Why do people hate on warriors?

[Snipy-faerlina]

@Sthis-shandris

The truth is, at the highest level, every class is hard to master. But if we lower that down to “How hard do you have to try to be successful” we will find that there are several classes that need to play perfectly just to be okay during the raid. Warrior is not one of the classes.

Specifically with regards to Vanilla WoW, it might be interesting to dive into what you mean by this.

Here’s my gut feeling, if I had to guess, and I wouldn’t take that guess to the bank. I would maybe set up a test based on what we talked about above - rotational complexity on Patchwerk for optimal melee dps output for example - or dive into the WoWSims github codebase and try to understand Feral vs Warrior sims for Vanilla to get something we can actually measure… but if I had to guess:

I feel that Vanilla warrior in PVE is probably the most complex class to play in a PVE raid setting. It certainly is the class among those that I personally play (which includes druid) where I require the most macros, and have spent the most time learning and making macros, specifically for Vanilla warriors.

As an anecdotal aside, and obviously more relevant to tanking (which in my opinion is a regular part of playing either of the two classes) we can have a look at Elite’s Low Level Warrior tanking guide, aimed at players new to Vanilla Warrior and tanking at lower levels, as an introduction to the class:

Specifically, I’d look at the rotational and stance components and compare that to what someone might say about Bear tanking, which would be something like, “Stay in bear stance. Use Maul and Swipe if/when you have enough rage. Use Demoralizing Roar to keep the debuff up on mobs.”

@Elite-kurinnaxx

Core Tanking Abilities and Uses

• Charge - cannot be used in combat. Generates 15 rage (learned at level 4)
• Demoralizing Shout - costs 10 rage (learned at level 14)
• Revenge - must follow a block, dodge or parry - costs 5 rage (learned at level 14)
• Sunder Armor - reduces targets armor, causes high threat - costs 15 rage (learned at level 22)
• Defensive Stance - 130% base threat (learned at level 10)
• Tactical Mastery - Talent - requires 5 points in Arms to learn (optional)
• Taunt - Taunts target to attack you - melee range, 10 second cooldown (learned at level 10)
• Mocking Blow - Forces target to focus attacks on you for 6 seconds - melee range, 2 minute cooldown (learned at level 20)
• Blood Rage - Gives 10 Rage - 1 minute cooldow (learned at level 10)

There are some others, as mentioned above, such as Shield Block or Shield Bash, but these are not particular relevant for maintaining threat, which is the primary concern of a low level tank, and the focus of this guide.

Opening

Note: If you have 5 points of Tactical Mastery, you will keep up to 25 points of rage when changing stances. If you don’t have Tactical Mastery, you will want to make the best use of your rage prior to changing stances.

Ideally, open out of combat, so you can charge (generate 15 rage). This means you’re in Battle Stance, and have 15 rage. Sunder Armor costs 15 rage, Demoralizing Shout costs 10. If there are multiple targets, get all with Demo Shout then proceed to sunder your kill target and/or off targets, as needed. White hits also generate a good amount of threat. If you are in Battle Stance, and find threat is too low, swap to defensive stance.