Undead Warrior

Are Undead one of the best class choices for warriors?

You certainly don’t see as many of them as you do Tauren and Orcs (or maybe they’re just less physically imposing…).

So are they an effective choice for Horde players wanting to roll a warrior?

Will choosing undead gimp you? Or will it only be good for certain talent specs?

Lets dive in and answer those questions and more.

First, lets look at all the basic factors:

1. Visually average sized and harder to spot amongst other large horde races.

2. Will of the Forsaken. Removes any fear/charm/sleep effect. 2 minute cooldown. (NB: rumored to be getting a nerf in the upcoming 3.3 patch!)

3. Cannibalize. Regains 7% total health every 2 seconds you feast on a humanoid or undead corpse, for 10 seconds (so that’s 70% health returned in 10 secs)

4. Underwater breathing. Lets you breath for 233% longer underwater.

Lets start by looking at point 1 – avatar size. For warriors, I personally think for PvP in battlegrounds this can be a factor.

If you’re a massive tauren in full plate, or a large orc in plate, you stick out like a big, bright red thumb. Undead on the other hand, while they still wear bulky plate, aren’t nearly as obvious, and won’t draw as much spell power or melee as Orcs or Tauren do. So thats one plus.

In PvE, its obviously a non issue.

Next, lets look at what is widely regarded as one of the top racial abilities in World of Warcraft — Will of the Forsaken (or WotF for short). This racial is great for both Pve and PvP play, and its the reason why you see more undead in arena than any other race for horde players.

WoTF means you basically have a second “get out of jail free card”. If you’re feared, slept, or charmed, you can use WoTF to break out of it, and still have your pvp trinket ready for any other stuns/fears/cc moves.

This in my opinion is more important in arena play and to a lesser extent battlegrounds than PvE, but plenty of dungeons have encounters with fearing mobs.

WoTF in its current form gets the biggest thumbs up from Arms and Fury warriors.

Why? Because protection warriors get intercept, which helps them break out of snares and roots, which effectively gives them a different kind of movement breaking ability.

Fury and Arms also rely on dealing lots of damage fast, so they want to be sure they can always be running at the enemy full speed ahead, rather than being feared/slept/stunned, etc.

So for all warriors, WoTF is excellent. Protection undead warriors have a veritable stable of crowd control breaking abilities, and if you like the prot spec, I highly recommend stacking WoTF with intercept & a PvP trinket.

In the future though? Check out the 3.3 patch notes – WoTF is soon to be sharing a cooldown with “similar effects”, which means you likely won’t be able to use WoTF, then your PvP trinket, because they share the same cooldown. There’s already hysteria on the net from Undead loving fan boi’s, but I’d expect these changes to go through given Blizzards ongoing “homogenization” of racials.

Cannibalize: Not a bad ability, in fact great for raiding when you want to conserve mana or while the “recently bandaged” debuff is in effect.

Cannibalize is also awesome for leveling up as a warrior or rogue who don’t have any self healing spells or abilities.

You’ll also enjoy using cannibalize in PvP to rub it in the face of any alliance you just killed. Hot button it so they can see you start to eat them before they release…! (be careful of shaman’s though…)

So another big tick on this racial for undead warriors – because you have no self healing ability, its great for leveling, dungeons and raids, and pvp when you want some quick health after a kill and don’t want to waste bandages.

Lastly we’ve got the underwater breathing skill, which doesn’t really leave much to say. Its a handy ability that you’ll be thankful for in a few quests, but really, nothing we’re that thankful for.

So should you choose an Undead warrior? Or should you choose Tauren or Orc instead?

Firstly choose who you like the look of – because you’re gonna be spending a LONG time with this toon. If you’re still on the fence, check my other articles on Trolls as a Warrior Race, and Tauren, the Best Warrior Race?

Have fun, and let us know how you go with your new Undead warrior!

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Like most classes, Warriors start becoming more fun and complex once you hit level 30, level 40, and beyond.

Not to mention, getting to level 58 means you can get into Outland and experience the newer content, awesome looking surroundings, and of course… killer gear that makes the Old World’s greens look like greys.

So with your taste buds whet with talk of high level fun, lets look at the best arms spec build for Warriors.

Before we do though, I need to talk about dual wield vs 2 handers.

