Warrior

The Warrior is the class Blizzard touched least in Forever, and the class the beta community argues about most. The stances, rage, Sunder Armor and Heroic Strike are all still there. What changed is how rage is generated, and that single change makes the level 1 to 20 experience feel worse than vanilla while the level 60 sims say Warrior is still a top DPS. If you want to main tank for the guild, or you want the class with the best projected raid damage and are willing to grind through a rough first 30 levels, this is your page.

Rage is normalized to weapon speed in beta and crits give no extra rage. Not confirmed as intended or a bug. unverified Low-level Warriors want a slow two-hander and Unbridled Wrath.
Level a two-hander Fury build 10 to 30, swap to Arms at 30 for Sweeping Strikes and Mortal Strike at 40. Protection from 20 if you want to tank dungeons on the way.
Endgame: Fury 15/36/0 for sustained raid DPS, Arms 34/17/0 for PvP and a one-weapon raid build, Protection 0/8/43 for main tank. All three are theorycraft; nobody has played 60.
Vitality was removed from Protection. Several published Prot builds still spend 5 points on it. Correct them before you copy one.
Tactical Mastery is trained at 14 now, Thunder Clap works in Defensive Stance, Shield Wall is 15 minutes, and Vanguard lets you Charge in Defensive Stance.
Best races: Human (sword crit) or Dwarf (Stoneform) on Alliance, Orc (Blood Fury, axe crit) or Tauren (health and hit) on Horde. Nobody has raid data.

Why play it in Forever

Warrior got “one of the lightest reworks” of the nine classes verified, which means your vanilla muscle memory mostly still works. The kit is stances, rage, weapon choice, Sunder Armor and Heroic Strike. The upgrades are quality of life for everyone plus a serious push to make Protection a complete tank tree: rage from blocks and avoidance, a real defensive cooldown rotation, Charge in Defensive Stance.

The projected payoff is high. expcarry’s level 60 simulation ranks a hybrid Arms/Fury preset first among all specs at 1,099 DPS and projects Fury as S-tier and Arms as A-tier verified. The projected cost is the leveling road: in the level 20 beta, Warrior is the class that “feels furthest behind” verified, and multiple forum threads describe the early game as an auto-attack simulator.

Play Warrior if you want to be the guild’s main tank in Barrow Deeps, Hyjal and Onyxia, or if you want a melee DPS class with one of the highest projected ceilings and are fine being carried a little before 40.

What changed from vanilla

These are trained abilities, not talents. Data is from the beta client export (build 1.60.1.69876) unless tagged otherwise. verified

Ability	Forever	Vanilla	Why it matters
Victory Rush	New at 20. Instant, 30 sec cooldown, 15% of Attack Power damage and heals 10% of max health. Usable within 20 sec of killing a non-trivial enemy	Did not exist	Solo sustain. Beta testers call the conditions too restrictive verified
Tactical Mastery	Trained at 14: keep up to 10 Rage on stance change. Improved Tactical Mastery talent adds 15 more	5-point Arms talent, up to 25	Frees 5 talent points and makes stance dancing cheaper for everyone
Taunt	Level 10, 8 sec cooldown	10 sec
Slam	Level 20, 1.5 sec cast, now has a 15 sec cooldown	No cooldown	Improved Slam 2/2 removes the swing reset
Shield Block	Level 16, +75% block for 7 sec, blocks 2 attacks, 10 Rage, 5 sec cooldown	5 sec, 1 block	Use before big swings, not on cooldown
Shield Wall	15 min cooldown, 60% less damage for 12 sec	30 min, 75%, 10 sec	Improved Shield Wall 2/2 cuts 11 more minutes
Retaliation	15 min cooldown	30 min
Recklessness	Level 50, still 30 min cooldown, +100% crit, +20% damage taken, 15 sec	30 min	See the caution below
Thunder Clap	Usable in Battle and Defensive Stance, 6 sec cooldown, slows attack speed 20% at rank 4	Battle Stance only, 4 sec, 10%	AoE threat and mitigation for tanks
Shield Slam	Trained ranks at 40/48/54/60 after the talent; 421 to 439 base at max rank, increased by your Block Value, very high threat	225 to 235	Block Value is now a threat stat
Bloodrage	10 Rage now plus 10 over 10 sec	Same
Whirlwind	Level 36, 25 Rage, 10 sec cooldown, 4 targets	Same	Raging Blows adds the off-hand hit

