This is an attempt to remedy “help with talents” threads. The goal is to make a guide for warriors who are not confident in their knowledge of the various talents’ value when they try to decide on a build.

In the Talent build section, I have placed a few sample builds. These will most likely include my personal preferences. If I have made obvious mistakes, like putting PH in a “PvE” build, please comment about it, so w can keep the thread as educational as possible.

1. Arms Talents
2. Fury Talents
3. Protection Talents

4. Talent Builds
4.1 Talents pre 40

4.2 Mortal Strike Builds
4.2.1 Level 45 – 60- 70

4.3 Fury Builds
4.3.1 Level 45 – 60- 70

4.4 Tank builds
4.4.1 Level 45 – 60 -70

5. Hybrid talent builds

1. Arms Talents

Motivation: Many warrior players perceive the Arms tree as the PvP tree. This is because the "main" talent that favours slow, hard hitting two-handed weapons, the effect of this being that Mortal Strike delivers a fair amount of burst damage.

Improved Heroic Strike 0/3 : Each talent point - TP spent here reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike (HS) ability by one rage point. For a high level player who speccs deep into the Arms tree, the value of Improved HS can be questioned, but easily justified. Since HS is an “on next attack” ability, you you pay a fixed amount of rage for a fixed amount of damage, this amount increasing with level/talent ranks, and made more cost-effective with Imp. HS talents. HS produces extra threat per damage point dealt, meaning it is a good attack for tanking/dealing damage.

Deflection 0/5: Each TP spent here increases your chance to parry an attack by 1%. This talent is considered to be the best damage mitigation talent warriors have, as parry is 100% damage reduced of an incoming melee attack. It is a must for a tank, and a talent most max out, or at least put filler points.

Improved Rend 0/3: Each talent point spent here increases the damage done by your Rend ability by 25/50/75%. Many warriors argue that Rend is an ability of little value. Rend offers good damage for the rage cost at lower levels, but later, it has two uses; 1. Place a DoT on rogues 2. Place Blood frenzy debuff.

Improved Charge 0/2: Each TP spent here increases the Rage gain from a Charge 3/6. Charge is good for grinding, but the range is short enough for other classes to put you in combat before you get a chance to use it. Thus, it has reduced value for PvP.

Iron Will 0/5: Each TP spent here increases your chance to resist stun/charm effects by 3/6/9/12/15%. Arguably a good talent for PvP, especially versus rogues and warlocks. It is loved by some, in particular Orc warriors, who already have 15% stun resistance. 15% more almost makes it reliable. A talent some acquire a taste for, and some find too expensive.

Improved Thunder Clap 0/3: Each TP spent here reduces the rage cost by 1/2/4, the damage dealt by TC by 40/70/100% and increase the slowing effect by 4/7/10%. Imp. TC used to be the laughing stock of warrior talents, but after TBC, it is great. The attack speed debuff is very useful both for PvP and PvE.

Improved Overpower 0/2: Each TP spent here increases the crit chance of Overpower by 25/50%. I do not know any warrior who speccs Arms without choosing Imp. Overpower. <3 OP.

Anger Management 0/1: One TP here gives you a 1 per 3 second rage tick. AM is great for 2hd builds. Period. I cry when I see 2h-warriors with Unbridled Wrath, but no AM.

Deep Wounds 0/3: Each TP spent here makes your critical strikes cause a bleed effect on the target that is 20/40/60% of your weapon’s average damage. Required for Impale. The drawback with Deep Wounds is that it can render your intimidating shout ability useless unless you make sure you cast it when your opponent is not bleeding. It does not stack like rogue poisons. Many feel the talent is worth taking both for its own value, but especially for getting access to Impale. Smart choice if you want Blood Frenzy :)

Impale 0/2: Each TP spent here increases the critical strike damage bonus of your abilities in all stances by 10/20%. This means that your critical hits that are not “white crits”, are increased. <3 big crits.

Two-handed weapon Specialisation 0/5: Each talent point spent here increases the damage you cause when using two-handed weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%. If you use two-handed weapons a lot, you want this talent, because the extra % is for the total damage.

Weapon specialization Tier: The Arms tree offers a chance to specialize in the use of weapons: Poleaxe, Maces and Swords.

I will not go into the pros and cons of the three different speccs, because they are fairly equal in value, but with different purpose. The choice comes down to taste, and the weapons you have access to. I wont argue more about it. If you are uncertain, ask your friendly neighborhood old skool warrior.

Death wish 0/1: Spend a talent point here, and you get, on a 3 minute cooldown, the ability to increase your damage by 20%, increase the damage you take by 5%, and be immune to fear for 30 seconds. Use with care in berserker stance for PvP. 15% extra damage on you hurts.

Improved intercept 0/2: Each talent point spent here reduces the cooldown of your intercept ability by 5/10 seconds. The value of intercept for PvP can not be questioned.

