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IC Warrior PvP Guide (In-Depth)[]
General Uses of Class Abilities and Talents in PvP
Talents[]
I’ve been at the 50g respec since February of 2005, I’ve tried almost every talent build possible for a warrior. With that extensive testing, Mortal Strike/Enrage builds are the best talent builds for a PvPing warrior. There are a number of people that still insist on being Fury or Protection warriors in PvP, but these talent trees simply don’t flourish the way Arms does in a PvP situation. I’ll go over which talents I feel are a requirement, and which ones are open to a bit of variance.
The majority of warrior talents in an MS/Enrage build are passive talents, so there is little needed explanation on how and when to use them. The active talents we do have that I recommend will be discussed in detail in other sections, where I am discussing the very situations in which they earn their keep.
Arms: Required[]
Deflection: You are going to be putting at least two points into this, regardless. You can only put three points into Improved Rend, and Improved Heroic Strike simply is not worth the points for an MS warrior. Deflection is open to a bit of customization, as you can leave just two points in it or take it all the way to five. I’ve personally had a couple of builds that I’ve been satisfied with that had it at both three and five, so really it’s up to the warrior. If you feel you need just a little bit more damage mitigation in melee fights, go ahead and drop those remaining points into it.
Improved Rend: This is a required talent. Not because you’ll actually be using Rend very often, the damage with a 35% increase simply isn’t very much, but you need this to get to Impale. There are situations where Rend can be useful, but not very many. It’s nice to have a DoT going on a target that you are fighting solo, so they cannot CC you in some method and then bandage themselves. But since you’ll also be picking up Deep Wounds, which is going to be active almost all the time in a fight like this, it’s somewhat moot.
Tactical Mastery: Take it to 3. This is one of the most important warrior talents there is, allowing you the freedom to stance dance without costing you all of your rage. I’ve tried builds that don’t have this, and it’s the most frustrating thing imaginable.
Improved Charge: This will typically give you enough rage to fire off a Mortal Strike the moment you engage a target. It is also provides enough rage that you can charge into a large battle, fire Blood Rage, and have enough rage for an AE fear.
Improved Overpower: This is your bread and butter for fighting rogues. 50% chance to crit, on top of your existing crit chance, means more often that not you are going to be seeing big numbers with this. It is our counter to rogue stun lock, as this lets us dish out big damage for little rage in between those stuns.
Deep Wounds: Another requirement because of Impale. I have a love/hate relationship with this talent, personally. There have been many occasions in which I am thankful for it, such as when it prevents a target from bandaging on me, but also many occasions where it prevents another class from CCing said target. You just have to be mindful of the fact that this could proc at any given time, so think ahead in situations where you might need the target CCed instead.
Impale: 20% to critical strike damage is outstanding. Little needs to be said for this, other than you absolutely must have it.
Sweeping Strikes: This is a requirement for Mortal Strike. It’s also a pretty handy ability if used in the right situations. It has been, and remains, rather buggy in its target selection for the extra attack. I’ve had a number of fights where I have two people standing right on top of me but Sweeping Strikes won’t register the fact that the second person is close enough to be taking damage from it. Blizzard has also nerfed some of the more amusing uses for this, such as using it with Execute to do 3-5k of damage to a full health target, or using it with Whirlwind to dish out massive amounts of damage across several targets. But, even post nerf, it can prove useful.
Mortal Strike: There isn’t another talent in any of our trees as important as this one. The 50% reduction to healing debuff is crucial in a lot of PvP encounters, and the damage is still great even after a dozen nerfs.
Fury: Required[]
Cruelty: Nothing amazing about this talent, but an extra 5% chance to crit on anything is a wonderful thing.
Piercing Howl: This talent seems to get overlooked by a lot of warriors, and it is an all out shame. It can be so ridiculously useful when used by a smart player. It’s very situational though, and I will cover it more in later discussion regarding class vs. class fights and Battleground specific tactics.
Enrage: Even after the recent nerf, this talent is still huge. But it can be gear dependent. I have an equipment setup that does not have any +Defense, because I want this to proc as much as possible. Because of that lack of +Defense, I wear a lot of high stamina gear so that I can survive those critical strikes, instead of avoiding them. When you have situations where this is active, and Crusader procs, and perhaps you have the zerker box buff, that’s when you see the really big numbers.
