Warrior DPS Guide for Season of Discovery Phase 2

Entering Season of Discovery Phase 2, Warriors witness subtle improvements without altering their core gameplay. Notable additions include the runes, introducing abilities like Flagellation and Consumed by Rage, enabling enhanced damage output beyond major cooldowns. Phase 2 also elevates the viability of 2H Focused builds with runes like Frenzied Assault and Swift Strike, potentially rivaling the conventional Duel Wield focus. Overcoming historical weaknesses, the class gains newfound mobility through Belisario, a transformation of the classic Wrath talent. As Warriors confront foes in PvP scenarios, this evolution diminishes reliance on small group dynamics. The upcoming season holds the promise of Warriors adapting to challenges, particularly with the potential for diverse playstyles, further enhancing their prowess in the evolving combat landscape.

Viability for Warrior DPS

The Warrior's prowess in Season of Discovery seems poised for improvement, transitioning from its undisputed status as the strongest DPS in Classic by a substantial margin. Regardless of alterations, the class maintains its formidable standing in endgame content, showcasing versatility through emergency offtanking capabilities and potent cleave DPS. Despite these strengths, the Warrior DPS specialization remains highly gear-dependent, and any lag in acquiring optimal gear may lead to significant setbacks. The class's resilience and adaptability continue to make it a valuable asset, excelling in diverse roles. As the season unfolds, Warriors are positioned to endure and thrive, though vigilance in maintaining top-tier gear remains crucial for those seeking to maximize their DPS potential.

Best Runes for Warrior DPS

1.  Flagellation: Flagellation stands out as one of the most potent runes for Warriors in Phase 2. Its high uptime, coupled with the ability to learn Berserker Rage at level 32, ensures consistent Bonus % Based damage for 12 seconds with each use. This rune significantly aids in generating and spending rage, amplifying burst windows within abilities like Sweeping Strikes and Death Wish. Despite its strength, it might face potential nerfs in the future due to its dominance in PvE scenarios.

2.  Endless Rage: Despite initial skepticism, Endless Rage proves to be a valuable addition to the BiS Talent build. With Quick Strike facing a nerf and the high armor of Gnomeregan Boss and Trash mobs, the extra rage it provides smoothens rotations and facilitates high rage amounts when switching stances for abilities like Sweeping Strikes and Overpower.

3.  Frenzied Assault: Frenzied Assault makes a notable return, capitalizing on the nerfs to Consumed by Rage. Given the frequent stance swapping in the Arms spec, which impacts maintaining consistent high rage, the additional attack speed ensures both consistent and powerful gameplay.

4.  Precise Timing: Precise Timing transforms Slam into a slightly weaker Mortal Strike, altering its castable nature. While this adjustment may seem less favorable initially, the efficiency of Slam, dealing almost the same damage as MS while costing half the rage, makes it a robust option for Arms Specs using slow, powerful weapons. This rune introduces additional buttons to press outside of MS and Whirlwind.

5.  Rallying Cry: Rallying Cry addresses a critical need for Fury Warriors by providing much-needed raid utility. As some previous utility gets stripped with the introduction of runes like Homunculi, Rallying Cry offers a raid cooldown, a novel concept for Classic. While most content in Classic might not demand heavily mapped out cooldowns, having a raid cooldown can prove invaluable in navigating challenging situations, particularly during awkward pulls.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

1. Tankiness: Warriors exhibit high durability, wearing mail gear, boasting a substantial passive HP pool, and the emergency utility of Defensive Stance.

2. Damage Prowess: Warriors excel in damage output, particularly in cleave scenarios, showcasing their prowess in dealing significant blows to multiple targets.

3. Group Utility: Offering valuable support to the group, Warriors contribute through spells like Battle Shout, Demoralizing Shout, and Rend, enhancing both offensive and defensive capabilities.

4. Damage-Boosting Cooldowns: The inclusion of Flagellation and Consumed by Rage provides Warriors with impactful damage-boosting cooldowns.

5. Scaling Potential: With Deep Wounds, Warriors demonstrate high scaling over extended encounters, making them formidable in prolonged fights.

Weaknesses:

1. Weapon Dependency: Relying on a unique resource, Warriors heavily depend on weapon upgrades for optimal performance, making gear acquisition crucial.

2. Weak Mobility: Warriors face challenges in mobility, limiting their ability to swiftly navigate the battlefield, especially in fast-paced encounters.

3. Aggro Issues: High damage output coupled with a lack of threat drops can lead to frequent aggro problems, requiring careful management to avoid drawing excessive attention from enemies.

Best Specialization for Warrior DPS

In the intricate landscape of Warrior DPS in Phase 2, the choice between Arms and Fury specialization warrants careful consideration. While both talent trees boast formidable options, the Arms specialization edges ahead in PvE during this phase, particularly in the 40 bracket. The prominence of high armor on bosses underscores the efficacy of the updated version of Deep Wounds within the Arms tree, solidifying its status as a robust choice. Moreover, the accessibility of 2H weapons seamlessly aligns with Arms' rotation and talent synergies, enhancing its overall effectiveness in PvE scenarios.

Despite the allure of Fury's compelling talents, including the impactful **Whirlwind** and the adrenaline-fueled Death Wish, it finds itself slightly eclipsed by Arms in PvE. The prevalent high armor of many Phase 2 bosses tilts the scales in favor of Arms, as it strategically exploits vulnerabilities for optimized damage output. Nevertheless, Fury has its niche, particularly for well-geared characters, proving valuable in the initial raid encounters that lack mechanical complexities and bonus armor.