Improved Hamstring 0/3: Each TP gives hamstring a 5/10/15% chance to immobilize the target for 5 seconds. It is a killer when it procs, but many think the proc chance is too low for it to be worth three talents. If you mostly PvP and spam hamstring like there is no tomorrow, it may be worth it. It is a huge bonus when it procs. Mages will Icecube/blink, rogues vanish, warlocks fear etc. Immobilizing freaks people out. I am sure you know.

Improved Disciplines 0/3: Each TP spent here reduces the cooldown of your Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall abilities by 4/7/10 minutes as well as increase the duration by 2/3/6 seconds. This is a talent for those who really pay attention to their cooldowns. I know many warriors use these abilities so seldom they almost forget they have them. I, for one, consider them to be so powerful that I do not want to "waste" them until it REALLY matters. Reduce CD from 30 to 20 minutes? Meh.

Blood Frenzy 0/2: Each TP spent increases damage done to the target by 2/4% when they are under a bleed effect; Rend or Deep wounds. It is a good dps increase, and also a party buff for melee. Obviously only works on targets that are not immune to bleed, meaning constructs, raidbosses etc.

Mortal Strike 0/1: At 30 points spent in Arms, you finally get to choose Mortal Strike. It is THE PvP attack for warriors. It offers a solid amount of burst damage, it is an instant attack, meaning it has a much larger effect on your total dps than “on next attack”, attacks. Furthermore, the reduced effect of healing debuff it puts on the target has a fundamental value in PvP, and to an important, but lesser value in PvE.

Second Wind 0/2: Each TP spent here allows you to generate 10/20 rage and 5/10% of your total health when struck by a stun or immobilize. Warriors who have played since beta and experienced all the (in)famous nerfs will agree with me that this talent is one of the best things that ever happened to us since the Arcanite Reaper. You choose this if you like PvP and/or MS.

Improved Mortal Strike 0/5: Each point spent here reduces the cooldown of your Mortal Strike ability by 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1 second, and increases the damage it deals by 1/2/3/4/5%. The worth of this can be discussed a long while. With Endless Rage, a good weapon that gives you rage to MS every 5 seconds it would rock.

Endless Rage 0/1 Makes your white hits generate 25% more rage. Very nice, and the cost lies in losing some Fury talents for PvP.

2. Fury.

Motivation: The Fury tree concerns the talents that affect the “berserker-side” of the warrior. Here, you will find talents that increase damage, affect your shout abilities, and general madness. Most fury warriors are dual wielders, and through their fast attacks generate a lot of rage, do a more “even” flow of damage than an Arms warrior, and have a higher dps over time.

Booming Voice 0/5: Each point spent here increases the duration and area of effect of your buffing shouts by 10/20/30/40/50%. This is a good talent if you feel you forget to use your shouts enough, or forget to pay attention to your opponents debuffs. The range increase is also nice to ensure your whole party gets buffed. I think it is a little bit over the top to charge five talents to save 10 rage every third minute.

Cruelty 0/5: Each point spent increases your critical strike chance by 1/2/3/4/5%. This is an incredibly good talent if you are Arms, fury or Protection.

Improved Demoralizing shout 0/5: Each point spent here increases the attack power reduction of your demoralizing shout by 8/16/24/32/40%. This is a pretty strong debuff, and many swear by it for both PvP and PvE, as it reduces your enemies’ dps output by a whole lot.

Unbridled Wrath 0/5: Each talent point gives you an 8/16/24/32/40% chance to gain an additional rage point when you deal damage with a weapon. This talent is one of the reasons why DW fury warriors do tons of damage, especially when combined with Flurry. More rage equals more damage. Blizzard has said they will alter this talent to make the percentage a function of your weapon speed, meaning it will be more viable with slower weapons such as twohanders. ALL abilities can proc UW.

Improved Cleave 0/3: Each talent spent here increases the damage of your cleave ability by 40/80/120%. This is a PvE dps talent for DW fury warriors, as it, with talents, does similar amounts of damage to Heroic Strike, but without the added threat. Cleave is also good for PvP/Mass combat, obviously, and for Deep fury builds, a good cleave is nice since you do not have Sweeping strikes (from Arms), especially if you are 2hd Fury and PvP a lot.

Piercing Howl 0/1: Spend a point here, and you get an AoE shout that dazes enemies within 10 yards for six seconds. Slowing your enemy is always good for a warrior. This is a good talent for team play and solo play. Good for tanking and PvP. It can not be used as a runaway tactic for PvE, since it produces threat, and is mainly a PvP talent. Used to be a vital part in the tactics for defeating Razorgore, first boss in Blackwing Lair. Very useful raid debuff for hunters who get extra damage on their Steady shot. (They all use steady shot)

Blood Craze 0/3: Each talent point makes you regenerate 1/2/3% of your total health over six seconds after being struck by a critical hit. I recently read an interesting post by Penn, where he discusses how Blood Craze and Second Wind will offer the warrior a solid health regen tick in PvP. I find this argument a good one, but I also think the percentage is a bit too low to take into consideration, even though everything matters. Assuming 10k hp is a standard PvP warriors hp pool, you will regen 300hp over six seconds after a crit. If the amount was a little higher, I would advocate this talent stronger than I do today.

