WoW: Forever
Warrior
Warrior is the slowest class to level in Forever and one of the strongest once geared. Rage now comes from weapon speed rather than damage dealt, and critical hits no longer feed it at all.
Which spec?
| Spec | Role | Levelling | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arms | Melee DPS | Viable, slower | Two-handed bleeds and burst — but its engine is level 30+ |
| Fury | Melee DPS | Best of the three | Dual-wield rage dump, though you cannot dual wield until 20 |
| Protection | Tank | Slower solo, best in dungeons | Shield tanking, and the tree is now shield-gated |
An honest note that saves you a respec: at level 20 all three published Warrior builds are nearly the same. The Arms and Fury level-20 builds are identical — eleven points in the Fury tree — because nothing in Arms is worth reaching yet. Pick by what you want at 30 and beyond, not by what you can feel at 20.
Is Warrior for you?
Play Warrior if you want to watch the enemy rather than your own bars, and you do not mind a hard first thirty levels in exchange for being formidable later.
Levelling milestones
| Level | What you get |
|---|---|
| 1 | Heroic Strike, Battle Shout — now 3 minutes, though weaker |
| 4 | Charge, Rend |
| 6 | Thunder Clap — 20% slow now, was 10%, and it scales with attack power |
| 10 | Class quest — mandatory. Defensive Stance, Sunder Armor, Taunt, Bloodrage. First talent point |
| 12 | Overpower, Shield Bash — your only interrupt, so keep a shield in the bag |
| 14 | Tactical Mastery is now trained, not a talent — it retains 10 rage through a stance change |
| 16 | Shield Block — now 2 attacks over 7 seconds, was 1 over 5 |
| 20 | Victory Rush, new — free, and heals 10% of max health. Dual wield unlocks. Cleave, Retaliation, and Slam trained earlier than Classic. Eleventh talent point |
| 24 | Execute |
| 30 | Second class quest — Berserker Stance, Intercept. Twenty-first talent point |
| 36 | Whirlwind |
| 40 | Capstone talents, plate armour, mount |
| 50 | Recklessness — still 30 minutes, where Retaliation and Shield Wall dropped to 15 |
Talent points are your level minus nine — one at 10, eleven at 20, twenty-one at 30, fifty-one at 60. Tiers open at levels 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40. The Legacy perk Talented moves your first point earlier, down to level 5 at full rank, which is 26 points at level 30 rather than 21.
Devastate is not in Forever. Sunder Armor is the ability, and it gained Attack Power scaling on 24 September.
Which race
Alliance — Night Elf. Elune's Light gives +10% crit for 15 seconds and lines up with your cooldowns, Shadowmeld drops threat, and Wisp Spirit speeds corpse runs.
Horde — Orc. Blood Fury is +10% attack power and Axe Specialization gives +1% crit, which makes axes worth seeking out.
Forever changed the answer. Vanilla's Human and Orc weapon-skill picks are gone — all three weapon racials became critical-strike racials, and Night Elf gained an offensive cooldown it never had.
Quality of life
- Do the level-10 class quest immediately, and the level-30 one on time. They are how you get Defensive Stance, Sunder Armor, Taunt and later Berserker Stance. A Warrior who skips them has no tanking kit at all.
- Keep the weapon current and its skill trained. A new weapon type will not perform as expected while its skill lags.
- Carry a one-hander and shield permanently for Shield Bash interrupts and Mocking Blow pulls.
- Mining and Blacksmithing lets you craft your own weapons and armour. First Aid is your only fast self-heal before 20, and food now grants +5% experience.
- Group when you can, and pull two. Rage from damage taken survives in Forever but is small, so the one place it pays is levelling alongside a healer.
What changed from Classic
| Change | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Rage normalized to weapon speed | Damage dealt no longer feeds rage |
| Critical hits give no bonus rage | The vanilla loop of gear → damage → rage is gone. This is dev-confirmed as intentional |
| Yellow attacks generate no rage | Heroic Strike and Cleave are net rage losses while levelling |
| Victory Rush added at 20 | Your first and only self-heal |
| Tactical Mastery baseline at 14 | You keep 10 rage through a stance change without spending a point |
| The three major cooldowns no longer share a lockout | But only Retaliation and Shield Wall dropped to 15 minutes; Recklessness is still 30 |
| Devastate absent | Sunder Armor is the ability, now scaling with attack power |
| Plate armour at 40 | Cloth, leather and mail until then |
At level 60
Unknown, and we will not guess. No source publishes a Warrior build past level 30. Rage generation is currently low enough that one published guide says outright you "will be struggling to press buttons on cooldown in endgame content, but this is likely to change before launch." Raids open 9 December.