Powerglove
OG
39 Warrior guide written by Powerglove - Perenolde for patch 3.2
link to my pvp videos:
1: http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=102895
2: http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=119965
2.5: http://wwwnew.filefront.com/14322563/arenas.wmv/
Updated 3/29/2010
Itemization
As you're gearing up, it's important your gear contains a balance of stats. Luckily, the gear with maximum itemization at this level is pretty balanced, so going with the top gear in every slot will yeild good results.
For 39 warriors, itemization can be split into two parts: offensive and defensive stats. Offensive stats are Attack Power (AP) and Crit. Defensive stats are Stamina and Armor. Every gear selection has a tradeoff of each of these four stats.
Since most of your gear you'll be choosing from has pretty balanced stats, every stat has an equal diminishing effect (less so for Armor than other stats), where the more and more you stack of one, the less and less you can stack of the others. For example, if you are going for the maximum possible AP level on a 39 warrior, you will have to take an item that has 11 Str/3 stam over an item that has 5 str/14 crit/10 stam (these aren't actual values). The latter of these has far superior itemization, but the farther you reach to obtain AP, the more you have to let go of all your other stats.
Aside from diminishing stats on gear, having balanced stats benefits you in other ways.
Your offensive stats, AP and Crit, work like two variables in a multiplication problem. The more you have of one, the more effective the other one is at producing a higher product.
If you have 800 AP and only 10% crit, you will do more damage on non-crits, but your overall damage is being bottlenecked by your lack of crit. Likewise, if you have 400 AP buffed and 40% crit, you will be critting a lot, but probably not for much more than you would be with ordinary attacks with the other setup. If you stack too much AP and Crit together, you will die way too fast.
Your Attack Table
This isn't just for warriors, but I feel that if you play a warrior, it is important to understand how this works.
Every time you swing your weapon, the random number generator chooses whether it's a dodge, miss, crit, parry, etc. This all depends on your stats and your opponent's avoidances.
Here's how this is calculated:
Take your chance to hit and crit. For demonstration purposes, let's say you have 0 hit rating (which means 5% chance to miss with a 2h), and 25% chance to crit. Your target has 0 avoidance.
You have:
5% chance to miss
0% chance to dodge
0% chance to parry
25% chance to crit
70% chance to get an ordinary hit (100%-5%-25%)
The random number generator picks a number from 1 to 100 that decides what happens when you swing. If it rolls 1-5, you miss. If it rolls 6-30, you crit. If it rolls 31+, you get an ordinary hit.
In pvp, your opponents will always have some sort of avoidance, so let's do it again but this time we will use realistic stats.
You are hit capped (still have 1% chance to miss), you have 30% crit chance, and your opponent has 20% dodge and 5% parry.
1% miss
20% dodge
5% parry
30% crit
44% ordinary hit (100%-1%-20%-5%-30%)
RNG picks a number again from 1 to 100. A 1 will mean you miss, 2-21 will be a dodge, 22-26 will be a parry, 27-56 will be a crit, and 57+ will be an ordinary hit.
Due to these mechanics (crit never being affected by avoidances until crit% > ordinary hit%), crit itemization becomes stronger when your opponent has a lot of avoidance or you aren't hit capped UP TO the point where your crit chance = your chance for your swing to land on your target. If a prot warrior stacked avoidance and you only had a 25% chance for your swing to land, but you have 30% crit, 5% of that is being wasted on him. This isn't a common situation though.
In a perfectly ideal situation, you will be hit capped and your opponent will have very little avoidance. In this situation, the more crit you stack, the less and less crit benefits your overall damage. Let's say you are at 25% crit and you stack on 1% more crit to your gear to hit 26%. Going from 25% crit to 26% crit is a 4% increase in the chance you have for your swing to be a crit.
Let's say that now you are up to 30% crit, and you want to stack on another 1% to hit 31% crit. This is now a 3.3% increase in the chance your swings have to crit.
Gear
I've listed the gear in each section from best to worst (top to bottom, respectively). This is just a general overlook of the available items. I didn't rank them, but generally, items I find better are at the top of their slot lists.
In your gear, you'll want to go for the maximum itemization. Itemization is the amount of effective stats an item grants. Max itemization on every item will give you the most of every stat in the long run.
Warriors are one of the more difficult classes to fully gear at 39. If you're going for a perfect twink, having an 80 main is necessary.
