Warrior

The three trees in Forever

• Arms: New Spearing Strike (16-point), New Bloodthrill (main-hand hits on a Rend target can enable Overpower, 4/8/12/16/20%), New Weaponmaster (one talent for all weapon types), Sweeping Strikes, Mortal Strike (31-point).
• Fury: New Lingering Rage, New Furious Precision (off-hand hit 4/7/10%), New Raging Blows (16-point: Cleave and Whirlwind cost 3 less), Death Wish, Flurry (now needs Death Wish), New Gore Drinker, Bloodthirst (31-point, 45% of AP).
• Protection: New Master of Defense (rage on dodge or parry, shield only), New Vanguard (16-point), New Focused Rage (offensive abilities cost 1/2/3 less), New Bastion (+2 to 10% damage with a shield), Shield Slam (31-point).
• 16-point talents New are row 4 and need 15 points in the tree, so 25 is the first level you can take one.
• Gone: Toughness, Improved Cleave, Boundless Rage and the old weapon specs. Improved Battle Shout, Demoralizing Shout, Shield Block and Taunt are now built into the base spells.

Weaponmaster (Arms, 5 ranks) New

• Axe or polearm: +1 to 5% crit.
• Mace or staff: ignore 3 to 15% of target armour.
• Sword: 1 to 5% chance of an extra attack. Shield Bash and Shield Slam do not trigger it (fixed 16 Oct).

Roles

• Arms: melee DPS. Two-hander, one big hit at a time.
• Fury: melee DPS. Two one-handers. Weak before 20 (no dual wield yet) and rage-starved early.
• Protection: the tank spec. Blizzard also pitches the middle of the tree as a PvP pick for non-shield users (Iron Will, Improved Bloodrage, Improved Disarm, Last Stand, Improved Shield Bash).
• Group buff: New Battle Shout is raid-wide since 16 Oct. Demoralizing Shout now builds threat (8 Oct).
• No raid logs exist yet. Which DPS spec tops raids is unknown until after 9 Dec.

Best levelling spec

• Protection first. Icy Veins (21 Oct) calls it the fastest Warrior spec for levelling and the one they recommend, solo and in groups; Method calls it fantastic for solo grinding. Wowvendor also calls it stronger for levelling and dungeons.
• Arms is the two-hander option: Skycoach and Conquest Capped level Arms, and Icy Veins has an Arms levelling page too. Deep Wounds and Spearing Strike add damage, Mortal Strike at 40. Method rates Arms better in a duo or trio than solo.
• Fury needs dual wield (20), Flurry and Bloodthirst (40) to come together. Icy Veins says it is slower than Prot until then.

Horde class quests

• 10: Orc, Troll and Tauren do Veteran Uzzek, then Path of Defense (Far Watch Post, The Barrens). Undead do Ulag the Cleaver (Brill). Skyborne do The Skybreaker Bulwark. Reward: Defensive Stance.
• 20: Speak with Ruga (Camp Taurajo) gives a shield, then Brutal Armor for the Brutal Hauberk. It needs a Vial of Phlogiston from Roogug in Razorfen Kraul.
• 30: The Islander, then The Affray on Fray Island, The Barrens, for Berserker Stance.

Rage in Forever New

• White hits give rage by weapon speed, not damage (Blizzard). Community testing puts it at about speed × 3.46 for one-handers and × 4.5 for two-handers. ! unconfirmed
• Crits give 100% more rage (raised from 75% on 1 Oct).
• Rage from damage taken ignores your armour and any absorb shield. It was retuned on 8 Oct to assume 20 to 40% armour by level.
• New Tactical Mastery is baseline at 14: keep 10 rage on a stance swap. Improved Tactical Mastery (Arms) adds up to 15 more (25 total).
• New Victory Rush is baseline at 20: within 20 s of killing a non-trivial enemy, hit for 15% of AP and heal 10% of max health. 30 s cooldown.
• Rend and Sunder Armor now tag a mob to you instantly (1 Oct). Rend and Thunder Clap now scale with AP.

