Warrior - Arms - PvP - 3

[Rizwan]

This is a translation of: http://forum.wow-freakz.com/view-post-1428509.html?#1428509
First of all, before we start with warrior stuff, you must understand some basic things for arenas, of course, considering that you do arenas using skype/vent/ts or any other way of voice communication.

-during the arena you must understand your partner, CDs, switches, positioning etc. so you must constantly talk about everything, this way you will sync with each other.
-you must always have a positive attitude, no useless rage which obviously ends with swearing/quits/broken keyboards.
-after every defeat don't blame your partner (obviously you will do this during time). Always talk about what happened so in the future you won't make the same mistake.

Shortcuts
MS - Mortal Strike
HS - Heroic Strike
OP - Overpower
CS - Colossus Smash
DC - Deadly Calm
TFB - Taste for Blood
CC - Crowd Control
LoS - Line of Sight
AoE - Area of Effect
RNG - Random Number Generator
IMO - in my opinion
DR - Diminishing Returns


Content:
Picking a race for its benefits
1. Spec / Glyphs
2. Items / Gemming / Stats
3. General gameplay / rotation
4. Addons / Macros
5. Opponents classes - General Info*
6. Viable Setups









Picking a race for its benefits
Alliance:
Human - Every Man for Himself (wowhead link) Since it was added it was one of the most useable racial and imo among few racials usable from alliance because you can use two trinkets, and since trinkets with proc/use with resil its much more usable, so human passed the test.
Gnome - Escape Artist (wowhead link) Altough all healers have now dispel it can be used when you are in a situation when your partner can't help you.
Nigh Elf - Shadowmeld (wowhead link) If you have good reflexes it can be used in some situations against spells that are alredy in air (like Death Coil) and 2% avoidance for physical attacks which is very good.
Worgen - Darkflight (wowhead link) Little sprint that is good sometimes and 1% crit which isn't always standing up in front of other racials.
Draenei - Gift of the Naaru (wowhead link) Can be used in some situations and 1% hit (which now won't apply to entire party, only to yourself) same as the worgen, these are two racials that won't stand up in your statistics.
Dwarf - Stoneform (wowhead link) Decent racial, good especially against rogues and feral druids and in addition you can be like Gimli when you play against priests.

Horde:
Orc - Blood Fury (wowhead link) Attack power boost which can be inserted in macros. Stun reduction and 3 expertise for axe, huge shoulders and generally a badass aspect. All warriors should be orcs !
Tauren - War Stomp (wowhead link) Use this aoe stun wisely because it can be very good for defensive and offensive attacks, in addition 143 stamina bonus at level 85.
Undead - Will of the Forsaken (wowhead link) Not verry good, but may help you in some situations.
Troll - Berserking (wowhead link) Very good for rage build Da Voodoo Shuffle (wowhead link)(-15% movement impairing effect duration) 2 verry good passive racials.
Blood Elf - Arcane Torrent (wowhead link) Aoe silence + 15 rage, verry good for revenge.
Goblin - Rocket Jump (wowhead link)+Rocket Barrage (wowhead link) Rocket Barrage should not be used very often because it has shared CD and rocket jump can be used to gap closer/defensive move.











1. Spec / Glyphs

You create your spec depending on your gamestyle, but the core spec is this one.
My spec is acesta. I use 3 pts in Incite (wowhead link) for when i have full rage and i want to add some pressure with Inner Rage (wowhead link) and 1p in Blitz (wowhead link) for CC.
In this spec i use the following glyphs:
Prime Glyphs:
Glyph of Mortal Strike
Glyph of Bladestorm
Glyph of Overpower

Major Glyphs:
Glyph of Piercing Howl
Glyph of Sweeping Strikes
Glyph of Long Charge

Minor glyphs:
Glyph of Berserker Rage
Glyph of Command or Glyph of Battle depending on your setup.
Glyph of Enduring Victory


2. Items / Gemming / Stats

Unlike WOTLK where you could use a combination of PVP and PVE gear for more damage...in Cataclysm PVP resilience is a must have, especially as a warrior because you will be the main target in most fights so the resil is the only solution. Imo trinkets with Use should be a priority because you can control your burst and you can insert it in macros with other CD's (recklessness+deadly calm = win-win situation, if you use them wisely).

