The Warrior Leveling

[Zetox]

The real question is whether it's worth it to level 5 points in Cruelty first, then do the rest in Arms Tree and Respec at 40 or just go 31 points in Arms 1-40? Thoughts?

[Yams]

I prefer starting out with 5/5 cruelty for the critical boost early on. Leveling a warrior prior to getting the WW Axe can be frustrating.

I've tried 1H + shield vs. 2H up for leveling up to 30 and, unless you get a really good 2H early on, I tend to prefer going 1H + shield with 5/5 cruelty + arms. Once I reach level 30, I switch over to WW Axe, then respec MS at 40.

With a shield early on, you won't sacrifice too much damage and your survivability will increase while your downtime will decrease. As always, it's a matter of personal preference and play style.

[rakei]

5 cruelty and the rest in arms then respec ms at 40. Imp charge, imp op, tm, am will help more than any other talents--good for questing and good for 5 mans.

[twocows]

As far as leveling in arms, what should the stat priority be?

[Grave]

The real question is whether it's worth it to level 5 points in Cruelty first, then do the rest in Arms Tree and Respec at 40 or just go 31 points in Arms 1-40? Thoughts?

Yep, Cruelty first 5 points here as well. I usually respec to Fury for Bloodthirst to grind gold for mount before returning to Arms. But that incurs an eventual 5g extra respec cost.

As far as leveling in arms, what should the stat priority be?

STR, STM (" ... of the Bear" items) and secondary stats as you get them - pref Crit and Hit. Neither of which you will get much of while leveling, mind.

[Plask]

It also works to level in Fury all the way, even though you get the Whirlwind weapon. 2H Fury is pretty viable tbh. At 37-41 you will then grab SM sword and RFD sword, and later at 48 you can get the thrash blade from mauradon.

Arms might be really good for PvP but it's not neccesarily needed for leveling with a 2H.

[Lemming]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great info, I'm not looking forward to the leveling of a new warrior with only green gear, and the random blues.

That said one tip I have is always try for better gear makes a huge difference for leveling. even spending a few hours more per level will make it a lot more fun.

[Putni]

I personally found that going full Arms from the beginning is a really good tactic.

5/5 Cruelty first is worth considering, but this means you are always going to be one tier lower on the talent tree than full Arms Warriors.

By level 21 a full Arms Warrior has 2/2 Overpower talent. This is one of the most crucial talents in Warrior leveling as we tend to miss alot and we get dodged, parried and blocked an awful lot of times, too, and a well placed Overpower crit can save you - in fact it did save me on more than one occassions from dying.

(For the unexperienced: Overpower is a skill that gets activated when your enemy dodges you. You can then hit the mob with Overpower and the mob has no way of defending itself from - unless you miss, which is about your hit chance, not about the defense values of the mob. The Overpower talent raises the critical chance of Overpower by 25/50%, depending on how many points are put into it.)

And it's not just about misses, it's also about the lack of normal skills at this level. You basically got Heroic Strike and Overpower, Fury skills don't come into play till 30 when you get Berserker Form (now I might actually be wrong on this one, it was a long time ago I last tried to level on Fury but I believe you don't get any offensive skills on the Fury tree till 30).

If you put your points into Cruelty first, this awesome talent will only be unlocked for you on 26. I'm not saying you can't live without it, but it sure makes life so much easier.

By level 34 you have access to a lot of crit and damage talents, and hopefully the Whirlwind Axe (with some help from people, even your own level it is possible to do the chain). This makes life between 30 and 40 *very* easy. Not to mention the various advantages in PvP, which you will encounter whether you like it or not, since you will be spending half your time in STV (or you stay clear of it and generally suffer from the consequences of half the content having some connection to the place).

Now again, what I wrote down here is not law, others might have different opinions, this is mine. If you are into efficient leveling and are not particularly experienced with the class in Vanilla, it is definitely the better choice for you.

[Juddy]

If you're not going prot pre enrage or MS then I feel bad for you.

[Grave]

Trying out this 2H Fury spec until level 40, than speccing MS.

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#LZE0uG0xoV

At level 21, Arms gets Imp. OP.
At level 21, Fury 2H has 2/3 Blood Craze or 2/3 Imp Cleave. (5/5 Cruelty)

At level 29, Arms gets Impale. (Imp. OP)
At level 29, Fury 2H 5/5 Enrage. (5/5 Cruelty)

At level 35 Arms gets Axe Spec 5% crit to match Fury Cruelty. (SS, Imp. OP, Impale)
At level 35 Fury 2H gets 1/5 Flurry. (DW, Enrage, Cruelty)

Early disadvantage, but superior later. For me at least.