Leveling my Warrior has been surprisingly fun thus far. I had leveled a Warrior to 70 in Burning Crusade, but it was not a smooth road. Given, heirloom gear was not available then, so that played a huge factor I’m sure. My main concern for leveling this time around was if I could DPS quickly enough and move from objective to objective with very little downtime. Thus far I am very pleased.
I am going to continue aiming my gear choices towards stamina for this set of levels, although I foresee that changing in the 20s bracket. Also, I plan to run Deadmines at least once to complete the dungeon quests, which is something I did not do for my most recent Paladin.
I am not aiming at setting a leveling record or anything this time around, so I do /afk some, as well as work on my herbalism and inscription professions. Regardless, I moved very quickly from levels 11-20.
See also:
Warrior Leveling 11-20
Zones Involved: Elwynn Forest (11-15), Westfall (15-20)
Training at Levels: 16, 20
Gear: Leather and Mail combo, +strength/+stamina or +stamina gear
Talent Tree: Fury 0/11/0
Glyphs: [Glyph of Overpower] (Major), [Glyph of Battle] (Minor)
Questing Tips and Hints
There are several ‘hidden’ quests to look out for. Two you can find in Elwynn Forest, and one can be found in Westfall.
- The Collector – Obtained by looting Gold Pickup Schedule from Hogger and the gnolls in his area in Elwynn Forest. This is a random drop.
- Furlbrow’s Deed – Obtained by looting Westfall Deed from Defias mobs level 7 and above in eastern Elwynn Forest. This is a random drop.
- Captain Sanders’ Hidden Treasure – Obtained by looting Captain Sanders’ Treasure Map from any of the murlocs in Westfall. This is a random drop.
Also, many people forget that off the shore of southwestern Westfall, there is a light house with a quest giver for 3 quests. One of his quests requires flasks of oil, so when killing harvesters for other quests, make sure to loot and keep the oils for an immediate quest turn-in!
When traveling to Lakeshire for the Defias quest chain, go ahead and knock out Hilary’s Necklace, which is given by Shawn at the end of the pier. This is a low level quest that gives you max XP by completing it this early.
There are 3 Deadmines quests that can be done without actually going into the instance itself.
- Collecting Memories and Oh Brother… given by Wilder Thistlenettle in the Dwarven District of Stormwind, and Red Silk Bandanas, given by Scout Riell at the top of the Westfall Tower.
Completing all these ‘extra’ Deadmines quests alone will almost boost you up another level. So don’t leave them out!
DPS
Warrior DPS functions very similar to Paladin DPS in these early levels. Take a big, 2-handed weapon, and bludgeon your way through countless mobs with very little penalty. Your Warrior DPS will come in these forms:
- Heroic Strike
- Charge
- Rend
- Thunder Clap
- Victory Rush
- Overpower
- Mocking Blow
- Cleave (at level 20)
- Battle Shout
Now, before I give my rotation out, I know there will be some people out there who will dispute my information. That’s okay. There’s no perfect way for leveling a Warrior. Maybe in endgame content, there is a set DPS rotation, but I find that there are numerous ways to go about Warrior DPS for leveling.
My DPS approach is all about instant, burst DPS. I also have to manage my Rage very carefully, since I move from mob to mob very quickly. I do not like wasting Rage when I don’t have to. Therefore, my main DPS rotation was as follows:
- Charge > Victory Rush > Mocking Blow > Overpower > Rend > Thunder Clap > Cleave
Notice I am completely omitting Heroic Strike from my rotations. The rage used to add damage to my normal melee swing is very negligable, and therefore I cannot justify the rage usage, even though it does not reset from my instant attacks. I generate enough damage to kill mobs from my other attacks, making Heroic Strike expendable, at least for this level bracket.
Victory Rush and Overpower are my premiere attacks, and I glyphed Overpower to help with the proc rate. Generally, I rush in on my first mob, use Victory Rush and Mocking Blow in rapid succession, then Overpower if it is up. If not, then I Rend, Thunder Clap, and wait for one more melee strike and usualyl the mob is dead by then. Then I quickly switch to my next target, use Victory Rush, Overpower (because mocking Blow is on cooldown), Rend, Thunder Clap…etc. Rinse and Repeat.
With my Bloodied Arcanite Reaper and Crusader enchant, I had little problems with any of the mobs.
Deadmines
I queued for one Deadmines run as DPS, knowing full well my gear could sufficiently allow me to tank if needed as a back-up. I was right, I had double the HP our other Warrior tank had. My Recount had my DPS at double everyone else’s as well. The reason I ran Deadmines was to complete the two other Deadmines quests I had, one for the reward [Chausses of Westfall].
The two quests are:
Running instances for XP is okay, but it’s nto incredible. I found myself gaining XP much quicker questing. However, Deadmines did push me from level 19 to 20, though it did so in about a 45 minute time frame.
Summary
My main focus for levels 11-20 was just to keep moving and keep fighting. I never found myself overwhelmed at any point, easily taking on 4 or 5 mobs at a time. I stacked my quests as much as I could, and tried to keep my downtime to a minimum.
I finished up Westfall at level 21, making sure to kill everything in my path. I flew to Ironforge at level 21 to pick up my 60% mount, and to grab all my level 20 talents and abilities. The next level bracket, 21-30, will have me making some changes. First, DPS noticably tapers off, so I will be mnaking some gearing choice changes. Second, my talent tree will switch from Fury to Arms. Not going to dual wield. Did that in TBC. I’ll wait for Titan’s Grip to switch back to Fury. We’ll see how it goes.
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