Hi!
So i thought i would make a thread on trying to help warriors in arena's, specificly 5v5. I will write this guide in a way that uses in game example's and showing methods or ways of playing effectivly.
5v5
First off, lets talk about the Warriors primary role in 5v5!
You are a unrelenting dps and debuff monster, with 2 of the most effective debuffs in the game - Mortal strike and Hamstring. These debuff's along with DPS is your primary role and should be rememberd all through out arena and take priority over most the hints and tips given in this guide.
The start of the battle!
Your first priority here is to decide either by yourself or amognst your team, your best target, depending upon your own setup and the opponents this can vary, my own teams setup supports killing the opponents priest first, but as i said, each setup is different.
For example if a warlock turns out to be Unstable affliction instead of Soul link, he should be considerd a high Threat target, of course by threat i dont mean run up and taunt him. Rather that he if left unmolested he will utterly destroy your team, aswel as the fact that he is relativly squishy. There are many other class/spec's to consider, but to go into that now it would take... Too long.
So you have your target
Now its time to get the charge, as all warriors know this is very important for covering ground fast aswel as gaining rage. At this point your highest priority is just making sure you get to charge something, anything, hell even a totem will do. Because a charge is better than no charge, regardless of the target.
It is also very effective to charge the opponents warrior, this not only gives you the charge but will stop him from getting his, unless you charge each other. This is also a good point to put up a debuff on him, hamstring, Demo shout, hell even thunderclap if you have a good amount of rage, these debuffs make a huge difference to his damage, a demo shout alone effectivly removes his battle shout. More on this later.
Charging has to be done smartly else you can put yourself in danger, many High dps setups (Gib, FOTM) can make you regret a charge that can put you in danger, such as charging far ahead of your team mates or out of LOS (Line of sight) of your healer. You can end up either crowd controlled or killed instantly, it also gives the opponents team ample time to purge or dispel you.
PVP trinket and using it
Lets say for examples sake that you went ahead and charged early, the opponents mage has debuffed you 5 times with winter's chill and put the debuff detect magic on you aswel as a paladins judgment or a rank 1 farie fire. This is the perfect time to use your pvp trinket as it will save your team time and mana, if not a paladin for example will be forced to dispel 5+ times, perhaps less if your lucky. Not only does this cause your paladin to come in close to dispel (short range) but he has used 5 global cooldown timers that could have been used far better.
Chasing your target
The battle has kicked off and you are chasing your target down, your blood is pumping and this squishy priest is inches away from being crushed under your mighty wrath!!1 Now this is the point where i say calm down and think clear, here is the most important thing about a warrior in 5v5, dont revert to Tunnel vision mode, by that i mean look around you, more is going on than just your targets near demise.
So, you get your hamstring up and Mortal strike him... BAM crit for 1.8k (lol resilance?!). He receives a blessing of freedom perhaps? Call it out to your team mates, let your shaman or priest know that your current target has a freedom that needs removing!
So the freedoms gone! keke!
Now you lay on all the damage you can, you have 70 rage from second winds and random aoe damage, so you chuck on the mortal strike and even ww, you have rage left over and a long time left on your MS cd, chuck on a sunder, dont bother with heroic strike unless you have a windfury totem as its too much a waste of rage. People may laugh at sunder's but if you use your rage effectivly you can increase your damage by a large amount without gimping your rage.
Your target is low!
Bam shout it out, let your team know that the target is low, this can let the mage know to use his counter spell on a healer or a elemental shaman to get his burst ready. Now be alert of everything around you, dont get carried away with killing him, pummeling a nearby target - say someone finishing a heal is far more effective than doing another white swing. So watch all that is around you and use your fear and abilitys at the right time.
Let your offensive dispeller know that a BoP is incoming on the target so it can be removed instantly. Use all rage and decimate the poor squishy. Around this time you will usually will be heavily CC'd and its good to let your defensive dispeller know this so he can act accordingly.
