Chops
Soccer Dad
The discussion here will revolve around F2P warriors and as such may address some specific concerns around gearing that do not exist for Vet toons with access to an AH/mail box/trading. Otherwise, Vet players may still find this guide useful. Maybe not. Whatever.
Race Selection:
Any race in the game can play warrior and most of them have a valid reason to consider playing them. I'll attempt to give a comprehensive run down of them here. As F2P, we do not have access to allied races so I won't be covering those.
Human - You get a 2% bonus to secondary stats. Not really enough to matter, but sure. It's there. the big deal here is Will To Survive, which clears stuns on a 3 minute Cooldown. This allows to run 2 trinkets if you're willing to eat full duration fears. Shame about how boring a choice it is. Just order your caramel frappucino already, janice.
Dwarf - You get 2% bigger crits and Stoneform. The bigger crits are... ok? I guess? but Stoneform is lowkey one of the best racials in the game. Clear all poisons, diseases, curses, magic and bleeds and reduce incoming damage by 10% for 8 seconds. I meme'd for a long time about this being the best racial for years, but with increased availability of curses, dots and roots in the bracket with SL, this is a very very strong racial. As a bonus, you're a dwarf which makes you cooler than anyone who is not a dwarf.
Night Elf - Real hipster choice for warrior but a really good one. Quickness gives you a 2% chance to dodge attacks and 2% increased move speed. You get either 1% haste or 1% crit depending on time of day which... shrug. But Shadowmeld? Now we're talking. It's an instant stealth that can be used in combat. Its not real useable as an actual stealth (you cant move) but it forces people targeting you to drop target. Which can work as a powerful interrupt on things like Chaos Bolt, Aimed Shot, etc. Whats better is if you Shadowmeld in the time between the end of the cast and the ability hitting, it'll still trigger the CD or the ability charge, wasting that ability. Very, very strong. Especially for arena play.
Gnome - Expansive mind gives you 105 rage cap instead of 100, and you get a native 1% extra haste. Big deal, who care. But Gnomes party trick is Escape Artist. This clears all snares and roots on a 1 minute CD and does not trigger your trinket CD, meaning you can clear, say, a frost nova and then trinket a fear back-to-back. Or trinket a hunters trap and then Escape Artist the conc shot. Incredible CC clear, to be sure.
Draenei - Over a decade after TBC and I still have to look up how to spell this shit. Heroic Presence gives you some bonus Strength but not enough to cream your panties over and Gift of the Naaru will heal 20% of your health over 5 seconds which is... not bad? Whatever. Dont play Draenei. Unless you just wanna earn some gold /dancing in Goldshire.
Worgen - You get a cool sprint on a 2 minute CD. Darkflight gives a 40% movement speed increase for 10 seconds. Strong gap closer I suppose, until you get trapped/stunned/feared for the duration. But hey, if they're dumb as hell you'll get some use out of this. Dont play Worgen. No, not even for the 1% bonus crit chance.
Dwarf - You get 2% bigger crits and Stoneform. The bigger crits are... ok? I guess? but Stoneform is lowkey one of the best racials in the game. Clear all poisons, diseases, curses, magic and bleeds and reduce incoming damage by 10% for 8 seconds. I meme'd for a long time about this being the best racial for years, but with increased availability of curses, dots and roots in the bracket with SL, this is a very very strong racial. As a bonus, you're a dwarf which makes you cooler than anyone who is not a dwarf.
Night Elf - Real hipster choice for warrior but a really good one. Quickness gives you a 2% chance to dodge attacks and 2% increased move speed. You get either 1% haste or 1% crit depending on time of day which... shrug. But Shadowmeld? Now we're talking. It's an instant stealth that can be used in combat. Its not real useable as an actual stealth (you cant move) but it forces people targeting you to drop target. Which can work as a powerful interrupt on things like Chaos Bolt, Aimed Shot, etc. Whats better is if you Shadowmeld in the time between the end of the cast and the ability hitting, it'll still trigger the CD or the ability charge, wasting that ability. Very, very strong. Especially for arena play.
Gnome - Expansive mind gives you 105 rage cap instead of 100, and you get a native 1% extra haste. Big deal, who care. But Gnomes party trick is Escape Artist. This clears all snares and roots on a 1 minute CD and does not trigger your trinket CD, meaning you can clear, say, a frost nova and then trinket a fear back-to-back. Or trinket a hunters trap and then Escape Artist the conc shot. Incredible CC clear, to be sure.
Draenei - Over a decade after TBC and I still have to look up how to spell this shit. Heroic Presence gives you some bonus Strength but not enough to cream your panties over and Gift of the Naaru will heal 20% of your health over 5 seconds which is... not bad? Whatever. Dont play Draenei. Unless you just wanna earn some gold /dancing in Goldshire.
Worgen - You get a cool sprint on a 2 minute CD. Darkflight gives a 40% movement speed increase for 10 seconds. Strong gap closer I suppose, until you get trapped/stunned/feared for the duration. But hey, if they're dumb as hell you'll get some use out of this. Dont play Worgen. No, not even for the 1% bonus crit chance.
Orc - Blood Fury isnt what it used to be but I suppose a few extra Attack Power every two minutes doesnt hurt. The banger for orcs is Hardiness, which reduces stun duration by an additional 20%. This is pretty excellent, especially because there are a lot of stuns in the bracket these days. Def worth considering. Plus, sick mohawk and sideburns look.
Undead - You get Touch of the Grave, a neat lifesteal mechanic thats not... bad? I guess its better than nothing. But the activatable for undead is Will Of The Forsaken, which clears all charm, sleep and fear effects on a 2 minute CD. Unfortunately, unlike its Gnome counterpart, it does trigger a 30 second CD on trinket. But still, not terrible!