Rotation: Arms (levelling, single target)

Rotation: Fury (levelling, single target)

Rotation: Protection (tanking)

World PvP while levelling

• On the PvP ruleset you are flagged automatically in contested and enemy zones, which Icy Veins puts at roughly level 15 and up. ! unconfirmed
• New Spearing Strike (Arms 16-point) dismounts a mounted target and does extra damage to it.
• Mortal Strike cuts healing taken by 50% for 10 s.
• Hamstring slows 40%. Improved Hamstring (Arms) gives it up to a 15% chance to root for 5 s. Piercing Howl (Fury) dazes everything within 10 yards.
• Intercept at 30 (Berserker Stance) is a gap closer you can use in combat, with a 3 s stun.
• Iron Will cuts stun and fear duration by up to 15%. Improved Shield Bash can silence for 3 s.
• Icy Veins has no PvP ranking for any spec yet ("TBD").

Stat priority

• New Hit and crit are one stat for melee, ranged and spells (Blizzard).
• Arms and Fury: weapon DPS > hit > expertise > crit > strength. ! unconfirmed: Icy Veins only.
• Caps quoted by Icy Veins: 8% hit vs a level 63 boss, 6.5% expertise from behind. ! unconfirmed: one source, Classic-style maths.
• Fury: a second weapon adds 19% miss to white hits, 27% total vs a level 63 boss (Icy Veins). Furious Precision gives off-hand hit 4/7/10%.
• Protection: Icy Veins splits threat (hit > expertise > agility > strength > stamina) and survival (stamina > armour > agility > avoidance > defence). Defence to 440 for crit immunity. ! unconfirmed: Icy Veins only.

Key changes vs Classic

• New Rage normalised to weapon speed. Crit rage +100%.
• New Tactical Mastery (10 rage kept) and Victory Rush are baseline.
• New Shield Wall and Retaliation 15 min, Recklessness 30 min, none sharing a cooldown.
• New Battle Shout raid-wide. Whirlwind hits with both weapons by default.
• New Slam: 18 s cooldown, no pushback. Berserker Rage at 30. Bloodthirst 45% of AP, no heal (10% run speed instead).
• New Deep Wounds is a rolling bleed that does not scale with AP.
• New Sunder Armor threat now scales slightly with AP.
• New Dual Specialization at 40.

Horde races (as of Blizzard's 26 and 27 Oct passes) New

Each race has 2 active and 2 passive racials. What matters to a warrior:

• Orc: Blood Fury +10% AP for 15 s (2 min). Hardiness: stuns 20% shorter.
• Undead: Will of the Forsaken breaks charm, fear and sleep (2 min). Touch of the Grave: 20% chance on hit to drain up to 5% of your max health, 15 s internal cooldown.
• Tauren: War Stomp stuns up to 5 enemies for 2 s (90 s). Endurance +5% health.
• Troll: Berserking +10% attack speed for 15 s (3 min). Regeneration +20%. Beast Slaying +5% vs beasts.
• Windshaper Skyborne: Wind Blessed +2% haste. Skysight +15% run speed for 15 s. Needs the Heroic Pack or higher.
• For world PvP, Will of the Forsaken, Hardiness and War Stomp are the racials that answer crowd control.
• Icy Veins still recommends Orc, but that page is dated 26 Sep and cites Axe Specialization, which no longer exists. Pick on the numbers above.

Professions

• Mining + Blacksmithing: weapons, armour and New a Sharpening Wheel for the campfire (+Strength for an hour).
• Engineering: gadgets.
• Skinning or Mining early for gold.
• Cooking: New crafted food can give a small XP bonus (Icy Veins: 5%). First Aid for bandages and (Icy Veins) healing potions.

Pre-raid and BiS

• Nothing sourced past level 30 yet. Raid BiS waits for live logs after 9 Dec.