He got away
Oh dear... So he is away and you are frost nova'd, hit whats in range as a hit on anything is better than no hits at all, the nova has broken but your target is halfway across the map, there is a enemy mage in the way aswel as a friendly paladin, your intercept is on cooldown. So, you get out of combat and charge the mage, then you intervene to the paladin, intervene is a very underated ability and effectivly gives you another intercept in battle.
Now its time to end it
Hunt down the squishy and do everything you can to kill him, once again i cannot stress this enough dont go Tunnel vision mode, look around, pummel a nearby paladin, hamstring a nearby warrior, disarm a nearby rogue. The hard part is juggling damage and these abilities. If you do too much of one thing and too little of the other, you are doing more harm than good. Try to keep your target the priority.
HES LOW, execute him if you can, but making sure Mortal strike is applied still takes priority over execute's. So hes dead, now what.
Time to use Your intuition and think of the next target, this needs to be done INSTANTLY and with full confidence, dont let anyone else tell you the next target, let them suggest and act accordingly. Be clear with your announcment and mop up the scrubs left standing.
More on target's
In a balanced setup chosing your target is key, some setups support fast swapping of target's (seeing a low target at any given time and reacting to it is great for a FOTM setup) but most do not support this, so you have to pick your target wisely.
Examples
Ignore a priest and he will mana burn
Ignore a lock and he will fear/cc/damage
Ignore a mage and he will Sheep/damage
Ignore a rogue and he will stunlock/damage
I generally beleive that the lowest threat target is actually the paladin, souly because his role takes effect once damage is given and can then be effectivly stopped by a simple Counterspell.
For my setup (Priest, mage, warlock, warrior and paladin) This is my threat target list, from top to bottom
UA warlock
Fire mage
Druid (only if in caster, cyclone is too strong to ignore)
Priest (all kinds)
Rogue
Ice mage (more comman)
Elemental shaman
Hunter
Paladin
Warrior (our setup lacks the burst to kill a warrior, and it will only give him rage and enrage)
The main elements of target choice is Class and spec, But other elements such as Gear take effect too, if someone is foolish enough to wear PVE or low stam gear in a arena, you should make him regret it.
General hints and tip's
Becareful of being lured out of line of sight, many teams can nuke you behind a pillar, or a mage can polymorph you in a position where you cant be dispelled.
Use your pummels effectivly, say we follow the example used above and you are on a priest, pummel mana burn's or if you are on a UA warlock, pummel the shadow tree.
Use percing howl.
Debuff opponent's - demo shout, sunder's and thunderclap ... All under used because of the reputation they had pre TBC, but this is not 1v1 anymore, this is a long duration fight where the reward outweighs the cost.
SPAMSTRING! Chasing your target spamming hamstring inbetween MS and WW can triple your damage output if you have a windfury totem, as it procs of hamstring. The same effect can be had with Improved hamstring or Mace spec. SPAM IT!
Watch all thats around you and dont be afraid to hamstring a windfury totem down or a tremor totem or perhaps chuck in a pummel on a random target that you pass.
Use your defensive moves properly, if you are under heavy focus fire, your best move is to swap to defensive stance, bring out 1h/shield, intervene to your healer, spam spell reflect and shield block.
These moves can keep you alive where you would otherwise be destroyed + its cool to reflect a big fat chain lightning. =)
Communicate with your team and listen to them, if they have a suggestion you should consider it, perhaps one could use your help with something so keep your ear's peeled. Or your eyes if you dont use voice communication (Fix it if this is the case, get a ventrilo server or you have no chance.)
Talents
I prefer to go with the standard
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LGMhdNbqM0dbZVxzm0xRZc talent build. It Basically gives you mortal strike, second wind, improved intercept, tactical mastery and death wish. All key for a standard setup imo
But here is one i like for Windfury teams, where rage managment is not so important.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LGMhdGbqMbzbZVxzmMxRc
It is similar to the previous build only it has no blood frenzy or Tactical mastery, it instead has Improved execute and 3/5 flurry, giving a very nice damage increase at the cost of rage issues. It also has improved hamstring for extra effect when spaming hamstring for windfury.
