Season of Discovery brought many exciting changes to World of Warcraft Classic, including Runes and new class/role combinations such asMage healerandWarlock tank. Warriors didn’t undergo quite as big of an overhaul compared to other classes, but they did receive a fair number of changes to how they play, both as DPS and as tanks. This particular guide focuses on the DPS changes.
Thanks to the newly-introduced Runes, Warrior players in Season of Discovery have access to a variety of additional abilities that open the path to new builds and an overall more versatile playstyle. Keep reading to find out more about the best Runes, talents, rotation, and everything else you need to know about playing a Warrior DPS in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery.
RacesRunesRotationStat PriorityProfessionsTalentsBIS GearConsumables
Best Races For Warrior DPS In Season Of Discovery
The good old Humans continue to be the best race for those wanting to play as an Alliance Warrior. Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization will both come in handy as they allow you to increase your weapon skills faster. The other Racials aren’t all that helpful to Warriors, but Diplomacy is somewhat noteworthy as it will make it easier to access certain useful items, particularly in the later stages of Season of Discovery.
The only other Alliance race you may want to consider if you’re rolling a Warrior is Dwarf. While more suitable for Warriors tanks, the Stoneform Racial can sometimes also be helpful while playing as a DPS. Gnomes may be worth considering for PvP, but they don’t have anything to offer for PvE. Finally, Night Elf is the last race you’ll want to play as an Alliance Warrior.
When it comes to the Horde, there are a couple of great options to choose from. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Orcs continue to be the best race for Warriors even in Season of Discovery. Axe Specialization and Blood Fury are fantastic Racials for this class, and Hardiness is not to be underestimated either. Sure, it’s more useful for a tank than a DPS, but having increased stun resistance is never a bad thing regardless of what role you’re playing.
Trolls are the second-best option here, primarily thanks to Berserking. Being able to attack up to 30% faster can make a noticeable difference in certain fights even if the effect only lasts 10 seconds. Beast Slaying and Regeneration are pretty good Racials for a Warrior as well. Tauren and Undead don’t have anything particularly interesting to offer for Warriors and should generally not be picked in favor of Orcs and Trolls if you’re looking to maximize your DPS.
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Best Runes For Warrior DPS In Season Of Discovery
Runes are a new system designed to make things more fun by giving players access to powerful abilities early on. Granted, some of these Runes can only be unlocked by solving puzzles or completing time-consuming tasks, but you’re able to expect to acquire at least a couple of strongWarrior Runessimply by playing the game as you normally would. Like every other class, Warriors get access to a total of 12 Runes and can only equip 3 of them at a time. Here are the best picks for Warrior DPS right now:
Raging Blow is the go-to chest Rune in Season of Discovery, at least at this stage. Once Phase 2 kicks in and you get access to Berserker Rage, you’ll want to go with Flagellation instead. For now, the only ability that triggers Flagellation is Bloodrage, which comes with a 1-minute cooldown. Meanwhile, Raging Blow can be used both under the effects of Bloodrage and Enrage, making it a far more versatile choice.
Consumed By Rage is a must if you’re using Ranging Blow as the two Runes work hand in hand. Upon activating this ability, you immediately become Enraged and can proceed to use Raging Blow even when Bloodrage is on cooldown. The only caveat to this Rune is that it requires no less than 80 Rage to activate, meaning you’ll always need to stay on top of your Rage management if you want to get the most out of it.
Warriors have two good Rune options for their Hands slot, and the one you should go with depends on what type of weapon you’re using. If you’re dual-wielding, Single-Minded Fury is the logical choice here while Warriors who prefer two-handed weapons should opt for Quick Strike. They both have their uses, so it mostly boils down to personal weapon preference.
Warrior DPS Rotation In Season Of Discovery
Rage management is more important than ever before in Season of Discovery due primarily to Consumed by Rage, a new Rune ability that will play a crucial role in your rotation. Playing around this ability will make your rotation a bit more complex than you might expect, but don’t worry because we’ll walk you through all the basics down below.
Charge and Bloodrage allow you to generate some Rage at the start of combat, but these abilities should be used with care. Charging into a group of mobs before the tank has aggro is a bad idea. Similarly, you don’t want to use Bloodrage unless you have plenty of HP to spare.
Battle Shout is a very important buff for Warriors and their parties and should be active at all times. Other Shouts are more situational. For instance, Demoralizing Shout should only be used when fighting melee-focused enemies while Intimidating Shout should never be used in group content unless your party is in a desperate situation.
Raging Blow can be used shortly after the start of combat thanks to Bloodrage, but once its effect expires you’ll need to rely on Consumed by Rage for the next minute or so. The Rune ability only becomes active as soon as you reach 80 Rage, hence why it’s important not to waste your resources by needlessly spamming things like Heroic Strike, Cleave, or Quick Strike. Instead, try to use these abilities only to dump excess Rage.
