So you want to make a warrior
Gear, Leveling, PvE, Talents November 15th, 2007With patch 2.3 players may be deciding to create new characters to take advantage of the improved leveling from 20-60. In my previous post a player asked for some advice on leveling his warrior, and I figure a single post with some of the basics could be a useful resource for other players. I’m not going to get into every little detail. If you’re that desperate go subscribe to one of those guides-for-noobs websites.
Note that you should level your warrior where you have level 70 friends and then transfer him somewhere else if possible. If not you’re going to have a more painful experience getting the instances/gear you want.
WEAPONS
As a warrior, you live or die by your weapon. Luckily there are powerful, easy-to-get weapons placed along your leveling path. You can also use thottbot to track down what weapons you can easily get for each level bracket. Basically though:
Deadmines will give you either [smite's mighty hammer] or [taskmaster axe], which is sufficient until level 30.
At 30 get a higher level character to help you complete the quest for [whirlwind axe]. Which in turn will do you until 40-45.
You can then either buy something cheap on the AH like [blight] or get something out of SM/Uldaman.
If you don’t it’s fine, because at 51 go win a single AV and pick up your [ice barbed spear].
At 58 head to outlands, grab [hellreaver] out of ramparts or [warsong howling axe] out of furnace.
At 65 if you have 4 friends go do ring of blood quests for gold, potions, and the [honed voidaxe].
At 66 get a sethekk halls run and enjoy your [terokk's quill]. 93.3 dps is the standard for blue level 70 weapons, so you’re set with the quill until you craft, pvp, or raid for an epic.
Put crusader enchant on your whirlwind weapon (I think you still can), your ice barbed spear, and possibly your hellreaver/howling axe. Once you’ve got the quill pop savagery on it if you can afford it.
TALENTS
Notice a trend? From level 30-70 the easy to obtain weapons are polearms or axes, so you guessed it - use arms with poleaxe spec for leveling. You shouldn’t need a step-by-step talent spec. Start with 5/5 cruelty then go to arms tree. Probably go 3/3 heroic strike, then 2/3 imp rend (I think you basically use these for dps until you have MS anyways so might as well take them over parry early on - mobs don’t hit that hard). 2/2 imp charge, 3 points wherever. Deep wounds 2/2, anger management 1/1, and 1/2 imp overpower. Get impale 2/2 and 2h wep mastery 3/5. Get death wish, then axe spec, then probably swing back down to finish up 2h wep mastery and imp overpower. Finally your time has arrived and you now have the infamous zomg mortal strike upon which this site is based. Get all the good arms talents - 2nd wind, blood frenzy, imp MS, and even Endless rage before heading back to fury. Be sure to grab blood craze when you can, it’s helpful for soloing. By the time you’re 61 you may want to respect to 31 arms 21 fury, and then work your way back through the arms tree as you level to 70.
STATS/ARMOR
For armor and jewelry, again check thottbot for blue items around your level and chase down any easy-to-get quest rewards. You might want to hit up some pvp early on and get enough rep for the trinkets/rings in your 20’s since you won’t see many of either until later on. Stat wise focus on strength/AP followed by crit and stamina. Don’t place too much importance on agility, pound for pound crit and strength are much more potent for your warrior. For the most part green armor is sufficient for leveling, and you do not need enchants on it. Buy cheap armor kits or something if you want to put things on your gear. As a rule only enchant armor you know you’ll be using for a long time, otherwise it’s a waste of gold.
The pvp gear rewards are some of the best warrior items along the path from 1-60, so if you like pvp at all (I assume you do since you rolled a warrior) do it along the way and spend the points for important pieces of equipment that you can’t easily or quickly replace through pve.
The rest is just details.
Veritas
November 16th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Pretty much agree that all you need to care about is a good weapon for making your warrior fly through the levels.
If you asked me though, I’d say DW is more fun than 2H, but I guess in the end it’s just a matter of taste. I’m pretty sure as you progress you’ll have time to try both styles. Be sure to pick up the [Wing Blade] from Wailing Caverns if you’re horde. Whirlwind Axe is a must at 30, and when you reach about ~40 I’d say go for the classic [Sword of Omen] + [Vanquisher's Sword] combo. I also enjoyed [Julie's Dagger] + [Thrash Blade] a lot when I leveled my last warrior, but really, the [Ice Barbed Spear] is just imba for level 51.
A good way to increase levling rate is kill everything in your way by always walking backwards towards your questing grounds. This trick is superb for your warrior as it only really works for melee classes. Good luck.
November 16th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
There are 2 reasons I advise against dual wielding:
1. It’s easier to find 1 good 2-h weapon than 2 good 1-h weapons, especially if you’ve got a weapon spec and need your weapons to be a certain type.
2. There is no +hit on early level gear, so you will miss more and more with your off-hander as you level.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
thanks for the huge tip but i dont think i need a stupid 30 dollar guide noob book LOL i just was currios about arms or fury so its all good ty