Warrior abilities

Warrior abilities fall into two broad categories: tanking and damage dealing. In most cases warrior ability usage is constrained by the rage at which rage is generated, although some abilities do not require rage and a small number generate rage when used. Many abilities can only be used in certain stance(s). The abilities listed below specify which stance(s) can use which abilities. Also see more warrior tactics.

Stances
The warrior always has one stance active at a time. The warrior's active stance determines which abilities the warrior can use. In addition, each stance provides the warrior a unique benefit.

Trainable Abilities
These abilities are available to all Warriors at the appropriate level, regardless of talents.

Talent Granted Abilities
These active abilities are gained by spending a talent point to acquire the appropriate talent.

Aggro management
Aggro control is a key part of being a Warrior, and abilities to aid this come in two types:

Threat
Many Warrior abilities, in addition to their stated purpose, cause various amounts of threat, an underlying in-game statistic which is used by enemies to determine which party member they will attack.

In group work, the tanking Warrior is different in that they actually want to cause as much threat as possible. Warriors engaged in high damage output, on the other hand, want to avoid causing too much threat.

High Threat: Sunder Armor, Heroic Strike, Shield Slam, Devastate, Revenge, Thunder Clap

Low Threat: Slam, Rend, Hamstring, et al.

Good threat management is tricky, but essential for instance work as a Warrior. Without managing threat, one can pull the mob off the tank if you are DPSing, or lose aggro on the mob if tanking.

Taunt


In addition to threat specials, the Warrior has several temporary instant aggro abilities:

Taunt (warrior ability) forces a target to attack you for a time. Challenging Shout has the same effect on all enemies in range.

It is important to note that Challenging Shout causes little threat itself, and the enemy will return to its original target when they expire, unless new threat is generated using other abilities. Taunt (warrior ability) works differently by generating just enough threat to place the Warrior at the top of the enemy's hate list, making it much easier to prevent the enemy from switching back to its original target so long as additional threat generating abilities are used.

Note that currently none of the Taunt type abilities work in PvP, and Blizzard has stated that these abilities will not work, despite Distract working just fine. However, taunting does work on aggressive pets.

In addition, Intimidating Shout fears everything in its radius that isn't the target. This can be quite dangerous, but can also buy time for a hasty escape. The target will cower in fear, immobilized for the duration of the shout, but will be freed upon taking any damage. That is, if you intend to use the ability to escape combat, you should remember to stop attacking the moment before you activate it to prevent disrupting the effect.

See Tanking

Counterattacks


Warriors gain access to certain counterattacks, namely Overpower and Revenge. This requires you to be quick to react.

Damage over Time
Warriors have access to a nice DoT ability, Rend. This DoT should, as all DoTs, be applied in combats where the DoT will have time to work.

Buffs
Warriors have two long duration buffs, although they last only two minutes (three if correctly talented). Battle Shout increases attack power and Commanding Shout increases maximum health, and both of these apply to everyone in the warrior's group inside 30 yards. These buffs require rage, and since warriors don't generate rage out of combat, they cannot prepare it before fights (except if he uses Bloodrage). Although they have a limited amount of long term buffs compared to priests and druids, they can also gain very strong short timed buffs such as Flurry, which increases attack speed by 25% score each time the warrior scores a critical strike (fury talent) or Enrage, which increases all damage done by the warrior by 25%, activates when the warrior receives a critical strike (fury talent). All those small buffs lasts under 15 seconds, but makes the warrior a very powerful character in combat.

Debuffs


Warriors have access to quite a few debuffs, everything from enemy attack-speed reduction (Thunder Clap), attack power reduction (Demoralizing Shout, Disarm) and movement speed reduction (Hamstring) to spell interruption (Pummel) and armor reduction (Sunder Armor).

In addition, Charge and Intercept could also be considered debuffs, since they stun the enemy.

Direct Damage
Warriors deal direct damage with Cleave, Execute, Heroic Strike, Intercept, Shield Slam and Slam.

Protection
Warriors can protect themselves or others with Shield Wall, Shield Block, Last Stand, Concussion Blow, and Intervene.

Shouts
Shouts generally buff or debuff multiple targets. Because of this, shouts should be used frequently but judiciously.

Timing
Certain Warrior abilities require the player to use them within a given window of opportunity. This means that extra attention needs to be paid to the hotbar, and the enemy's actions. These fall into two types:

These hotkeys will light up when a certain condition has been met. The Warrior then has a second or two to use the ability, or it will go dark and the moment has been lost. It is worth using them whenever possible, as they either do a lot of damage, or use much less Rage than a normal attack.
 * Reactions


 * Overpower - After a target Dodges.
 * Revenge - After a self Dodge, Block or Parry.
 * Execute - When target's remaining health is below 20%.

(The Revenge condition can be forced by using Shield Block beforehand. This will almost guarantee a self Block on the next enemy attack, and light up Revenge.)

These hotkeys are available whenever the Warrior has sufficient Rage, but are best kept for certain situations, as they will interrupt the enemy's spells. This takes some practice to get right, but can massively reduce the effort it takes to kill the enemy, either by preventing incoming damage, or stopping them healing themselves or allies.
 * Interrupts

Pummel - Use when enemy caster begins casting.

The casting charge-up noise and glowing hands effect used to be difficult to describe, but now there is an interface option to show an enemies casting bar, and the ability to silence or interrupt right before channeling completes.

Spell Reflection - Used to reflect an enemy spell back on themselves. As for interrupts this is best kept for certain situations - eg when a high damage or Crowd Control spell is being cast on you.
 * Reflection