Fury Warrior Writeup

[Cradlenova]

Here is a detailed fury guide i wrote up for newbie warrior raiders

A lot has changed for the fury warrior in the past month, some for the good and some for the bad. Many warriors now see it as a desirable tree because they see people who do it well and wish to imitate the outcome. The following may act as a guide for you and demolish some of your misunderstandings about the build, as well as the process of gearing your warrior.

1. Talents -

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

First and foremost, the points in fury are really not interchangeable, however you can spend them any way you want in arms as long as you get deep wounds, impale and anger management. I like getting parry and thunderclap for off tank utility but do what you feel works for you. I see a lot of warriors who put points into Booming voice in fury, which is a waste of talent points. As a fury warrior, one of your jobs is maintaining your battle shout which should be taken care of in one of your open times during your skill rotation...I will explain this a bit more later...

2. Hit Rating vs. Str + Crit - Ok, here is one place where things have changed. Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance. Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance

These following assumes your target is a raid boss. If a mob/player is your level the miss rate is 5% for yellow and 24% for white attacks.

While dual wielding your white attacks will have a 28%(rounded up) chance to miss. Your yellow attacks still have a 9%(rounded up) chance to miss. This means that if you have precision you will want to stack hit until you reach 95 hit rating, preventing ANY of your yellow attacks from missing...

With the introduction of hit and crit ratings item budgets now work so that 1 str = 1 agility = 1 crit rating = 1 hit rating and so on and so forth. Now you ask yourself...what stats do I stack? Until you reach 95 hit rating take hit over everything else. After this point hit is now your least effective dps stat. It is very important to realize that it is still a very important stat and you should not ignore it. The point of bringing this up is that a lot of warrior have stacking hit at the cost of everything else, myself included, something that used to be an effective gearing method. This is no longer the case and pure hit stacking should be avoided.

As far as gear is concerned, the item budgets have been reconfigured. Because of this, items with hit/crit/str have are worth more than items with just crit/str. Thus try to find items later on that have all three stats rather than just crit and str. Doing so also ensures that you keep your hit at a reasonable amount.

The reason that hit is valued less is because strength and crit affect every single one of your attacks white hit rating only effects white damage. All three of the stats are closely related though and as any of the values change the relative worth of the other two change also.

*I would like to add a note in that I have not had a chance to test weapon expertise and its affect on dps in a raid environment. Any input would be appreciated...*

3. Attack Table - Many of us have heard the more you hit the more you crit. Though it sounds legit, it is not how the Wow system works. Wow uses an attack table. Attack table - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

This means is that there is a 100 sided die that blizzard rolls every time you attack. Say you have 0 hit and 41% crit and are attacking from behind.

Here are the sides of the die:
1-28: Miss
29-53: Glancing Blow
53-58: Dodge
59-100: Crit

Here, every time you hit it will crit. Crit shares the hit table with non crits so as long as your crit is less than miss + glancing + dodge then adding hit will have no effect on your crit.

4. Heroic Strike vs Cleave - Heroic strike adds 176 damage for 196 threat. That is 1.1 threat per bonus damage. Cleave adds 70 damage for 130 bonus threat. That is 1.8 threat per bonus damage. People have been attempting to switch to cleave for a rage dump, but that is a sort of confusion that Blizzard has thrown at us due to Heroic strikes tooltip listing the addition of bonus threat. There is a place for cleave, and there is a place for heroic strike. The better your gear (T6 in my estimation) you will want to use cleave for a rage dump for its lower bonus damage. But for lesser geared warriors, heroic strike is the way to go because you will have a lower damage to threat ratio. Also note, cleave hits two targets making it unfavorable during CC situations, and also the buff to imp zerker stance makes HS or cleave an even more viable option.
Heroic Strike - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft
Cleave - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft
They both turn a white attack into a yellow attack. This means that an attack that would of had a 28% chance to miss, 25% to be a glancing blow, and only crit for 2x damage now becomes a yellow attack. It only has the base 8% miss, no glancing and 2.2 crit from impale.