Commanding Presence 0/5: Each talent point spent here increases the AP bonus from Battle shout and the HP bonus from Commanding shout by 5/10/15/20/25%. This is a very solid increase for two already strong buffs. Most warriors who specc into fury would benefit from this talent.

Dual Wield Specialization 0/5: Each talent point here increases the damage done by your offhand by 5/10/15/20/25%. This means your offhand does up to 62.5% of its base DPS. This means more white damage from your offhand, as well as more rage for abilities. If you dual wield, this talent is a very smart choice.

Improved Execute 0/2: Each talent point spent here reduces the rage cost of your execute ability by 2/5 points. This talent is good both for PvP and PvE. When your opponent is at 20%, you want to be able to hammer your execute button. “Not enough rage” …

Enrage 0/5: Each talent point spent here increases your damage by 5/10/15/20/25% for 12 seconds, for up to 12 swings after you are the victim of a critical strike. It is one of the talents that make warriors lethal. Especially in PvP where you are critted a lot by other players. Most non-tanks choose to specc Enrage, both Arms warriors, 2hd fury and DW fury. In short: You want this talent.

Improved Slam 0/2: Each talent point here reduces the casting time of your slam ability by 0.5/1 second. It is a no-brainer for 2hd fury, in fact it is the 2hd fury talent. Many posts and threads have been written on the topic of Slam, and there are both those who love slam, and swear by it, and those who stubbornly believe that Slam is a worthless ability. What most agree on is that Slam becomes a lot more potent with two talents to improve it. Slam at lvl 68 does 140 plus weapon damage at a cast time of 0.5 seconds, at the cost of 15 rage. That is more than twice the dps of Mortal Strike. Only problem is that it resets the swing timer, meaning that if you spam Slam, you will not get any rage from using it. If you intend to try a 2hd fury build, discuss the use of slam with an “older” warrior player.

Sweeping Strikes 0/1: Previously arms talent. Now lets the 10 next attacks hit a second target. Very useful dps tool for PvE and PvP.

Weapon Mastery 0/2: Relocated and changed, new Weapon mastery is both good for dps and disarm utility. Good choice for both arms/fury speccs. (As dps, you shouldnt need reduced parry chance because you hit from behind, but the mobs still dodge.)

Improved berserker rage 0/2: Each TP spent here allows your berserker rage ability to generate 5/10 rage. Berserker rage becomes a way to build rage for when you need it, without the hp cost of bloodrage. Nice to have when you, with improved execute, need to finish off someone who tries to gank you, gets you to 500 hp, but is at 20% himself. Imp. Berserker rage + imp. Execute ftw.

Flurry 0/5: Each talent spent here increases your attack speed by 5/10/15/20/25% for three swings after you deal a critical strike. This is one of the best talents the Fury tree has to offer. It is more than a 25% dps increase. You get more rage from the swings you deliver faster, as well as your rage generates faster. It is the bread and butter of Fury dps.

Precision 0/3: Each talent point spent here increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 1/2/3%. Very valuable, especially for Dual wield, but also for 2hd fury. If you have “enough” +hit rate from gear, you might want to consider not to choose this talent, but it also allows you to stock up on less +hit rate on your gear, increasing your AP/HP/crit instead.

Bloodthirst 0/1: Spend a point here, and you get an instant attack that does 45% of your Attack power at the cost of 30 rage, as well as letting your five next attacks restore up to 30 hp each (at lvl 70). A nice rage dump dps ability that does not require a melee weapon to be used. I have seen some funny screenshots of BT crits on rogues by a disarmed warrior.

Improved Whirlwind 0/2: Each talent point spent here reduces the Cooldown of your whirlwind ability by 1/2 seconds. Whirlwind was changed to let a DW warrior attack with both weapons. Rule of thumb is: if you got enough +hit (200+), go slow Mainhand, slow Offhand.

Improved berserker stance 0/5: Each point spent here increases your Attack power while in berserker stance by 2/4/6/8/10%. Everyone loves Attack power, and this talent shows how well warriors can scale with gear.

Rampage 0/1: Spend a point here, and you gain an ability which, after scoring a critical hit, allows most of your attacks to increase your attack power (+50 at lvl 70). This stacks up to five times, and lasts 30 seconds. Solid AP buff, but doesnt scale with gear.

3. Protection:

Motivation: In the Protection tree, the talents are based on the idea that the warrior should become the best tank in the game. It is based on the use of 1hd weapon plus shield, and increases the warrior’s general damage mitigation, as well as his/her ability to hold aggro/produce threat.

Improved bloodrage 0/2: Each point spent here increases the instant rage generated by your bloodrage ability by 3/6. That’s it. A helpful talent, especially for non-end game tanks who find that they sometimes need extra rage on the spot, like taunt, stancedance to intercept, etc.

Tactical Mastery 0/3: Each point spent here allows you to retain 5/10/15 extra rage upon changing stances. If you swap stances a lot, you will want this talent. A 100% tank who usually stays in Defensive stance does not “Need” it, but many of us will not consider any build without it. Earlier, it was good for a tank to be able to stance dance to cast Thunder Clap. Now that this is usable in Defensive stance, as well as you get Intervene at lvl 70, the need for TM for a pure tank can be questioned.