Beta caveats

• The 26 Sep client talent table is older than the live tree. This page follows Blizzard's notes plus the Icy Veins and WoW Forever Talents trees, which match each other.
• No Forever talent or racial hotfix was posted 28 to 30 Oct. The 26 and 27 Oct racial passes are the latest.
• Builds and point orders, including the level 60 raid and PvP theory builds and the raid rotations for Fury and Protection: see the Builds tab.

Sources Blizzard dev notes · Blizzard warrior update · Blizzard warrior deep dive · Blizzard panel recap · Icy Veins · Icy Veins PvP · WoW Forever Talents · Wowhead

Calculators

• Icy Veins Forever calculator: every build below opens there with the points loaded.
• Wowhead Forever calculator: exists, but we could not verify its share strings, so no Wowhead links here.
• WoW Forever Talents: datamined tree, matches Icy Veins.
• ! The links encode points by position. If Icy Veins edits the tree at launch, a link can load wrong. The point lists below are the real record.
• Talents start at 10, one point per level, 51 points at 60. Reset at a class trainer. New Dual Specialization at 40.
• World PvP (PvP ruleset): none of these builds take Improved Hamstring (Arms row 6, root chance) or Iron Will (Prot row 1, shorter stuns and fears). Swap them in if you get ganked a lot. Our note, not an Icy Veins build.

Arms levelling 10-60 (33/16/2)

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• Solo questing build. Bloodthrill needs Rend on the target.
• Arms DPS for dungeons: same build (no separate dungeon build is published).

Arms at 30 (Icy Veins beta build)

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Fury levelling 10-60 (13/36/2)

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• Skips the Fury 16-point (Raging Blows). Flurry needs Death Wish, Gore Drinker needs Enrage 5.
• Fury DPS for dungeons: same build.

Fury at 30 (Icy Veins beta build)

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Protection levelling and dungeon tank 10-60 (0/20/31)

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• Icy Veins rates it excellent in dungeons and safe while levelling. It is also the only tank build published.

Protection at 30 (Icy Veins beta build)

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Raid builds (level 60 theory)

• Level 60 theory, untested: nobody has played past 30 in Forever and raids open 9 Dec. These are wowtbc.gg's Forever builds (final trees, no point order). We swap them for builds from real logs after 9 Dec.
• No warrior heal spec exists. Roles are Arms or Fury DPS and Prot tank.

Fury (wowtbc Standard, 19/32/0)

Fury with Sweeping Strikes for cleave fights (21/30/0):

Arms (wowtbc Standard, 39/10/2)

Arms cleave variant (35/16/0):

No Arms raid rotation is published yet. The Arms rotation on the Levelling tab is the closest.

Protection raid tank (wowtbc Standard, 0/20/31)

PvP build (level 60 theory)

RankedBoost's Arms PvP build (31/20/0). One source, low confidence, built from an older client (70450). Recheck in launch week.

World PvP: see the Improved Hamstring and Iron Will note under Calculators.

Classic Era for comparison

Builds that worked in Classic for years, from Icy Veins (WoW Classic). Classic trees differ from Forever's; the Forever planner marks what changed if you tick "Mark what changed from Classic".

Macros (from Icy Veins) ! test on a dummy at launch

Interrupt your mouseover, else your target:

#showtooltip Shield Bash
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Shield Bash

#showtooltip Pummel
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Pummel

• Shield Bash (12) needs a shield and Battle or Defensive Stance. Pummel (38) needs Berserker Stance.

Cooldown Manager New

• Off by default. Turn it on in Options, Gameplay Enhancement.
• Tracks every class, racials and trinkets (8 Oct). Spell ranks show as one entry (16 Oct). Consumables are not supported yet.
• Our suggested layout (opinion, not a source):
  • Main row: Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst or Shield Slam, Overpower, Revenge, Slam, Spearing Strike, Victory Rush.
  • Second row: Death Wish, Recklessness, Sweeping Strikes, Shield Block, Shield Wall, Last Stand, your racial.
  • Buffs to watch: Battle Shout, Enrage, Flurry.