Talent rewrites by tree

Talents were rewritten so many old five-point “taxes” are stronger per point. verified

Arms. New: Spearing Strike, Bloodthrill, Weaponmaster. Removed: Sword, Mace, Axe and Polearm Specialization, Tactical Mastery (now trained). Improved Rend is a 35% bleed at 3/3. Deep Wounds does 60% of weapon average damage over 12 sec at 3/3. Anger Management now also generates 1 Rage every 3 sec while in combat. Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is 3% at 3/3. Impale is 20% at 2/2 in all stances. Improved Slam 2/2 stops Slam resetting your swing and cuts 0.5 sec off the cast.

Fury. New: Boundless Rage, Raging Blows, Precision. Removed: Improved Battle Shout and Improved Demoralizing Shout. Unbridled Wrath is a 60% chance for 1 extra Rage per weapon hit at 5/5, 2 for two-handers. Dual Wield Specialization 5/5 is +25% off-hand damage, +100% off-hand Rage, +10% off-hand hit. Enrage is a 30% chance of +10% Physical damage for 12 sec after any damaging attack. Death Wish is now +20% Physical damage and +5% damage taken (was an armor loss). Bloodthirst is 35% of AP + 30 and grants +10% movement speed for 10 sec (was 45% AP plus a heal). Blood Craze heals 3% health over 6 sec after being crit, hitting with Bloodthirst, or taking a 20% hit.

Protection. New: Master of Defense, Vanguard, Focused Rage, Bastion. Removed: Improved Taunt, Improved Shield Block, and Vitality. Shield Specialization 5/5 is +5% block and a 100% chance of 5 Rage on block. Anticipation is +20 Defense at 5/5. Master of Defense 2/2 gives 5 Rage on every dodge or parry with a shield. Improved Revenge is now +60% Revenge damage; the stun is gone. Defiance is +15% threat in Defensive Stance with a shield at 3/3. Improved Shield Wall 2/2 takes 11 minutes off the cooldown. Bastion 5/5 is +10% all damage with a shield. Focused Rage 3/3 makes offensive abilities cost 3 less Rage.

Milestone talents

Tree	11-point	16-point (new)	21-point	31-point
Arms	Anger Management	Spearing Strike: 40% weapon damage, +80% vs Giants, Dragonkin and mounted targets, dismounts	Sweeping Strikes	Mortal Strike
Fury	Piercing Howl	Raging Blows: Whirlwind also hits with the off-hand, Cleave costs 2 less	Death Wish	Bloodthirst
Protection	Last Stand	Vanguard: Charge in Defensive Stance	Concussion Blow	Shield Slam

Rows unlock at 0/5/10/15/20/25/30 points in a tree. Legacy perk “Talented” starts talent points at level 5 on alts, still capped at 51. verified Respec cost was 1g then 5g at level 20 in beta; no blue post on the cap, and dual spec is not announced.

The rage change

This is the biggest Warrior controversy in beta and it decides how the class feels for the first 30 levels.

Rage in beta is normalized to weapon speed rather than damage dealt, and critical auto-attacks give no bonus rage. Forum numbers: one-handers swing about every 2 to 3 sec for 7 to 9 Rage, two-handers every 3 to 4 sec for 14 to 17, and most attacks cost 15 to 30. verified Whether this is intended is not settled: wowforeverbuilds reports “No Blizzard developer has replied in the thread yet”, one fetched summary of a different thread claimed a developer confirmed it as intended and then contradicted itself, and the official Known Issues post of 2026-09-17 does not list rage at all. unverified Read the rage threads before you commit to Warrior for launch. If the design stays, a two-hander plus Unbridled Wrath is the low-level answer, and Fury only comes alive once Dual Wield Specialization and Flurry are in.