Anticipation 0/5: Each point spent here increases your defence skill by 4/8/12/16/20. Defence is the tank stat. However, the value of anticipation is arguably reduced after BC, because the gear you can get has insane amounts of defence on it. However, it has been argued that your base defence makes the mobs consider your level to be higher, and thus you avoid “crushing blows”; non crit attacks
that do more damage than an ordinary hit. These will appear more often when the level difference increases. However, in BC, this has not been verified, meaning that you should consider not to spec anticipation if you have gear giving you defence at 490.

Shield Specialization 0/5: Each point spent here increases your chance to block with a shield by 1/2/3/4/5%, and gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain 1 rage point when a block occurs. A must-have talent for a prospective tank, because it increases your overall damage mitigation. Required for Improved Shield Block.

Toughness 0/5: Each point spent here increases the AC bonus from the armor you wear by 2/4/6/8/10%. This is also a must-have for a tank. A solid increase in your damage mitigation.

Last Stand 0/1: Spend a talent point here, and you get a “panic button”. The value of Last stand is unquestionable. Good for both the situations when one of your healers suddenly gets killed, you know a damage spike will hit you, or for the PvP situations when you are about to die and suddenly heal yourself for 4k.

Improved Shield Block 0/1: Spend a point here, and your Shield Block ability has its duration increased by 1 second, in addition to blocking 2 attacks instead of 1. This talent is also a no-brainer for a tank. Although block does not necessarily completely mitigate the damage of an incoming attack, it reduces the total amount of damage you take over time by a lot, meaning it requires less mana to keep you alive. A very cost effective damage-mitigation talent. (Quoted from Gecklar below <3): The shield block skil also improves your chance to block the next one (or two, talented) attacks by 75%. This effectively means you cannot be critted if your combined dodge+parry+block is greater than 25% when shield block is up, as attacks can never be both blocked and crits. A must have for any raid and heroic tank.


Improved Revenge 0/3: Each point spent here gives your revenge ability a 15/30/45% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. This is a very, very valuable skill for a non-endgame tank. Revenge creates a lot of threat, and since a tank blocks, dodges and parries a lot, it is an ability you use continuously. Not necessarily must-have, but useful. Note that it can mess up a rogue's stunlock on a mob due to sharing the same diminishing returns. (This may be questioned, as the Revenge stun is a 45% random occurrence, while the rogue has control when to use it. Verification?)

Defiance 0/3: Each point spent here increases the threat from your attacks in defensive stance by 5/10/15%. This talent makes tanking easier, resulting in less aggro loss. It is very valuable for a tank, because it lets the dps people do more damage, the mobs die faster, and thus the healers do not run out of mana before the fight is over. A true tank has Defiance 3/3.

Improved Sunder armor 0/3: Each point spent here reduces the rage cost of the Sunder Armor ability by 1/2/3 points. Rage reduce is always nice, and makes tanking more efficient. Although this talent is not the most useful for an end-game tank, who tanks mobs that hit you for so much damage that your rage bar is always full, improved sunder armor does allow you to save rage for other abilities, and this is more important than one thinks at first. Considering that Sunder armor has a base cost of 15 rage, and an improved sunder armor costs 12, it means you can do six sunder armor for the price of five, resulting in more threat. Many (non-protection)warriors spam Sunder armor continuously in addition to other threat producing abilities when they tank. This talent helps in ensuring there is enough rage to do it. Now, if you want to specc deep into protection, you might not want to use sunder armor as your main aggro tool, but still want to keep 5 sunders stacked. This means that you, every 30 seconds need to restack 5 sunder armor. Improved. Sunder armor allows you to save some rage, but you do not want Improved Sunder Armor if you have Devastate. It can not however, be argued that it is a good thing to be able to spam sunder up to 5x as fast as possible.

Improved Disarm 0/3: Each talent point spent here increases the duration of your disarm ability by 1/2/3 seconds. Although disarm is useful, it is more of PvP value than a tank/PvE ability. In end-game all mobs are immune to disarm. In my opinion, disarm has a too much situational value to be improved through talents, especially three talents. Remember it already disarms the opponent for 10 secs, and has a 1 minute cooldown.

Improved taunt 0/2: Taunt is something you will use a lot, especially upon learning the inns and outs of tanking. Reducing the CD of taunt is not a bad idea at all, for multi mob tanking, where the aggro is somewhat low on each mob, the two second difference in CD on taunt can mean the life or death of a healer.

Improved Shield Wall 0/2: Each point spent here increases the duration of your shield wall by 3/5 seconds. Shield wall is the other panic/damage spike button warriors have. If one of your healers die, Shield Wall can give the other(s) the time they need to readjust their healing on you. Many mobs do damage in spikes, or go into frenzy before they die etc. For this, Shield Wall has a tactical value. Even though the cooldown of Shield wall is 30 minutes, many tanks spend talents to improve its duration.

