Since Blizzard hasn’t given us Class forums yet I figured I’d ask this here.
I started playing in Vanilla, and played up to 2008. During that time I never played a Warrior. I would like to play one this go around and am struggling to find an informational video of stances and the reasoning for switching them in combat.
Can anyone find a link or something to help me know when to change stances? I assume a lot is personal preference and personal rotation but I haven’t been able to find a informational stance video yet.
Like, when do I switch from Defensive stand to Battle Stance during a fight? Why? Many other questions. I’m sure it depends on the type of fight whether its tanking trash mobs, a boss, or in PvP. I just haven’t been able to piece together the reasons and the best time to do so.
A quick google search of -Wow Vanilla stance dance video- Will show you a good one on 2018, with the macro’s you’ll want etc. I can’t link it cus P server, and they recently suspended me for an old video so.
On the Macro side you’ll have to goggle on what you want, for your other question starting in Arms for the first charge is generally good some skills you can only use in some stances disarm and shield wall come to mind for defensive, beserk rage and whirlwind and recklessness is beserk over, overpower hamstring are battle stance only. You’re normally bouncing between at least two specs on a PVE level
PvP you’re normally using all 3. Mostly it’s situational, never to waste say getting + rage from getting hit or preventing a fear etc. Defense stance also reduces 10% dmg while Berserk gives you 3% crit while you take more dmg.
An example PVE wise to swap is when Ony’s about to aoe fear while you’re tanking her, you should know how and when and swap to beserker stance and pop beserker rage so you’re immu. A PvP one would be if you’re fighting a Warrior who’s stupid enough to not have a weap chain, disarm em and he’s useless then swap over to beserk stance and whirlwind for pretty much a + free strike. Also whenever some one dodges your strike you normally want to go into battle stance to hit overpower.
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It’s pretty simple.
Some abilities require you to be in a certain stance to use them. You swap to do so, and usually swap back to whatever the default stance is for the situation. Battle stance is for openers and utlity. Charge/sweeping strikes/overpower/rend/mocking blow, etc. Defensive is for threat and reducing the damage you take. Berserker is for DPS and in-combat utility. You PVE DPS and PVP (mostly) in Berserker (extra crit, fear break, Intercept, Pummel, Whirlwind).
Here are the important passive stats:
Defensive:
- 1.30 threat modifier
- 10% less damage taken
Battle
Berserker
- 0.80 threat modifier
- +3% crit
- 10% more damage taken
Some situations would be more favourable in a certain stance. If you’re PvPing in berserker, and you get rooted by a frost nova and you’re stuck eating spell damage, switch to Defensive.
If you’re fighting a rogue that pops evasion, you’re going to need to swap to Battle to Overpower, but before you do so, use Berserker Rage to make yourself immune to Gouge.
You get the hang of it pretty quick once you start applying it. Hope these examples are helpful.
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Hamstring is Battle and Berserker
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Make macros for weapon swaps w/ stance dancing. No point going defensive with a two hander.
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Are you sure, i thought it was only battle till TBC same with thunderclap.
Yes, it’s berserker 100%.
Thunderclap is battle only.
If you’re taking spell damage, then Defensive is useful with a 2 hander.
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Can’t shield bash with a 2hder though.
Even though you could macro that into it.
I’m talking PvP. 2h are more associated with Arms PvP, so I assumed that’s what you were referring to. Shield bash has some merit in PvP but it’s really situational.
For PvE of course use a shield if you’re eating damage.
Could swap into Battle Stance to Thunderclap, then swap back into Defensive Stance. You’ll want to spec 10 points into Arms so you can maintain rage between stances first, though.
I’m sure there are many other situational uses that I’m not going to go through the trouble of listing them all. 
There are some situations you need to switch from Defensive stance to Battle stance. The main one is Execute. When your enemy’s health is below 20%, you switch from Defensive stance to Battle stance and use Execute to deal extra damage. You can’t use Execute in Defensive stance.
When you fight a mage (or ranged class), you need to use Intercept to get close to your enemy. In order to use Intercept you need to switch from Battle or Defensive stance to Berserker stance. Because Intercept can only be used in Berserker stance.
Unfortunately, Thunder Clap is usually not worth the rage or hassle.
Demo Shout is a much stronger aoe debuff that generates more threat and can be used while in Defensive, taking advantage of Defensive’s +30% threat modifier.
Since TC can only be used in Battle, it has a -20% threat modifier, making it much worse on threat.
You’re right, i have no idea why i thought it was battle stance only.
As to my first post for the OP another thing to note is while you can intercept and pummel in beserk, you can’t shield bash (Which is another interrupt) in Beserk stance, but you can in battle and defensive.
Sure, if you’re looking at everything from a threat perspective and not that 10% attack speed slow it applies.
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That’s why the DPS warriors should use it.
You’re not going to have a DPS Warrior in every dungeon.
For dungeons with 1 warrior tank and 4 non warriors, yeah, it can have situational use. But it is important to understand the thread modifiers. Demo is a lot more effective, both in reducing the damage you take, and a threat perspective.
You can use both, sure, but TC just isn’t worth the rage a lot of the time. It’s worse in vanilla than later expansions. If you could use it in Defensive, it would be a lot more popular in tanking rotations.
Search “Vanilla WoW Warrior macros”
You need the macros, plus the guides will tell you when/why you need them.
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Defensive : 10% less damage done as well.
I’ve always wondered how much of a threat bonus you truly got because of doing less damage.