Fury: The Fast and Furyous

What Kind of Warrior Should I Be?
Part 2 - The Fast and The Furyous

Intro - What Kind of Warrior Shall I Be
Part One - Arms: Lords (and Ladies) of PvP
Part Two - Fury: The Fast and The Furyious
Part Three - Protection: The Rock AND The Hard Place

You? You're mad, bad and dangerous. You're all kinds of contained wrath. Ya like it hard? Ya like it fast? Then maybe you're a Fury Warrior! But... you ask... Is it any good for PvE? What about the stigma of sucking for PvP? Will you ever get to raid? Why is that twinky gnome mage laughing at me???? Can I eat him for that?

Yes.

I've spec'd to Fury a few times. And it's always a blast. I still respec to DW Fury to DPS in dungeons. So, our second look at "What kind of Warrior Should I Be?" is going to be at Fury and what you can expect if you go the way of the Zerker. This is the specialization that I've played the least so, as always, take it with a large does of skepticism until you've had a run at it yourself.

In fact, I'll take this opportunity to suggest you should try all three specs, in different builds, for a few weeks. It couldn't hurt and you may find some things you like. I never took Fury talents until I tried a new build. I always supplemented my Arms spec with Protection. I liked staying alive! But once I spec'd to Flurry, I couldn't live without some Fury in my spec. You may find, in your tryouts, that you like some chocolate in your peanut butter!

[Note: I didn't link or tooltip a lot of stuff in here yet. And there hasn't been much editing. I've just been sitting on this one so long I wanted to get it out. Like the others in this series... edits to come. :) -Fri]

You know That Guy. The one who just stands there after the tank pulls the mobs in a dungeon. He is probably jumping up and down and spinning in place. Then, finally, he goes zooming off! And for the next few minutes, it seems like he's all over the place. The weapons are flying like crazy, an angry dwarf keeps materializing above his head, and he seems to be shouting an awful lot.

And then, just as you're getting into the swing of the fight... everything is dead. And That Guy is standing over a big pile of bodies, jumping up and down and spinning in place again. Usually he's laughing in a disturbing manner, or eating a sandwich. That's a Fury Warrior.

They aren't ADHD, they're just practicing restrained enthusiasm. They can dish out such high and consistent DPS that they have to put a pause in occasionally to keep from pulling aggro. They zoom and twirl around the fight using Intercept and Whirlwind. Bloodthirst chops enemies to itty bitty pieces and Rampage just adds the icing to the oops-you're-dead cake. All the screaming is the Warrior popping some pretty devastating SFX. But they aren't just wailing around in there being a spaz.

It may look chaotic but a good Fury Warrior is a shining example of precision. Everything he does is aimed at systematically building his capabilities to kill stuff. Every strike is timed and short-term buffed to perfection. The more the Fury Warrior swings, the more deadly he gets. It's probably true of any Warrior, but this is the one they're talking about when they say "Get too close and he'll pwn your face." Hard.

Are You A Fury Warrior?

Fury Warriors love to deal damage. They're very good at it, too. Fury talents tend to be oriented toward making weapon strikes faster and more potent. Fury Talents feature dual wielding specialization and options for slicing up multiple opponents at once. In addition, all that screaming Fury Warriors do is because all the improvements to a Warrior's shouts are in this tree. If you like to kill mobs fast, and look good doing it, this is the spec!

The Fury Warrior an awesome adventurer. For going on epic quests, braving the wilds of Azeroth alone, or exploring a dank recess of Lower Blackrock with a party, the Fury Warrior is there, always ready to meet the next deadly challenge.

This Warrior isn't crazy, though. (Okay, some of them are...) They make tearing enemies into shreds an art form. It may look easy, but it requires a great deal of timing and precision. And, yes, for the truly great ones, a nice heap of talent as well. Those whirling blades of death, spinning and whirling through a fight with a gleam in your eye, cheerfully and methodically cutting down anything that gets in your way...