Tauren - Incredibly strong choice for warriors! You get 2% increased crit strike damage, just like a dwarf. Plus you get a flat increase to stamina, which never hurts. But you also get Warstomp. Sure, its a cast time stun, but its a quick cast and its an AOE stun with a surprising range. Probably one of the best CC tools in the bracket and its only a 90 second CD. On top of that, you're big and scary and cool looking. Who doesnt wanna be a big ass cow with an axe?
Troll - Another hipster choice thats actually better than folks think. You get a 10% haste increase for 12 seconds on a 3 minute CD. Which is bad enough that haste still isnt good in this bracket. But you also get 20% reduction on all movement impairing effects which is actually quite good. Plus the increased health regeneration doesnt suck if you're a dummy and forget to bring food into a BG.
Blood Elf - What are you doing? Stop.
Goblin - Get 1% more haste lol but really, you get Rocket Jump which is a solid engage/disengage tool on a 90 second CD. Super nice in a bracket where some of your biggest threats also have a handful of disengage tools. Oh, and cool bone-nose-piercing looks and you can skip the torturous starting zone via exiles reach so win/win
Undead - You get Touch of the Grave, a neat lifesteal mechanic thats not... bad? I guess its better than nothing. But the activatable for undead is Will Of The Forsaken, which clears all charm, sleep and fear effects on a 2 minute CD. Unfortunately, unlike its Gnome counterpart, it does trigger a 30 second CD on trinket. But still, not terrible!
Tauren - Incredibly strong choice for warriors! You get 2% increased crit strike damage, just like a dwarf. Plus you get a flat increase to stamina, which never hurts. But you also get Warstomp. Sure, its a cast time stun, but its a quick cast and its an AOE stun with a surprising range. Probably one of the best CC tools in the bracket and its only a 90 second CD. On top of that, you're big and scary and cool looking. Who doesnt wanna be a big ass cow with an axe?
Troll - Another hipster choice thats actually better than folks think. You get a 10% haste increase for 12 seconds on a 3 minute CD. Which is bad enough that haste still isnt good in this bracket. But you also get 20% reduction on all movement impairing effects which is actually quite good. Plus the increased health regeneration doesnt suck if you're a dummy and forget to bring food into a BG.
Blood Elf - What are you doing? Stop.
Goblin - Get 1% more haste lol but really, you get Rocket Jump which is a solid engage/disengage tool on a 90 second CD. Super nice in a bracket where some of your biggest threats also have a handful of disengage tools. Oh, and cool bone-nose-piercing looks and you can skip the torturous starting zone via exiles reach so win/win
Pandaren - Underrated champ. You get double food buff, which is insane for those 10% stam buff foods. Plus you also Quaking Palm, which will sleep someone for 4 seconds and works as a blanket interrupt. Makes you a real nuisance to healers. Pretty sure the only reason most people don't play Panda is accusations of furry-ness. Which... fair.
Specs:
Warrior has 3 specs: Arms, Fury and Protection. Each one is intended to deliver a different gameplay experience. To paraphrase Blizzards own explanation, Arms is the precision oriented, highly trained professional soldier type. Probably has a name for their weapon. Fury is the bloodthirsty, raging berserker that shows up to the fight with 2 giant weapons and no pants, probably drunk. Protection is the traditional sword and shield, RPG style tank. Definitely drunk.
Because each spec comes with its own selection of talents and pvp talents, we'll cover each individually and in depth below.
You get Colossus Smash and Mortal Strike. This combination bullies almost anyone and you can singlehandedly swing a fight by hitting the right person at the right time and forcing healers to either swap to your target or, more likely, save themselves because you're punching through their defenses.
Your three talent choices are as follows:
War Machine - Auto attack generates 10% more rage and kills generate 10 rage and increase movement speed by 30% for 8 seconds. A solid choice, especially in pugs, as it allows for very quick steamrolling of the other team. Your choice here is deciding if the move speed helps in a bracket full of slows and stuns.
Sudden Death - Attacks have a chance to trigger a free execute useable on any target. This can be devastating if it procs at the right time. Or it can never proc and leave you hanging at critical moments. It also doesnt offer any rage generation, which can be maddening in certain scenarios. Still, its hard to argue with random, free Executes.
Skullsplitter - Instant, extra ability that deals some damage (not much) but more importantly generates 20 rage. This is an on-demand rage boost and can be used to do everything from give you an instant Ignore Pain, to boost Execute damage, to help sustain damage on a split target.
The Chops Pick - I like Skullsplitter as a rage generator, an extra button to smooth out the rotation and a little more consistent damage. It really is a great choice for keeping Ignore Pain up almost constantly. But with the recent buff to Execute damage, you really need to run Sudden Death. It's just an immense amount of damage that, while proc reliant, is entirely free. Being able to put 2k damage into an opponent without spending rage is too good to not take.
Available PVP Talents are as follows:
Shadow of the Colossus - Increase rage gained by charge by 15 and resets your Overpower cooldown. Yea, not great, Bob. Maybe this talent makes sense at higher levels? But this is a real poor choice at 20
War Banner - Drop a banner than increases your teams movement speed by 30% and reduces the duration of incoming CC by 50%. Last 15 seconds on a 1.5 minute CD. Incredible engage/disengage tool in team fights, especially if you have a decent melee comp.
Sharpen Blade - Makes your next Mortal Strike deal 15% more damage and reduce healing taken by the target by 50% for 6 seconds. 25 second cooldown. A devastating choice if your warrior plays offensively. Dropping a Sharpen Blade on a kill target like an EFC or healer will swing a fight.
Death Sentence - Gives Execute a 15 yard range and causes you to charge at the target. This is an extremely niche PVP talent that gives you a bit of mobility but the "charge" is slower than you want it to be. Feel like this one requires you to also run Sudden Death to be useful.
