Leveling a warrior. Would like some input.

[shoju]

I have a 50 Dranei Warrior on the ally side on Terenas (he brought sunetra presents a while back:)), and with the faction change coming, I've actually been playing him more, knowing that it wont be wasted, as I can make him a horde soon enough.

So I was Fury till 40, and I went Arms from there. I like Arms a lot. It's been great fun to play and most stuff is melting in front of me. The other night I charged from mob to mob all the way from Marshall's Refuge to the entrance to Un'goro crater just killing things to get back in the swing of it. It was great fun.

Anyway, Once I hit 60, what's the 'easiest' way to level a warrior? I know, it depends on style and preference, but I'm looking for opinions here. I'm planning on just leveling him slowly, getting into groups here and there to do some dungeons. I'm not planning to plow through to 80 right away.

I have thought about speccing prot, as I'm sure I could Dungeon my way up pretty fast as a tank who is at least semi-competent.

But, TG REALLY looks interesting. I mean, not 1 but TWO 2h'd weapons!

And then there is arms. I'm having fun with it, I seem to kill things fast enough (Things are dead before the charge CD is up now). Will this continue? WIll I be able to run around and just roll over mobs like this in arms forever?


Just looking for some ideas. I tanked ZF last night and besides being rage starved a lot, it seemed to be pretty fun.

[Frag]

Stay with arms. Fury is a tree of scale, and isn't kind to low levels really.

IMO,
~Frag B)

[shoju]

Stay with arms. Fury is a tree of scale, and isn't kind to low levels really.

IMO,
~Frag B)

Ok. SO a quick question. Obviously damage scales off weapon in Arms. Right now, I'm rocking a pretty nice (albeit a little fast) mace.

Is it accurate to think that Arms scales mostly based on having a top notch slow 2h'er or is that not the case while leveling?

It's not like I'm thinking about getting a new and improved weapon every level, but if life is made easier by having a nice and snazzy 2h'er, then you better believe I will make sure I get a good weapon.

[Frag]

Yep, your weapon will determine your kill speed as much as anything else as Leveling Arms, and as long as you stay slower than the normalized speed, it shouldn't matter too much. If you're a slam addict, however, go for weapon range/speed.

~FragB)

[Bob the Beholder]

I levelled Fury--it works great. I vaguely remember there was some crazy man who levelled three warriors simultaneously--prot, arms, and fury--and timed each one, and the fastest leveller by a fairly significant margin was the fury warrior. This, I believe, was pre-wrath, but pretty much every tree in levelling regards is nothing but buffs since then.

Prot, however, is some kind of monster solo machine these days, though. It's high damage, AoE capable, unkillable, wide range of stuns, etc.. Many warriors I know level prot exclusively now.

[swirly]

I'm planning on just leveling him slowly, getting into groups here and there to do some dungeons. I'm not planning to plow through to 80 right away.

With this being the case, my advice would be to give thought to how you want to play him at 80. Spec him along those same lines. That way as you level you are building your skill at actually playing him how you will be doing so at the end game. I've always thought this resulted in a better played character than leveling in one spec and then switching at the end.

[shoju]

With this being the case, my advice would be to give thought to how you want to play him at 80. Spec him along those same lines. That way as you level you are building your skill at actually playing him how you will be doing so at the end game. I've always thought this resulted in a better played character than leveling in one spec and then switching at the end.

Well, I was thinking about trying Prot Warrior, as I hear it's a little more engaging than prot paladin. Not sure though, I doubt he will ever be more than just some flunky I goof off on.

I REALLY like arms. It's more fun than fury was, but we will see.

[Frag]

I levelled Fury--it works great. I vaguely remember there was some crazy man who levelled three warriors simultaneously--prot, arms, and fury--and timed each one, and the fastest leveller by a fairly significant margin was the fury warrior. This, I believe, was pre-wrath, but pretty much every tree in levelling regards is nothing but buffs since then.

Pre-Titan's Grip, I concur, but dw'ing 2h'rs with the penalty really does require some extra gearing as you *really* want to be hitcapped. Misses are even more of a problem than they otherwise would be as it's fairly easy to become ragestarved, even with as few attacks are in the rotation, due to the swingspeed. The gearing is even an issue for new 80's, and grows worse the further from ilvl 200ish gearing you are. Now, it's very possible to make a fury leveling spec that doesn't spec TG, but considering how utterly ridiculous Bladestorm is for grinding and how much easier it is to find one quality weapon compared to two, I feel Arms is a better fit for 40-79, with Fury being better earlier due to more passives.