It's noteworthy that while Arms shines in PvE, it doesn't completely forsake PvP viability. The flexibility of a single spec for both PvE and PvP, albeit not at the pinnacle of optimization for each, provides a pragmatic approach for versatile warriors.

Conversely, for those committed to the Dual Wield playstyle, Fury becomes the unequivocal choice, reinforcing its indispensability for enthusiasts of this particular setup. As warriors navigate the challenges of Phase 2, the selection between Arms and Fury becomes a pivotal decision, each path offering distinct advantages in the dynamic landscape of Azeroth.

Gameplay Warrior DPS

Rotation:

1. Maintain Rend: Keep Rend active on high HP bosses, as it contributes to sustained damage over time.

2. Utilize Rage-Generating Abilities: Use Furious Rage and Bloodthirst strategically to maintain the uptime of Flagellation.

3. Execute Precise Strikes: If utilizing Precise Timing, incorporate Execute into your rotation on cooldown.

4. Seize Opportunities with Overpower: When Abrumar procs from a dodge, seize the opportunity to unleash this powerful ability.

5. Optimize Mortal Strike: Execute Golpe mortal on cooldown, maximizing its impact on your target.

6. Unleash Whirlwind: Utilize Whirlwind on cooldown to deal area-of-effect damage and contribute to overall DPS.

7. Use Raging Blow with Excess Rage: If you still have rage remaining, deploy Raging Blow to further enhance your assault.

8. Dump Excess Rage: Efficiently manage excess rage by channeling it into Heroic Strike or Execute, ensuring a continuous flow of damage.

Stats and Gear for Warrior DPS

Stat Priority:

1. Critical Strike Chance
2. Hit Chance
3. Strength
4. Agility
5. Attack Power
6. Stamina

Understanding the intricacies of Warrior DPS revolves around efficient rage utilization. Up to the 6% soft hit cap, where dodges and parries are a concern, Strength and Hit take precedence. Hit is critical, as missed attacks generate no rage, significantly impacting DPS. Beyond the cap, Strength and Critical Strike Chance play pivotal roles, enhancing rage generation and damage output. Agility's conversion rate to Critical Strike Chance at 20:1 at level 60 makes it surprisingly valuable.

Stamina and Armor contribute to survivability, vital in Vanilla where World Buffs heavily influence DPS. While not directly boosting DPS, survival stats aid in mitigating damage and maintaining buffs, ensuring sustained gameplay.

Gear Recommendations for Warrior DPS

1. Thermal Chopper: Acquiring this epic axe from the final boss of Gnomeregan is a top priority due to its exceptional strength.

2. Bonechewer or Spiral Cutlass: Iconic leveling weapons providing utility while entering Gnomeregan, especially beneficial for 2H Arms spec.

3. Tempered Helm Interference: A Blacksmithing crafted helm with an active effect, offering additional armor and stamina for enhanced survivability.

4. Mountainous Plate Greaves / Plunderer's Plate Greaves: Boots with a built-in movement speed enchant, crucial for a class with limited mobility, and revered in Arathi Basin after a short grind during the STV event.

Best Races for Warrior DPS

Best Alliance Races

For PvE, the Human race stands out as the strongest choice due to its versatility with two separate weapon skill passives: Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization. Weapon skill is crucial in Classic, and these passives not only provide a DPS increase but also allow for extra item slot flexibility. The Human racial Diplomacy aids in reputation grinds, particularly in PvP reputations and Cenarion Circle. While Dwarves, with their racial skill Stoneform, can assist with certain dangerous mechanics, no other Alliance race significantly enhances PvE performance.

In PvP, Gnomes take the lead with their powerful racial skill Escape Artist, offering a quick escape from various dangerous crowd control abilities. Dwarves are underrated for their unique racial skill, Stoneform, which can prove beneficial in specific situations. Human and Night Elf lack highly useful PvP racials, making Night Elves the least favorable race for Alliance Warrior DPS.

Best Horde Races:

Orc emerges as the clear winner for both PvE and PvP on the Horde faction. With robust racials such as Hardiness, Axe Specialization, and the decent cooldown of Blood Fury, Orcs surpass other options and are considered the best race overall. Troll is an alternative, particularly if tanking is preferred over DPS, but suffers from passive DPS issues compared to Orcs due to the lack of weapon skill. Tauren and Undead provide minimal benefits for Warrior DPS, with Tauren's increased health offering a marginal boost and Undead's Fear/Charm break having niche uses in dueling but limited impact in broader scenarios.

Best Professions for Warrior DPS

Engineering

Engineering stands as the unparalleled profession for Warriors in Classic, offering substantial advantages in both PvE and PvP scenarios. It is strongly recommended to choose Engineering due to its versatile benefits. While the advantages may seem modest at level 40, the minor DPS increase from consumables like dynamite and items such as High-Yield Radiation Bomb already surpasses other professions. As the level cap increases, Engineering becomes even more formidable, providing access to essential tools like Repair bots, Teleports, potent explosives such as Goblin Sapper Charge, Dense Dynamite, and valuable PvP items like Gnomish Rocket Boots.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing is the second profession of choice for Warriors in Phase 2, offering a unique crafted item in Tempered Helm Interference. Future phases may introduce more exclusive items, and given that Warriors can don both Plate and Mail Armor, the prospect of obtaining items superior to Leather options makes Blacksmithing a solid choice. The profession complements Warrior DPS by providing crafted gear options and enhancing overall effectiveness in various scenarios.

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