WoW Forever Warrior Guide: Talents, Builds, Gear and Itemization

What changed for Warriors in WoW Forever

Warrior is still the class you remember: three stances, Rage, and a kit that lives and dies by its weapon. WoW Forever keeps all of that and changes how Rage works, adds a few tools from later expansions, and reworks a lot of the talents. Everything here is from the beta, which is currently at level 30, so numbers can still change before launch on 4 November.

Hover any ability, talent or item in this guide to see its WoW Forever tooltip.

New and changed baseline abilities

How Rage works now

This is the change that matters most, because it touches every spec:

• Rage from your attacks is normalized by weapon speed. In Classic, Rage came from the damage you dealt, so better gear meant more Rage and Warriors snowballed. In Forever each swing gives a set amount based on the weapon’s speed. Gear makes your hits bigger, but it no longer makes Rage flow faster on its own.
• Critical strikes give 100% more Rage. The level 30 build raised this from 75%. Crit is now the main way gear increases your Rage.
• Taking damage still gives Rage, and absorbed damage counts too. Blizzard has said the formula for incoming damage is getting another fix.
• Rend and Sunder Armor tag enemies instantly, as of the level 30 build, which makes opening on a mob much easier while leveling.

In practice: expect to feel short on Rage early on, especially as Fury on a target dummy or a boss that doesn’t hit you. Don’t queue Heroic Strike on every swing, because a queued Heroic Strike replaces the Rage that swing would have given you.

Arms

Arms is the two-handed spec, built around Mortal Strike, Overpower and now Rend. Blizzard buffed the parts of the tree nobody used rather than rebuilding it, and it shows: Arms is the most comfortable Warrior to level with in Forever.

• Weaponmaster — replaces the old Axe, Sword, Mace and Polearm Specialization talents, and adds Staves. Axes and Polearms get up to 5% crit, Maces and Staves ignore up to 15% of the target’s armor, and Swords get up to a 5% chance for an extra attack. Switching weapon type never costs you a respec.
• Bloodthrill — your main-hand attacks against a target with your Rend on it can let you use Overpower for 6 seconds. Rend now feeds your strongest Rage-efficient attack.
• Improved Slam — cuts Slam’s cast time and global cooldown by 0.5 seconds and its cooldown by 3 seconds, and stops it from resetting your swing. Combined with the built-in swing timer, Slam is finally friendly to new players.
• Spearing Strike — a new attack for 40% weapon damage, plus another 80% against Giants, Dragonkin and mounted targets — so it can knock enemy players off their mounts. It needs Battle Stance, not a two-handed weapon.
• Deep Wounds — now a share of your weapon’s average damage over 12 seconds, and it can crit like Rend.
• Anger Management — 1 Rage every 3 seconds in combat, and you lose Rage 30% slower out of combat. Requires 5 points in Improved Tactical Mastery.
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization — cut to 3 ranks for 3% damage.

A good leveling rotation: open with Charge, apply Rend, then Thunder Clap for the attack-speed slow, and Sunder Armor or Slam until the mob dies. Use Overpower whenever it lights up, and Victory Rush after every kill.

Fury

Fury is the dual-wield spec and the best at hitting a few targets at once. It also suffers most from the new Rage rules, because so much of its old power came from big weapons generating big Rage. The level 30 build moved a lot of its tree around to give it real choices early on.

• Bloodthirst — now 45% of your Attack Power plus a small flat amount (some tooltips still show the old 35%), and it gives you 10% movement speed for 10 seconds instead of healing.
• Raging Blows — your Whirlwind also strikes with your off-hand weapon, and Cleave costs 2 less Rage. Your off-hand finally matters for AoE.
• Furious Precision — new: up to 10% more hit chance with off-hand attacks. Off-hand hit used to come from Dual Wield Specialization.
• Dual Wield Specialization — more off-hand damage. It no longer makes your off-hand generate more Rage.
• Enrage — now triggers on any damaging hit you take, not just crits, for up to 10% more physical damage.
• Flurry — now requires Death Wish instead of Enrage, so you no longer have to sink points into Enrage on the way down.
• Gore Drinker — new: after Enrage, Berserker Rage, Bloodrage, Death Wish or Bloodthirst, your next 3 melee attacks each heal you for a small share of your health.
• Lingering Rage — new: Rage takes longer to start decaying after combat. Nice for chaining pulls while leveling.
• Death Wish — 20% more physical damage for 30 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown; you now take 5% more damage instead of losing armor and resistances.

Fury’s priority in groups: keep Bloodthirst and Whirlwind on cooldown, Execute below 20%, and spend extra Rage on Heroic Strike (one target) or Cleave (several). Fury really starts at level 30, when you get Berserker Stance; before that it plays like a weaker Arms.

