Warrior Tank Leveling Tips and Tricks. Season of Discovery

Introduction

Welcome to the Warrior Tank Leveling Guide

Discover the ultimate leveling tips and strategies for the Warrior Tank in the Season of Discovery! This comprehensive guide will delve into essential tips, leveling viability, top-tier builds, and abilities you might consider skipping to conserve your gold.

Leveling Viability for Warrior Tank

Warrior Tanking can be a challenging yet rewarding path in World of Warcraft. With the right strategy, you can efficiently level up while mastering this role. Warriors excel with their resilience and versatility, making them a solid choice for tanking.

To succeed, it’s important to focus on:

• Understanding your role and responsibilities in a group setting.
• Optimizing your gear and talents to enhance survivability and threat generation.
• Utilizing key Warrior abilities to maintain control and manage threat effectively.

For more detailed strategies, explore our specialized dungeon guides tailored for Warrior Tanks. Whether you’re new to tanking or a seasoned veteran, these resources will bolster your leveling journey.

Leveling as a Warrior in the original version of World of Warcraft, often referred to as “vanilla,” has traditionally been a challenging endeavor. Opting to level as a

Protection

tank only added to the difficulty. This remains true in the Season of Discovery despite the early availability of abilities like Devastate. Utilizing a one-handed weapon and shield in Defensive Stance significantly limits your rage generation and ability usage compared to wielding a two-handed weapon, resulting in each encounter feeling sluggish and tedious.

Therefore, it is not advisable to level your Warrior primarily as a

Protection

tank in open-world or dungeon contexts. For a more dynamic experience, consider the Arms specialization combined with a two-handed weapon. This approach will significantly enhance your rage generation, increase damage output, and improve your ability to generate AoE threat in dungeons. You can achieve this with improved abilities such as Cleave, Improved Thunder Clap, and Sweeping Strikes, starting at level 30.

Best Leveling Builds for Warrior Tank – Phase 7

– Embrace the Arms specialization for efficient leveling.
– Equip a two-handed weapon for superior rage generation and damage.
– Utilize abilities like Cleave and Sweeping Strikes for enhanced AoE threat.
– Consider transitioning to a

Protection

build for specific group content where tanking is essential.

These strategies can help you navigate the challenges of leveling a Warrior in the Season of Discovery with improved efficiency and engagement.

Tanking

The optimal talent build for Warriors in a tanking role focuses on the Arms and Fury trees, with a distribution of 35/16/0. Here is a detailed breakdown of the talent order and runes you should consider for maximizing your tanking efficiency.

**Warrior Talent Build: 35/16/0**
– Talent Build Link
– Class Abilities
– Required Level: 60

**Arms Tree: 35 Points**
– Maximize your damage output and control with abilities like Mortal Strike and Sweeping Strikes.

**Fury Tree: 16 Points**
– Enhance your attack speed and damage potential with key talents such as Flurry and Blood Craze.

**Protection Tree: 0 Points**
– Focus on other trees to boost your offensive capabilities while maintaining essential tanking skills.

Talent Order

When progressing through the talent trees, follow this sequence to ensure your character is optimized for tanking duties:

**Season of Discovery Runes**
– Head: Taste for Blood
– Back: Fresh Meat
– Chest: Warbringer
– Wrist: Rampage
– Hands: Quick Strike
– Waist: Precise Timing
– Legs: Frenzied Assault
– Feet: Rallying Cry
– Ring 1: Axe Specialization
– Ring 2: Defense Specialization

By following these guidelines, you enhance your Warrior’s ability to absorb damage while contributing significantly to your team’s success in battles. Ensure to adjust your strategy based on your group’s needs and the specific encounters you’re facing.

Levels 10-30

Investing your talent points starting at level 10 is crucial, and choosing Cruelty is recommended regardless of your specialization goals. This talent offers a significant power boost for the subsequent ten levels. By level 20, you might consider reallocating your points into the Arms specialization to gain access to Improved Overpower, or you can wait until level 30 for Sweeping Strikes.

The combination of Sweeping Strikes, Flagellation, and Whirlwind provides excellent synergy, allowing you to efficiently eliminate multiple targets using accumulated rage. Alternatively, consider utilizing Warbringer for a quality of life improvement, enabling seamless transitions between Charge and Intercept without losing rage due to stance changes.

Levels 31-39

Upon reaching level 35 and unlocking Sweeping Strikes and Axe Specialization in the Arms tree, it is beneficial to allocate your remaining points into Cruelty. This approach offers the most significant damage enhancement until level 40, outperforming Impale and other lesser value talents in the Arms tree necessary to eventually unlock Mortal Strike.

If you prefer not to respec at level 40, you can continue investing in the Arms tree by focusing on lower-tier talents such as Impale, Anger Management, and Deflection to gain access to Mortal Strike.

Levels 40-49

At level 40, consider respeccing to unlock Mortal Strike and continue placing your talent points into Cruelty. By level 45, once you have secured Mortal Strike and Cruelty, you will not find significant power boosts on your path to level 50. Your filler talent options include Deflection, Improved Heroic Strike, or Booming Voice, which are relatively average.

Level 50

Upon reaching level 50, it’s advisable to respec into a build suitable for end-game raiding, as outlined in the Warrior Tank Talent Builds and Runes Guide. Additionally, seek out any missing runes to ensure your build is complete and optimized for high-level content.

The Protection Tree

The **Protection** talent tree offers pivotal end-game abilities for level 60 players such as [Last Stand], [Improved Shield Block], and [Defiance]. However, it lacks any substantial power boost that would accelerate the leveling process. Even if your goal is to tank in dungeons while leveling, adopting an **Arms** [Warrior] approach using a **2-handed weapon** is far more effective. This setup enhances your ability to generate rage and maintain aggro on multiple targets simultaneously.

