While the basics of being a warrior remain the same – get into melee and kill anything that moves – World of Warcraft is unique among MMORPGs in that it actually integrates a large amount of skill and options into the largely-melee class. A warrior in World of Warcraft can specialize through talents and work with several forms of combat, called stances, to create a versatile character that is a lot of fun to play. Let’s look at some of the combat styles that a warrior can work with, what role weapon choice plays, and the skills that a warrior can learn.
Overview
Stances
The first stance you get as a warrior is Battle Stance. In Battle Stance you are balanced between defense and offense, so you generate rage both when hit and when you strike an opponent. This is your only choice of stance for a while, but it is still a good choice for most battles – it gives you a good amount of rage without opening yourself up for too much damage. Some skills, such as Charge and Overpower, which you will find yourself using often, require Battle Stance in order to work.
At level 10 you can complete the warrior quest to get Defensive Stance. This stance also generates rage when you are hit and when you hit your opponent, but it also gives you 10% damage absorption. This may not seem like a lot, but at level 10 especially this can make the difference when battling a high-damage opponent. Defensive Stance is best used when tanking in a group, as you need it for skills such as Taunt (which will force enemies to attack you), Shield Bash (which interrupts spell casting) and Revenge (which will allow you an extra attack after a dodge, block or parry).

Berserker Stance is finally available through a quest at level 30. This will increase your critical chance by 3% while increasing the amount of damage you take by 10%, and also decreasing your generated threat by 20%. There is a reason this stance is not available until level 30 – it requires some skill to use properly. The damage you take while in this stance will keep you from tanking effectively, on the other hand some of the attacks you can make in this stance are devastating to your enemy. This is best used

when you have a healer around and you need to take down your enemies quickly. The decreased threat can help you not get mobbed, but it will also mean that some enemies may go after the healers in your party instead. Be careful with this stance, it is a very powerful tool, but must be handled wisely.
Experience and Levels
Just like any other MMORPG, World of Warcraft has a system in place to separate the experienced players from the non-experienced. This works through having your character gain experience (XP) whenever they do something important to the game. After a certain amount of experience, your character can gain a level, which will unlock things in the game, such as new skills or talents. In World of Warcraft, you can gain experience through killing computer-operated opponents, completing quests, and exploring new areas. You can gain levels up to the current cap of 70.
World of Warcraft is also similar to other MMORPGs in this respect – the higher level content tends to be more fun than the lower level. This is meant as a reward to the players who make it this far in the game. Because of this, many players feel that the best way to play is to level as quickly as possible. Others think that slowing down and enjoying everything to be enjoyed at each part of their characters journey is more important than leveling quickly. Either way, this guide can help you along the way. If you are trying to level quickly, there is a discussion later in the guide to help you figure out the best way to do that. For those looking for everything they can do at a particular level, there are lists of areas to explore, dungeons to conquer and items to find along the way.
Rest Bonus Discussion
World of Warcraft is meant to be a game that you can play either, as I mentioned before, as a serious leveler or a more casual gamer. To help with this, Blizzard has introduced the Rest Bonus. Basically, what this means is that if you log out in or spend time in one of the large racial cities or an inn for your faction, you will receive an XP bonus when you resume play. This bonus will give you 200% of the XP you would normally earn for killing opponents. (It does not affect quest experience.) It will last up to a full level and a half if you have been logged out in a rest area for at least a week.

