The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Keep yourself alive
by Matthew Rossi 
Feb 25th 2012 at 4:00PM
One of the most important lessons I was forcibly reminded when killing heroic Yor'sahj this week was that dying makes you useless. Even if you can be given a battle res, that's not only lost damage time for you, it's lost damage or healing time for the person bringing you back from the dead. It means that battle res won't be available for a tank as the fight progresses, it's just a big mess. This was further reinforced by our Ultraxion kill. Killing Ultraxion on heroic means not only does everyone need to hit a minimum DPS threshold of about 33k sustained throughout the fight, they need to do this while performing nearly flawlessly on Hour of Twilight and Fading Light.
Having tanked the past couple of weeks, it was a lesson I needed to relearn. DPS players can't rely on being the target of a dedicated healer -- there's usually two or three healers at most in 25 man raids (and less, perhaps just one in 10's) focusing their attention on the raid as a whole. Even if they break the healing up into assignments and don't deviate, there's still several people at any given time needing the healers attention. While they certainly usually do their best, if we don't help them out we're only hindering ourselves. The days of 'meh, they'll heal me through it' are long gone.
Always be ready to move
One of the things DPS warriors really need to do to maximize their DPS while staying alive is to learn how to use their mobility. Whether you're arms or fury, you have both Heroic Leap and either Intercept or Charge. You also have Intervene. It's worth your time to consider a macro to pop you into defensive stance and hit Intervene on a ranged you can rely on to be out of melee range for specific encounters like Hagara or Yor'sahj. I often use Intervene on someone running towards one of the oozes who's ahead of me, then Heroic Leap myself on top of the thing for extra damage, and then use Charge to get back into melee range on Yor'sahj himself. Mobility isn't just good for getting you out of trouble, it's good for letting you get as much time as possible on adds that require you to move to get to them. Whether it's the crystals on Hagara, the adds on Warmaster Blackhorn, the tentacles and Hideous Amalgamations on Spine or, well, all the running around on Madness of Deathwing there's so many situations where you have to change targets and we have the tools to do that.
There's no reason a warrior should lose overmuch DPS on a high mobility fight if he or she is using all the tools in our kit for movement. Sure, you're going to lose some, since any target switch is going to force us to start our priority of attacks over again, will likely cost you some rage generation, and is in general annoying and fiddly. Even if you minimize how much time you're in transit, yes, you're losing out on DPS. It can't be helped. But if you spend that travel time just running instead of using a faster ability you're only hurting yourself. Especially if you need to get out of a place fast, like say to evade the Thermonuclear Blast ability of the Hideous Amalgamations or to get ahead of an ice wall on Hagara. For a class without a sprint, we're ridiculously mobile and need to take advantage of it.
I'll be honest: one of the reasons I got on this subject was that I found myself tanking for PUGs and Raid Finder groups where DPS just kept dying. Not even by pulling threat, which I could at least blame myself for and potentially even fix. But watching people stand in the Distortion Bomb on Murozond and dying over and over again, forcing the hourglass to be used early, just kind of amazed me. I started watching my groups carefully, especially when there were other warriors in them, even when I switched back to DPS. I lost count of how many warriors I saw die to damage that they could have saved themselves from by either moving properly (seriously, the ice waves on Hagara are not hard to move in front of) or simply using Enraged Regeneration.
Kill things, don't die
I really, really, really don't understand why more warriors don't use Enraged Regeneration. Watching people die rather than pop this cooldown just astonishes me. I can understand not blowing Rallying Cry if you're expecting someone to call for it. I don't use Rallying Cry as much as I could in PUGs and the Raid Finder because I'm conditioned to wait for my raid leader to call for it. But I do use it when I run heroics or RF because why not use a three minute cooldown? I can understand, as a weird example, not using it on Heroic Anub'arak in Trial of the Crusader because you don't want to just give everyone more health to be healed (and thus heal the boss) but in most current raiding there's absolutely no reason not to use it. Use it when Elementium Bolts are going to explode and it'll be up again for when it's time to repeatedly punch Deathwing in his enormous chin. And what many people seem to ignore is that Enraged Regeneration heals for more the more health you have, so combining Rallying Cry and Enraged Regeneration means that ER will tick for more, healing you for more.
