MMOexp WoW Classic 20th Anniversary: Hamstring Kiting Explained

Leveling a Warrior in World of Warcraft Classic is famously challenging—but also incredibly rewarding when done correctly. This guide covers everything you need to know to level efficiently, including playstyle fundamentals, hamstring kiting, stance macros, weapon progression, talent choices, and essential addons. The advice here is based on extensive hands-on experience leveling multiple Warriors across PvE, PvP, and raiding environments. A large amount of WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Gold can also be very helpful.

If you master these mechanics early, Warrior leveling becomes faster, safer, and far more enjoyable.

Early Levels and Core Playstyle

At level 1, Warrior gameplay is extremely simple. You'll primarily rely on Heroic Strike because it's your only rage spender. Once you unlock Charge, your basic flow becomes charging into enemies, generating rage, and dumping it into Heroic Strike.

Things start to get much more interesting once you unlock Hamstring, Rend, and Overpower. These abilities unlock the Warrior's most important leveling technique: hamstring kiting.

Hamstring Kiting Explained

Hamstring kiting is the single most important skill for leveling a Warrior efficiently. It reduces incoming damage without lowering your DPS, which dramatically cuts down on food, bandage, and downtime usage.

The technique works best with a slow two-handed weapon.

Here's how it works:

Charge into the target.

Apply Hamstring.

Step away while your weapon swing timer resets.

Step back in just before your auto attack goes off.

Auto attack, then step back out again.

Reapply the Hamstring as needed.

You're timing your movement around your swing timer, which means the enemy attacks less often while you lose no damage output. Since mobs attack faster than you do, standing still results in significantly more damage taken.

While kiting in and out, you can:

Apply Rend

Queue Heroic Strike

Fish for dodges to trigger Overpower

Rend is especially valuable early on. Even though it's not rage-efficient, it continues dealing damage while you're kiting, and if Rend is dodged, it procs Overpower—one of your highest-damage abilities for only 5 rage.

Once you unlock Intercept at level 30, hamstring kiting becomes even better. When enemies reach low health, you can switch to Berserker Stance, Intercept for a stun, and finish them with an auto attack or Execute. This is also exactly how Warriors PvP against other melee classes.

Stance Management and Macros

Warrior stance swapping is powerful but clunky without macros. Many players struggle simply because they manually switch stances and lose rage.

The solution: stance macros.

Every ability that requires a specific stance should automatically switch you into that stance when pressed. This lets you focus on gameplay instead of micromanaging your UI. For interrupting casters, Shield Bash macros should automatically equip a one-hander and shield, bash, then allow you to swap back to cheap WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Gold your two-hander afterward.