Grimjoe's Simple Warrior Tips/Tricks Guide for Solo 3s

[Grimjoe]

(This is rather long and I jump from topic to topic, I've cut most sections with spaces to signify different topics, I whipped this up quickly. Just a disclaimer)

Macros at the bottom.

So you're trying to improve your Solo 3s rating as a warrior, you've come to the right place. It's a tricky role to fill at times, and I see countless warriors who step into the arena and fail, only to blame teammates when ultimately they're at least PARTIALLY at fault.

The first step to improving is admit you have room for improvement. Being here means you're ready to do that, so let's move forward.

I'll begin by listing some key terms.

C: Charge
SR: Spell Reflect
IV: Intervene
BR: Bloodrage
ZR: Berserker Rage
IS: Intimidating Shout
PH: Piercing Howl
DS: Demoralizing Shout

During arena prep time, it is recommended you ask for leader if you are not given it upon joining. Between the 30-15 second marks, use commanding shout for your group, and at the 15 second mark, move yourself to Group 2 in the raid (Press "O" and go to the Raid tab) and use Battle Shout before moving yourself back to group 1.

5 seconds before the gates open, BR and mount. If you are facing against any form of stealthed enemy, go into Zerker Stance, try to figure out roughly their position and use DS to bust their stealth. (It's also good to note, this leaves you with rage enough to intercept if you're unable to get a charge before being put into combat)
Generally on Blade's Edge, as you cross the bridge, once you're about to reach the enemy's end of the bridge where wood turns to stone, this is where you should shout, as that is the contact point at which most rogues will be likely to sap you. For Nagrand Arena and Ruins of Lordaeron you must pay close attention to the direction and facing of the individual should they neglect to stealth before the doors open, most rogues mount out the gate and stealth closer to the middle, this is easily taken advantage of as it leaves them with minimal space to dodge your shout.
Remember to use ZR if you get sapped, usually you will be able to see the rogue in stealth as they walk past you, and if you're quick enough you can get off a DS

Note: Be aware of your teams location, and your enemy teams composition. If you are at risk of being locked down and nuked, it is not recommended to cross the bridge. Yes, you are a warrior with a large health pool and strong defensive capabilities, but this does not mean you are Hercules, you can be killed very easily and the enemy team will happily take advantage of poor positioning.

Now, let's say you're facing a Mage, they generally attempt to blizzard you into combat, however, their AOE has a small delay of 1.5-2 seconds before the first tick of damage lands which will place you into combat, within this window you can land a Charge, which may force a blink or some other form of defensive action. Once again, be aware, certain compositions will be able to take advantage of this aggressive positioning and you must use your better judgement in these situations, however, taking the enemy by surprise is a very strong tactic if done right.




Okay, you're past the opening stage of the arena, you're facing mage/rogue/druid, your healer is slightly mispositioned and the enemy team is pressuring them, this is a perfect opportunity to utilize IS, if possible, target the player whom your team is focusing on CC'ing with the fear, this makes it so the other players afflicted by the fear will be capable of taking damage without breaking the CC.

The rogue wills/trinkets out of the fear, vanishes and hits a cheap shot on your healer, this is where you hit him with intercept and disarm him before he can land the kidney shot, this will negate pressure and depending on the situation prevent your healer from needing to trinket any incoming damage that could've been setup by this.
You also have the option of using IV on your healer if well-timed to eat the kidney shot, or if your intercept is off cooldown, this is a perfect alternative to close the gap to the rogue, just be mindful if he is not stunned, you MUST disarm from behind so as to prevent any option of a dodge or parry.

Note: If you are fast enough to react, you can either PH or DS the rogue from stealth, it is recommended that the rogue should be your kill target under the majority of situations, unless you are incapable due to constant CC or otherwise, then hit another target, but do NOT tunnelvision just one target.
Your strength as a warrior is your ability to switch targets on a Mortal Strike CD, and to do large damage in burst while restricting the enemy's ability to retreat, improved hamstring is your best friend.


I suggest keeping the mage on focus (You can find the FocusFrame addon and many others in a stickied thread in this subforum) and maintaining 25 rage for SR whenever possible. Most mages stack haste of some form, you must be quick to utilize it in order to land the reflect, and you must also be careful to be not faked out.

Important note: If you are facing a mage or druid, they can use your SR against you, ie: a druid who is being focused may reflect clone to prevent damage and to let mortal strike and any other number of debuffs timeout, or a mage will use it to regenerate health rapidly. Keep this in mind.