There’s really not more to say than Arms is built for 2 hand use, and Fury for dual wield. You could do a dual wield build with Arms, but you won’t level as quick.

We’re choosing 2h weapons with our arms build because the talent tree is built for it. The talents you get are weapon damage plus bonus damage, and logically you’ll want to choose a weapon that has the highest single hit damage you can find (this is nice for PvP too if you indulge!).

Full arms talent build 51/20

Arms Warrior Leveling Build:

This build is a 51/20 warrior build – 51 points in Arms, obviously, and 20 points in Fury to pick up a few key talents once you’re maxed in Arms.

Start by picking up Improved Heroic Strike and Improved Rend.

These two abilities at level 15 will have your DPS chugging along nicely at a discounted rage cost. Leave Deflection alone for a little while, we’ll come back to it.

Next, pick up Improved Charge, and then to open up the next line, go back and pick up 3 points in Deflection.

Max out the third row to pick up some more key abilities like Anger Management for rage generation, and the awesome Deep Wounds ability.

Just note here how much more effective deep wounds is with a good slow and powerful 2h weapon. The more damage your weapon causes the more damage deep wounds will cause.

From here keep working towards your 51 points, going back to pick up another point in Deflection whenever you can’t open up the next row.

Go with Poleaxe specialization over maces or swords – for one the pay off is bigger for crits, and then there’s the fact that you’ve got a more varied weapon choice between axes and poles, rather than just swords or just maces.

Mortal Strikes is an awesome pick, and nobody doubts a point here, followed up soon after maxing out Improved Mortal Strikes. Again, you need a big, dumb, slow 2h weapon here to use the full potential of this talent…

Pair IMS with Juggernaught, and you get guaranteed crits after the charge. Just remember you need 30 rage built up in 10 seconds…

The next notable talents before you reach 51 points are Blood Frenzy and Wrecking Crew – fill out both and you’ll be dealing out MONSTROUS single target DPS.

While I’m talking about single target DPS, Arms warrior specs like this one are very much geared towards leveling or one on one encounters. If any of you are making the switch from a protection warrior build, just keep in mind you can’t solo group quests any more, and unintended adds can be your downfall.

You’ll also actually spend some time eating and recuperating compared to protection, but while you will be “stopping”, keep in mind you’re killing is much faster than the guys in the protection camp.

The last skill in the arms tree is great against multiple targets, but there’s no problem using it whenever you have excess rage for some instant weapon damage. Inefficient, yes, but handy nonetheless.

After hitting the top of the arms tree, what next?

We just want to optimize our damage, and the fury tree is the obvious place to look.

As you see in my build, I’ve chosen:

• Cruelty 5/5 — 5% extra crit chance.
• Improved Demoralizing Shout 5/5 — 40% increased reduction in attack power
• Unbridled Wrath 5/5 — for the extra rage
• Commanding Presence 5/5 — the extra attack power.

At the end of the day this build can be varied slightly to your own liking, but if you keep my noted suggestions, I’m certain you’ll level faster than ever with this Arms warrior build.

If you need more help with leveling, check out my Horde Leveling Guide front page where I compare some popular guides.

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Epic Level 80 Tauren

Are Tauren the Best Warrior Race in WoW?

While we all go through a debate in our minds as to which race to choose when starting a new toon, Warriors in particular seem to feel overwhelmed with choice.

Want a Mage as Alliance? Go a Gnome, of course. Want a Marksman Hunter as Horde? Go the ranged happy Trolls.

But for Warriors on the Horde side, race choice is difficult, so here’s my thoughts on the Tauren for those of you on the fence.

Before I begin – let me say this:

It doesn’t matter which race you choose – you’ll be effective in any spec. Just choose a race you like!

You power gaming stat counters out there that just want pure power, read on… and anyone who is torn between two (or three) choices, and want help with a decision, you’ll find what you need here, too.

Defining Features of the Tauren Class:

1. Physically the largest class in the game
2. May Stomp
3. Increased Health
4. Herbalism Bonus
5. Nature Resistance

These are the major features of the class that are worth discussing.

Point 1: Largest Warrior Race.

This feature of Taurens is obviously moot for PvE & running instances, but for PvP my personal experience shows it makes a big difference.

Who are you going to attack in PvP? A Tauren wielding two monstrous double handed weapons or an undead warrior? A Tauren with a shield as big as 4 gnomes stacked up, or an Orc? Physical size will simply draw more attention to you, and there’s not much you can do about it!

