Warrior Leveling Guide

The Warrior is the quintessential frontline fighter in World of Warcraft, capable of wearing any type of armor and using almost any type of weapon. They make formidable tanks and melee damage dealers, able to call upon their Rage to defend their allies and crush their foes. In Mists of Pandaria, the class retains its emphasis on strength and honor, eschewing frivolous utility in favor of straightforward offensive and defensive abilities.

This guide will cover all of the important details for leveling your Warrior from 1 to 90, including their build, equipment, professions, rotation, and where to go. All that’s left for you to do is Charge in and Execute.

Strengths

• Warriors are the sturdiest class in the game, with heavy armor and an arsenal of defensive cooldowns to keep them in the fight. Even the damage dealing builds are tanky, but Protection Warriors are even tougher, with their shields and many mitigation abiliites.
• Mobility is essential for leveling, and Warriors have it in spades. With Charge and Heroic Leap, you’ll be able to dart from enemy to enemy with little to no downtime.
• The Warrior deals direct, straightforward damage and doesn’t require specific circumstances to shine. No waiting for DoTs to tick, no kiting or careful positioning, just charge in and go to town.
• Being able to tank can make for fast dungeon queues and can let you make big pulls in the open world, or take on Elite enemies that other classes couldn’t handle solo.

Weaknesses

• Warriors can be particularly gear-dependent, and feel especially weak if you let your gear fall behind – which is easy to do while leveling.
• Rage can be a much more frustrating resource to deal with than mana or energy because it works “backwards,” meaning you must build it up before you can use it.
• Warriors don’t have a lot of unique utility, and their crowd control options are limited.

Talent Builds

Warriors are the ultimate melee class, with one tanking tree and two trees dedicated to dealing damage. Arms is widely considered to be the preferred leveling build for Warriors in Mists of Pandaria due to its consistent damage. Fury can offer strong burst, but is also very crit-dependent, which can leave it feeling slow at lower gear levels. Many players also opt to level as Protection for quick dungeon queues and large AoE pulls.

Talents

Because of the changes to talent trees in this expansion, all of your class’s specializations share the same set of talent options. Our recommendations for Warrior leveling talents are the same regardless of build.

• Level 15: Juggernaut
  A straightforward reduced cooldown on your Charge ability is ideal for chain pulling enemies while leveling. Double Time can be just as good or better, depending how you approach pulls. Warbringer is more of a PvP talent.
• Level 30: Enraged Regeneration
  This is a solid on-demand healing cooldown for any Warrior. Second Wind requires your health to be pretty low in order to have any effect. Impending Victory is an improved version of an ability you already have (Victory Rush), and in most cases it will be better to have an additional ability to use when you need it.
• Level 45: Disrupting Shout
  An AoE interrupt will prove more useful in solo questing and farming than Staggering Shout’s root or Piercing Howl’s snare.
• Level 60: Shockwave
  A cone attack that stuns all enemies in its path is powerful when fighting multiple mobs. Bladestorm may offer marginally better damage but an AoE stun can be life-saving. Dragon Roar does a knockback, which isn’t as helpful to you as a melee class.
• Level 75: Mass Spell Reflection
  This is the only one of the three options that you can use when solo. Both Vigilance and Safeguard are strong for defending party members in group content, with Safeguard also giving you some extra mobility.

Glyphs

Like talents, glyphs have been trimmed down and have a more subtle impact than they did in previous expansions. The glyphs below are our recommendations for leveling, but your mileage may vary based on your own preferences and playstyle (and what cosmetic effects you may want). Our recommendations are the same regardless of your build.

Major

• Level 25: Glyph of Enraged Speed
  You’ll move faster whenever you’re Enraged, and extra speed is always great for questing and farming in the open world.
• Level 50: Glyph of Victory Rush
  Your Victory Rush will heal for more with this glyph, which can keep you chain pulling instead of having to stop and bandage.
• Level 75: Glyph of Rude Interruption
  Developing good interrupt habits while leveling can pay off at endgame, and this glyph rewards consistent use of your primary interrupt. Another good option for leveling is Glyph of Death From Above, but that won’t be useful until you get Heroic Leap at level 85.