This is obviously great for players who can only get on once every couple of days, as they can pretty much keep up with any friends who are playing daily. However, for the gamer who does play every day, this requires a little thought. The bonus only last for a few kills if you have played in the last couple of hours, so is it better to grind through and forget about the bonus, or to take breaks and rely on the extra XP to level quickly?
Ultimately, this will depend on your play style of course. However, it has been my experience that a hard-core gamer need not worry overly about the rest bonus. It’s nice to have, so it’s always best to log out in a rest area, but it is certainly not necessary for leveling. Also, as it only affects XP from killing, if you are leveling mainly from quests you will never see a difference anyway. So my opinion is to go ahead and game, and just take the rest bonus when you happen to have it as a lucky break.
Rage Management
You’ve probably noticed if you’ve already started playing that you have two bars on the top left of your screen. The first is for your health/HP, and the second is for your rage. Rage is to warriors what mana is to mages – it’s the fuel that allows you to pull off your special moves. Most of your skills require a certain amount of rage in order to use them.
Another thing you’ve probably noticed is that the rage bar is initially empty. Unlike mages and rogues, who start with a full bar and deplete as they fight, warriors start with no rage and build it up as they go. The most rage you can have at one time is 100. When you are in combat, you generate rage when you are hit (around 1-3 rage per hit) and when you hit your opponent (usually between 5-9 rage per hit). This means that if you don’t use your rage, it will generate quickly enough for you to have a full bar usually in an average of 29 seconds. Out of combat, you lose rage at the rate of 2-3 rage every 2 seconds.
In most of your fights, you will never reach a full bar of rage. Even if you don’t use rage at all in a single encounter, you usually only get to about 72-78 rage. Since most rage abilities take 10-15 rage, this means that you should be able to perform an average of 4-5 special moves in a single encounter. In reality you usually end up only using 2, maybe 3 special attacks per fight, unless you are fighting a group, an elite or another player.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to rage management. Some think that the best thing to do is use the rage as soon as you get it, while others prefer to save it for emergency situations. If you use rage as soon as it generates you will do damage more quickly, though if something unexpected happens you will not be able to do anything about it. I’d recommend this for fighting normal computer-controlled encounters, where you are pretty sure you know what the enemy will do and just want to get the fight over with. Saving up rage in these situations means dragging on a fight when you have other things to do, and if you’re not carefully watching your health it can even get you killed while you’re waiting for more rage.
On the other hand, if you are fighting a large group by yourself, an elite or especially a player, you will want to save some rage, if only for a last second hamstring to get yourself out of a bad situation. Remember, you do not have any in-combat healing skills, and even a potion of healing is on a two-minute cool down, so don’t expect to be able to use more than one per fight. Saving enough rage in a group for a few thunderclaps is usually a good strategy, and for elites you will need that hamstring more often than you might think. However, it is when fighting a player, especially a caster, that you will need to manage your rage most closely. Always save enough for the shield bash you need to keep your opponent from getting that last second heal, or final devastating spell. If you are out of rage in these situations, you may just be running back to your body very soon.
Other than usual combat (and a few talents which will be discussed in that section), there is another way to generate rage – potions. There are a few rage potions ranging from granting 20-75 rage instantly when you drink them. The best is not available until level 46, when you can drink the Mighty Rage Potion, granting 45-75 rage and an additional 60 Strength for 20 seconds, which can make all the difference in the last stages of a battle. However, you should note that these potions are on the same cool down timer as any healing or other potions you have, so if you use these, you won’t be able to drink a heal potion for 2 minutes. Therefore, these are best used when you are in a group and have a healer ready to keep you alive.

Your Role as a Tank
You may be wondering what it means to be the tank of World of Warcraft. Basically, the warrior is the class that is designed to take the most damage and still live. You are the melee centered class, meaning that you can get right into the thick of a fight and dish out damage while focusing the enemy’s attention on you.
As the tank, you fight differently from every other class in World of Warcraft. You actually want your enemies to notice you and attack you. You are the protector of your group, the wall, the one thing that stands between your enemy and your healers.
Take a look at some of the skill listings for a warrior. You’ll see a lot of damage dealers, certainly, but also quite a few ways of getting an enemy’s attention and keeping it. While rogues have ways of hiding from them, you are waving your arms and shouting “Here I am! Come and get me!”
When you solo you won’t notice this distinction as often, however in a group this is a vital role that you will play. Without you, the rogue would not be able to sneak behind and backstab, the mage wouldn’t be able to get off any huge spells, and your healer would be the first to fall. You are the decoy. You take the damage so others don’t have to. You are the tank.