2H WEAPON
[item]Bloodied Arcanite Reaper[/item]
[item]Pendulum of Doom[/item]
[item]Reforged Truesilver Champion[/item]
[item]Lumbering Ogre Axe[/item]
[item]Whirlwind Axe[/item]
[item]The Pacifier[/item]
Arms 1H WEAPONS
[item]Shovelphlange's Mining Axe[/item] (if Axe Spec)
[item]Legionnaire's Sword[/item] (if Sword Spec)
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item] (if Mace/Axe spec, or 2h fury) - see post #4
[item]Stonevault Bonebreaker[/item] (if Mace Spec)
Fury 1H WEAPONS
[item]Legionnaire's Sword[/item]
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item]
[item]Vanquisher's Sword[/item]
I haven't done any math yet on whether it would be more effective to use zf mallet in main hand or off hand.
SHIELDS
[item]Aegis of the Scarlet Commander[/item]
[item]The Green Tower[/item]
RANGED
[item]Whirling Steel Axes[/item] crafted
[item]Baelog's Shortbow[/item] only if youre not at 30 hit rating
HEAD
[item]Raging Berserker's Helm[/item]
NECK
[item]Medal of Courage[/item]
[item]Scout's Medallion[/item]
[item]Darkmoon Pendant[/item]
SHOULDER
[item]Polished Spaulders of Valor[/item]
[item]Strengthened Stockade Pauldrons[/item]
[item]Revelosh's Spaulders[/item]
BACK
[item]Scorpashi Cape[/item]
CHEST
[item]Polished Breastplate of Valor[/item]
[item]Blood-tinged Armor[/item] (Horde only)
[item]Robes of the Lich[/item]
[item]Captain's Breastplate[/item]
[item]Gelkis Marauder Chain[/item]
WRIST
[item]Revelosh's Armguards[/item]
[item]Crushridge Bindings[/item]
HANDS
[item]Gloves of Holy Might[/item]
[item]Gauntlets of Divinity[/item]
[item]Revelosh's Gloves[/item]
WAIST
[item]Ogron's Sash[/item]
[item]Boar Champion's Belt[/item]
LEGS
[item]Legguards of the Vault[/item]
[item]Scarlet Leggings[/item]
[item]Firemane Leggings[/item]
FEET
[item]Ironheel Boots[/item] (Alliance only)
[item]Worn Running Boots[/item] (Horde only)
[item]Ancient Greaves[/item]
EDIT: I'm taking [item]Golden Scale Boots[/item] off of this list. Before I understood the way armor pen worked, I thought they were good. The bottom line of arp rating is that unless you can stack a lot of it, it's not good. These boots give you ~2% arp, which would lower a 1550k armor target (about what my warrior has) to 1519 armor, which only reduces damage mitigation from 29.44% to 29.02%. [item]Ironheel Boots[/item] and [item]Worn Running Boots[/item] are way better. Armor penetration is most effective when you have a lot of it because damage mitigation is not linear.
FINGER
EDIT: There's an 'of the Soldier' ring (str/stam/crit rating) you get from the daily random instance reward satchel. This is best in slot along with Aquamarine Signet
[item]Aquamarine Signet[/item] of the bear
[item]Legionnaire's Band[/item]
[item]Truesilver Commander's Ring[/item]
TRINKET
[item]Insignia of the Horde[/item]
[item]Arena Grand Master[/item]
[item]Figurine - Black Pearl Panther[/item] req jc 215
[item]Figurine - Golden Hare[/item] req jc 200
[item]Tidal Charm[/item]
[item]Mark of the Chosen[/item]
Enchants
2H WEAPON
Enchant Weapon - Crusader
Steel Weapon Chain
EDIT: If you are vehemently opposed to taking weapon mastery, put a weapon chain on your 1h and keep crusader on your 2h. Rogues will tear you apart if they can disarm you for 10 seconds. If you do take Weapon Mastery, Crusader is always the best enchant, bar none.
1H WEAPON
Steel Weapon Chain
Enchant Weapon - Crusader
HEAD
Librams were given a lvl 50 requirement in 3.1, so there are no helm enchants.
BACK
Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility
CHEST
Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats
Enchant Chest - Exceptional Health
WRIST
Enchant Bracer - Brawn
Enchant Bracer - Stats
Enchant Bracer - Fortitude
HANDS
Enchant Gloves - Precise Strikes
Enchant Gloves - Blasting
Enchant Gloves - Major Strength
Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility
LEGS
Librams were given a level 50 requirement and leg armors were given a level 60 requirement in 3.1, so there are no leg enchants.