5. Slow or fast offhand - There are benefits to both. A fast offhand has steady rage regen and easily refreshed rampage. A slow offhand scales better from haste, and if it is the same speed as your main hand, you get 4 charges from flurry. This is because if your two weapons have the same attack speed the game can not tell which is going to land first so it grants both weapons the haste. This is why I loved 2x deathbringers at 2.9 speed each Smiley

Slow weapons waste less flurry procs. The counter argument to this is that faster weapons proc flurry more. In fact it procs more flurry effects in an identical ratio to the amount of flurry procs it uses. This is true when all your attacks are white hits. However you also have to factor crits from yellow damage. These flurry procs have no relation to the speed of your weapons so the slower they are the more effective they are. Also the higher your crit rate and therefore your flurry uptime is the smaller this effect is. Another note to mention is the addition of whirlwind which now strikes with BOTH weapons. Having a slow OH will grant bigger instant OH strikes with it.

6. Skill Rotation - The standard fury build has ½ improved whirlwind. This allows you to make a solid skill rotation with blood thirst and whirlwind.

Seconds into fight:
0: BT
1.5: WW
3: Global cool down free
6: BT
7.5: Global cool down free
10.5: WW
12: BT
13.5: Global cool down free
15: Global cool down free
18: BT
19.5: WW

The areas you see a free GCD, this is where you refresh your shouts and it also leaves room to hamstring which can proc weapon effects, enchants, and flurry for the cost of 10 rage and 181 threat. Hamstring used to proc WF but got nerfed, i believe it is still a viable tactic though. You also have the option of using HS, i suggest at the 13 second mark in your skill rotation. Although threat is not as much of a problem, i still suggest watching KTM during the raids closely...

7. Execute Time - If possible, equip 2 decent fast weapons for better rage generation. If your rage spikes above 50 use a Blood thirst then go back to executes.

Wait till you think boss is about 20 seconds from dieing then pop trinkets and cooldowns (Orc Racial is a favorite of mine Smiley ). Pop recklessness. If you have a shaman in your group start this when he pops blood thirst / heroism

8. PvP - I suggest you go arms for Arena, theres no way you'll stand up due to having to swap hit for resil in the pvp gear. In BG's people care less, stay in dps gear and hope you have heals, sometimes being able to top kills and damage, especially in AV.

9. Enchants - Blue 71 dps Potency X2; Epic 81-91 DPS Mongoose MH, Potency OH; T5 and later Executioner becomes more viable though i haven't had a chance to test it and i would suggest either 2x or MH Executioner and Potency offhand...Potency offhand scales pretty evenly with mongoose on the offhand, it just saves money and I'm going to guess that it scales the same with executioner. *Input needed*

10. Haste - Dual slow weapons benefit greatly due to scaling. I believe that with haste its go big or none at all. A piece of gear with static haste can be matched by a piece of gear with crit/hit/str. Let me give an example (Im not sure how to do the linking thing still)...Red Belt of Battle - Items - World of Warcraft Red Belt of Battle vs Belt of Seething Fury - Items - World of Warcraft Belt of Seething Fury. RBB is better due to its overall stats, but BSF can be put to use in combination with trash gloves from BT that grant haste as well and other haste pieces. AS far as Dragonspine trophy is concerned, due to the haste nerf it is not as awesome as it once was, but can be replaced by other trinkets now. It is still viable in plain crit sets though; we shouldn't have to worry about much of this sort of gearing debate until we hit BT though...

11. Gems - For each socket, this is what I suggest using. Yellow: 4crit/4str Red: 8Str Blue: 4crit/6stam. For Meta, Enigmatic Skyfire Diamond (12 crit, 5% snare/root res) or Relentless Earthstorm Diamond (12 Agi, 3% crit damage)

[Gibraltar]

Okay her you have a warrior how is hast downed brutallus atm.
Okay basically it a good guide. No big faults but there are some.

