The official forums aren’t just a tangled mass of (spoiler-free) sniping. Sometimes they throw up the odd gem. And this week, on the tanking forum, someone started a thread asking people why they loved their warriors. Warriors are still the most popular class in WoW by a large margin.
Here’s a few snippets, sorted into categories. The most interesting thing to me is that no one has mentioned the mechanics — not a single person said that they liked the rage mechanic. I bet hunters and warlocks would have mentioned their pets, death knights would have mentioned runes, rogues would have mentioned the energy ticks and finishers, shamans would have mentioned the totems, etc. But nope, mechanics are not part of the warrior appeal.
People who love specific warrior skills
Dual wielding TWO TWO handed weapons.
Disarming ret paladins, hunters, death knights and rogues at key moments
chargin in with a giant wep and smashin someone in the face 😀
Charge…. there is no better skill in the game.
Charge/Intercept. I love the instant mobility. It is the biggest reason why I can’t play any other class past lvl 40 or so.
the Shield Slam animation and sound effect is what sold it for me.
Shields are the coolest looking pieces of gear in the game (imo) and we get to smash them in the enemy’s face!
nothing says awesome quite like reflecting a 6k fire shock crit
Deep wounds. Hit something hard once and it will die, sooner or later.
People who love the role of tanking and/or leading the charge in PvP
I like how people tend to follow you around like puppy dogs. Its weird, its also hilarious. In bg’s people ( especially alliance ) are pussies and to afraid to be the first in, they see a warrior 35 or higher in the 30’s bracket for example they follow you around even if all you do is fight in the road.
This is true, people do tend to follow you in battlegrounds when you run off in some random direction. It’s like Dirk Gently‘s habit of following random cars because they looked as though they knew where they were going.
Having healers seek you out to follow in bg’s
Tanking is the single biggest ego feeding experience in this game. You feel like the RPG hero with a squad of NPCs at your back
i love charging into a group in BGs knowing i am gonna die most likely but not giving a crap because chances are i am taking down a couple with me before that happens.
People who like the look
We warriors look badass in plate.
Coolest looking class in the game, plus very fun
I look BA in my gear.
(Bloody awesome? Or did he mean he looks BAD in his gear?)
I don’t personally feel that the Onyxia hat makes Spinks look awesome, except in the sense of forsaken-with-an-axe-through-her-head. But I guess they can’t all be winners.
People who love the warrior vibe
Playing a prot warrior allows me to live out my fantasy of being a spartan.
I’ve never had a fantasy of being a spartan.
I love the face-smashingness.
I’ve played a warlock, shaman, druid, rogue, and warrior, and warrior always felt the most “true” to me… like they got the warrior “vibe” down.
I liked the mythos of the warrior to begin with.This is the 1st character I ever created.
Raw power. No magic crap, no casting, just raw power.
Warriors don’t call upon %@**, we strap on our armor, pick up our swords, shields, and axes, and then proceed to put our foot dead in the ass of our enemies.
Lowest THAC0
Highest hit dice
and 18/00 ftw
Sir, you won the thread (don’t tell him that the THAC0 mechanics have been changed and higher is now better!)
Welcome to Spinksville! 
Charge. I rolled a warrior alt because of charge envy. I still have a lot to learn about the class, but I’m loving it.
This illustrates perfectly by balancing classes to get even numbers in each class is a fallacy. Some classes are simply fun for a great many people. Nerfing them does not improve the game.
Post #11 mentions rage. Personally, I think that Rage fits very nicely into the visceral nature of the warrior class. You gain resources by hitting people. The jump in rage when you crit is instant feedback in a way that Energy isn’t.
I think if the same question had been asked nearer the start of the game, a lot of people would have mentioned rage. I remember thinking what a cool mechanic it was when I first started playing.
Just I suppose, after you have played a while, you get to a point where you see the flaws.
As a bear tank I can identify with a lot of these reasons, and wish I could say the same about others.
Since my bear also has charge, I agree that is overall a pretty fun ability. However I’m always semi-jealous of the fancy warrior armor and weapons. Not that I don’t think my armor or weapons look cool as well, I just never see them except when I’m standing around in Dalaran.
About the rage mechanic though – I think a lot of people don’t mention it because it just works. When I’m in cat form I get annoyed waiting on energy to fill up again. Playing moonkin these days I rarely have to concern myself with my mana bar but the function is pretty static, I have a pool of x size and my spells cost y.
Rage is a much more dynamic mechanic, and as tanks we have to adjust to what our assigned role in a fight means to our rage generation. Maybe that means doing white damage on a boss to build up rage while you wait for that add you have to OT to spawn, or learning when to save enrage for spots where you know you’re going to need some more rage.
I think it just goes unmentioned because it doesn’t have any major negative, and nothing about it makes the warrior / bear tank classes stellar either. Mana is what it is, anyone who has played RPG’s of any kind should be familiar with that mechanic. But of the other class mechanics used in WoW, rage sure beats the hell out of runes and energy.
I look BA in my gear.
(Bloody awesome? Or did he mean he looks BAD in his gear?)
*******
BA = Bad Ass!
Me take on the subject.
I mostly like being able to SMASH and CRASH and BLEEEEDDDD.
And damn they look awesome.
I loved my warrior, and in Vanilla BC when I got that flaming shield. OMG I was hot. Though I got burnt out on tanking after BC…once in a while I do miss him though.
Well, I agree that it’s not the mechanics. As a tank, I think the Heroic Strike spam-for-threat mechanic is silly, and Shield Block has morphed into some mutant ability that Blizzard is totally confused on what to do with (except remove it, which scares me even more). Although, I do prefer warrior tanking to bear tanking (never tanked on my DK) because warrior tanking feels so much more active and engaged. I’m always hitting some ability, it’s fast-paced.
The appeal of playing a warrior, at least to me, is something more visceral. It’s the look, it’s the sound, it’s the thought of just being the biggest, baddest guy on the field with nothing more than thick steel, big weapons, and your own ability to save you–no magic, no pet, no range, just in-your-face down-and-dirty fighting. It’s that same sort of gladiator appeal that makes movies like “300” so awesome.
I wrote a RP piece about being a warrior a long time ago and stuck it up as the second post ever over on Achtung Panzercow…it’s here.
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I do love my Warrior. So much so that I’ve rolled another Warrior – this time a Horde character. For me the big appeal was always Titan’s Grip. What an awesome ability 😀
I think everyone can agree that Rogues are one of the most annoying classes to play against. Well, not for my Prot Warrior. I dueled my GM (Rogue) with just about equal gear and I completely stunlocked him. It was awesome! Shockwave -> Concussion Blow-> Revenge+stun = dead rogue.
Also 8k+ crits through spell reflect is something very enjoyable.
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For me, the reason I love playing my warrior has to do with a: being a gnome, b: wielding two 2handers, c: becomming a spinning top OF DEATH with said 2handers – at about knee-hight to most mobs.