FEET
Enchant Boots - Surefooted
Enchant Boots - Boar's Speed
Enchant Boots - Cat's Swiftness
Enchant Boots - Fortitude
My suggested builds:
Alliance (Human)
[item]Bloodied Arcanite Reaper[/item] Crusader
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item] Weapon Chain, or Crusader if you have 2/2 Weapon Mastery
[item]Aegis of the Scarlet Commander[/item] 18 Stamina
[item]Whirling Steel Axes[/item]
[item]Raging Berserker's Helm[/item]
[item]Medal of Courage[/item]
[item]Polished Spaulders of Valor[/item]
[item]Scorpashi Cape[/item] 12 Agility
[item]Polished Breastplate of Valor[/item] +4 Stats
[item]Revelosh's Armguards[/item] 12 Str
[item]Gloves of Holy Might[/item] 15 Hit
[item]Ogron's Sash[/item]
[item]Legguards of the Vault[/item]
[item]Ironheel Boots[/item] Surefooted or Boar's Speed
[item]Aquamarine Signet[/item]
[item]Legionnaire's Band[/item]
[item]Tidal Charm[/item]
[item]Arena Grand Master[/item]
Horde(Orc)
[item]Bloodied Arcanite Reaper[/item] Crusader
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item] Weapon Chain, or Crusader if you have 2/2 Weapon Mastery
[item]Aegis of the Scarlet Commander[/item] 18 Stamina
[item]Whirling Steel Axes[/item]
[item]Raging Berserker's Helm[/item]
[item]Medal of Courage[/item]
[item]Polished Spaulders of Valor[/item]
[item]Scorpashi Cape[/item] 12 Agility
[item]Polished Breastplate of Valor[/item] +4 Stats
[item]Revelosh's Armguards[/item] 12 Str
[item]Gloves of Holy Might[/item] 15 Hit
[item]Ogron's Sash[/item]
[item]Legguards of the Vault[/item]
[item]Worn Running Boots[/item] Surefooted or Boar's Speed
[item]Aquamarine Signet[/item]
[item]Legionnaire's Band[/item]
[item]Insignia of the Horde[/item]
[item]Arena Grand Master[/item]
Gear sets vary between races. See post #5
link to my pvp videos:
1: http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=102895
2: http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=119965
2.5: http://wwwnew.filefront.com/14322563/arenas.wmv/
Updated 3/29/2010
Itemization
As you're gearing up, it's important your gear contains a balance of stats. Luckily, the gear with maximum itemization at this level is pretty balanced, so going with the top gear in every slot will yeild good results.
For 39 warriors, itemization can be split into two parts: offensive and defensive stats. Offensive stats are Attack Power (AP) and Crit. Defensive stats are Stamina and Armor. Every gear selection has a tradeoff of each of these four stats.
Since most of your gear you'll be choosing from has pretty balanced stats, every stat has an equal diminishing effect (less so for Armor than other stats), where the more and more you stack of one, the less and less you can stack of the others. For example, if you are going for the maximum possible AP level on a 39 warrior, you will have to take an item that has 11 Str/3 stam over an item that has 5 str/14 crit/10 stam (these aren't actual values). The latter of these has far superior itemization, but the farther you reach to obtain AP, the more you have to let go of all your other stats.
Aside from diminishing stats on gear, having balanced stats benefits you in other ways.
Your offensive stats, AP and Crit, work like two variables in a multiplication problem. The more you have of one, the more effective the other one is at producing a higher product.
If you have 800 AP and only 10% crit, you will do more damage on non-crits, but your overall damage is being bottlenecked by your lack of crit. Likewise, if you have 400 AP buffed and 40% crit, you will be critting a lot, but probably not for much more than you would be with ordinary attacks with the other setup. If you stack too much AP and Crit together, you will die way too fast.
Your Attack Table
This isn't just for warriors, but I feel that if you play a warrior, it is important to understand how this works.
Every time you swing your weapon, the random number generator chooses whether it's a dodge, miss, crit, parry, etc. This all depends on your stats and your opponent's avoidances.
Here's how this is calculated:
Take your chance to hit and crit. For demonstration purposes, let's say you have 0 hit rating (which means 5% chance to miss with a 2h), and 25% chance to crit. Your target has 0 avoidance.
