Warrior PvP guide

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Introduction Edit

The warrior is a very capable player killer with a mix of strong offensive and defensive abilities and excellent burst damage. The class has good attack speed and mobility and can close on a target quickly, combine this with an essential pvp debuff of 25% less healing on his target and Taste for Blood  makes the class very dangerous. The warrior always does damage and does not need to break for mana. The more damage warriors take the stronger they become(while in Berserker Stance)  , give them a healer and they become one of the best group pvp classes. Warriors have retribution damage: if he suffers damage, he gains rage and his strikes will become much more deadly. A warrior's major problem is often to avoid being kited by more ranged-oriented classes or being starved for rage. For this, combat controlling abilities such as Hamstring, Piercing HowlStaggering Shout  and Double Time  are excellent remedies, also this simple array of abilities means damage can be maintained even with limited rage.

These are general guidelines for PvP warriors.

Always have Battle Shout applied in any fight - it's a big damage bonus! Or you can use Commanding Shout, for a health buff (recommended in arenas). Although this is open to debate, in PvP most warriors use a slow, high-DPS 2H weapon and choose Arms for pvp, Although some choose Fury for pvp, it is often rage starved. And Warriors who wish to carry the flag or other roles needed for damage soaking will choose Protection.

Warriors no longer need to stance dance in order to use their moves, The general tactics for arms, is to keep Mortal Strike up on your target so that your Deep Wounds will always be on target, also Mortal strike will give you 2 Taste for Blood charges which enable your Overpower which generally will almost always crit and cannot be parried or dodged and what not. Also as slam is instant cast, you should use it when either you have used all of your taste for blood charges or when you need the raw damage on, it is preferable to use your attacking moves when you have the rage and Colossus Smash on target. I do not advise using Heroic strike as it costs 30 Rage and does not hit as hard as slam, and 3 overpowers at 10 rage each easily over damage it. To keep from being kited from ranged classes, use Hamstring this will keep your target slowed and easier in your grasp, it is also off the GCD making it invaluable, coupled with Staggering shout your target wont go anywhere, and humorously some players will trinket a stagger giving your stun a nice juicy full duration without fear of being trinketed. Heroic Leap with Double Time will give you 3 chances to close in to your target as well along with hamstring. This gives Warriors a powerful kit against ranged classes.


This is really just what your preferations are gameplay wise. Though using Bladestorm can give you great dps as long as a great snare/root breaker and immunity to stuns and CC, especially since it cannot be disarmed anymore (BE WARNED) never use bladestorm in the beginning of any pvp engagement, especially in a war vs war scenario, if the other warrior is intelligent he will just use Die by the Sword and laugh as you break your self upon his attacks. A great combo to use with Bladestorm is to get your target in the 40-70% health range and use Storm Bolt and follow with your offensive CD macro to get some great damage in. Never stun right off the bat, remember as a warrior you need to be reactive, stun when it will be most beneficial to you. Shockwave  is another great talent to use, but it lacks the range of storm bolt, however unlike storm bolt shockwave will stun far more opponents, just be warned messing up with shockwave will deprive you of a stun (the plans as of right now for WoD is that shockwave and storm bolt will share the same talent tree) For the most part with talents, test them out in Battlegrounds and see what works best for you.

Recklessness Should be used to achieve maximum burst output, ie. when you have succesfully stunned your opponent (reactively of course, remember never stun in the beginning, that stun can make or break a kill) preferably  when your target is 1%-50% coupled with all of your offensive cd's you can easily smite or badly injure your opponent

Die by the Sword  is best used against melee classes, such as rogues, warriors, paladins, and death knights, this ability allows you to parry ALL frontal attacks, so it is a natural counter to bladestorm, and any warrior bursts, and will allow you to protect your self to some degree against rogues death knights and paladins, (cant parry backstabs or any other butt related rogue attack) However it will lower the dot damage taken thanks to the 20% damage reduction. This ability can also make or break a fight. preferably used to counter your opponents burst, saving a precious stun if you have not already used it.

Shield Wall is best used when you're caught off-guard by a ranged class which is damaging you heavily from afar. Useful for outlasting damaging attacks from enemies when they use their best CDs, examples include BM hunters, demon form warlocks, mages and elemental shamans. This no longer requires a shield to be in hand.  

Spell Reflection also no longer requires a shield in your off-hand. Also do not waste this move on trivial spells, such as incinerate instead use it on spells that can make or break the fight, such as a Chaos BoltFrost Bomb or other heavy hitter, instead use Pummel to block out some of the spells.

General PvP Tactics Warriors Edit

In PvP, warriors primarily focus on:

  1. Keeping enemies within melee attack range (and facing the enemy).
  2. Proper counters to enemies abilities, or proper usage of ability-attacks.

Against ranged classes, (Mage, Hunter, Warlock, Priest, casting Druid, Elemental Shaman) the major theme in the battle is whether the warrior can keep the target within, or at least close to, melee range. While in melee, the warrior should be dealing significantly more damage to the low armor foe. Additionally, any non-instant spells cast by the warrior's opponent are in danger of being interrupted or effectiveness reduced. If the target is kept within melee range, the secondary requirement for a warrior win revolves around properly interrupting key spells keeping a slow on target. Intimidating Shout can be used from 10 yards away and will stop the targeted enemy in place. This is very useful for closing the gap on ranged attacker or stopping them from damaging you while you wait for an immobilize effect to wear off. Against melee classes, (Rogue, Warrior, Shaman, Paladin, melee Druid, Death Knight), the warrior tactics are much more class-specific. The common tool against all melee enemies is Disarm when it is most advantageous. This ability will deny enemy abilities that require a melee weapon (there are many of these for these melee classes), as well as maximize damage differential in the warrior's favor. The timing of Disarming a rogue is critical to preventing of the rogue's finishing move, whereas against Shaman and Paladin, you just want to get in this move as often as you can. Other than Disarm, increased melee combat means more "swings" of the melee weapons by both warrior and foe, providing more opportunities to use the high-value/rage warrior counterattacks of Overpower and Revenge (Revenge is only worthwhile if stun-talent added, and can be caused by shield-block). These two counterattacks can be the difference if they are used within their relatively small time windows (management of weapons and stances required).

