How is Warrior in PvP?

[Thanonn-argent-dawn]

I mainly mean in BGs, duels, and WPvP. You know… in situations where you dont have a healer babysitting you.

I know that Arms is one of top specs in 3v3s and Rated BGs, since you usually coordinate with a healer there. But what about people like me who loves “solo based PvP”, like the ones I mentioned at the top?

Does Arms work in duels?
Is Fury considered to be the WPvP spec?
Or is Warrior just one of those… “only works in social based PvP where there are healers” type of deals?

[Qwake-stormscale]

Arms is still poo without a healer, that’s the price to pay to be the hardest class to kill while healed by someone else.

Fury can totally work in casual pvp tho, people don’t play it because they only like to win and succeed, so they go for ret or other no brainers, but if you are a human being that is NOT enslaved by the meta, you’re going to have a lot of fun with fury.

Also I strongly suggest to pick talents, covenants etc based on « survivability/ solo play », such as picking the Medalion over a burst trinket. Also probably either Necrolord for overall surv or Kyrian, for the 55% hp pots.

But yeah don’t play warrior if you like solo play, other classes are doing that way better

[Thanonn-argent-dawn]

Thanks a lot for the answer. This isn’t the first time I am asking about Warriors viability online, but this is the first time I feel like I have gotten a real answer from a person who isn’t obsessed with the meta and can look past it and give me a real answer hehe. I really appreciate it.

I am more of a casual PvPer who likes to do content with 1v1 situations, and I was kinda hoping that Warrior could be viable for that.

I had heard that Warrior is considered to be a class that excels in team based PvP WITH a healer, but is considered the absolute bottom class for solo PvP. Which is too bad since it is the most “fun” class I have tried in WoW after going through all of them.

Warrior feels incredibly fast and fun in combat. It is by a mile, the number one choice for me for PvE. But the solo PvP man… It gotta be part of the class I play hehe.

I once asked around how people rated the plate classes for solo PvP, and this is what they said:

Warrior = WORST solo PvP class in the game.
Death Knight = Not as bad as Warrior, but the 2nd worst.
Paladin = One of the top classes in WoW for solo PvP.

So here is the thing that bothers me…

I played Death Knight in Legion and BFA, and I never had issues solo PvPing with it. But when asking around, DK is considered the 2nd worst dueling/WPvP class by many. But it never felt that way to me.

So what I am thinking, is that whenever people say “Warrior is the worst for solo PvP”… These might just be the words of a person who likes to push rated PvP, and like you said:

@Qwake-stormscale

Fury can totally work in casual pvp tho, people don’t play it because they only like to win and succeed, so they go for ret or other no brainers, but if you are a human being that is NOT enslaved by the meta, you’re going to have a lot of fun with fury.

It is my understanding, that in the “meta world of WoW” if a class that is considered 10% worse than the other classes in the game, is considered to be “trash” and a complete “no go” by the community. And they will scream to your face “No you should go Paladin instead!”.

So maybe just like with Death Knight, I won’t actually feel this “horrible Warrior solo PvP” as bad as people make it out to be. Since I don’t push rated, and only play casual PvP?

[Qwake-stormscale]

I could take almost anyone in wpvp and sometimes 1v2 as arms at the start of Sl. With Kyrian pots helping tremendously, and a decent gear too. You can totally 1v1 even as arms, but you will immediately see when you are fighting a good player, at equal skill arms isn’t good at all.

Also both dk’s specs are getting pretty good buffs in survivability in PvP for 9.1. Frost will be a bit weaker in raw damage output but way stronger in self heal and way way stronger in utility, with stuffs like Strangulate and Bitter Chill. Meta will shift, and good dks will be « hard to kill » again.

[Thanonn-argent-dawn]

I think I will give it a shot as Warrior then. And like you said, focus on choices that are good for solo PvP.

I believe I remember seeing the WPvP streamer Soulscape give up trying to kill Fury Warriors, who had so much self-healing that it would be a endless fight. I’m assuming that Versatility is the main secondary stat to focus on for PvP, to heal more with Bloodthirst and take less dmg?

[Qwake-stormscale]

You want to max out versatility (and thus to get a full set of pvp gear) as a general rule of thumb, no matter the class. Partly due to the 2 PvP Trinket bonus. Then I think it’s going to be haste until the soft cap, then full mastery ? I’m not sure at all tbh

[Thanonn-argent-dawn]

Thanks a lot! It really helped me out.

[Cristóbál-kazzak]

As fury you can do decent I guess in 1v1 and WPvP. I never play with a healer, so I only play defensive talents / survivability.
Your main sustain should come from:

1. Impending victory talent, 30% Heal every 30 seconds, REALLY good, main healing overall. The soulbind adds another 10% or so healing over 8 seconds.
2. Ignore pain. Use it on every cd if you have the rage, good synergy with venthyr, as condemn generates a lot of rage.
3. Bloodthirst. Healing is not that much, but over a 1 minute fight, it ads up to 20-30% hp overall.
4. Condemn absorb. Also, if you use condemn every time is available, over a fight it adds up really nice.
5. Battle Trance PvP Talent, 18% healing over 18 seconds, if you keep it up it equals using Impending Victory every cd.
6. Enrage always up, for 10% dmg reduce with Warpaint Talent.
7. Rallying Cry + Soulbind = Really nice hp boost, can also use a BM Trinket.
8. Enraged Regen, just be careful with getting cc’d, or rogues using evasion, and whatnot.
9. Being Smart with positioning, Pummel, Spell reflect really helps a lot with surviving.
10. OFFENSE. Usually, when you put a lot of pressure on the opponent, he has to play more defensive, and therefore YOU take less damage. It is not a defensive ability, but fury war has some very good sustain. I have won 1v1 vs retri because i managed to survive/mitigate his burst, then went full crazy on him, and he was forced to keep healing himself, and not damage me.