Overpower is a bit of an exception since it’s cheap and can only be used after the enemy dodges one of your attacks. Feel free to use Overpower whenever it becomes available. Same goes for Execute, though try not to spam it. Execute does a lot more damage when you have a lot of Rage and should be used strategically if the target still has a good chunk of health left. The last ability worth mentioning is Thunder Clap, which should be used very sparingly due to its high Rage cost.
Stat Priority For Warrior DPS In Season Of Discovery
Similar to a few other classes, Warriors rely heavily on their weapons for damage. You should always make it a priority to max out your weapon skills and use weapons that have as much DPS as possible even if their other stats are not necessarily ideal. Don’t be afraid to use a flimsy-looking staff instead of an impressive sword or mace if it inflicts a ton of damage. As far as the stats of your other pieces of gear are concerned, here are the most important ones:
Hit Chance
Importance:Hit Chance is exactly what it sounds like and represents your chance of hitting enemies with your attacks. Hit Chance is particularly important for Warriors as missed attacks don’t generate any Rage, unlike parried and dodged attacks.
Notes:You only need to increase your Hit Chance by a few percentages past the baseline to ensure that your attacks won’t miss, even against higher level enemies. In Season of Discovery Phase 1, the Hit cap is 6%, so once you reach that threshold you can focus on prioritizing other stats.
Critical Strike Chance
Importance:Critical Strikes inflict twice as much damage as usual and can account for a good chunk of your DPS. There’s no way to guarantee that you’ll land a Critical Strike, but you can greatly improve your chances by increasing this stat.
Notes:You can increase your Critical by investing into the Cruelty talent and acquiring certain pieces of gear. Past that, you can also gain extra Critical Strike Chance by improving your Agility, although this won’t make a huge difference until later phases of Season of Discovery.
Importance:Strength increases your melee Attack Power and has a direct impact on your DPS. The stat also impacts the amount of damage you may block with your shield, but that only comes into play if you’re playing as a tank.
Notes:Warriors gain 2 points of melee Attack Power for every point of Strength they have. Furthermore, every 14 points of Attack Power will give you roughly 1 extra point of DPS.
Importance:Agility is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades stat that affects Attack Power, Armor rating, Dodge Chance, and more. Rogues and Hunters benefit the most from this stat, but Agility is pretty important for Warriors, too.
Notes:Every 20 points of Agility you have increases your Critical Strike Chance by 1% and your Dodge Chance by 1%. In addition, Warriors also gain 2 points of Armor and one point of ranged Attack Power for every point for Agility.
Best Professions For Warrior DPS In Season Of Discovery
There are a couple of ways you may go about choosing your professions in Phase 1 of WoW Classic: Season of Discovery. If you only want to use professions as a way of making gold, picking two gathering professions like Mining and Herbalism is the way to go. If, on the other hand, you want professions that provide direct benefits we recommend sticking with Blacksmithing and Engineering. Here are some of the benefits you can expect from them:
Blacksmithing
Engineering
Warriors are very gear-dependent, so having a profession that lets you craft your own gear is obviously a big advantage, especially since this is the only profession that allows you to make Mail items. The most important items you can craft in Phase 1 are theShifting Silver Breastplateand theShining Silver Breastplate.
Engineering doesn’t offer a ton of useful items in Phase 1, but it does give you access to explosives, which can be used to boost your DPS by quite a bit. Guns aren’t particularly important for Warriors, but it’s always nice to have a good ranged weapon in your arsenal, just in case.
Both Engineering and Blacksmithing rely on Mining for materials. Unless you’re rolling in gold, you’ll want to start with Mining and one of the two crafting professions before dropping Mining and picking up the other once you have enough materials saved up.
Best Talent Spec For Warrior DPS In Season Of Discovery
Warriors get access to very few good talents in Phase 1 of Season of Discovery. With the maximum level being capped at 25, you’ll only have 16 talent points to work with. In order to get the most out of them, you’ll need to divide them wisely between the Arms and Fury talent trees. Two-handed weapons tend to be better for DPS at max level, but it just so happens that the Fury tree has better starting talents, hence the need to divide your points between them.
BIS Gear For Warrior DPS In Season Of Discovery
For a full breakdown of the best in slot items for Warrior DPS in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery check out the link below.
Warrior DPS Best in Slot (BIS) Gear | Phase 3 WoW SoD
Warrior players can discover which gear works best for this particular class in WoW Classic Season of Discovery with this handy guide.
Consumables For Warrior DPS In Season Of Discovery
Thereworked version of Blackfathom Deepsis the only raid players can tackle in Phase 1 of Season of Discovery. Even though BFD is fairly easy compared to what players will have to face in later phases, you’ll still want to go in well-prepared. At the end of the day, this is still a raid, so ensure to grab at least some of the consumables listed below before going in.