Sources Icy Veins · Icy Veins calculator · WoW Forever Talents · Wowhead · Blizzard dev notes · Blizzard warrior update · Blizzard warrior deep dive

New What changed for levelling a warrior

• Tactical Mastery is baseline at 14 (keep 10 rage on a stance swap) and Victory Rush is baseline at 20 (heal 10% after a kill).
• Thunder Clap works in Defensive Stance (4 targets) and Prot's Vanguard lets you Charge in Defensive Stance from 25: Prot levels without stance dancing.
• Rage is normalised to weapon speed, and rage from damage taken ignores your armour. A missed swing gives no rage, a crit gives double.
• Arms New Bloodthrill: weapon hits on your Rend target can light Overpower.
• Rend and Sunder Armor tag a mob instantly, handy when someone else wants it.
• Healing potions moved from Alchemy to First Aid Beta

Which spec, when

• 10-60 Protection (our pick). Icy Veins: fastest warrior levelling spec, the one it recommends, solo and group. Method calls it "fantastic for solo grinding"; Wowvendor says much stronger for levelling and dungeons. On Talentsforever's calculator, 48% of warrior builds were Prot.
  • Slow until Revenge (14). Icy Veins: use a two-hander until then, then one-hander and shield.
  • Rage from blocks, dodges and parries (Shield Specialization, New Master of Defense) fixes the warrior's rage problem.
  • It is also the dungeon tank build. Prot Warrior averages 4.0 of 5 on the 5-man tank lists.
• 10-60 Arms. The two-hander build. Sweeping Strikes at 30 makes two-mob pulls good; Mortal Strike at 40. Method rates Arms better in a duo or trio than solo.
• Fury. Icy Veins: slower than Prot until Flurry and Bloodthirst (40), so respec later. Dual wield needs 20.
• New Dual Specialization at 40: Prot plus Arms or Fury on one character.

Coping with the slow class

• Eat between pulls and keep bandages and potions ready. Icy Veins: "Warriors should always pick up First Aid".
• Duo with a healer and keep your levels close: a member far above the mob means nobody gets XP.
• Pool rage: finish a dying mob with white hits and carry the rage into the next pull.
• Alts with Legacy: Thrill of Adventure (health back after kills) and Field Medicine (shorter Recently Bandaged) cut downtime. See Legacy system.

AoE levelling: what works

• Thunder Clap: 4 targets, 6 s cooldown, Battle or Defensive Stance. Prot's main pack attack; Improved Thunder Clap (done at 22) makes it 6 rage cheaper.
• Cleave (20): your target plus one more mob. Sweeping Strikes (Arms, 30): your next 5 melee attacks also hit a second mob.
• Whirlwind (36, Berserker Stance): up to 4 mobs. Icy Veins: solo Whirlwind pulls as Arms are "a death sentence"; use it with a tank or healer.
• Retaliation (20, Battle Stance, 15 min): counterattacks melee for 15 s. Icy Veins pairs it with Shield Wall for one big pull every 15 min.
• Icy Veins' Arms method: pool rage on one mob, heal, pull two, Sweeping Strikes and Cleave, repeat.
• No Forever source shows warrior mass pulls. Expect 2 to 4 mobs per pull on the SF-Speed counter, and remember green mobs give less XP (see Levelling).

Protection talents (main build)

• Icy Veins' levelling and dungeon tank order, as on Warrior builds (calculator links there).
• No dungeons planned? Icy Veins swaps Defiance for Improved Bloodrage and 1 point of Improved Shield Wall.
• New Vanguard is the 16-point talent (row 4, needs 15 in Prot), so 25 is the earliest without Legacy.

Arms talents

• Icy Veins' Arms levelling order, as on Warrior builds. Bloodthrill needs Rend on the target.
• Legacy Talented gives points up to 5 levels early, so every line above can come 5 levels sooner on an alt.

Fury talents (respec at 40 or later)

• Icy Veins' Fury levelling order, as on Warrior builds. It skips Raging Blows.
• Flurry needs Death Wish; Gore Drinker needs Enrage 5.
• Respec at a city class trainer; the beta price started at 1 silver and rose each time. Launch price not announced.

