Warrior Leveling Guide (Level 1-30) - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

This guide shows you the recommended talents for your journey to level 30 in the WoW: Forever Beta.

Arms is built around big two-handed weapon hits, with Overpower and Mortal Strike forming the core of the class fantasy. WoW: Forever leans into that identity further Weaponmaster, which folds the old individual weapon specialisation talents into one flexible talent that scales with whatever two-handed weapon you're holding, and, at higher levels (sadly higher than we’ll get to experience in Beta), with Bloodthrill, which turns a Rend'd target into a steady stream of extra Overpower procs.

Every Warrior also picks up Victory Rush as a baseline ability now, so you get a free, healing follow-up attack after every kill regardless of spec. That alone cuts down a lot of the downtime that used to slow Warriors between fights.

This build handles open world questing well and holds up in dungeons too, particularly from level 30 onwards once Sweeping Strikes gives you an answer to fighting more than one enemy at a time.

This build can also handle tanking in dungeons.

 3/3 Improved Rend - You don’t have many rage-spending options at low levels, and this point is necessary to acquire Deep Wounds later on.

2/5 Deflection - This is preferred over Improved Heroic Strike, as Heroic Strike is a sub-optimal ability and should only be used at max rage.

2/2 Improved Overpower - This turns Overpower into a powerful, instant cast attack.

2/2 Improved Charge - Due to Warriors receiving Tactical Mastery as a base-line in WoW Forever, grabbing points in the talent isn’t as necessary early. This makes Improved Charge by comparison more valuable, allowing you to generate as much rage as possible as you chain fights.

1/5 Improved Tactical Mastery - You may for 3/5 here instead of Improved Charge if you prefer.

3/3 Deep Wounds - Extra damage after a crit

3/5 Improved Tactical Mastery - this may be 5/5 if you have chosen to forego Improved Charge.

1/1 Spearing Strike - by itself this ability is not too strong (think of it more like a Hamstring than a Mortal Strike), but is still worth the point for rage dumping, finishing enemies off, or fishing for crits/Overpower procs, specifically versus giants and dragonkin.

5/5 Tactical Mastery - if you already had this, grab Anger Management, and then either Improved Charge or Two-Handed Weapon Specialization.

1/1 Anger Management - extra rage

1/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization - this is essentially a dumped point, as 1% is not significant at this level. If you went without Improved Charge, you can get this to 3/3.

1/1 Sweeping Strikes - big power spike for killing multiple targets. Turns Warrior into the premiere cleave class. This ability also stacks with the Cleave ability

Every race brings something useful to the Warrior, and with WoW: Forever's racial changes there's no real wrong pick. If we had to recommend one for each faction it would be Human/Gnome for Alliance and Orc for Horde.

Alliance

Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome & Skyborne

Humans get Will to Survive, breaking a stun every 3 minutes, which is a strong tool on a class that spends most fights in melee range. Sword Specialisation now grants a flat 2% crit chance while wielding a sword rather than the old weapon skill bonus, which is an overall nerf but still strong. 

Gnomes are the best for PvP with their root and snare immunity thanks to Escape Artist. If you choose to take Engineering, which is a solid option for Warrior's especially in PvP, then they also get bonuses to the profession, and the new Eureka! Racial temporarily increases your ability damage, great for busting players down.

Horde

Orc, Tauren, Troll, Undead & Skyborne

For Horde, Orc remains the strongest overall pick. Blood Fury still gives you a burst window, though it's been toned down to 10% attack power for 15 seconds rather than Vanilla's 25%. Axe Specialisation now grants 1% crit with axes instead of a weapon skill bonus, and Shatter Curse is a new addition giving 8 seconds of Curse and Bane immunity plus 15% reduced magic damage taken, useful insurance against casters.

For leveling quickly, Undead and Trolls have healing and/or regeneration benefits that increase your up-time out in the world, though the introduction of Victory Rush makes this less necessary.

If you'd rather tank, Dwarf and Tauren are both worth a look on their respective factions. Dwarves get Stoneform reducing physical damage taken while it's active, and Taurens' Endurance gives 5% more health plus an underrated 1% increased Hit chance.

The core of the early Arms rotation is Charge, Rend, and Overpower, with Sunder Armor at higher levels where fights last a little longer. 