Disarm - Disarms a weapon *and* shield from your target for 6 seconds on a 45 second cooldown. Very useful talent both offensive and defensive. Disarming a weapon has its obvious uses, but removing shields can be devastating to HPals and Rshaman, or any shield class working as an FC. It can also prevent self healing from classes like DH and DKs, or be used preemptively on a hunters disengage so they dip out but cant do damage.
Chops Pick - I run Sharpen Blade as a default, but think it's worth swapping between that and Disarm, depending on compositions and roles (as well as personal playstyle). Sharpen is incredible in mid clashes, especially when you're able to keep significant uptime on the other team and your team has a good target caller. Or if you just want to ruin a healers day. Disarm is disgustingly effective against other melee, esp other warriors.
Your three talent choices are as follows:
War Machine - Auto attack generates 10% more rage and kills generate 10 rage and increase movement speed by 30% for 8 seconds. A solid choice, especially in pugs, as it allows for very quick steamrolling of the other team. Your choice here is deciding if the move speed helps in a bracket full of slows and stuns.
Sudden Death - Attacks have a chance to trigger a free execute useable on any target. This can be devastating if it procs at the right time. Or it can never proc and leave you hanging at critical moments. It also doesnt offer any rage generation, which can be maddening in certain scenarios. Still, its hard to argue with random, free Executes.
Skullsplitter - Instant, extra ability that deals some damage (not much) but more importantly generates 20 rage. This is an on-demand rage boost and can be used to do everything from give you an instant Ignore Pain, to boost Execute damage, to help sustain damage on a split target.
The Chops Pick - I like Skullsplitter as a rage generator, an extra button to smooth out the rotation and a little more consistent damage. It really is a great choice for keeping Ignore Pain up almost constantly. But with the recent buff to Execute damage, you really need to run Sudden Death. It's just an immense amount of damage that, while proc reliant, is entirely free. Being able to put 2k damage into an opponent without spending rage is too good to not take.
Available PVP Talents are as follows:
Shadow of the Colossus - Increase rage gained by charge by 15 and resets your Overpower cooldown. Yea, not great, Bob. Maybe this talent makes sense at higher levels? But this is a real poor choice at 20
War Banner - Drop a banner than increases your teams movement speed by 30% and reduces the duration of incoming CC by 50%. Last 15 seconds on a 1.5 minute CD. Incredible engage/disengage tool in team fights, especially if you have a decent melee comp.
Sharpen Blade - Makes your next Mortal Strike deal 15% more damage and reduce healing taken by the target by 50% for 6 seconds. 25 second cooldown. A devastating choice if your warrior plays offensively. Dropping a Sharpen Blade on a kill target like an EFC or healer will swing a fight.
Death Sentence - Gives Execute a 15 yard range and causes you to charge at the target. This is an extremely niche PVP talent that gives you a bit of mobility but the "charge" is slower than you want it to be. Feel like this one requires you to also run Sudden Death to be useful.
Disarm - Disarms a weapon *and* shield from your target for 6 seconds on a 45 second cooldown. Very useful talent both offensive and defensive. Disarming a weapon has its obvious uses, but removing shields can be devastating to HPals and Rshaman, or any shield class working as an FC. It can also prevent self healing from classes like DH and DKs, or be used preemptively on a hunters disengage so they dip out but cant do damage.
Chops Pick - I run Sharpen Blade as a default, but think it's worth swapping between that and Disarm, depending on compositions and roles (as well as personal playstyle). Sharpen is incredible in mid clashes, especially when you're able to keep significant uptime on the other team and your team has a good target caller. Or if you just want to ruin a healers day. Disarm is disgustingly effective against other melee, esp other warriors.
You get to swing 2 two-hand weapons or you get 2 1-handers and 12% more dmg and 5% run speed. You trade the massive, intermittent burst of arms for the relentless, consistent damage output of dual wielding and easy double crusader procs.
Your three talent choices are as follows
War Machine - Auto attacks generate 20% more rage, kills generate 10 rage and you get 30% move speed for 8 seconds. Compare to the 10% rage increase from the arms version. This is a very strong choice for fury warriors.
Sudden Death - Proc an Execute that's useable on any target. This can take your consistent pressure and turn it up to 11. Another strong choice for fury especially because its a hard hitting ability that can be woven into the usual rotation of more modest abilities and provides a good rage boost.
Fresh Meat - Bloodthirst will always enrage you the first time you hit a target and has a 15% better chance to trigger enrage. A lot of furys damage (and damage from mastery) come from enrage. This is an excellent choice to help increase that consistent damage.
Chops Pick - Run Sudden Death. For all the same reasons you'd run it as Arms but it also generates rage for you, which is something that Fury ironically needs a bit of help with at 20.
PVP Talents for Fury are as follows:
Death Sentence - Exactly the same as the Arms version. This gives you executes a 15 yard range and causes you to charge to the target. Good with Sudden Death for increased mobility but given the strength of some of the other talents, probably not your best choice.
Battle Trance - Regen 3% health and 5 rage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds after using Raging Blow twice in a row on the same target. Given the long duration relative to Raging Blow, this is a pretty solid choice to help shore up Furys rage generation. Hampered by not having Rank 2 Raging Blow at this level.
Bloodrage - Gain 40 rage (tooltip typo!) over 4 seconds and clear all roots and snares. A root and snare clear on a 20 second CD is very powerful and the rage bump makes sure that when you reach your target, you've got a Rampage either ready, or very nearly ready. This is a stellar talent.
Enduring Rage - Increased Enrage duration by a 1 second and Raging Blow extended that another 1.5 seconds. Considering mastery only provides benefit when you're enraged, this is a great all around choice.
