I promise we'll get back to our Ulduar guide for tanks and DPS warriors next week. For this week, however, since we're midway through the sixth month of 2009 and we've seen patches up to 3.1 released (and we're waiting on 3.2) I thought it would be a good idea to go back and cover some of the things a leveling warrior might want discussed. We get emails from all kinds of warriors, and so it's only fair to cover the concerns of warriors who aren't raiding Ulduar but rather just setting foot off of the dock in Howling Fjord.
Before we get started, though, the upcoming Patch 3.2changes for Warriors in their current entirety: Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor. Try not to get too excited, people.
First off, I'm often asked about stats for up-and-coming warriors. We have covered some of these beforeback in the beta, but the beta was a year ago now and things have been changed and polished. First off, I'm going to link all the posts of interest to a leveling warrior and discuss how they may have changed, and then I'll try and cover some more general advice.
- Building Up To It covers some target numbers and stats to focus on. I should note that this was written before the changes to Armor Penetration made it much, much better as a DPS stat for warriors: the more ArP you have, the better it is as a DPS stat until you have enough ArP to reduce target armor by 100%.
- We covered Hit and Expertise in two posts, one for DPS warriors and one for Tanks. The tanking post is still accurate as of 3.1, but the talent changes to Arms and Fury mean that there is currently no talent that reduces chance to dodge for Fury Warriors and Arms has both Strength of Arms for passive expertise and Weapon Mastery.
- We discussed the dangers of overstacking a stat to the exclusion of other, also necessary stats.
- Finally, we covered gearing up in a four part post just before Wrath launched Parts one,two, three and four were all published before Wrath itself had actually come out, but they're still reasonably accurate to help your warrior get from 70 to 80, We coveredweapons between 70 and 80 too.
TALENT SPECS FOR LEVELING
Okay, to start with, if this is not your main and you have access to the heirloom shoulders, by all that's holy get them. Especially now that they give you 10% more experience from quests and from mobs you kill, even if you just have an old pair of the leather or mail ones hanging around, send them to your leveling warrior. When I decided to test leveling on my Draenei warrior this month I didn't think it would make that big of a deal, but between his rested bonus and those shoulders he went from 70 to 76 in a matter of days. (I'm letting him catch back up on the rested before I try and get him the rest of the way up.)
We've covered talent specs for leveling warriors before, but I'll touch on it again here to say that for leveling either Arms or Prot are probably the easiest to gear for and are both strong for the job. I'm leveling my Draenei Fury purely out of spite. I leveled my Tauren Arms and my human Protection, and so far I'd still give the nod to Protection as a really good leveling spec and my personal favorite for dealing with big trash pulls and group quests you may want to try and solo. A lot of this will depend on the gear your warrior has as you start the climb between 70 and 80, though. If you're bringing a warrior you started a couple of months ago to Northrend in Outland quest greens, Arms is probably a stronger choice for leveling than Protection since there's lots of decent Northrend greens that are itemized towards an Arms playstyle. If you're bringing an uber-geared Sunwell warrior out of retirement, go with whatever your gear supports.
Talents will, of course, vary by your spec, but some abilities go across the board and benefit all warriors: we get Shattering Throw at level 71 (since you won't get Heroic Throw until 80, Shattering Throw is not to be underestimated as a cheap pulling tool as well as a PvP talent), and the incredibly handy Enraged Regeneration at level 75, followed by Heroic Throw at 80. You also get new tanks of all your pre-existing abilities, of course. Unlike the 1-60 game but similar to Burning Crusade, you'll basically be able to train something every level so don't go too long without visiting the trainer.
QUESTING ZONES
I have to say that 70 to 80 as a warrior is much less painful than it was to level a warrior back in the old days. I promise not to regale you with tales of leveling my warrior in Winterspring uphill in the snow both ways, but I will say that as long as you play with reasonable attentiveness you'll find it much less of a slog than it was to kill oozes in Un'Goro and get diseased over and over again. I still stand by my first impression from all the way back into the Wrath beta and advise you to do both Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, but it's not strictly speaking necessary. You could easily go from the Fjord to Dragonblight to do theWrathgate questline (which, for a leveling warrior, not only has several decent rewards along the way, but is also a heck of a nice questline if you've not done it yet.)