Kill things, don't die
I really, really, really don't understand why more warriors don't use Enraged Regeneration. Watching people die rather than pop this cooldown just astonishes me. I can understand not blowing Rallying Cry if you're expecting someone to call for it. I don't use Rallying Cry as much as I could in PUGs and the Raid Finder because I'm conditioned to wait for my raid leader to call for it. But I do use it when I run heroics or RF because why not use a three minute cooldown? I can understand, as a weird example, not using it on Heroic Anub'arak in Trial of the Crusader because you don't want to just give everyone more health to be healed (and thus heal the boss) but in most current raiding there's absolutely no reason not to use it. Use it when Elementium Bolts are going to explode and it'll be up again for when it's time to repeatedly punch Deathwing in his enormous chin. And what many people seem to ignore is that Enraged Regeneration heals for more the more health you have, so combining Rallying Cry and Enraged Regeneration means that ER will tick for more, healing you for more.
I realize this sounds somewhat basic, and you could argue that people already know all this, but watching people die over and over again when they could have lived for the past three weeks really convinces me that some of this information is worth reiterating. Warriors have tools to get out of the way of damage, to heal themselves and to buff their entire party or raid in terms of temporary health. This doesn't even mention the talent Field Dressing (which frankly, every DPS warrior should have) or Blood Craze (which is fairly easy to fit into a fury spec).
Find your position
Finally, there's positioning to talk about. If you position yourself poorly, you will not only hurt your DPS (because your chance to be dodged or parried goes up if you're in front of a boss) but you're much more likely to take very avoidable damage. I almost lost my mind one night while tanking Raid Finder Zon'ozz because several people insisted on standing in front of the boss and healing him and they would move to do so even if I turned him. This is the kind of thing that kills you and messes up the whole raid to boot, and it's easily avoidable. Be standing in the right place, usually behind whatever you're attacking. If there's a reason why you can't do that, be aware of it -- Ultraxion does not present his back but he can be safely attacked from in front, while Goriona often drops Twilight Flames so that you have to angle yourself, to give two examples.
Sometimes you can't avoid dying. The tank dies, the healers run out of mana, an enrage timer is hit. But if you die, you want it to be after you did all you could to avoid it. Dead people do no damage.
At the center of the fury of battle stand the warriors: protection, arms and fury. Check out more strategies and tips especially for warriors, from hot issues for today's warriors to Cataclysm 101 for DPS warriors and our guide to reputation gear for warriors.
Find your position
Finally, there's positioning to talk about. If you position yourself poorly, you will not only hurt your DPS (because your chance to be dodged or parried goes up if you're in front of a boss) but you're much more likely to take very avoidable damage. I almost lost my mind one night while tanking Raid Finder Zon'ozz because several people insisted on standing in front of the boss and healing him and they would move to do so even if I turned him. This is the kind of thing that kills you and messes up the whole raid to boot, and it's easily avoidable. Be standing in the right place, usually behind whatever you're attacking. If there's a reason why you can't do that, be aware of it -- Ultraxion does not present his back but he can be safely attacked from in front, while Goriona often drops Twilight Flames so that you have to angle yourself, to give two examples.
Sometimes you can't avoid dying. The tank dies, the healers run out of mana, an enrage timer is hit. But if you die, you want it to be after you did all you could to avoid it. Dead people do no damage.
At the center of the fury of battle stand the warriors: protection, arms and fury. Check out more strategies and tips especially for warriors, from hot issues for today's warriors to Cataclysm 101 for DPS warriors and our guide to reputation gear for warriors.
Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Necromann Feb 25th 2012 4:19PM
Top content for my warrior, both tanking and dpsing, is the raid finder. I too am amazed at how some people die without doing anything. What pisses me off is the the people who do it repeatedly and the "it's just a game" people. Oftentimes, a player is both.
Sqtsquish Feb 25th 2012 4:44PM
People get offended when you insist on them not being braindead. Being called a no lifer because I was able to do basic things with my class role has become quite common.
Tiek Mar 2nd 2012 9:31AM
Sadly I see the same things. People don't read up on fights, don't pay attention, or just don't care if they drag the whole group down.
I love my warriors tool kit so much. I wish I had it on some of my other toons. ER is freakin awesome with field dressing. I wish more people used it, like the arms warrior in my guild.
monotype Feb 25th 2012 5:13PM
This is...incredibly relevant to me, seeing as how I just bailed on a failpug after watching people stand in Aszhara's mages' arcane bombs. Really people, there's a _giant blue ball of fire_ descending on you. I don't care if it interrupts your cast, you move or you die.