The three trees

Spec	Role	Playstyle	Strengths	Weaknesses
Arms	Melee DPS, PvP	Two-hander. Rend, Overpower on dodges and Bloodthrill procs, Mortal Strike on cooldown, stance-dance Whirlwind, Slam without swing reset	One weapon to gear; Mortal Strike healing reduction; passive rage from Anger Management; Sweeping Strikes from 30	No hit talent; Rend is dead weight on bleed-immune bosses; one slow weapon means fewer Unbridled Wrath rolls
Fury	Melee DPS	Dual wield. Bloodthirst on cooldown, Whirlwind with Raging Blows, Heroic Strike or Cleave as rage dump, Death Wish and Recklessness for burn	Precision 3% hit; off-hand rage from Dual Wield Spec; Enrage off any hit; Death Wish is only +5% damage taken now	Two weapons to gear; threat risk on fresh tanks; rage starvation at low level
Protection	Tank	Sword and board in Defensive Stance. Charge with Vanguard, Shield Slam on cooldown, Revenge after avoidance, Sunder, Thunder Clap	Rage from blocks and avoidance; Bastion +10% damage; Defiance threat; 15-min Shield Wall; Last Stand	Multi-target threat behind Paladins; early-pull rage starvation

Arms

Role: melee DPS, the PvP spec, and a real raid build.

Playstyle: one slow two-hander. Rend opens every fight because Bloodthrill’s Overpower procs only happen against Rend targets. Mortal Strike on cooldown from 40, Overpower on every dodge or Bloodthrill proc, Whirlwind via a stance swap, Heroic Strike as a rage dump. Slam is only worth pressing with Improved Slam 2/2.

Strengths: you gear one weapon. Weaponmaster rewards any two-hander type, so a quest axe and a dungeon polearm are both upgrades. Mortal Strike’s 50% healing reduction is the PvP button. Anger Management gives rage while you wait for the tank. Sweeping Strikes at 30 makes leveling healthy.

Weaknesses: no hit talent (Precision is Fury), so all your hit comes from gear. Rend upkeep on bleed-immune bosses is wasted rage. One slow weapon means fewer Unbridled Wrath rolls than a dual wielder.

Verdict: the leveling spec from 30 onward, the PvP spec, and a viable single-weapon raid build. expcarry projects it A-tier at 60. verified

Fury

Role: melee DPS, the projected top raid spec.

Playstyle: dual wield. Bloodthirst on cooldown, Whirlwind when Bloodthirst is down (Raging Blows adds the off-hand hit), Heroic Strike with excess rage, Cleave on two or more targets. Death Wish on burn phases, Recklessness once per long fight.

Strengths: Precision gives 3% hit for free. Dual Wield Specialization doubles off-hand rage and adds 10% off-hand hit. Enrage triggers off any damaging attack. Death Wish costs only +5% damage taken now.

Weaknesses: you need two good weapons. You will pull threat off a fresh tank. Under beta rage rules, dual wielding before Dual Wield Specialization is “a miss festival” and the tree feels bad until Flurry and Bloodthirst are in.

Verdict: the raid DPS build, projected S-tier at 60 by expcarry’s sim with the explicit caveat that the sim used a hybrid preset and “does not prove Fury alone is the #1 spec”. verified wowforeverbuilds and Icy Veins snippets favor Fury for sustained PvE and Arms for PvP unverified (Icy Veins is JS-rendered and could not be loaded directly).

Protection

Role: tank. The guild’s safest main tank pick.

Playstyle: Defensive Stance with a shield, always. Charge in with Vanguard, Bloodrage, Shield Slam on cooldown, Revenge every time you block, dodge or parry, Sunder to 5 stacks and refresh, Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout for mitigation, Heroic Strike only with surplus rage.

Strengths: Shield Specialization and Master of Defense turn every block, dodge and parry into rage, which fixes the vanilla “tank with no rage” problem once you have a shield. Bastion is +10% damage. Defiance is +15% threat. Shield Wall is 15 minutes (4 with Improved Shield Wall). Last Stand at 11 points. Thunder Clap in Defensive Stance.