Rogue Edit

Notable Rogue Abilities:

Rogues deal tons of damage and have lots of ways to control the fight. However since they must get down and dirty with your plate-covered self to do this; unless a Rogue catches you completely unaware, you will have a fairly easy time whacking them down if you know what you're doing and keep your head cool.

Use a two handed weapon and Overpower whenever you have taste for blood charges as much as possible. Rogues dodge quite a bit because most rogues stack agility which simply makes them dodge. You can use Hamstring to keep the rogue from escaping, and use staggering shout as soon as he pops vanish to deny him his opener when you use an aoe attack such as bladestorm or thunderclap. Disarm can also be useful against rogues and it frequently surprises them and causes them to move away from you, which is the perfect time for another charge micro stun. Furthermore, many rogues will attempt to backstab you, or use any other attack through Stealthing, if you get your timing right, you can use thunderclap or whirlwind to remove their Stealth, if successful, you will have a large step ahead from the Rogue, since it's a large part of their Stun Lock tactics. The 'Second Wind' talent is very good at healing you when you are at 30% or below health when  incapacitated by one of the rogues stun lock abilities provided he causes that much damage, but keep in mind that it cannot outheal a rogue's attacks forever. In order to avoid in-combat stealthing try to always have  Deep Wounds on the rogue.

Rogues' Gouge and Sap abilities are often used to buy them time, either to kill another target or regenerate their energy. If hit by either of these abilities, you can activate Berserker Rage, giving you immunity to these Disorient effects and breaking you free to continue fighting. Since a rogue's lower armor makes it difficult for them to beat a warrior in a straight up fight, they often make good use of stuns and disorients to get in extra hits--by breaking a Gouge, you can often turn the battle in your favor, just remember though berserker rage is also a dps cd with its 10% physical damage increase, so use with caution.

Remember lots of the rogue's abilities revolve around positioning and by hamstringing him you seriously impair his ability to maneuver around you and use these abilities effectively. DON'T just stand still while fighting a rogue, run round, jump, spin about on the spot......anything you can do to make it difficult for him to use his incapacitate abilities on you, if he can't stun lock you he has no chance against you. Remember you have the upper hand in terms of damage and armor. As soon as it turns into a stand-up fight the rogue is simply outclassed.

A typical rogue fight goes like this:

First of all, most rogues are going to open up with a Sap. They generally do this to stop you from moving, which allows them to position themselves for their opener. In a ranked Arena situation a stealthed rogue that's sprinted over to your side and sapped one of your team-mates will often immediately throw even everything out of kilter, so try to have a strategy for rogue saps (in duels it's going to happen and there's not much you can do about it).

Almost all rogues are going to go with a full stunlock for their opener. The solution to this is to start in Defensive Stance with a sword and shield to mitigate their damage (sometimes not possible, but in the Arena always keep a macro for a shield and defensive stance handy, or a key bound). You can't do anything about the stuns. Do not trinket out of a stun in a one-on-one duel vs a rogue, because you are liable to eat a full-duration Blind which you can do nothing about while the rogue does something to regain health or re-stealths and in that case he gives himself the advantage.

For the rogue, it's a race to do as much damage as possible before you start laying the huge hits down, which means that they're very likely to blow their cooldowns fast. After the stun lock fades he'll likely pop Evasion to avoid most of your damage except for the occasional overpower or hit he doesn't dodge.

Despite what many rogues think, evasion is actually not a bad ability to use when versing warriors, unless the rogue has a remarkably low health pool. They will eat one or two overpower crit's and avoid the rest or most of the rest of your damage. Blowing evasion for them means that they will take one huge hit every few seconds and then avoid the rest, which is far better than being hit by everything. In other words, they'd prefer getting run over by a train once than to get smashed by a truck repeatedly.

Once the rogue pops Evasion get an overpower crit in and a Thunder Clap, then immediately switch to Defensive Stance and go into full tank mode.  I suggest disarming him too, but most of the time that's liable to be dodged as well anyway. I'd also suggest using an Intimidating Shout, but most rogues will be saving their trinket for that, especially against warriors.

After evasion has gone onto cool down, the rogue has very few options. They will attempt to Blind you and get away to restealth for a Round 2, but you can simply trinket out of that. You should always save your trinket for Blind. They can Vanish, but assuming you got at least one mortal strike in, they'll have at least the  Bleed effect on them which make it useless.

A Warrior Vs. Warrior battle is the ultimate test of your ability to adapt and react to your opposing warrior, This requires high reactivity/will power. This is a battle of skill and your ability to keep mental focus and clarity. Edit

Notable Warrior Abilities (Which you should know):

Warrior abilities are a guessing game as to what their talent build is, in order to guess effectively you must base your assumptions on what gear they are wearing as well as what weapons they are using (or by the less reasonable way of engaging them and hoping they will reveal their higher talent tree abilities). In general, a warrior using a two hander will be Arms, dual wielding will be Fury, and a one hander and shield will be Protection.

The most basic rule in warrior vs warrior is: Skill, gear can have an influence but generally speaking this guide assumes you are geared and ready. All you need is practice and reaction.

