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I'm delighted to see more warriors in the guild, both those arriving from elsewhere AND those who are getting leveled up to 58+ where end-game is in sight.

Over the past few months TG has gone from virtually no warriors at level 60 to virtually "full". I couldn't be happier!

Now because of my advanced age and tenure as...well, I'm gonna share some thoughts with you anway!

First, Phantom...I hate you ...actually I don't, but gimme a break...last night Phantom was a guest with Reverent for the purpose of getting his Quel'Serrar tempered by Onyxia, the [Helm of Wrath]dropped. Since all their warriors already had it, he was the only roller...UNFAIR!!!! Seriously, gratz! Two epics in one run...wowzer!

That leads me to my thought for the day...and that is gearing up for end-game. The typical warrior armor path leads to the Valor set and then beyond...+defense gear for tanking, +hit/crit gear for DPS and FR gear for all. Reaching level 60 is a huge achievement, but it only starts the gear upgrade game all over again. I want to encourage all warriors to go after their gear. Do some research, figure out who drops what (Research here...http://69.41.171.43/index.htm) and make runs or quests to get what you want. Better gear makes it easier on the healers to keep you up and is critical for the MT role. The key thing, though, is that most of your gear upgrades are blue drops that aren't found in ZG or AQ or MC. They come from quests (e.g. [Ornate Adamantium Breastplate]or from UBRS/LBRS/Strat/Scholo/Dire Maul...heck, even BRD. Most items are BOP so you can't buy them. This means you'll be busy, since we need warriors for raiding, but you need the gear from instancing.

Thinking out loud...with a guild roster of 8 or so warriors who are active, not all should be MT/Protection-specc'd IMO. We need 'bout half who are and the rest DPS oriented with Arms/Fury spec of choice, provided they have some ability to step in with sword-and-board if needed when MT's go down. I don't want to tell you how to spec, but having 15 points in protection buys a lot of tanking goodness.

I'd welcome warrior input and discussion, particularly from our newer guild-mates. What do you think? What does your experience suggest?

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Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Ctuchik

This is a nice chest piece. I prefer to tank with the [Deathbone Chestplate]. With the +100 health on it, its very comprabile to the OAB. The +17 defense is probaly the highest youll see in-game for tanking pieces and +7 defense it has over OAB makes up for the lack of armor.

As far as tanks go....If you have at least 3-4 protection spec, the rest of you should be going arms/fury. This doesnt mean duel wield, this means giant two-handed sword of kicking your a$$. Basically comes down to who wants to tank, and who wants to shank. Decide amongst yourselves and see who gets off light.

Phantom

I will stay Protection spec or change to Arms/Fury if needed, i can play either and it doesn't matter to much to me which i play. But until the point of choosing comes I will stay Protection spec. As far as gear goes, I try and get in on nearly any run I can to try and get geared up. I need to pick up some serious FR gear before Saturday since me FR unbuffed is around 50 or so.

I am going to try and do a little looking into all three trees and come up with a good Arms/Fury spec with some points in protection for when you need to tank, but it will be mainly focused on DPS.

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Mateo

Right now, I'm 49%/49%/2% (arms/fury/prot): I suppose I could respecc either way, although it will take some doing to learn how to fight with a sheild, since I have been dual weilding or two handing it since level 1.

Ctuchik

Mateo you prolly should stay heavy arms. Mortal strike is crucial for a lot of the bosses you go to fight as it cuts healing by 50% (Bat, Spider, Hexxer in ZG). If you are geared for armms/fury, id stay that way, otherwise your gonna have to collect tanking gear and put yourself that much further out of endgame adventures.

beep

Mateo, IMO the "target" build for leveling is aimed at getting first to either 31 points in Arms (to Mortal Strike) or 31 points in Fury (to Bloodthirst), with the rest up for grabs.

A great "hybrid" that I used was 31/5/15. That gets you to some of the most desirable Protection talents (e.g. Defiance with the increased aggro/threat generation) while not gimping your ability to do some serious damage with a 2 hander. With this spec, you can be an effective "backup" tank when needed with 1hand and shield, while DPS'ing seriously with a 2H when not "tanking".

Trying to combine Fury (31) with 15 in Protection is more problematic in my view since 5 points in arms doesn't get to Tactical Mastery and the ability to Stance Dance without losing all your rage. It's not impossible to work, just a lot tougher.

When we determined that the guild needed me to MT, I respec'd to 9/11/31...though I'd probably redo today to 11/9/31 or 10/10/31...all pretty close.

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Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Phantom

Yeah I think I will be looking at a respec between ZG Tuesday and Wednesday. Pulling some points out of un-needed talents in protection and dumping some into fury.

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Mateo

I suppose it all depends on where we stand as a Guild.

How many talent points do you get, total? If you only get 1 per level, then I currently have 17 talents on the way, and I could dump them all into Arms, and respec out of fury.

Althought at 5gp per "unlearn" it will be broke after 2 points.

I never thought of only levelling one branch, since it seemed that each of them had an important effect on questing, either by doing more damage up front, or rendering opponent's attacks and armor useless. I put the points in what would help me the most at the time.

beep

You get 51 total talent points (starting at level 10), earning one per level. You can respec (which resets ALL your talent points to zero) for increasing gold cost per respec, capped at 50 gold per respec.

My first time through, I spread talents around thinking I could be patient. My advice now is to focus on arms (or fury) up to the level 31 talent, then branch out. There are numerous "standard" warrior specs which we can post, but the typical choices are:
1. Mortal Strike - 31/20/0
2. Fury - 20/31/0
3. Protection - 10/10/31
4. Hybrid - 31/5/15

Here's a talent calculator for playing around without spending any gold...

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/

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Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Mateo

Ok, thanks. I respecced my hunter way back when, and it seemed like it burned through more Gold than that. So if I head over to the Trainer, I can reset all to zero, and have 43-10=33 points to play with?

beep

You got it...though whatever you take, you cannot untake...i.e. you can't back out of a talent you picked without full respec, so be sure you know what you want first and take your time.

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Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Phantom

Yeah before you respec make sure and use one of the talent tree calculators to figure it out.

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Halten

I'm heavy arms talents, and if we don't need any more prot specs, thats fine with me.

beep

Halten, I see no reason for you to change to protection, and even if we needed it, you wouldn't respec until level 58 or so. Stay focused on your DPS build, chase your gear, learn how to play your character...all basic stuff.

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Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Halten

Yeah, in Scholo yesterday, someone said on teamspeak how we've basically got enough prot specs, that was kind of a relief to me, I love the DPS arms brings in :P.