Death Wish - Increases damage done and damage taken by 5% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times, costs 5% of your health. This can generate a huge damage increase and the self healing provided by both Bloodthirst (3% of your health) and Ignore Pain pretty much negate the health cost. Problem is, the damage taken increase will sink you without an attentive healer/stam stack and the ability is on the GCD, so it has a huge ramp up time and has to be woven in between the rest of your rotation.
Disarm - Remove an enemies weapon and shield for 6 seconds, on a 45 second cooldown. As discussed in the Arms section, this can be incredibly useful both offensively and defensively. However, I'm not convinced it fits well in a fury warriors kit at this level.
Slaughterhouse - This ability got a redesign in 9.1 to give fury warriors a Mortal Strike effect. Complaints about blizzard wrecking class/spec identity to give everything to everyone aside, its a decent redesign. The problem is, each strike of Rampage only gives 5% healing reduction and Rampage only strikes 4 times. You get a 20% healing reduction if you can get a Rampage off, but you wont get a second rampage at this level before the stacks wear off.
Chops Pick - On the rare occasion you'll see me play fury, I'm gonna play Bloodrage. A 20 second root/snare clear is exceptional and when combined with a dwarf or gnome racial, it makes you almost unstoppable. Then there's the increased rage generation to boost Furys damage output and Ignore Pain usage and this is just a great talent to take for any situation.
Your three talent choices are as follows
War Machine - Auto attacks generate 20% more rage, kills generate 10 rage and you get 30% move speed for 8 seconds. Compare to the 10% rage increase from the arms version. This is a very strong choice for fury warriors.
Sudden Death - Proc an Execute that's useable on any target. This can take your consistent pressure and turn it up to 11. Another strong choice for fury especially because its a hard hitting ability that can be woven into the usual rotation of more modest abilities and provides a good rage boost.
Fresh Meat - Bloodthirst will always enrage you the first time you hit a target and has a 15% better chance to trigger enrage. A lot of furys damage (and damage from mastery) come from enrage. This is an excellent choice to help increase that consistent damage.
Chops Pick - Run Sudden Death. For all the same reasons you'd run it as Arms but it also generates rage for you, which is something that Fury ironically needs a bit of help with at 20.
PVP Talents for Fury are as follows:
Death Sentence - Exactly the same as the Arms version. This gives you executes a 15 yard range and causes you to charge to the target. Good with Sudden Death for increased mobility but given the strength of some of the other talents, probably not your best choice.
Battle Trance - Regen 3% health and 5 rage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds after using Raging Blow twice in a row on the same target. Given the long duration relative to Raging Blow, this is a pretty solid choice to help shore up Furys rage generation. Hampered by not having Rank 2 Raging Blow at this level.
Bloodrage - Gain 40 rage (tooltip typo!) over 4 seconds and clear all roots and snares. A root and snare clear on a 20 second CD is very powerful and the rage bump makes sure that when you reach your target, you've got a Rampage either ready, or very nearly ready. This is a stellar talent.
Enduring Rage - Increased Enrage duration by a 1 second and Raging Blow extended that another 1.5 seconds. Considering mastery only provides benefit when you're enraged, this is a great all around choice.
Death Wish - Increases damage done and damage taken by 5% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times, costs 5% of your health. This can generate a huge damage increase and the self healing provided by both Bloodthirst (3% of your health) and Ignore Pain pretty much negate the health cost. Problem is, the damage taken increase will sink you without an attentive healer/stam stack and the ability is on the GCD, so it has a huge ramp up time and has to be woven in between the rest of your rotation.
Disarm - Remove an enemies weapon and shield for 6 seconds, on a 45 second cooldown. As discussed in the Arms section, this can be incredibly useful both offensively and defensively. However, I'm not convinced it fits well in a fury warriors kit at this level.
Slaughterhouse - This ability got a redesign in 9.1 to give fury warriors a Mortal Strike effect. Complaints about blizzard wrecking class/spec identity to give everything to everyone aside, its a decent redesign. The problem is, each strike of Rampage only gives 5% healing reduction and Rampage only strikes 4 times. You get a 20% healing reduction if you can get a Rampage off, but you wont get a second rampage at this level before the stacks wear off.
Chops Pick - On the rare occasion you'll see me play fury, I'm gonna play Bloodrage. A 20 second root/snare clear is exceptional and when combined with a dwarf or gnome racial, it makes you almost unstoppable. Then there's the increased rage generation to boost Furys damage output and Ignore Pain usage and this is just a great talent to take for any situation.
You get Thunderclap and Revenge, increasing AOE output (lol) and a good deal of tankiness against physical attacks, courtesy of your mastery greatly improving block chance and amount. Bad news is, you do shit for damage and tank specs take 50% increased damage in BGs so all that extra stam and tankiness is null.
Prot talent choices are:
War Machine - Auto attacks generate 50% more rage and kills generate 10 rage and trigger 30% move speed for 8 seconds. Insane rage generation and speedy moves. Sure.
Punish - Shield slam does more damage and causes you to take less damage from the person hit with it. This can overlap. This is a talent designed for end game boss fights but can make your Shield Slam damage at least respectable enough to not get laughed at.
Devastator - Make prots rotation even more boring by removing Devastate and replacing it with bonus dmg on your auto swings and giving them a chance to reset Shield Slams CD.
Chops Pick - I dunno man, Prot warrior is such a meme. Probably Punish. The rage generation of War Machine sounds nice but you don't really have anything to dump rage on except hamstring and Shield Slam generation will give you enough for Ignore Pain and Shield Block as you need them. Might as well make Shield Slam punchier.
PVP Talents:
Disarm - Remove someones weapon and shield for 6 seconds, has a 45 second cooldown. Useful for full "Protection" feel and just being a peelbot machine for the back line.
Sword and Board - Increase crit chance of Devastate and Shield Slam by 30% while you're rocking Shield Block. Would be nice if you did damage to begin with lol. Honestly though, good synergy with Punish talent.