Gems:

Meta - Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond
Red - Bold Inferno Ruby
Yellow - Skillful Ember Topaz or Resplendent Ember Topaz depending on gamestyle
Blue - Etched Demonseye

Stats:

First of all you need hit. The cap is 5% (600,54 rating). After you made the hit cap, reforge to mastery or crit. I preffer mastery for extra rage from swings. So hit>mastery>crit. As you noticed dodge/parry are more often seen unlike WOTLK, so never reforge from expertise into something else, and never reforge from mastery/crit in expertise.









3. General gameplay / rotation

As a warrior you are major damage dealer so it will always count your pressure against opponents and make switches to kill them faster (that's the reason why the warrior is always focused) and always be very offensive but you can also die faster, so all your spells should be used wisely.

Offensive:

High rated arms warrior is situational, you can't pop CD's and poof something died. Think before you act.

Lambs to the Slaughter proc must be always up for the 30% bonus. When you want to burst a target with full CDs make sure that you can remain on your target during the period of your CDs and benefit them full enough and try to attack him from behind, this way he won't be able to dodge/parry/block (same as when he cast and can't dodge), altough remind that Retal/Recklessness/Shield Wall have global CD between them (12s), so time your bursts. When you burst you must always use CS, otherwise your damage might be useless, so when you want to switch try to keep CS and you will have at least one stun available.
Always keep Hamstring and Rend on your target, hamstring so he won't escape and rend for TFB procs.

When the target is <20% HP Execute him because it deals rly nice dmg with Lambs to the Slaughter proc x3, and when you have CD on Pummel try Throwdown target or Intervene on partymember + charge back to the target.

Intervene (wowhead link) is one of the most beneficial spells of the warrior, because you can use it as a gap closer/defensive move for you or your partner, so use it in delicate situations not just for fun.

Same as Heroic Leap (wowhead link) cand be used for offensive (gap closer) or defensive (get out of LoS).

Thunder Clap (wowhead link) doesnt look very usefull but actually is, aoe for snakes from hunters, -20%attack speed which influence many classes (rogue: energy regen, warrior: rage regen, dk: rune regen and if a DK summons Gargoyle while he is affected by thunder clap his Gargoyleul will have -20% cast speed which means low dps, enha shaman: rare procs of Malstrom Weapon (wowhead link)).

Interrupt and reflect is used when the cast is almost finished, or you can make a pattern in your head, like you let him cast 1 time and then you interrupt at x%, then change the pattern so he wont understand your moves.

As a warrior your job is to make peel when you need and rapid switches with high damage output, for this reason you have to learn to use all your CDs wisely.

Warrior isnt anymore MS bot like it was in WOTLK. Playing as a warrior will make you move alot, because of the switches/peels, because you can do it very easy with your new abilities.

Defensive:

When you play defensive against melee classes try to never stay with your back against them because as i said you can't dodge/parry/block anymore when you are attacked from behind. Try to kite them with strafes, and at the same time piercing>demoralizing shouts + thunder clap helps you to get rid from some damage. Obviously vs ranged classes you will have to hide behind the pole and kite your opponent around them while your partner can't help you.

Learn to use spell reflection properly, try to use it against spells that gives you the highest damage or against CC's (poly/cyclone etc). Avoid to use it at every spell and anticipate fake casts, because most of the good casters know that we have spell reflect and we will use it eventually that's why you should reflect at the end of the cast or you can intuite their next move and you might reflect an instant spell, anyway you better play-it-safe and keep reflect CD.


4. Addons / Macros

My UI.

My addons :

SnowfallKeyPress - Usualy a spell is casted after you remove your finger from the key but with this addon you can cast your spell as soon as the key have been pushed so you can use your spells faster.
Bartender4 - Addon for bar layout
Loose Control - Shows you CCs/stuns/silence durations for you/focus/party replacing your avatar with the cc spell icon.
Tidy Plates - One of the most usefull addons for warriors, modifies the skin of the name plates and shows above them your debuffs applied on that target (ex: CS/Hamstring/MS/rend etc.)

