[Guide] Warrior Arena/PVP Guide

[fallensodo]

Hello I've been a leecher here for quite some time, not by choice just had nothing new to offer, now finally I feel as if I can offer something to the community. With that being said I present my first submission. My warrior pvp guide. Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Basics
Your role as a warrior is both offensive and defensive, kill the enemy and protect your healer. Alone you still hit hard but are susseptible to various forms of control that prohibit your involvement in fights. With a healer behind you, you become a mobile battle tank. The general rotation is charge in, switch to beserker stance, hamstring, proceed to kill. Assisting your healer by fearing/pummeling/disarming as needed. Simple and clean that is a rather large over simplification of warrior pvp but if you are just starting its a good beginning point. Any veterans of the game look near the bottom for advanced topics.

Specs:
Let me preface this by saying there are many interchangable points in the fury tree, in the end it really comes down to a matter of preference and gear. Those talents are as follows:

Booming Voice <-> Unbridled Wrath
Blood Craze <-> Commanding Presence
Improved Execute <-> Improved Slam (Slam is PVE oriented)

33/28 (MS/Flurry)
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
This is by far the most popular talent spec amoung pvp warriors, not only does it cover all the needed talents but you also gain 3/5 Flurry which translates to a rather large damage gain. This spec is an all around good build but shines the most in the threes and fives bracket.

35/23/3 (MS/Enrage/TM)
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
The second most popular spec. In this build you exchange the extra damage from flurry for the extra survivability and flexibility of tactical mastery. With this spec you retain up to 25 rage when changing stances. This allows for well time spell reflects and more flexibility with stance dancing. You also pick up blood frenzy which procs off your crits for a bonus 4% physical damage boost to the target. This spec really shines in the twos and three's bracket.

41/20 (Endless Rage/Enrage)
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
This spec is particuraly popular in Korea right now but has yet to grab a firm hold in the US yet. The main reason for the spec is (you guessed it) Rage generation. As a warrior in the higher brackets you will consitantly find yourself rage starved versus high armor and high resilence targets, this spec is made to counter that. The one major major drawback to this spec is the loss of weapon mastery. Having to eat a ten second disarm when you almost have an opposing player killed is quite annoying. This spec really only works well in the twos bracket and only erally shines at the higher brackets.




Stat Priority
For pvp the general way to go is: Strength > Crit > Stamina > Agility. Never socket for resilience, stamina, or hit. (Not in pvp at least) The other stat not listed here is armor penetration and to put it blunt, get it. Season three pieces have it as does t6 pve content. This stat is amazing for warriors if they have the gear to sustain it. I.E. good base attack power and crit. Also remember one strength is equal to two attack power and strength recieves the bonus from Blessing of Kings.
Depending on your spec and gear available, your base stats should look something similar to the following:
12k Hp Unbuffed, ~ 1700 Attack Power Unbuffed, ~ 30% Crit in Battle Stance, ~50-70 hit.




Gems/Enchants
For the most part you will be sticking with Strength + Crit, Crit, Attack Power Gems. With the exception of a few pieces to raise your hit rating. (142 Hit rating is required to never miss a yellow attack but it's really not a feasable goal, nor a worthy exchange for other stats.)

Head -
Glyph of Ferocity (Requires Cenarion Expedition Revered) Glyph of Ferocity - Items - World of Warcraft

Shoulder - Either the Aldor or Scyer Exalted Enchants.
Greater Inscription of Vengeance Greater Inscription of Vengeance - Items - World of Warcraft
Greater Inscription of the Blade Greater Inscription of the Blade - Items - World of Warcraft

Chest -
+ 6 To all stats Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats - Spells - World of Warcraft
+15 Resilence Enchant Chest - Major Resilience - Spells - World of Warcraft

Bracers -
+12 Strength Enchant Bracer - Brawn - Spells - World of Warcraft

Gloves
+15 Strength Enchant Gloves - Major Strength - Spells - World of Warcraft

Legs -
Nethercobra Leg Armor (50 AP + 12 Crit) Nethercobra Leg Armor - Items - World of Warcraft

Boots -
Surefooted (5% Snare/root resist + 10 Hit rating) Enchant Boots - Surefooted - Spells - World of Warcraft

Weapon -
Executioner (840 Armor ignore proc) Enchant Weapon - Executioner - Spells - World of Warcraft

Meta Gem -
Swift Skyfire Diamond (24 Ap and minor run speed) Swift Skyfire Diamond - Items - World of Warcraft

All other sockets on pvp gear will be either yellow or red so pick and choose what you would like to use based upon your honor farming habits and your gold situation. Here is a list of the best gems in order from epic to rare.

