Hey there folks, im new editor of warriorspwn.com
Its not like im extraordinary warrior, skilled player or anything like that. Only reason that i was allowed to write here is that i know Terhix for quite some time, we played various of MMOs together.
Im 3 days older than dirt and i like to bitch all day long. Dont expect me to post to much since im lazy as hell.
So give me warm welcome.

Your master, S.

SandMan

There are three titles coming for every fantasy-mmo fanboy is focused atm, these are the second WoW expansion pack, Warhammer Online and Age of Conan. I’m doing some research about each of them as I’m not really decided what to play in the future. Granted I’ve a pretty clear view on what WAR brings to the table as I’m in beta, and I’m hopefully going to get my opinion about AoC, as I got an invite to the tech test not so long ago (yay!).

Both AoC and WAR attempts to lure PvP to their worlds, both in two different ways, where AoC is heading free-for-all sandbox style PvP, WAR is doing the RvR style of PvP which, while being similar to WoW, has quite a lot of unique mechanics already in place to occupy any PvPer, and that’s the problem WoW can have, as all you can do is:

- World PvP with Halaa and stuff, yeah right, who does that?
- Battlegrounds, sounds like fun, after doing WSG/AB/EotS/AV for 432423th time with people who don’t even care about winning or loosing. They just want to get honor for epix. It’s not really challenging or fun to play and I think it’s safe to say that battlegrounds these days are just grinding spots.
- Arenas, that’s pretty cool, but is it really enough to keep you occupied 24/7? It sure isn’t for me.

The mentioned old honor system kept anyone who wanted to achieve anything occupied for a long LONG time, now it’s different. As WoW is evolving and PvP is changing something needs to be done, and it needs to be done outside arenas and battlegrounds.

Now the perfect ground for that, and I bet that Blizzard does realize that, is the open world pvp. Lake Wintergraps in WotLK can be either a huge step forward, or another ‘SANDLOL!’. I hope that all of the pre TBC and TBC world pvp fail Blizzard has committed is enough for them to learn a lesson. PvP can be so much more, and I guess that anyone who played any korean MMO that has siege wars knows what I’m talking about - no, it’s not about destroying buildings, it’s about the community, drama, politics and all that social aspects.

When talking about that on our guild vent recently some folks said they actually doubt that WoW can make a good siege-war type of game with all the mechanics that are currently in. Well, they are right, but 4 years ago WoW didn’t really appeal to anyone as an e-sport kind of game, and now they got the arena tournament server, that’s a huge step forward. The bad news for us is that ranged classes usually win in large scale open world pvp, but keeping in mind how it worked out for many other games I wouldn’t be so scared.

Another thing that might be a problem is the amount of abilities (both base skills and talents) that players will have access to. Warhammer Devs already said they are planning for 20 clickable abilities per class and no more, and that’s IMO a really good number, I’ve half of my keyboard and 5 mouse buttons bound to something (be it an ability, ‘oh shit’ macro or trinket) in WoW. With each expansion giving more and more buttons to play with the game can become a bit overwhelming to say the least. We will most likely see more skills that are not something totally new, but is rather a replacement for something we already have, like another attack with cooldown shared with MS, another shout that doesn’t stack with BS/CS, another aspect for hunters, another poison for rogues, another armor-spell for warlocks, that kind of stuff. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really thinking about buying myself a G15 to make my gaming experience easier.

Terhix

Warning, HUGE blog.

Name: Get a cool and short name, like Leh or Lemo, so people can armory or remember you easier. Thus, getting some attention and maybe a good healer.

Racials: Gnomes, Orc, Tauren, or reroll. Every little advantage helps… like getting out of the frost nova, resisting the intercept stun, or winning a match with 100 hp.

Hotkeys: You need them. Read previous blogs.

Macros: I personally use only 3 macros.
1. /equip “your shield here” /equip “your 1hander here”
2. /target focus /cast intercept(rank5)
3. /cast defensive stance /equip shield /cast spell reflect /equip 1hander

Internet Connection and Computer: Get good ones because graphical or internet lag will cost games.

Addons: NECB, a cool down count (I use OmniCC), a focus frame mod, and Proximo.

Weapon choice: Mace/Swords for 2s, 3s. Most prefer maces. Sword is probably better with a shaman.

Talents: 35/23/3 or 33/28, I’d socket Crit for either of the build because “burst is king.” I went crit and this is my build http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LV0xdGbqMhkbZVVzu0xRZc.

Gear/Enchant: Highest item level value per slot. IE 5 strength + 4 crit rating gem > 8 strength gem or 8 critical gem. 24 ap and minor speed meta gem + Surefooted boots enchant. 15 resilience > 6 stats. Executioner for 2hander and Mongoose for 1hander with 12 resilience to shield. I think I’ve covered the important ones.

Gems: I’d like to go over why Critical Strike Rating gems are better in arena than Attack Power gems. First, most of your burst is from intercepting a target, a white swing, then Mortal Striking and Whirl winding. If you take a look at this scenario, attack power helps white swing the most and is reduced on MS or WW because of AP normalization. However, critical strike rating helps all 3 attacks equally. The key word is “burst.” There’s a higher chance of you and/or your team down a target if you get critical hits (especially 2 or 3 in a row) on your target. If your white swing crits then you’d have blood frenzy or flurry for the next few attacks. Critical strike rating helps with other special attack such as hamstring, pummel, and execute. Maybe you’ll do 20 damage less each swing or 500 less damage after a match is over, but it’s the crit that wins games.

