Warrior: 1-10

As you can see, I reached level 10 on my Warrior today. Between raids, life's distractions and forum browsing/raging (see "Blizz, I Am Disappoint") I was able to make the first milestone.

Leveling a Warrior is a very strange experience. My Death Knight makes me no stranger to melee classes, but even still, Warriors are vastly different than what I'm used to. Taking damage is weird, waiting for the swing timer even weirder. Instant strikes, oh how I miss you.

More details beyond the jump, as well as my talent spec and more Warrior goodness.

I've never leveled a Tauren before. Mulgore is a very peaceful, interesting zone, a welcome break from the annoying color palette of Durotar, the depressing yet satisfactorily haunting Tirisfal and the flamboyant Eversong. Plainstriders, Gnolls, Harpies and cats are the prey, unlike the humanoids in other zones. I really appreciate the peaceful environment. However, the Warrior class doesn't lend well to that.

I discovered in the first five levels in Red Cloud Mesa (possibly the largest 1-5 zone in the game, very long runs from A to B) that I will get hit - a lot. The mail armor I picked up doesn't necessarily prevent that, and I'll probably take a lot of damage. This motivated me to pick up First Aid and Cooking. I'm a veteran of both skills, having picked up every achievement related to them on my main character. But when starting this character, I wanted to make a clean break from my other characters. With the exception of the Heirloom weapon, shoulders and chest (yeah yeah I'm a cheater, sue me), I won't be giving Rilost any assistance. With that in mind, I also chose to pick up Mining and Skinning, so I can make my own profits.

With all that in tow, I headed back to Bloodhoof Village and hit level 6. I learned a nifty ability called Victory Rush - and this ability has become my favorite of any ability belonging to any class. The 20 second window after killing a mob that you are allowed to use the spell gives the warrior class a very fast paced soloing routine. I kill one mob, and quickly run over to the next one to whack it with Victory Rush and a Rend. The speed makes the process quicker, and it also makes it very difficult to get bored of. I continued killing mobs for so long at one point that I did not even notice I had already completed my quest in the process. The path to level 10 was a quick one thanks in sole part to Victory Rush and the fast pace it brought with it.

Now that I've hit level 10, I hit some blogs and looked around for some advice. I looked over at WoW.com again and read a few of Matthew Rossi's pieces on Warriors - the guy has leveled three of them to 80 (no, I don't understand it either) so I'd expect he is knowledgeable. I read through his descriptions of the three specs, and the one that appealed to me was Arms.

Arms, he describes, is "about style, about finesse, about perfect control of your weapon, and about taking advantage of openings for huge, devastating blows that get around normal conventions and defense." Not only does this match the kind of playstyle I enjoy, but it fits my warrior's backstory more than Fury. A calm Tauren trying to earn his place in the world isn't going to be a screaming barbarian killing everything that moves. He's going to be a master of his blade that is slow to anger and quick to act. Sounds like Arms to me!

So, a quick recap: I'm going to get hit a lot as I level to 80, so First Aid and Cooking are a must. Victory Rush makes the pace incredibly fast and makes the levels fly by. My spec of choice will be Arms, where I can deal massive amounts of damage by taking advantage of procs and bleeds.

Looking forward to the next 70 levels!