Arms: Useful, but not required[]
Anger Management: I have mixed feelings on this talent. It can prove very useful in fights where you are slipping in and out of combat regularly, or when you’ve just finished a fight with a fair amount of rage left, and you are moving to another fight nearby. But even with this talent, I start the majority of my fights without rage. I tend to have it in every build I try these days, but I think warriors could do fine without it if they feel they need that one point in something else.
Weapon Specializations: These can be very helpful talents, but a lot of warriors choose to ignore them in exchange for Two Handed Weapon Specialization. It’s just a personal choice that you have to decide on for yourself, and it is also dependent on your gear. If you are at a point where you have a weapon that you aren’t going to be trading in for something else for a long time, then picking a specialization isn’t a big issue. But if you are moving from swords, to axes, to maces and back a lot due to finding better gear, you might find yourself better off avoiding these talents and their respec costs until you are more stabilized. That being said, I am a sword warrior. I find that sword spec, especially when combined with shaman Windfury, is astoundingly lethal. My own chance to crit hovers around 25% at any given time, so I don’t really feel the need to go higher with the use of axe or polearm spec. And I find the extra attacks to be far more useful than a chance to stun with mace spec. Again, though, these choices are going to depend on the warrior and there really isn’t a right or wrong way to go with this.
Improved Hamstring: I’m still rather torn on this talent. In Warsong Gulch, it’s proven to be a life saver time and again. But even at 15% chance to proc, you don’t see it often. You have to decide if you want to invest 3 talent points on something that might occasionally happen, or put them in something more reliable like Deflection.
Fury: Useful, but not required[]
Booming Voice: I’m a fan of this talent, and tend to use it in every MS/Enrage build I try. Having a 3 minute Battle Shout is really helpful, costing me less rage to keep it going during long fights, and affording me the freedom of not having to fire it so often. It’s also a helpful talent in that it increases the area of effect of Demoralizing Shout, which breaks stealth. Most rogues have a general idea of how far away a warrior can destealth them with normal Demoralizing Shout, but this talent tends to throw them off and it’s cost many a rogue their life.
Unbridled Wrath: There is a lot of debate regarding this talent. I haven’t tested it personally since recent adjustments, but apparently it is only giving extra rage on white melee damage, not damage done by abilities. That, in my eyes, makes it a far less desirable talent.
Blood Craze: I’m one of the few warriors I know who like this talent, and I do have it in my current build. It is a very gear dependent talent though, and I really don’t recommend it for those who do not have very high stamina gear. At my current 5859 HP unbuffed, this talent heals me for 175 over six seconds every time I am victim of a critical strike. As I mentioned in the Enrage description, I am geared so that I do get crit on a lot. This talent acts as some what of a buffer to compensate for those crits. It typically goes off around 3-4 times a fight, so it can effectively give me an extra 500+ HP to work with during those fights. With this talent, Crusader procs, and my own Troll health regen, I find that my survivability is a lot higher than other warriors.
Improved Battle Shout: I recommend this talent to most warriors. Extra attack power is great, and it’s extra attack power for everyone in your group. It’s not a required talent though, I only have one point in it right now so that I can invest points in other talents, so it’s up to the warrior.
How to Kill Class X[]
Warriors[]
Typically, fighting other warriors is boring. Because our class is so heavily gear dependent, the warrior with the better gear is usually going to come out on top. In cases when the warriors are evenly geared, it comes down to which warrior gets luckier with critical strikes, another thing outside of our control.
Try to get off a Demoralizing Shout early in the fight. The lower their attack power, the less damage they are going to be doing to you.
An important tactic to use against warriors, and really every other class, is jousting. This is when you are constantly moving through your target and around them. If your target is someone who turns using their keyboard, which is a horrible way to play in PvP, by moving constantly you are likely to be out of their front arc meaning they will have considerable trouble getting off abilities against you.
Hamstring is a huge help here, keeping them snared means they are moving slower, making it that much harder to keep you in range. If you aren’t snared as well, you can easily run through them and get into the minimum range to use Intercept. The way to do this is to use jump turning, where once you are at about Intercept’s minimum range you jump, still moving away from your target when you are in the air, and turn towards them so that you can fire Intercept before you land. You want to get this off as fast as possible, to keep them from moving towards you and putting you in Intercept’s dead zone. But the 3 second stun from Intercept can easily give you a couple of free attacks.
Another thing that can easily turn the tides in a warrior vs. warrior fight is Disarm. There are a lot of warriors who do not have weapon chains or disarm immunity gloves, myself included. When in close range, wait until you have 20 rage, then shift to Defensive stance, fire Disarm, and switch back. You now have 10 seconds where your target is doing very minimal damage to you, while you beat on them for full damage.