Bodyguard - Guard an ally, redirecting 40% of the damage they take to you. When they take physical damage, theres a chance to reset your shield slam. If you couple this with Ignore Pain, it works as a great damage soak but it makes you even squishier. Probably not a great trade off at a level where prot is missing defensives like Demoralizing Shout and Rank 2 Ignore Pain and stam enhancers like Vanguard.
Shield Bash - Hit someone for some damage and reduces their damage by 15% for 8 seconds. Instantly reset if you hit them while they're casting. Good if you're chasing mages I suppose, but honestly pretty weak tea.
Thunderstruck - Thunder Clap roots all targets for 1 second. Considering Thunder Clap has a 6 second CD and an 8 yard radius, this is an incredible CC tool. Especially on CTF maps where you might be kiting the enemy team on roof or on narrow ledges. But that's really its only use other than being annoying elsewhere.
Dragon Charge - Charge forward, dealing damage to enemies in your path and knocking them back. Useful as a meme ability and on any map where you might contact enemies on a ledge. The knock back can also work as an interrupt, but the charge isnt immediate, so you'd need to be pretty close to pull it off.
Oppressor - Replace taunt with an ability that causes the target to take 3% extra damage for every unique player attacking them, up to 15%. Cannot be placed on multiple targets at the same time. Good for pushing a certain kill target but will require swapping back and forth between targets rapidly and the 20 second cooldown could make that tricky
Chops Pick - Dragon Charge. Look, if you're playing Prot, its for the memes. So just go full meme and pick the knockback talent. The 20 second CD means you can get it off pretty frequently and if you gear really tanky, you can probably be a pretty disruptive force in a fight.
Prot talent choices are:
War Machine - Auto attacks generate 50% more rage and kills generate 10 rage and trigger 30% move speed for 8 seconds. Insane rage generation and speedy moves. Sure.
Punish - Shield slam does more damage and causes you to take less damage from the person hit with it. This can overlap. This is a talent designed for end game boss fights but can make your Shield Slam damage at least respectable enough to not get laughed at.
Devastator - Make prots rotation even more boring by removing Devastate and replacing it with bonus dmg on your auto swings and giving them a chance to reset Shield Slams CD.
Chops Pick - I dunno man, Prot warrior is such a meme. Probably Punish. The rage generation of War Machine sounds nice but you don't really have anything to dump rage on except hamstring and Shield Slam generation will give you enough for Ignore Pain and Shield Block as you need them. Might as well make Shield Slam punchier.
PVP Talents:
Disarm - Remove someones weapon and shield for 6 seconds, has a 45 second cooldown. Useful for full "Protection" feel and just being a peelbot machine for the back line.
Sword and Board - Increase crit chance of Devastate and Shield Slam by 30% while you're rocking Shield Block. Would be nice if you did damage to begin with lol. Honestly though, good synergy with Punish talent.
Bodyguard - Guard an ally, redirecting 40% of the damage they take to you. When they take physical damage, theres a chance to reset your shield slam. If you couple this with Ignore Pain, it works as a great damage soak but it makes you even squishier. Probably not a great trade off at a level where prot is missing defensives like Demoralizing Shout and Rank 2 Ignore Pain and stam enhancers like Vanguard.
Shield Bash - Hit someone for some damage and reduces their damage by 15% for 8 seconds. Instantly reset if you hit them while they're casting. Good if you're chasing mages I suppose, but honestly pretty weak tea.
Thunderstruck - Thunder Clap roots all targets for 1 second. Considering Thunder Clap has a 6 second CD and an 8 yard radius, this is an incredible CC tool. Especially on CTF maps where you might be kiting the enemy team on roof or on narrow ledges. But that's really its only use other than being annoying elsewhere.
Dragon Charge - Charge forward, dealing damage to enemies in your path and knocking them back. Useful as a meme ability and on any map where you might contact enemies on a ledge. The knock back can also work as an interrupt, but the charge isnt immediate, so you'd need to be pretty close to pull it off.
Oppressor - Replace taunt with an ability that causes the target to take 3% extra damage for every unique player attacking them, up to 15%. Cannot be placed on multiple targets at the same time. Good for pushing a certain kill target but will require swapping back and forth between targets rapidly and the 20 second cooldown could make that tricky
Chops Pick - Dragon Charge. Look, if you're playing Prot, its for the memes. So just go full meme and pick the knockback talent. The 20 second CD means you can get it off pretty frequently and if you gear really tanky, you can probably be a pretty disruptive force in a fight.
Gearing:
I know, you want a BIS list but bad news buddy! I'm not giving you one. This is mostly because, with the vast amount of gear out there, any BIS list anyone put together would need to be qualified around personal preference and playstyle... making it not really BIS but "what I would consider BIS, your mileage may vary"
So instead, I put together a list of notable gear and a discussion on gearing meta and stat priorities.
Given that we do not have access to Chromie Time, you will either have to boost your twink through TBC/Wrath dungeons with a high level paid account, or group with fellow 20 twinks and manually walk to the dungeons. Either way, your best gear will come from the following sources and I've placed them in the order that I think you should pursue them.
Because of the nature of gear scaling and the availability of dungeon gear from every expansion, gear pieces with sockets are in high demand. The primary stat allocation of socket gear is the same as non-socket gear, so the presence of sockets is pure benefit. This makes TBC and (some) Wrath gear particularly attractive because of the high number of sockets.
The down side here is that because this gear comes from old expansions, the secondary stat allocation can often be a bit... wonky. There's no mastery, for instance, because mastery didn't exist back then. What vers exists on the gear is old "spirit" stat that got converted. Some of it still has dodge and parry which are no longer active stats for DPS specs. Often, secondary stat allocation is quite low relative to non socket pieces. Etc etc etc.
