Warrior Class Guide — Class Guides · WoW Classic
A plate-wearing melee fighter who builds Rage by dealing and taking damage and spends it on attacks, shouts and stances. Warriors tank with a shield in Defensive Stance or deal melee damage with two-handed or dual-wielded weapons.
- Roles
- Damage, Tank
- Specializations
- 3
- Popular builds
- 8
- Version
- WoW Classic
How the warrior plays
Warriors run on Rage, which fills as you deal and take damage and drains away out of combat. Every fight starts empty, so the opening seconds are about building Rage with Charge, Bloodrage and your first swings, and the rest of the fight is about spending it before it caps. Better gear means more Rage, and more Rage means more abilities: no class in Classic grows as much with its gear.
Stances decide what you can press. Battle Stance has Charge, Overpower and Retaliation; Defensive Stance has Taunt, Revenge and Shield Wall and takes less damage; Berserker Stance has Whirlwind, Intercept, Pummel and Recklessness and adds critical strike chance at the cost of taking more damage. Changing stance drops most of your Rage, which Tactical Mastery softens, so good warriors plan their stance changes instead of flicking between them.
Warriors can't heal themselves or drink mid-fight, so they lean on healers, bandages and food between pulls. In return they are the main tanks of every Classic raid and, once geared, its strongest melee damage.
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
- The best main tank in Classic: the most health and armour, Shield Wall, Last Stand and Taunt.
- Top melee damage in raids once geared, and it keeps climbing with every upgrade.
- Charge, Intercept and Hamstring keep you on a target in player-versus-player fights.
- Groups always need a warrior, as a tank or as damage.
Weaknesses
- Gear-dependent: an undergeared warrior has little Rage and struggles everywhere.
- No self-healing: leveling is slow, with long rests between fights.
- Easily kited and controlled by casters without a healer behind you.
- Changing stance costs Rage, so reacting to a fight takes planning.
Specializations
The specs compared
Each spec rated from 1 to 5 at what it does in WoW Classic. Single and several targets mean damage for damage specs, healing for healers and threat for tanks; a spec's own guide names its ratings for its role.
| Rating |  Arms |  Fury |  Protection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single target | |||
| Several targets | |||
| Survivability | |||
| Utility | |||
| Solo and leveling | |||
| Ease of play |
- Arms
Damage · 2 builds
Two-handed weapon damage built around Mortal Strike, which also reduces the healing its target receives. The usual leveling and player-versus-player tree.
Top talent:
Arms guide
Mortal Strike - Fury
Damage, Tank · 4 builds
Dual-wield damage from Bloodthirst, Flurry and a deeper Rage pool: a raid damage tree.
Top talent:
Fury guide
Bloodthirst - Protection
Tank · 2 builds
The tanking tree: more armour, block and threat from Shield Slam, plus abilities that hold several enemies.
Top talent:
Protection guide
Shield Slam
Gear
- Mail until level 40, then plate. Warriors can wear any armour, so leather and mail with the right stats often beat early plate for damage.
- Warriors can learn almost every weapon, including bows, guns and crossbows for pulling.
- Hit chance and weapon skill matter more than raw Strength until the hit cap. Humans get +5 skill with swords and maces, Orcs with axes.
- Enchants and consumables matter more for warriors than for any other class: Crusader on weapons, Strength and Agility on the rest, elixirs and food before raids.
Each spec guide ranks its stats and says what to look for on its gear.
Warrior class quests
The quests that unlock class abilities, by the level each route starts at.