The Annoying Warrior

[zilog]

I'm a 60 Mortal Strike warrior wondering what you mages, shaman, druids, hunters, priests, rogues and warlocks think.

What does an alliance Warrior do to really annoy you in the battlegrounds?

I'm looking for the most effective tactic, weapon choice or warrior build that you may have noticed?

As is, I try to /ASSIST my group members using macros. Charge in, build rage, fear the enemy group, target squishies first, mortal strike healers.

I love enemy pets. While I'm being ignored by everyone at the start of battle, I can always count on pet bites to build my rage up for a fear bomb.

I'd like some fresh outside viewpoint on this so I can base equipment, tactics and even build choice. In the warrior hole, where I live it's all dps, dps, arc reaper, %crit. My goal is'nt to lead kills, it's to team-play victories and I wonder if there might be a better spec to that end?

[Huato]

The biggest pain in the arse warriors I've seen in the battlegrounds are the ones that bring an entourage of healers with them.

Otherwise it really depends if they get the jump on me or not. I won't stand toe to toe with them due to the armor advantage and damage mitigation plate gives them...it's stand back and nuke nuke nuke.

[Maube]

I'd have to agree with Hu... the warrior that has 2 or three healers backing him or her up... is the worst ever. By the time you kill the healers, the Warrior has killed you

That and Beserkers... omg I HATE beserkers... cant fear them away ::cries::

[Narsica]

Any good warrior will be able to completely stay on top of a caster. The warrior opens with a charge/hamstring(Very important...I #*$@ing hate hamstring) and then proceeds to bleed and wtfpwn the caster. I for instance usually use fear. Then if the warrior's good they can simply switch stances or whatnot and use intercept to beat me to the ground.

[zilog]

Thanks for the info.

Charge/hamstring, berserk, entourage of healers--check.

Reading between the lines here I'm thinking a few things.

Interestingly no one mentioned big, scary, 2-hand weapons nor mortal strike as being annoying. I'll have to look into the skill tree to improved hamstring and berserk enhancements. Fury build?? Hmmm.

Edited May 5, 2006 by zilog

[Waldonnis]

I'll comment from three perspectives, which may help a bit...

From Verissi's perspective as a mage, the toughest warriors to beat are the ones that juggle their intercept cooldown the best (after the initial charge) and also have a decent amount of rage built up before engaging me. Basically, if you give me the opportunity to get distance and kite you, one of us will be dead and it won't be me. Hamstring is also key...try to get it on a mage as fast as you can (or any cloth-wearer, actually). The longer we stay in melee range, the greater your chances of winning the fight. Against trinket mages, things get a bit rougher for you, but if you force them to blow their cooldowns early (and assuming you can still find them in the area once they have), your survival chances go up radically. Only problem with this is, even a healer may not save you from the trinketed cast sequence (you'll get hit HARD). Keep cool, keep track of them, and beat the snot out of them once you rez and all will be well (best case: have the rest of your group killing them while they're killing you...or hope for a perfectly-timed counterspell on them from a mage on your side).

From Waldonnis' perspective as a warlock, it's much different. Stance-dancing is the only chance you have at avoiding the fear-chain that leads to death, but it doesn't stop there...warlocks are VERY dangerous foes due to their versatility. Ultimately, the warlock's spec and style will determine the best way to kill them, but there is no way to tell any of that until you fight them (and even then, many of us alter our tactics frequently). Be ready to be frustrated by seduce or fear chains, massive amounts of damage in a short amount of time (shadowburn and serious crits), and what may appear to be an unbelievable amount of damage soaked up by the warlock. Learn your opponents, their styles, their tactics, and anticipate their next move.

From Hoofie's point of view as a druid, you're probably looking at the simplest complex fight of them all. Try to avoid focusing on their current form selection (cat, bear, moonkin, caster) and instead look at their abilities. They can demoralize you and reduce your attack power substantially, have burst damage similar to rogues, often can have more armour and health than you do, can shift out of any form of snare, can run faster than you can by far, and, as if that weren't enough, they can heal themselves very efficiently. Can every druid do all of these things at once? Nope, but you won't know what you're facing right off and it's best to focus on dishing out damage and trying to control the fight. Honestly, you should feel lucky if you manage to kill a druid, since many warriors end up seeing the back end of a cheetah more than they see a dead tauren or night elf druid on the ground....druids are masters at escaping, so don't get frustrated if they run away frequently (either way, you've removed them from the fight for a short time). Personally, I shift very often in PvP and it's not uncommon for me to go from cat to bear to travel (cheetah) then back to caster, heal, then to bear...all in one fight. If you anticipate their heals (many bash->heal or stomp->heal at around half or slightly less), you may have the upper hand. If they wait too long to heal, you're golden and will likely kill them...and if they start healing early, you're probably not going to win unless you're getting healed (you may not lose, but you won't win). Long and the short of druid combat: outlast their mana pool and/or try to get them into caster form and unload on them then....if you can't do either, be sure to /wave at them as they run. Oh, one more thing...if you can get a rend on them, do it...often...and sunder the bears...it'll help a ton and increase your success chances.

[Houli]

Alot of the stuff im typing here you all probably already know but ill blah' about it anyway ....

I think knowing how to play your class is important (sounds like you do, and this thread so far gives good advice)

What separates the girls from the women however imo is being a team player and being a smart situational player!

AB:

If you are not on flag gaurd duty (unfortuantely the smart players like you are the only ones willing to stand gaurd in a PuG anyway...) assist where needed, but the second it is safe mount up and go to the swing point or to the flag you think the enemy will attack next. Many times many people will assist a flag defense and they all stay till every last atacker is dead on the ground meanwhile most of them are already rez'd and riding to another flag.