Generally with games against rogues or mages, your goal is to maintain pressure to prevent it on your healer, and to play out the enemy healers mana before your healers mana pool depletes, under these situations if you find the enemy healer IS getting oom, the easiest way of closing out these games is to swap to the healer and take advantage of his low mana, as much as it might seem a good idea to continue pressuring the enemy DPS, they can use any form of CC to kite or stun or delay you in any form to give the healer a window to drink or innervate safely. You cannot allow this to happen if it is preventable.




Okay, enough of the rogue/mage example, let's say now you're fighting a warrior/warlock/healer combo. Your goal here is to keep the warrior as far away from your healer and DPS as possible, to kill the warlocks pet (If he is SL/SL or Demonology he will resummon it quickly with Fel Dom, you can predict this quite easily to kick the cast.) and to primarily focus your damage on the warlock himself, this will prevent him from being able to utilize fear, and will ultimately zone him out from your team.

If their healer is a druid, you should keep him on focus and remember the notes about SR, also, do NOT be afraid to swap to their warrior, most warriors do not realize just how easy they are to kill, and will put themselves into poor positions, such as out in africa across the map from their healer, and generally this is the perfect opportunity to burst them down and put as much pressure on them as possible.

Druids and Priests are extremely easy targets to swap to and do some good burst to scare them away from the open, do not be afraid to punish them for over-extending, but remain aware of your teams situation, be ready to turn and peel if needed, do not leave your team alone to handle the other 2 DPS, this is how they turn a quick kill, as I said previously;

Use your best judgement.

As such, be aware of your surroundings and all enemy players, pay attention to the enemy healer, catch them on a cast with a quick pummel whenever possible, it's all too common that I see warrior's run right by an enemy druid casting cyclone/roots without so much as a single thought about stopping it, let alone reflecting it. Gladdy UI aids in this by showing enemy cast bars, use it.




For the most part that's all there is to cover on the generally offensive end of things, but let's say you're in a situation where they have nonstop pressure on your healer or DPS, and they are tunneling them to china, PH, Disarm, IS, Hamstring, and IV are all extremely strong tools in this regard. Only Druids, Paladins, Mages, and Rogues can break snares/melee roots (Outside of the PvP trinket, obviously), however, Shamans have a talent to reduce the duration of such effects, and thus require additional handling.

If you have the choice between kicking a cyclone on yourself, or a frostbolt/shadowbolt, etc. on your teammates, kick the damage effect, it will lock them out of their most important school, thus preventing damage for roughly 5 seconds from that school, and perhaps CC or Ice Block as well, anything you can do to reduce pressure/damage on your teammates will help more than you being able to run around for an extra 6 seconds while they get blown up.

Spam hamstring. I mean it, spam it. Press that Q key into the ground (Mine's bound to Q so I can QQ all day ayyylmao)
Make them truly feel the might of your RNG, root them and then root them again, if you're mace spec be aware hamstring DOES proc mace stun, and it DR's with most other stun effects (this is why I play poleaxe.)

DO NOT ATTACK THE ENEMY WARRIOR IF THEY ARE FOCUSING YOUR TEAMMATE. Your best course of action is to hamstring them a few times to attempt a imp hamstring proc, or to disarm them, fear them in battle stance, etc., anything to prevent feeding them additional rage to dump on heroic strike, mortal strike, etc.
But for the love of all that is holy, do not think turning your damage on the warrior will help your priest live longer, it won't. You're doing their warrior a favour.

Remember: Weapon Swap is utilized only when you're being focused, or when you have the need to reflect, you want your main weapon out as much as possible, however, if you are facing a melee heavy team, your sword and board will save your life, and your 1h will still do plenty of damage with overpower and mortal strike.



Focusing resto druids 101: PH and Hamstring are your best friends, predict power shifts if possible, utilize this. If you time it properly, you can improved hamstring them in bear, and when they powershift out to cancel the root, you can hit them with an intercept, or if they aren't dotted, a fear, or even better if one of their teammates is nearby, target fear their teammate and attack the druid in humanoid form under fear and THEN intercept them to extend the duration of your attacking window.

If a druid shifts into bear form, generally you should switch to a softer target, generally. Under certain situations it is wise to continue attacking into it, as they're unable to heal outside of Frenzied Regeneration which is extremely limited.