Concussion Blow 0/1: Spend a talent point here, and you get an ability that stuns the target for 5 seconds. Again, a very useful talent for PvP/non-endgame PvE. Required for Shield Slam.

Improved Shield bash 0/2: Each point spent here gives your shield bash ability 50/100% chance to silence the target for 3 seconds. Another useful talent for PvP/non-endgame PvE. I have heard silencing effects cause threat also on non-casters, but the threat level of other abilities are higher. Good for fighting non-endgame caster mobs (obviously).

Shield Mastery 0/3: Each point spent here increases the damage absorbed by your shield by 10/20/30%. You specc protection to tank? You choose this.

One-handed weapon specialization 0/5: Each point spent here increases the damage you cause with one-handed weapon to be increased by 2/4/6/8/10%. A tank does not take this to try to dps. You take this to build more threat, do more white damage to generate more rage that again allows you to use your threat building abilities. Another nice thing to remember about one-handed weapon specialization: This % damage also works on your offhand, allowing you to grind faster.

Improved defensive stance 0/3: Each talent spent here reduces the spell damage you take while in defensive stance by 2/4/6%. Once you have committed yourself to tanking at this level, having spent 30 talents in it, you decide if you want to go all the way to Devastate. It is a valid choice to build 31 talents, up to and including shield slam, but Imp. Defensive stance is another brick in the wall that is the 30+ talent tank.

Shield Slam 0/1: Spend a talent point here, and you get a heavy burst- damage/threat ability for 20 rage that also has a 50% chance to dispel one magic effect on the target. The damage it causes is modified by your shield block number, so it is an ability that scales with gear. At 30 talents in protection, you spend 1 point here. (Another Quote from Gecklar <3): "This talent increases your block value by 10%/20%/30%. You block value not only gets subtracted from incoming physical damage on a successful block, it also gets added to shield slam damage (and threat). If you get shield slam, get this, it makes your best gear scaling threat move scale even better."


Focused Rage 0/3: Each talent spent here reduces the rage cost of your offensive abilities by 1/2/3 rage. This talent is extremely valuable. Take a look at the five set bonus of Battlegear of Wrath. 20% chance to let your next offensive ability to cost 5 less rage. Rage cost of your abilities, as described in Improved Sunder Armor, is very useful for a tank. More rage, more ability use, more threat. This also comes in handy when your gear lets you mitigate a lot of the damage taken; you outgear an instance, you get a dodge/parry string and suddenly lose aggro because you couldn’t build threat for a minute. (Unlikely, but..) Good talent!

Vitality 0/5: Ea

Vitality 0/5: Each point spent here increases your stamina by 1/2/3/4/5%, and your strength by 2/4/6/8/10%. This talent is something you choose, or at least put fillers if you decide to go for Devastate. Stamina and strength are the main talents a tank has, and tank gear is full of it. Adding 50-100AP, some shield block and 500ish hp is not a bad idea.

Devastate: For one talent, you get an instant attack that does 50% of your wpn.damage and ADDS (post 2.3) Sunder armor debuff. Devastate is an amazing threat talent. Many threads discuss it.

4. Talent Builds

Motivation: So. You have decided to play a warrior, and now you want to find a good build. Based on your knowledge from what I have written above, you first need to figure out how and where you like to play. A rule of thumb is that if you like PvP, you specc Arms, if you like PvE, you specc Fury for dps, and protection for Tanking. Furthermore, you can choose to specc a hybrid build for more allround uses than for example a full tank specc. With 61 talent points to spend, the various build options are almost infinite. THe wisdom of each and every one can be discussed though. I have dubbed a build "Arms/Fury/protection" if it has 31 talents in that tree.

"Guild/Raid speccs": An idea that was discussed among the warriors in my raid was this: "Should we agree on our speccs to ensure we get the best out of our talents?" Everyone does not need Imp. Thunder Clap. If one guy has the talent, and keeps it up, everyone else could refrain from choosing it. If only one guy has improved domoralizing shout. He/she should be the one who casts the spell.

Talents and gear: The gear you have access to should affect your build. It is not entirely true, but it is good to have in mind that some builds/roles in a group or raid requires more effort when it comes to gear. You can not be a top raid dps’er unless you devote time and effort to gather/craft the gear you need. Furthermore, your reputation will help you in gathering the gear you need. Acquire a rep as a solid tank, and you will be invited to groups/raids more often. If you do tons of damage without stealing aggro often/needing a lot of healing or getting killed, people will value you.

4.1 Talents Pre level 40

Motivation: Before level 40, you do not have access to any of the 31 talents, Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst or Shield Slam. You can be a strong PvP player, dps’er or tank, but your build will be different from what it can be at lvl 40. I always recommend hybrid builds for warriors pre 40.

If you mainly play in groups and tank a lot, speccing protection is a sound choice. You get a lot of experience from instances, but your protection talents will not let you grind xp as fast as you could with arms or fury. If you want to level fast, and/or do some PvP, I would recommend a mix of Arms fury talents.

