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Warrior abilities vary immensely depending on your stance - one second, you may be swinging with your two one handed weapons, the next you could be using a shield and taunting enemies that threaten your teammates.
Warriors, independently from your spec, get a lot of different abilities to deal with many different situations, for both solo and group play. For example, you will be given a Taunt move, this move allows you to make the monster concentrate its attacks on you instead of someone else in your group, and you get this ability without needing to spend any talent points at all in the protection tree.
Your main abilities will always be melee range, and you will fight head to head with most if not all the monsters you encounter in World of Warcraft. Many Warriors often complain all they see are "big feet" (stinky!) or "Ugly monster knees" as they go toe to toe with the biggest and baddest dragons, giants, and undead beasts that abound in the dungeons.
So what makes Warriors unique from other melee classes aside from taunts and such? Easy! you get a flurry of attacks that can really put some hurt on your enemies, especially if you're not tanking. Not only that, you have shouts that will increase your party's overall damage or hit points, as well as the possibility of also diminishing monster attack power with Demoralizing Shout.
Still not convinced? You can turn into a whirling tornado of death should you go Fury, and ravage anyone who is near you when you activate it, or you could simply go the way of the hulk and grab two two-handed weapons and wreak havoc onto bad guys!
If you're the defensive type, you will be glad to know you take a lot less damage in your defensive stance and you will have lots of abilities to make you near unkillable by both players and monsters. All in all, Warriors are a very complete class with great unique abilities that always has them desired in a party setting.
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Talents are what differentiates you from other Warriors - your special abilities. You may choose to go Arms, Fury, or Protection, depending on your tastes and what you want to do in the world with your character. If you go Arms, you will be able to be a great PvP player, using two two-handed weapons and doing a lot of damage with your abilities, aimed to diminish enemy healing and deal as much upfront damage as possible.
If you like one handed weapons more, Fury is the way to go. You can even sacrifice some armor to use some leather equivalents to reach extremely high attack power settings. It's worthy of noting that the highest DPS attained during Beta testing for Wrath of the Lich King was a Fury Warrior with the best gear offered, so if you know how to play this spec, you will be dealing damage by the thousands.
Finally, if you're interested in protecting your partners in battle, Protection not only allows you to do that, but also have a great way of passively wittling down your enemies with shockwave and your extremely high damage mitigation. You are also a pain for casters since you get magic damage reduction, and abilities to reflect spells in Defensive Stance.
Make sure to discuss the Talent Builds you see here or add your own by visiting our Forums!
A complete talent calculator can be found on the official World of Warcraft Site. Here you can try out your different builds and find the best one for your needs, then take it to practice in-game and see if it's truly as great as you think it is! Keep in mind that this calculator assumes you have level 80 and gives you the points a level 80 has, so if you're starting out, remember that your first Talent Point is given at level 10, and you will gain an extra one per level you obtain.
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Ah, finally what you came here for, the most common Talent Builds. These are the best compilations we have found so far on popular level 80 talent builds - for leveling purposes, it is recommended you go Fury if you're going to solo, as many quest rewards yield items that benefit this spec directly. However, if you're planning on leveling with friends, and are going to visit all the instances you can (which is a very valid way of leveling!), then Protection may be your fancy to minimize incoming blows and be the best tank you can be for your level.
On to the Level 80 Talents!
As always, feel free to share your best Talents with the Community should you find new ones worth mentioning, and we will add them here and credit you!
Warriors have 3 very viable Talent Trees - one for each situation in the game - PvP, PvE and Tanking PvE. Below are the most popular at this moment in time. As time keeps on passing and more Talents keep getting reviewed or given a second look by players, we will add more builds to this section.
Arms 2-Hander Build
Arms 2-Hander Build - This is one of the most prominent PvP builds out there at this time. Having Bladestorm to let you move and kill enemies without them fearing or stunning you is a big plus - you will be using a big two hander and dishing out Mortal Strikes to whoever comes near you. Make sure to always watch for Execute to come up, as you might see it more often than not and be able to dump all your rage on an otherwise unsuspecting enemy.
PvE wise, it will not work as well, but you will still be able to dish out respectable damage should you decide to go to an instance, just don't expect to wreck damage meters unless extremely lucky or overgeared.
Classic Protection Build
Classic Protection Build - Ah, the classic tank. Defender of the righteous and unyielding to the enemy forces. You must remember that as a tank you still want critical strikes and some attack power - the more damage you deal, the more enemies hate you and make you use less taunts in order to have them stay on you. Using Shockwave is a must, as are the talents in Arms such as Iron Will and Deflection, and Cruelty in Arms. Other than that, you are free to modify this spec as you please - rest assured knowing that this build is taken straight from world-class guilds and cannot steer you wrong.
Fury DPS Build
Fury DPS Build - This build lets you do extremely high DPS in the right group setting - designed for PvE raiding, this allows you to pick the best weapons you find, regardless if they are one or two handed, and combine them while using a lot of abilities that will most likely replenish your health and rage faster than you can deplete it. Obviously, Titan's Grip is used here, and Rampage is a must, along with Bloodthirst, which will be one of your main attacks. For this build, always stay in Berserker Stance, and let them have it with Whirlwinds and Bloodthirsts, using Death Wish whenever it's up for maximized damage.
You will want to go down the Arms tree for Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, to increase the damage you deal overall once you find good two handers, and Impale, which will also lead into Deep Wounds, increasing your DPS substantially.
Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? I would love to hear from you! Please post in our Warrior Class guide forum, or email us at [email protected]
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