Warrior Class Overview

Warriors are able to be the new race Skyborne, still allowing them to play as any race in the entire game. This is a feat unique to Warriors, as every other class has limitations on what race it can be.

Below we have listed all of the races that offer specific benefits to Warriors of any spec, listed in order from Alliance to Horde.

• Dwarf — Dwarves remain a decent choice for Alliance Warriors, still offering Stoneform, which now also reduces Physical damage taken while activated, making it great for tanking! Mace Specialization remains as well for Dwarves, now giving a 1% increased crit chance for all spells and abilities while wielding a mace. Dwarves also keep Find Treasure, allowing you to spot nearby treasure chests on the mini-map; great for both leveling and farming! New to WoW Forever is Big Game Hunter, increasing all damage dealt to Beasts by 5%; a nice additional damage increase whenever you encounter beast creatures throughout Azeroth.
• Gnome — Gnomes in WoW Forever have been greatly buffed, with Escape Artist now granting immunity to roots and snares for the 8-second duration; this is incredibly powerful on a PvP Warrior. Expansive Mind has also been improved and now increases all resources, including Rage, by 5%; this can be a great boost for pooling Rage before a boss pull. Engineering Specialization is enhanced as well in WoW Forever, reducing the chance that engineering devices will fail or break; with engineering being the strongest profession in Vanilla WoW, this will undoubtedly be an amazing racial passive. New to Gnomes in WoW Forever is Eureka!, increasing the damage of your next 3 abilities by 10%. Overall, Gnome is a powerful choice for PvP focused players on the Alliance.
• Human — Human remains one of the strongest race to choose for a Warrior on the Alliance, especially with the addition of Will to Survive, allowing you to break free from any stun every 3-minutes. Sword Specialization remains, granting 2% increased crit chance in WoW Forever rather than weapon skill; this is higher than any other racial benefit from other classes, making Human a great choice for any Warrior.
• Night Elf — Night Elves retain several of their previous racials such as Shadowmeld, offering a way to enter stealth while not moving, and Wisp Spirit, greatly reducing the time it takes to run back to your body should you die. Quickness also returns, still granting 1% extra dodge chance, but now also includes 2% increased run speed. New for Night Elves in WoW Forever is Elune's Light, increasing your crit chance by 10% for 15-seconds; with a 3-minute cooldown, this acts as an additional trinket for Night Elves. The additional movement speed and Elune's Light cooldown make Night Elf arguably the best race for Warrior in Forever.
• High Order Skyborne — Skyborne is the new race added to WoW Forever, with High Order being the Alliance version of the race. Both races have access to Walk on Air, an activated slow fall that lasts 10-seconds, Wind Blessed, a 1% increased melee haste, as well as Elemental Insight, a 5% increase to damage dealt to all Elemental enemies. The High Orders Alliance specific racial is Read Ley Line, granting increased health regeneration for 15-minutes if used near a ley-line, otherwise it will only last 15-seconds. Overall, this is one of the weaker options for Warriors in WoW Forever, as these racials heavily favor casters more than melee.

• Orc — Orcs are likely still the best race to play a Warrior as in WoW Forever, as they still offer several desirable benefits compared to other races. Axe Specialization now grants a 1% crit chance while wielding an axe, which is the new normal for the previous weapon skill racials. Orcs still have Blood Fury, but this has been nerfed to now only increase your attack power by 10% rather than the previous 25%; this acts as a "third trinket", allowing players to deal high amounts of damage during its 15-second buff window. Hardiness was also changed in WoW Forever, now reducing the duration of stuns by 20%. New to WoW Forever for Orcs is Shatter Curse, granting immunity to curses and banes for 8-seconds, as well as reducing all magic damage taken by 15%. Orc remains a solid choice for Horde Warriors and will likely still be the go-to choice for this faction.
• Tauren — Tauren is a fantastic choice for Warriors who will primarily be focusing on tanking, as Endurance still grants a 5% total increased health pool, which scales with gear; it now also grants 1% increased hit chance, making it a bit more competitive with other racials. War Stomp still remains, allowing you stun several nearby enemies. Cultivation, is a new racial for Taurens in WoW Forever, allowing you to "Cultivate" a nearby herb, spawning in a second version of it that can be picked even without the herbalism skill; great for farming characters, and gives you a way to earn gold as a end-game focused character without farming professions.
• Undead — Undead are one of the best races available for several other classes interested in PvP due to Will of the Forsaken allowing you to escape charms, fears, and sleeps, acting as a second PvP trinket. For Warrior however, this race loses much of its' appeal as Berserker Rage removes most of the same crowd control effects while also having a much shorter cooldown. Undead also have Cannibalize, allowing you to eat a nearby Humanoid or Undead corpse to regain a large amount of health; this is useful while leveling, farming, and while PvPing but does not have much use in end-game PvE encounters. In WoW Forever, Undead gain Touch of the Grave, giving your attacks a chance to drain health from the target, dealing extra damage and healing you for an equal amount. Even with this new racial, Undead still remains a mediocre choice for Warriors in WoW Forever.
• Windshaper Skyborne — Skyborne is the new race added to WoW Forever, with Windshaper being the Horde version of the race. Both races have access to Walk on Air, an activated slow fall that lasts 10-seconds, Wind Blessed, a 1% increased melee haste, as well as Elemental Insight, a 5% increase to damage dealt to all Elemental enemies. The Windshapers Horde specific racial is Skysight, granting 10% increased running speed. While the Windshapers are a stronger choice than their Alliance equivalent, there are still much stronger options for a Warrior to choose in WoW Forever.

