Warriors Tips And Tricks

Some PvP strategies and tips:


For all of those warriors that suck at PvP or maybe just want to get better , heres how

The Warrior can be effective in PvP, or he can be horribly gimped. It all depends on how you play your Warrior and how your opponent plays his class. This is simply an attempt to show you how to play against each individual class, regardless of how good the Warrior is, as this will change from patch to patch. Note that there are many variables, so any fight can be very unpredictable. Also, these strategies are aimed towards higher level players, as they and their opponents have all or most of their abilities, but they can generally be applied to most Warriors. Also, these strategies are tailored towards Warriors with a Mortal Strike (MS) Arms/Fury build (covered in the Talents section), but these strategies can be easily modified to fit your own build. If you don't use Mortal Strike and are a Fury warrior, you will primarily be using Bloodthirst instead. If you are using a Protection build, you will be using shield block/revenge and sunder armor against melee classes and HS against casters.

Druid:
Druids are quite different from any other class. Imagine fighting a Warrior for a while, then all of the sudden fighting a Priest. Most Druids will lead off the fight by rooting you and nacking on a few damage spells, and then they switch to bear form to melee you. When meleeing them, fight them just as you would a Warrior (see the Warrior PvP later down the page). However, when they get around half health, or maybe a little less, they will likely switch to Druid form to heal themselves. Some will root you and go back to heal, and some will just heal right there. It's important that you pummel whatever comes up, heal or root (they hands will glow green), and get a Mortal Strike on them so they heal at 50% effectiveness (if you have Mortal Strike). If you have a free action potion or the Corporal PvP trinket, use it when you're rooted. That can be game over for the Druid if he can't heal. If you let them get off the heal, however, they can just rinse and repeat, because you'll never outlast them like that.




Hunter:
Until you get Intercept (at level 34 or so), hunters are quite hard. After that, they become much easier. The trick is, keep them moving slowly with improved hamstring and close any distance that does happen with intercept. Watch out for the freezing ice trap, though; it's always a killer. Also, use imtimidating shout on them, so their pet runs away, or on their pet (make sure not to cause damage to it, though) so they run, hamstrung, while you beat on them and their pet cowers in one place. Rend is good, and since they use mail (DOTs aren't affected by armor) it's pretty efficient. A well-played Hunter can make use of the freezing traps very well, so that it is very hard to get many hits off. If possible, avoid the traps, and use imtimidating shout (if possible) when you will intially be frozen, so that he doesn't get to move out and set another trap. If you can achieve this, and get the initial Charge, the fight will ussually be fairly easy. Otherwise, be ready for a hard fight.

Mage:
Usually one of your toughest opponents. The problem with mages seems to be they will always be one step (or blink) ahead of you, so you’re never in melee range. A mage will often, after you charge, blink away and polymorph you. They will often proceed to caste a HUGE nuke for ~600-900 damage, ~1200 or more if it crits. There's not much you can do it prevent this, except by being quick on Intercept, pummel, and your PvP trinket. However, if you know they are going to poly you and can't do anything about it, use Bloodrage (it costs a bit of health, but it will give you 20 rage and the health will be regained while in sheep form). But once that happens, quickly intercept and hamstring them. If they use frost nova, which freezes you, you should shoot them with your bow/gun while they nuke you, or throw a bomb if you're an engineer. Also, if you have a quick finger, consider using intimidating shout to root them until your nova wears off (turn off attack until it does wear off). This will effectively negate the root. Get ready to run up to them again if you don't get that shout, and use MS until you can execute. Mages can be a sinch if you close the distance between them, as they are quite soft. The challenge is closing the distance.

Paladin:
Paladins can be nearly impossible to beat unless you catch them when their shields are on cool down. And even then, they can prove to be tough. With their plate armor and healing, you’re in for a long fight. The strategy is pretty simple...demoralizing shout, rend, just as you would fight a mob. Also use disarm. After you've done that, just Mortal Strike until the execute. However, you will often find that you die before you get a chance to execute. Paladin fights are pretty predictable. Keep to berserker stance to pummel if they try to heal unshielded when you’re not stunned, and if you could use a bandage and they don’t have a rend/deep wounds on, use intimidating shout, turn off attack, and bandage yourself. Whenever they shield, take a few steps back and bandage. Bandaging yourself while they shield is essential.

Priest:
Shadow Priests are regarded by many players as the best PvP class, and, like paladins, can be very tough, even for the most skilled warrior, to beat. They are often regarded as THE best PvP class. Other priests, though, will prove to be much easier. Against any priest, though, your first action (after charging) will be to switch to berserker stance in preperation for the physic scream (AoE fear). Once he uses the fear, just use berserker rage to break it. Your strategy is simple: mortal strike and execute. Pummel holy spells if they are not a shadow priest (you can tell because shadow priests will always have shadow form on, which looks semi-transparent and has little shadow stuff at their feet), and shadow spells if they are a shadow priest. Holy spells look like yellow light, and shadow spells look blackish purple.