Acquiring a set of TBC and Wrath socket gear will put you in a really good place and should be your gearing priority. I'll cover specific pieces below, but once you've gotten these pieces, you *can* consider yourself done if you want.
Notable pieces:
Helm - Hope Bearer Helm, Doomplate WarHelm (only as 2 piece)
Shoulders - Doomplate Shoulderguards (only as 2 piece), Truth Bearer Shoulderguards
Chest - Breastplate of Righteous Fury
Gloves - Ironblade Gauntlets, Faith Bearers Gauntlets, Doomplate Gauntlets (only as 2 piece)
Belt - Studded Girdle of Virtue
Legs - Greaves of the Martyr, Ornate Leggings of the Venerated
Boots - Shattari Wrought Greaves, Sabatons of Erekem
The down side here is that because this gear comes from old expansions, the secondary stat allocation can often be a bit... wonky. There's no mastery, for instance, because mastery didn't exist back then. What vers exists on the gear is old "spirit" stat that got converted. Some of it still has dodge and parry which are no longer active stats for DPS specs. Often, secondary stat allocation is quite low relative to non socket pieces. Etc etc etc.
Acquiring a set of TBC and Wrath socket gear will put you in a really good place and should be your gearing priority. I'll cover specific pieces below, but once you've gotten these pieces, you *can* consider yourself done if you want.
Notable pieces:
Helm - Hope Bearer Helm, Doomplate WarHelm (only as 2 piece)
Shoulders - Doomplate Shoulderguards (only as 2 piece), Truth Bearer Shoulderguards
Chest - Breastplate of Righteous Fury
Gloves - Ironblade Gauntlets, Faith Bearers Gauntlets, Doomplate Gauntlets (only as 2 piece)
Belt - Studded Girdle of Virtue
Legs - Greaves of the Martyr, Ornate Leggings of the Venerated
Boots - Shattari Wrought Greaves, Sabatons of Erekem
Arms - Your best bet here is a triple socket dungeon drop from TBC dungeons and the king of those is the Crow Wing Reaper. Gem it with three +3 strength gems for a damage set, gem another with three 2str/2stam for a tankier option.
Fury - You'll want to go Single Minded Fury and use the Cudgel of Naralex in the MH. Off hand options exist, though Blackout Truncheon with its haste proc and sockets is gonna be the strongest contender. The slow weapon speed and higher dmg profile of Cudgel means reliable Crusader procs and really punchy ability damage. This combo even beats out using two Crow Wing Reapers.
Prot - Cudgel of Naralex and a socket proc'd Disc Of Indomitable Will.
"But Chops, what about all these other weapons people are talking about?"
Alright, fine. Lets run those down, even though I'm not positive some of them still drop (we are approaching confirmed "they dont drop" status), because otherwise people in the comments are gonna whine about it.
Destiny - "Run dual Destiny, brah!" has been the motto of dorks and nerds since Titans Grip became a thing. And its good! But I'm almost 100% convinced that a F2P can't farm these for sure and probably noone can. Much less two. Just go ahead and pretend these don't exist.
Runeblade of Baron Rivendare - This is actually a compelling choice for a fury warriors used alongside the Crow Wing Reaper. You get a small move speed bonus and a chunk of vers. Bonus, the +speed works in arena.
Dazzling Longsword - If you like the idea of a more proc oriented build, the armor reduction from this sword is actually remarkable. That said, this is one of those "not sure it actually drops anymore" weapons. And upon testing with my GF(?) one, it appears that it doesn't proc in instanced pvp.
Fury - You'll want to go Single Minded Fury and use the Cudgel of Naralex in the MH. Off hand options exist, though Blackout Truncheon with its haste proc and sockets is gonna be the strongest contender. The slow weapon speed and higher dmg profile of Cudgel means reliable Crusader procs and really punchy ability damage. This combo even beats out using two Crow Wing Reapers.
Prot - Cudgel of Naralex and a socket proc'd Disc Of Indomitable Will.
"But Chops, what about all these other weapons people are talking about?"
Alright, fine. Lets run those down, even though I'm not positive some of them still drop (we are approaching confirmed "they dont drop" status), because otherwise people in the comments are gonna whine about it.
Destiny - "Run dual Destiny, brah!" has been the motto of dorks and nerds since Titans Grip became a thing. And its good! But I'm almost 100% convinced that a F2P can't farm these for sure and probably noone can. Much less two. Just go ahead and pretend these don't exist.
Runeblade of Baron Rivendare - This is actually a compelling choice for a fury warriors used alongside the Crow Wing Reaper. You get a small move speed bonus and a chunk of vers. Bonus, the +speed works in arena.
Dazzling Longsword - If you like the idea of a more proc oriented build, the armor reduction from this sword is actually remarkable. That said, this is one of those "not sure it actually drops anymore" weapons. And upon testing with my GF(?) one, it appears that it doesn't proc in instanced pvp.
Your "BIS" rings, necklace, cloak and trinkets can come from a variety of sources but mainly, they will be dungeon drops. Especially Legion dungeon drops. The variety of rings, necks and cloaks here is too wide to really cover and many have the same stats (or very close), just under different names.
But you can use the in-game Adventure Guide to scope out all the various rings, necks and cloaks available to you and make informed decisions based on your specs stat priority and your current gear.
Notable Items and some random good items too so people won't complain about "just tell me what pieces to get!":
Necklace: Armsmasters Sealed Locket, Brysngamen, Torc of HelHeim, Chaos-Forged Necklace
Cloaks: Parrotfeather Cloak (socket/tert)
Rings: Seal of the Regal Loa (socket/tert), Electrocutioner Lagnut, Braided Silver Ring, Ring of Contempt
But you can use the in-game Adventure Guide to scope out all the various rings, necks and cloaks available to you and make informed decisions based on your specs stat priority and your current gear.