Professions: Jewel crafting and Enchanting for 24 attack power and 12 critical strike rating gems along with +4 all stats to each ring. Every little advantage adds up.

Cup of Shut the Beep Up: In case you lose you won’t be able to make up some excuse why you sucked or blame your team mate. Remember, you can’t arena alone. I prefer water in this case.

Duels: Dueling is not PvP? It helps a ton with reflexes, teaches you how to adapt to certain situation, and how certain classes react to you. If you got some time waiting for those 2on2 queues, try dueling. It gives you a better understanding of the other classes you don’t play.

Strategy: You need one against different make ups. For each of those make up you’ll need different strategy depending on what target they are on. For example, as a Arms Warrior/ Holy Priest vs Shadow Priest and Shadow step Rogue
If they are on my priest, I would stick on their shadow priest
Call for dispels whenever power word shield is up
I would pummel the mind blast
Intervene into hamstring / disarm rogue
Intercept back on the priest during a cast

If they are on me, I put on a mace and shield and reflect mind blast
Demoralize/Thunderclap/Mortal Strike/Overpower the rogue
Shield block if you have the extra rage
Go to berserker stance then intercept the priest if he mind blasts if you sucked and reflected something useless.
Disarm only if the rogue’s evasion is off.
Use your battle master’s trinket or fear to save yourself.

Winning = arena points/ratings
Losing = develop strategies, stop queuing because they are your counter-comp, or counter-comp back.
Counter-comp is part of the game, learn to adjust to it.

Counter spelling as a warrrior: (mainly for 2s/3s)
Regardless of what others say, you can lock down healers. We have a counter spell, the macro for it is
/target focus
/cast intercept(rank 5)
Always set a focus target during the match.
Work on your communication with your team so you can lock down a target longer.
Example: Warrior Mage Priest
“I’m going to get the first interrupt” your pummel interrupts holy light
“I’m going to counter-spell his next one” Mage counter spells Paladin’s flash of light
“I got the next one” I would use the focus/intercept macro and interrupt the heal
I then stand right next to the healer and wait for the stun to wear off so I can pummel while my teammates are beating down a target.

Here are some useful arena tips:
Say something when you’re going to pummel so your team don’t waste their interrupt
Spam Hamstring (Mace stuns) if your healer needs to peel off something
Shield reflect something useful
Call out “druid’s innervated, dispel or purge”“going to get sheeped, dispel”
Throw at the caster if you know they are going to drink
Be aware of your/healer’s position, put up raid icons so you can see them easier
Don’t disarm when the rogue is evasion’d unless you’re behind them/they’re stunned.
Innervate your team if you need to reposition/save yourself/teammate
Get anger management / imp hamstring/ imp overpower
Taunt pets to buy time for your healer to drink
Arms warrior can tank almost any heroic instances, being a good tank might help you play better when being focus fired (ie spam defensive abilities/trinket/health stones)
LoS sheeps/entangles if you think it’s coming
The shoulders, gloves, and throwing weapon are poor upgrades, get them last
Predict whether the druid is going to cyclone you or if the paladin is going to heal, run to them and get ready to pummel. You’ll need intuition or experience here
Get known by dueling/performing well in arena/or pay to play with top players and hope they notice you then people will want you on their team
If your target runs right next to a caster, be ready to quickly switch target and pummel
Hotkey everything, including your trinkets and macros
Pummel that frost bolt, lighting bolt, or mind blast. Why? you’re also stopping that ice lance, earth shock, or shadow word death.
Piercing Howl when people are bunched up.
Fear when something is about to die, offensively or defensively
Pummel, intercept, and then pummel can lock down casters

Post advice in comments and I’ll be sure to add to this list. Any other comments, suggestions, requests, or corrections are welcomed.

Leh

Why do we need hotkeys? Only if you want to pwn with your warrior.

For instance, if you’re in Berserker Stance and your target dodges, you would have to move your cursor to the Battle Stance icon, click on it, move your cursor to the Overpower icon, click on it, move your cursor to the Berserker Stance icon, click on it, and then finally move your cursor to Mortal Strike or Berserker Rage. But wait, you’ve accidently clicked on the Defense Stance icon because it’s so tiny so you’ve just wasted a second and the Overpower Icon stops lighting up. You were also too lazy to organized your skills for clicking efficiency, so you have more travel time in between skills.

Or

You can just enter shift + F, then F, and then T. Huh?

Having hotkeys is one thing, but having convenient hotkeys is another. For example, since I’m sitting in Berserker Stance, but I like to make my transition really easy and quick to Overpower if my target decides to dodge my attacks. My Battle stance hotkey is “Shift + F” and my Overpower is just “F.” I can easily hold Shift and spam F, then let go to Shift and continue spamming F, since my finger is already there, until Overpower hits. I then hit “T” to go back to Berserker Stance.

I would hotkey Revenge to “F”, simply cause it’s on the same cool down and it’s easier to remember since they serve the same function. As for shouts, since you can only have 1 of your own shouts, I’d hotkey “B” for Battle Shout and “Shift + B” for Commanding Shout. Pummel and Shield Bash can be have the same hotkey, etc.

You want to hotkeys skills that you use often to be as close as possible to your hand. For example, you’d want R to be hamstring and C to be Mortal Strike, something close, and you’ll want Intimidating Shout or Challenging Shout to be something like shift + 4 or H, something further or harder to press.

Leh