Rogue:
A good stun-lock rogue (one that keeps you stunned almost the whole time) can be very difficult to beat, but a poorly played rogue can be a walk in the park. But any rogue is beatable; much of WoW is luck. Crits, misses, etc. Many Warriors have lost to stunlock rogues without them taking more than a 25% loss of health, but many have also beaten them with 50% health left because of their missed cheap shot, etc. Because rogues can sneak up on you, there is no real “formula” for fighting them, but here are the first things you should do:

Hamstring. This will prevent the rogue from moving around you and getting a backstab in. Second, overpower whenever you get a chance. Overpower is a great skill, especially with improved overpower, deep wounds, and impale. Third, rend. This prevents them from vanishing for the ultimate stun-lock combo. So make sure they’re always bleeding with either rend or deep wounds. Another key ability is disarm. All their abilities require a main hand melee weapon (most do, anyway), so disarm takes away those abilities. Keeping those four tactics in mind, try to keep them with demoralizing shout on, keep battle shout up (keeping battle shout up should apply to all classes), and mortal strike away. If it looks like you’ll lose, remember retaliation. For every one of their ultra-fast swings, you get one hard-hitting one. Unfortunately, you can not rely on this skill because of the long cooldown.

Should you ever get the charge, the rogue will almost indefinitely lose. If they get the jump, however, things often won’t look so good for you without retaliation. It all depends on the Rogue.

Shaman:
Shamans are somewhat jacks of all trades. They have mail and can wear a shield, so they're not soft. They can heal, so that's that. In addition, they have potent damage spells and weapon-enhancing spells, so you could be taking quite a bit of damage. Most shamans will lay down a totem and try to melee you. Depending on what totem they lay down, you may or may not want to destroy it (generally, two-handed weapon users will not want to destroy the totem, while dual-wield users will...you can use Hamstring on the totems to destroy them, however, for only 10 rage). When you fight the Shaman, though, fight them as you would a Paladin, remembering that they're a bit softer, but (generally) do more damage and have no damage shields. A shock spell, an instant high-damage spell, could instantly take away 800 health. Be ready for things like this. Make sure to pummel their heals and keep them with the MS effect on, so when they do heal, it's at 50% effectiveness. If you can manage to get them into execute range, you should win. Disarm helps.

Warlock:
Warlocks can be easy or hard, depending on their build and pet choice. A good warlock will use their succubus demon minion to seduce you (10 seconds of you while you cannot perform any actions) while they get off free castes, and they will fear you while your berserker rage is on cool down. But still, they are very soft, and there are diminishing returns linked to seduce and fear. Remember to use switch to berserker stance from the start to break the fear. You will probably get feared and not be able to help it, so intercept to close distance. You can learn what the difference between a fear caste and another shadow spell is, and pummel only the fears. Still, the warlock will have a small window of opportunity to fear you. Ignore the demon. The toughest of Warlocks will have a Demonology build that effectively grants them 10,000 life. Yes, that is ten-thousand hit points. Even those Warlocks are beatable, though. Like when fighting Hunters, using Imtimidating Shout on the Warlock (so the demon runs away) is vital.

Other Warriors:
Your strategy vs. other warriors is somewhat like your strategy vs. rogues and vs. paladins combined...remember, disarm is nice, as it is vs. rogues, and maneuvering plays a big role. Keep them hamstrung, so you can have the mobility advantage. Just fight them like you would a mob, basically. Use your instinct; you should be fairly adept at fighting warriors, since you play one.


In group PvP, you will often find yourself ignored by other players, as the Warrior's DPS isn't anything like that of a mage's or rogue's. However, it is considerable enough so that any who ignore you are going to be in for a beating. The nice thing is, if they start attacking you, it may take them a bit of time to kill you. Use this to your advantage, and go straight for the cloth wearers. They'll either be forced to take their eyes, and spells, off of the enemy casters and go for you, or they'll die Big Grin. However, if you charge in, guns (or swords...axes...maces) ablazin', you'll be sure to die within 6 seconds. You can try to get them from behind, but the most important thing is to attack in groups, so the enemies aren't focused on any one person.

Another thing that many Warriors forget is Imtimidating Shout. If enemy casters are lined up, shooting at your group, charge in and caste Imtimidating Shout. Everyone will flee off in different directions, and the enemy will be vulnerable.

One more thing to remember is the usefulness of Hamstring. It's usually the first or second thing you do against ANY class. Mobility is very important.

Back to the Warrior basics