The mini map (and i use the main map frequently too) is useful knowing where your team is and making a smart decision on where you will be needed most.

if you are loosing a battle at a flag, burn down casters if you can but always keep an eye on that flag and hit anyone on it first and formost...the rez pulse is key.

WSG:

get your groups up on the screen and the mini map. Watch the life of the flag holder know where he/she is assist if you can, hamstring is a grrreat ability obviously in this BG.

be aware of when your flag holder is goin down so you can be in position to pick it up.

if on D consider waiting on the roof waiting for the enemy to pick up the flag then drop down hamstring and wail on them...once they have the flag 99% they will just run and let you kill them (granted tips like this are situational and tend to be more prudent in pre60's pvp)

dont be afraid of using the regen and bezerker huts

stuff like that i guess if you were a rogue i'd have more to say but i just dont know warriors abilities well enough

gromit has done a good amount of pvp with his warrior, i would talk to him for sure about what he does, and what kind of gear and talent builds he has done.

-Haq-

Edited May 16, 2006 by Houli

[Sleyvas]

situational players = skilled players.

Theres many times ive joined a wsg and i only have 3 hks but i returned 5 flags and capped one.

Patience is key.

I know what your thinking the warrior is a hack and slash guy that charges in. Oh but hes so much more.

Patience on knowing when to fear. Fear is nice to have but i dont burn it everytime its up. Sometimes ill fear to get a rogue open, sometimes ill fear on a mage right b4 he blinks ( this will sometimes let him blink and leave him standing around so i can close again ). Other times ill fear if they are casting a heal and pummel isnt up and finally if 5 people are on me .. well i fear.

One thing everyone said is key is hamstring. Hamstring is uber . Piercing howl is key for druids, and helps with mages imo. ranged daze ! ... keeps that sneaky druid that decides to not stop to fight you and makes him give you a hk .

back to patience .. pummel, fear, HS, intercept. Now fear we spoke about, Intercept should be timed and saved ( but dont wait to long - no use intercepting at 40 % health. ( well you can still kill someone but you know what i mean .. i think ), pummel for interrupting any spells. Most would think this is 100 % a heal spell but sometimes i find it good to pummel a warlock casting a shadowbolt. saves me alot of dmg and he cant fear me for 4 seconds ... on top of being able to break fear ( side note FIX DEATH GRIP , or whatever the hell that spell is called ). Reason i mentioned HS-heroic strike- is because a warrior is all about rage.

As a MS WARRIOR you want majority of your attacks to be your instant mortal strike. Why ? well 1 ms hits really hard. 2 " on your next attacks" dont generate rage. Ms the higher you crit.. the more rage you get back for another MS.

So knowing when to use your skills while managing enough rage to make sure MS gets off and gets off is key. I wish i could give you more "tricks of the trade" but its really process of elimination.

Now as far as specs go

FURY= DPS BUILD

ARMS = BURST build.

ive been both specs and ive spent over 2000 g in respecs since release. Fury with a good two hander can be really bursty and does amazing dmg.

but

Mortal strike is burst. Meaning its more realiable. Your Dmg with big two handers will be spikey and often. Also the debuff alone makes MS a pvp skill hands down

dual wield fury... requires amazing gear , it can work but in my honest opinion you wont be able to compete as well 1 on 1 with top alliance as a dual wielder. Ms is more "bang for your buck " you can do a hold lot more with MS with less.

2 Handed fury is sexy, but makes you a rogue really. You have the same type of dmg.. when i was two handed fury with spinal reaper i was doing crazy dmg and topping raid dmg charts. But again you lack burst since ms is made for high max dmg weapons .. bloodthrist is not.

in the end the biggest wow factor build i had was MS with spinal reaper. The regular attacks would push 1k , i would cleave and ww for 1300 + and while majority of the time MS wasnt always my MAX CRIT , it had the highest crit AVERAGE.

i did some testing out of 400 crits ( this was about 2 sessions of playing )

my min crit was 870 max 2468 with a average of 1298... that is just .. umm yeah well.good. ( not showing off just comparing.)

fury again can work in pvp but you need really good gear.

until then fury will always be the king in pve ( unless you have a quel serrar fury warrior and a high warlord MS warrior ( hwl would win )

but theres a video .. ill look for it somewhere.Anyways its 2 hwl warriors in 1 guild. They compete in bwl for * king* dps.. the fury warrior ( with extra pve fury gear ) beat the other hwl ms by like 400 k total.

yes wow .

in the end

pvp and overall spec imo is MS.

i hope that helps.

* im currently fury and even with spinal reaper i wont go back, im not as good as i was with the reaper but for me if comes down to what i have the most fun with , and i suggest you do the same but to repeat imo a big two hander and mortal strike = win *

ps: a side note.. a mortal strike warriors goal is about 25-28crit in battle stance. Atp = god and the more atp the harder you hit and with 25 % crit you will still crit all the time. HIGH atp warrior with about 25 % crit = 2 shot hunters ... yes ive done it *Grins. ( ok maube that time i was showing off *grins)

( ive hit 36 % crit in battle stance and unless you dont have to give up atp for it i wouldnt do it again , i had better results with 27 % crit and higher atp.)

[zilog]

Thanks Sley,

I read your entire post. Need to take a long break now and come back and read again.

Great build info, I value your opinion, though some of it went over my little bald head.

I recently got the IBS, and respecced MS favoring polearms. Axe spec wasn't helping me much not having an axe for the last 30 levels.

Excellent info from everyone.

Waldonnis and Houli, you both taught me some strategy there making me instantly a better pvper.

P.S. Like usual, I'll be meeting you Crushers at the Blacksmith flag.

Edited May 17, 2006 by zilog

[Sleyvas]

cool zilog i apologize for my poor english and jumping around .