The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Leveling Up 41 - 58

The Care and Feeding of Warriors heads into the home stretch of this series of leveling guides with a look at the levels that used to be just before endgame, and which now are just before stepping through the dark portal. Luckily, Matthew Rossi has so many warriors that it's not terribly hard to find one he hasn't leveled that far yet. The poor tauren warrior in today's header was actually his first tauren warrior, only to fall away neglected when he rerolled on Malfurion. Looks lonely, doesn't he?We've covered getting your new warrior up and running, and we've covered getting her or him through the mid-level game. Now it's time to talk about the time before you can go to Outland, when you're finally wearing plate, running some of the most well designed instances in the game (hopefully, anyway) and finally getting access to the highest tiers of talents.

I've been asked in previous posts to tell people what talents to pick for the fastest leveling. I haven't done that because it really depends on if you're playing solo or grouping often. If you're running groups with a pack of like-minded, same level friends, then Protection is the strongest talent tree for leveling. Running instances and doing instance quests will get you to 58 faster than soloing, and Protection is probably the most useful spec for a single warrior in a five man group. If, however, you're going to be spending a lot of time solo, then Arms is probably the easiest spec to level in. Get some decent 'of the bear' or 'of the tiger' greens, keep them updated every couple of levels, get the biggest, meanest two hand weapon you can and go to town. I personally leveled my most recent warrior (draenei) to 55 in Fury just because I'd used arms for my human, my tauren and my orc (my night elf was all over the place) and while it can be more difficult, it's not as bad as you'll often be told it is if you have the right gear. Patch 2.3 has actually gone a long way towards fixing itemization for the leveling fury warrior. Either way, Arms or Fury are better for leveling than Protection if you are spending the majority of your time soloing. If you're running a lot of instances, go Prot.

These are the levels where you can actually feel your spec. Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst and Shield Slam are in your grasp, the former kings of their respective talent trees. You'll be able to go 41 points in a tree, should you so desire, by level 50. So it is in this band that you'll be able to say 'I'm a Prot Warrior' and really be accurate.

Unlike previous posts in the series, this one is going to focus on talent trees because, frankly, you only get one ability between 41 and 58. It's a good one, though. At level 50, you get Recklessness. The cooldown is another atrociously long 30 minute shared cooldown (quite frankly, these three abilities either need to have their cooldown reduced to ten minutes or be delinked from each other so that using one doesn't lock the other two out for half an hour - just make them like the 20 minute shaman totems in that using one sets the other two on a cooldown so that you can't chain all three at once) but once used, you have fifteen seconds of almost assured critical hits, unless the target has some specific way to neutralize them. You also can't crit people if, say, you pop Recklessness and they root you and run away, or sheep you, or whatever. So make sure you're okay with possibly wasting the ability if you do use it. With those conditions kept in mind, Recklessness is an excellent ability for PvE DPS (especially on boss fights - how many times has a DPSing warrior seen a boss heading towards 20% health and begun hoarding rage for that big recked execute? fifteen seconds of guaranteed crits from more than one DPSing warrior when the boss is at 19% is a beautiful thing, if your tank is ready for it) and for PvP as well. You'll very rarely use it while tanking, as it increases the damage you take as well. I have used it once or twice as an emergency fear break when it was essential that I break a fear and I hadn't gotten my stance switched in time, but it hurts losing Shield Wall for that, so you'll try and get stance switching down instead.

Since you're now done reading about abilities you'll gain in this level range without considering talents, it's time to consider those abilities that are talent related, as they'll be the majority of new abilities you'll train. While levels 1 - 20 didn't really change much based on spec, and levels 21 - 40 were only starting to feel different from warrior to warrior based on spec, these levels are where you will be able to easily spot warriors of various specs.