If you are the victim of a Disarm, one of the best things to do is immediately fire Thunderclap, which you can use while disarmed. Follow that up with a switch to Defensive stance. Thunderclap does a slight amount of damage, but it also slows their attack speed, which could lead to you taking less damage while unable to fight back and Defensive stance means 10% less damage taken as well. This is also a really good time to use Intercept if your target was already snared, so that 3 seconds of their upper hand is wasted in stun.
If you find yourself in a point the fight where you and your target are not afflicted with Deep Wounds, you can also use Intimidating Shout to your advantage. Drop out of combat, fire it, and then immediately start bandaging. This will give you 8 seconds of freedom, which is usually about enough time for a full bandage. This will only work if you are both clean of DoTs though. If your target has one, Intimidating Shout will break on the next tick. If you have one, bandaging will cease on the next tick. A very situational tactic, but it you will find yourself in the position to use it quite a bit.
Rogues[]
Rogue fights can go either way. If they’re good rogues, with a solid understanding of their class and how to stun lock a target, you’ll likely find yourself unable to do much of anything until you are almost dead. If they’re bad rogues, you can simply MS and Overpower them into the ground.
Many rogues will use Gouge along with their stuns to keep their target incapacitated while they wait for damage ability cool downs to cycle, and to get behind you and into backstab position. There are a lot of warriors who do not know that Berserker Rage breaks Gouge, and gives immunity to Gouge while it’s up. Because of this, I will typically try to get Berserker Rage off early in the fight, which can prevent their extra 5 seconds of incapacity and also put them off balance. A lot of rogues play in a way that is very dependent on a fight going exactly as they planned, with an outline of which abilities to use in specific order. Throwing this off can force them into a panic, causing mistakes.
If you are fighting a rogue and they Vanish, immediately use Demoralizing Shout. This will unstealth them, and they will typically still be in range.
Evasion, the rogue ability which increases their chance to dodge by 50% for 15 seconds, is typically a death sentence when the rogue is fighting a warrior. We are usually able to fire off Overpowers every time the cool down is up, which leads to huge amounts of damage. But there are some rogues who know how to use Evasion properly against us, usually during stun locks so that we are absolutely unable to damage them during the brief seconds of freedom between stuns. These rogues are usually the ones who also joust, moving around and through us quickly while we are snared with their snare poison. Because they are using Evasion, landing a Hamstring on them is very difficult. This is one of the wonderful uses of Piercing Howl. While they can dodge a Hamstring, they cannot dodge Piercing Howl. This gives you several seconds of them being snared where you can try to get off a longer lasting Hamstring and Overpower when they dodge it.
If you are a consumable user, Free Action Potions can really put rogues in a bad situation. Being unable to stun or snare you means they are forced to take all the damage you dish out. While I don’t recommend using a FAP during every fight with a rogue, there are a number of situations in BG’s where your survival can make or break the game, and this is a viable tactic to make sure you come out on top.
Disarm is also a good ability to use early on in a rogue fight. Their stuns and Gouge require a melee weapon, which means if they are disarmed, they are unable to use those. Most rogues aren’t disarmable though, since they can simply put a chain on their offhand, or wear Bloodfang Gloves and be disarm immune.
Hunters[]
Fighting hunters is all about keeping them in melee range. Intercept is key here, if you are already in combat. Immediately apply a Hamstring and start jousting them. Hunters get a talent that gives them a percentage chance to resist snare effects, so be mindful of that when using Hamstring. If they resist, spam it until it lands. Typically hunters are not capable of out DPSing warriors in melee combat, so as long as you can keep them from getting out of range, you should be fine.
A lot of hunters are fond of using Feign Death and dropping a Freeze trap, so that they can get out of range at their leisure and begin plinking away at you. There have been adjustments made towards Feign Death and getting out of combat, but it’s still a threat. The best counter I’ve found is that the moment they Feign Death, use an ability that will put them into combat as soon as possible. Dropping the trap is dependent on them being out of combat, so the less time they spend out of combat the less likely they are to get that off.
If they do get out of range and your Intercept is down, make sure to switch to Defensive stance while you are closing the distance. There is no reason to be taking more damage from their ranged attacks when you don’t have to.