• Negative for PvP Players

Point 2: War Stomp!

One of the finer racial attributes in the game, War Stomp can be very handy in many different situations, but it generally won’t turn the tide of battle for a Tauren Warrior. Tauren Shamans, Tauren Druids though? Yes… a stomp might give them time for a heal, while a Warrior is merely giving himself one extra attack. Nothing to sneeze at, but not exactly exciting.

War Stomp can be used to interrupt spell casts, stunning up to 5 targets within 8 yards for 2 seconds. So I see War Stomp best utilized in leveling and raids, while in PvP its nice, but the 2 second stun is very weak compared to other stunning abilities Rogues and Paladins have.

• Good for dungeons and raids,
• Good for leveling,
• So-so for PvP

Point 3: Increased Health

This racial trait is the one reason you see so many Horde tanks rolling a Tauren Warrior – extra health means taking more damage before you die, which means a more desirable and capable tank. If you’re a power gamer, or simply want a Warrior with the most health in World of Warcraft, this is the race for you.

This trait is versatile and will help you out in any setting, especially if you choose a Protection Warrior.

• Great for dungeons and raids,
• Great for leveling,
• Great for PvP.

Point 4: Herbalism Bonus

Despite the fact a +15 herbalism bonus is pretty much useless in the long term, taking herbalism as a Tauren Warrior means two great things, especially when stacked with other racial traits.

1. You get a healing spell that will help you last out even longer, and

2. You’ll get plenty of healing pots if you choose alchemy to go with it!

Together with your huge health, these two professions can make you seem practically unstoppable. I like that!

So, considering the fact I think the Herbalism buff in of itself is useless, using Herbalism & alchemy is:

• Great for dungeons and raids,
• Great for leveling,
• Great for PvP.

Point 5: Nature Resistance

Nature resistance is nice – while obviously only making up a small amount of damage caused against you, either in the Pve environment, or by Shamans & Druids in PvP, any resistance is a good thing to further enhance your lastability in combat.

• So-so for dungeons and raids,
• So-so for leveling,
• So-so for PvP (almost edging towards good).

My Final Thoughts:

Tauren Warriors are without question one of the best tanks in World of Warcraft, taking a protection specced Tauren with herbalism/alchemy, or herbalism/mining (for the stamina boost) is not the “I win button”, but its a super effective combination.

There’s one other thing though… they sorta appear to be cows that stand up right… I hope you like that kinda thing…!

Personally? I think Undead are the beez kneez – but who cares what I think, its what you like! Choose accordingly!

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Protection Warrior Talent Spec Link

Building Towards 80 — A Fast Leveling Protection Warrior Spec

This is the last post in a series that explores the best talents to choose for leveling your Protection Warrior fast.

Today I’m going to finish up the series by examining the remaining talents on the Protection tree, as well as looking at your options from the Fury and Arms trees.

A good selection here can really help your leveling speed, or if you like to dabble in PvP, give you some options that will make you all the more competitive when you want to take a break from the grind.

The most important thing to remember as we proceed is that this spec is not for raiding warriors!

I heartily recommend that once you hit 70 or 80 you respec (or dual spec) a raid build Warrior from the ground up, because this build is utter crap for dungeons and raids.

So Protection Warriors, read on to find out how your class can level (almost) as fast as a Fury Warrior. Thank you Blizzard!

Protection Warrior Leveling Build: 50 to 80

If you’re not at level 50 yet, you’re about to start adding in some of the defining (and most enjoyable) talents for Warriors in World of Warcraft!

Row 9 (Warbringer, Devastate, Critical Block)

Starting off we have Warbringer – at first sight you know its not great for leveling, but unfortunately we need it to open up row 10 – but you’ll find it fun to use in PvP if you’re into it.

Second up, your new best friend in the whole wide world – Devastate. If you took my recommendation and went for Puncture, Devastate is now your staple damage causing talent, and should be spammed constantly whenever you have the rage, and whenever something more pressing (like interrupts) isn’t disrupting your attacks.

Critical Block is a nice talent too, giving your successful blocks a 30% chance to block double the damage (less downtime resting, thank you), and increases your chance to crit with your other best friend, Shield Slam.