We'll begin with Protection talented abilities. At 31 points in Protection, meaning level 40 at the earliest (and usually later) you can train one of the single best tanking aggro talents in the game, Shield Slam. For some reason, hitting things in the face with a shield really, really irritates them. It does nice damage (no one's going to mistake you for a DPS class using it, but it can deliver a solid punch) and also dispels magic effects about half of the time, making it very useful for when taking a mob with annoying magical abilities. And if you're planning on being a dedicated tanking warrior, at level 50 you can get the best of the three warrior 41 point abilities, Devastate. I say best because, to my mind, now that the sunder armor effect is built right into Devastate, it's the best realized and most indispensable for its planned role of the three talents. Arms warriors will often avoid their 40 point talent entirely, while Fury warriors are less likely to do so with theirs. But Devastate now does exactly what it should do, and I unabashedly recommend it for any protection warrior. (I was not as big a fan of the ability when I last discussed tanking, but I really like the changes to it.)

I'm going to take a moment and editorialize here. Both Arms and Fury are often more popularthan Protection, but frankly Prot is the best designed talent tree. Spending 48 points or more in Prot to become a dedicated tank is, in my opinion, the best results for investment in the game. A Fury warrior may go as high as 41 points to get Rampage, and an Arms warrior usually stops at 31 or so (I always go higher because I love Second Wind) but very few tanks will stop so low in Prot. If the folks at Blizzard who designed the world's single best-selling and most played MMO in the entire history of the genre for some reason decided to seek the advice of some dude whose main claim to fame was writing a really weird book that has nothing to do with gaming, I would tell them that they should redesign Arms and Fury so that people were less willing to forgo their higher tier talents, but Protection for the most part I would leave alone. It really is the dedicated tanking tree, and it does exactly what it should do. 

Don't worry, I still hate static threat as it is currently implemented. But Protection just worksto increase warrior tanking survivability and help them increase their aggro generation. It makes a man want to create a host of little shield babies.

Now that I've had my fanboy gush over Prot, let's talk about Arms, the spec I usually end up in. While it's generally thought of as the PvP spec, it's also a nice spec for leveling as the burst damage is high enough to finish off most mobs, it's not as gear dependent as Fury and it has low tier abilities like Deflection and Improved Thunder Clap that help mitigate damage coming in. However, can I talk about Arms warriors without talking about Mortal Strike? Yes, I could, just as I could swim in piranha infested waters or insult an extremely large and violent man's mother, but just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

Things to keep in mind: Mortal Strike does not cause people to fall over dead the second you use it. Amazingly enough, based on what other people will tell you, Mortal Strike is a reasonably high damage instant attack (it's nice when it crits) but at the levels we're discussing, you will fail to get what all the hype is about. (Hint: the hype is about PvP, my friends). Don't make the mistake of growing overconfident just because you have a great big sword, axe, mace or polearm and you can whack things mortally with it. The ability really shines when you have a higher crit rate and more attack power, so for the 41 - 58 warrior it's more of a nice utility than the dedicated damage ability it will become. Use it, just don't expect too much of it. It doesn't one shot warlocks, cause rogues in the area to destealth immediately, or call a host of a thousand Spartans to your side. If you're fighting mobs that you know cast a heal, try and keep it in reserve for when you can't interrupt their heals for whatever reason. 

If you're intending to PvP, this is the tree for you. Most PvP specced warriors will go with some variation of a 31 point Arms/ 30 point Fury build. For leveling, I don't recommend that because you won't be able to spend that many points in two trees anyway. But you may want to stop at MS and cherry pick the excellent lower tier Fury abilities like Cruelty, Booming Voice, Commanding Presence and Piercing Howl. I always get 5 points in Cruelty no matter what I'm doing. However, there are some excellent higher tier Arms abilities for leveling, even if they're not as well regarded by most for PvP - Blood Frenzy is an efficient talent for increasing your damage especially if you'll be causing bleeds to your targets already, Second Wind helps with a small chunk of health regeneration and a nice dollop of rage when you're stunned meaning that you'll be able to use offensive abilities immediately after breaking out of the stun (Second Wind keeps ticking even after you're not stunned anymore, so you can use a stunbreak and still tick some rage) and if you feel starved for rage, Endless Rage is the 41 point talent. I like it, but you won't see a lot of PvP warriors going anywhere near it.