There you go. Warrior is not traditionally the best 1v1 class, but with the right talents and gameplay, you can be at least Decent.

[Ivorysmith-argent-dawn]

(OP here, I switched to regular Dwarf hehe)

Thanks a lot for that in-debt explanation. I might screen shot it hehe.

I was playing around with those same talents thinking it was better in a “I don’t have a healer” playstyle. Impending Victory was especially appealing to me, but had my doubts since Icyveins said the Stun talent was mandatory, and if used correctly could save you from dmg equal to what the other one can heal you. But I assume that is for setting up kills in a team scenario.

Having messed around with Warrior for a bit, I get a sense that Warrior isn’t as bad at duels as people make it out to be.

Like you said yourself, it’s about playing very aggressively and keeping opponents on the defensive. And while Warrior doesn’t have a lot of “on demand” healing spells like a Paladin does, it does heal quite a bit through dmg if played aggressively. IF you can stick to your opponent hehe. I managed to reck a DH in a duel in my first Random BG, who played his class properly, which I didn’t think would be doable with my Warrior.

But more importantly, I notice that Warrior has a huge focus on dmg prevention and utility. So even if a Paladin has a lot of heals, their utility lacks a lot compared to a Warrior.

So all in all I get the impression that a Warrior has a much higher skill ceiling, and feels amazing once you get to the point where you utilize your spells to the fullest. Just too bad that we have to “choose a stun as a talent”, instead of it being baseline.

[Cristóbál-kazzak]

@Ivorysmith-argent-dawn

Stun talent was mandatory, and if used correctly could save you from dmg equal to what the other one can heal you

It is mandatory in arena IF:

1. You play Warrior-Healer.
2. You play double dps with a class that doesn’t have a stun.

In 1v1s, every decent player will most likely trinket the stun right away, because it’s you only hard cc, and why would they save their trinkey for anything else against you ( intimidating shout breaks on damage, and most classes have additional cc breaks for fear effects).

I’m glad you enjoy you warrior more. I joined a RBG yesterday for fun, and managed my first 1v3 this patch, against Arms War, Retri and Lock at a base in Deepwind Gorge. I did stole a berserking buff before, and they weren’t the most skilled I assume, but still it felt so good that it might have made me renew my subscription LOL.

[Ivorysmith-argent-dawn]

@Cristóbál-kazzak

In 1v1s, every decent player will most likely trinket the stun right away

So true would still be nice with a baseline stun hehe, but the extra healing really does seem to beat a stun now that we HAVE to pick between them.

I went with the healing talent, and I have had massive success in WPvP so far. I have been up against 3 DHs, and a Feral Druid at the same lvl as me while leveling in Shadowlands, and I won all the fights.

Well… technically the Druid ended up kiting me for about a minute, trying to get away from me once I got him to 10% health. He managed to get away in the end because I messed up my Slow uptime on him. But the entire fight was him trying to stay alive, while I managed keep my health above 70% at all times. I managed to stay well alive because of Ignore Pain, and the passive healing Fury has.

So my experience with Warrior so far is still that it is COMPLETELY viable in duels with the right talent setup. As long as we can keep up our Slow on opponents by sticking to them, we can heal plenty.

Which also really annoys me, because I have always wanted to main a Warrior for so long, but actively avoided it since people made it seem like it was absolutely useless in duels.

Just goes to show that “meta slaves” can make anything sound like it’s “trash”, when in actuality it might just perform 10% worse than other classes hehe.

[Xgeist-ragnaros]

Warrior is op in Arena 2v2 Arms + Healer

Mortal strike makes the enemy get less healing so only one of us need to be good

[Cristóbál-kazzak]

Yes, we know that water is wet, and Arms + Healer is good in 2v2 since around 2007. The topic was 1v1, Wpvp, duels. Arms feels really bad when played solo. It is this way since forever, except MoP maybe.

[Xgeist-ragnaros]

In a 1v1 you gotta try to make the enemy waste his cds. You could ‘‘hamstring’’ into leap away or Fear / stormbolt / kyrian in the right moment

[Aboikos-burning-legion]

actually never been like that, it started quite recently

[Eilein-argent-dawn (Eilein)]

@Cristóbál-kazzak

Arms feels really bad when played solo.

It’s ok, but impending victory is necessary, and some healing conduits are quite useful. Bonus points if Kyrian because of vial. You can outlast people like this quite nicely

[Cristóbál-kazzak]

Agreed, tho I would say overall the Condemn absorb definitely adds up. It’s about 2k every condemn, so it can add up to 25k-30k in a shorter fight, and much more in a healer/dps 2s arena.