Mage[]
Fighting mages can easily go both ways. A well played mage can be astoundingly frustrating to kill, while poorly played ones can be fodder.
The key here, like most fights, is keeping them snared and in range. Most mages will Frost Nova to root you, then blink out of range and start casting a spell. This is one of the best examples of why you need to keep your Warrior PvP trinket on you at all times. Fire this off to break the root, and Intercept. You’ll have a few seconds here to DPS them while they wait for Blink and Frost Nova to cool down.
One thing to keep in mind is Pummel. If you happen to get in range while they’re in the process of casting a spell, immediately Pummel them to interrupt. Not only does this save you from taking damage from that spell, but it also means they are unable to cast a spell from that school of magic for 4 seconds. If they were casting a Frostbolt at you when you Pummeled, they’re now unable to Frost Nova you for 4 seconds. This can be crucial, because a mage fight is all about you dishing out as much damage as possible, as fast as possible.
Intimidating Shout can also prove very useful in mage fights. You can use this before they blink to buy you several seconds to apply a hamstring, wait for intercept cooldown to cycle, and simply to keep them in range for a little longer. You can use it as an interrupt, even if they’re dotted, as it will likely prevent their spell cast before the next DoT tick breaks it.
Grenades are also very useful in mage fights, and I always recommend that a warrior take up Engineering. If you find yourself Frost Novaed and Intercept is down, lobbing a grenade while they’re casting will interrupt them and buy you an extra 3 seconds to get out of root and close range.
Paladin:[]
Paladins are frustrating to fight, but usually not a threat. Most paladins cannot out damage a warrior straight up, so they have to rely on using their immunities and heals to come out on top.
One of the best tactics to use against a paladin, when they pop their immunity bubble and begin casting heals, immediately begin bandaging yourself if you are not afflicted with DoTs. You may need to move out of range of a Consecration to do this. But this will even the playing field a bit, as both of you have now healed instead of just the paladin.
Demoralizing Shout can help lower their DPS and buy you a little more time to out DPS them. Pummel is also an ability to keep in mind if they attempt to heal outside of immunities.
Priests[]
A priest fight’s outcome is really dependent on what type of priest it is. If it’s a Shadow priest, you likely aren’t going to beat them straight up. Their damage is considerable, and they have heals and Power Word: Shield. If they’re not Shadow, though, you’ll typically be fine.
Interruption is key against priests, as they will often attempt to cast a heal while they have Power Word: Shield up which prevents our damage from delaying their cast time. Use Pummel whenever possible.
You have to be mindful of their fear as well. Burning Berserker Rage early is typically a good idea against most priests, as they just spam their fear as soon as something starts beating on them. Some priests, though, know to expect this and will wait for it to expire and catch a warrior while they’re waiting for Berserker Rage to cool down. Staying in Berserker Stance is usually alright against a non-Shadow priest, as their DoT damage isn’t that much of a threat. This allows you the ability to use Berserker Rage the moment you become feared, instead of trying to guess when they’re going to try and use it.
Intimidating Shout can prove useful here as well, as an interrupt.
Druids[]
Druid fights are almost entirely based on the skill level of the druid. If they are content to just melee you in bear or cat form, you can usually win. If they’re smart and use their root and stuns to buy them time to heal, there is little you can do.
Most skilled druids will immediately go into bear form while fighting a warrior, tanking our damage with their high armor. One of the tactics I see most often is them using their 5 second stun, shifting back to caster form and healing themselves. We can interrupt this using the PvP trinket and Pummel or Intercept if they moved far enough away, but this is something we’ll only be able to do once in a fight.
Best advice is to try and keep the Mortal Strike debuff on them as much as possible, and especially try to get off an MS any time you are in range and they shift back to caster form.
Warlocks[]
Warlocks are tricky, and warlock fights vary so much depending on the warlock’s spec and their skill level. There is some advice I can give, but it’s not the kind that you stick to any time you fight a warlock. This class is one of our biggest threats these days, so you need to spend time becoming familiar with the various warlocks you face, how they play and what tactics they use.
One of our main advantages over Warlocks is Berserker Rage, to break fear or gain immunity to it. I see a lot of warriors that, because of this fact, spend an entire fight with a Warlock in Berserker Stance so that they can use that ability whenever the need to. This is not a good plan. Warlocks do a lot of damage as is, and to give them an extra 10% damage by staying in Berserker Stance is not something you want to do. But not staying in it a can pose a large threat as well. With Death Coil, a Warlock can prevent you from shifting stances while they cast fear. This will tend to depend on the skill of the warlock, as a majority of them do not start casting fear fast enough and as long as you are spamming your stance shift while Death Coiled, you can usually shift into it before the Fear lands.