Weaknesses: multi-target threat is behind the Protection Paladin’s Consecration and Holy Shield. The first few seconds of a pull are still rage-starved. Sunder Armor threat was bugged at 13 instead of 45 in beta and is reported fixed. verified

Verdict: main tank for bosses in every raid size. Icy Veins’ snippet says Protection “is at its best while tanking dungeons” unverified; the corrected 0/8/43 below is the raid build.

Leveling 1 to 60

Beta data stops at level 20 (rising to 30 during the beta). Everything past 20 is theorycraft from wowforeverbuilds.com, dated September 15 to 21, unless noted. unverified

What testers actually run at 20

The level 20 beta Fury build verified: Cruelty 5/5 (10 to 14), Unbridled Wrath 5/5 (15 to 19), Piercing Howl (20). The reason: with crits giving no extra rage, Unbridled Wrath’s per-hit roll is the only rage fix in reach. Use a two-hander (14 to 17 Rage per swing versus 7 to 9 for a one-hander).

Rotation at 20: Charge, Rend if the mob will live 10 seconds, Overpower on dodge, Heroic Strike only as a dump. On multiple mobs, Demoralizing Shout then Piercing Howl.

expcarry’s alternative level 20 Arms build: Improved Rend 3/3, Deflection 2/5, Improved Overpower 2/2, Improved Tactical Mastery 3/5, Deep Wounds 1/3. verified

Recommended solo route

Fury 1 to 30, respec Arms at 30 for Sweeping Strikes, Mortal Strike at 40. verified

Early Fury 10 to 30: Cruelty 5, Unbridled Wrath 5, Piercing Howl, Blood Craze 3, Booming Voice 1, Enrage 5, Death Wish at 30. Rotation: “Charge, Rend, then auto attack and Heroic Strike when you have spare Rage”, Overpower after dodges, Execute under 20%. Two-handers only; do not dual wield before Dual Wield Specialization.

Arms 30 to 60 (the full 10 to 60 order if you start Arms) verified:

Levels	Talent
10 to 12	Improved Rend 3
13 to 14	Improved Heroic Strike 2
15 to 16	Improved Charge 2
17 to 18	Improved Overpower 2
19	Improved Tactical Mastery 1
20 to 22	Deep Wounds 3
23 to 26	Improved Tactical Mastery to 5
27	Anger Management
28 to 29	Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 2
30	Sweeping Strikes
31 to 35	Weaponmaster 5
36 to 37	Impale 2
38 to 39	Fill Arms
40	Mortal Strike
41 to 50	Cruelty 5, Unbridled Wrath 5 (Fury)
51 to 60	Piercing Howl, Improved Hamstring, Bloodthrill, Spearing Strike

Rotation: “Charge in Battle Stance. Rend, then build Rage. Overpower on every dodge. On two mobs, Sweeping Strikes first. Single target from 40: Mortal Strike on cooldown.” Take slow two-hander quest rewards over stat pieces. Do the Whirlwind Weapon quest at 30 vanilla baseline; the guide assumes it still exists.

Protection while leveling

For people who want to tank dungeons on the way up. verified Shield Specialization 5 (10 to 14), Improved Bloodrage 2, Improved Thunder Clap 3, Last Stand (20), Master of Defense 2, Improved Revenge 3, Vanguard (26), Defiance 3, Concussion Blow (30), then the source guide lists Vitality 5 at 31 to 35, which no longer exists: put those 5 points into Toughness or Anticipation instead. Then Bastion 5, Shield Slam at 40, Focused Rage 3, Toughness, Anticipation, Cruelty 5, Improved Heroic Strike.

Rotation: stay in Defensive Stance, Charge with Vanguard, Bloodrage, Thunder Clap on 2+, “Revenge first, always”, Sunder the kill target, Shield Slam on cooldown from 40, Heroic Strike only above 40 Rage. Upgrade your shield as often as your weapon: Shield Spec, Master of Defense and Bastion all need one equipped.

Dungeon-leveling variants exist on wowforeverbuilds (Melee Cleave Arms 20 to 40, Hybrid Cleave Prot 15 to 40, Melee Burst Fury/Prot 40 to 60, Control Group Prot 40 to 60). verified See Leveling overview and Dungeons.