1. Everybody knows that dragonspine trpohy is the best trinket for warriors together with shard of contempt. Thats sir is a fact i wont diskuss over this, look at some spreaksheets and you will know.

2. Your build sucks in the fury tree because you are missing +2 % expertise, for every warrior expertise is really important (no dodged bt s anymore). Everything else is right.

2. Every dps fury whould go for the three points in iron will and not in imp tc.
Because everytime you are not feared not stunned etc gives you more time to deal dmg.

Amd 190 hit plus skilled 3% hit is a fat must. Below that hit you re dmg will suck.

Besides these points you re guide should be correct but i wont read it all because there are big things missing and youre totally underestimating haste and armor ignore. Landolph guide (or is it starym is by far better). Look it up at the nihilum homepage. And that doesnt speak for you re skill because Landopl is the biggest high end gimp there is. The biggest. Everyone knows that.

[Cradlenova]

i wrote up for newbie warrior raiders

Wasnt meant for higher end raiders as much because warriors begin to have increasing returns as armor pen gear and haste gear become more available. These are the current values for my gear level at 37% crit 3300 AP raidbuffed (w.o rampage)


DPS
(+) 10 Hit Rating: 3.44
(+) 10 Crit Rating: 5.18
(+) 10 Strength: 6.19
(+) 20 Attack Power: 5.63
(+) 10 Haste Rating: 3.89
(+) 10 Expertise Rating: 5.41
(+) 100 Ignore Armor: 7.66

As you can see, ignore armor comes in larger amounts on gear and is often seen in values of about 80-100; it has a better return than most haste gear. You usually have to choose between one or the other.

I completely agree though as a T6 warrior with glaives/dst haste is insane because it also buffs your execute damage output ability (haste=faster attacks=more rage= more execute)

As a lower end raider though (T4-T5) you should be stacking STR. (Kings buff gives it more of a dps value over AP). you also do not have as many options on hit gear; I had about 135 hit when I entered T5 Content.

BTW I usually raid expertise capped. Shard of Contempt+Belt of one hundred deaths causes me to have no need for the +2% dodge reduction and thus execute gives a much better return on the meters.

This isnt an end all guide, im in the process of building a T6 and beyond fury guide >.>

It will include weapon choices, armor choices, and consumables as well as how to maximize your dps.

[zoidberg891]

Wasnt meant for higher end raiders as much because warriors begin to have increasing returns as armor pen gear and haste gear become more available. These are the current values for my gear level at 37% crit 3300 AP raidbuffed (w.o rampage)


DPS
(+) 10 Hit Rating: 3.44
(+) 10 Crit Rating: 5.18
(+) 10 Strength: 6.19
(+) 20 Attack Power: 5.63
(+) 10 Haste Rating: 3.89
(+) 10 Expertise Rating: 5.41
(+) 100 Ignore Armor: 7.66

As you can see, ignore armor comes in larger amounts on gear and is often seen in values of about 80-100; it has a better return than most haste gear. You usually have to choose between one or the other.

I completely agree though as a T6 warrior with glaives/dst haste is insane because it also buffs your execute damage output ability (haste=faster attacks=more rage= more execute)

As a lower end raider though (T4-T5) you should be stacking STR. (Kings buff gives it more of a dps value over AP). you also do not have as many options on hit gear; I had about 135 hit when I entered T5 Content.

BTW I usually raid expertise capped. Shard of Contempt+Belt of one hundred deaths causes me to have no need for the +2% dodge reduction and thus execute gives a much better return on the meters.

This isnt an end all guide, im in the process of building a T6 and beyond fury guide >.>

It will include weapon choices, armor choices, and consumables as well as how to maximize your dps.

I have no idea how you went to TK/SSC with 135 hit...you must have been missing like crazy.

[Cradlenova]

Hit isnt as necessary as it was Pre BC. They redid the mechanics a bit and the new system allows for hit to be traded out for more damage stats. Pre BC mechanics had hit with as good of increasing returns as rogues, much different now though. Give me a moment and I will find the explanation of the hit system if you would like.

