Classic Warrior Tank Guide

Warriors are the undisputed kings of WoW Classic tanking, being capable of swapping between excellent defensive capabilities plus decent threat building, or excellent threat building plus decent defensive capabilities. They also have multiple ways to taunt back enemies, or otherwise catch up and crowd control them before casualties happen among their allies.

Although the Season of Mastery brings with it a number of changes to how you may experience the content of WoW Classic, these tweaks do not include any adjustments to how you play Warrior. As such, this guide will cover all you need to know regardless of which version of Classic you wish to play.

However, due to certain pieces of content from later Phases now being available at an earlier date, gearing recommendations for Warrior will be different. Because of this, we have created additional pages detailing your best in slot items for both pre-raid gear and the current raids available.

• Can have the smoothest damage intake in WoW Classic, due to the ability to push critical hits and crushing blows completely off the table with Shield Block, without requiring huge amounts of defense to do so.
• Is able to swap from the best defense discussed above, into a very offensive style supported by consumables and world buffs, capable of outputting massive threat.
• Has the widest array of tanking tools in WoW Classic, and all sets except AQ40's are tanking oriented in stats and set bonuses.

• More unforgiving of mistakes or improper play compared to other tanks, especially when using an offensive build that only uses shield when needed.
• Gearing can be difficult, due to the high popularity of Warriors in groups.
• Solo leveling is slow and dangerous: dying is a constant possibility and dropping combat can be hard.

Warriors are the only class that can be played by any race in WoW Classic. While racials are important, look and feel is even more important for many players. These should be your main consideration when picking a race!

Human is the best race for PvE and Dwarf / Gnome are the best races for PvP, with Dwarf being great in PvE also, although it is of debatable usefulness to be tank specced in PvP to begin with. Night Elf is slightly behind the rest but still slightly better than Gnome for PvE tanking.

• The Human Spirit increases your Spirit by 5%.
• Diplomacy increases your reputation earned by 10%.
• Sword Specialization increases your skill with Swords by 5.
• Mace Specialization increases your skill with Maces by 5.
• Perception is a 3-minute cooldown that greatly increases your Stealth detection for 20 seconds when used.

Human is the best catch-all race for PvE in the Alliance, as the extra weapon skill from Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization is a huge threat increase, and also provides you with more Rage from the extra hits landed. If your interest mainly lies in PvP, with some PvE tanking on the side, pick one of the other races, however.

• Find Treasure allows you to sense nearby treasure (chests mainly), making it appear on the minimap.
• Frost Resistance increases your Frost Resistance by 10.
• Gun Specialization increases your skill with Guns by 5, which increases your chance to hit with a gun.
• Stoneform makes you immune to all bleed, poison, and disease effects, and instantly removes them, which is great against Blind! Is also increases your armor for 8 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown.

Dwarf has Stoneform, which is a strong defensive ability, especially against Rogues (disables Blind) and Princess Huhuran (disables her powerful poison attacks). While it lacks Human's offensive power, it has higher baseline Stamina and Strength, and can be considered the Alliance's most defensive race.

• Expansive Mind increases your Intellect by 5%.
• Escape Artist is a 1-minute cooldown that lets you escape any root, snare, or slow when used.
• Engineering Specialization increases your Engineering skill by 15.
• Arcane Resistance increases your arcane resistance by 10.

Gnome has Engineering Specialization, which is quite useful in WoW Classic, due to the power of this profession. Their active ability, Escape Artist, breaks root effects, which are usually very annoying for Warriors, especially in PvP.

• Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
• Quickness increases your Dodge Chance by 1%.
• Shadowmeld is an ability that allows you to become stealthed while standing still when used, on a 10 second cooldown. This cannot be used in combat.
• Wisp Spirit causes you to transform into a wisp upon death, increasing your movement speed by 50% while dead.

Night Elf has Quickness for slightly increased dodge chance, and Shadowmeld has its niche uses, making Night Elf a decent choice for tanking.

Troll is the best race for PvE Main-Tanking, Tauren is the best race for survivability and Orc is the best race if you will ever be doing DPS in a group or also want to PvP. Finally, Undead is the worst Warrior race, but can still give you some leeway in bosses that fear, so keep reading to learn all the details on each race!

• Beast Slaying gives a 5% damage bonus against Beasts.
• Berserking is a 3-minute cooldown that gives you between 10-30% increased attack and casting speed depending on your health, with the effect being greater the more hurt you are.
• Bow Specialization increases your skill with Bows by 5, which increases your chance to hit with a bow.
• Regeneration gives +10% passive health regeneration and allows you to regenerate 10% of your total health regeneration during combat.

Troll is the best choice for main tanking in PvE, as Berserking can easily be activated for its full value if you are the first, and primary, target of bosses. Outside of this strong niche, however, Troll is nothing special.

• Cultivation increases your Herbalism skill by 15.
• Endurance increases your total health by 5%.
• Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
• War Stomp is a 2-minute cooldown that stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5 second cast time.
• Due to their large sizes, Tauren have a larger hitbox than other races, which allows you to hit, and be hit from further afar. This can be great when trying to chase a target or problematic when trying to flee from melee enemies.

Tauren were often considered the best Horde tank in the past due to the extra health from Endurance but, nowadays, as the value of threat in a fully buffed group has become better understood, Trolls and even Orcs have gained a lot of popularity. Their large hitbox is great for hitting enemies first, helping establish quick threat, but their racials mostly help with survivability. Overall, Taurens make for great defensive tanks, but you might need to call for your group to wait for full Sunder Armor stacks before going all out.

• Axe Specialization increases your skill with axes by 5, which increases your chance to land a blow on a target with axes.
• Blood Fury is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your base melee attack power by 25% for 15 seconds and reduces healing effects on you by 50% for 25 seconds.
• Command increases your pet damage by 5%.
• Hardiness increases your chance to resist stuns by 25%.

Orc can be a strong threat-builder, due to Axe Specialization providing a permanent DPS and hit chance increase when using axes. However, what really makes Orc a great pick is that it is also a very good PvP race, and the best PvE damage dealer, making it the best catch-all choice in the Horde. Keep in mind that Blood Fury is not good for tanks, as it causes you to receive 50% less healing for 25 seconds.

• Will of the Forsaken is a 2-minute cooldown that makes your immune to all Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects for 5 seconds. This will also break you out of any current effects.
• Cannibalize is a 2-minute cooldown that lets you channel to consume a nearby corpse, regenerating 7% of your total health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds for a total of 35% health.
• Underwater Breathing allows you to breath underwater for 300% longer than normal.
• Shadow Resistance increases your shadow resistance by 10.

Undead is the weakest tank overall. Will of the Forsaken, while generally very strong, is mostly forgettable for warriors, who can use Berserker Rage to achieve the same result (fear immunity) on a much shorter cooldown. Undead are good for PvP and bosses who fear often, however, as you can never have enough crowd-control breaking tools for these.

The strongest of tanks will carry as many Engineering explosives with them as possible, allowing them to output much higher threat, especially in area of effect situations!

While Mining is usually a good pair with Engineering, because tanks take forever to kill the pesky NPCs that attack you while you are only trying to go about your Mining duties, we would instead recommend picking up Alchemy for Transmute: Arcanite, which will come in handy when creating Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker and high end epic gear.

Consult our profession guides to learn everything there is to know about these and the remaining professions.