’s similar. Inspiration has power in the real world, but on Azeroth is has more power. It’s not magic, it’s just inspiration++.
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I like this angle. I also always looked at it like this as well. It’s not magic. It’s just a different kind of science for them I suppose. A different set of rules.
Just to jump off this too, you have peoples like tauren, orcs, trolls, dreanei, and worgen who are all much larger and stronger people than, say, humans (real or fantasy). Larger things tend to be louder, stronger, and take a bigger beating. So for things like that, not hard to imagine.
Obviously things like gnomes, goblins, etc, you kinda scratch your head for. Thats usually where I bring in the whole tech/magic supplements to them. You kinda see this too in the gnome heritage with the whole ripper sword weapon they use or Geblin’s art where he has this electrified clamp. Blood Elves couldn’t even be warriors until Cata, the excuse being they’re too magic based. So their warriors being more magic attuned, similar to Nightborne, works out that way.
All to say, ya got options.
Some of it can still be muscle composition/density - like how in RL, chimpanzees are stronger than humans despite being smaller. And with gnomes/dwarves/humans being former fleshified robots, who knows what kind of material composition their bones and muscles are truly made of.
…And now I’m imagining a gnome warrior in charging into combat against a tauren with all the zeal and mania of a raging chimpanzee, and that is terrifying.
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I’ve been saying it for years and really dumb people have always screamed no, but warriors have always been supernatural.
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Honestly, I’d be down for a canon that had rage itself, the red aura you often see emanating off warriors during some abilities, being a sort of supernatural physical energy similar to Chi. The opposite of magic and the arcane. The manifestation of physical power and anger which afflicts physical damage and gives warriors their abilities.
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its just gains bro. most warriors are all natty
They are the cheerleaders of WoW.
Imagine a future expansion where all classes get a new spec and warriors are the ones to get “Bard”
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Aw man.
This thread reminded me that my racial leader wasn’t equal to the night elf sub racial leader.
If we think as magic as something that is part of the warcraft universe, makes sense Warriors are magical.
And I’m not talking arcane in specific, the world of azeroth everything belongs in a realm of cosmic power, life itself is a type of magic so yeah I assume hero type warriors like varian, the player character, Saurfang, Brox and so on go beyond just being highly trained individuals of their species, they tap into beyond ordinary powers.
Many skills warrior have seem to point towards that.
I just pretend it is something magical, spirit or animea from shadowlands and the color kind of matches. Ya I don’t think it’s muscles but something more…
I like to think of some of my more fantastical abilities as being a result of pure adrenalin from my rage. Avatar I believe comes from Dwarves. So probably could be linked back to Titans?
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Everyone’s got something supernatural going on.
Orcs are made of earth elementals, then giants, and are now angry.
Dwarves used to be golems.
Humans used to be angry robots, then giants.
Night Elves somethingsomething elune somethingsomething nature.
Trolls got the loa but also regeneration is insane and they should almost literally never die.
okay i’m bored already but basically no race is just a normal supernaturaless race.
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I actually like the enchanted equipment route. Strong person, at their peak physical abilities, plus armor and weapons that grant them some special perks, like heroic leaps wearing plate, thunder stomps, blades that can cut dragon hide etc. I think the same for hunters and rogues as well: their skills plus special equipment puts them on par with the more high fantasy elements of the universe