1. Use Charge. 
2. Keep Battle Shout up at all times
3. Use Bloodrage for extra rage
4. Keep Rend on the target (this becomes even more valuable later with the Bloodthrill talent)
5. Activate Sweeping Strikes versus grouped enemies
6. Overpowerwhenever it activates
7. Sunder Armor a target down to roughly half HP
8. Cleave with Sweeping Strikes, as the Cleave damage on the secondary target also triggers Sweeping Strikes back to the first, essentially making Cleave deal double damage.
9. Heroic Strike if you’re going to cap over max rage, but only if you don’t need the rage for the next encounter.

Victory Rush is baseline for every Warrior now, so the moment something dies, follow up with it. It hits hard and heals you, and does more to cut down on downtime between fights than anything else in this level range.

The key to leveling fast and efficiently is to manage your rage to hop from fight to fight. A Warrior is significantly stronger at 50 rage than 0. 

Warrior is generally poor at multi-target fights before getting Sweeping Strikes, so don’t bite off more than you can chew. 

Take First Aid for bandages. Victory Rush being baseline helps a lot with sustain, but it only triggers after a kill, so extra healing is still valuable. This is key to heal up before your rage starts dropping off.

Train your weapon skill on lower-level mobs whenever you pick up a new weapon type you're not yet proficient with. Weapon skill directly correlates to your chance to hit a target, and if you’re not hitting you’re not dealing damage.

Stats to Prioritize

1. Strength is your main stat, driving your melee attack power and damage.
2. Stamina increases your health pool, which matters more for a melee class stood in the middle of every fight than it does for most other specs
3. Agility adds crit chance.

Upgrading your weapon whenever possible is the key to staying ahead of the curve as a Warrior. For example the historic Whirlwind Axe has always been an iconic weapon and significant power spike when leveling a Warrior.

Warriors lack any noticeable self-heals (Victory Rush notwithstanding) or CC to help themselves, making most encounters a stat-check, and the class the most gear dependent in the game.

If you plan to play in a group or level in a duo with a Class who can heal, Warriors can perform at an extremely high level.

Arms holds up well in dungeons even before level 30, thanks to Sunder Armor helping the group and Overpower keeping your damage high. Once you pick up Sweeping Strikes, pulls with two or three mobs stop being a problem, and later on Bloodthrill means a Rend'd pack keeps feeding you Overpower procs the whole time. 

You may struggle with rage generation early as a DPS Warrior as enemies are not hitting you to provide you with rage.

This build is still viable for tanking at low levels. The main issues when tanking in WoW is threat generation, so dealing damage is just as important as taking it. In WoW Forever, Warriors get access to Charge and Thunder Clap in Defensive Stance, making tanking a little easier without the need to stance dance. 

Generally as a Tank, you’ll want to engage with Charge and spam Sunder Armor to keep threat, alongside moves like Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap to reduce damage taken. Warriors are comparatively weaker against multiple targets, and in these cases you should apply at least one Sunder Armor stack to each enemy to keep them focused on you, while designating a main target thereafter for your attention.

Charge and attack macro. Opens the fight and immediately starts your melee swings once you're in range. Start attack macros are valuable for all of your melee abilities, particularly ones you engage with.

#showtooltip Charge
/cast Charge
/startattack

Equip Sword and Shield when swapping to Defensive Stance. You’ll often want your sword and board out when swapping to this stance, so this makes it easier.

/equipslot 17 [shield name]
/equipslot 16 [weapon name]
/cast Defensive Stance

Cast Taunt at a target your mouse is hovering over. Handy for quick taunts if you see an enemy running at an ally

#showtooltip Taunt
/startattack [harm,nodead]
/cast Defensive Stance
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead]] Taunt

Battle Shout no-clip macro. Only casts Battle Shout if you don't already have the buff, so you're not wasting Rage refreshing it early.

#showtooltip Battle Shout
/cast [nobuff:Battle Shout] Battle Shout

Berserker Stance and Whirlwind. Drops you into Berserker Stance and fires off Whirlwind in one press when you're surrounded.

#showtooltip Whirlwind
/cast Berserker Stance
/cast Whirlwind