If you have a lot of gold, either because you are a twink, or someone gave you a lot of gold, you can respecc a few times before you reach a level where you begin your “final” build. Rend is a very good ability at low level, but rather poor beyond 30ish. Specc improved heroic Strike, Cruelty, and especially if you want to dualwield, Unbridled Wrath. Talents like improved Demoralising shout and Improved Thunder Clap reduces the damage you take, and are decent choices for a levelling warrior.

When it comes to gear, it is my belief that you should consider using a two-handed weapon until you get at least some +hit rating. The DW miss rate is incredibly annoying, and you will become frustrated. Also, Cleave is an ability you get access to early, and is more effective with a slow twohander than a one-handed weapon when fighting two mobs.


4.2 Mortal Strike Builds

Motivation: You either want to be a PvP warrior and like 2hd weapons, you like MS for levelling your character, or you provide MS for your raid.

4.2.1 Mortal Strike at 45 – 60 – 70.

Level 45: Or.. really 44, is the first level I would recommend to specc for Mortal Strike. You get no TM, so you need to learn to administer your rage before swapping stances.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050033213525100000010000500000000000000000000000000000000000000000


You can, obviously specc MS at 40, same points as above, only without 5/5 in Cruelty. As you can see, I have put 3 fillers in Iron Will. These three can be put into Imp. Rend, Imp. Charge+1 somewhere. Many will put them in Imp. HS, but I think Imp. HS and MS is a mistake in any build except a hybrid arms/tanking build.

Level 60: The “classic” cookie cutter 31/20 Build, with MS and enrage. Used to be the PvP specc, but they moved TM to Protection. For the following build, you need to remove 3 from Enrage to get TM. Your choice. Id recommend getting TM.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050033213525100000010000505010400500000000000000000000000000000000

Level 70: Here, you have the choice: Endless Rage, or more talents in fury. Choices, choices.

With ER (41/20): Here, a build without TM. At lvl 70, you will have decided on whether you feel you need TM or not. I think you do, and this means sacrificing enrage: (41/17/3)

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050033213525100000212510505010400500000000000000000000000000000000

Without ER (33/25/3): Currently my favourite PvP Build.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050203203520150200212000550013100501200000000300000000000000000000

Without ER (33/28): "The Arena build" same as above, but with 3 points from Tm to flurry.

4.3 Fury Builds.

Motivation: Fury is about consistent dps, and is a tree you either love or hate. You have a couple of choices; Dualwield or two-handed, Rampage or no rampage. I have a preference for taking piercing howl, one replier stated that this talent has a very situational use, and it should be specified that it is mostly a PvP talent.

4.3.1 Fury builds at level 45 – 60 – 70.

Level 45: A perfectly valid Dualwield build. Will allow you to grind fast, but your miss rate may frustrate you.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?000000000000000000000000505010550501005010000300000000000000000000

Level 45: Two handed Fury build:

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?000000000000000000000000505310500521005010000300000000000000000000

Level 60: A dualwield build with rampage.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?030000000000000000000000505310550501005310510300000000000000000000

Level 70:

With Rampage (17/44): Hello dps. Make sure you bring a soulstone, because if you do not take care, you will steal aggro and be killed.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?330203013020000000000000505010550501205310510000000000000000000000

This is the cookie cutter DW fury build for max DW dps.

With Rampage (20/41): Two-handed fury specc. This is nowadays seen as one of our best dps builds. Checkout Caesar's post on Slam.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050043210500000000000000505310502521005010510000000000000000000000

No rampage (25/33/3): A DW build for the warrior with good enough gear to not choose 3/3 precision, who likes axe specc. Not my favourite build, but I know many like to specc weapon speccs.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050043213025000000000000505010550501005010000300000000000000000000

4.4 Protection builds:

Motivation: You spend your talents in protection to be a brick wall. You like to tank, but must be aware of the fact that you will not be able to dish out great amounts of damage.

Protection builds at level 45 – 60 – 70:

Level 45: What needs to be said is that you can tank fine without prot talents up to 60.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050000000000000000000000000000000000000000000355511333020000000000


Level 60: A build with shield slam, improved Sunder, as well as cruelty. Works best with slow weapon. Relies on sunder armor spamming for threat.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050003000000000000000000500000000000000000000355511033020103501000

Level 70: You want devastate, if you specc deep into protection. You might want to tweak it by dropping 2/2 imp. Taunt for improved Heroic Strike. Might be worthwhile if you like/have only fast weapons. If you have tanked for the good part of 70 levels, you know what you like.

5. Hybrid Talent builds.

Motivation: Here, I will place builds who try to fulfill a minimum of two roles fairly well.

Arms/Protection:

Gargantuan (Sylvanas) Nagged me to add the Arms/prot speccs that have been the "standard" hybrid build since warriors first stepped into an instance.