Sound like fun? You're a Fury Warrior.

The Good Stuff

* Fury Warriors are all about dealing damage. And then they get serious about dealing damage. And once they're properly serious, then they get to work and do some damage. With the right gear and the right rotation, Fury Warriors ARE the DPS of the Warrior Class.

* Some of the best Warrior abilities and enhancements are in the Fury tree. From Cruelty to Rampage there aren't really any "bad" Fury Talents. Might be some that are better than others, but they're all good.

* Fury Warriors are the toughest DPS class in the game, sans self-healing abilities (and yah, they have a little bit of that, too!). They wear plate, and they usually gear at least some Stamina. They're often jokingly referred to as Rogues In Plate (RIP), but when you look at the way WoW has progressed, it's really the other way around. This is the original tough-guy.

* Fury Warriors will be getting some exciting enhancements come Wrath, including Heroic Leap and Titan's Grip. Whether they work or not is one thing, but at the very least, they promised to bring even more fun to this spec.

The Bad Stuff

* Tough they may be, but they aren't as tough as Arms or Protection Warriors. Fury Warriors tend to gear Haste (to swing faster) rather than Resilience or Defense. The Fury Warrior isn't there to soak up damage, she's there to give it. She can take hit... but not for too long.

* Fury Warriors can tank, but they tend to be at the very bottom of the wish-list for that role. Building aggro will be very slow and the healing will have to be HoT and heavy. Sympathy is often given to the healer who has to keep a Fury Tank upright. :)

* Fury Warriors can attack multiple targets at once quite nicely, but they (like all Warriors) have limited crowd control. Fury Warriors do DPS. That's what they do. Kill it before it becomes a problem is the Fury Warrior way. That's appropriate sometimes... but many times, not so much.

Leveling

Many people consider Fury to be the choice for leveling a Warrior (regardless of what the final spec will be). And it's true. Fury Warrior may spend more down time healing, but a solid amount of pots and high First Aid skill can help that along nicely. You do have to be pretty careful about taking on too much in one bite. Regardless, killing mobs fast is the way Fury Warriors do things and that makes leveling up a bit faster than the other two types of Warriors.

To start with, you'll want to go with a one-handed sword, axe, or mace and a shield. Most Fury Warriors duel wield, at least until they're much higher levels. Unless you specifically intend to do Fury with a two-hander, you'll want to get your one-handed skill up and keep it there.

At Level 10 you'll start filling in your talent tree. There's two lines of thought to this, and I'm not particular to either myself. I've tried it both ways and it works both ways.

Way #1. You start in Arms. You're going to be taking some of these talents eventually anyhow. Improved Heroic Strike is just terribly handy when it's the only main attack you have. So you start by filling it in.

Way #2. You go straight into Fury and start with Cruelty. This gives you a better chance to crit, but it's still low enough, and your damage output is low enough, that it will only make a difference every once and while. On the other hand, it also gets you on the path to some of the great stuff further down the tree. AND when your damage output does improve and you've got gear that helps your crit chance, you've already got Cruelty stacking on there and it's all kinds of win win win.

I really don't think you can go wrong either way. If your first ten levels were mostly in black and white, and you want to hit things harder, fill in IHS first. If you're doing fine and eager to get into the spec, start with Cruelty. Easy enough.

For this guide, I'm gonna assume you're committed (or should be) and we're going all Fury from the start. So Cruelty it is.

Next you'll take Unbridled Wrath. The extra rage this gives you is a godsend and you'll start noticing how, when you can pop your abilities more frequently, you kill stuff faster. You'll note I skipped the shout enhancements. You don't need those now. Nope. Sounds good, but nope.

Then you'll take Piercing Howl. This is like Hamstring done better. From now on you no longer have to run up and slice every enemy you want to slow down. Just yell at 'em. Bad mobs! Go sit in the corner! It works.

