Fury, The Fast and the Furyous

Fury, The Fast and the Furyous
Revisited for WoW 3.x (Wrath of the Lich King)

Intro: What Kind of Warrior Shall I Be?
Part 1. Arms, Lord and Ladies of the Battlefield
Part 2. Fury, The Fast and the Furyous
Part 3. Protection, The Rock and the Hard Place

[Note: After rereading this for billionth time, they still need a ton of work. So much has changed and I've only really put a lot of time in Wrath on Protection spec. I can't wait to get back to Arms, but now that Dual specs are in I'm giving Fury a whirl first. So much more for me to learn. However, I've been sitting on these for, oh, ever and it's time to set 'em free. With reservations and promises to revise as much as possible. ;) What I hope is that I've got the flavor down and the specifics I can add in more as I go.]

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.

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.

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 giant two-handed 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 wield two blades at a time, and past level 60, they're very large two-handed blades thanks to Titan's Grip. 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 buffs to enhance damage as they fight. 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.

* Two words: Titan's Grip. Two two-handed bad ass blades of destruction. What's not to like?

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), Hit (for accurancy), and Attack Power (for raw hitting power) 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 she's better at giving.

* 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. :)

* Like all Warriors, Fury 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). 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. So your one-hand skill will need to be your top priority. At level 20 you can drop the shield and go with another shiny instrument of death in your other paw. At level 60, you can do it with two-handers. :D

There's two lines of thought to leveling, 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. You'll be able to get that HS off a little sooner. If you're doing fine and eager to get into the spec, start right in with Fury. Easy enough.

Solo

As mentioned, Fury is considered by many to be the "best" solo leveling spec, though there's plenty of Arms and Protection Warrior that would argue that. 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.

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 then 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 burns 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 top end 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 any DPS Warrior.

PvP

Fury is no good for PvP. That's what you'll hear. Meadow muffins. Fury is fine for PvP. 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, just like in a group. 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


[Fury specs in testing. I'll letcha know. ;)]

Some to browse. These'll getcha started.

-Fri