"New standard hybrid version 1"(41/5/15): MS provides good debuff, alot of rage building mechanisms, +physical damage debuff and Defiance for threat. Gargantuan builds imp. Charge and no AM. This has second wind included, which is a PvP talent, as well as imp. intercept. These can be put elsewhere for a more PvE focused build.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050203203520150200212510500000000000000000002305011030000000000000

"New standard Hybrid version 2" (35/11/15): Here, with Piercing Howl, and easily altered to a more tank priented hybrid by stripping Fury talents to 5/5 Cruelty and add seven points to Protection. Again, with Improved Charge, and no AM.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050203203520150200212000550010000000000000002305011030000000000000

Fury/Protection (5/35/21): To creat a functional Fur/Prot specc has been a desire for many warriors for very long. This build has Enrage, Flurry, and BT, as well as precision, a little imp. Demo shout and Commanding presence. You would want some agility in your tank gear to up the crit chance for flurry procs, which, will assist your threat building. Has the fundamentals in prot. As well as concussion blow for laughs.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050000000000000000000000525010500521005310000325511030000100000000

Fury/Protection 0/31/30): Another Fury/prot build. This is a DW-fury/tank hybrid for more than decent dps and more than decent tanking. Only thing it lacks is 5/5 Deflection from arms. Should be strong enough tank for engame. Lowest tier talents of Prot can be altered to fit your preferences, like imp. bloodrage > TM.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?000000000000000000000000505000540501005010000155511330000100500000

bump for sticky

while i appreciate the effort put in, some of those talent builds are a complete mess.

piercing howl has never and will never be essential, so i have no idea why every build possible has it in. Some dps builds have TM but no imp overpower, and some have imp overpower and no TM which is a bit wonky, 3/5 dw spec in a MS build, AM in a DW build is a waste of a point. all a bit poorly thought out.

Well, I think piercing howl is a good ability for 1 talent, especially if you already build 20+ points into fury.

Of course, it is a preferance of mine, but if I am to choose 1/1 piercing howl with 4/5 Commanding presence or 5/5 Commanding presence for playing any PvP whatsoever, I choose piercing howl, but you are right in one thing. I could have stated that Piercing howl has situational use.

it's definitely superb in PvP, which i never consider as it's not my think (not on a warrior anyway), and i know its a pain to specify everything as pvp/pve, but it's still an important thing to note in a definitive guide

Got one question: Is imp. bloodrage a important skill, or does it not make a big difference if u don't specc in it? For example, to give room for points in cruelty.

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Q u o t e:
Got one question: Is imp. bloodrage a important skill, or does it not make a big difference if u don't specc in it? For example, to give room for points in cruelty.

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In my opinion, Bloodrage improves a lot with talents. It goes from 10 rage + 10 rage over time to 16 rage +10 rage over time.

A good improvement, but not an abilityI feel important enough to improve with talents. But that is just my opinion. I use it mostly if I suddenly need rage while tanking, or PvP to finish someone. What is the cost? 16% of your hp? Thats pretty ouch unles syou have a healer, and if you do, you most likely have someone slapping you enough to give you the rage you need.

Nice effort and written clearly and concisely. Reported for sticky.

I dispute some of your views on protection talents though

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Q u o t e:

Improved bloodrage 0/2: Each point spent here increases the instant rage generated by your bloodrage ability by 3/6. That’s it. A helpful talent, especially for non-end game tanks who find that they sometimes need extra rage on the spot, like taunt, stancedance to intercept, etc.

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Little known fact: bloodrage causes a little threat. This makes it perfect to use immediately after a bodypull, so mobs don't head straight for the healers. Talented it generates that little extra threat, and gives you that little bit of extra rage early in the fight when every point counts until you have the mobs solid. I'd consider this useful for any tank, even end-game raid tanking.

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Q u o t e:

Tactical Mastery 0/3: Each point spent here allows you to retain 5/10/15 extra rage upon changing stances. If you swap stances a lot, you will want this talent. A 100% tank who usually stays in Defensive stance does not “Need” it, but many of us will not consider any build without it.

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With thunderclap now available in defensive stance, the need to switch stances mid-fight when tanking has been reduced. Tactical mastery is vital for PvP where you will switch stance often to adjust to the opponent you face, but purely from a PvE tanking perspective, its usefulness is arguable.

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Q u o t e:

Anticipation 0/5: Each point spent here increases your defence skill by 4/8/12/16/20. Defence is the tank stat. However, the value of anticipation is arguably reduced after BC, because the gear you can get has insane amounts of defence on it. However, your base defence makes the mobs consider your level to be higher, and thus you avoid “crushing blows”, non crit attacks
that do more damage than an ordinary hit. These will appear more often when the level difference increases.

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This is wrong and has been debunked on many occasions pre-TBC, and I haven't seen any evidence that this has changed. Base defence past 350 does not help you avoid crushing blows. It's still a great talent, but will decrease in importance when you get enough gear to take you past the 'magical' level of 490 defense skill where your chance to be crit by bosses becomes very small.

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Q u o t e:

Improved Shield Block 0/1: Spend a point here, and your Shield Block ability has its duration increased by 1 second, in addition to blocking 2 attacks instead of 1. This talent is also a no-brainer for a tank. Although block does not necessarily completely mitigate the damage of an incoming attack, it reduces the total amount of damage you take over time by a lot, meaning it requires less mana to keep you alive. A very cost effective damage-mitigation talent.