How you go about fighting a warlock is going to depend on their talent spec. If they are a Soul Link warlock, you are going to want to kill the pet first, and as fast as possible. With Soul Link, the pet is going to be taking 30% of the damage you do to the warlock, and if you don’t kill the pet first that 30% damage loss is likely going to get you killed. Typically these types of Warlocks run with Felhunters out, and if they’re Master Demonologists, that’s another 10% damage reduction, to both the warlock and the pet. You can typically kill the pet in a few hits though, as they’re not terribly hard to kill. The best way to go about doing this is to snare the pet, and then use Intimidating Shout on the warlock. The warlock will stand there for 8 seconds unable to move or act, and the pet will run around feared. Because it’s snared, you should have no problem staying on top of it. Once the pet is dead, the warlock is usually pretty easy to kill.
Another pet issue to keep in mind is the Succubus. A lot of Warlocks will use the Seduction ability repeatedly on you, to get out of range and do damage, or to keep you constantly suffering a 1-2 second interruption in your actions. This can be both frustrating and lethal. When engaging a warlock and you do not see a pet anywhere, assume that he has a Succubus invisible near him. Use Demoralizing Shout to unstealth the Succubus, and then immediately go about killing it. These tend to be even easier to kill than the Felhunters. You can use the Intimidating Shout tactic mentioned above in this case as well, to avoid being Death Coiled and feared while attempting to kill the succubus.
Pet issues aside, you need to become knowledgeable about warlock spells and what they look like when being cast. You need to be able to recognize a fear, so that you can shift into Berserker stance before he lands it, to either Pummel interrupt it or Berserker Rage out of it.
Fear, Death Coil, and Shadow Bolt are all shadow spells. This means that if you can get off a Pummel while the Warlock is casting Shadow Bolt, you gain 4 seconds where they are unable to Fear or Death Coil you.
Warlock DoTs deal considerable damage, so you need to be mindful of those as well. If the warlock is out of melee range and you have no way to close that distance in a hurry, shift to Defensive stance so you can shave off 10% of that damage while you get in range again.
Fighting a good warlock is going to be more about finesse with your class than about following advice. Getting the upper hand in these fights is something that you are simply going to gain from experience, and little else.
Warsong Gulch[]
I have spent countless hours in Warsong Gluch on my warrior, as both the tactical leader of a solid PvP team and as a solo joining pickup. Of all three BG’s, Warsong allows a well played warrior to truly shine. We can prove to be crucial to the game both offensively and defensively, and in tight games victory can hinge on a warrior making using good judgment and making the right decision.
My own role in Warsong is that of a flag carrier. I’ve gone a long way towards making a reputation for myself as being one of the best, to the point now where random pickups will hand off the flag to me without my asking, which is a wonderful feeling. I’ve heard dozens of arguments about other classes or different geared/specced warriors being better for this role than an MS/Enrage warrior, but I disagree.
While druids and shaman can do very well in speeding a flag from one side to the other, neither of them have the survivability and versatility of a warrior. They can prove useful in certain situations, but as a main carrier I feel that they do not fill the role as well as we do. And while Protection spec or defensively geared warriors might absorb more damage during the midfield crossing, I feel that they are also inadequate. What people need to understand is that it’s not about damage absorbing or mitigating when being the flag carrier, it’s about survivability. And an MS/Enrage warrior well played well simply has more survivability than others do in this role, examples of which I will discuss below.
Warsong – Defense[]
There is a lot that you need to know and understand to be a solid warrior flag carrier, but the majority of that is going to come from experience. I will attempt to offer advice and examples in an effort to provide a better understanding on how to properly judge situations, but only so much can be learned through this medium.
The key to playing this role is to not get tunnel vision towards any one specific part of the act or the battle around you. There is a lot going on in a Warsong game, and flag carriers tend to get too concerned with their hit point bar and getting the flag to their base. You have to zoom out, as it were, and make sure you are seeing everything that is happening.
Picking up the flag and getting it out of the enemy base is usually the easiest part. Very few people actively defend the flag room these days, and you will typically have several people with you upon entering that can quickly dispatch any potential threat. When leaving the base, I will almost always go through the tunnel on the first flag carry attempt. This is because the opposing force is mostly on the other side of the map and they are not a concern at the moment. Exit strategy will shift dramatically on the following captures, though.