You have:
5% chance to miss
0% chance to dodge
0% chance to parry
25% chance to crit
70% chance to get an ordinary hit (100%-5%-25%)
The random number generator picks a number from 1 to 100 that decides what happens when you swing. If it rolls 1-5, you miss. If it rolls 6-30, you crit. If it rolls 31+, you get an ordinary hit.
In pvp, your opponents will always have some sort of avoidance, so let's do it again but this time we will use realistic stats.
You are hit capped (still have 1% chance to miss), you have 30% crit chance, and your opponent has 20% dodge and 5% parry.
1% miss
20% dodge
5% parry
30% crit
44% ordinary hit (100%-1%-20%-5%-30%)
RNG picks a number again from 1 to 100. A 1 will mean you miss, 2-21 will be a dodge, 22-26 will be a parry, 27-56 will be a crit, and 57+ will be an ordinary hit.
Due to these mechanics (crit never being affected by avoidances until crit% > ordinary hit%), crit itemization becomes stronger when your opponent has a lot of avoidance or you aren't hit capped UP TO the point where your crit chance = your chance for your swing to land on your target. If a prot warrior stacked avoidance and you only had a 25% chance for your swing to land, but you have 30% crit, 5% of that is being wasted on him. This isn't a common situation though.
In a perfectly ideal situation, you will be hit capped and your opponent will have very little avoidance. In this situation, the more crit you stack, the less and less crit benefits your overall damage. Let's say you are at 25% crit and you stack on 1% more crit to your gear to hit 26%. Going from 25% crit to 26% crit is a 4% increase in the chance you have for your swing to be a crit.
Let's say that now you are up to 30% crit, and you want to stack on another 1% to hit 31% crit. This is now a 3.3% increase in the chance your swings have to crit.
Gear
I've listed the gear in each section from best to worst (top to bottom, respectively). This is just a general overlook of the available items. I didn't rank them, but generally, items I find better are at the top of their slot lists.
In your gear, you'll want to go for the maximum itemization. Itemization is the amount of effective stats an item grants. Max itemization on every item will give you the most of every stat in the long run.
Warriors are one of the more difficult classes to fully gear at 39. If you're going for a perfect twink, having an 80 main is necessary.
2H WEAPON
[item]Bloodied Arcanite Reaper[/item]
[item]Pendulum of Doom[/item]
[item]Reforged Truesilver Champion[/item]
[item]Lumbering Ogre Axe[/item]
[item]Whirlwind Axe[/item]
[item]The Pacifier[/item]
Arms 1H WEAPONS
[item]Shovelphlange's Mining Axe[/item] (if Axe Spec)
[item]Legionnaire's Sword[/item] (if Sword Spec)
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item] (if Mace/Axe spec, or 2h fury) - see post #4
[item]Stonevault Bonebreaker[/item] (if Mace Spec)
Fury 1H WEAPONS
[item]Legionnaire's Sword[/item]
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item]
[item]Vanquisher's Sword[/item]
I haven't done any math yet on whether it would be more effective to use zf mallet in main hand or off hand.
SHIELDS
[item]Aegis of the Scarlet Commander[/item]
[item]The Green Tower[/item]
RANGED
[item]Whirling Steel Axes[/item] crafted
[item]Baelog's Shortbow[/item] only if youre not at 30 hit rating
HEAD
[item]Raging Berserker's Helm[/item]
NECK
[item]Medal of Courage[/item]
[item]Scout's Medallion[/item]
[item]Darkmoon Pendant[/item]
SHOULDER
[item]Polished Spaulders of Valor[/item]
[item]Strengthened Stockade Pauldrons[/item]
[item]Revelosh's Spaulders[/item]
BACK
[item]Scorpashi Cape[/item]
CHEST
[item]Polished Breastplate of Valor[/item]
[item]Blood-tinged Armor[/item] (Horde only)
[item]Robes of the Lich[/item]
[item]Captain's Breastplate[/item]
[item]Gelkis Marauder Chain[/item]
WRIST
[item]Revelosh's Armguards[/item]
[item]Crushridge Bindings[/item]
HANDS
[item]Gloves of Holy Might[/item]
[item]Gauntlets of Divinity[/item]
[item]Revelosh's Gloves[/item]
WAIST
[item]Ogron's Sash[/item]
[item]Boar Champion's Belt[/item]
LEGS
[item]Legguards of the Vault[/item]
[item]Scarlet Leggings[/item]
[item]Firemane Leggings[/item]
FEET
[item]Ironheel Boots[/item] (Alliance only)
[item]Worn Running Boots[/item] (Horde only)
[item]Ancient Greaves[/item]
EDIT: I'm taking [item]Golden Scale Boots[/item] off of this list. Before I understood the way armor pen worked, I thought they were good. The bottom line of arp rating is that unless you can stack a lot of it, it's not good. These boots give you ~2% arp, which would lower a 1550k armor target (about what my warrior has) to 1519 armor, which only reduces damage mitigation from 29.44% to 29.02%. [item]Ironheel Boots[/item] and [item]Worn Running Boots[/item] are way better. Armor penetration is most effective when you have a lot of it because damage mitigation is not linear.