Leveling tips

Victory Rush’s 20-second window starts on the kill. Chain pulls so it is never wasted.
Slam has a 15 sec cooldown and still interrupts your swing without Improved Slam. Leveling Arms without Improved Slam should mostly ignore it.
Do not queue Heroic Strike at low rage; it replaces your next swing and forfeits that swing’s rage. verified
Gnome Expansive Mind now gives +5% max Rage, and leprestore names Gnome as a leveling pick. verified

Endgame builds

Every level 60 build here is theorycraft. wowforeverbuilds labels its own 60 guides “Theorycraft (not yet verified in beta)”. verified Expect tuning passes before and after launch. Raid sizes: Barrow Deeps 10, Hyjal Summit 20, Onyxia’s Lair 40. Our catalog’s default composition targets are 2 tanks / 3 healers / 5 DPS for a 10, 3/5/12 for a 20, 4/10/26 for a 40; those are guild defaults, not Blizzard numbers. See Raids overview and Raid composition.

Fury raid DPS, 15/36/0

Talents verified: Arms 15: Improved Heroic Strike 3, Improved Rend 3, Improved Tactical Mastery 5, Anger Management, Deep Wounds 3. Fury 36: Booming Voice 2, Cruelty 5, Unbridled Wrath 5, Boundless Rage 3, Dual Wield Specialization 5, Raging Blows, Enrage 5, Precision 3, Death Wish, Flurry 5, Bloodthirst.

Priority:

Wait for tank threat. Battle Shout, Berserker Stance.
Bloodthirst on cooldown.
Whirlwind when Bloodthirst is down.
Heroic Strike with excess rage, Cleave on 2+.
Keep Sunder stacks if the tank is rage-starved.
Under 20%: Execute over everything except Bloodthirst overflow.

Cooldowns: Death Wish on burn phases, Recklessness once per long fight in execute range, Bloodrage and Berserker Rage for rage.

Stats: weapons first (slow main hand, fast or equal off-hand), then hit to the boss cap after Precision, then crit and Strength, Agility, weapon skill if it appears on gear. The Forever hit cap is unknown; vanilla was 9% vanilla baseline.

Consumables: Elixir of the Mongoose, Juju Power, Winterfall Firewater, Strength food (Smoked Desert Dumplings), Mighty Rage Potion for burn phases, a healing potion as insurance during Death Wish, sharpening stones on both weapons. New Alchemy items to add once someone verifies they stack: Elixir of the Grizzly (+25 Str, +2% crit), Elixir of Ferocity (+18 Str/Agi), Major Frenzy Potion (+40 AP for 30 sec). verified Whether Forever limits you to one offensive and one defensive elixir is not announced; vanilla allowed unlimited stacking vanilla baseline. See Alchemy.

Raid fit: sustained single-target without pulling threat, Cleave on trash, back up Pummel interrupts. In a 10 you may be the only Sunder source when the tank is rage-starved. In a 40 you fight for Battle Shout radius (Booming Voice +50%). The Tier 1 DPS set, Battlegear of Glory, is datamined at 2pc +1% attack and casting speed, 3pc -30 sec Intimidating Shout, 4pc +36 AP vs Humanoids, 5pc -30 sec Recklessness. unverified

Arms raid DPS, 34/17/0

Talents verified: Arms: Improved Heroic Strike, Improved Rend, Improved Tactical Mastery, Improved Overpower, Anger Management, Deep Wounds, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, Impale, Weaponmaster, Sweeping Strikes, Bloodthrill, Mortal Strike. Fury: Booming Voice 2, Cruelty 5, Unbridled Wrath 5, Boundless Rage 3, Improved Execute 2.

Priority: Battle Shout and Rend (Rend opens the Bloodthrill window), Mortal Strike on cooldown, Overpower on dodge or Bloodthrill proc, stance-swap Whirlwind, keep Rend up, Heroic Strike dump. In execute phase drop Rend.

Stats: two-hander quality first, hit from gear (no Precision), Strength and AP, crit, Agility. Weaponmaster makes axes and polearms (+5% crit) the tiebreaker pick.

Consumables: same as Fury, one sharpening stone.