Offensive Measures

You need to be able to force the warrior to blow his defensives before you do. And of course the most important ability you can use is at the beginning of the fight. You need to make sure you are the first to use charge, this will give you your rage needed to start the fight, Remember that you must always keep hamstring on your target, this will keep him from juking/running away from you to get his charge, Though you are thinking what if he just heroic leaps away, well you have two choices, here you can use staggering shout to deny him his heroic leap, And at the same time give you time to run away from him and give him another charge to wreck his world, This can also give you the mental advantage because there is a chance that your opponent will now be freaking out, this is good, if he's freaking out chances are he will start to make stupid mistakes. but instead of a stagger to get your charge, you can easily just heroic leap away and charge and save stagger for another moment, a good moment for stagger will also be when your opponent pops his cd's or when you are both in the 30% second wind death zone you can use stagger to gain some ground and catch your breath for another charge (remember you want to keep hamstring on at ALL times to maximize your strategic advantage over your opponent.) Also remember how you saved your Storm bolt or shockwave for a reactive time? this is it, when your opponent is finally dying and worn out, this is when you stun him and pop cd's for the big finish.(remember your charges are micro stuns) And thanks to reactivity chances are your opponent has been defeated and is either slamming his fists on his keyboard or admiring your prowess.

Defensive Measures.

Now if your opponent has gotten the charge on you first dont fret, because now we will talk about defensive fighting, as a warrior you need to be fighting reactively and fight smart. lets start with this scenario 

Warrior Billy, has charged you, and has thrown his stun in, and obnoxiously popped all his offensive Cd's but hasn't popped bladestorm, Disarm Billy and hack away him (with hamstring on) also do not forget to thunderclap billy so that he is weakened, Billy now in desperation pops Bladestorm on you, Like a reactive warrior you have been waiting for this and heroic leap away to save your self from damage (this way die by the sword has been saved to counter his Die by the sword) Charge back in after billy's bladestorm is done and punish billy for being too brash. (also remember you still have your DPS cd's  Billy is but a weak lamb to you now.) Slaughter Billy and counter reactively when possible. Remember you have the tools to fight defensively and still come out as the winner. This fight wont be won by meeting brashness with brashness, this fight will be won from your ability to react and protect your self from damage. You must keep a postive mind set and not allow your opponent to shock you into brash decisions, you must shock him into making the brash decisions and turn him against himself.

Stance Danceing. 

Generally it is better to stay in battle stance, and switch into defensive stance when you cannot escape and must absolutely take his burst, switching into berserker will just end up getting you killed, remember you want to play reactively and protect your self, not throw your self into his damage. And if you just cannot escape the dps burst and cant use die by the sword or disarm, you will want to pop defensive stance + shield wall and sit through the damage, this will put you at a disadvantage but it wont throw you out of the fight.

  • If you are prot then you should Charge then Disarm your opponent , Thunder Clap and Demo shout. Smart warriors will switch to def stance and disarm you as well , but remember that warriors' disarm does not remove your shield . Followed by a stronger shield slam then arms\fury warriors would have (if they switch to a shield) this is a nice way to buy you some free time to hit the other guy. Save shield block for when he uses Bladestorm if he is specced into it. use it as soon as possible in the fight if he is fury\prot , as this would possibly let you use it for a second time during the fight.
    • If you see your health getting lower then 30% a nice idea would be to use your Shield Wall and Rallying cry ,so that your second wind will recover you.
    • Try not to use more then one type of control at the same time (like disarming+stunning or shield block+disarm\stun) and you'll probably have an easy win.

Recap time!

  • Keep Mortal strike+deep wounds to help stay the tide of second wind and to keep getting Taste for Blood charges.
  • Keep Hamstring on for easier control.
  • Keep Colossus Smash on to get as much damage in as possible.
  • Save your defensive CD's fight reactively with your opponent and force him into brash decisions.
  • Use your stuns when the time is oppurtune use them when you absolutely need to, or when you can get a kill out of it.
  • Never Bladestorm first. Bladestorm is one of the most easily countered abilities, but if you use it reactively it will really aid you in your fight.
  • Control the fight.
  • And lastly again, fight reactively force your opponent to fight on your terms and how you want him to fight, remember counter offensive with smart defensive and counter defensive with smart offensive.

The best way to practice your skills against other warriors is to duel, since cross realms has been introduced you should have no problem at all in finding a sparring partner. When you have done enough duels you will start to pickup when to apply the reactivity and critical thinking skills of when to use what defence and when to use your offense. Also remember that changing your keybinds can also greatly help your reactions, ex. i use v for my charge but i still have it as 9 for an option. Also remember as well that you will not be a warrior diva over night, you will need to continously apply your self in duels,battlegrounds and arenas. With enough practice you'll be one of the big guys.

Priest Edit

Notable Priest Abilities:

  • Power Word: Shield
  • Mind Flay
  • Holy Fire
  • Devouring Plague
  • Shadowguard
  • Prayer of Healing
  • Shadow Word: Pain
  • Desperate Prayer
  • Flash Heal
  • Psychic Scream
  • Mind Blast
  • Mind Control

