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Playing a Warrior can be both fun and rewarding. Afterall playing an
insane death bealing berserker and smashing through enemies can be
insanely fun. In DPS spec a warrior is a force to be reconned with.
While in tanking spec a Warrior is extremely rewarding to play since
you will always be able to find a group to adventure with, and can
start to learn the skills to lead a group. No matter your play style
there are several key things that you wil need to know how
to eitehr survive or cause damage.

Damage Dealing Rotations

While in combat as a DPS warrior you have several different
rotations that you can use. The first choice comes based on your talent
build, as Fury and Arms lead to some different attack possibilities.
Next, the rotation you use will depend on the situation, is it a single
target or a group of targets.

Lets start by looking at a Fury warrior's single target rotation. It
will be something like Bloodthirst, Whirlwind, Slam, and then Heroic
Strike. Once the target is below 20% health you can replace slam with
Execute for even more damage.

Arms has a much more complicated and busy rotation with more
abilities to use. However the attacks are more of a priority list than
an exact sequence. If an earlier one in the list is off cooldown then
it should be used first.

The rotation is to start with Rend and refresh it whenever
nessessary. Once it is up use Mortal Strike and Slam as part of your
regular rotation. Also use Execute, Overpower, and Bladestorm whenever
they are either available of off cooldown.

When you are fighting large groups of enemies you can use Whirlwind,
Sweeping Strikes (if you are fury), Cleave, and Bladestorm. Remeber to
be careful in a group though as you will be hitting and causing threat
against multiple enemies not just the tank's main target.

Tanking Rotation

As a Warrior tank you are able to take quite a beating. With all
that heavy plate armour, a shield, and your various skills and
abilities you can last a while against anything. Even though you can
last though, your party members can't. If they draw aggro from you they
will most likely be killed in just a few hits. That makes your tanking
rotation extremely important. You want to be able to generate as much
threat as you possibly can as quickly as you can.

Against a single target the best threat rotation you can use is
Shield Slam, Revenege, Concusion Blow, Shockwave, Devestate, while
using Heroic Strike whenever it becomes active. Don't forget that you
also need to keep Sunder Armor stacked on the target.

Against multiple targets all at once you want to make sure you mix
in more shockwaves and cleaves to establish aggro on more targets.
Also, you should make sure that you switch targets often to ensure you
have threat on all of them.

Also something to consider while tanking is your cooldown abilities.
They become a kind of management game. You want to use them, but want
to make sure you have them available for when you need them. This takes
some practice, but you will establish a feel for it over time.

Solo Play

When playing the game solo, you really only have 2 options. Both
involve playing the game as DPS, so they are either going fury or arms.
Both are viable for leveling as you cause a significant amount of
damage. While you could level as Protection to help learn the abilities
and be ready to tank once you start visiting instances, the damage you
can cause is severly limited and leveling will take much longer.

For complete information on the best way to level and solo play
check out our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/warrior/solo1-40">Warrior
Leveling guide, it provides all the details.

Mixing it up in PvP

If PvP is your thing and you are out to cause as much havok as
possible, then your best bet is to check out the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/warrior/pvp">PvP
Warrior Primer Guide. It covers all the basics that you will want
to know about as a Warrior attempting to PvP in either battlegrounds or
arenas.

Playing a Warrior in a Group

Your role in a group as a Warrior really depends on what talent
build you are. As an Arms or Fury warrior you role is to cause as much
damage as possible while not drawing threat. That's isn't always a
simple task given the amount of damage that you can cause. As a Tank in
a group your role is to keep all of the enemies so pissed off at you
that they ignore all of the other party memebers. While it sounds easy,
it isn't and takes a lot of practice.

Knowing When to Switch Roles

This is another very often overlooked skill that truly separates the
good players from the rest. Many normal players get focused just on
what they are doing and lose track of what else is going on. As a
multi-purpose class you can not afford to do that, if you want to be
great as a group PvE player. There are times you need to be able to
switch from what you are doing to do something else.

Recognizing the times that you should switch roles and acting on
them takes practice and can make all the difference in a group.This
mainly applies to DPS warriors, but can apply to Tanks in raids when
you get to a fight that only needs a single tank and your raid has more
than one. This occurs many times in small groups when you join as a DPS
player. Your tank goes down halfway through a big fight and the group
is facing a wipe. You can quickly switch into defensive stance and keep
the enemies on you instead of the healer or caster and try to save the
group. It will not always work, but if done correctly can save your
group from a wipe more times than you would think.

For longer changes it may mean carrying gear for different purposes
and being skilled at using it. For instance many Warrior tanks carry
full DPS sets for raids, so that when they are at a fight that requires
less tanks than they have in the group they can switch gear and help
out by causing damage. For these longer term switches you should have a
secondary talent build ready to go.

Charging and Intercepting

These two abilities are so important, and useful in almost any
situation that they get thier own section. They can be useful in PvP
and PvE, no matter if you are tanking or DPSing.

Charge allows you to charge into a new opponent while out of combat
from up to 25 yards away and stuns them for a short time. In addition
it generates rage so that you can start attacking with other abilities
shortly after. Intercept is like charge but causes a slightly longer
stun and can be used while in combat. Without talents Charge can only
be used in battle stance while intercept can only be used in berserker
stance. However since you can switch between stances just before you
use them it just takes practice.

Learning how to charge in to fight an enemy, switch to berserker to
generate rage, then intercept to another enemy is a skill every warrior
really needs to learn and practice. It makes every part of the game
easier. In solo play while leveling you can get from one fight to the
next faster. In group play you can get there quicker and have more time
to cause damage. While tanking you can get back to defend another
player that draws threat. Lastly in PvP you can either use it to catch
a fleeing enemy or flee from one yourself by hitting another further
away.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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