Finally, for our leveling Fury warriors, the first ability of note is Bloodthirst. (If you've gotten to 41 as a Fury warrior, you most likely already have Enrage and Flurry.) I used to hateBloodthirst, and it's been through more changes than almost any other ability. (I'm sure several other abilities were changed more and I'm equally sure you'll be letting me know which ones in the comments, I trust you guys) - it now deals damage based on 45% of your current attack power (Battle Shouted if you have it up) and gives the next five strikes you land a chance to heal you for 20 points. Okay, so the heal isn't really anything to sing about, but the ability itself is nice damage, it can be used even when you're unarmed, and it's a better instant attack than Mortal Strike if you're dual wielding, as it will be hitting those next five attacks while the Bloodthirst buff is up. Bloodthirst directly benefits from the 41 point Fury talent, Rampage. The attack power boost of Rampage, combined with the attack speed buff of Flurry, can reach critical mass if your crit rating is high enough to cause 'perma-flurry', the state where you crit often enough that almost all of your melee attacks are receiving the attack speed buff of flurry. You'll also, therefore, be critting enough that almost all of your attacks are under the attack power buff of Rampage, making each Bloodthirst hit harder. To ensure that the damage of your white hits isn't wasted during all this, you'll most likely want to take Precision as well. The top tier Fury talents have a nice PvE DPS synergy, but they do require a bit more in gearing yourself up than does Arms. You want attack power (Strength), crit rating (+crit and/or agi, with +crit being more efficient for the purpose as Agility adds to other stats as well), as much staying power as you can get (Stamina) and enough +hit to keep from missing all the time while dual wielding. It's a little easier to itemize since many pieces of gear have been updated, making them better for up and coming Fury warriors. 

Finally, there is the level 50 class quest to consider. It begins by sending you to the Blasted Lands to talk to the Fallen Hero of the Horde, who after making you jump through the usual 'kill x of y' quest hoops sends you into the Sunken Temple to collect Voodoo Feathers from the trolls in there. No, I don't know why a ghost needs feathers from voodoo trolls, I'm just trying to do a quest over here. The quest rewards are the Fury Visor, the Razorsteel Shoulders, and the Diamond Flask. It's a shame you can't get all three, although it needs to be said that all three of them are more DPS than tanking oriented. I'm just saying, a nice +def or high stam tanking weapon wouldn't be amiss here.

Since we've already covered a novel's worth here, I'll leave it up to you commenters: should next week be an instance and gear guide for these levels, or should we move on to Outland? For now, I'm leaning towards Outland, but I can be convinced to spend more time here.

Get to the Outlands already! ->

Totem Talk: So you're still playing that shaman...

Totem Talk is the column for shamans. Matthew Rossiplays a couple of shamans. And he's embarrassed to admit that he forgot that he hadn't finished his series of columns about how to level a shaman. No excuse, no justification, he just plain forgot. So here and now we continue the interrupted series with a look at levels 41 - 58. We'll get back to elemental gear, I promise.
Parts one and two of the series got you up to level 40. You're wearing mail (most likely the Scarlet Monastery blues, especially for aspiring enhancement shamans) and ready to begin the march to Outland. Well, the first thing you'll need to do is find a place to start adventuring! Well, okay, the first thing you'll need to do is train your new level 40 abilities, and you'll keep having to do that as time passes. Then you'll need to find a place to go adventuring, mainly to pay for things like training.

First, however, a sad note: say goodbye to Ghost Wolf. Sure, you'll still have the spell, and you may even use it to escape a bad situation since it can be cast in combat. But that's basically the only thing you'll use it for once you get your first land mount. Since Ghost Wolf doesn't make you immune to poly, free you from snares or any of that good stuff and it has a casting time, you won't even use it much in PvP aside from flag running. I know, I miss it too. You have no idea how often I've used Ghost Wolf to run around cities just because I could. Epic ghost wolf? Flying ghost wolf? Throw us a bone here.

Yeah, that was bad. I apologize.