Minor

• Level 25: Glyph of Bloody Healing
  Bandages are useful for keeping yourself healed up when solo, and this glyph makes them even more effective. You won’t get any use out of this until level 32 when you get your Deep Wounds passive ability, so feel free to use something cosmetic until then.
• Level 50: Glyph of Intimidating Shout
  The downside of any fear ability is that feared mobs can run into other mobs and aggro them. This prevents that, and also makes it so you don’t have to chase them down when you want to attack them again.
• Level 75: Your choice
  There aren’t any other Minor Glyphs that are useful for leveling, so feel free to take your favorite cosmetic effect instead.

Stat Priority

Always try to stack your main stat above all – that will be Strength for Warriors. All three builds have the same stat priority. Even Protection favors DPS stats while leveling as it allows for greater damage and Rage generation, and because they should be sturdy enough to effectively tank leveling content without the need for stacking defensive stats. Hit and Expertise are desirable stats for all three as well, but they can be hard to come by while leveling, and you’re very unlikely to reach their caps before you get endgame gear.

1. Strength
2. Hit
3. Expertise
4. Critical Strike
5. Mastery
6. Haste

Equipment

Warriors are able to equip almost every weapon in the game: Bows, Crossbows, Guns, Daggers, Fist Weapons, Polearms, Staves, and both One-Handed and Two-Handed Axes, Maces, and Swords. The only weapons they can’t equip are Wands. Weapon upgrades will often be the biggest damage increase while leveling. If you’re using an Heirloom weapon, it will upgrade automatically each time you level.

Warriors can equip any kind of armor, but from level 50 on you will always want to wear Plate Armor due to your Plate Specialization passive ability, which gives a 5% buff to your most important stat. Before level 50, feel free to wear whatever gives you the best stats. Warriors can use Shields, and a Protection Warrior should always have one equipped as it is required for some of their abilities.

Heirlooms

Heirlooms can considerably speed up the leveling process by granting you increased experience gains and making your character a lot stronger. They’re also a lot more convenient than having to replace your gear every few levels. To get heirloom equipment for your Warrior, you’ll have to buy it on another character who has enough of an appropriate currency.

Any heirloom gear is better than nothing. If you happen to have some lying around after leveling another character, feel free to use them rather than buying new ones (as long as the stats are good for you). But these are the best pieces if you’re looking to purchase some Heirlooms specifically for leveling your Warrior:

Professions

You can approach professions while leveling in one of two ways: you can either start working on the skills you want to use at level 90 or you can pick up some professions to help you along the way. It’s more efficient in the long run to level your endgame professions at the same time that you level your character, but most professions will significantly slow down the leveling process if you do this. So if you just want to make it to level 90 as quickly as possible, it might make sense to grab something else for the time being.

As far as professions that specifically make leveling easier, gathering skills are the best choice. Herbalism and Mining have been changed in Mists of Pandaria to allow you to gather materials from any node in the game with a level 1 skill. These two professions, along with Archaeology, also give you character experience as you gain skill. On top of that, all three gathering professions – Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning – each offer useful passive bonuses that can help you in your journey, even if you don’t bother to level them at all.

Crafting professions require a lot more work (or a lot of gold to buy the materials on the Auction House). Many professions will allow you to craft items that you can use while leveling, with Blacksmithing and Engineering being particularly useful. It’s not really worth leveling them just for that, though. If you pick up a crafting profession, it should either be in preparation for endgame or as a means of supporting your other characters.

Rotation

Now that you’re all set up, here are what buttons you should push and in what order!