This will bring you to Level 20 and.... drum roll please... Dual Wield!!! This trainable skill is one all Warriors get, but it's the one Fury Warriors make their own. You now lose the shield (keep a good one handy, just in case) and paw two shiny instruments of destruction of your personal choosing. Fury just got really fun. :)

Then three points in Blood Craze and 1 point in Commanding Presence. (The latter is a hafta, because it's better than Improved Cleave and there's nowhere else to go with it.) We're now at level 24 and another decision.

At this point you can either load up Duel Wield specialization or Enrage. You're going to take all three on this tier, but you'll have to decide which to go first. Personally? I like Dual Wield Specialization first. Then Enrage. DWS is a sure thing. Enrage relies on a proc. I like sure things. You could, of course, alternate points in both for the next ten levels.

At level 30 you'll go to that special little island off the coast of the Barren, whoop some ass, and get Berserker Stance.

At level 34 you skip everything a load Flurry. You're now most of the way to official Fury Warrior. Flurry is a hallmark of this spec and once you see it in action, you'll love it. You've started doing some nice damage, now you'll do it faster!

Now you simply put one point each in Sweeping Strikes and then Bloodthirst. Ding, you've got all the tools to be a full blown Fury Warrior!

At this point, if you want to stay pure Fury, go back and fill in Weapon Mastery, Precision and three points in Improved Berserker Stance. This will open up Rampage at Level 50, which is all kinds of Fury fun. :)

You can finish off your Fury spec with filling in bits you like, or pick a spec (see below) and go nuts. You can always respec when you reach 70, of course. (You can do that before, but it might be cost prohibitive, what with mounts and gear and other bits you'll be spending your hard earned gold on.) But your basic Fury spec will serve you well all the way to 70 and beyond.

Solo

As mentioned, Fury is considered by many to be the "best" solo leveling spec. The ability to take most mobs down quickly, and to react to situations fast, helps a lot. Like all Warriors, Fury is still very much a stand, fight and either win or die class. With Fury it's mostly about "I get you, before you get me." Because of the talents you take in Fury, this actually works quite well.

Rotations in Fury tend to be pretty straight forward. The base Fury rotation is Bloodthirst, white hit, Whirlwind, white hit, Free, repeat. You can get by quite nicely just doing this and throwing in a Shout or Rampage now and then.

It's what you do with that Free time, though, that makes a huge difference. When you solo, you'll discover very quickly that you need to pull with a ranged weapon, so start leveling the weapon of your choice early. When you've got multiple targets you'll fight very differently than when you fight against one. You may need to Sweeping Strike, Cleave and Piercing Howl multiple mobs while at the same time keeping Thunderclap and Demoralizing Shout on them to limit damage. In this respect, Fury Warriors get more complex. Doing all this while keep Bloodthirst and Rampage up can wear your fingers out. This is where a great deal of the fun comes in for most Fury Warriors.

I've said it before... no Warrior is "Easy Mode."

Using a Fury spec is easy. Being really good at it is extremely challenging.

Groups (Questing/5-Mans)

In a group, the Fury Warrior is a support role. Your main job is chop everything up into itty bitty pieces as quickly as possible. In group questing, you'll get in there and DPS. You make a good puller too, because you can hit back AND survive aggro for more than a few a seconds.

For running instances, Fury Warriors make great Main Assist (MA). This is where everyone sets their assist macro (or manually uses /assist [player]) to one player and the unloads everything on that player's target. Because the Fury Warrior is right there in the thick of it, all you have to do is hit the Tab key to cycle through the targets, while everyone else hits their assist key, and burn mobs down in a nice systematic order. Of course, you make great DPS working with someone else being MA as well!