From http://www.curse.com, http://www.wowinterface.com


Macrolist:
#showtooltip Charge
/cast Battle Stance
/cast [mod:ctrl, @focus] Charge; Charge

#showtooltip Disarm
/cast [stance:2] Disarm; [stance:1/3] Defensive Stance

#showtooltip Execute
/equip (your 2h weapon name here)- i use this macro for 2h weapon switch
/cast Execute

#showtooltip Bladestorm
/cast Bladestorm
/cancelaura Bladestorm

/console cameradistancemaxfactor 4
- for zoom


#showtooltip Intervene
/cast Defensive Stance
/cast [@party1] Intervene


#showtooltip Spell Reflection
/stopcasting
/cast [stance:1/2,equipped:Shields] Spell Reflection; [stance:3] Defensive Stance
/stopmacro [equipped: Shields]
/equip (your 1h weapon)
/equip (your shield)

/cast Berserker Stance
/cast Recklessness
/cast Deadly Calm
/cast Blood Fury
/use your damage trinket
/cast Battle Stance

#showtooltip Intimidating Shout
/cast [@focus] Intimidating Shout

#showtooltip Throwdown
/cast [mod:ctrl, @focus] Throwdown; Throwdown

#showtooltip Hamstring
/cast [mod:alt, @focus] Hamstring; Hamstring

#showtooltip Rend
/cast [mod:alt, @focus] Rend; Rend

#showtooltip Pummel
/cancelaura Bladestorm
/cast [mod:alt, @focus] Pummel; Pummel

5. Opponents classes - General Info*







Death Grip (wowhead link) will be used as a gap closer or as a defensive move for partners. After he will use death grip he will use Hungering Cold (wowhead link) in most cases if the partner is very low and has no CDs.

Unfortunately on our server most DKs are blood, 1v1 fights with blood dk are kinda useless if you are not fury because if you don't have enough burst to bring him down from a chain of stuns>disarm with full CDs up you will hardly win.
IBF - Icebound Fortitude (wowhead link) one of the most nerve-wracking CDs, they will use it during the stun, especially on blood where it doesnt require any runic power. 12s immune to stun and 50% damage red (on blood). When you see this don't use stuns cause obviously they are useless.


Vampiric Blood (wowhead link) is another CD that they will use when they are low HP because it increases the healing that they recieve for 10s.

Blood Tap (wowhead link) that has a 30s CD gives him an instant heal for 10% of his hp.


Frost:

Hungering Cold (wowhead link) AoE freeze for 10 sec, which breaks it if you recieve any damage.

Most of DKs spam the Necrotic Strike (wowhead link) and Frost Strike, if you are low kite the Necrotic Strike until the debuff is gone (10s) helped by the healer, with intervene/leap.






Druids can be very dangerous for warriors if you are not used with reflect/LoS/interrupt, because they can remove you from the game very easy with Cyclone (wowhead link) and Entangling Roots (wowhead link). From roots you can escape easy if you have a dispeller in team, but the cyclone is undispellable that can keep you stuck for 10s followed by roots > bear stun &others, here you need communication with your partner and anticipate his next move.

Resto:
At resto druids, now the Tree Form lasts 25s with a 3m CD, but during the Tree Form some spells are improved : instant roots/lifebloom multiple targets/wrath casted 50%faster/instant regrowth. If he's not your target you better keep him in CC because he can also deal lots of damage + roots. Teams with resto druids are based on CCs so they can make switches that leads to a kill.

Balance:

Balance may be very stressfull because it has a big damage output + cc + decent heals. Another new spell is Wild Mushroom (wowhead link). Mushrooms or Treants that will die and will put an aoe slow on the ground for -25% movement speed. Never let him do freecasts because he can cc and deal damage in a very short time.

Feral:

A new thing about ferals is that they cannot get out of root effects when they change form, so you can control them a short period with improved hamstring, or if they activate Nature's Grasp you can Reflect + Heroic Throw to catch them in their own roots. They have a very high damage and can resist very well on your burst with barkskin and survival instincts reducing your damage to 0. If you want to burst him try to use your CDs after he's done with his defensive CDs. If he casts Berserk stay defensive and try to kite him with roots/cc.





Master's Call (wowhead link). 8 secunde immune at movement imparing effects and can get him out of any movement imparing effect (same animation as Hand of Freedom from paladin).

Like it was in wotlk, hunters will try Scatter shot + trap, in that moment you must intervene your party member and stop the trap, because it might catch you w/o CD's and make a kill.

