Lloydganks
OG
29 warriors are one of my favorite classes in the 29 bracket, and one of the few classes that actually has a halfway respectable skill cap (other being hunter). i'm going to write a short guide that covers a lot of pvp basics and tips.
gear/spec
this is my 29 warrior's armory, for anyone who is interested: The World of Warcraft Armory. he could be logged out in any kind of gear, but i generally keep the same set on.
i am human, which is by far the best racial for a 29 warrior because of the 2 minute pvp trinket and the ability to run net AND agm in arenas. however, almost every racial is quite useful for 29 warriors. wotf is great because with no zerker rage, you are actually quite vulnerable to fears at 29. blood fury is great for the added burst. trolls and dwarves...well, terrible. war stomp is amazing for obvious reasons. dranaei has a nice hot. night elf is VERY nice because of the ability to shadowmeld + charge for a ghetto intercept every 2 minutes.
the spec you'll be using at 29 is: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft. i have tested waaaaaay too many specs on 29 warriors....trust me, this is your best bet. important talents include tactical mastery (VERY important), impale, imp overpower, and taste for blood. you will want 1 point in deep wounds because of situations when a rogue will evasion before the rend expires in an attempt to vanish, or when a rogue gets away from you to try to restealth - deep wounds procs off throwing weapon/ranged crits, and this has been clutch for me many times.
glyph of hamstring is the best pvp glyph for warriors at 29, and glyph of charge is the best minor. this glyph allows you to *generally* get a charge off on hunters, even ones with hawk eye.
as far as gear goes, you'll want at least 1700 hp for arenas (and probably anything else). the magic crit % you're shooting for is 20%. crit is very important to warriors because it is the biggest factor in rage generation. while it seems very attractive to stack attack power at 29 due to taste for blood + improved overpower, it is actually very important to get your crit up around 20% for optimal rage generation.
oh, and i run with parachute cloak + pendant of the agate shield in arenas. if you ever do arenas, make sure to use pendant of the agate shield as your neckpiece. and get the boa bow + weapon (i might not have those equipped). my 1h is the dal'rends boa sword with lifestealing, and marbled buckler with 18 stamina. i suggest you do the same (if you're alliance).
playstyle
make sure to also read my thread on warrior macros here: http://twinkinfo.com/forums/20-29-bracket/2371-pummel-29-other-useful-warrior-macros.html.
the "new" warrior playstyle at 29 revolves around taste for blood. taste for blood gives you a guaranteed overpower every 5 seconds on ANY target as long as you have rend ticking on at least 1 target. with improved overpower at 29, you will be able to do very good, reliable damage this way.
targets
as a warrior, you're generally going to stick on physical dps targets. you can train healers decently well, but it's usually more optimal to stay on rogues, hunters, and other warriors to make sure that you can keep them peeled from your healers or other squishy friends. this is because 1. you are generally more durable to physical damage because of mail armor, 2. you can debuff with demo shout and thunderclap to shut down physical dps even more, 3. you have a spammable snare to peel with, 4. you have a lot of defensive cooldowns/flexibility at 29, so you WANT people to focus the damage onto you instead of your teammates.
sunder armor!
one of the most important abilities you have at 29 is sunder armor. sadly, blizzard nerfed sunder armor recently...it used to be absolutely sick at 29. but even now, in battle stance you get 10% free armor penetration and a full stack of sunders will provide 20% more. since you'll be sitting on a target for a while, sunder armor will provide a significant boost to your damage - especially when you have teammates also beating on the same target.
the other reason why sunder armor is so good is because it's an INSTANT ATTACK (hamstring doesn't really count since you can't spam it). warriors have no other instant attacks at 29
. instant attacks are so good because it gives you a high chance to proc crusader since you're using a 3.8 speed weapon. to be honest, i pretty much have the crusader buff up 24/7 when i play on my 29 warrior - and it's because of sunder armor.
rage and heroic strike
lots of noobs use heroic strike over and over on their twink warriors. this is just a really bad idea. heroic strike gives a very inefficient damage increase per rage. the only times when you will be using HS are when you're trying to burst someone down, or you just have a TON of extra rage (this will definitely happen). otherwise, 9 times out of 10 you are better off using sunder armor until you have a 5 stack.