Notable Items and some random good items too so people won't complain about "just tell me what pieces to get!":
Necklace: Armsmasters Sealed Locket, Brysngamen, Torc of HelHeim, Chaos-Forged Necklace
Cloaks: Parrotfeather Cloak (socket/tert)
Rings: Seal of the Regal Loa (socket/tert), Electrocutioner Lagnut, Braided Silver Ring, Ring of Contempt
Trinkets are a whole other matter. There's an almost unfathomable number of trinkets from various quests, dungeons and world drops that you can use. I will note some of the more popular choices below but its generally considered best practice to acquire a wide selection of trinkets and swap them out as necessary given the situation.
I will note here that trinket tooltips are full of shit. The proc value for many of them do not relate to the actual value given in instanced pvp. So if you dont see your favorite trinket listed here, chances are its because the tooltip looks way better than it actually is.
Dungeons: Hunger of the Pack, Ember of Nullification, Orb of Torment
Quests/World Loot: Armored Elekk Tusk, Pit Fighter
Engineering: Ghost Iron Dragonling
World Drop: Daelo's Final Words
I will note here that trinket tooltips are full of shit. The proc value for many of them do not relate to the actual value given in instanced pvp. So if you dont see your favorite trinket listed here, chances are its because the tooltip looks way better than it actually is.
Dungeons: Hunger of the Pack, Ember of Nullification, Orb of Torment
Quests/World Loot: Armored Elekk Tusk, Pit Fighter
Engineering: Ghost Iron Dragonling
World Drop: Daelo's Final Words
You may browse the armory thread or see other F2P characters with ilvl 28 gear. I regret to inform you that this gear is GF'd. When blizzard changed the zone levels of Drustvar and Nazmir in 9.1.5, it removed our ability to acquire ilvl 28 greens with socket/tert procs.
Its is *technically* possible to still get ilvl 28 socket gear by farming Legion zones and hoping for epics to drop with a socket proc. But this is nightmarish. I, personally, have hundreds of thousands of kills in Legion zones and have seen dozens of epics drops. Only 1 with a socket proc.
So while getting ilvl 28 socket gear is still technically possible, just go ahead and pretend it's not until you've just run out of other things to do.
Its is *technically* possible to still get ilvl 28 socket gear by farming Legion zones and hoping for epics to drop with a socket proc. But this is nightmarish. I, personally, have hundreds of thousands of kills in Legion zones and have seen dozens of epics drops. Only 1 with a socket proc.
So while getting ilvl 28 socket gear is still technically possible, just go ahead and pretend it's not until you've just run out of other things to do.
Your gear set will mostly be some combination of gear from the above sources. I'm not going to make specific recommendations beyond the following stat priorities. This is because as you acquire ilvl 28 pieces, you'll want to use those and shift your rings/neck/cloak around to maintain whatever secondary stat balance you prefer.
For the record, I run a pretty nice split on my arms warrior between crit/mastery/vers, sitting at roughly 30% Crit, 23% Mastery and 20% Versatility, which works out to a nice, even 25% Crit, 20% Mastery and 15% Versatility in instanced PVP. So these priorities are obviously flexible based on what you prefer.
Arms: Strength > Crit > Vers >= Mastery > Haste
Fury: Strength > Haste > Vers > Mastery > Crit
Prot: lol stop, yall are fuckin weird
Arms: Arms big advantage comes from punching through tough targets during Colossus Smash windows. You might think to yourself "but then Chops, surely that means mastery is best because it increases damage on deep wounds targets!" and you'd be right. I like Mastery. But Crit is superior for these narrow windows. Likely, however, you're looking at the preference for vers and scratching your head.
Melee class fundamentals haven't changed in SL. You're still going to spend a lot of time getting to your target, then getting CC'd while your target opens a gap, and then having to reclose that gap. Wash, rinse, repeat.
So that value of vers is that added tankiness to help you get uptime on your target.
Fury: Fury relies on maintaining Crusader procs and getting abilities off quick with a lower GCD to keep Enrage up as much as possible. Hence the focus on Haste. Mastery rates lower than vers because its damage boost only applies while enraged and enrage is unpredictable and takes a concerted pairing of talent/pvp talent to make its duration long enough to really punch. Shame about Rank 2 Raging Blow and Enrage requiring level 28 and 27 respectively.
As haste increases and enrage becomes more reliable, mastery will increase in value, however it takes a grip of haste to start seeing results and given our limited up-time on targets we don't get to take advantage of reduced CDs as much as we'd like. So it might take quite a bit to start prioritizing mastery over vers.
You'll get plenty of crit just as a byproduct of using TBC gear, so dont worry about that.
Prot: Its a meme spec and Im not gonna spend too much time thinking about it but Strength > Vers > Haste maybe? Whatever.
Melee class fundamentals haven't changed in SL. You're still going to spend a lot of time getting to your target, then getting CC'd while your target opens a gap, and then having to reclose that gap. Wash, rinse, repeat.
So that value of vers is that added tankiness to help you get uptime on your target.
Fury: Fury relies on maintaining Crusader procs and getting abilities off quick with a lower GCD to keep Enrage up as much as possible. Hence the focus on Haste. Mastery rates lower than vers because its damage boost only applies while enraged and enrage is unpredictable and takes a concerted pairing of talent/pvp talent to make its duration long enough to really punch. Shame about Rank 2 Raging Blow and Enrage requiring level 28 and 27 respectively.
As haste increases and enrage becomes more reliable, mastery will increase in value, however it takes a grip of haste to start seeing results and given our limited up-time on targets we don't get to take advantage of reduced CDs as much as we'd like. So it might take quite a bit to start prioritizing mastery over vers.
You'll get plenty of crit just as a byproduct of using TBC gear, so dont worry about that.