Cheers,
~FragB)

[Taelas]

Do you have an Alliance character high enough to get badges? If so, you might want to grab the heirloom axe -- it's a good weapon, if a little behind top-notch equivalents (such as the Nagrand axe and the Zul'drak axe), and more importantly, it means you don't have to keep looking for good weapons.

[ryan4nayr]

The other night I charged from mob to mob all the way from Marshall's Refuge to the entrance to Un'goro crater just killing things to get back in the swing of it. It was great fun.

I was able to do that as Fury as well with a castsequence macro that started in Battle stance, going Charge -> TC -> switch Berserker Stance. I then created another macro when mob's dead and I'm moving on, castsequence Execute -> switch back to Battle Stance. It all works better with (but not needing) soloing glyphs such as Glyph of Bloodthirst (keeps you from wasting time bandaging/eating) and Glyph of Enduring Victory.

Really, you can spec any which way & Charge about willy-nilly (just the thought of Warbringer makes me giddy:D). I hope you are able to try all 3.

[Concillian]

Pre-Titan's Grip, I concur, but dw'ing 2h'rs with the penalty really does require some extra gearing as you *really* want to be hitcapped. Misses are even more of a problem than they otherwise would be as it's fairly easy to become ragestarved, even with as few attacks are in the rotation, due to the swingspeed. The gearing is even an issue for new 80's, and grows worse the further from ilvl 200ish gearing you are. Now, it's very possible to make a fury leveling spec that doesn't spec TG, but considering how utterly ridiculous Bladestorm is for grinding and how much easier it is to find one quality weapon compared to two, I feel Arms is a better fit for 40-79, with Fury being better earlier due to more passives.

I definitely agree with this.

I didn't level Conc immediately. I leveled a bit in early Wrath (TG using two Season 2 weapons). It was good because the combination of TG being OP at the start of Wrath and gear from being 70 forever meant things would be close to dead just from 2 white hits --> BT --> VR --> WW --> 2 white hits.

However when they nerfed TG and buffed arms, it became very efficient to find groups of mobs to Bladestorm, then spend some time eating, solo a couple, then Bladestorm another group.

Arms has two weaknesses:
1) Charge cooldown is 20 seconds instead of 15. This somewhat limits your effectiveness on single mob to mob type soloing. The solution to this is to limit the amount of this you do by using bladestorm more.
2) Arms still has the tremendous weakness of being one of the worst possible specs for soloing elites. Prot is better in that aspect, but warriors in leveling gear are, in general, going to struggle with anything more than normal mobs.

[Mavfin]

Prot leveling once you get shockwave at 60 is forget about stopping and eating, just pound stuff into the ground and keep moving.:D Glyph of Cleave is recommended, and it ought to be even better with buffed Devastate, and rage on avoid. I leveled in def stance, in DPS gear, from 70 to 80, and left some fury and arms warriors in my dust while they stopped to eat.:D

I laughed my way all the way to 80 in LK.

but warriors in leveling gear are, in general, going to struggle with anything more than normal mobs.

I had pretty good luck with soloing elite mobs that didn't do a lot of magical damage when I was leveling my prot warrior.

[Taelas]

Yeah -- and if said magical damage can be reflected and interrupted, that's also doable.

Enraged Regeneration and Last Stand are a great combination as well.

[NuurAbSaal]

Prot leveling

This. By far the most fun I had while leveling my warrior was in prot spec, and I didn't even have much of t5 or better. Just try to get a really good shield and enjoy the nuke+survivability combo:).

take care
Tarabulus

[Taelas]

I didn't even have T4 or badge gear...:P

[Mavfin]

I didn't even have T4 or badge gear...:P

Same. I had 2 pieces T4 and a 115 weapon to start. Had replaced it all by 73 or so, except the armorsmith chest.

[Bob the Beholder]

I levelled my warrior with nothing. I rolled into Outland with nothing, rolled into Northrend with barely more than nothing (two pieces of the rep blue pvp set, and a crystalforged waraxe), and the only trouble I ever had was 58-61, which is a HUGE step in difficulty, offset by the new gear levels; excepting of course that you just got there and don't have that gear. Fury worked great with no gear. This being a combination of levelling pre-BC, through BC, and soon after Wrath came out.

Fury has recieved a nerf since I levelled through Northrend, but not one that would make a huge difference in the levelling game. I went all through the 70s tearing mobs to bits a couple at a time, in as little as two or three global cooldowns now and then. It's a little harder lower level, but not by that much. Not gonna be soloing any of the harder elites, though. Sitting in berserker stance hurts. I did take a few of the easier ones alone, though.

But still, I'd suggest that you at least give prot a try. It's hilarious how much damage you can do with it now, and the survivability is top notch. I've watched leveling prot warriors take out elites, solo large groups, and in general just be unstoppable badasses.