Warrior PvP Tactics
PvP as a warrior is probably one of the most enjoyable experiences in the game as far as I’m concerned, nothing better than baring down on an offending cloth wearing caster, busting out trinkets to break whatever roots and snares they possess, before dropping them in 2-3 hits with my massive damage.
However this obviously isn’t the way all or even most battles go, otherwise we’d be seeing the nerfbat quite soon, rather, most fights head the opposite way quite quickly, especially when caught by surprise by anything from a mage to even rogues.
Perhaps the most key element to general warrior combat is always being prepared for every single class and talent build, preparation gives us the ability to use our numerous counter-attacks and adjust ourselves to the opponent’s style of combat quickly enough to prevent being slaughtered by the opposition with well timed roots, snares, and less effectively, fear.
Muscle Memory
Of all the classes I’ve played in PvP, meaning every class in world of warcraft, warriors required the most instinctive play as opposed to actual well-thought out strategies, how much I played seemed to drastically improve my abilities as opposed to training myself for specific fights.
I sometimes use a Nostromo gaming pad, sometimes not, I’ve also experimented with special macro set-ups for specific classes, but either way I found that whether I could mash the required key before my opponent could react decided most fights before they even began.
Hitting charge before you’re forced into ‘combat’ status, mashing intercept to catch the sprinting rogue and following it up with hamstring, intervene a team-mate to gain ground or help them fight off another player, all these are determined by how well your hands know what you’re doing as opposed to conscious thought patterns.
Whether you’re Arms, Fury, or Protection, if you can master your keys and hit them in proper succession with your eyes closed, you’ve probably reached the level where you need to worry more about gear than experience.
Arms Warrior PvP
Arms and thus Mortal Strike is the PvP build of choice for 90% of the warriors you’ll see, likely 100% in the higher arena brackets, this comes with good reason as well. Mortal strike combined with big critical strikes is the absolute greatest utility a warrior can bring to any PvP scenario, whether you’re playing solo, in the chaos of battlegrounds, or fighting alongside well-trained allies in Arena.
Warriors will always lead the assist-train death charge, Mortal strike exposes even the strongest and well-healed players to possible slaughter within those 15 seconds, and given that the attack gives you a healthy (although not for your opponent) burst of damage as well, it’s nigh-unthinkable to not open a fight with a hamstring-Mortal Strike combo.
Arms warriors are essentially kill-captains, they point, everyone else jumps on the player with 50% healing and slowed down by hamstring to take them out before they react to their sudden lack of health.
Fury Warrior PvP
PvP as a fury warrior is considerably more difficult than that of Arms, mostly the fact that you no-longer bring a 50% healing debuff and high instant damage to the table, instead replacing it with a consistently high DPS more apt for slaying mobs than players, especially those with healers.
To make up at least partially for your lack of utility, you’ll have to be geared to the teeth and possess amazing reflexes to bring the pain to opponents constantly moving, strafing, and generally making it a pain to keep up constant DPS throughout the fight.
Given how much more difficult fury is to PvP with as opposed to arms, I’d suggest checking out the Fury warrior guide for a more in-depth look at PvP from this perspective.
Protection Warrior PvP
Protection warrior PvP is, for the most part, a largely laughable enterprise, consisting of being kited by hunters and other such ranged classes as they constantly ignore your pitiful hits for about 1/10 the damage of other warriors.
On the flipside, you’ll be more than capable of deflecting high-damage spells such as pyroblast and other opener combo’s with more than a little luck combined with good reflexes. Rogues will find you utterly infuriating to take down as you disarm and slowly beat them into the ground.
Finally, you definitely have the element of surprise, 90% of warriors being Arms, 10% Fury, and that nonexistent 0% protection like yourself – Use this advantage well.