(Epic PVE) Smooth Lionseye (10 Crit) Smooth Lionseye - Items - World of Warcraft

(Epic PVE) Bold Crimson Spinel (10 Strength) Bold Crimson Spinel - Items - World of Warcraft

(Epic PVE) Bright Crimson Spinel (20 Attack Power) Bright Crimson Spinel - Items - World of Warcraft

(Epic Honor) Bold Ornate Ruby (20 Attack Power) Bold Ornate Ruby - Items - World of Warcraft

(Epic Honor) Inscribed Ornate Topaz (10 Attack Power + 5 Crit) Inscribed Ornate Topaz - Items - World of Warcraft

(Epic Honor) Smooth Ornate Dawnstone (10 Crit) Smooth Ornate Dawnstone - Items - World of Warcraft

(Rare)Don rodrigo's Heart (+8 Strength) Sold by vendors in Halla Don Rodrigo's Heart - Items - World of Warcraft

(Rare)Inscribed Noble Topaz (4 crit + 4 Strength) Inscribed Noble Topaz - Items - World of Warcraft




Weapons
Your weapon makes a world of difference and is the most important piece of equipment you have. Always shoot for the best you can get and always enchant it with Executioner.

Maces - With this specilization your attacks have a chance to stun the target. This effect has diminishing returns like other cc's but it can eaisly be argued it is the best choice for pvp. Whether it be slowing down that pesky druid or interrupting that clutch heal, maces are the top choice for most twos/threes bracket players.
Season 3 Mace (PVP) - Vengeful Gladiator's Bonegrinder - Items - World of Warcraft
Stormherald (375 Macesmithing) - Stormherald - Items - World of Warcraft
Torch of the Damned (PVE) - Torch of the Damned - Items - World of Warcraft

Swords- The second most popular choice and the prefered weapon for a Shaman/Warrior setup. 5% Chance to attack twice on a normal white hit, the proc is capeable of criting. Swords really help in regards to bursting down a target and dealing damage in general to targets with high resilience.
Season 3 Sword (PVP)- Vengeful Gladiator's Greatsword - Items - World of Warcraft
Jin'rohk, The Great Apocalypse (PVE)- Jin'rohk, The Great Apocalypse - Items - World of Warcraft
Lionheart Executioner (375 Swordsmithing) - Lionheart Executioner - Spells - World of Warcraft

Axes
Axe specilization provides a bonus 5% crit chance. One of the worst choices for high end pvp. Resilence destroys not only that bonus crit chance but the bonus critical damage that you do. If you must go axes I would highly reccomend getting the season 3 axe and socket for crit up to around 40%
Season 3 Axe (PVP) - Vengeful Gladiator's Decapitator - Items - World of Warcraft

Polearms
Never use a polearm. Ever.



Popular Arena Setup's
Resto Shaman / Warrior - Very aggressive team combined with windfury.
Resto Druid / Warrior - A extremely mobile healer with a good combination of crowd controls/interupts.
Paladin / Warrior - Not the best setup anymore but stil viable.
Priest / Warrior - Another aggressive team.



Macros
There are a few macro's that really help in a match, I have listed a few of the ones I feel to be most important below. For more check out the Official warrior forums and wowwiki.

Equip One hander and shield then spell reflect. Press Twice. Control + click this macro to requip your two hander and switch to beserker stance.
/cast [stance:1/3]Defensive Stance
/equip YOUR 1H
/equip YOUR SHIELD
/equip YOUR SHIELD
/cast Spell Reflection
/cast [modifier:ctrl] Berserker Stance
/equip [modifier:ctrl] YOUR 2H

Switch to defensive stance and intervene your focus target. To set a focus target, target the player and type /focus.
/cast [stance:1/3]Defensive Stance
/cast [target=focus] Intervene



Advanced Topics

Pet Taunting- Pets are not immune to taunt, be it the normal one or the aoe one. Use this to your advantage to buy your healer a little extra time to go drink/get away, or to line of sight it to kill it. Also aoe taunt can be used when charging a hunter that you know has placed an ice trap. Hit the taunt right before you get to the hunter and the pet will have no choice but to attack you and break the trap.