Deterrence (wowhead link) you can prevent this if you disarm him when you think he might activate it. If he alredy activated it, spam piercing shout, because it passes through and you can also Overpower.

The easiest way to remove a hunter from the game it's to kill his pet, because he can't use Master's call/pet abilities anymore. Even if it's hard because every healer takes care of the pet, if you do this, the game is almost won.

At snake trap, Thunder Clap as soon as the snakes spawned to prevent any poison from them.

Daca veti ramane vreodata 1v1 vs hunter, jucati foarte mult la pillare, altfel o sa va faca kite pana se plictiseste/moare cineva.
If you ever remain 1v1 with the hunter, play with the pillars because he will kite you until he gets bored/someone dies.





Probably you alredy know how Mage vs Warrior works. Either deadzone kite, either maximum range. Unlike his spells you alredy knew from wotlk, the mage got new spells that can lockdown the entire team.

Be aware of Fingers of Frost (wowhead link) proc + deep freeze. It's better to have a dispeller in your team vs mage.

Ring of Frost (wowhead link) - this spell is one of the worst CDs because it can aoe freeze for 8s, dispelled at damage but can be very dangerous because he can do a chain CC. If you go to the margins of the ring you will be stuck in freeze, but as a warrior you can get out of it with leap/intervene/charge/bladestorm through or you can tell your partner to be ready to dispell it. These are the safe zones of the ring.

Try to avoid the fights in open field because the burst can be very high in a very short period of time. Combined with a silence/ring/poly/deep freeze, he can do victims easy. Try to avoid to stay in his LoS and at the same time try big bursts with intervene back at the pillar if you want to be your main target, but it's not adequate because he can keep you in nova and snare.

Un alt spell adaugat in Cataclysm este Frostfire Orb (wowhead link). It's a ball that goes in a straight line and attacks with a frostfire thingy thing that deals 20% snare and stacks with other mage slows and can get you to 70% slow which kinda sucks.

When the mage is not your target, reflect up to frostbolt/instant frostfire bolt/deep freeze if you can and try to keep your target out of mages los.

A good tactic against mage is Shattering throw to Intimidating Shout to keep him around you so you can put back hamstring/rend. Rend on magest is a must, because it helps you to break Ice Barrier (wowhead link).

Do not use Bladestorm if the mage is far away just to get out of nova, because it's a CD and some extra damage lost. Same as heroic leap you don't have to use it as a gap closer, but it must be used to get closer to use hamstring/rend or to throwdown/pummel.





New things for Paladins:

Holy Power (wowhead link) something like combo points.
Holy Power (wowhead link) Generated by:
Crusader Strike (Retribution, Protection)
Holy shock (Holy)
Divine Purpose (Retribution)
Tower of Radiance (Holy)
Hammer of the Righteous (Protection)
Blessed Life (Holy)
Zealotry (Retribution) - Undirectly. It allows Crusader strike to generate 3 charges.

Holy Power (wowhead link) Consumed by:
Word of glory (Holy, Protection, Retribution)
Templar's Verdict (Retribution)
Inquisition (Retribution, Protection)
Shield of the Righteous (Protection)
Light of Dawn (Holy)


Guardian of Ancient Kings (wowhead link) is a spell that summons a NPC (untargetable/uncontrolable) which has different spells depending on the spec of the paladin.

On Holy it gives heal to the paladin. On Prot reduces the damage taken by paladin. On Retri attacks the paladin target and gives him Ancient Power (wowhead link), and when it dissapears (retri) deals aoe damage split between enemies.

Vs ret pallies will be pretty hard because they have alot of damage and can use their holy power to heal themselves. At Repentance (wowhead link) never use your trinket because you have zerker rage. Use trinket only for stun, disarm wings+zealatry.

Vs prot pallies, never use him as your main target because your damage is harmless vs him.






Disci spec recieved in Cataclysm Strength of Soul (wowhead link) which makes him immune at interrupts/silences/dispells for 5s. If he is low and activate it try to chain stun+cc until the spell ends and he might be dead after. Disci priests are among the most aggresive healers as gameplay, so if your partner is CCed play defensive because disc+dps may hit very hard.

Shadow priests have now Sin and Punishment (wowhead link) which aoe fears 6y undispellable when someone dispells vampiric touch. As the mage can deal huge damage in a very short period of time and if his timing is good for silence+disarm+fear he can kill you.

