WoW Classic Arms Warrior Leveling Guide 1-60

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Your talents should roughly look like this, but keep in mind there are plenty of individual points that can be swapped around based on preference. For example, you can consider putting one to three points into Improved Hamstring, instead of the suggested extra Deflection point and maxed out Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, if you are planning to PvP often before 60.

1. Levels 10 to 12 — 3 points in Improved Rend
2. Levels 13 & 14 — 2 points in Deflection
3. Levels 15 & 16 — 2 points in Improved Charge
4. Levels 17 to 19 — 3 points in Tactical Mastery

Improved Heroic Strike is not taken because after the first few levels Heroic Strike becomes a very low priority skill, which you will rarely use. Improved Rend is a decent damage increase for Rend, which will be used often during leveling. Improved Charge is a rather impactful skill considering the high amount of times per minute you will be charging into enemies while soloing. Finally, Deflection has a significant impact on your survivability and Tactical Mastery is helpful for tanking and necessary to unlock Anger Management later.

1. Levels 20 & 21 — 2 points in Improved Overpower
2. Levels 22 to 24 — 3 points in Deep Wounds
3. Levels 25 & 26 — 2 point in Tactical Mastery
4. Level 27 — 1 point in Anger Management
5. Levels 28 & 29 — 2 point in Two-Handed Weapon Specialization

Improved Overpower increases your damage and has great synergy with Deep Wounds, which will nearly always be activated when you use it. Finishing Tactical Mastery allows you to finally pick up Anger Management, which generates a nice Rage point every 3 seconds. Finally, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is a larger damage increase than Impale because this talent only works on special (yellow) ability damage, which is a low fraction of your total damage while leveling, and due to the low critical strike chance of Warriors without end game gear.

1. Level 30 — 1 point in Sweeping Strikes
2. Levels 31 to 35 — 5 points in Axe Specialization
3. Levels 36 to 38 — 3 points in Improved Hamstring
4. Level 39 — 1 point in Two-Handed Weapon Specialization

Sweeping Strikes is a huge damage increase whenever a second target is present, and allows you to begin pulling two targets at once regularly. Axe Specialization is a good damage increase, with Deep Wounds synergy, and most of the best leveling weapons are Axes. Improved Hamstring is amazing for World PvP and sometimes allows you to Hamstring kite more easily. Finally, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization continues to be a decent damage increase.

1. Level 40 — 1 point in Mortal Strike
2. Levels 41 to 45 — 5 points in Cruelty
3. Levels 46 to 49 — 4 points in Booming Voice

Mortal Strike is the best damage increase in the tree and will become your main Rage attack from here on. Cruelty is a good damage increase with Deep Wounds synergy. Finally, Booming Voice is a decent Rage and time saver, letting you keep Battle Shout for longer before having to refresh it.

1. Level 50 — 1 point in Booming Voice
2. Level 51 — 1 point in Piercing Howl
3. Levels 52 to 54 — 3 points in Blood Craze
4. Level 55 — 1 point in Improved Battle Shout
5. Levels 56 to 60 — 5 points in Enrage

The final point in Booming Voice contributes to its Rage saving. Piercing Howl is a great talent which allows you to easily kite a pack of enemies, and makes it much easier to flee from losing fights. Blood Craze gives you some extra sustain when you need it the most, after being critically hit. Improved Battle Shout is a minor damage increase. Finally, Enrage is a nice damage increase, although inconsistent.

You start with a single active ability, Heroic Strike, which you should use whenever possible. Once you train Battle Shout, make sure to keep up its buff while fighting.

The absence of Thunder Clap from the rotation and training list is intended. This skill is great against 3+ targets, especially when you are dungeon leveling with a premade group, in which case it should absolutely be one of your priorities. However, it is also expensive to train its multiple ranks, and its damage against less than three targets is weak for the Rage spent, which makes it a trap skill for most players.

Hamstring kiting can help you avoid a lot of damage. Simply apply Hamstring to an enemy to slow it, then run out of melee range until your swing timer is ready again. Once this happens, return to melee range, hit the mob and run out of melee range again. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is dead, reapplying Hamstring as needed.

1. Use Charge to initiate combat whenever possible.
2. Activate Bloodrage to generate extra Rage if you are currently healthy.
3. Cast Battle Shout if the buff is currently not active.
4. Sweeping Strikes causes your attacks to hit a second target. Use it whenever you fight two or more enemies.
5. Use Overpower whenever the enemy dodges.
6. Cast Execute whenever an enemy is below 20% health.
7. Cast Mortal Strike as your main attack.
8. Whirlwind is a powerful burst AoE attack, which is also worth using whenever possible in single-target situations.
9. Apply Rend if it will have time to run its full duration.
10. Use Sunder Armor as quickly as possible, while the enemy has high health, in order to increase your damage. Using it is generally more efficient than using Heroic Strike.
11. Cleave can be used instead of Heroic Strike for Rage dumping on AoE situations. Keep in mind that using it against multiple targets will consume two Sweeping Strikes charges at once, for extra damage.
12. Queue Heroic Strike whenever you have excess Rage that you will not be able to use before letting it expire post combat. Keep in mind that Heroic Strike (and Cleave) replace your next auto-attack with a stronger one that will not grant you any Rage. So their real Rage cost is much higher than what is stated in the tooltip, which is why they are lowest in the priority list.