Shamans only get a couple of non-talented abilities after Chain Heal at 40. At 42 we getGrace of Air, which I use constantly when soloing on my enhancement shaman. To be honest, I never drop a windfury totem for myself, why would I when windfury weapon is much better? I drop it when I'm in a group with a lot of melee DPS - you should see how high a dual wielding warrior's DPS can go with a WF totem down - but for soloing or in a group with a rogue and a hunter as main DPS, GoA can produce some very nice results. It's a huge dose of agility, which is ranged attack power and crit for hunters, some AP and crit for rogues, and still respectable crit for any other melee. I'm a big fan of GoA and actually had to retrain myself to check group makeup and drop WF when it was justified, (If you ever get a really cocky DPS warrior in a group and want to humble him, don't drop WF totem and watch him sulk. It's hilarious. This message brought to you by a shaman with two DPS warriors.) I especially love the dodge bonus of GoA when soloing, as I'm perfectly fine with not being hit while I hit. All around, a lovely totem.

The last non-talented ability you'll be getting before 60 is Tranquil Air Totem. Clearly, to use this totem in a five man would require cooperation and coordination among your party, and so it's not the easiest totem to drop. But if you're in an all-DPS group, especially an all-caster group willing to forgo Wrath of Air. It can be a viable alternative totem to keep the DPS less threat-spike happy. I usually get stuck tank healing in my raids, so I don't drop this much. Tanks don't like threat reduction. It's funny. I don't pretend to understand it, but it upsets them when the paladin gives them Blessing of Salvation and I drop Tranquil Air next to them. Warriors are such contrary beasts. 

Totem of Wrath is one of two elemental talented abilities, and as it takes 41 points in elemental to get, now is the time to be discussing it. It's a nice totem: I liked playing with it when I went elemental, and I very much enjoy it when I'm DPSing as enhancement. The other day I ran Botanica with a four shaman, one warrior group. Not much CC, but a lot of totems. You've never seen so many totems. Grace of Air, Windfury, Wrath of Air and Totem of Wrath all down at once. Shockapalooza, man, it was beautiful. My shoulders didn't drop, though. Totem of Wrath increased both chance to hit and critically hit with spells by 3% which is especially nice for caster DPS groups - I've heard shamans embrace it with love and claim that it's a worthless 41 point talent, I'll leave that kind of value judgment up to you. Personally, if you're going elemental I can't imagine why you wouldn't take it.

The 41 point enhancement talent is Shamanistic Rage. It's an astonishingly nice talent, made even better by the recent patch. The combination of damage reduction (a flat 30% off of the damage you take) and mana regeneration means this talent can help your steady production of damage in a fight rather enormously. Combined with the mana cost reduction of the lower-tier shamanistic focus, you'll find yourself quite able to produce steady DPS without panicking about running out of mana.

However, as someone who loves enhancement to death as a talent tree, I have to admit: good as it is, Shamanistic Rage isn't the best 41 point talent. Neither is Wrath of Air. No, the best 41 point talent in any shaman tree is Earth Shield. Oh, it's sublime, really. Used in PvE, it can make tank healing so much easier. Used in PvP, it can make killing a shaman intensely frustrating. I've kited rogues around and around forever using healing stream, ES and nature's swiftness to throw an instant healing wave on myself. ES benefits from your +heal when you cast it, so if you have trinkets that boost your +heal you should use them when you put it on, and if you have Wrath of Air you should be dropping it before cast if possible.

My first advice to a shaman who is approaching this level is to quest and save as much money as you can by avoiding the AH except to sell things. In fact, that would be my advice to almost any leveling character, even though I often succumb and go to the AH myself. If you can manage to avoid it, you'll end up with a lot more money, but I understand wanting to keep your gear as current as possible, and I know instances aren't always as friendly as they could be. Still, try and play it conservatively if at all possible. Training costs go up at this point, and you either just bought or are trying to buy your first land mount. (If you have a feeder 70 or two paying your way, feel free to ignore me here.) 