Seizurebleak Feb 25th 2012 5:28PM
This article is fantastic, there should be one for every class! Pretty much everybody has damage mitigating or movement abilities that can and should be used in PvE!
Not standing in fire is good, but throwing in a quick Shamanistic Rage (enhancement shaman, reduces damage) or Nether Ward (destruction warlock, absorbs magic) during periods of unavoidable raid/party-wide damage saves your healers mana and allows them to keep the encounter under control.
Cambro Feb 25th 2012 5:57PM
I love playing warrior very much. One of the few drawbacks that I see is the much lower level of self-healing that warriors have compared to paladins and death knights. A paladin can lay on hands (?) and get full health, a DK can death strike (?) over and over again. In my experience, 1v1 against a similarly geared and skilled paladin or DK, I lose most of the time because down to the wire for both of us, they got off a big heal on themselves, and that's even counting me having used Enraged Regen. My only other option is Victory Rush, which requires that I get the killing blow on something close to my level.
That all said, I absolutely love the mobility that warriors have, for both pve and pvp. I wish Blizzard would make it so we can heroic leap up ramps and fix some of the "no path available" errors, but I still get tickled being able to outdistance someone by 65-100 yards with a few of my tricks.
Melissa Feb 25th 2012 6:05PM
This is a great article. I have a warrior I just got back into playing and I'm still getting into the groove of the play style. I'm sure most of this is common knowledge to a seasoned vet, but it was very helpful for me.
rojslade Feb 25th 2012 11:12PM
I'm surprised that u didnt even mention Shield Wall. Especially when it's so much easier to use these days compared to the past since it's now usable in any stance. Just have a "slap on a shield" macro, hit SW, then hit the icon for Fury on my action bar that I have from the equipement manager. 2 seconds for damage reduction, even more potent glyphed, has saved my butt many a time.
Perry Feb 26th 2012 12:31AM
If you stay in defensive stance for the duration of the incoming damage, you take 10% less of it.
damekageproductions Feb 26th 2012 1:25PM
I tank in raid period on my warrior I do not dps. However I find myself playing my alt rogue or druid and I see so many infuriating warrior tanks who have no idea how to properly tank. They are not a dk, a pally, or a druid they need to understand that yes there are similarities to how tanks work but they play differently.
rkaliski Feb 26th 2012 1:43PM
What does this have to do with DPS dying in the fire? Bad tanks are bad tanks be they DK Palladin or some hunters pet.
However there are reasons people do die in a fire. First is latency and frame rates due to a computer that is old and tired. Sometimes all it takes is to work on the graphics settins. No the game is not a pretty but the results are worth it. For others, only a more powerful computer will do.
Another reason is that people simply either have not read about the fights or simply forgot. Let's face it, with all the heroics and raids if you have been playing for some time it can be tough to keep it all straight in your head. Don't depend on memory. Use the resources out there to quick scan what is gonna hurt your class.
Warriors, for crying out loud pull back on your camera. Ah...you don't know how to? ASK SOMEONE. When you can only see yourself and the back of the bosses calf bad things are going to happen. Ranged DPS have an advantage that they have a great view of the action by doing nothing else but standing there. You do not. Pan around once in a while. You do know how to do that with the camera rather than move your toon
Despite the fancy armor most bosses can still crush you like a bug. In Wrath till you became overgeared the tank survived from cooldown to cooldown. Now, the healers are watching out for him, why the heck do you think they have time for you? My suggestion is if you only tank on your warrior, run some heroics as DPS. See how the other half lives.
If you only like to dps, then find some friends and offer to tank some heroics. It is an eye opener.
Walynds Feb 26th 2012 9:54PM
1) Damn you and you ass-kandy Rossi. You had me back in BWL the other day to get the bloody think for my pally!
2) Being in BWL reminded me of the firemaw fight (i think) where you had to dip out of LoS to drop the flame buffet. DPS had god forbid, use a pot or bandage cause there was a standing order from myself and the other healing leader not heal the DPS. We even booted people from the raid and would take an undergeared but more consumate raider who had a stack of bandages and pots for the fight. We even booted a healer once for going OOM and causing a wipe cause he was healing his mate in the DPS. They really have it easy these days the DPS. Here's hoping that bandaging becomes more commonplace in raids. It kept the DPSon their toes and made smarter players.