Raid fit: the one-weapon raid build. Bring it when you have one great two-hander and no off-hand, or when the fight needs Mortal Strike on a healing add. Sweeping Strikes makes it strong on paired trash.

Protection main tank, 0/8/43 (corrected, no Vitality)

Talents verified, adjusted for the Vitality removal: Fury 8: Cruelty 5, Unbridled Wrath 3. Protection: Shield Specialization 5, Anticipation 5, Improved Bloodrage 2, Toughness 5, Last Stand, Master of Defense 2, Defiance 3, Improved Sunder Armor 3, Vanguard, Improved Shield Wall 2, Concussion Blow, Bastion 5, Focused Rage 3, Shield Slam, plus 5 free points where the source build had Vitality. Improved Thunder Clap 3 and Improved Revenge 2 are the natural fillers.

Priority:

Pull with Bloodrage, then Shield Slam or Sunder.
Shield Slam on cooldown.
Revenge after every block, dodge or parry.
Sunder to 5, then refresh.
Heroic Strike with excess rage.
Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap always up for mitigation.
Multi-target: Thunder Clap, Cleave, tab-Sunder.

Stats: Defense until raid bosses cannot crit you, then Stamina and armor, then avoidance and Block Value (both now generate rage, and Block Value scales Shield Slam), then hit for Taunt, then Strength.

Consumables: Elixir of Superior Defense, Elixir of Fortitude, Stamina food, Greater Stoneshield Potion, Mighty Rage Potion on the pull, Mongoose or Juju Power if survival is covered, resistance potions by encounter. Mining’s +5% total health is a permanent tank consumable. verified

Raid fit: in a 10-player Barrow Deeps with 2 tanks, the Prot Warrior is the safe main tank and a Prot Paladin the add tank. In 20 and 40 the Warrior holds bosses and the Paladin gathers trash. The Tier 1 tank set, Battleplate of Glory, is datamined at 2pc +7 Defense, 3pc -10 sec Intervene, 4pc -1.2% enemy dodge/parry, 5pc -30 sec Shield Wall. unverified The 3pc references “Intervene”, which is not in the spellbook export; open question.

Fury emergency off-tank

Tactical Mastery being baseline means a 15/36 Fury Warrior can swap to a shield and Defensive Stance for an emergency. Defiance, Shield Specialization and Bastion all need the shield and the stance, so this is a 30-second fix, not a plan.

PvP notes

Honor is a seasonal 14-rank track per patch cycle with visible honor gains per match; decay is reportedly removed in beta unverified. Darkspear Islands is a new 15v15 battleground; WSG and AB are “planned” unverified. No rated PvP and no arena per the September 17 Q&A unverified. See PvP.

Arms 31/20/0 verified: Mortal Strike, Improved Hamstring 3, Weaponmaster 5, Deep Wounds, Two-Handed Spec; Fury: Cruelty 5, Unbridled Wrath 5, Piercing Howl, Blood Craze 3, Enrage 5. Charge or Intercept, Hamstring, Mortal Strike the healer’s target, stay near your healers.
Fury 12/39/0 “the chaser” verified: Improved Intercept, Bloodthirst’s +10% movement speed, Death Wish fear immunity.
Protection 0/13/38 node defender verified: Vanguard, Improved Revenge, Shield Slam dispel, Concussion Blow, Improved Shield Bash silence.
Racials that matter: Human Will to Survive (stun break), Gnome Escape Artist, Undead Will of the Forsaken, Orc Hardiness (-20% stun duration), Dwarf Stoneform (now also -10% Physical damage for 8 sec and Bleed/Poison/Disease immunity). verified

Race choice

Warriors can be every race including both Skyborne. verified Skyborne is a paid unlock (Heroic Pack or above). Racials are from the beta client, cross-checked with talentsforever.com/racials. verified The old weapon-skill racials are now crit racials, and the forever-hunter wiki notes they apply to melee and spell crit.