One thing to be cautious of are rogues and Sap. There is no way for your support to dispel this off of you, so if a rogue does get one off, even if he dies he’s costing you precious seconds sitting there waiting for it to expire. It’s generally a good idea to go ahead and carry the flag outside in Berserker stance to avoid this, as Berserker Rage will break Sap. You’ll have plenty of time to shift back into Battle or Defensive when the real battle starts or if a couple of rogues decide to jump you ahead of the rest.
Once outside, you need to quickly judge the situation. Who picked up your flag? If it was a druid, he is likely going to run along one of the walls and avoid a fight, while the rest of his team piles you midfield. If you have an idea on which way this druid is going to run, then head in that direction so that you and the rest of your team are in his way, forcing him to either run through and likely die, or waste time avoiding the fight. In situations like this, if the 8-9 other people on their team are going to be focus firing you, your main concern is making sure that your team returns your flag too. You, as the flag carrier, can force this because typically your team will move with you.
If another warrior picked it up, then there is going to be a large clash of team vs. team somewhere midfield. Your concern here is getting the flag into your base, because large scale fights are not your friend. There is typically too much going on, people get side tracked and tunnel vision, and that can get you killed. Try to get you and a couple healers up through the tunnel. Target the enemy flag carrier and watch his health. If he looks like he is going to die soon, go ahead and run straight for the capture point so as to avoid another pickup. If he isn’t going to die, head to the roof, and dig in.
During flag crossings like this, there are a lot of things you need to be mindful of, and a lot of things you can potentially use to your advantage.
Say they meet your team in the middle of the field, and you go ahead and plow through and keep running to your tunnel. You’ve got warriors and rogues on you, perhaps a mage or two who were getting into position who are now behind you. You are likely snared and moving slowly, so these mages are going to go ahead and get a few casts off on you while you are in range. This is not good. What you can do to avoid being hit by spells like this are look for stragglers. Is there someone who was late coming out of the tunnel, someone who is ahead of you? Target them and use Intercept to quickly gain distance. Even if it’s something like a hunter who is not so much ahead of you in the direction you want to go, but somewhat off to the side. You are trying to gain distance on their ranged attackers, whether it’s exactly where you want to be going or not. Always be looking for a way to gain distance through Charge and Intercept, whenever you have the flag. This is just smart use of your abilities.
Crossings like this are also where Piercing Howl shines. You don’t have time to Hamstring every rogue or warrior on top of you, but you can easily Piercing Howl once and snare them all. You can then use your PvP trinket to break the existing snares on you and gain some distance on them, assuming they don’t get off another snare before you get out of range. Swiftness and Free Action Potions are of great use in situations like this. Piercing Howl, pop a Swiftness Potion and start gaining a little distance, then trinket out of the snare entirely and you’ll be quickly out of range of any other snare attempts. Warriors will likely use Intercept on you here, but the key is gaining some distance, not getting away entirely.
These distance gaining attempts are not always the best course of action though. As I’ve mentioned before, you need to have a wider scope on the entire situation as a carrier. Where are your healers? Are they in range? Are they in the process of casting a heal on you right now, to where if you gained too much distance too fast, the heal would not land? Your location in relation to your healers is one of the biggest things you need to keep in mind, and it’s one of the hardest things to learn. It’s experience, and familiarity with your healers. You could easily move slowly and always be in range, but that can get you and the healers killed. You want to be in range when you need to be, and out of range of the enemies when you don’t.
Another thing to keep in mind is what is behind you. Often times you will have enemies running up behind you on mounts, trying to get on top of you or ahead of you. Don’t be afraid to jump spin and fire off a Charge or Intercept on these people. Back pedaling isn’t always the best idea, but if you can prevent a potential sheep or trinket mage frontload this way, it’s often worth it.
You also need to think about what you can do to aid in the midfield fight. Dropping an MS on a healer or the flag carrier as you pass can be a huge help. Or say a mage is ahead of you casting Arcane Missiles at someone. If you Shield Bash and disable his ability to use Arcane spells for 4 seconds, he’s going to be unable to blink to get ahead of you or get away from your team as they pile him, or unable to Polymorph you or a healer.
As a carrier, you have to make judgment calls all the time on situations. If you break snare and outrun your healers and your attackers, you might be able to get to the capture point and score. But you also might get stun locked inside the tunnel while your healers are unable to reach you. You need to be constantly keeping track of how many enemies are midfield, how many died, and how many could potentially be up ahead.