If you see nature's grasp, pop your SR and keep spamming instant damage, or even hamstrings on, if you're lucky they won't have time enough to counter your SR with a faerie fire, moonfire etc., and will be forced into powershifting.



BM Hunters: Kill the pet, you win 9/10 times. Their pets generally have ~6-8k HP, and are squishier than flubber. Try to catch them behind LoS from their healer before making your intent to kill it known, this way they won't have time to prehot or shield etc., and within 3 good crits it'll be dead. You can still knockback a hunters aimed shot cast while they are in Bestial Wrath, but generally your GCDs are better spent killing the pet or peeling the 2nd DPS, help your team get to LoS from the hunter as best you possibly can, pillars are a hunters worst enemy.
Note: Do not be afraid to disarm a hunter if there are no other melee-capable enemies, it prevents wing clip, and just as well, mongoose bite and raptor strike can do rather high amounts of damage when they crit, if you're deadzoning them because you're the target, this is a good route to take.

Please, don't just focus the pet all game, if it's being healed, go to another target and go back to it when the heals are off, just help your team outlive the hunters burst to the best of your ability and prevent as much damage as possible.


That's all I can currently think of at the moment in terms of scenarios to list, everything else is generally rather cut and dry, melee shamans are squishy and eat disarms like corn flakes, Resto shamans are easy kill targets if done right, holy paladins are a joke, simply zone them out or keep pummel on standby, ret paladins follow similar rules to warriors, however they're easily focused after Avenging Wrath is popped, as they cannot utilize Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection for a full minute after use.


Be smart, play with your team, and keep some of these tips in mind. Positioning and proper skill utilization and above all, good teamwork is what wins games. Good luck, and have fun.



Quick list of macros I use;

#showtooltip
/equip Shivering Felspine
/stopcasting
/equipslot 16 Brutal Gladiator's Cleaver
/equipslot 17 Brutal Gladiator's Shield Wall


#showtooltip Disarm
/cast [stance:1/3] Defensive Stance
/cast Disarm

Focus
#showtooltip Disarm
/cast [stance:1/3] Defensive Stance
/cast [target=focus] Disarm

Focus modifiers
#showtooltip Pummel
/cast [stance:1/2] Berserker Stance
/cast [nomod] Pummel
/cast [mod:ctrl/alt/shift,target=focus] Pummel

#showtooltip Intervene
/cast [stance:1/3] Defensive Stance
/cast Intervene

#showtooltip Shield Block
/equipslot 16 Brutal Gladiator's Cleaver
/equipslot 17 Brutal Gladiator's Shield Wall
/cast [stance:1/3] Defensive Stance
/cast Shield Block

Party modifiers
#showtooltip Intervene
/cast [stance:1/3] Defensive Stance
/cast [mod:ctrl/alt/shift,target=party2] Intervene
/cast [nomod,target=party1] Intervene

#showtooltip Shield Bash
/cast [stance:1/2,equipped:Shields] Shield Bash; [stance:3] Defensive Stance
/equipslot 16 Brutal Gladiator's Cleaver
/equipslot 17 Brutal Gladiator's Shield Wall

#showtooltip Hamstring
/cast [stance:2] Battle Stance
/cast Hamstring
/startattack

#showtooltip Sweeping Strikes
/cast [stance:2] Battle Stance
/cast [stance:1/3] Sweeping Strikes

#showtooltip Berserker Rage
/cast [stance:1/2] Berserker Stance
/cast Berserker Rage

Focus modifiers
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] Intimidating Shout
/cast [mod:ctrl/alt/shift,target=focus] Intimidating Shout

Focus Modifiers
#showtooltip Charge
/cast [stance:2/3] Battle Stance
/cast [stance:1,modifier:ctrl/alt/shift,target=focus] Charge
/cast [stance:1,nomodifier] Charge

Focus Modifiers
#showtooltip Intercept
/cast [stance:1/2] Berserker Stance
/cast [stance:3,mod:ctrl/alt/shift,target=focus] Intercept
/cast [stance:3,nomod] Intercept

#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Mortal Strike(Rank 6)

1button spell reflect
#showtooltip Spell Reflection
/cast [stance:1/2,equipped:Shields] Spell Reflection; [stance:3] Defensive Stance
/stopmacro [equipped: Shields]
/stopcasting
/equipslot 16 Brutal Gladiator's Cleaver
/equipslot 17 Brutal Gladiator's Shield Wall