defensive play and abilities
one of the reasons why warriors are so great at 29 is because of their defensive ability. not only do you have mail armor, but you can switch to d-stance and sword and board for a very high amount of physical damage mitigation. in addition, warriors can shield block and shield wall, both of which are amazing for keeping you up.
shield block will basically block all incoming physical damage from the front for 10 seconds, INCLUDING RANGED DAMAGE. yes, it's really that good. as long as you keep your enemies in front of you, all of their physical damage will be Blocked. it's like having bop on you, only you can still attack...and it lasts 10 seconds...and you can do it once a minute..... if possible, position yourself against a wall when you shield block so enemies cannot possibly get behind you.
shield wall will reduce damage to you by 60% for 12 seconds every 5 minutes. so when you know that burst is coming and your healer(s) is CC'ed or CS'ed, bust out shield wall and just eat the incoming damage. with d-stance, that's 70% damage reduction (before armor). you won't be taking much damage.
one thing to note is that you usually shouldn't use shield block and shield wall at the same time. you can shield block for 10 seconds, then shield wall afterwards for 12 more seconds or vice versa. it's generally a better idea to separate the usage of the abilities for obvious reasons (except in extreme situations).
also, you're going to be stance dancing a lot on a warrior at 29. since you have no intercept, there are times when enemies will simply get away from you and it will take a little bit to catch up to them. or there will be times when you're simply taking a little too much damage and it's more efficient to go dstance + shield for a little bit. don't ever be afraid to go defensive + sword and board for even a couple seconds if you're not really putting out any damage and are taking some in return. it's one of your strengths - use it often.
disarm is another defensive tool in your arsenal. it's on a 1m cooldown, and it disarms main hand AND RANGED weapons for 10 seconds. so yes, you can disarm those hunters and they can't shoot you......you can disarm dps that are all over your healers. etc etc. or you can disarm the guy on you when you're taking a bunch of damage.
offensive play
unfortunately, warriors don't have thaaaat much offensive variation at 29. that doesn't mean you don't want to optimize the tools that you have. intimidating shout and shield bash are 2 of your most important offensive weapons. with intim shout's cd reduced to 2 minutes, you can use it quite often. i will usually target the person i'm on when i shout, so it sends everyone else away and i can finish him off. but when a healer is healing, you can try to get near him and target him instead and shout everyone else away to swap to him. it's quite a versatile ability.
shield bash is your other interrupt at 29. make sure to check out my macro guide so you can use it more efficiently. basically, if you're good, you can still interrupt spells on a warrior at 29 even without pummel. the 6 second lockout is pretty nasty.
your only real "dps" offensive ability at 29 is retaliation. it *sort of* shares a cd with shield bash...you have to wait like 20 seconds after using one in order to use the other. retaliation is pretty situational because it requires people to be attacking you in order for it to do anything. you have to be smart about when to use it. i like to use retal as a sort of "counterattack" when you're getting focused. if you've got a couple melee on you and are feeling the pressure, pop retaliation. they're now faced with a choice: continue to try and take you down and let you retal them, or run away until retal runs out. if they run away, you just relieved all the pressure on you. if they stay and fight....well, let's just say i've come out on top in some pretty ridiculous situations when this happens.
other tips and tricks
mocking blow may be useless on other players, but it still works on pets. you can kill hunter pets fairly quickly by unloading an overpower crit + moking blow + whatever white damage + execute. don't forget to put the hurt on hunter pets when you los them and the pet is still on you.
be quick on your shouts. when a rogue vanishes, he should virtually never be able to get another opener on you or anyone else because you should be demo shouting IMMEDIATELY. rogues have absolutely nothing on you at 29.
make sure to always keep people in front of you at 29. you have 5/5 parry, decent dodge (i have like 15%), and when you have a 1h/shield you can block as well. there is just no reason to ever let anyone have your back when you have spamstring. if you're against a backstab rogue, fight him with your back against a wall. that way even with the ridiculous 70% crippling snare, he still won't be able to stab you and will just get torn up.
always be ready to charge as soon as you get out of combat. if a target gets away from you, and after a few seconds you realize you can't catch up, it's oftentimes more beneficial to leave other players alone for the 2-3 extra seconds to get out of combat and then charge.