Once you’ve gotten the flag across the field, you either score, or go into stand off mode. I prefer to begin these stand offs on the roof. It’s just a generally more defendable position, puts you in close range to the capture spot, and gives you time to assess the threat before it gets to you. In these situations, you have to be both defensive and offensive. You are a DPS class, and doing good damage to your enemies in these fights is crucial. But you also have the flag and you have to be mindful of your health and your healers. Experience with stance dancing is very important here, along with being able to switch from your two hander to one hand and shield quickly.
Your goal is to survive. You aren’t here for killing blows, and you aren’t here to simply absorb damage. Simple tactics here tend to prevail. Take out healers first, or high damage classes if healers can be CCed or otherwise dealt with. Use the advice I gave about class vs. class fights to your advantage in these situations, as they are often applicable.
Use Line of Sight to your advantage. There are all sorts of walls and corners all over the base that you can use to duck around and get out of LOS of enemy casters.
Protect your support. If you can fire off an Intimidating Shout that is going to scatter a group that is piling your priest, do so. If you can disarm a rogue who is stun locking him, do so. If there are hunter pets on your healers, you can use Challenging Shout or the other taunt abilities to buy several seconds of uninterrupted healing. You have to be aware of everything that is happening in a fight, not just aware of what’s happening to you.
Watch your map. Are there 6-7 of your team mates in their base all clustered in one location? They’re probably going to return the flag then, get in a position that you can cap quickly before someone else picks it up. Is your support mostly dead, with several enemies about to pile you and a lot of your team in the graveyard? Call for help from the offense that is likely respawning soon and head to a point where they’ll have LOS on you shortly after the rez.
Be mindful of your location in relation to the capture point. It is your job to score, your offense is going to be doing everything they can to return that flag, and it’s up to you to get there to capture before someone picks it up and starts the process all over again. While there are obviously going to be situations where you simply can’t get to the capture point in time, like when you are being locked down with snare and CC and the enemy has a number of people already moving towards it. But you need to be constantly keeping in mind where you are, which direction to take to get to the capture point as quickly as possible and using your abilities to be sure you are the one that gets there first.
After the initial capture, you are going to be forced to make a lot more judgment calls. This is another time that you need to be aware of the map and what is going on. If there is already an adequate carrier near their flag room, perhaps your best course of action is to make sure and stop the enemy carrier rather than carry yourself. If someone who is not going to be a good carrier has the flag, you need to watch the map to determine which direction they are taking the flag out, so that you can meet up with them as fast as possible for a safe hand off. If you are the closest to the flag room, you need to head there to pick it up, and make observations about the state of midfield. Are there a lot of people fighting near one side of it? Take the flag the other way, unless your team is likely going to be the victor in those fights, in which case take it towards the action. You need to be aware of how many of your enemies are likely with the enemy carrier, judging this by how many you see midfield, any you escaped in the flag room, and those rezzing. If the flag carrier is alone, and just leaving your base as you enter, there is a good chance that you can engage him and return the flag yourself. But if there are a lot of people with him, the best course of action may be to avoid them entirely and take a different route to the capture point so that you can get in a position to defend.
Much of being a good carrier is simply going to come from trial and error. You start to develop a sixth sense for exactly how a situation is going to play out, and your best course of action through it. The best advice I can give, really, is to learn how to play your class and play it well. Once you’ve reached a solid skill level and understanding of how to play, the rest begins to fall into place.
Warsong – Offense[]
This is a role that I don’t often play. There have been very few times during my Warsong career where I have had someone I feel to be an equally dependable carrier, and so there have been few times where I am not carrying or actively moving into a position for a hand off. That being said, there are exceptions, and my own experience on the receiving end of warrior offense also puts me in a position to offer advice on this role.
Your primary concern in this role is dealing damage, both to the flag carrier and his support. Killing priests is a priority if they cannot be CCed in some manner. You will also want to try and keep Mortal Strike’s debuff active on the flag carrier at all times, even when fighting another target, so that any heals that do get through are doing 50% less healing.
This is another time where you need to be aware of the fight as a whole, and look for situations where you can cause the most damage with your Intimidating Shout. Firing this and fearing the carrier’s support when he has gotten uncomfortably low on hit points can be just enough for your teammates to finish the job. Using it as a single target interrupt is also advisable.
