| Warrior (world Of Warcraft) |
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A Warrior is a class in '' World Of Warcraft '' that excels in Melee combat and playing the role of a Tank . They are also more than competent DPSer s. Warriors are exceptionally good at playing the former role because they have a vast amount of health, and their abilities at gaining and keeping aggro, and the latter because they equip powerful high-damage weapons and have strong armor to keep damage away. INFO
RAGE Warriors have an unusual system for making use of their special abilities. This system is based on an attribute called rage. Rage is normally at zero until a warrior enters combat. It then builds up as a result of taking or dealing damage. Rage is expended every time a warrior performs a special move (Such as Heroic Strike). More powerful abilities (such as Mortal Strike) require more rage than other abilities. Once out of combat, rage quickly decays back to zero. Rage is the opposite of a Rogue's energy. With a rogue, a battle begins with a flurry of special moves (if the player initiates) until the energy of a rogue is depleted completely. With a warrior, the battle starts out as a normal fight but the longer it lasts, the more special attacks the warrior can unleash on his enemy. THE ROLE OF A WARRIOR When playing in a group, the warrior is tasked with the job of keeping the monster(s) occupied (this is called ''keeping aggro'' {Link without Title} or tanking) so that the activities of the rest of the party, such as in single-target damage potential. Warriors almost always have the highest combined armor and health amongst all of the classes in the game. While Paladins may have more armor and Warlocks can have more health, the Warrior often has more health than the Paladin and much more armor than the Warlock. They are capable of absorbing the damage from multiple attackers and the longer they fight, the more dangerous they become, due to generation of rage. They are generally better at the job of keeping aggro than a Paladin due to the amount of aggro generating skills available to them, including Sunder Armor, Taunt, Revenge and Heroic Strike. A Warrior's armor sets are also more geared towards adding Stamina and Defense (a skill that lowers the amount of critical strikes a character takes, among other things). Warriors can shift between several stances or combat modes. The Battle Stance is the normal stance, good for both attacking and defence. The Defensive Stance is geared for tanking, commonly used when the warrior is part of a group and his job is to hold aggro. The Berserker Stance is for when the warrior is the main damage dealer (or has a lot of healing support). Different skills are available in different stances. STRENGTHS The warrior is the supreme melee fighter. No one except another warrior can hope to survive in an all out melee fight. They wear the best armor, often achieving 40+% physical damage reduction, and with either big, slow weapons and an instant attack to take advantage of, or two fast weapons and a fury of attacks, their DPS output to DPS input in melee is extremely high. Their skill, Overpower, allows them to take advantage of the rogue's and hunter's dodge, which usually acts as a defensive factor. When their opponent dodges, the Overpower skill becomes available, doing instant melee damage plus some more, and with two talent points increasing its critical hit rate by 50%, it's often devastating. They have three stances, Battle, Defensive and Berserker, which they can switch to in order to adapt to different situations. A warrior is largely based on gear, allowing for a much greater power potential. With the items from rank 14, Grand Marshal or High Warlord, you will have a greater chance to destroy your opponents, considering your high armor and health values, and some of the most powerful weapons in the game. The warrior is also very sought after for instance groups, a large aspect of the game, for their ability to hold "aggro" and take the least damage of all classes. When in group Player vs. Player (PvP) encounters, such as the wildly popular battlegrounds now present in World of Warcraft, the warrior is a very formidable foe. The fact that they have so much life as well as defense makes them generally the last person the enemy will target. This effectively negates most of the weaknesses that warriors may have and allows them to deal damage to opponents without being attacked themselves. Because of this warriors will do extremely well in group pvp encounters and are a must have. TALENTS In terms of play style, a Warrior usually invests heavily into one of the three Talent trees available. These trees are what define the Warrior class. Arms The first is the Arms talent tree, where the last point, Mortal Strike, is the keystone to the whole build. This build focuses on big, slow weapons to achieve a high damage range, then taking advantage of it with the instant attack ability, Mortal Strike, which does weapon damage plus some more, as well as reduce healing effectiveness of the target by half. Overpower is also favoured heavily, because it too is an instant attack, and will crit for more than half the time. Burst damage is the name of the game, and it is heavily favoured in real PvP because you will be stunned, rooted, or just plain too far away most of the time. You can do most of your damage in a short period, which makes the best of those few seconds you have capable of attacking the enemy. This is by far, the most preferred build for PvP warriors. This is great against mages, warlocks, priests and rogues, where you are disabled for a large portion of the fight. They are also great for battlegrounds. Fury The second is the Fury talent tree, where each talent point contributes to the whole of the warrior, in contrast to Arms. This build focuses on two fast weapons in both hands (or on a two-handed weapon), attacking the enemy with a flurry of attacks. Your main attack will be Heroic Strike, which is a melee attack which occurs on your next main hand attack, works best with fast weapons because the bonus damage is constant. With two fast weapons and the talent "Unbridled Wrath" which, on a 45% chance, gets you 1 rage on a hit, you will have nearly limitless rage. This allows for great flexibility. Bloodthirst is a great rage dump, as it does 45% of your Attack Power rating, and it costs 30 rage. Fury warriors' DPS is consistent however, so your DPS will greatly lower when you are kept at bay and unable to do anything. This build is the most damaging if you can stay in melee unstunned all the time, like in Molten Core. It is a build more geared towards Player versus Environment damage, as opposed to Arms, which is more of a Player versus Player