What Is "Battle Stance"?

[Vanchatron]

In the following screenshot, you can see I have an icon above my skillbar called Battle Stance. I can't click this or activate it, so what is it?

Screenshot - http://img28.picoodle.com/data/img28/3/9/24/f_untitledm_4dc52f9.jpg

Thanks.

[Lothaer]

thats because you only have Battle Stance at that level once you get Defensive Stance you'll understand more.

[Vanchatron]

^^ Thanks.

[Mazhulsage]

Battle Stance, until level 30 when you get Berserker Stance, is your main stance for leveling outside of dungeons. It's main knowledge about it is that it has Charge, an ability that brings you into battle and stuns for a moment, while also giving you rage.

It is again useful at level 30 if you have lots of help from friends to help you get the Whirlwind items (Pref. Axe.) which the item is essentially a level 42(ish) green item in level 30 obtainable form.

[Vanchatron]

I take it Warriors don't have "mana" then & just use "rage" to power their skills?

[Beruen]

Correct. Warriors gain rage by taking or inflicting damage.

[Wintrow]

At L10 you get Defensive Stance. This is only useful when you are playing in a group and need everything hitting you because:
- you take 10% less damage (yay)
- you do 10% less damage (booh)
- your dmg does 30% more threat (yay again!)
If you wonder why you'd want them hitting you look up the concept of tank/healer/dps aka "The Holy Trinity". You'd be the tank. WoW group play is rooted firmly in that concept.

For solo-play, as mentioned above, Battle Stance is your main stance. At L30 you get Berserker Stance. At first it won't seem all that great because you can't use Charge while in that stance and switching around makes you lose rage (all of it until L20, from L20 and up you keep 10 rage).

Rage is generated mainly by inflicting damage yes, but ONLY with your auto-attacks (the white damage numbers)! If you do a Heroic Strike it will be a yellow number, so that not used up rage, since it replaces your next auto-attack it did NOT generate rage either. Focusing on upping your white damage will up your rage-generation which will inevitably lead to upping your yellow damage. This is why a warrior needs to upgrade his gear often, weapon first. A nice Rare axe/sword/mace that does a lot of white damage will help you enormously.

You also get rage by taking damage, but unless you are taking hits that take big chunks of health it's pretty minimal. This mechanism usually gets important in group play where you take on mobs that are not soloable. The mobs will hit harder, so you'll geet a nice amount of rage right there. This is also important because you'll want to focus on minimising your damage taken --> you'll be equipping a shield and a one-hander --> less white damage --> less rage.

[Vanchatron]

Thanks a lot, that's a great help!

[prion]

that is a very good explanation Wintrow