Warrior Talent Templates

There are tons of possible talent builds for a warrior, but you can categorize a little by generalizing to the keystone talents.

The Default: Arms/Fury Damage build
31 Arms / 20 Fury.
Key Talents:

• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery (not necessarily maxed), Deep Wounds, Imp. Overpower, Sweeping Strikes, Mortal Strike.
  
• Fury: Cruelty, Piercing Howl, Enrage (or 3 Enrage + 2 Imp. Execute)
  

Why?

• Maximize damage output. Good for Soloing, PvP, and still able to tank if played well.
  

Why not?

• Cookie Cutter Phobia. Primary interest in tanking.
  

The Alternate Default: Fury/Arms Damage build
30 Fury / 21 Arms.
Key Talents:

• Fury: Cruelty, Piercing Howl, Unbridled Wrath (if dual wield), Enrage, Death Wish, Flurry.
  
• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery, Deep Wounds, Imp. Overpower, Sweeping Strikes.
  

Why?

• Similar damage output to default build. More reliance on passive abilities potentially makes tanking slightly easier than primary default.
  

Why not?

• Lack of MS. Dislike of dual wield's miss rate. Primary interest in tanking.
  

The Arms Heavy Build.
35-40 Arms / 11-16 Fury and/or Prot
Key Talents:

• Arms: All but the most sucky ones (probably just one specific weapon specialization).
  
• Fury: Cruelty, maybe Pericing Howl.
  
• Protection: Up to Imp Shield block (1), or just anticipation / toughness.
  

Why?

• Likes the tree and wants to be a true master of a weapon type. Heavy solo emphasis.

Why not?

• Lack of Enrage (significantly less dmg when tanking), danger of committing to weapon just to find a beter one in different category.
  

The Fury Heavy Build.
33-40 Fury / 11-18 Arms and/or Prot
Key Talents:

• Fury: Most of 'em, but especially Imp. Beserker Rage and Bloodthirst.
  
• Arms: Deflection and Tactical Mastery, maybe Imp. Overpower / Deep wounds.
  
• Prot: Probably just Shield Specialization or Anticipation.
  

Why?

• Strong point is rapid killing of somewhat weak targets in quick succession (i.e. making good use of Bloodthirst).
  

Why not?

• Lack of Sweeping Strikes weakens this build against multiple mobs. Not the most efficient tank unless group moves very fast and has great healing.
  

The MS Tank Build.
31 Arms / 15 Prot / 5 Fury
Key Talents:

• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery (not necessarily maxed), Deep Wounds, Imp. Overpower, Sweeping Strikes, Mortal Strike.
  
• Prot: Last Stand, Imp. Shield Block (1), Imp Revenge (3).
  
• Fury: Cruelty.
  

Why?

• Gets the majority of protection's mitigation ability while still dealing good damage. Little easier to tank.
  

Why Not?

• Slightly slower solo play and some weaknesses PvP. No Piercing Howl.
  

The Flurry Light Tank Build.
30 Fury / 14 Prot / 7 Arms
Key Talents:

• Fury: Cruelty, Piercing Howl, Unbridled Wrath (if dual wield), Enrage, Death Wish, Flurry.
  
• Prot: Imp. Bloodrage, Sheild block (1), Imp Revenge (3).
  
• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery (2)

Why?

• Gets the majority of protection's mitigation while still dealing good damage. With passive dmg output from flurry, tanks reasonably well (esp. good at rage generation / holding aggro).
  

Why Not?

• Less Tactical Mastery than one might like - no MS obviously. Slightly slower solo play and some PvP weaknesses.
  

The Flurry Concussion Build.
30 Fury / 21 Prot
Key Talents:

• Fury: Cruelty, Piercing Howl, Unbridled Wrath (if dual wield), Enrage, Death Wish, Flurry.
  
• Prot: Imp. Bloodrage, Shield block (1), Imp Revenge (3), Concussion blow.
  

Why?

• Two high tree keystone talents - good damage and good stuns. Tanks fairly well.
  

Why not?

• No Tactical Mastery, no Deflection, no MS. In a rough spot for using quick intercept in PvP.
  

[nb: this is the original author's current build]

The Sweeping Strikes Concussion Build.
21-30 Arms / 21 Prot / 0-9 Fury.
Key Talents:

• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery (not necessarily maxed), Deep Wounds, Imp. Overpower, Sweeping Strikes.
  
• Prot: Imp. Bloodrage, Shield block (1), Imp Revenge (3), Concussion blow.
  
• Fury: Cruelty.

Why?

• Two high tree keystone talents - good damage and good stuns. Tanks fairly well.
  

Why not?

• No Piercing Howl. No enrage reduces damage potential when tanking. No MS.
  

The Enraged Tank Build.
21 Fury / 21 Prot / 9 Arms
Key Talents:

• Fury: Cruelty, Piercing Howl, Unbridled Wrath (4), Enrage, Death Wish.
  
• Prot: Imp. Bloodrage, Shield block (1), Imp Revenge (3), Imp Sunder (3) + Imp Taunt (2) *OR* Defiance (5), Concussion Blow (1).
  
• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery (4)
  

Why?

• Gets many key protection mitigation and aggro holding talents. Uses tanking role as a means to get a crit to trigger Enrage.
  

Why Not?

• The better you tank and the more you stun the less likely you are to be critted, so this somewhat works against itself.
  

[thanks for the addition Craziel]

The Jack of All Trades Build.
16 Arms / 14 Prot / 20 Fury (among other mixes - hard to categorize)
Key Talents:

• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery (not necessarily maxed), Deep Wounds, Imp. Overpower.
• Prot: Imp. Bloodrage, Shield block (1), Imp Revenge (3).
• Fury: Cruelty, Piercing Howl, Unbridled Wrath (if dual wield), Enrage.

Why?

• Grab all the tasty good talents at the bottom of the trees. Relatively versalite.
  

Why not?

• No high end keystone talents (Sweeping, MS, Conc. Blow, Flurry).
  

The Mostly Protection Build.
31 Prot / 7-15 Arms / 5-13 Fury
Key Talents:

• Prot: Imp. Bloodrage, Shield block (1), Imp Revenge (3), Concussion blow, Imp. Shield Bash, 1H mastery, Shield Specialization.
  
• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery (not necessarily maxed) - maybe Imp Overpower or Deep wounds.
  
• Fury: Cruelty - maybe Piercing Howl.
  

Why?

• Heavy tanking emphasis while retaining a few of the goodies from other trees.
  

Why not?

• Slower soloing, possible PvP weaknesses due to lower total damage.
  

The Heavy Protection Build.
33-44 Prot / 7-18 Arms and/or Fury
Key Talents:

• Prot: Most of the tree.
  
• Arms: Deflection, Tactical Mastery, maybe Anger Management.
  
• Fury: Probably just Cruelty.

Why?

• Desire to be a brick wall.

Why not?

• Not terribly useful outside a raid or hard instance. Weakness in 5-man easier intance team is low damage contribution.
  

Feel free to comment / add more templates if you can think of ones that significantly vary from these. Please attribute your edits.
--Olon97 22:52, 3 Feb 2005 (MST)