As for zones to adventure in, if you didn't run Desolace or Dustwallow Marsh you should go clean out the higher-level quests in those zones before heading to Tanaris or Feralas. Between those two zones you'll be kept plenty busy, and also consider Azshara, an often overlooked zone with some interesting quest options (both Horde and Alliance have an extended questline in the Ruins of Eldarath, and there are faction specific quests in the zone as well). You'll be tackling Un'Goro and Felwood after Tanaris and Feralas, although if you're about level 48 and for some reason bogged down, you can always make a trip to the Searing Gorge, where the dark iron dwarves of Thorium Point have a good assortment of quests for you.

For an alternative, you can instead finish the higher level content of the Swamp of Sorrowsand then strike out for the Blasted Lands, using the Searing Gorge as a supplementary quest hub. I'd suggest running all of these zones, taking breaks from one continent when it starts to get wearying. It depends on your likes, dislikes and tolerances, but I grow to hate a zone if I spend too much time in it. Also, don't forget the Hinterlands, especially not if you're Horde. The quest hub at Revantusk, in my opinion, offers superior quests and rewards than the corresponding Alliance hub at Aerie Peak, but either faction should spend some time here before heading north to the Plaguelands or off to Winterspring. If for some reason you can't hit level 58 in these last three zones, you still have Silithus to explore: you'll probably want to go there anyway just to get your cooking up to 300 if fishing is taking a long time to level. I personally dislike Silithus, but there are a lot of quests there. LIkewise, there's always theBurning Steppes if you're bogged down in other zones and need a quest hub to push you over. I find both Silithus and the Steppes somewhat unrewarding now that you're not likely to be doing much with those big instances in the zones, but at least the Steppes offers you the hope of a few BRD runs.

By this point you should easily be level 50. This means one thing: wanton carnality.

Oh, right, shaman quest. Sorry. Lost my place in the notes there. At level 50 both Horde and Alliance shamans are told to go speak with batty ol' Bath'rah the Windwatcher, tormentor of level 30 - 40 warriors and all around high level shaman. Bath'rah, after forcing you to provide him with a rather trivial test of prowess, will send you off to the delightful Plaguelands to gather the materials for a Spirit Totem. Strangely enough, even though Bath'rah is obviously insane and enjoys making you waste your time, the Spirit Totem doesn't work, and so Bath'rah sends you to the Swamp of Sorrows to kill his fellow trolls and collect feathers from their corpses. This achieved, at last Bath'rah is satisfied and goes off to take a nap, but not before offering you various rewards. If you're elemental, you may be tempted by the Azurite Fists. The Wildstaff is nice, but most melee shamans will by this point be dual wielding, and so I usually take the Enamored Water Spirit, as I'm usually low on trinkets around this level anyway.

The first dungeon you'll probably run in this level range is Zul'Farrak. All I can really say is, get used to killing trolls. Lots and lots of trolls. The standout drop for a shaman is theGahz'rilla Scale Armor. If you're enhance, Ripsaw is the perfect speed for you. If you're not picky about wearing leather and/or cloth, there's lots of caster/healer drops in here as well. After ZF, head to Desolace and explore Maraudon, one of my favorite instances, if crazily long. Do the quest The Pariah's Instructions for a nice trinket, and I can now recommend theInfernal Trickster's Leggings for enhancement shamans with the change to hit rating instead of bow skill rating. The Blade of Eternal Darkness drops here if you get lucky. After Mara, you'll be heading back to the Swamp of Sorrows to the Temple of Atal'Hakkar, where (surprise!) you'll be killing more trolls. I apologize in advance, troll shamans. However, there's compensation for the slaughter of so many trolls packed into this instance. For those of us shamans who aren't trolls, kill with glee and loot away. (I actually left out several other drops that are good for a shaman in here, ST is just a nice stop for a level 50 shammy.) Finally, with the change to leveling, you'll probably stop in BRD a few times before getting serious about hitting Outland. It's a shame, as I really like some of the 57 - 60 instances like LBRS and Strat, but getting a group for them can be really tough now. I won't even try and pick out a standout item for a shaman in here, there are over 130 drops in here, you'll find something you can use.

At this point, you should be ready for Outland. Next time, we finish off the leveling guild with the march to level 70, and after that, I get back to talking elemental spec.