Holy/Discipline priests (i.e. pure healers) are usually overmatched by a Warrior, but Shadow priests are a different story. With the ability to jump out of their Fear using Berserker Rage and with use of Pummel to stop casting, combined with high physical damage that is the bane of casters it would seem that Warriors would have an easy time of them, but the combination of the defenses of a Priest (especially Power Word: Shield) combined with respectable damage of a type that warriors cannot mitigate can often make for an almost unbeatable combination. Beating on a Priest whose shield is up and who is draining the Warrior's life from behind it using Mind Flay is the definition of futility: the Shadow Priest can damage the Warrior, but the Warrior is powerless to respond. Nevertheless with a little luck, judicious use of Pummel to stop the larger, longer cast-time heals, and Bloodrage to recover from the loss of Rage while the Priest is bubbled, they can be defeated. As is usual with casters, a Warrior should try to get the jump on them with an initial Charge, fight always in Berserker Stance, and Hamstring them to keep them from getting out of melee range. If possible, it can help a great deal to save non-rage generating attacks for the shield, leaving your white attacks to generate rage when they can actually deal damage. Try to pressure them as much as you can with constant damage , and when you see you cant hold the damage up and you'll have a gap between your hits - use your fear to buy you a few seconds for 1-2 hits to gain rage.Fear is best used to also interrupt some of their casting. Though the best advice for encountering a shadow priest is just to mount up and get out there if you can - there's no shame in a tactical retreat! You're 95% sure to lose unless you're seriously kitted out, which most of us aren't. Even with only half a health and mana bar they can often beat a full health warrior! A shadow priest is without doubt the warrior's worst enemy, even more so than the mage now - thanks to spell reflect.

Warlock Edit

While you may often lose to a well-geared Warlock because of the heavily beefed-up damage-over-time spells they can spam onto you, which will eat your health away like popcorn, and the fact that most high-level warlocks have health pools exceedings yours, they are not entirely impossible to beat. To stand a chance against a Warlock you can't really afford to make any mistakes, and even then you can still lose if they don't either.

To fight against a warlock is to fight against the clock. The longer you fight the bigger the chance is that his DoT's will eat you up. So keep the initiative and attack him constantly. You can use your PvP-trinket to break his Death-Coil which will surprise most warlocks and still have your fear-breaking abilities ready. Always keep Hamstring on and try to interrupt his longer casts.

Additional notes: Since warlock play styles vary a great deal, it is very important to watch what spells your opponent is casting. If encountering lower damage dealt onto the lock than you would expect against a cloth player, the lock is most likely Soullink specced. If the warlock has a felguard out, he or she is definitely specced for soullink, and 20% of the damage you deal is transferred to the pet. Soullink is usually the hardest spec to deal with for a warrior since you're generating less rage and his dmg dealt to damage taken ration is in his favor. In a group situation such as arena it may be worthwhile to kill the warlock's pet, since they die quickly to focus fire or a few lucky crits. Destruction warlocks, while rare, can be even more deadly to a warrior if the warrior is not careful: Backlash makes for impressive burst damage. Generally you want to only deal physical damage to the destruction warlock when you are ready to finish him.

Other things to keep in mind: Pummel any shadow school spells. This will mean either an interrupted drain life, drain mana directed towards your healer, shadow bolt, fear or howl of terror. These are all spells you do not want him to cast. While this may leave him open to casting fire spells, generally they'll deal less damage and locking down the warlock's shadow school denies him most of his defenses. Another option is to quickly switch to a shield and cast spell reflect if the warlock is casting fear or shadowbolt, and if you are familiar with warlock playstyles you can occasionally reflect a death coil.

Mage Edit

Notable Mage Abilities:

  • Blink - instant cast, 15 sec cooldown, teleports caster 20 meters in front of the caster. frees the caster from stuns or bonds (roots)
  • Ice Barrier (31 point Frost talent) - instant cast, 30 sec cooldown, absorb next 838 (at lvl 60) damage to caster, lasts 1 minute. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.
  • Ice Armor - instant cast, lasts 30 minutes, increases caster's armor by 560, enemy melee attacks have a chance to cause the attacker to have movement slowed by 30%, and attack slowed by 20% for 5 sec.
  • Frost Nova - instant cast, 25 sec cooldown, enemies near the caster take 71-79 frost damage, and are rooted for 8 seconds.
  • Polymorph - 1.5 sec cast, Transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander around for up to 50 sec. While wandering, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate health very quickly. Any damage will transform the target back into its normal form. Only one target can be polymorphed at a time. Only works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters.
  • Cone of Cold - instant cast, targets in a cone in front of the caster take 335 to 365 frost damage and are slowed to 50% of their normal movement speed for 8 sec.
  • Frost Bolt - 2.5 sec cast (with talents), deals 429-463 damage, reduces movement of target by 40%.
  • Pyroblast (11 point Fire talent) - 6 sec cast, deals 716-890 damage plus 268 damage over 12 secs.
  • Presence of Mind (20 point Arcane talent) - instant cast, 3 min cooldown, any mage spell with a casting time less than 10 seconds will cast instantly.
  • Ice Block (21 point Frost talent) - instant cast, 5 min cooldown, encases mage in a block of ice protecting them from all forms of damage for 10 seconds and removes all negative effects (stuns, roots, disorients, magic, poison, disease, etc.) Mage cannot move or cast spells during this time.
  • Arcane Power (31 point Arcane talent) - instant cast, 3 min cooldown, when activated increases mage spell damage by 30% while also costing 30% more mana to cast. Effect lasts for 15 secs.

Warriors have a varying chance against skilled mages  depending on how well you react and counter.. Generally speaking Fire and Arcane mages are very squishy so we'll be talking mostly about Frost Mages.

Mages are very soft targets so they will naturally try to put distance between you and them and for this purpose Frost Nova and the snare of Frost Bolt are very good. Always keep Hamstring on a mage (also after an Iceblock) and you should be able to run up to him or at least keep him from casting non-instant spells. There are several options to battle Frost Nova. The first is of course your PvP-trinket but cherish its long cooldown. Another good thing to remember is that the mage must be fairly close to cast Frost Nova so you can easily fear him, making him waste his Frost Nova unless he is frost, which he will have two frost novas.