• At Level 1, as soon as you have the copper, buy Battle Shout. It provides a significant damage boost that lasts for 2 minutes.
• At Level 4, buy Charge and Rend. Charge is a mobility tool that also generates Rage, but cannot be used in combat. Rend is a damage over time effect that will help you kill enemies faster.
• At Level 6, buy Parry to boost your survivability at little cost.
• At Level 8, buy Rank 2 Heroic Strike, and get Hamstring to enable Hamstring kiting.
• At Level 10, buy Rank 2 Rend and Bloodrage, which provides Rage at the cost of health.
• At Level 12, buy Rank 2 Battle Shout, Overpower, and Shield Bash. Overpower is a strong, unavoidable attack that you can use whenever enemies dodge. Shield Bash allows you to interrupt enemy casts.
• At Level 14, buy Demoralizing Shout and Revenge. While these skills will not be of much help during questing, you will be grateful to have bought them whenever you have to tank.
• At Level 16, buy Rank 3 Heroic Strike, Mocking Blow, and Shield Block. Similar to Level 14 skills, the logic behind buying Mocking Blow and Shield Block is that it is quite cheap to do so, and using them while tanking helps a lot.
• At Level 18, buy Disarm, another defensive tool that also comes in handy in PvP. Being disarmed disables most of your attacks if you are playing a weapon-reliant class.
• At Level 20, buy Rank 3 Rend, Cleave, and Retaliation. Cleave works similarly to Heroic Strike in that it replaces your next swing, but instead of just added damage, it will make that attack hit a second target nearby. Retaliation makes you counter-attack whenever you are melee attacked for 15 seconds, on a huge 30-minute cooldown. Use it when you are pulling multiple enemies.
• At Level 22, buy Rank 3 Battle Shout, Intimidating Shout and Rank 2 Sunder Armor. Intimidating Shout will cause enemies to cower or run away in fear when used.
• At Level 24, buy Rank 2 Demoralizing Shout, Rank 2 Revenge, Rank 4 Heroic Strike, and Execute. Use it to finish off targets below 20% health.
• At Level 26, buy Rank 2 Charge.
• At Level 28, buy Shield Wall, which will allow you to reduce the damage you take by 75% damage for 10 seconds, with a huge cooldown of 30 minutes.
• At Level 32, buy Rank 2 Hamstring, Rank 5 Heroic Strike, Rank 4 Battle Shout, Rank 2 Execute, and Berserker Rage. Berserker Rage allows you to be immune or break out of fear and incapacitate effects, and you generate more Rage from being hit than normal during its effect.
• At Level 34, buy Rank 3 Sunder Armor.
• At Level 36, buy Whirlwind, which will be one of your main damage dealers from here on.
• At Level 38, buy Pummel, which will allow you to interrupt enemies while in Berserker Stance.
• At Level 40, buy Rank 6 Heroic Strike, Rank 3 Execute, and Plate Mail, enabling you to use plate armor.
• At Level 42, buy Rank 5 Battle Shout.
• At Level 46, buy Rank 3 Charge and Rank 4 Sunder Armor.
• At Level 48, buy Rank 7 Heroic Strike, Rank 2 Mortal Strike, and Rank 4 Execute.
• At Level 50, buy Recklessness, a powerful cooldown which turns all of your attacks into guaranteed critical strikes for 15 seconds, while also causing you to take 20% extra damage, on a huge cooldown of 30 minutes.
• At Level 52, buy Rank 6 Battle Shout.
• At Level 54, buy Rank 3 Hamstring and Rank 3 Mortal Strike.
• At Level 56, buy Rank 8 Heroic Strike and Rank 5 Execute.
• At Level 58, buy Rank 5 Sunder Armor.
• At Level 60, buy Rank 4 Mortal Strike.

By setting yourself up with an upgraded user interface and macros from the get go, you will make your leveling process much easier. Check out our Arms Warrior Macros and Addons guides in the link below for the full list.

While leveling, you will need to keep open for weapon opportunities. You will also need to complete various class quests for key skills such as Berserker Rage and Intercept. To help you with that, we have made two dedicated guides.

Well done on hitting maximum level in WoW Classic! Now that leveling is over, you can learn more about level 60 gameplay by reading our DPS Warrior Guide, which covers every facet of gameplay at 60 in detail.

The best individual pages to read through are as follows.

• The DPS Warrior Talent builds guide has the best builds for level 60 covered. While they are both Fury focused, you can easily keep using the Arms leveling build you got to 60 with until you start raiding, where it is advised you swap to optimize your damage potential.
• Our PvP Warrior guide is where you can find the Arms end game PvP build, as well as various tricks and tips for PvP combat.
• Goldmaking Guide for Warriors is a page with details on where / how to farm gold quickly as a Warrior when you are level 60.
• The DPS Warrior Rotation guide is where you can read on how to optimize your PvE damage, how to prioritize your abilities and also has some advanced Rage management tips.
• DPS Warrior Stats guide contains detailed information on all Warrior stats, including a list of their priority for damage dealing.
• Our Gear guide for DPS Warriors lists all the optimal pieces of gear that you will want to farm at level 60, in order to optimize your damage.