Row 10 (Sword and Board, Damage Shield)

Sword and Board, that’s what we are, and this talent can’t be missed regardless of which build you take for a Protection Warrior. As its name suggests, this talent pairs up with a sword related talent, and a shield related talent – namely Devastate and Shield Slam.

Take 3 points in this talent and get ready to unleash a nice constant stream of high damage attacks at low cost – the essence of a good leveling build for warriors, and very handy in any other situation, too!

Plug in another 2 points into Damage Shield after you’ve spent up in Sword & Board to further increase your dps by causing 20% of your block value as damage whenever you take damage or block.

Row 11 (Shockwave)

The final ability in the Prot Warrior talent tree is Shockwave – an instant cast ability that damages everything in front of the Warrior causing damage based on attack power – but exact calculations aside, this skill is amazing for AoE attacks on groups of mobs (you can tank plenty of mobs at once while leveling as a Protection Warrior if you need to).

It can also come in very handy in PvP if you manage to run into an in-progress furball and unleash, stunning everyone for 4 seconds and no doubt giving your side the winning edge at the same time.

While its not exactly a staple leveling talent, Shockwave will be very handy when you need it.

Other Talent Trees:

On the way to 80 we’re left with 19 talent points. Where do we spend the rest? Fury? Or Arms?

I personally like Arms more for leveling, opting to build out the tree until Deep Wounds opens up, which is a nice extra damage causer without any extra micro needed on your part.

Improved charge is also nice, generating 10 extra rage points on the charge and ensuring your abilities are running 100% of the time.

What else is there to say? I hope you find this build useful for getting to 80 as fast as possible! I guarantee you’ll see when you employ it that it really does match up well against Fury as a leveling spec for Warriors.

The only thing left to do is race choice — and while I always advocate taking a race you simply like the look or history of, I like Trolls for leveling faster, and Tauren for end game main tank duties (See also: Trolls as a Warrior Race).

If all you have on your mind is leveling fast, check out my Horde Leveling Guide front page where I compare some commercial in-game leveling addons.

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Troll Warrior

“Are Trolls The Best Warrior Race?”

While I will always tell people asking me this to choose based on their own personal likes and dislikes, you may still be concerned about race choice, and want to know that the choice you make isn’t gimped…

Alternatively, you might be a powergamer that just wants to make the best choice you can.

Here’s the problem with defining “best” in WoW today:

There is no one “best” race that will outperform all the others in a certain class. That might have been true during the first few years of WoW, but today, things have changed.

So lets look at the Troll as a Warrior race:

1. Visually large & easy to spot
2. Berserk racial
3. Regeneration racial
4. Damage increase vs beasts racial
5. Increased crits with bows and throwing weapons racial
6. Reduced duration of movement impairing effects

These are the major points in my book.

Point 1 – Visual Character Size

You might be puzzled by number 1, which only applies in PvP, but being a larger race, with a huge set of mail or plate on DOES make you easier to see, and easier to target on the battlefield. A fairly small negative yes, but worthy of note.

• Negative for PvP Players

Point 2 – Beserk:

Increases attack speed by between 10% and 30% on activation, depending on how badly injured you are at time of casting. Keep this in mind – 30% haste can do some serious damage in a short amount of time!

As a warrior this is clearly a top ability. Bring it out in raids or dungeons when you’re below 40% health (you get the 30% haste at this point), and hope that your caster is on the ball. The 30% will stick with you even if you get back to 100% health. The same is true if you activate early – if you’re brought to 40% health your haste doesn’t increase…

• Great for dungeons and raids,
• So-so for leveling,
• So-so for PvP.

Point 3 – Regeneration

10% health regeneration bonus and a 10% health regeneration during combat is great in almost all situations, and can mean the different between life and death in close fought PvP fights, dungeons, or just grinding.

The best part about regeneration of course is for leveling. Trolls with regen will have a much greater up time due to the constant increase of health, and will spend less time eating to recover lost health.

In PvP its less effective due to the fast, burst damage nature of combat, but it can be nice to regenerate hitpoints between fights so you’re at 50% rather than 30% when the next begins.

• Great for dungeons and raids,
• Great for leveling,
• So-so for PvP.

Point 4 – Damage increase vs beasts

Damage dealt against beasts is increased by 5% with this ability.