Rotation: Protection (solo and tanking)

Rotation: Arms (solo)

Rotation: Fury (from 40)

Class quests (Horde)

• 10, Defensive Stance (also Taunt, Sunder Armor):
  • Orc, Troll, Tauren: trainer's Veteran Uzzek, then Path of Defense. 5 Singed Scales from Lightning Hides and Thunder Lizards at Thunder Ridge, Durotar, to Uzzek at Far Watch Post, The Barrens.
  • Optional: Forged Steel for Thun'grim Firegaze (The Barrens): a choice of one-handers.
  • Undead: Deathguard Dillinger (Brill) sends you to kill Ulag the Cleaver at the skull stone north of Brill.
  • RestedXP has Orc and Troll warriors who quest in Tirisfal take Ulag from the Brill trainer instead !
  • Skyborne: The Skybreaker Bulwark (Seena Skybreaker, Zephras Isle): Defensive Stance and Stormforged Protector.

• 20, Brutal Armor: Speak with Ruga (trainer), then Trial at the Field of Giants: 5 Twitching Antenna to Ruga at Camp Taurajo (they expire in 15 min). Reward: Ruga's Bulwark shield.
  • Thun'grim Firegaze then wants 15 Smoky Iron Ingot, 10 Powdered Azurite, 10 Iron Bar and a Vial of Phlogiston (Roogug, Razorfen Kraul).
  • Reward: Brutal Hauberk, mail chest, 218 armour, +5 Str, +14 Sta, use: +30 rage (1 h).
  • Icy Veins: take the shield at 20, finish the chest on an RFK run in your late 20s.
• 30, Berserker Stance: The Islander, then The Affray: beat Klannoc Macleod's challengers and Big Will on Fray Island, The Barrens. Unlocks Intercept and Berserker Rage use.
• 30+, Whirlwind Weapon: Klannoc offers The Windwatcher (Bath'rah, Alterac Mountains). Cyclonian needs 8 Liferoot, 30 Bloodscalp Tusk (Stranglethorn) and Essence of the Exile (8 each Burning, Cresting, Thundering Charm, Arathi elemental circles). Then kill Cyclonian, a level 40 elite.
  • Reward: Whirlwind Axe, Sword or Warhammer: two-hander, about 35.5 DPS, +16 Str, +15 Sta.
  • Bring help at 30 or come back later.

Trainer visits (BETA client)

• Tactical Mastery (14), Dual Wield (20) and Victory Rush (20) are baseline or from the weapon trainer, not class ranks.
• Talent spells (Mortal Strike, Shield Slam, Bloodthirst) train new ranks at 48, 54 and 60 once you have the talent.
• Never skip: Rend (Bloodthrill), Battle Shout, Revenge and Thunder Clap for Prot, Mortal Strike for Arms. Icy Veins says a new rank of these is worth the trip.
• Fine to skip spells you will not press: Slam and Overpower ranks as Prot (you stay in Defensive Stance); Revenge as Arms (you stay in Battle Stance); Mocking Blow and Challenging Shout if you never tank. Our read of Icy Veins' rotations.
• Train your weapon skill too: Icy Veins says a good weapon performs poorly if your skill in its type lags.
• Costs are not published for Forever.

Gear and stats

• New Hit and crit are one stat for melee, ranged and spells.
• Prot: highest weapon DPS (Revenge and Shield Slam don't use weapon damage, so speed doesn't matter), then Strength (2 AP and block value). Hit and expertise when you can get them. Shields count for their armour.
• Arms: weapon DPS first; at equal DPS a slower two-hander hits harder with Mortal Strike, Slam and Whirlwind. Then hit, expertise, crit, Strength (Icy Veins).
• Fury: two one-handers from 20, ideally a fast off-hand. Icy Veins: the off-hand does 50% damage, 62.5% with Dual Wield Specialization.
• Agility gives crit, dodge and armour but no attack power for warriors.
• Plate at 40. Riding at 40, and the riding training includes the mount.
• New Weaponmaster (Arms) rewards every weapon type, so take the best DPS whatever it is.
• RestedXP buys white vendor two-handers on the way: Bearded Axe or Gnarled Staff (15), Espadon or Rock Hammer (16), Battle Axe or Long Staff (20) !