this is really all i can think of right now.....it's getting late. i'll be back tomorrow/later in order to add some stuff and organize this. thanks for reading and i hope this helps you.
gear/spec
this is my 29 warrior's armory, for anyone who is interested: The World of Warcraft Armory. he could be logged out in any kind of gear, but i generally keep the same set on.
i am human, which is by far the best racial for a 29 warrior because of the 2 minute pvp trinket and the ability to run net AND agm in arenas. however, almost every racial is quite useful for 29 warriors. wotf is great because with no zerker rage, you are actually quite vulnerable to fears at 29. blood fury is great for the added burst. trolls and dwarves...well, terrible. war stomp is amazing for obvious reasons. dranaei has a nice hot. night elf is VERY nice because of the ability to shadowmeld + charge for a ghetto intercept every 2 minutes.
the spec you'll be using at 29 is: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft. i have tested waaaaaay too many specs on 29 warriors....trust me, this is your best bet. important talents include tactical mastery (VERY important), impale, imp overpower, and taste for blood. you will want 1 point in deep wounds because of situations when a rogue will evasion before the rend expires in an attempt to vanish, or when a rogue gets away from you to try to restealth - deep wounds procs off throwing weapon/ranged crits, and this has been clutch for me many times.
glyph of hamstring is the best pvp glyph for warriors at 29, and glyph of charge is the best minor. this glyph allows you to *generally* get a charge off on hunters, even ones with hawk eye.
as far as gear goes, you'll want at least 1700 hp for arenas (and probably anything else). the magic crit % you're shooting for is 20%. crit is very important to warriors because it is the biggest factor in rage generation. while it seems very attractive to stack attack power at 29 due to taste for blood + improved overpower, it is actually very important to get your crit up around 20% for optimal rage generation.
oh, and i run with parachute cloak + pendant of the agate shield in arenas. if you ever do arenas, make sure to use pendant of the agate shield as your neckpiece. and get the boa bow + weapon (i might not have those equipped). my 1h is the dal'rends boa sword with lifestealing, and marbled buckler with 18 stamina. i suggest you do the same (if you're alliance).
playstyle
make sure to also read my thread on warrior macros here: http://twinkinfo.com/forums/20-29-bracket/2371-pummel-29-other-useful-warrior-macros.html.
the "new" warrior playstyle at 29 revolves around taste for blood. taste for blood gives you a guaranteed overpower every 5 seconds on ANY target as long as you have rend ticking on at least 1 target. with improved overpower at 29, you will be able to do very good, reliable damage this way.
targets
as a warrior, you're generally going to stick on physical dps targets. you can train healers decently well, but it's usually more optimal to stay on rogues, hunters, and other warriors to make sure that you can keep them peeled from your healers or other squishy friends. this is because 1. you are generally more durable to physical damage because of mail armor, 2. you can debuff with demo shout and thunderclap to shut down physical dps even more, 3. you have a spammable snare to peel with, 4. you have a lot of defensive cooldowns/flexibility at 29, so you WANT people to focus the damage onto you instead of your teammates.
sunder armor!
one of the most important abilities you have at 29 is sunder armor. sadly, blizzard nerfed sunder armor recently...it used to be absolutely sick at 29. but even now, in battle stance you get 10% free armor penetration and a full stack of sunders will provide 20% more. since you'll be sitting on a target for a while, sunder armor will provide a significant boost to your damage - especially when you have teammates also beating on the same target.
the other reason why sunder armor is so good is because it's an INSTANT ATTACK (hamstring doesn't really count since you can't spam it). warriors have no other instant attacks at 29
. instant attacks are so good because it gives you a high chance to proc crusader since you're using a 3.8 speed weapon. to be honest, i pretty much have the crusader buff up 24/7 when i play on my 29 warrior - and it's because of sunder armor.rage and heroic strike
lots of noobs use heroic strike over and over on their twink warriors. this is just a really bad idea. heroic strike gives a very inefficient damage increase per rage. the only times when you will be using HS are when you're trying to burst someone down, or you just have a TON of extra rage (this will definitely happen). otherwise, 9 times out of 10 you are better off using sunder armor until you have a 5 stack.