You'll of course want to do the Borean Tundra questlines to get access to some very nice blues to start the climb to 80 with, but there are similarly rewarding quests in both starting zones. If you can manage to do the quests around Utgarde Keep and the Nexus you can accumulate quite a few blue quest items to supplement whatever gear you had when you arrived. Grizzly Hills has two major questlines and a third that points you towards Drak'Tharon Keep, Zul'Drak has the Ampitheatre of Anguish in addition to quests for a tanking weapon and ones that point you towards Gun'Drak, and the whole of Sholozar Basin has significant quests that involve Hemet Nesingwary and the Avatar of Feya. It's actually quite possible (even, dare I say it, easy) to level to 80 with minimal instance time if that's what you want to do, but with instances in both starting zones, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills (Drak'Tharon Keep straddles GH and Zul'Drak), ZD and finally the Storm Peaks having two five man dungeons, there's certainly no lack of options.
WRATH REPUTATIONS
As we covered in the gearing posts, you don't want to ignore the various factions of Northrend (please pick up a tabard for every faction available as soon as you can, even ones you won't immediately need to work on like the Kirin Tor), and it's fairly easy for a level 77 warrior to begin working on his Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir reputations once you reach Icecrown and the Storm Peaks. There are long, rewarding questlines for each of these factions (the Argent Crusade ones actually help you unlock the Ebon Blade ones, even) and in addition at level 77 you can even start working on your Argent Tournament questing. Generally speaking, even if you're not completely done with the other zones you can probably afford to go to Icecrown and the Storm Peaks as soon as you can fly in Northrend and start working on those reputations (Don't forget about championing to make those grinds go faster.) The Sons of Hodir have no tabard so you'll have to work that reputation via the daily quests and with Relic of Ulduar turn ins/Everfrost chips.
As a warrior I would try and get my Ebon Blade reputation to at least revered for the Arcanum of Torment and see about getting Argent Crusade to revered as well for the tanking helm enchant. Since the Argent Crusade has some quests in Dragonblight and a hub in Zul'Drak as well as a long quest chain in Icecrown and the Ebon Blade has quests and dailies in Icecrown, you can probably come close to these goals without even making use of championing or thedaily quest in Dalaran for reputation. Adding those in and getting those reputations to revered is not difficult at all, and can even be done before you actually reach level 80. Once you're at revered with the aforementioned championable factions, the Wyrmrest Accord has a surprising amount of tanking gear you should consider. The Kirin Tor gloves are solid, but by now you'll probably be able to get better via Emblems of Heroism (the Tier 7 glove token) before you'll make the reputation needed to purchase them, assuming you don't just get an equivalent drop running Naxx-10.
If you're a new warrior or just new to Northrend, please feel free to ask for additional advice or an answer to a question I missed in the comments and if necessary I'll revisit this topic next week. If not, back to Ulduar.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors brings you the last installment in its leveling guide this week, taking you from the Dark Portal to the foot of Tempest Keep.Matthew Rossi has gotten three warriors through Outland, and yet he kept discovering new quests and things he had missed the first two times through, so he has no problem believing that he'll leave your favorite part of Outland unmentioned. He apologizes in advance.Today's column is about Sentry Totem.
I'm just kidding. No, today's column is instead about getting your warrior from the first time you step through the Dark Portal to level 70. It's possible to step through the portal at level 58, and so I'll be assuming that's what you are doing, although my three 70 warriors were all 60 when I brought them through. (I have another 60 warrior I haven't bothered to get to 70, and a couple in the low 50's/ high 40's who may or may not go through at level 58, if I decide to level them over my current paladin.) This is not going to be an exhaustive list of every quest or every dungeon, just some general pointers to quests of particular interest for a warrior.
Spec advice is going to be limited here. This is purely aimed towards grinding your way to 70, as most of the advice from previous posts about talents and specs still applies. There are several new abilities one gains between 60 and 70, and we'll go into them in a later post, this one will be very long already. (But yes, Spell Reflection and Intervene rock very much, and only replicants don't like Commanding Shout.)