Prot: Its a meme spec and Im not gonna spend too much time thinking about it but Strength > Vers > Haste maybe? Whatever.
Enchants and Gems:
Acquiring enchants and gems is a long, detailed profession grind and beyond the scope of this guide. There are, however, many useful guides out there that cover this aspect of F2P playing.
Getting the most out of your gems involves first hitting a health level that allows you to survive a simple CC chain, then putting the rest into damage output. This is the intelligent approach. Yours truly prefers a bit more of a mongo approach. I stack full str/stam gems and let Crusader do the carrying for damage. However, while this approach certainly lends itself to being a tanky nuisance, it can have its downsides in terms of missing something in the neighborhood of 15-20 strength. That said, warriors are pretty punchy anyway and you are going to take a ton of damage. So error on the side of stam.
Generally speaking, the consensus is that you should pack your gem slots with 2str/2stam gems and maybe use a few (6-9) +3 str gems here and there to punch up the damage a bit.
Important Note Regarding Crafting Gems
Profession leveling is beyond the scope of this guide but this is worth noting. F2P will need to transmute their epic gems using Wrath Alchemy. The transmute recipe for the red epic gem that F2P have access to (Crimson Ruby) is gated behind a quest given by the alchemy trainer. This quest is bugged and will likely not appear. I had to open a ticket to get the quest added to my log. It also requires that you transmute 5 epic gems to complete, so have those mats but also note that this requires 75 alchemy skill. So if you looked on wowhead and saw that transmuting Crimson Ruby only requires 65, know that you'll still need to level to 75.
As for enchants, I recommend the following (numbers in parenthesis are in BG values)
Neck - Mark of Hidden Satyr
Cloak - Minor Power (+6 primary stat)
Chest - Super, Peerless, Exceptional or Glorious Stats. whichever you get to first (+4 all stats)
Bracers - Major Stamina (+5 stam), Superior Strength (+5 Strength)
Gloves - Super Strength, Mighty Strength or Crusher (+6 str/AP)
Legs - Draconic Leg Enforcements (+4 Str/+2 Crit)
Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality (+4 stam and speed)
Rings - Binding of Versatility (+2 vers)
Weapon - Crusader
Shield - Vitality (+4 stam/+4 vers)
General Play Tips:
Look, Im not the best warrior in the bracket. That's probably Oldspike or FatBob. But I've picked up a few things over the years, so here's some tips in no particular order. Take them or leave them as you see fit.
1 - Whenever possible, don't engage with charge. So many classes have ways to open up gaps that if you engage with charge, you'll just end up getting kited for days. Save charge for when you really need it.
2 - With Ignore Pain and plate armor, you're an inherently tanky class. Trust your healers and get in the front line. You cant really afford to play timid on a warrior or you'll get poked to death by ranged classes.
3 - Believe it or not, you have to be choosy about where you dump your damage. Any twink healer is gonna survive your burst if you mash that burst when theyre at 100%. Now, if you need to do that to scare them enough to get them to retreat, ok. But its more useful to coordinate your burst or hold it till you catch someone at like 60%.
4 - Don't be afraid to swap to sword and board, especially if you're arms. You can keep up enough rage to maintain Ignore Pain and be a hamstring bot until your burst comes back around. Especially if you're in a messy team fight. Fury is a little gimped in Sword/board configuration though. Choose wisely.
5 - If you're pummeling a healer, wait till they (or their target) are below 50-60%. Much higher and the healer has enough tools to wait out the silence and save themselves/their target and they also have the health to not get punished for fake casting. Wasted Pummel. Not that I've ever learned this tip myself, but ya know. You might.
6 - Don't chase. I'm real bad about this, so this is as much for me as you. If you get engaged on by a ranged class and that ranged class then tries to run, don't chase. If it's possible for you to get to a building or pillar that provides line-of-sight, thats a better option. Even better is getting to your team. Even better still is being aware of where the enemy is so that you dont just randomly get dumped on in mid by 2 hunters and a mage.
7 - Disarm interrupts Aimed Shot.
8 - Make friends. Outside of the obvious "this is an MMO and you should lean into the community aspect of that", there's not another class quite as painful to solo que on as a warrior. But there's no other class more dangerous if they're queing with a healer.
2 - With Ignore Pain and plate armor, you're an inherently tanky class. Trust your healers and get in the front line. You cant really afford to play timid on a warrior or you'll get poked to death by ranged classes.
3 - Believe it or not, you have to be choosy about where you dump your damage. Any twink healer is gonna survive your burst if you mash that burst when theyre at 100%. Now, if you need to do that to scare them enough to get them to retreat, ok. But its more useful to coordinate your burst or hold it till you catch someone at like 60%.
4 - Don't be afraid to swap to sword and board, especially if you're arms. You can keep up enough rage to maintain Ignore Pain and be a hamstring bot until your burst comes back around. Especially if you're in a messy team fight. Fury is a little gimped in Sword/board configuration though. Choose wisely.
5 - If you're pummeling a healer, wait till they (or their target) are below 50-60%. Much higher and the healer has enough tools to wait out the silence and save themselves/their target and they also have the health to not get punished for fake casting. Wasted Pummel. Not that I've ever learned this tip myself, but ya know. You might.
6 - Don't chase. I'm real bad about this, so this is as much for me as you. If you get engaged on by a ranged class and that ranged class then tries to run, don't chase. If it's possible for you to get to a building or pillar that provides line-of-sight, thats a better option. Even better is getting to your team. Even better still is being aware of where the enemy is so that you dont just randomly get dumped on in mid by 2 hunters and a mage.
7 - Disarm interrupts Aimed Shot.
8 - Make friends. Outside of the obvious "this is an MMO and you should lean into the community aspect of that", there's not another class quite as painful to solo que on as a warrior. But there's no other class more dangerous if they're queing with a healer.