Protection

Protection changed the least of the three, because it was already the most complete tank in Classic. What it gained is Rage: a sword-and-board Warrior can now hold several targets without tab-targeting Sunder Armor on every mob.

• Shield Specialization — every block now gives 5 Rage instead of 1. With it, Shield Block pays for itself if both charges get used.
• Master of Defense — new: dodges and parries give 5 Rage while you have a shield.
• Vanguard — new: Charge works in Defensive Stance. No more stance-swapping to open a pull.
• Bastion — new: 10% more damage dealt while a shield is equipped.
• Defiance — now 15% extra threat in Defensive Stance with a shield, in 3 ranks.
• Focused Rage — your offensive abilities cost 3 less Rage.
• Improved Revenge — no longer a stun chance: Revenge deals 60% more damage instead.
• Improved Shield Wall — cuts 11 minutes off Shield Wall’s cooldown, leaving 4 minutes.
• Anticipation — 20 Defense Skill at 5 points, double the old value.
• Improved Bloodrage — all Rage from Bloodrage increased by 50%.

Tank priority: Charge in, Bloodrage, keep Shield Block up to make Revenge available, Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout on packs, then Sunder Armor to 5 stacks on bosses. On the beta, Sunder Armor makes little threat outside of boss fights and Demoralizing Shout makes none, so don’t spam them for threat. Thorns effects from Paladins and Druids are very strong for tanks right now; Warriors don’t have one, so bring a friend who does.

The level 30 build also reorganised the tree so that a Warrior without a shield has a path to its middle, which makes Protection a real second spec for PvP.

Best race for Warrior

Every race in WoW Forever can be a Warrior, including the Skyborne. The differences are small, so play what you like the look of. If you want the strongest pick:

• Horde: Orc, for Blood Fury, a little crit with axes and shorter stuns. Troll is a close second for PvE.
• Alliance: Night Elf for PvE, since crit now means damage and Rage at once; Human for PvP, with a stun break; Gnome for both.

• Blood Fury — +10% Attack Power for 15 sec, every 2 minutes.
• Axe Specialization — +1% crit chance with an axe. Stacks with Weaponmaster’s axe bonus.
• Hardiness — stuns on you last 20% shorter.
• Shatter Curse — removes curses and cuts magic damage taken by 15% for 8 sec.

• Berserking — +10% attack speed for 10 sec — more swings, so more Rage.
• Beast Slaying — +5% damage against Beasts.
• Rapid Regeneration — regenerate health quickly while standing still.

• Endurance — +5% health and +1% hit. Good for a tank.
• War Stomp — stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec.

• Will of the Forsaken — removes charm, fear and sleep.
• Touch of the Grave — a 5% chance on hit to drain health from the target.

• Elune’s Light — +10% crit chance for 15 sec, every 3 minutes. Lines up with Death Wish or Recklessness.
• Quickness — +1% dodge and a little extra movement speed.

• Will to Survive — removes all stuns. Huge in PvP.
• Sword Specialization — +2% crit chance with a sword — the biggest weapon racial.

• Eureka! — your next 3 damaging abilities cost 10% less Rage and deal 10% more damage.
• Expansive Mind — +5% maximum Rage.
• Escape Artist — break free of snares and roots, with 3 sec of immunity.

• Stoneform — removes bleeds, poisons and diseases and cuts physical damage taken by 10% for 8 sec. A great tank cooldown.
• Mace Specialization — +1% crit chance with a mace.

The Skyborne racials lean towards leveling and travel: Walk on Air to glide, Wind Blessed for 1% Haste and Elemental Insight for 5% damage against Elementals. Fine, but not the strongest endgame choice. More in our Skyborne race guide.

Talent builds

These are our level 60 builds for the current beta tree. Nobody has played Forever at 60 yet, so treat them as a starting point; we’ll update them as the tree changes.

• Arms (36/15/0): the full Arms tree down to Mortal Strike, with Bloodthrill and Weaponmaster, and the top of Fury for crit.
• Fury (11/40/0): Bloodthirst, Raging Blows and Flurry, with Anger Management from Arms for steady Rage.
• Protection (11/0/40): everything that gives Rage, threat and cooldowns down to Shield Slam, plus Deflection for parries that feed Master of Defense.
• Arms leveling (level 30): the build we’d level with on the beta right now. Before level 30, take Improved Overpower and Improved Rend first, then put spare points into Cruelty in Fury.

With the Talented trait from the Legacy system, you start getting talent points at level 5 instead of 10, so you reach every row a few levels earlier.

