Warglaives of Azzinoth: Rogue or Warrior Prio in TBC Classic?

• Author: Pride
• Date: January 5, 2022
• Updated: January 5, 2022
• Expansion: TBC Classic

If you’re anything like me, you grew up playing Warcraft 3 and thinking Illidan Stormrage is a total bad-ass. The amount of players whose names are a variation or mis-spelling of other popular Warcraft / fantasy characters like “Legolasx” and “Arthass” simply paled in comparison to the sheer number of names like “Illidanzz” in 2005-7 World of Warcraft.

Saying Illidan was popular would be the understatement of the year. Similarly, saying that players were hyped about getting to kill him the original Burning Crusade and having a chance to claim his legendary Warglaive of Azzinoth weapons, would be a gross understatement. And history seems to be repeating itself, as amidst all the hyper for the upcoming content in phase 3, Illidan Stormrage and his legendary weapon seem to be the center of attention. One issue in specific seems to be very hotly debated — rogues or warriors, who should the Warglaives be prioritized to?

This article aims to help your guild make that decision. Let’s settle the score — who should get your first warglaives, your rogue or your fury warrior?

Raid DPS

Many guilds, particularly speedrunners and those more on the hardcore side of the spectrum, typically prioritize significant DPS items like Dragonspine Trophy and The Skull of Gul’dan for classes / specs that gain the most DPS out of them. The Warglaives are likely to be one of those items for them, given how high of a DPS boost they offer while being very rare.

Warriors have a small edge in this department, as they gain a slightly higher DPS boost out of the Warglaives…

Warrior 1 – Rogue 0

PvP

The Warglaives are undoubtedly a very significant raid DPS boost, but arguably they are even more significant in PvP. Rogues are arguably the strongest DPS class in PvP right now, and Warglaive rogue vs non-Warglaive rogue match-ups make their significance in PvP incredibly apparent.

Warriors use 2-handed weapons in PvP, so for them the Warglaives will be a strictly PvE-only weapon. For that reason, if your guild’s rogue is big on PvP, it becomes easy to argue that they should get the first Warglaives.

Warrior 1 – Rogue 1

Cleave DPS

This consideration applies more to speedrun guilds and those more on the hardcore side, as they tend to focus more on cleaving trash down as fast as possible.

Warriors have a very clear lead in this department, so if you’re in this type of guild, your warriors should definitely get somewhat higher consideration. Most such guilds likely won’t even run a rogue though, so they will perhaps not even have to make this choice.

Warrior 2 – Rogue 1

Long-Term Investment

There’s a lot of focus on PvE DPS for phase 3, but a lot of people forget that the Warglaives are best-in-slot for the entirety of TBC, for both rogues and warriors. And while they’re a slightly bigger DPS upgrade for warriors in phase 3, that is no longer the case in phase 5.

That is because the strongest weapons besides the Warglaives in phase 5 – Hand of the Deceiver and Crux of the Apocalypse – are not swords. This means that rogues lose access to their incredibly powerful Sword Specialization talent, and thus a lot of damage. Fury warriors typically do not go for their equivalent talent, and so don’t lose as much out of using those specific weapons instead.

So, even though your warrior gets more personal DPS out of the Warglaives than your rogue does, your raid’s DPS ends up being lower if your warrior gets the Warglaives while your rogue uses the slightly inferior swords in Sunwell Plateau.

Warrior 2 – Rogue 2

Looks

The last and most serious argument of all would be BiS. Players are okay with foregoing fashion if they can get a little bit of DPS out of it, but starting in phase 3, both rogues and warriors get pretty cool-looking armor – so looks are back on the menu boys, we no longer need to look like clowns!

Someone less passionate on the topic would make the case that this argument is subjective, but I digress: I think the warglaives just look way cooler on rogues. Their animations and tier 6 & “tier 6.5” armor look more demon hunter-y to me. For that very serious reason, I will be awarding them a bonus point.

Warrior 2 – Rogue 3

Conclusion

If that last point didn’t make it evident enough, this article was mostly meant to be tongue-in-cheek. In all honesty, there are good arguments to give the Warglaives to both rogues and warriors and it’s almost impossible to give a conclusive answer to this question.

I would personally prefer to give them to a rogue over a warrior due to the PvP and long-term investment argument (which I feel trumps the phase 3 single target / cleave DPS argument) but I don’t think it’s really a super conclusive reason to exclude your big pumper warriors from consideration either.

It won’t come down to that for most guilds, most likely. The tiny difference in DPS does not even begin to come close to the joy of holding Illidan’s weapons. It makes more sense to prioritize your most committed and loyal DPS player over the guy who gains 72 DPS compared to the other guy’s 68 DPS. You should only really use these arguments to help you decide if you really think both your rogue and warrior are equally loyal and committed.

TL;DR: Give it to your rogue.