build. Protection The third is the Protection talent tree. You grab a big shield, a one handed weapon of your choice, and just outlast the enemy. This path is not very effective in PvP however, since your offense that you gain from the other two trees far outweigh the defense you get from this tree. Not to mention, casters burn through the physical defense you attain by this tree. Some talent points you get here don't even affect skills that work on players. This tree however, is extremely good in tanking, where the damage you can't do is menial compared to the less damage you take. You really can't kill any class as well as the other two can. A warrior is also the only class who can hold hate/aggression (aggro) of mobs effectively with skills such as Sunder Armor, Heroic Strike, Revenge and Taunt. The first three gain aggro, while the last one simply forces the mob to attack the warrior for a certain amount of time. These first three skills work opposite to skills such as the priests fade or the rogues feint. In high end instances such as Molten Core, or BlackWing Lair only they can tank, with the possible yet rare exception of a druid. Due to their durability and offensive power, they are often Charging into enemy groups, brawling it out, with healing support from the healers in the back. WEAKNESSES Warriors, for all their heavy armor and HP, have few defenses against magic spells. A fireball that says it will do 500 damage on the tooltip will most likely hit the warrior for 500. One of the warrior's two best strengths, armor, is totally nullified when fighting a caster class. Some may argue that warriors have high HP to counter this, but a mage can easily burn through 5000 HP (the standard for level 60 warriors) with no trouble. A warrior is gear dependent also. A very well geared warrior, with tons of epic items can shred through the opposition, though a warrior wearing mostly green items will be weak and will be dominated easily. Gear is what makes or breaks you, and good gear is hard to get. Not every player can attend Molten Core and receive Might gear, or attain the incredibly difficult rank, Grand Marshal or High Warlord. A warrior who does attain Grand Marshal or High Warlord though will most likely be more powerful than any other class at this rank, with the ability to pretty much 2-shot any opponent he comes across. They also have limited control in a fight. Warriors who spend their talent points in the Protection tree gain a stun skill and 40% chance to stun when activating Revenge, a skill usable upon your dodge, block or parry. The Protection tree is not suited to Player versus Player environments, and so, most people don't allocate their points there. The more standard Arms and Fury warriors however, only have their slowing ability, Hamstring, to use. Arms warriors have a 15% chance to completely root their opponent in place when using Hamstring. Fury warriors don't have that 15%. Other than that, they have no control. A rogue's only chance of defeating a warrior is to control the fight via "stun-locking". Warriors are also not effective at healing. They have no abilities to heal others, and only two that heal themselves. One is a third tier talent in the fury tree which, when hit with a critical strike, activates buff that heals a small percent of health over time. The other is the 40-point fury talent that allows the warrior to regain small amounts of health for six hits after activation. There is another skill, intimidating shout, which indirectly heals by disorienting the target (and fearing other enemies nearby) and allowing the warrior to band-aid themselves. A warrior can also use potions or leave a bad fight through hamstringing and running away. In an instance group, warriors are extremely dependent on priests and other healers to stay alive. Against a mage, with their multitude of instant "stay away" abilities, a warrior has nothing to use except Intercept, which is a Charge that can be used in battle, and Hamstring which is not very efficient. The mage also utilizes magical offense, which goes through plate armor. Against a priest, through their Psychic Scream, which makes all nearby opponents run in fear for 8 seconds, their damage over time spells, their painful Mind Blast attack, and their Shield which negates your attack, you can barely penetrate their defense. A warlock will either Fear you, or their Succubus will seduce you into not attacking until you are hurt. However this is where being a protection warrior comes in handy as they can get a resistance to fear. The only ranged class you can easily take out is a hunter, because they have no instant "stay away from me" skills, and they use physical attacks where your armor works. Even then, they have adequete defense with their mail armor. STRATEGIES From the mundane 'Charge and Hamstring' to 'Shield Block and Revenge', Warriors are extremely flexible in their ability to combine abilities together to achieve devastating results. One common tactic for a Horde Warrior facing a Paladin is to take advantage of the Paladin's powerful divine shield and Blessing of Protection abilities to bandage himself up, until the Paladin's shield wears off and the fight can begin anew. A solid tactic for any Warrior facing a Rogue is to turn to face the rogue and activate Retaliation, a skill that counter attacks every attack against you for 15 seconds up to 30 attacks. With most rogues using two weapons, this can amount to almost triple your normal attacks in those few seconds. Combine this strategy with a two handed weapon, and you're seeing some extreme damage on a leather armor wearing class. Warriors also have an overpower skill which can only be used when the enemy dodges, as rogues should have high agility they dodge often and with overpower you can cause massive damage, especially if you have specced the 50% crit chance (Arms tree) . Putting Rend upon a rogue can make their stealth useless, while Berserkers rage makes you immune to gouge. Generally a mage will defeat a warrior in combat if they are clever. A skilled mage and warrior will save their Blink/Intercept until the other player uses Blink/Intercept. The moment a mage Blinks if you activate Intercept you will be able to deal some massive damage to them before they can get away. Frost Nova can also be countered by using a PVP trinket (gained at Rank 2), which will remove the Frozen effect allowing you more than enough time to obliterate the weak mage. CONCLUSION The warrior is a very complex, yet very fun class to play. They shine in group settings, whether it be soaking up the damage from multiple mobs, or charging head first into enemy lines taking out their most vital classes. GALLERY |
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