Stats and itemization

WoW Forever changes several stats, and a Warrior feels all of them:

• Hit is one stat. Melee, ranged and spell hit are merged, so every point of hit on an item counts for your weapons, your Taunt and your thrown weapon alike. Blizzard hasn’t published a hit cap for Forever, so don’t plan around numbers from other versions of the game.
• Crit is one stat too, and for a Warrior it’s worth more than before: every crit is more damage, Deep Wounds and Flurry trigger from it, Rend and Deep Wounds can crit, and crits now give 100% more Rage.
• Weapon skill is still in the game, but items carry less of it. Instead, some items now lower the chance that your attacks are dodged or parried, which does a similar job. The Warrior tank tier set has exactly that bonus.
• Weapon damage matters more than ever. Mortal Strike, Slam, Whirlwind, Overpower and Deep Wounds all scale with your weapon, and with Rage no longer tied to damage, a weapon upgrade is pure damage.

Stat priority by spec

Each Strength gives a Warrior 2 Attack Power, which is why it beats raw Attack Power point for point. Agility gives a little crit and armor, but much less than it does for a Rogue or Hunter.

Which weapon type?

With Weaponmaster at 5/5 every weapon type gets a bonus, so the choice comes down to the best weapon you have and your race:

Weaponmaster is an Arms talent, so Fury and Protection only get it if they spend points in Arms. For Fury, the 15 points it costs usually do more in the Fury tree.

Gear while leveling

Dungeon loot and quest rewards were buffed across the board in Forever. The Axe of Orgrimmar from Ragefire Chasm, for example, went from a green to a blue with much higher damage. Most dungeon experience also moved from the mobs into the dungeon quests, so pick up every quest before you go in.

Around level 15–20

Warrior class quests

• Brutal Hauberk / Fire Hardened Hauberk: a Warrior-only chest with no level requirement, from a questline you can start at level 20 at your class trainer in Orgrimmar or Stormwind (Brutal Armor for Horde, Furen’s Armor for Alliance). It sends you into Razorfen Kraul, so it’s really a level 25–28 job, but the Stamina is worth the trip.
• The Whirlwind weapon: from level 30, the Whirlwind Weapon questline in Alterac Mountains. In Forever you choose your reward: Whirlwind Axe, Whirlwind Sword or Whirlwind Warhammer, all with the same stats. Pick the type that matches Weaponmaster and your racial. It’s the biggest leveling upgrade a Warrior gets.

Endgame gear and the tier set

At 60, pre-raid gear comes from 5-player dungeons — the originals plus the nine new ones, up to Blackmaw Hold and Shaper’s Terrace — along with crafted gear, reputations and quests. Blizzard says it re-examined every dungeon’s loot, improved the old dungeon set bonuses and added hundreds of new drops, so expect pre-raid lists to look different from Classic. There are no reliable level 60 lists yet; we’ll add one when the beta reaches 60.

Raids open on 9 December, and the Warrior tier set comes from Hyjal Summit, the 20-player raid. Warriors get two versions:

• Battlegear of Glory for Arms and Fury: 1% attack speed, a shorter Intimidating Shout, Attack Power against Humanoids, and 30 seconds off Recklessness.
• Battleplate of Glory for tanks: Defense, 1.2% less chance to be dodged or parried, and 30 seconds off Shield Wall. Its 3-piece bonus lowers the cooldown of Intervene, which isn’t in the beta yet — a hint that Warriors may get it later.

Each set has six pieces, and according to the beta files four of them can be crafted with Blacksmithing at 300 skill (only one crafted piece can be worn at a time). See every class’s set in our tier sets guide.

Professions and camping

• Leveling: Mining and Blacksmithing. Mining nodes are far more common in Forever and you can raise Mining by smelting, so it keeps up with your level. Blacksmithing has new recipes that make real upgrades while you level, and sells well at launch.
• Endgame: Engineering. Still the strongest profession for a Warrior, with bombs, gadgets and ranged pulls for tanks. Many players will level with Mining and Blacksmithing and swap one for Engineering at 60. Alchemy is a good alternative for stronger, longer-lasting flasks and elixirs.

Camps give buffs based on the professions of the players at the fire. The two best for a Warrior:

• Lodestone — from Mining: extra melee Attack Power for everyone at the camp. It doesn’t stack with Blessing of Might, so pick something else if you level with a Paladin.
• Sharpening Wheel — from Blacksmithing: extra Strength. It doesn’t stack with Strength of Earth Totem.

Warrior in PvP

• Arms is the PvP spec: Mortal Strike halves healing, Improved Hamstring can root, and Spearing Strike knocks players off their mounts, so you don’t have to hope for a daze any more.
• Protection is now a real second spec for PvP, with a path through the tree that doesn’t need a shield.
• Warriors still need a healer’s help more than most classes, but Victory Rush, Gore Drinker and the shorter Retaliation cooldown make you harder to kill than in Classic. On the Alliance, Human’s stun break is the best PvP racial; on the Horde, Orc’s shorter stuns.

For the full route to 60, see our leveling guide.