Professions, food and camp

• First Aid for bandages and New healing potions.
• Cooking: New crafted food adds +5% kill XP to Well Fed Beta, and your fire holds the camp.
• Mining + Blacksmithing: your own weapons, armour and stones. New Sharpening Wheel camp feature gives Strength (not with Strength of Earth Totem).
• Skinning: early gold for training. New Camp Chair gives 2% crit.
• Other melee camp buffs: Lodestone (Mining, melee AP) Beta, Camp Tent (Leatherworking, rested XP to 5% of a level).
• Buy 8 Liferoot when a vendor has it, for Cyclonian. RestedXP buys it with Healing Potions on its Barrens leg !

Macros ! test on a dummy at launch

Interrupt your mouseover, else your target:

#showtooltip Shield Bash
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Shield Bash

• Same pattern for Pummel (38, Berserker Stance).
• Vanguard adds a second Charge to your spellbook. In a macro, shift-click that Charge from the spellbook; /cast Charge finds the Battle Stance one. Redo it for each new Charge rank (Icy Veins).

Common mistakes

• Spamming Heroic Strike or Cleave: they replace a white swing, so that swing gives no rage.
• Emptying your rage into Execute on a mob a swing would kill.
• Swapping stance with more rage than Tactical Mastery keeps (10, or 25 with Improved Tactical Mastery).
• Pulling at low health to save time. A death costs more.
• Rend on bleed-immune mobs: no bleed, no Bloodthrill.
• Shield Block against casters or non-earth elementals: there is nothing to block.
• Whirlwind pulls solo as Arms.

Route

• Follow Horde 1-22 in Levelling (RestedXP's route), then 22-60: zones by level.
• RestedXP for warriors ! Orc and Troll go Tirisfal 10-12 and Silverpine 12-14 (only Hunters and Shamans stay in Durotar). Tauren do Thun'grim's Forged Steel at the start of the Barrens leg.
• Brutal Armor mats: Smoky Iron Ingots from Windshear kobolds in Stonetalon (on the 17-22 route), Powdered Azurite from Hillsbrad Miners.

Unverified until launch

• Everything past level 30, including the Whirlwind Weapon chain and all 31-60 talent points.
• Orc and Troll warriors taking Ulag the Cleaver.
• Rage per swing numbers and vendor weapon stock.

Dungeons for warriors

Full list and posts: Dungeons. Blizzard won't let dungeon cleaving be the fastest way to 60; go when you have the quests.

• Ragefire Chasm (13-18): Hidden Enemies gives Axe of Orgrimmar (2H) or Hammer of Orgrimmar (1H) (Icy Veins).
• Ruins of Lordaeron (15-20): Corpse Chopper (2H axe, Bjork).
• Wailing Caverns (15-24): Cobrahn's Grasp (mail belt). Leaders of the Fang gives Hammerbone or Wingblade (Icy Veins).
• Shadowfang Keep (20-30): Arced War Axe and Commander's Crest (shield) from Springvale; Silverlaine's Family Seal (Strength ring).
• Blackfathom Deeps (24-32): Reef Axe (Gelihast), Strike of the Hydra (Aku'mai).
• Razorfen Kraul (29-38): Vial of Phlogiston (Roogug, for Brutal Hauberk) and Corpsemaker (2H axe, Ramtusk).
• New Legacy points for every final boss in 15-25, 26-45 and 46-60.

Sources Icy Veins Prot levelling · Icy Veins Arms levelling · Icy Veins Fury levelling · Icy Veins class quests · Wowhead · Blizzard warrior deep dive · Blizzard dev notes · Method · Talents Forever · RestedXP