Alliance

Race	Warrior-relevant racials	Verdict
Human	Sword Specialization +2% crit with swords; Will to Survive (stun break, 3 min); Perception; The Human Spirit +5% Spirit	Best Alliance DPS pick if you commit to swords. The strongest weapon-crit racial in the game
Dwarf	Stoneform (removes and immunizes Bleed/Poison/Disease, -10% Physical damage 8 sec, 3 min); Mace Specialization +1% crit with maces; Big Game Hunter +5% vs Beasts; Find Treasure	Best Alliance tank pick. Stoneform is a real defensive cooldown now
Night Elf	Quickness +1% dodge, +2% move speed; Shadowmeld; Wisp Spirit; Elune’s Light +10% crit for 15 sec	Dodge for tanks, a crit burst for DPS. Fine, not best
Gnome	Escape Artist (root/snare break, 3 sec immunity); Expansive Mind +5% max Mana, Rage or Energy; Eureka! (next 3 damaging abilities cheaper and +10% damage); Engineering Specialization	Expansive Mind helps Warriors now; PvP escape; leprestore’s leveling pick
High Order Skyborne (paid)	Walk on Air (10 sec glide, 2 min); Read Ley Line (+100% Health and Mana regen); Wind Blessed +1% haste; Elemental Insight +5% vs Elementals	1% haste is a real DPS racial; regen helps leveling; no defensive tool

Horde

Race	Warrior-relevant racials	Verdict
Orc	Blood Fury (+10% AP and Spell Power 15 sec, 2 min); Hardiness (-20% stun duration); Axe Specialization +1% crit with axes; Shatter Curse (curse immunity and -15% magic damage 8 sec)	Best Horde DPS pick (Blood Fury is a percentage now) and a good tank pick (Shatter Curse)
Undead	Will of the Forsaken; Cannibalize (7% health and mana per 2 sec for 10 sec); Touch of the Grave (5% melee chance to drain up to 5% health); Underwater Breathing	PvP and solo sustain
Tauren	Endurance +5% health and +1% hit; War Stomp (0.5 sec cast, stuns 5 within 8 yd for 2 sec); Plainsrunning (up to +30% speed out of combat); Cultivation	Best Horde tank pick: health, hit and an AoE stun. Hit helps DPS too
Troll	Berserking (+10% attack and cast speed 10 sec, 3 min); Regeneration; Beast Slaying +5% vs Beasts; Rapid Regeneration (50% health over 6 sec channel)	Strong DPS racial. Beast Slaying depends on raid creature types, which are unknown
Windshaper Skyborne (paid)	Walk on Air; Skysight (+10% movement, 30 sec or 15 min near an elemental convergence); Wind Blessed +1% haste; Elemental Insight	Haste plus mobility; no defensive tool

Sources disagree on “best”: leprestore says Human and Night Elf for Alliance PvE, Orc and Troll for Horde verified; classicwow.gg says pick “based on recurring encounter mechanics rather than inherited Classic preferences” verified. Nobody has raid data. See the full race grid.

Professions for this class

Goal	Pairing	Why
Raiding or PvP	Engineering + Mining	Grenades, Goblin Sapper Charge, new trinkets; Mining gives +5% total health verified
Self-supplied gear	Mining + Blacksmithing	Forever Blacksmithing adds all-stat belt buckles in four tiers, a Repair All ability, and tanking weapons; Armorsmith and Weaponsmith still exist verified. leprestore mentions a Sharpening Wheel camp feature that raises Attack Power unverified (single source)
Gold while leveling	Mining + Herbalism	Herbalism also gives magic resistances
Every Warrior	First Aid	Bandages, and healing potions moved from Alchemy to First Aid verified

See Professions overview, Engineering and Blacksmithing.

Pre-raid gear philosophy

DPS: “prioritize major weapon upgrades before small armor improvements”. verified Arms wants one high-damage two-hander, then hit, Strength/AP, crit. Fury wants two weapons, then hit, AP.
Tank: shield first (armor, block chance, Block Value, then stats), a fast main hand for rage and Heroic Strike, then Stamina, armor, Defense. verified
Dungeon sets were reworked with 2/3/4/5/6-piece bonuses. Battlegear of Valor reportedly gives all-resistances, Strength, a disarm-removal proc, a heal-plus-Rage proc and health regen across pieces; Battlegear of Heroism is the Dungeon Set 2 anchor. expcarry states set bonuses are “provisional until Blizzard exposes the level-60 build”. unverified Do not build a spreadsheet on them yet.
Sources: Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Dire Maul, Scholomance, Stratholme, plus the new dungeons Blackmaw Hold and Shaper’s Terrace unverified (new dungeon names are single-sourced). Full BiS lists are vapor right now: wow-forever.top, wowforever.be and woweternity all say “data pending”. verified

See Pre-raid gear and Loot rules.