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The shield block skil also improves your chance to block the next one (or two, talented) attacks by 75%. This effectively means you cannot be critted if your combined dodge+parry+block is greater than 25% when shield block is up, as attacks can never be both blocked and crits. A must have for any raid and heroic tank.

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Q u o t e:

Improved Revenge 0/3: Each point spent here gives your revenge ability a 15/30/45% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. This is a very, very valuable skill for a non-endgame tank. Revenge creates a lot of threat, and since a tank blocks, dodges and parries a lot, it is an ability you use continuously. Not very valuable for fights where the opponent is immune to stun, which most mobs are in raid instances.

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This was true pre-TBC, but no longer holds. A lot of trash in raid and heroic instances can still be stunned, and when mobs hit a plate tank for 4k+, that stun can easily make the difference between staying alive and not. Not necessarily must-have, but useful. Note it can mess up a rogue's stunlock on a mob due to sharing the same diminishing returns.

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Q u o t e:

Defiance 0/3: Each point spent here increases the threat from your attacks in defensive stance by 5/10/15%. This talent makes tanking easier, resulting in less aggro loss. It is very valuable for a tank, because it lets the dps people do more damage, the mobs die faster, and thus the healers do not run out of mana before the fight is over. Unless you can find a way to do 15% more damage, this is good for you, if you specc protection.

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The protection tree is all about maximising your mitigation and your threat geenration. Three points here give you a flat 15% bonus to threat geenration - no self-respecting tank will ever pass this by.

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Q u o t e:

Improved Sunder armor 0/3: ... Sunder armor allows you to save some rage, but you do not want Improved Sunder Armor if you have Devastate.

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You still want 5 sunders up to get the most out of Devastate, and rage is most often an issue early in the fight, when you're struggling to get those sunders up. Opinions are split whether this is worth a three point investment, but it's definitely not a clear cut "imp sunder OR devastate" decision.

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Q u o t e:

Improved Disarm 0/3: Each talent point spent here increases the duration of your disarm ability by 1/2/3 seconds. Although disarm is useful, it is more of PvP value than a tank/PvE ability. In end-game all mobs are immune to disarm. In my opinion, disarm has a too much situational value to be improved through talents, especially three talents. Remember it already disarms the opponent for 10 secs, and has a 1 minute cooldown.

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The skil only has a 45 second cooldown. Which doesn't make the talent any better.

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Q u o t e:

Shield Mastery 0/3: Each point spent here increases the damage absorbed by your shield by 10/20/30%. You specc protection to tank? You choose this.

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This talent increases your block value by 10%/20%/30%. You block value not only gets subtracted from incoming physical damage on a successful block, it also gets added to shield slam damage (and threat). If you get shield slam, get this, it makes your best gear scaling threat move scale even better.

Wonderful feedback, Gecklar. Will update OP.

I'm at this point in my specc at the moment:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050000000000000000000000550010000000000000000055511030022103521351

I got 3 points left, and can't really decide between imp. sunder armor or imp. revenge.
Anyone got some feedback on that, or if i should take imp. thunder clap?

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Q u o t e:
I'm at this point in my specc at the moment:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/warrior/talents.html?050000000000000000000000550010000000000000000055511030022103521351

I got 3 points left, and can't really decide between imp. sunder armor or imp. revenge.
Anyone got some feedback on that, or if i should take imp. thunder clap?

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Imp. Thunder Clap is great. 20% attack speed reduction is just .. great.

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Q u o t e:
I got 3 points left, and can't really decide between imp. sunder armor or imp. revenge.
Anyone got some feedback on that, or if i should take imp. thunder clap?

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imp thunderclap beats both imp sunder and imp revenge for tanking now, yes.

Nice to see you guys back amongst the constructive warriors dudes...

Obvious sticky Thread!

GG

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Q u o t e:


imp thunderclap beats both imp sunder and imp revenge for tanking now, yes.

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Thanks for the answer :)

This is great!
I know crap about warrior-talents tbh, and this is what I and every n00b-warrior out there needs :D

S T I C K Y ! ! ! oneoneone..eeleven!1

Nice thread. But i have an objection.

A Guide is something that should be written from an objective point of view. Personal opinion has no place in a guide. What you could add is that the Talent is disputed and that each player has to find out what works best for him.

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Q u o t e:
Shield Slam 0/1: Spend a talent point here, and you get a heavy burst- damage/threat ability for 30 rage that also has a 50% chance to dispel one magic effect on the target. The damage it causes is modified by your shield block number, so it is an ability that scales with gear. At 30 talents in protection, you spend 1 point here. (Another Quote from Gecklar <3): "This talent increases your block value by 10%/20%/30%. You block value not only gets subtracted from incoming physical damage on a successful block, it also gets added to shield slam damage (and threat). If you get shield slam, get this, it makes your best gear scaling threat move scale even better."

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The ability costs 20 Rage.