[Cradlenova]

For a warrior, your first and foremost goal when gearing up is to get your special attacks hit capped. This means 9% hit is needed, and the 3% from the Fury talent precision can indeed be counted in to this. Either 142 (9%) or 95 (6%) hit rating, then. This is the cheapest way to increase your dps, but beyond that, hit rating stops being as effective. Because your special attacks (mortal strike, bloodthirst, heroic strike, what-have-you) are all now incapable of missing, and you are only increasing the chance for your auto-attacks to land. Unless you’re not dual-wielding, in which case your 142 is all you need and hit rating is wasted (your regular attacks and special attacks are incapable of missing because you don’t suffer the 19% dual-wield miss penalty).

Anyway, for many warriors in dps roles, white (auto-attack) damage is approximately 50% of your overall, while yellow (special, non-auto-attack) damage is the rest. Up to that 9%, for every 1% hit you obtain, that is 1% extra damage you do. At 15.7 rating per 1%, it’s also cheap compared to alternatives. After that, again, you’re either wasting it (if you’re using a 2-handed weapon) or you’re only increasing 50% of your damage (if you’re dual-wielding).

From here, things are a bit more vague than “acquire x of y stat”. The vague idea is to keep your crit high (around 30%) without sacrificing any hit that puts you below your needed 9%, and stack attack power as high as it will go through strength wherever possible (usually gems).

This is because crit and attack power increase the damage of all of your abilities, not just your white damage. This is why crit is more expensive (22.1 per 1%) and why attack power scales a bit more slowly. Also, thanks to Flurry (+25% attack speed for 3 swings after a crit), Rampage (an ability which can only be activated and kept active by achieving critical hits), and Impale (+20% crit damage on abilities), crit is even more valuable.

Haste, again, only affects your white damage. Unlike hit, though, it has no cap at which it becomes less useful (well there might be a haste cap, but I’m sure it’s really hard to obtain). However, it costs the same amount as hit, budget wise, while overall having the same effect (1% extra white damage). The one benefit haste might have over hit has to do with rage generation. Sometimes haste will provide more on-demand rage for the warrior because the attacks are landing sooner…however, because those attacks will be subject to the same rules as your other white attacks, they will miss at the same rate, and thus it probably evens out in the end with hit on that end as well. [/edit: If you're using a 2h weapon though and your hit is capped, haste is potentially more valuable to you because of rage generation.] Again, because it only increases your white damage, that’s only (approximately) 50% of your damage being affected.

Armor penetration is more difficult to qualify. The more armor your target has, the less benefit a static amount of armor penetration has due to the diminishing returns on the damage reduction provided by armor*. However, against targets with lower amounts of armor, armor pen wreaks havoc, providing much greater returns. This means that, interestingly enough, armor penetration stacks well with itself as well as other stats like crit and ap. In other words, the more armor penetration you have, the more you get out of it per point. This stat will increase the damage of all attacks, white and yellow.

Expertise is an interesting stat, and as mentioned in the article there isn’t much of it to be found currently on most warrior gear. It’s a decent stat, working similarly to hit rating, but instead affecting your opponent’s chance to parry and dodge your attacks. This makes it more of a valuable stat for tanks, or warriors in pvp, as they’re the ones whose attacks are being parried the most often. In pve, melee dps stands behind the mobs in order to reduce the number of parries (both increasing their own dps and lessening the amount of damage dealt to the tank**).

Looking at item budget and effectiveness, it seems like strength and crit are still the way to go after getting that magical 9% hit due to its greater availability.

* Damage reduction from armor scales on a curve. At lower amounts, armor provides large amount of damage reduction per point (relatively). Up past 7000, you get less and less from it. The cap is 75% damage reduction, somewhere above 30000.

(src:Warriors: Crit vs. Hit vs. AP vs. Haste vs. ArmorPen vs. Expertise « Of Light And Fury)

There is the explaination in detail