Common mistakes and pro tips

Heroic Strike at low rage is a trap. It replaces your next swing and forfeits that swing’s rage. verified Known beta issue: queuing an on-next-attack ability (Heroic Strike, Cleave) “disables your spell queue window”, so your next real ability may not queue behind it. verified
Rend is not optional for Arms. Bloodthrill’s Overpower procs only happen against Rend targets.
Tanks: never leave Defensive Stance to open. Vanguard means Charge works there. Thunder Clap works there too.
Shield Block is 2 blocks over 7 sec. Use it before big swings, not on cooldown.
Slam interrupts your swing without Improved Slam 2/2, and it has a 15 sec cooldown. Ignore it while leveling Arms unless you take the talent.
Recklessness is 30 minutes. Save it for execute phases, not the opener.
Victory Rush starts its 20-second window on the kill. Chain pulls.
Stance macros reportedly stall in beta (“having to wait and press again”). unverified (foreverwisp, unconfirmed by Blizzard).
Sunder threat was bugged at 13 instead of 45 in beta and is reported fixed. If your Sunders feel weak after launch, check the patch notes before blaming your gear.
Booming Voice and Boundless Rage are called useless in beta feedback threads with no Blizzard reply. verified Both raid builds above still take them as filler.

Addons and macros under the Forever API

Forever uses the retail (Midnight) addon API. Old Classic addons do not load. See Addons that work and Macros.

Dead for Warriors specifically verified: third-party threat meters (threat is hidden), WeakAuras (no Forever port), Hekili-style rotation helpers, and any addon that does math on enemy health. UnitHealth returns a secret value and arithmetic on it throws “attempt to perform arithmetic on a secret number value”. Execute-range indicators that compute 20% from health will not work; the default target frame percentage still displays.

What Blizzard provides: a built-in damage meter and cooldown manager (confirmed). A built-in swing timer was “discussed but not promised” per the baseline research; wowforeverclassic.com asserts it exists. unverified Treat the swing timer as unconfirmed. Beta issue: “the cooldown manager is incomplete for some classes”. verified

Boss mods: DBM and BigWigs carry a Forever flavor. Details! did not as of 09-19; use the built-in meter. Platynator nameplates are designed for Midnight and Forever. verified

Macro syntax is retail syntax: [@mouseover,harm,nodead], [stance:1/2/3], /startattack, /castsequence, /equip all exist. verified Vanilla-only script macros (/script CastSpellByName) do not.

Practical Warrior macros, retail syntax, untested in beta by us:

Stance-conditional Charge or Intercept (Vanguard tanks can just bind Charge):

#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast [stance:1] Charge; [stance:3] Intercept

Mouseover Taunt:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Taunt

Emergency tank swap:

/equip <your shield>
/cast Defensive Stance

Put /startattack at the top of every DPS macro.

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Rage normalization and missing crit-rage: intended or bug. No blue post either way.
Whether a corrected 0/8/43 Protection build without Vitality has been published anywhere; ours is a five-point substitution, not a tested build.
Recklessness cooldown: client says 30 min, zockify says 15.
Flurry value: 5% vs 25%, probably rank confusion.
Whether “Intervene” exists as a trained ability (the Battleplate of Glory 3pc references it; the spellbook export does not).
The built-in swing timer.
Forever Defense cap for tanks and hit cap for DPS. Every guide recycles vanilla numbers with a disclaimer.
Elixir stacking rules.
All dungeon and Tier 1 set bonuses, which are datamined and “provisional”.
Beta level 21 to 30 data. None of the fan guides had updated when this was written; expect the level 20 builds above to be superseded within days.
Fury versus Arms at 60. Sims favor Fury; nobody has parsed either.