Double time is best utilized against a mage's blink, however this will leave you with no more charges provided you charged first, though you do have heroic leap still ready to catch up to him, after a mage blinks a good strategy after the charge is to use your staggering shout, making his frost nova root useless for keeping you away, and it might just panic him into a ice block. . Forcing mages to blink before your second charges can be difficult, but most of the time they will blink right away. and if they frost nova prepare to use spell reflection to counter a deep freeze. Canny mages will do everything in their power to avoid blinking until you've used your second charge However, blink will teleport the mage directly forwards, and if they are blinking out of your charge they cannot turn to a new facing. So if you are forced to charge a mage before they have blinked, immediately run in the direction they're facing. Depending on their reaction times and the openness of the terrain, it is possible to be back in melee range before they have a chance to do anything. Keeping the mage hamstrung really helps with this tactic.

Mages will often open up the fight by trying to sheep you (varying, anymore this is hit or miss.). This allows them to re-establish range and open with long casts with no fear of a charge or intercept. Usually, you should just eat what they're throwing at you and save your trinket for cutting down the last few % of health while they try to kite you at the end of the fight, but it is occasionally worth trinketing out of the sheep. If the mage is trying a Pyroblast, you will have enough time to get out of combat, trinket and steal the opener with a charge;  If the mage used frost nova before sheeping you, or you have just come from another combat, you will have enough rage to spell reflect if you trinket out of the Polymorph.

all Frost mages  have a Water Elemental who can do a ranged Frost Nova and some good damage as well. These fellows are very low on health so it can be wise to dispense of them when you see them and get some free rage. However, don't go chasing them on expense of the mage.

If you're quick, you can oftentimes reflect a Mage's heavy nukes or Polymorphs with a timely spell reflect. Be careful not to let a Mage on low health be Polymorphed for too long; cunning mages have been known to throw a Polymorph when they know you can reflect it just to regain health and buy some time to let their cooldowns reset.

Druid Edit

If a Druid engages you as a bear at the beginning of the battle he has about 1.5 to 3 times as much armor as you do, so do not expect a quick kill. As with all casters, shield bash/pummel is crucial to fighting a druid: you cannot afford to have them get off a heal or they simply will bleed you to death or tank you down. The majority of Feral spec Druids tend to favour Cat form, which is substantially more fragile than Bear. Note, however, most druids will shift into bear form against other melee classes, making use of the form's superior mitigation and substantial stamina boost. Balance is by far the most effective Druid tree for PvP against warriors, but most of them aren't willing to respec to specialize as warrior killers, so they don't use it (The Moonkin form is essentially their caster version of the feral dire bear form, with equal armor but no stamina boost -- a 'mage in plate'). A Cat form Feral Druid is unlikely to cause you significant problems, unless he is well geared or very smart. However, once Druids gain their level 62 skill Maim, they earn some of the stun-lock capabilities of a rogue and Cat druids become significantly more difficult to kill, as they can now stun, heal, and climb behind you for major burst damage at the middle to end of the battle. Druids will often open in cat form, seeking to keep you stunlocked and stacking as many bleeds as possible before shifting into bear form for the long-haul. If you suspect a druid is nearby, don't hesitate to use aoe's to break his stealth and deny early control of the fight. Though only one bleed is dependent upon stealth (Pounce), you will make it more difficult for him to build up combo points with relative immunity. In the worst case, if you are caught off-guard, it is preferable to eat the three- to four second stun duration than to trinket it and risk losing any possible chance of interrupting a heal.

Things to watch out for: druids have the ability to stun you for a few seconds, either utilizing Bash in bear form or Maim in cat form. Expect them to use this as they are getting low in hitpoints. They stun you, change back to caster, heal, then shift back to bear. To counter this, make sure you are in berserker stance (ideally have your rank 2 PvP trinket for breaking stun ready and equipped). When they stun you, hit your trinket. When their hands turn green as they begin to case heal ... pummel them to stop the heal. Blood rage if necessary to get the rage for this, as that heal will likely mean death for you. Also if you are MS spec, keep that on them, that 50% healing reduction goes a LONG way in winning the battle as druids have several Heal Over Time spells, that your MS will nicely gimp. Another classic trick is to cast cyclone giving them ample time to heal. This can be prevented by using trinket to break the cyclone, then pummel his attempted heal. You can be sure hes gonna heal if he casts cyclone or entangling roots so get you finger on that pummel button! Remember to interrupt his Cyclones as they are easy to spot. Note that even if you trinket out of entangling roots or a cyclone, most druids of any spec will have spent one point on Nature's Grasp, which is an instant-cast spell with a minimum 35% chance to passively proc entangling roots. Do not be surprised if upon reaching the druid you find yourself instantly re-rooted and beyond melee range despite no visible cast. Your best bet is to hope the spell is on diminishing returns.

Unfortunately, a good druid is always anticipating interrupts and will generally do everything possible to avoid getting into such a 'heal-now-or-die' situation (druids with Nature's Swiftness don't even have to worry about an interrupted heal). One way he will do this is by shifting earlier than you might expect so that if he is pummeled at that point, he will still have at least one more opportunity to heal (often back to full). He will usually return to bear form ('turtle') to wait out any spell lock before shifting once again to heal. Even if caught in caster form -- by far the best time to catch a druid -- be aware that he will likely instant-cast Barkskin, significantly mitigating damage even in that form, at least over its short duration (as it has a one minute cooldown, it happily will not be used twice in a normal fight). If your pummel missed, note that normal damage will not cause any spell push-back while barkskin is active. Smart druids will also often feign casts if at all possible in an attempt to get you to mis-time your interrupt, either by self-interrupting or by casting something in the arcane school. With any lag at all, this can be remarkably effective. Furthermore, this all assumes of course that the druid will actually need to heal during the fight, and to heal for more than Frenzied Regeneration will patch in bear form. More often than not, equivalently geared ferals do not nowadays need to top themselves off mid-fight in order to defeat warriors.