Be sure to keep panning your camera around so that you are keeping track of the fight. If you are beating away on a priest, but see a paladin across the way that isn’t engaged in combat and is winding up for a big heal, turn away from your target and fire Intercept. Your goal is to prevent as much healing as possible, any way possible.
Berserker Rage is usually very important, as there is almost always a priest on defense. Fear immunity will allow you to deal damage unhindered, as well as put the priest off balance.
Recklessness can be a huge help here, and warriors who are typically on offense should save their 30 minute timer especially for these situations. Typically in an offensive fight, the enemy defense is focusing on healing classes or big ranged damage classes like mages and warlocks. This gives you the opportunity to use Recklessness where you likely won’t suffer too much from taking an extra 20% damage. The damage increase is lethal, allowing you to drop the support classes before they even have time to adapt to the change in your DPS. It can also be valuable to fire it after the support has died, to drop the carrier as fast as possible before any respawns return to the flag room or before he can escape. This is yet another situation where you need to use your best judgment.
After the capture, it can be beneficial for you to remain in the flag room so that you can pickup the flag the moment it respawns. This can buy your team precious seconds waiting for the carrier to get across the map. You’ll want to call out which way you are taking it so that he can meet you, typically tunnel is going to be your best bet as you will likely have a number of people respawning outside in the graveyard.
Warrior AB[]
Arathi Basin is less about how well you play with a team, and more about individual skill. That is not to say that this BG is not a team oriented one, that’s far from the truth. But the situations you find yourself in here will be situations that are about solo or small group play, and less about entire team play. Where Warsong games can be carried by a handful of skilled players, Basin requires everyone to be playing well to win.
Because of the different dynamic, a warrior’s role in this BG is far less defined. The goal is obvious and understandable, but far less easy to manage. You can only be one place at a time, and there are typically at least three places you need to be. There are still two basic methods of playing a warrior here, though.
Arathi Basin – Defense[]
A warrior makes for a very good flag defending class. Our DPS and survivability insure that we can either go a long way towards ending the threat, or surviving it long enough for support to arrive. An MS/Enrage build is still the best build to be using, as much of our play style is still the same. While damage absorbtion might buy a little more time for support to arrive, you are far better off being able to take out the enemy on your own.
Berserker Rage plays yet another vital role in this BG as well, preventing the warrior from being susceptible to the ever present threat of a rogue Sap and flag gank. Remain in Berserker stance any time you are not otherwise in combat, and only commit to another stance when you can begin to engage another enemy. You never know if there is a rogue lurking close by that might get off a Sap just as you stance switch to begin fighting an approaching enemy.
The most important concern when defending in Basin is the flag. When you are fighting, you have to keep panning your camera so that you always have a clear view of the flag. A lot of flag captures occur in the middle of a battle, by a sneaky rogue or cat druid. Always be watching, and try to remain in Intercept range of anything that might start the capture process.
Thunderclap is a great ability to use when defending the flag. Fire it off when there are several people trying to capture a flag at once, and it’s going to interrupt the capture process on four of them. And with a 4 second cooldown, you can often spam it repeatedly while you wait for support to arrive or rez.
Use the various buff boxes to your advantage. The Berserker box is an obvious choice, but you can also slip out of larger fights on occasion to grab the Leaf box and regen your health back up to full before engaging again.
Arathi Basin – Offense[]
We have no form of CC that will last long enough to get a capture on our own, so our primary role here is damage dealing. You want to kill as quickly as possible, so that you or a teammate can begin the capture process unhindered.
Sweeping Strikes and Whirlwind can be a big help here. There will typically be a large cluster of people around the flag, meaning you’ll have a lot of people in range. Doing damage across 2-4 targets can quickly eliminate the defenders.
Be mindful of potential CC. If someone is attacking a node with you, think about what kind of CC they are capable of doing. This is a big concern for us, because once we crit on a target, they’re going to be afflicted with Deep Wounds and that’s going to break CC abilities like Sheep.
Save Intimidating Shout for when it will do the most good. If you have a teammate on the flag and he only needs 3-4 more seconds, fire it off and buy him that time. Don’t blow it early and then have no way to prevent enemies from hitting him.
If you and your team have killed the all the enemies, you’ll want to get yourself in a position to slow down their support. There is no reason to have 3-4 of you standing around the flag trying to capture it. Go ahead and get out a ways from the flag, so that you can Hamsting or Piercing Howl incoming support.