And yes, in a pinch, you can quickly switch to off tank. So keep that shield handy and updated, because eventually it'll happen. :)

Raiding

Honestly, I've seen and read both ways on this one. On my Realm, raid guilds only want Fury Warriors. Others? Only want Arms. So, your mileage may vary somewhat. I think most raids want Fury Warriors for melee DPS. They're just better at it. Sometimes only slightly, but for raiders, slightly counts. Only the best make it. Fury is the best for that. So, yah, as a Fury Warrior, you've probably got as a good a shot as anyone to get a raid slot as Warrior. Only thing better would to be a really, really good tank. :)

PvP

Fury is no good for PvP. That's what you'll hear. Meadow muffins. Fury is fine for most PvP. It's not gonna cut it for Arena. Just too hard to heal. But for everything else, enjoy it. It's fun and quite functional and can add a lot to World PvP and Battlegrounds. The main thing to remember is that, in PvP, Fury is a support role. You're there to push as much DPS as you can, shout, slow, and generally wreck havok. If you get focused, you're toast. Rez and get back to work. It's a blast. :)

The "Types" of Fury

I'm a big believer in "the spec how you want" way of playing WoW. It's a shame that the talent trees are set up the way they are. It would be nice if there was no "perfect" spec. So the following, as I see it, are suggestions. There is a "top optimal spec" for Fury specifically for raiding and DPS. If you want to get do that pretty much exclusively, you pretty have to spec to this or one of its close variants. Otherwise, have fun with it.

Fury might be the most versatile spec as far as viable variations. Once you spec to Bloodthirst, you're already in great shape. You can easily go Arms or Protection from there and do quite well in a variety of roles.

No matter what spec you choose, you DO have to practice it. You have to use what talents you've taken to best advantage. I've thrown in a few thoughts on each specialization based on my experience.

Fury Gold - DW Fury 0/17/44

Two guys wrote a guide to Fury DPS that has pretty much become the standard for Warriors. If you plan to spec Fury, it is a must read. And this is the spec they recommend. It relies primarily on Bloodthirst and Whirlwind to heap the damage on a target. They call it "the gold standard" of Fury specs. I won't comment on that, but I will say it works. Very, very well. This is the one I use when I spec Fury and the damage is high and consistent. More importantly, it's controllable. You can boost your DPS nicely as the fight progresses, as opposed to an Arms Warrior who jumps in there and hits as hard as she can right at the start. If you try Fury, try this spec at least once. You will be pleased. :)

The Dungeon Runner - Fury Tank 0/30/31

This should probably be placed in the Protection Warrior guide. But to me it seems more Fury oriented despite having one extra point in Prot. Mainly because it specs to Flurry and not to Devestate. Tomato/Tomotoe. :) Regardless, if you spend a lot of time in regular dungeons AND spend a lot of time grinding rep and questing, you'll definately one to take a try at this spec. This is the "tank that can dps" spec. It's not The Best at either, but it can do both quite well. This is a great spec to use while you're a new 70 and grinding out that epic flyer and trying to build a tank and/or dps armor set.

The Survivalist - Fury Toughness 8/43/10

For general questing and leveling, it doesn't hurt to have a little extra. If you find yourself spending more time bandaging and eating than you do hittin' stuffs, this is a good way to go. It adds some Prot to boost you a little in the Toughness and mitigation department. This spec, or one of it's varients (look for Fury Leveling Specs) is probably the best way to level up a Fury Warrior to 70 and a little beyond.

There's a few others, but these base ones are great starting points. And some of the more interesting Fury builds, like Sweeping Stikes multi-mob killers, will be changing so radically soon that I haven't included them here. These are the base ones that you can work from and try stuff out with.

Don't be afraid to try different things to see what works for you. Sure, there's plenty of theory out there that shows this spec is better than that spec. But in normal every day play, it really doesn't make much difference, as long as you use what you've got to best advantage. Yes, spec for specific roles when you need to do them at the top of your game. But outside of those roles, spec for you!

-Fri

Intro - What Kind of Warrior Shall I Be
Part One - Arms: Lords (and Ladies) of PvP
Part Two - Fury: The Fast and The Furyious
Part Three - Protection: The Rock AND The Hard Place