As druids are the best class at escaping slowing and snare effects be wary of a druid that get low on health as he can quickly shift forms out of a snare/speed debuff and run away much faster than you can catch him on foot. A good trick against an escaping druid is to continuously using Hamstring and Mortal Strike. The trick is to get the druid into his caster-form where he is a very soft target, and this is best done by causing massive damage to him in his other forms (often easier said than done against the armor bonuses in moonkin and bear forms).

Be careful with druids. Resto druids will die, however slowly, but an equivalently geared feral druid who stays in bear form, or a balance moonkin, can usually take out a warrior without a problem.

Hunter Edit

The advice for fighting warlocks applies to Hunters as well, as does the bloodrage/intercept strategy used against Mages. Keep in mind that chasing a hunter who is stunning/dazing you is an entirely futile exercise until intercept goes away; switch to a shield, shield wall if necessary, and build up rage on the pet while doing what you can to mitigate damage until intercept recycles. Another option is to try to get close enough to successfully cast intimidating shout (10 yard range). If you get the jump on them, the fight becomes even easier. If not, you can still attempt this next idea. Make sure you are targeting the Hunter, and not their pet. This will get their pet out of your hair for more than enough time to punish the opposing Hunter. Most of the time, they freak out that their pet is gone. All you have to do is hamstring, disarm (reason explained below), MS, execute. It really is that easy. If they get the drop on you, attempt to build up rage and intercept. That is one of your strongest weapons against a Hunter.

One tactic to easily kill a Hunter is as follows. If you charge in, the Hunter is very likely to have an ice trap waiting for you. Do not fret, though, because you (the cunning Warrior) has a plan. Spam the AoE taunt ability Challenging Shout as you are charging in. If you time it well, it may force the Hunters pet to attack you once you are frozen in the trap, causing the root to be broken and essentially screwing over your enemy. Once the pet has broken the ice trap, you should immediately hamstring the hunter. Next (this is crucial) you should disarm your opponent. "But Hunters can't do much damage at a melee range" you say? This may be so, but taking away your enemy's melee weapon will take away their single greatest ability: Wing Clip. If a hunter can't Wing Clip you, and they are kept at 50% movement speed for 15 seconds due to your Hamsting ability, you will have more than enough time to destroy your opponent. Many Hunters have high dodge-rates so it's an good idea to Overpower them for easy damage. If you are fighting a BM Hunter (may it be in duels, arenas, or battlegrounds), be sure not to stand in the open field (which is optimal ground for a kite-class) and find terrain (such as columns or buildings) to hide behind to make the Hunter come to you, within melee-range. Most Hunters will send their pet against you to apply debuffs and inflict damage and this is where the fun begins.

You can use the pet to build 100 rage or you can simply kill it, breaking the Hunters Beast Mastery and making him/her very easy to kill again. A quality tactic would entitle to build 100 rage and fight the Hunter head on using every damaging ability that I have at my disposal. This is both fun and demoralizing for a BM-Hunter who previously beleived that they were invincible.

Paladin Edit

From a Paladin's point of view, warriors are probably their easiest opponents. Should you be fighting a Paladin, you can't afford any mistakes. You need to keep them in front of you in order to maximize your damage output, and try to stay behind them to receive the lowest amount of damage possible. Keep them Hamstringed and have Rend applied at all times. If you are an Arms spec warrior, Mortal Strike won't do anything for you unless they heal before putting on Blessing of Protection or Divine Shield. If the Paladin puts up any of their "Protection" shields, stay back about 10 yards from them and bandage - this way you should be out of range for their Hammer of Justice and Consecration (which will interrupt your bandage). When the Paladin comes out of their shield, you should be far enough away from them to Charge; a paladin fight is all about rage generation. Without an ample supply of rage to fuel your abilities, you will be easily killed. Paladins are easily the most durable class, but also have the least DPS (Untrue if retribution now, they can out DPS a rogue with a good spec). They can survive for long periods of time with stuns, invulnerability, plate armor, and other abilities (e.g. Lay on Hands: Restores their mana and all their health, and costs no mana to themselves!), 20 minute cooldown, lowered to 16 minutes with talents. Luckily, most Paladins use this very rarely, saving it for a critical moment.

Keep in mind that since 1.9, 31 points in Holy tree is growing in popularity, allowing a Paladin to use the spell "Holy Shock", which will interrupt your bandage from 20 yards. Which spec a Paladin is using can often be discovered by looking at their gear: A Paladin wearing a 2h and low mana gear such as BG-rewards are likely to be retribution spec'd or protection spec'd. If they wear a shield and 1h they are either protection or holy-spec'd, the latter being more common. Also, Paladins with epic dungeon gear, Judgement and/or Lawbringer, are very often holy-spec'd.


  • MS MUST be applied whenever they are about to heal.
  • Keep Rend on them.
  • Keep Hamstring on them.
  • Keep them in front of you.
  • Stay behind them.
  • Try to keep them disarmed.
  • A Paladin survives based on their mana. A Paladin with no mana is a dead Paladin(LoH can help though).

Most of the time, if you are able to beat a Paladin, he either made a big mistake or underestimated you. If they ever try to heal without their precious shields, punish them for their foolishness! Should they stun, just use your PvP-trinket, then pummel them immediately (macro). Don't try to do anything else; what you need to do is silence them, not interrupt their spell! Remember, all the Paladin's spells are holy, so if you silence them, they can't use any of their shields, giving you the opportunity to finish them off before they even realize what is happening. However the exception is that Paladins can divine shield out of a silence but a pummel which interrupts a holy spell locks out the entire holy tree.