We start our sojurn in Hellfire. Specifically, Hellfire Peninsula, one of the best named (or at least most accurately named zones) in Outland.
A lot of the Horde and Alliance specific quests out here have the same rewards that are well worth pursuing. You'll be tasked to gather scrap metal, kill the local fel orcs, and burn the relic siege weapons of the opposite faction. Do all of these quests. An example would be the Horde quest Bonechewer Blood and its Alliance counterpart Fel Orc Scavengers, both of which give a nice shield which will probably be an upgrade if you leveled to 58 and came to Outland as soon as possible.
My first piece of serious advice to the warrior starting out in Outland is to avoid the Auction House. You won't need to buy any gear. There are several nice starting blues at level 60 which will tempt you: avoid them. You don't need them. Any slot that needs an upgrade will most likely find a good quest reward in this zone. There are plate helms, nice chestplates, startergreaves and shoulders that will last you almost all the way to 70, in my opinion. There are even green weapons that rival or eclipse particular old world epics. So save all your money and just gear up through quests and instances. The main instance in Hellfire is, of course, Hellfire Citadel, with two instances that will be of interest to you at this stage of the game. You'll start off running Hellfire Ramparts at around level 59 (at least I have seen level 59's run it) and will move up to Blood Furnace by the time you're nearly done with the zone. Both instances will have several drops that interest you. If you do the quests at Thrallmar/Honor Hold and run these instances a few times each, you'll probably be level 62 easily, especially if you move on to do the satellite quests at Falcon Watch/Temple of Telhamat.
A note: pick up Hellreaver if you can out of the chest at the end of Ramparts. Sure, you'll stumble across better, but look at it. It's pretty. Also, if you hit honored with your faction capitol while you're still in your low 60's, which you really should if you do all the quests available, you'll be able to buy either the Footman's Longsword or the Grunt's Waraxe, both useful for tanking with decent stamina and hit rating.
From here, you'll have a choice between two zones: you can head to Zangarmarsh before you're even done with Hellfire if you're bored (the quests there start around level 60, so it's even possible to skip Hellfire entirely if you're of a mind to, although I wouldn't recommend it) or if you're a completist and find yourself running out of quests around level 62, you can instead go to Terokkar Forest. Both zones will have plenty of quests including a rep grind of sorts (Zanga providing you with your first exposure to the Cenarion Expedition while Terokkar allows you access to Shattrath City and the competing Aldor and Scryer factions) and both zones also have winged dungeons to explore, with Zangarmarsh hosting the Coilfang Reservoir (where you'll be running Slave Pens and Underbog) while Terokkar hosts Auchindoun, which at this level has first Mana Tombs and then Auchenai Crypts. If you fully explore both of these zones and run the four dungeons you can easily be level 65 if not 66 by the time you even think about moving on from them, and whichever one you choose to explore first is more a matter of your level when you start than anything else. Zangarmarsh quests start a little lower than Terokkar, so my advice (based on what I did myself) is to plow through Zanga first, going to Terokkar as soon as you hit 62 if you're not already to get thissweet hat.
After these two zones you'll almost certainly be 65 if not 66 if you fully explore them, but if for some reason you get bored around 64 and want to move on there's still hope: you can go to Nagrand. There are faction specific quests here that give many of the same rewards, as Alliance find themselves aiding the Kurenai while Horde discover the mysteries of the Mag'har brown orcs. Horde warriors, it is imperative that you do every quest you can get your hands on in Nagrand. Alliance will find no such awesome quest chain waiting for them, certainly not one with such awesome rewards - I used those legs as PvP legs until I got the Gladiators and I was incredibly happy with the stamina, crit and +hit on them, especially when combined with a Clefthide Leg Armor. The high stamina and defense also makes them passable tanking legs. Alliance can take heart that there are still excellent rewards for them from the Nesignwary and Ring of Blood quests in this zone. Other quests with good rewards include the Durn the Hungerer slaying quest and the questline that ends with Gurok the Usurper. Once again my advice is to avoid the AH and simply clean this zone out. You'll still be running the Coilfang and Auchindoun instances at this point, and by the end of Nagrand you should be more than ready for the first of the Caverns of Time instances, Old Hillsbrad. There are many excellent drops for a 66 and up warrior in there, including the standoutDurotan's Battle Harness. Get it as soon as you can. You'll also want to start building rep with the Keepers of Time as soon as you can especially if you intend to tank, as they have twoexcellent rewards for hitting revered.