There is not much information available currently before the beta becomes available, but these are our findings for Warrior so far.

Warriors gain Victory Rush, allowing you to deal damage and heal for 10% of your maximum health; as with other versions, Victory Rush, can only be used after you kill a similar level enemy. Another major change is the dividing of major cooldowns, allowing you to use Recklessness, Retaliation, and Shield Wall all separately of each other. This means you can freely use one without placing the others on cooldown, as was the case in Vanilla WoW.

Fury has received a minor nerf, with Bloodthirst only dealing damage equal to 35% of your Attack Power, down from Vanilla WoWs 45% Attack Power. Slam now has a baseline cooldown of 15-seconds, where as previously it had no cooldown at all. Shield Block by default blocks 2 attacks, up from 1 in Vanilla.

Protection Warriors defensive abilities have received baseline cooldown reductions, allowing you to use Last Stand and Shield Wall much more frequently. Shield Slam has also been buffed slightly, scaling harder and generating addition threat.

One of the largest improvements for Protection is that ability to use Thunder Clap in Defensive Stance, allowing you to AoE tank much easier.

All specializations in WoW Forever have received improved talent trees, typically using a combination of Vanilla WoW, TBC, and WotLK talents together to form a well-rounded talent selection. Warrior talent trees have received only a handful of changes when compared to other classes, but nonetheless these changes should greatly improve the overall feel and gameplay of Warrior. Below we will go over the changes to each specializations specific talent trees in greater detail.

From initial looks, Arms will remain a primarily PvP focused talent tree, with the option of being a moderately competitive PvE option as well. Borrowing from future expansions, the Arms tree gains Bloodthrill, granting your Rend a chance to activate Overpower without requiring your target to dodge; this is similar to Taste for Blood from Wrath of the Lich King. Arms also gains Improved Slam, reducing your global cooldown and cast time of Slam; this is similar to The Burning Crusades' Improved Slam talent, making Slam a great DPS option for PvE.

The Arms tree has further been improved by combining the previous weapon specific talents such as Axe Specialization, and Sword Specialization into a single new talent, Weaponmaster. This allows you to use the best weapon you find without losing out on a specific talent, or requiring a talent respec to change your talents, and also now includes staves.

For PvP focused players, Arms will remain the go-to choice for the hard-hitting 2-handed gameplay, as well as the bread-and-butter Warrior PvP spell Mortal Strike. Adding to the Warriors available arsenal, Spearing Strike is a new talent which has uses in both PvE and PvP situations. For only 15 Rage, you deal 40% weapon damage to a target, and an additional 80% weapon damage if the target is a Giant, Dragonkin, or mounted; in addition to this bonus damage, if the target is mounted, they will be forcibly dismounted. This will be great for specific boss encounters against Giants and Dragons, as well as controlling the battlefield in PvP situations by forcing players to dismount and confront you directly.

Furys' main improvements are to the Rage cost of Cleave, with Improved Cleave now reducing its' cost by up to 3, as well as the new talent Raging Blows further reducing Cleaves cost by 2. Raging Blows also causes your Whirlwind to now hit with both weapons (previously it only hit with your main-hand weapon). This should improve Warriors' cleave potential when facing around 4 targets, increasing Whirlwinds damage output and allowing you to use Cleave more frequently.

Dual Wield Specialization has also been improved, increasing the amount of Rage generated by your off-hand weapon, as well as increasing the chance for it to hit. Fury gains Burning Crusades Precision talent, granting 3% hit chance with all abilities and attacks. The combination of these two hit talents should grant a sizable increase to both damage dealt and Rage generation.

Another big change for Fury talents is Enrage being able to proc from any damage taken, rather than requiring being crit for it to trigger. This affords DPS Warriors many more opportunities to become Enraged, increasing all damage dealt by 10% while active. While this is a large nerf from Vanilla WoWs 25% increased damage dealt from Enrage, the easier requirements to activate should lead to a much higher uptime, granting more damage overall.

The Protection talent tree has received the most changes out of all of the Warrior specs, with the main change being that all major Protection talents now require you to have a shield equipped to gain their benefit. The days of dual-wield tanking as Protection spec are gone, with "while a shield is equipped" is found on nearly every single talent that offers a benefit in the entire Protection tree.

Improved Revenge now increases the damage Revenge deals, rather than giving it a chance to stun the target. Improved Thunder Clap also returns, being moved to the Protection tree and reducing the Rage cost of Thunder Clap by 2 per talent point instead of the previous 1.

New to WoW Forever, Protection gains The Burning Crusades Focused Rage, reducing the Rage cost of your offensive abilities by 1 per talent point. Protection also gains TBCs Vitality, increasing both Stamina and Strength by 2% per point. Shield Slam seems to also have increased scaling, as well as having higher base threat value, likely bringing it on par with TBCs own version of the ability.

Another new talent for the Protection talent tree is Vanguard, allowing you to use Charge while in Defensive Stance. Unlike the similar talent Warbringer from Wrath of the Lich King, this ability does not allow you to use Charge while in combat.