defensive play and abilities
one of the reasons why warriors are so great at 29 is because of their defensive ability. not only do you have mail armor, but you can switch to d-stance and sword and board for a very high amount of physical damage mitigation. in addition, warriors can shield block and shield wall, both of which are amazing for keeping you up.
shield block will basically block all incoming physical damage from the front for 10 seconds, INCLUDING RANGED DAMAGE. yes, it's really that good. as long as you keep your enemies in front of you, all of their physical damage will be Blocked. it's like having bop on you, only you can still attack...and it lasts 10 seconds...and you can do it once a minute..... if possible, position yourself against a wall when you shield block so enemies cannot possibly get behind you.
shield wall will reduce damage to you by 60% for 12 seconds every 5 minutes. so when you know that burst is coming and your healer(s) is CC'ed or CS'ed, bust out shield wall and just eat the incoming damage. with d-stance, that's 70% damage reduction (before armor). you won't be taking much damage.
one thing to note is that you usually shouldn't use shield block and shield wall at the same time. you can shield block for 10 seconds, then shield wall afterwards for 12 more seconds or vice versa. it's generally a better idea to separate the usage of the abilities for obvious reasons (except in extreme situations).
also, you're going to be stance dancing a lot on a warrior at 29. since you have no intercept, there are times when enemies will simply get away from you and it will take a little bit to catch up to them. or there will be times when you're simply taking a little too much damage and it's more efficient to go dstance + shield for a little bit. don't ever be afraid to go defensive + sword and board for even a couple seconds if you're not really putting out any damage and are taking some in return. it's one of your strengths - use it often.
disarm is another defensive tool in your arsenal. it's on a 1m cooldown, and it disarms main hand AND RANGED weapons for 10 seconds. so yes, you can disarm those hunters and they can't shoot you......you can disarm dps that are all over your healers. etc etc. or you can disarm the guy on you when you're taking a bunch of damage.
offensive play
unfortunately, warriors don't have thaaaat much offensive variation at 29. that doesn't mean you don't want to optimize the tools that you have. intimidating shout and shield bash are 2 of your most important offensive weapons. with intim shout's cd reduced to 2 minutes, you can use it quite often. i will usually target the person i'm on when i shout, so it sends everyone else away and i can finish him off. but when a healer is healing, you can try to get near him and target him instead and shout everyone else away to swap to him. it's quite a versatile ability.
shield bash is your other interrupt at 29. make sure to check out my macro guide so you can use it more efficiently. basically, if you're good, you can still interrupt spells on a warrior at 29 even without pummel. the 6 second lockout is pretty nasty.
your only real "dps" offensive ability at 29 is retaliation. it *sort of* shares a cd with shield bash...you have to wait like 20 seconds after using one in order to use the other. retaliation is pretty situational because it requires people to be attacking you in order for it to do anything. you have to be smart about when to use it. i like to use retal as a sort of "counterattack" when you're getting focused. if you've got a couple melee on you and are feeling the pressure, pop retaliation. they're now faced with a choice: continue to try and take you down and let you retal them, or run away until retal runs out. if they run away, you just relieved all the pressure on you. if they stay and fight....well, let's just say i've come out on top in some pretty ridiculous situations when this happens.
other tips and tricks
mocking blow may be useless on other players, but it still works on pets. you can kill hunter pets fairly quickly by unloading an overpower crit + moking blow + whatever white damage + execute. don't forget to put the hurt on hunter pets when you los them and the pet is still on you.
be quick on your shouts. when a rogue vanishes, he should virtually never be able to get another opener on you or anyone else because you should be demo shouting IMMEDIATELY. rogues have absolutely nothing on you at 29.
make sure to always keep people in front of you at 29. you have 5/5 parry, decent dodge (i have like 15%), and when you have a 1h/shield you can block as well. there is just no reason to ever let anyone have your back when you have spamstring. if you're against a backstab rogue, fight him with your back against a wall. that way even with the ridiculous 70% crippling snare, he still won't be able to stab you and will just get torn up.
always be ready to charge as soon as you get out of combat. if a target gets away from you, and after a few seconds you realize you can't catch up, it's oftentimes more beneficial to leave other players alone for the 2-3 extra seconds to get out of combat and then charge.
this is really all i can think of right now.....it's getting late. i'll be back tomorrow/later in order to add some stuff and organize this. thanks for reading and i hope this helps you.