Warrior Leveling Guide
Guide Info
Last Updated: 17 Jan, 2024
Patch Applicable: 6.55

Henlo team!

We heard you needed some pointers on how to play WAR while leveling. The splits below are done based on what skills you unlock, and what you should take into account.

  • Do your job quests every five levels.
  • Upgrade your gear every two to five levels.
  • Remember your role actions.

Gear

We want Strength and Vitality. And Weapon Damage. Lots of Weapon Damage. The marketboard is a good place to pick up some cheap upgrades fast, along with Dungeon/Quest/Tomestone gear.


Levels 1-30: Do the combo

Use Berserk, as it gives you more damage and there’s no downside to it. You’ll only hit combo GCDs for now, along with Overpower. Use Tomahawk when pulling single targets.

Raw Potency-wise, Overpower is equally effective at two targets before level 26. When you unlock the Storm’s Path (level 26), that balance tips over to “Overpower at three targets and up”. You still want to use Overpower to initially grab packs of mobs in one hit, though.

Thrill of Battle (level 30) is nice, as it acts as a re-fillable bubble. Use it to survive damage spikes.


Levels 31-49: We got a Beast Gauge!

Notable mentions are:

  • Beast Gauge, the resource you’ll be staring at for the rest of the game. You gain it through combo actions (Maim, Storm’s Path).
  • Inner Beast, the first resource spender on Warrior. Its potency is a little bit odd, as it’s lower than Storm’s Path.
  • Vengeance, an actual cooldown that defines the angry, spiky Warrior. It deals 55 potency worth damage for every instance of physical damage you suffer. Read the tooltip.
  • Mythril Tempest, our AoE combo action.
  • Steel Cyclone, the second resource spender on Warrior. Nice in large pulls, but not something we aim to actively use.

Lets see the earlier table, but this time add in the Mythril Tempest. Again, we’re doing raw potency, without Beast Gauge. This is just a leveling guide, not a 100% optimization guide.

Overpower and Mythril Tempest wins out the Storm’s Path combo at two targets. Again, this is without accounting for the lost Beast Gauge that each Storm’s Path combo would net us.

Aim to spend gauge on Inner Beast during Berserk, or when you would overcap, otherwise keep sitting on that Gauge.


Levels 50-63: Berserks will be full of Inner Beast / Fell Cleave as there is Infuriate.

This is a large level range. Our notable mentions are:

  • Storm’s Eye, another combo finisher to our Heavy-Maim combo, granting us a 10% damage buff.
  • Infuriate, giving us 50 Beast Gauge with a press of a button.
  • Inner Beast upgrades into Fell Cleave, our chainsaw damage button. Bzz Bzz.
  • Steel Cyclone upgrades into Decimate, our big AoE slam. Bonk.
  • Raw Intuition for a short 10% damage mitigation and massive AoE healing.
  • Equilibrium for a nice self-heal.
  • Onslaught, our gap-closer.

The basic opener for single-target fights is:

  • Tomahawk +Infuriate
  • Heavy swing
  • Maim +Berserk
  • Storm’s Eye
  • Inner Beast +Infuriate
  • Inner Beast
  • Heavy Swing
  • Maim
  • Storm’s Path

Once you hit level 54, your Inner Beast turns into Fell Cleave. At level 60, your Steel Cyclone turns into Decimate.

The AoE effectiveness basics are:

  • Fell Cleave at one to two targets.
  • Decimate at three or more targets.
  • Again, we are skipping the basic AoE rotation effectiveness here, and the Beast Gauge, entirely.

Basic rotation is:

  • Keep Storm’s Eye buff up.
  • Gather Gauge with Storm’s Path.
  • Don’t overcap your Gauge, use IB/FC only to avoid that from happening.

The following Berserks will rotate between two and three IB/FC within them due to the Infuriate cooldown.


Levels 64-69: Upheaval on cooldown

Carry on as before, but this time with a slight addition: Upheaval

The basic opener for single-targets:

  • Tomahawk +Infuriate
  • Heavy Swing
  • Maim +Berserk
  • Storm’s Eye +Upheaval
  • Fell Cleave +Infuriate
  • Fell Cleave
  • Heavy Swing
  • Maim
  • Storm’s Path

Levels 70-71: Unleash the Inner Release

So, you finally hit level 70 and unlocked the trait that turns Berserk into Inner Release.