Vs spriest try to burst him until Disperion without using more than inner rage, and have Throwdown/charge ready for dispersion end, and then full CDs cs>ms>op>hs>can o' whoopass.


Leap of Faith (wowhead link) is another new spell which can be used in any spec and can save the priest partner from massive burst so be carefull how you use your charge/leap.







PvP spec for rogues is now Sub, so carefull to Leap+Charge combo cuz can overwhelm with shadowstep. 1v1 mainly don't use trinket, use only for blind and try to burst him from the beginning, also use enraged reg asap because he can now remove enrage effects w/o Anesthetic Poison. After opener fear, if he use trinket at fear can die easy. Defensive stance with shield and 1h is not considerable.

Recuperate (wowhead link) is one of his new spells, 4% max HP per 3s, can be very stressing at "uber pro" rogues that restealth and recuperate to full in stealth.
Another defensive CD is Combat Readiness (wowhead link), which procs every attack until 5stacks, taking 10% reduced damage per stack

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/202/combatreadiness.jpg/]
[/URL]

In arenas vs rogues try to force disarm by fake bursts/bladestorms and usualy fake stuff, so you will have the opportunity to do full burst, and even if you get disarmed they will have DR.

Smoke Bomb (wowhead link) is another CD added in Cata which can be used both as offensive and defensive. 8 yards area becomes untargetable. Don't stay within it @ low HP because you won't be able to get healed.





One of the newest spells added to Shamans and available on any spec is Spiritwalker's Grace (wowhead link) because he can kite and cast spells at the same time.

Thunder Clap on enha is a must so he will proc harder Maelstrom Weapon.

At Elemental you must take care at Elemental Mastery (wowhead link) and try to reflect up when you will recieve Instant Lava Burst + 15%damage increase combined with Spiritwalker's Grace and earthbind can make high pressure almost instantly. Most elementals have /stopcasting /cast Wind Shear macro for interrupts and reflects. Same as any range dps stop being smartasses and tank him in the mid field because it can be very easy to get you bursted, specially wizzcleavs.

Resto is hard to kill, just because of his kite. If you want to kill him try with switches, tunnel is never an option. Also Earth Shield is much better than it was in WOTLK.






Warlocks are very fluffly and now Soulburn (wowhead link) used in good combinations can put you in bad situations in arena, so the positioning is very important (like most casters, and generally your positioning leads to wins, not only RNG, never have the thought that if you are warrior and you have recklessness always someone dies).

Same as the other casters, my tip is to play with your brain and using pillars when you need. At the same time, warlocks never have to be left alone because he can deal lots of damage. On affliction interrupt every shadow cast, because you block all his dps.

Vs warlock you must take care of the portal and never let him kite you, even tho you can do heroic leap to charge back w/o using a CD.

Cataclysm PvP spec is Affliction (most of them are), which is very stressfull because it will be a dot n run/drain life if they can. They will hit you with Haunt (wowhead link), Corruption (wowhead link), Unstable Affliction (wowhead link), Bane of Agony (wowhead link) si o sa tina and maybe Curse of Exhaustion (wowhead link). Unstable Affliction should not be on you so reflect/pummel/LoS if you can, because if its dispelled the dispeller will be silenced and lots of damage, but you can also use Soul Swap (wowhead link). Warlock must be rushed in teleporter and you can use Sweeping Strikes with bladestorm at the beginning and try to kill his to put more pressure at the start. A new spell for the Succubus is Whiplash (wowhead link) (they play with sucubus most of the time) and is very stressfull because it can ruin all your rotation. So be careful with charge/heroic leap.

Vs Warlock on any spec better use your trinket at Death Coil (wowhead link) because if you don't use it then he will have free cast at all dots.


6. Viable Setups

@2s:
Resto Shaman - Arms
Resto Druid - Arms
Disco Priest - Arms
Arms - Frost Mage
MM hunt - Arms
... Basically any setup at 2v2 wotks if you have brain and .. 2v2 is for gearing anyway.



3v3 Arms Setups over 2.2k rated






Fin.




*spells used for warrior's PoV so remember these.
**warrior not added at Know The Enemy because i tought you are warriors and know what to do.
***comment and comment some more ! :-s