So, I’ve levelled to the current cap as warrior and now, I’m stuck as I don’t really get the class or how to play it well.
The rotation feels so… clunky, and I never really have the rage to do anything well enough. I can’t tell if I should be using Battle Stance or Berserker Stance primarily, given how at odds the spec is with needing abilities of both. And all of the gear lists are so heavily loaded with PvP items being needed and I refuse to step foot into a battleground or engage in world PvP. I’ve tried asking for help in my guild, and none of them are particularly knowledgable about options or what to do. I tried the Fight Club discord and no one even acknowledged my questions or seemed interested in actually helping.
At this point, I’m flustered and frustrated and am halfway tempted to just delete this character because I don’t get it. If someone is willing to point me to some really good resources, or something - I would appreciate it.
if arms, you want full tactical mastery and anger management. this will let you keep up to 25 rage when swapping stances. this means you can go zerker just long enough to whirlwind or pop berserker rage to activate flagellation, then go back to battle stance. for packs of mobs, use sweeping strikes then zerker stance whirlwind for many big numbers
if fury dw, you’ll spend most of your time in zerker stance since you dont get to keep your charge rage when swapping, and because we are still running Consumed by Rage
as for gear, there’s lots of good stuff you can get from questing, and i was able to solo quest for the vast majority and find 1-2 ppl to help with the tricky quests
ETA: on the topic of good gear coming from PVP, i can understand not wanting to get WSG exalted or farm bloodmoon, but the very least you ought to consider doing is the WSG revered from Ashenvale event. it’s basically PVE, and you get some pre-bis/bis rings and pre-bis MH for fury dw
if arms, you want full tactical mastery and anger management. this will let you keep up to 25 rage when swapping stances. this means you can go zerker just long enough to whirlwind or pop berserker rage to activate flagellation, then go back to battle stance. for packs of mobs, use sweeping strikes then zerker stance whirlwind for many big numbers
I am Arms - 31pts, axe spec with the Whirlwind Axe.
I have Tactical Mastery and Anger Management! So I should just ignore the threat reduction and added crit of berserker stance and stay in battle stance the entire time?
And why would I use Whirlwind on single target? I can barely keep the rage to Mortal Strike and Slam on CD.
What can I do to not feel like I’m constantly starved for rage to do anything? In a single dungeon, I’ll burn through 4-5 stacks of rage or greater rage potions, that’s crazy expensive.
As you get better gear, you get more rage per swing. By endgame, youre swimming in rage. I think the devs want to hold back on making warrior too strong right now because the class scales out of control as better gear is equipped.
if single target, the only reason to go zerker is to activate Berserker Rage (which triggers Flagellation for extra damage) then right back to battle stance. the only other use case is Pummel if you need to interrupt a cast. staying in battle stance lets you take advantage of more overpower procs if you’re specced for that
as for being rage starved, i pmuch only spend it on MS and Slam with Precise Timing, until the dump in execute phase
if you just wanna have more rage more often, i would try fury dw
First off in these phases you need Wind fury. No wind fury no fun. Slam should be your first prio followed by WW or MS (if you dont have 30 rage but you have 25 then use WW first its not worth waiting for an auto) unless its an aoe pull then Sweeping strikes into flagelation to a whirlwind but it will cause alot of threat. stay in Zerker stance only change when OP procs, and once it procs if you have over 25 rage blow it asap HS if need before you swap to batte stance to OP. rinse repeat. pretty much the gist of pve for now
You want to stay in Berserker Stance for the 3% chance to crit bonus…Slam is your go to ability, followed by Mortal Strike and Whirlwind (if rage allows). If you find yourself in the 80-90 rage area…queue up a Heroic Strike. If you see a dodge that procs Overpower, you would swap to Battle Stance to use it then swap right back to Berserker Stance. If you have a lot of rage when this happens, burn as much as you can in a global to get close to 25 but don’t delay switching to use Overpower longer than that…then get right back to Berserker Stance.
Windfury/Wild Strikes is a HUGE boost to your damage because the extra auto attacks yield a lot of extra rage to play with. Also with gear, crits give bonus rage and you will start to crit quite often in Gnomer gear (close to 30% with consumes and druid buff in zerker) Also, having armor debuffs in Gnomer is HUGE for dps/rage generation because of how high they tuned the boss armor. If you don’t have these in your raid, its going to feel bad to play warrior even in good gear this tier.
Also, make sure you are not trying to stack Berserker Rage and Blood Rage because the Flagellation buff overwrites…so use Blood Rage 1st (its off the global and gets your rage going) and once Flag wears off pop Berserker Rage for a 2nd duration of Flag…keep using Flag as it’s available, unless you are about to hit a transition period in an encounter (like phase swap on last boss). Wait for transition then Flagellate.
No, you should be in Berserker stance by default and only switch to Battle Stance to use overpower when it becomes available and Sweeping Strikes when there are multiple enemies.
I recommend a weak aura to highlight when overpower is available and a macro that will change your stance and cast Overpower in a single button push.
Anyone who tells you that you should primarily be in battle stance is incorrect as the extra 3% crit from Berserker Stance is a significant DPS boost.
Your priority should be hitting Slam on CD, hitting MS on CD, and hitting Overpower when it is available (dumping as much rage as possible before switching stances so you don’t waste rage). Whirlwind should only be used on single targets if you need to dump rage. It’s a good button to hit before you overpower for that reason.
As others have stated, this will improve as your gear improves because you will do more damage with your white hits and gain additional rage from that. You should definitely be using the Endless Rage rune on your gloves if you aren’t already.
Warriors are more gear dependent than other classes. This is partially because our rage generation is dependent on how hard we hit. Don’t get discouraged. Just focus on getting better every run and making sure you are doing mechanics so you aren’t a liability.
It’s very obvious you want to use berserker stance as often as possible. Crit bonus along with 30 seconds Berserker Rage for flagellation rune.
I don’t understand what you need to be in battle stance for unless the tank is requesting thunderclap. This is odd because it is completely unnecessary even in gnomer.
Warsong revered is stupid easy to get. There are comparable belts you can get outside of AB rep.
This is 100% wrong. It is extremely bad advice and you should stop repeating it.
You should be in Berserker Stance as much as possible as the 3% additional crit chance is significant for your DPS. The only time you should switch to Battle Stance is to hit Overpower when it is available (dumping as much rage as possible before switching stances) or to hit Sweeping Strikes when fighting multiple enemies at once and then you should immediately switch back to Berserker Stance.
Arms warriors prioritize Overpower, but the optimal thing to do is to dump as much rage as possible, switch to Battle Stance just to hit the Overpower ability, then switch back to Berserker Stance immediately. If Thunderclap is requested, it would be the same process.
Right, obviously you should dump then swap for overpower. Swap for sweeping strikes too. I am just trying to understand the confusion on OPs part. If single target dump then swap to overpower then back into zerker. I don’t think OP understands that the crit in zerker is more than just a crit bonus for damage, but also increases rage generation through more white crits.