Today’s topic is the dreaded Warrior. Being very strong when paired with a healer, Warrior teams has dominated Season 1 Arena for the most part. However, nowadays with better gear, many DPS classes can now last quite some time without any healing. This has opened up room for 2 DPS teams to overrun Warrior and healer teams through raw damage.

With that in mind, Warrior and healer teams are still the hardest match ups for Rogue and Holy Priest. In order to overcome these odds, we have to first understand why Warrior is such a tough enemy for the Rogue.

Rage:
Warrior has always been known as the best “scaling” class with gear. With the nice gear that Arena provides, Warrior has benefited greatly. One of the main reasons this is can be attributed to how Rage works. Warrior gets Rage based on how much damage he deals and receives, and with better gear comes more Rage from their damage; their abilities are also mostly based on “Weapon Damage”. Because of this, it has been considered taboo to damage the Warrior with direct damage, in fear of giving them “too much rage”. Although, in teams with a Mage or Druid, it’s not very difficult to control a Warrior –Rogue/Holy Priest combo does not have this luxury.

Solution:
The best way to deny Rage is to avoid the white hits. Power Word: Shield will do this just fine, as absorbed damage does not contribute to Rage. It’s often best to time your PW: Shield so that you can take the yellow hits head on, and have your PW: Shield absorb the white hits.
Warriors do not like to sit on 100 Rage. If they’re on the Rogue, simply use Evasion when their Rage is around 80%, then, unload your damage. All the extra Rage will be wasted as they either sit on it or switch to Battle Stance at a cost.

Intercept:
Intercept was designed based on a 30 second cooldown; however, with the 4 piece PVP bonus and Improved Intercept (which used to be Fury exclusive), it’s now a 15 second cooldown ability. The difference is so big that Warrior has become nearly impossible to kite by most classes. Rogue, on the other hand, is still sitting on 1 Sprint every 5 minutes. You’ll often see a Rogue being kited by a Warrior when they Intercept a Rogue’s healer, leaving a Hamstringed Rogue 20 yards behind. Add in the ability to Intervene, and they, basically, have the ability to zone across the map within seconds. On a small map — like Blade’s Edge Arena, especially — it’s next to impossible to create the much needed 25+ yards in order to avoid Intercept.

Solution:
If your Priest knows range very well, it’s quite easy to stay outside of melee range while also being too close to be intercepted. This will force the Warrior to turn on you, which you could then kite using the same technique, whenever you’re empty on Energy, or waiting for the next Kidney Shot. Keep in mind, that Crippling Poison is 20% stronger than Hamstring. If your Priest plans on running, make sure they get out of the 25 yard range, or don’t run at all. When you’re afflicted with Hamstring, any 25 yard Intercept can send you back by over 5 seconds.

10k Armor:
Many fully geared Warriors are out there with that much armor, today. That’s nearly 50% physical damage reduction prior to putting on a shield. Which means, you’ll be doing half damage to them.

Solution:
There isn’t a whole lot you can do, aside from Expose Armor and Rupture. Expose Armor when the Warrior is focused on your healer, then, Rupture when the Warrior is focused on you.

Berserker Rage:
Grants immunity to Fear and Gouge/Sap for 10 seconds, with a short 30 second cooldown. However, they can only use this in Berserker Stance.

Solution:
Bait Berserker Rage with Gouge, wait 10 seconds, Fear (first one will most likely get broken by Deathwish). Also when the Warrior switches to Battle Stance for a quick Overpower, hit them with Gouge > Fear.

Mortal Strike:
Has a 6 second cooldown, 10 second duration time and cuts healing on affected target by 50%; will run your Priest out of Mana quickly.

Solution:
Know when to heal. Obviously, the best situation is to heal while Mortal Strike is off. To achieve this, you need to use Skills effectively. In most cases, the best time to prevent a Warrior from re-applying Mortal Strike is at 5 seconds. A 6 second Kidney Shot followed by a Greater Heal is what you want to aim for — work out the timing with your Priest, it will be worth it. Same could also apply when you use Evasion.

With some key skills identified, we also need to touch on a few racial abilities that will be game breaking for you.

Human Perception:
With this turned on, it’s impossible to avoid being seen unless you waste your Vanish. The best way to deal with this is either to forfeit the opener or stay hidden for the duration. Have your Priest run around on mount if you decide to go with the latter choice.

Dwarf Stoneform:
Dwarf Stoneform really hurts Rogues, there’s nothing that you can do about it, either. Just be aware of this and try not to get kited.

Orc Stun Resist:
Again, another one of the things that you can’t do anything about. It’s common to have 3 out of 4 Kidney Shots of your’s be resisted by an Orc. It’s best not to rely on your stuns at all against them. Keep in mind, though, they can’t resist Gouge…

Gnome Escape Artist:
This is nothing comparing to Stoneform, however, you do need to remember to re-Shiv after each use.

Next article, we will conclude Warrior teams by giving a breakdown on each of the four different Warrior & Healer teams.

Tags: Rogue · 2v2 · Articles

11 Responses to “2v2: Rogue & Holy Priest Explained, Part 4”

1. Skel Says:
   September 27th, 2007 at 5:08 am

   Damn, I should roll a warrior.

2. Fan Says:
   September 27th, 2007 at 5:25 am

   Splendid article!

3. Bullyfoot Says:
   September 27th, 2007 at 6:34 am

   OMG stop telling secrets!

   Ziss: lol sorry, we might be picking up a warrior writer soon… so stay tuned

4. Xeanor Says:
   September 27th, 2007 at 1:18 pm

   I like the intercept and mortal strike tips I’m gonna try it out, I always try to get as far as possible from the warrior to heal and get intercepted.. the MS denial thing sounds good but I can see that being difficult to time out.

5. WHOSEWHOSEWHOSE Says:
   September 27th, 2007 at 3:58 pm

   WTB gold-making video!

   Ziss: it’s coming… soon…

6. musashix-azgalor Says:
   September 29th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

   damn i you need to update this more! im trying to bring my 2v2 to gladitor status!

7. Omegladon Says:
   October 2nd, 2007 at 7:51 am

   Breaky I _

8. interloper Says:
   October 2nd, 2007 at 6:50 pm

   You should Skel just don’t complain when you get pwned by every other class :/

9. Garren Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

   You seriously suggested using expose armor against a warrior? It’s too weak, better to use just rupture or something else instead.

10. Dilza Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 4:47 am

    Nice article

11. wow afk bot Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    Your blog is so valuble! I really found myself discovering a lot just reading your post here. Thanks a lot.

Leave a Reply