Rage Conservation and Dumping - This requires good communication with your partner and is used mainly to quickly finish off an opposing player or annoying pet. Save up a full rage bar and let loose the crowd controls on the opposing healer/dps. The goal is quick and strong damage to kill your target before they have time/the ability to react. It is also very helpful to force the target out of line of sight of the opposing healer just to make sure the job gets done. See the previous topic on pet taunting.

Pillar Crafting - The bane of any meele's existance. There is no real dead set method to making this less of a pain in the ass but there are a few things you can do to help yourself. First and foremost make sure you have a speed enchant (see above), second try to trick your target into thinking you are chasing them, then turn around and piercing howl/hamstring before they get back out of range. If all else fails mount up and run around to the bastards.

"Ping Ponging" - There is no real easy way to expain this topic as it is more of something you must learn to do and get comfortable with. For instance when your target is low intercept thier healer for a three second stun and run back to your target. You should also make use of intervene + intercept. For instance if your target happens to run out of your intercept range but runs near your partner, simply intervene to your partner then intercept over to your target. Cover large distances in a short period of time.

Defensive mode - When low on health or taking alot of damage throw on a shield and intervene away from the foray if you need to. Make use of the above macros.

Double dps intervention - This is something I don't see done enough. When you see a double dps team charging in (Mage/Rouge, Spriest/Rouge, etc) pop blood rage and intervene your partner. They will most likely cc you but since intervene is off you will take one of the hits from your partner and the cc will break.

Drood catching - I hate druids so much and I'm sure all you other warriors out there know what I'm talking about. Here are some key pointers to help with managing them charge and hamstring if possible if not intercept and repeat. Keep a close eye for natures grasp, when they use it stop attacking throw on a shield and reflect it. They are simply going to shift out of the roots but hey it didn't trap you and they wasted a cooldown. Piercing howl is your friend. Learn to time when they are going to shift and be out of range for hamstring. Your goal is to keep them in range so you can intercept whenever it has finished cooling. Use fear to your advantage keep them in place if they are gaining to much ground. Only trinket out of long duration spells that will allow the druid to make considerable distance. Last but not least do not pummel cyclone/roots until the cast bar is near full, a good druid will try to force you to waste your interrupt on a canceled spell.



That's it hope you enjoyed it.

[Icicle]

I pay attention alot to specs, and noticed that 35/23/3 is WAY greater than the 3/5 flurry one. I am 35/23/3 my self on my warr. But again, it is on Kel'Thuzad(US) So idk.

[Tis]

Seems a nice guide , +rep.

[Zaphry]

35/23/3 is imba spec, been using it for half year now and it is alot better than my last spec (full arms lol ^^)

but thanks for the macros btw
+rep

[ROfldruid]

OK guide, definately worth a read for new warriors who are trying to catch on with the arena aspect. I got to add that when choosing a spec, be realistic to yourself, 35/23/3 is superior ro 33/28 but if you aren't going to use tactical mastery to its fullest don't bother with it.

[raggecool]

Nice guide dude

[fallensodo]

Thanks for the replies glad you guys liked it.

OK guide, definately worth a read for new warriors who are trying to catch on with the arena aspect. I got to add that when choosing a spec, be realistic to yourself, 35/23/3 is superior ro 33/28 but if you aren't going to use tactical mastery to its fullest don't bother with it.

Have to agree with you on that, although both specs are viable 35/23/3 is catered towards the more advanced player.

[zavior]

you didnt add fury into 5v5, but i guess everyone thinks only MS can arena, we have a prot warrior and a fury warrior in 5v5, and we do pretty decent.

[fallensodo]

you didnt add fury into 5v5, but i guess everyone thinks only MS can arena, we have a prot warrior and a fury warrior in 5v5, and we do pretty decent.

Yes I didn't address either one of those simply because they aren't really viable in the higher brackets of pvp. They might do alright in the 1600's and below. Resilence destroys the consistant damage of fury and prot is well, worthless. Horrid damage and any team with half a brain will simply ignore him.

It's not really an argument of what can and can not arena, moreso what can do it successfully at a high rating.

[Sawst]

For warriors looking for a different change of pace rogue warrior and mage warrior are very viable, i run Rogue Warrior and we are 2100 after 2 weeks and a lot of games lol

[Bladin]

So far ive tried every good MS spec, but the best one imo is with 3 points into TM. Way easier to spell reflect, which can be game breaking.

[Deadnisse]

Good Guide. +Rep

[FreezingBalls]

Thank you very much for this guide. I 3v3 with a warrior, and I was looking for a guide for him since he has the least experience in our team.