If you're losing (which happens more often than not), there is really nothing you can do other than fight to your death and try to kill them. Watch out for their Hammer of Wrath from 25 yards, if they try to do it either pummel them, stand behind them, or Concussion Blow them if you have it. Your survival hinges on your ability to prevent this killing blow.

Now for the good news: Warriors who spec protection have a better chance of killing any kind of paladin. Shield Slam takes away their seals and blessings (unless they are specced deep ret, then you would already have a much higher chance beating them), Improved Shield Bash silences them, and Improved Disarm takes away their weapon (which is devastating for any paladin, specifically ret specced ones which are starting to get popular). Remember that paladins do not stand around and heal most of the time, they do try to attack with their seals. Improved Revenge greatly increases your survivability when you parry/block/dodge their weak, seal-less attacks. If you can bash their heals, silence them and Shield Slam away their buffs, the paladin is greatly crippled. Recasting buffs takes away precious time and mana, which is exactly what you need to kill them.

Except for Retribution spec'd paladins, paladins have trouble regenerating their mana without seal of wisdom, and if you take it away constantly, they will generally recast it again and again until their mana pool is completely gone. To top it off, as a protection warrior you have Concussion blow which is usable every 45 seconds. Your concussion blow is not for you to beat on them while they're stunned (that's what improved revenge is for). Concussion blow is your queue to bandage (so prepare a macro for it!). Bandaging for at least 5 seconds every 45 seconds can keep you alive against a paladin for a very long time. At the same time they can trinket out of it so be ready for them to do that unless they haven't used their trinket already (this will always happen late fight, then they will bubble and heal, and probably interrupt your bandaging). Unless you can kill them extremely quickly, bandaging is always your best option after a concussion blow and if they do trink out of a stun and you havent started bandaging yet make them pay by using your intimidating shout to fear them then heal for almost the full 10 sec..

Keep in mind that if Paladins use Blessing of Protection, Bandage as much as you can. They can't stop you unless they remove their own blessing to interrupt your bandage (which they aren't likely to do). In the case of Divine Protection, you may try to bandage, but the paladin might just attack you to interrupt. Best thing you might want to do is switch to battle stance (if you haven't yet) and stay a good distance away to at charge them when bubble fades away.

Shield Slam can take away these buffs (which would generally kill non-protection warriors otherwise):
Holy Shield
Blessing of Sanctuary
All Seals
All Blessings

Shaman Edit

Totems, totems, totems! Shamans depend on totems like Warriors depend on weapons. Bring down the totem and the shaman will fall. Unfortunately Hamstring is no longer viable for this as it no longer does damage as of 3.1.0. You should easily be doing more damage to him than he is to you while in hand to hand combat (which, as a shaman, he cannot realistically avoid). Disarm the Shaman early on in the fight and he will lose most of his DPS on you early fight. This will pretty soon force him to resort to healing himself. Interrupt any heals that the Shaman attempts and you will win, when he gets a heal in it generally results in a loss. Just bash him down. Shamans are probably the simplest (though sometimes not the easiest) fight for a warrior. The formula is always the same - Charge; Hamstring; Disarm; beat him up and Pummel his attempts to heal. You do not really need to do too much thinking, complicated tricks or stance swapping as you would when fighting a mage or a rogue. One thing to look out for is when the shaman drops down to 20-30% and panics. He will then use Bloodlust and spam Lesser Healing Wave which can be impossible to interrupt. Be prepared for this and save your stunning and fear for this moment and quickly nuke him down.

While not a shaman ability, the Tauren racial ability Warstomp is worth mentioning. The vast majority of Horde Shamans are Tauren, so you will likely see this ability used frequently. It can be very effective in close quarters. The simple solution to this is to use your trinket as soon as he uses Warstomp. He will be guaranteed to be attempting a heal when he does this. Just quickly trinket out and Pummel and you will be fine.

The other race worth mentioning is Draenei (as all Alliance shamans are Draenei). Gift of the Naaru is now an instant cast (15/4/09, Patch 3.1.0) and so cannot be interrupted, the way around this is to Mortal Strike the Shaman as soon as he casts it (plus it is a heal over time so fearing him will not work, he will still be healing).

Throughout levels 1-50, a skilled Shaman will probably beat a warrior. Level 51-59, Shaman start to become horribly gimped compared to other classes, and you should destroy them easily.. At Level 60+, a well-played warrior should never lose to a shaman, better geared or otherwise (in a one on one situation).

At level 70, a warrior will begin to have problems with Restoration Shaman. Restoration shamans are near impossible to kill because of Earth Shield, so Mortal Striking early may be a better the solution in order to cut down the heals they get back (as opposed to Mortal Striking when they're lower on HP). Earth Shield is expensive to cast, so the less they benefit from it, the better. Some shamans will try to kite you with Earthbind Totem and Frost Shock, but you'll only have to tap the Earthbind and Intercept before they become helpless again.

In the case of elemental shamans (which have a tad more survivability than that of an enhancement shaman, due to their shield), they are likely to put up Water Shield and kite using the method above. Mortal Strike when they're low to reduce their survivability further(about 60-50% is low enough). Most elemental shamans at this point will stop kiting and try to get off a quick heal. This is your cue to get in there and gib them. If you don't have Mortal Strike, the fight will be a bit harder, since most elemental shamans have the Nature's Focus talent which gives them a 70% chance to avoid interruption when casting heal spells, however you will still be able to kill them easily. The key is to hit really hard, or hit really fast. You never want to allow them one regular Lightning Bolt. If their only form of DPS on you is their cooldowns and shocks, the fight is likely yours. If you have Mortal Strike, save your Pummel for their bolts, not their heals. If you don't, then pummel their heals and try to delay their bolts.