Overall I’m not very excited about this racial… don’t get me wrong, 5% is nothing to sneeze at, and is great when you’re fighting beasts, but since you never know what you’ll be fighting day to day, it has limited usefulness.

One of those uses is the limited number of beast class bosses in the game. If you do find yourself fighting a beast class boss this can be a nice bonus to damage, but again its limited because you’ll go better with a fury or arms build as opposed to protection.

For leveling its not bad either because you’ll come across zones like the barrens that are just FULL of beasts, so it can speed you up here and there.

• So-so for leveling,
• So-so for raiding,
• Useless for PvP.

Point 5 – Increased crits with bows and throwing weapons

Another so-so Troll racial which doesn’t really cut it for warriors… Hunters, yes, its great… But as warriors you’ll generally only be used ranged weapons to pull, and even then, you may as well use your taunt ability which is ranged and performs the same task.

• Useless for leveling,
• Useless for raiding,
• Useless for PvP.

Point 6 – Reduced Duration of Movement Impairing Effects

This racial lets your Troll reduce the duration of movement impairing effects by 15%. On the surface this can seem handy, but even without the widely available trinkets which can free your character from stuns/dazes/slowing effects, 15% just isn’t a significant figure to merit any attention from players.

• Useless for leveling,
• Useless for raiding,
• Useless for PvP.

My Final Thoughts:

While there’s a lot of read up there, Trolls are a great choice for a Warrior class player! It doesn’t really matter which Horde race you choose, they’re all going to be effective provided you know how to play a Warrior talent build effectively.

However, for powergamers looking for fast leveling warrior (see also: Warrior leveling build), I believe the Troll should be your first choice. Regeneration is a small effect, but built up over 80 levels you’ll save many, many hours of game time.

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Tauren Warrior

The Warrior is considered to be the tanking artist with large amounts of DPS ability.

If you want to be the player who reverts aggro back to yourself and deals unbelievable amounts of damage, then the Warrior class is right up your alley.

There are many ways to build a Warrior, but my favorite talent tree has to be the Protection area.

Here you will be able to use specific skills that will enhance any Warrior who joins a group or raiding event.  Several of the abilities pertain to helping your team with Battle Shouts and Vigilance.  Plus you will be able to acquire the Shockwave ability that stuns your opponents and deals over 400+ damage during a 4 second period.

Just keep in mind it will only affect the mobs in front of you that are within 10 yards.  So what’s the best Protection build? 

Well, you won’t have to worry about any of these abilities.

Shield Specialization (2/5)
Anticipation (0/5)
Improved Revenge (0/2)
Shield Mastery (0/2)
Puncture (0/3)

If you’re worried about the Fury or Arms talents, there are a few you will be able to gather if you set up the Protection build appropriately.  I know a few others who would rather place the majority of their points in either one of these areas, but we would all tell you it depends on your style of play.

Do you like to solo?  Is there an Instance you’ll be going into today?

Maybe you just mess around in battlegrounds, but the point is you should adjust accordingly.  In this case, I’ll set you up with the other two talents.

Arms Talent Tree

Improved Heroic Strike (3/3)
Improved Rend (2/2)
Improved Charge (2/2)

Fury Talent Tree

Armored to the Teeth (3/3)
Booming Voice (2/2)
Improved Demoralizing Shout (5/5)
Improved Cleave (3/3)

Strengths and Weaknesses

Whenever you build a new character, you will soon find all of their strengths and weaknesses during game play.  In the Warrior’s case, you won’t have the opportunity to share buffs with your opponents like other classes.  Well, maybe one or two but nothing like a Priest.  You will also have to load up on health potions in case your healers are amateurs.

However, where there is bad you will also find good.  The strengths of the Warrior are why most people enjoy playing with them.  You will enjoy the ability to use every kind of weapon out there excluding wands, and can help all your friends by pulling enemies during battle.  If that wasn’t enough, you’ll also earn a sick amount of hit points and have tons of fun with your Charge ability.

Leaving You with Something

If there is anything I would share about the Warrior, it has to be the different stances that are available.  Each one is unique in it’s own way with special skills that help in certain situations.  You will have the choice between a Battle, Defensive, or Berserker stance.  They should be used based on your talents and current situations.  Last but not least, make sure you train for Herbalism and Alchemy.  It will keep your gold costs down in the AH if you’re able to make buffs and potions.

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