This is where the end-game rotation begins. Read the tooltip of Inner Release and realize that you get a free pass to use Gauge spenders for three GCDs. Remember to use these stacks on Fell Cleaves and Decimates.

There are variations to the opener, but we’ll go with the one below for now.

Opener is:

  • Tomahawk +Infuriate
  • Heavy Swing
  • Maim (+Potion)
  • Storm’s Eye +Inner Release
  • Fell Cleave +Upheaval +Onslaught
  • Fell Cleave +Onslaught
  • Fell Cleave +Onslaught
  • Fell Cleave +Infuriate
  • Fell Cleave
  • Heavy
  • Maim
  • Storm’s Path
  • Fell Cleave
  • Heavy Swing
  • Infuriate
  • Fell Cleave
    … Storm’s Path, Storm’s Eye, Upheaval etc. as per usual rotation.

Level 72+: Nascent Chaos enters the arena.

At level 72, we unlock the “Nascent Chaos” buff that triggers every time after using Infuriate. This turns our Gauge spenders into a more powerful version of themselves. We don’t get the upgraded Fell Cleave yet, though. We get the AoE upgrades first. Enter “Chaotic Cyclone”. Read the tooltip.

For now, we’ll be using Chaotic Cyclone as a 50 Gauge spender, even on single-target situations. If Fell Cleave were to Direct Hit + Crit, it would win out. However, Chaotic Cyclone always does this, which leads to higher average damage results.


Level 76: Nascent Flash

Funny skill! Use it on a party member that you wish to heal. For each weapon skill (GCD) you land on a target (or targets), you recover health to the party member, and yourself. This skill also comes with 10% (4s) + 10% (8s) mitigation for your party member, that doubles up for a total of 19% mitigation for the first four seconds.

Nascent Flash on a party member.
Heavy Swing hits a target.
You recover health, your party member recovers health.
Overpower hits seven targets.
You recover health seven times, your party member recovers health seven times. \

You are now the healer.


Level 80: Inner Chaos

At level 80, using Infuriate turns your Fell Cleave into Inner Chaos. Much like Chaotic Cyclone, IC always Direct Hit Crits, hitting big.

At this point of the game, the opener changes again - slightly. Our first Fell Cleave is now Inner Chaos and since the patch of 6.1, Inner Chaos (and most other GCDs) don’t consume IR stacks.

Opener:

  • Tomahawk +Infuriate
  • Heavy Swing
  • Maim (+Potion)
  • Storm’s Eye +Inner Release
  • Inner Chaos +Upheaval +Onslaught
  • Fell Cleave +Onslaught
  • Fell Cleave
  • Fell Cleave +Infuriate
  • Inner Chaos
  • Heavy
  • Maim
  • Storm’s Path
  • Fell Cleave
  • Heavy Swing +Infuriate
  • Inner Chaos
    … Storm’s Path, Storm’s Eye, Upheaval etc. as per usual rotation.

Level 82: Bloodwhetting

The trait “Raw Intuition Mastery” is unlocked, changing Raw Intuition into Bloodwhetting. If you thought Raw Intuition was good, now it’s even better. Remember to use it lots.

Level 86: Orogeny

The AoE version of Upheaval is unlocked. At the time of writing this (patch 6.11), it should be used on three or more targets.

Level 88: The Third Onslaught

Square Enix decided to give us a third stack of Onslaught.

We can now spend three stacks inside even-minute party buffs, and one stack inside odd-minute party buffs, if available.

This leads to cycles of 3-1, which repeats every two minutes.

Level 90: Primal Rend

You did it. You reached the end-game. Go read the full guide.

  • Have any questions?
    Authors
    Balance WAR Staff
    Mox Xinmagar
    Mox#0007
  • 27 Oct, 2021
    Created
    2 Feb, 2022
    Updated for Endwalker.
    29 Apr, 2022
    Updated for Patch 6.11
    25 Aug, 2022
    Added a lv90 note.