FINGER
EDIT: There's an 'of the Soldier' ring (str/stam/crit rating) you get from the daily random instance reward satchel. This is best in slot along with Aquamarine Signet
[item]Aquamarine Signet[/item] of the bear
[item]Legionnaire's Band[/item]
[item]Truesilver Commander's Ring[/item]
TRINKET
[item]Insignia of the Horde[/item]
[item]Arena Grand Master[/item]
[item]Figurine - Black Pearl Panther[/item] req jc 215
[item]Figurine - Golden Hare[/item] req jc 200
[item]Tidal Charm[/item]
[item]Mark of the Chosen[/item]
Enchants
2H WEAPON
Enchant Weapon - Crusader
Steel Weapon Chain
EDIT: If you are vehemently opposed to taking weapon mastery, put a weapon chain on your 1h and keep crusader on your 2h. Rogues will tear you apart if they can disarm you for 10 seconds. If you do take Weapon Mastery, Crusader is always the best enchant, bar none.
1H WEAPON
Steel Weapon Chain
Enchant Weapon - Crusader
HEAD
Librams were given a lvl 50 requirement in 3.1, so there are no helm enchants.
BACK
Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility
CHEST
Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats
Enchant Chest - Exceptional Health
WRIST
Enchant Bracer - Brawn
Enchant Bracer - Stats
Enchant Bracer - Fortitude
HANDS
Enchant Gloves - Precise Strikes
Enchant Gloves - Blasting
Enchant Gloves - Major Strength
Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility
LEGS
Librams were given a level 50 requirement and leg armors were given a level 60 requirement in 3.1, so there are no leg enchants.
FEET
Enchant Boots - Surefooted
Enchant Boots - Boar's Speed
Enchant Boots - Cat's Swiftness
Enchant Boots - Fortitude
My suggested builds:
Alliance (Human)
[item]Bloodied Arcanite Reaper[/item] Crusader
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item] Weapon Chain, or Crusader if you have 2/2 Weapon Mastery
[item]Aegis of the Scarlet Commander[/item] 18 Stamina
[item]Whirling Steel Axes[/item]
[item]Raging Berserker's Helm[/item]
[item]Medal of Courage[/item]
[item]Polished Spaulders of Valor[/item]
[item]Scorpashi Cape[/item] 12 Agility
[item]Polished Breastplate of Valor[/item] +4 Stats
[item]Revelosh's Armguards[/item] 12 Str
[item]Gloves of Holy Might[/item] 15 Hit
[item]Ogron's Sash[/item]
[item]Legguards of the Vault[/item]
[item]Ironheel Boots[/item] Surefooted or Boar's Speed
[item]Aquamarine Signet[/item]
[item]Legionnaire's Band[/item]
[item]Tidal Charm[/item]
[item]Arena Grand Master[/item]
Horde(Orc)
[item]Bloodied Arcanite Reaper[/item] Crusader
[item]Mallet of Zul'Farrak[/item] Weapon Chain, or Crusader if you have 2/2 Weapon Mastery
[item]Aegis of the Scarlet Commander[/item] 18 Stamina
[item]Whirling Steel Axes[/item]
[item]Raging Berserker's Helm[/item]
[item]Medal of Courage[/item]
[item]Polished Spaulders of Valor[/item]
[item]Scorpashi Cape[/item] 12 Agility
[item]Polished Breastplate of Valor[/item] +4 Stats
[item]Revelosh's Armguards[/item] 12 Str
[item]Gloves of Holy Might[/item] 15 Hit
[item]Ogron's Sash[/item]
[item]Legguards of the Vault[/item]
[item]Worn Running Boots[/item] Surefooted or Boar's Speed
[item]Aquamarine Signet[/item]
[item]Legionnaire's Band[/item]
[item]Insignia of the Horde[/item]
[item]Arena Grand Master[/item]
Gear sets vary between races. See post #5