You can easily be 67 by the end of Nagrand and from there, move on to Blade's Edge. If you play your cards carefully, try and stay rested and run as many instances as you can, it is even possible to reach level 70 without setting foot in either Netherstorm or Shadowmoon Valley, allowing you to use their rich lode of high level quests to fund your flying mount purchase. I wish I'd been this smart on my night elf, but both my human and tauren warriors managed to hit Netherstorm at 69 and to save the majority of those zones until after reaching 70, thus having more quests that paid well. With the addition of daily quests, this can become even more lucrative for you, combined with your having saved your gold by avoiding the AH as much as possible. While in Blade's Edge, both Alliance and Horde can ultimately end up killing a Gronn, but the Horde version is cooler because Rexxar is in it. You'll want to do it either way to pick up the Blackened Chestplate if Durotan's hasn't dropped for you. You'll make 13g for this one even if you don't want the chest, even more if you're somehow 70 when you do it. There are a lot of quests in this zone, including ones for the Cenarion Expedition which you want to build rep with (trust me on this) and which ends in a quest chain for a nice DPS or tanking neck.
By this point you should be ready for Sethekk Halls. Not only will you need to run this instance to get your later Shadow Labyrinth key, there's a quest that has some decent gold and XP and a blue polearm if you're really looking for one, although it's more of a hunter weapon. But quest drops are always free of loot drama. The standout drops in this instance are the Bands of Syth, Terokk's Nightmace, Deathforge Girdle and the Crow Wing Reaper, and they'll all last you well into being 70.
Also, if you have any aptitude for PvP at all, consider doing the daily BG quest. If you get it completed it's decent quest XP, almost 500 honor and you'll end up with marks and honor to spend at 70 to get immediate gear upgrades. PvP gear isn't always the best choice for PvE... I certainly wouldn't tank in most of it... but the weapons are almost always just as good for PvE as PvP, it's almost unavoidable that they would be.
At this point, you may well be 70 if you've done all of the quests in Blade's Edge and have run CoT: Old Hillsbrad and Sethekk Halls a few times. My advice would be to make up the difference in those instances and head into Netherstorm or Shadowmoon at 70 if at all possible. However, if you find yourself hard up for groups, you can head into both or either of those zones and do several quests to make up the difference. I'd recommend Netherstorm because it has, in my opinion, more quests that are easy to access if you don't have a flying mount yet. Area 52 in Netherstorm is faction neutral, and from there a level 69 player should be able to find plenty of quests that will take her or him to 70. Both Aldor and Scryer will have quest chains that begin in Area 52 at the inn: start them as soon as you can, and by the end you'll have received several good rewards from a nice DPS ring for Aldor or even a heck of a nice set of gloves for Scryers.
Hopefully when you hit 70, you'll have completed Old Hillsbrad and Sethekk Halls already, and thus be able to enter Shadow Labyrinth (a group with one keyed player is enough) and the Black Morass. In addition, you'll hopefully have the gold to purchase a flying mount (or will achieve it soon by doing the quests in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon) and can start running the various Tempest Keep 5-mans, as well as Shattered Halls in Hellfire Citadel and Steam Vaults in Coilfang. Since Patch 2.3, you should also be honored with pretty much every faction you'd need to get your heroic keys except perhaps the Sha'tar, which you can get fairly easily by a few Tempest Keep runs.
My advice would be to run every instance on normal mode a few times before doing the heroics, especially if you intend to tank them: there's good gear to get prepared for running heroics and Karazhan available to you here.
Next week, in fact, we'll start looking at getting ready for Heroics and Karazhan for both tanking and DPS warriors, or we'll look at the new abilities for warriors between 60 and 70 since we didn't have room to cover that here.