Leveling Rotation for Warrior Tank

Leveling Up Alone

Level 10-36 Strategy

– Use Charge to close the gap quickly.
– Apply Rend to start dealing damage over time.
– Utilize Overpower whenever it is available to land critical hits.
– Employ Slam with Precise Timing once you reach level 30 for increased damage efficiency.
– Apply Sunder Armor until your target’s health is reduced to 50%.
– Take advantage of Victory Rush to sustain in fights after landing a killing blow.
– Manage your rage effectively, pooling it to repeat the cycle on the next target.

If you’re seeking a quicker resolution to encounters, consider using Execute to finish the fight sooner. However, when your opponent’s health reaches 20%, it’s often just a hit away from defeat, so conserving rage for subsequent fights might be more advantageous.

After Level 36

Progressing beyond level 36 will introduce new tactics and abilities to refine your strategy further. Consider exploring dungeon services to enhance your gameplay experience and obtain valuable rewards.

Warrior Combat Sequence

• Begin by using Charge or Intercept for quick engagement.
• Utilize Overpower whenever it becomes available for maximum damage.
• Switch to Berserker Stance for increased offensive capabilities.
• Employ Slam in conjunction with Precise Timing for efficient strikes.
• Execute a Whirlwind attack to hit multiple foes.
• Use Victory Rush to restore health after a kill.
• If you plan to switch back to Battle Stance for a quick Charge on your next target, deplete your rage with Execute to finish the fight swiftly. If remaining in Berserker Stance, conserve your rage.

Area of Effect Tanking in Dungeons

Level 10-36: Efficient Defensive Stance Strategy

• Maintain your position in Defensive Stance consistently. This allows you to conserve rage between combats, enabling you to Charge or Intercept into the next group of enemies using Warbringer (approach the next group without the rune).
• Utilize Thunder Clap whenever it’s off cooldown to maintain consistent AoE threat.
• Activate Revenge as soon as it’s available to maximize your damage output.
• Cycle through targets and apply Sunder Armor to distribute threat evenly across multiple enemies using your additional rage.
• Employ Cleave with caution, particularly if your rage bar is nearing its maximum capacity.
• When you’ve established sufficient threat on a group or if your current target is close to defeat, reserve some rage to promptly execute abilities on the subsequent group of enemies.

Post-Level 36: Advanced Engagement Strategy (Optional)

General Tips and Tricks for Leveling as a Warrior Tank

• Begin your engagement in Battle Stance.
• Utilize Charge and follow up with Bloodrage to gain extra rage, activating Flagellation for additional effect.
• Activate Sweeping Strikes to maximize damage output.
• Switch to Berserker Stance for increased offensive capabilities.
• Execute Whirlwind for significant burst damage on up to four targets, effectively utilizing Sweeping Strikes charges.
• Transition to Defensive Stance to enhance durability and threat management.
• Keep Thunder Clap on cooldown for consistent area-of-effect threat generation.
• Employ Revenge whenever it becomes available for a powerful counterattack.
• Switch between targets and apply Sunder Armor to evenly distribute threat across enemies using your excess rage.
• Use Cleave cautiously, especially if you are at risk of reaching your rage cap, to maintain threat and manage rage effectively.

These strategies will assist you in efficiently leveling and managing threat as a Warrior Tank, ensuring both survivability and damage output during encounters.

Pool Rage

When you’re starting out and haven’t yet unlocked any powerful abilities, it’s wise not to expend your rage on Heroic Strike. Instead, conserve your rage at the end of each encounter. This allows you to immediately apply Rend and as many Sunder Armor as possible at the beginning of the next fight. By doing so, you will extract more damage from your rage than if you had used Heroic Strike.

Run Fast

In situations where you’ve accidentally engaged more foes than you can manage, quickly switch to Defensive Stance and make a swift retreat. If you’re feeling daring, use Hamstring on enemies as you make your escape. It’s preferable to retreat and live to fight another day than to face defeat as a Warrior.

Food and Bandages

Always collect food items found in boxes or looted from humanoids; they’re essential for your survival. Purchase food from innkeepers that matches your level to ensure faster health regeneration when out of combat. Make sure to keep your First Aid skill up to date to access the best bandages available.

Prioritize Green Quests

Green quests, which are a few levels below your current level, offer the full amount of experience upon completion. Green mobs, also slightly below your level, provide slightly less experience but are much easier and quicker to defeat. This is due to increased critical strike chances, reduced dodge and parry, and because they inflict less damage on you. Focusing on these tasks makes it easier to maintain and expedite battles, resulting in more experience points over time.

Abilities to Skip While Leveling for Warrior Tank

Warrior Abilities in Classic WoW

In Classic World of Warcraft, Warriors have access to a variety of abilities that aid them in battle. Below are some abilities that typically don’t require upgrades past their initial rank:

• Shield Bash beyond rank 1 is often unnecessary, as the primary utility of this skill is its interrupt capability.
• Mocking Blow past rank 1 is generally not upgraded further as its primary use is to temporarily shift an enemy’s attention.
• Intercept is a crucial gap closer for Warriors, but upgrading it past rank 1 is not always a priority since its basic function remains the same.
• Pummel beyond rank 1 is typically unnecessary as the skill is primarily used for its interrupt effect.

For those seeking to maximize their effectiveness in dungeons or raids, understanding the optimal use of these abilities is essential. Whether you’re tanking or dealing damage, choosing when and how to employ these skills can make a significant difference in your group’s success.