DeathKnights Edit

Death Knights (a.k.a. DKs) are very difficult to beat because they are very good at kiting and also very good at toe to toe battle they also have in their employ Necrotic Strike which will make Second wind heal for nothing, which means you are going to have to be very aggresive if you are to win this fight. The most troubling Dk for us will be unholy, the pets with diseases on top of a necro strike will simply decimate you, this will be a fight that simply requires you to extremely aggressive, the longer you take with this fight the easier it'll be for the dk to overpower you.

All information below this is outdated for dk combat, i havent had the time to revise this yet so please do not take any of these strategies to heart as these are very much old wrath-cata

If you're a Prot warrior, fighting a DK can be a very fun experience and could just as easily swing in your favor. Keep him in front of you at all times! This is easier said than done, But with skills at your disposal such as Hamstring and Piercing Howl, it becomes much more easy. A DK can hit as hard as you can, and can kite you around easily if you're not careful. If he starts to chains of ice you back to back, this is a good sign that he's trying to kite you and will easily succeed if you don't stop him. Keep spell reflect up and for the sake of god, close the gap! Unless he's frost spec and has lichborne, he won't have much defense against your stuns, but unfortunately they have a nice cooldown which could hurt. Shield Slam often to dispel his Horn of Winter or any other temporary buffs he gives himself. It's weird to say and even see, but consider speccing into Piercing Howl even as Prot. A good fury warrior knows to love and abuse this skill as it DOESN'T require a hit and due to the DK's kiting you or better mobility with D&D, this could really come in handy. Don't be afraid to use Shield Block either. It doubles your block value and gives a 100% chance to block to all melee attacks in front of you. This and Hamstring/Piercing Howl, gives you plenty of chances to use Revenge or simply to give yourself a moment or two to breathe while you pop a potion or Last Stand or even Enraged Regeneration.

A Warrior and DK of the same gear level will NOT have the same armor, health and strength after patch 3.2.0. It favors the warrior more. Use Devastate or Sunder Armor when you think it's best. Having it Glyphed works well too. Dropping his armor-which is already lower than yours- but 25% could be all you need.

Death Knights are a unique challenge for warriors as they're a good mix of melee and spell casting ability and high armor. However, this gives most warriors a chance to do something unheard of; utilizing tactics. The Death Knight is NOT unbeatable. And with enough practice, even the dead can die again.

Arena Edit

The problem most warriors have in arena is that they will have a tendency to close fast on the enemy team with a charge. Effectively all this does is 'run away' from your team-mates, and choosing the time to charge can be very difficult in the high pressure environment of the Arena. If you charge too early you will have closed on the majority of the opposing team and will be killed fairly quickly, thus disadvantaging your team early on.

If you have a healer in your team make sure that you are within healing range of them so that they can heal you because with a well geared healer a warrior can be almost invincible.

If one of your teammates or you is hit by a sap (in early game, or when a stalemate arises because you can't see any of the opposing team) then you have two choices, move away and hope the rogue will show them self and allow you to beat on them before his team gets a look in, or your team can stay close. The former (moving away and hoping) is preferred as the rogue may deide to switch targets and stun-lock another player if you stay close to sapped player, effectively freezing two players in the early game (in 2v2 arena this is a fairly common tactic, with the rogue team then attacking and killing the healer or least armored member of your team).

Keep in mind that if the rogue is on your team and he has sapped someone ignore them and make sure any AoE's you cast (like thunderclap) do not hit them, it's up to the rogue to decide what to do.

If you see one of your team-mates getting beat upon, make a quick decision based on your health at the time and either intervene (and take some hits for the team) or run up to them and hamstring everyone in the vicinity and try to make them switch targets (which they probably won't do if they think they can kill the person, but may do if they can't get close enough to attack them).

If you are a Draenei then think of your Gift of the Naaru as a very effective weapon (even more effective in 3.1.0 as it is an instant cast) and be ready to use it. If you have any Draenei's in your group remind them of the ability as it can mean the difference of a loss or win.

Lifeblood (gotten from doing Herbalism) is another instant cast heal over time that should be used as much as possible, but especially in dire situations, remember that it can only be cast on you, and that your herbalism should be maxed out to give you the best healing possible.

PvP Macros Edit

Please visit the macro page,, and try to build macros to do the following things:

Charge and Hamstring (Both in Battle Stance)

Intercept and hamstring (Switch to Berserker Stance, intercept, switch to Battle Stance, hamstring)

Switch to Shield and Defensive Stance

Switch back to main weapon/s

Intimidating shout followed by bandaging (especially useful in end fight when they've blown their trinket)

If you have a potion or plan on having potions in your fights then create a macro that you always have which tries to drink every potion in the game (arrange it so it drinks the highest healing potion first, second highest next and so on, followed by /cast autoattack). This macro allows you to not worry which potion/s you have in your inventory as you'll always drink the best one. The important thing to remember with this macro is the /cast autoattack, which means you don't have to right-click on the target again, because it does it for you immediately, meaning you get in those precious milliseconds of attack. Also, as warriors don't have to many ways to actively heal themselves it's always a good idea to have a potion for any scheduled arena fight (preferably several potions). This macro is not as useful in a Battleground because you die a lot more and will end up wasting your potions.

A macro that casts your trinket then immediately casts pummel (mostly for spell-casters and it may confuse you when not vsing spell-casters because of the trinket cast)

Concussion Blow followed by bandaging (if you think you can kill them in six seconds then just cast concussion blow, or if your health is so high that bandaging is made redundant, be careful they don't trinket out of it, because it is a 45 second wait each cooldown)

You should create macros that suit your PvP style, so you don't have to create all of these, or even any.

See also Edit

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