Starting out, you’ll always want have Battle Stance active, and you’ll use Heroic Strike as your main attack. At level 3, you can start using Charge to pull your next mob whenever possible. Prioritize Victory Rush and Execute when they become available and begin to weave in the rest of your build’s rotation after level 10.

Arms

• Use Battle Shout to apply the buff and on cooldown for Rage generation (level 42+).
• Use Sweeping Strikes on cooldown if you’re fighting more than one enemy (level 60+).
• Use Colossus Smash whenever it’s available (level 81+).
• Use Execute if it’s available.
• Use Slam whenever it’s available if you have Colossus Smash up on the target (level 81+).
• Use Overpower if it’s available (level 30+).
• Use Mortal Strike on cooldown.
• Use Slam if you have 80 or more Rage (level 18+).
• Use Heroic Throw on cooldown (level 22+).

Fury

• Use Battle Shout to apply the buff and on cooldown for Rage generation (level 42+).
• Use Colossus Smash on cooldown (level 81+).
• Use Heroic Strike whenever it’s available if you have Colossus Smash up on the target, or if your Rage is close to the maximum.
  • Use Cleave instead of Heroic Strike if you are fighting more than 1 enemy (level 44+),
• Use Bloodthirst on cooldown.
• Use Raging Blow whenever it is available (level 30+).
• Use Whirlwind if you are facing 2 or more targets (level 26+).
• Use Heroic Throw on cooldown.

Protection

This rotation focuses on dealing damage and generating Rage. As a tank, you’ll also have a lot of defensive abilities at your disposal which you should weave in as needed, particularly Shield Block. The use of defensives is a judgment call and should take priority over your damage rotation when needed.

• Always be in Defensive Stance.
• Use Battle Shout to apply the buff and on cooldown for Rage generation (level 42+).
• Use Shield Slam on cooldown.
• Use Revenge whenever it is available (level 30+).
• Use Devastate to apply 3 stacks of Sunder Armor to the target (level 26+).
• Use Thunder Clap to apply and maintain Weakened Blows to the target(s) (level 20+).
• Use Heroic Strike if you have the Rage.
  • Use Cleave instead of Heroic Strike if you are fighting more than 1 enemy (level 44+).
  • You will need to gauge whether you will need to use Shield Block (level 18+) or Shield Barrier (level 81+) soon and keep enough Rage in reserve if so.
• Use Devastate otherwise.

Where To Level

Getting Started

Like all classes except for Death Knights, you’ll begin in the starting zone for your character’s race. Completing your starting zone should get you through the first dozen or so levels. After that, you can head to your faction’s capital city to train professions, use the Auction House, and decide where to go next. A good place to start is the Hero’s Call Board in the center of The Trade District in Stormwind City or the Warchief’s Command Board in front of Grommash Hold at The Valley of Strength in Orgrimmar. This board will always have a couple of quests directing you to a zone in your level range.

Leveling Beyond Your Starting Zone

Level 20 is when you’ll be able to get your first mount. After that, you should train new riding skills as soon as they become available to help you get around more quickly. Don’t forget to also train your professions, upgrade your gear, and pick up glyphs when you have new slots available. At level 30, you can learn Dual Specialization from your class trainer, which will allow you to have an alternate build that you can swap to when you feel the need.

For the first 58 levels, you’ll be questing or dungeon grinding in Classic zones and instances on the continents of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. When you get into the higher levels, you should head to the next expansion’s zones as soon as you’re able to: Outland at level 58, Northrend at 68, Cataclysm at 78, and Pandaria at 85. There’s a big jump in loot and experience for each expansion that makes it well worth abandoning whatever you were doing before and moving on.

If you’re not worried about taking the fastest, most direct path to level 90, feel free to break up your leveling process by trying out different activities. There are plenty of things to do in World of Warcraft that grant experience besides questing and killing mobs. You can get a little bit of experience from gathering with Archaeology, Herbalism, or Mining. You can run dungeons with other players, or compete against them in PvP battlegrounds. The new pet battle system also gives experience.