Warriors: completely useless during classic era / Kunark?
 

Thinking about what class I want to main when the fresh server comes out (presumably early next year). I didn't get to raid much due to IRL reasons, but generally, I recall hybrids doing most of the tanking while warriors were relegated to DPS duty in places like plane of hate, kedge, et cetera. And then of course there's the insanely low HP value of Kunark bosses...

So... do warriors actually have any role at all prior to Velious?

Warriors get good in Kunark with discs. Though I still tanked targets in classic on my warrior.

Depends. If you want to kill trakanon right out the gate of Kunark, PL a few warriors to 52 for evasive, on kunark launch. But tbh I agree, we aren't that great until velious. If clickies hadn't been nerfed, it would still be warriors on top. But now, a geared paladin is my preferred choice of tank for trak, VS, and VP. If a warrior is able to hold aggro with insta clicks (i.e. Death scarab gland) in classic, they still have more HP than knights.

Warriors are still the kings/queens of Velious, Knights are invaluable there for offtanking and ToV trash, though, and once they get near BIS gear can tank a few of the named dragons, long as they can be slowed.

Eh. I knew of a handful of classic-era warriors who occasionally tanked Phinny or offtanked certain mobs in planar raids, but by and large, hybrids were doing pretty much all the heavy lifting. Toward the end of classic era, I saw lots of warriors in a permanent semi-AFK state doing next to nothing while wearing full Indicolite in Kingdom's zerg raids.

Lack of snap aggro just completely destroys the utility and usefulness of the class in raid settings. That was a bitter reality check for me after a relatively enjoyable leveling experience.

War sucks in classic era, period. It was the same back in 1999, wars were just straight trash no matter what gears you had.

Wars got more relevant with kunark release, and became king in velious era.

Well, I do remember some warriors with Monsoon who stayed berserk who actually did pretty solid DPS. 30 / 45 is a beastly ratio for a classic-era weapon, especially with maxed haste.

Warriors could serve as adequate melee DPS in classic with good weapons to my recollection, although like I said, they just couldn't take well without proper snap aggro. The clicky aggro nerfs were DEVASTATING.

Imo the clicky nerfs could have been offset by fixing bash so it generated aggro as the original devs intended (equivalent stun aggro to spells) ... of course it was unknowingly broken until Dragons of Norrath, and only fixed through an itemisation fudge so a functional bash aggro fix would nit be classic.

i can imagine how great that could be, it was a torture to play war pre-kunark...... /sigh

Warriors aren't great in Classic, but people here are being a little dramatic. Warriors can still raid tank stuff. Just bring a mallet (yes they are nerfed but they still work) and maybe don't be in the casual guild with tons of active knights. As for leveling, you will have no issues getting a group.

When Kunark comes you'll be geared and ready to go. And trust me, when it does, you're gonna get a lot more groups than a Hybrid on the road to 60. By Velious, you'll be ready for the spotlight.

That being said, if you just wanna derp on a caster until Kunark, that's a reasonable plan.

The extra HP and MR on warriors is meaningful in Classic and Kunark. OP mentions Hate and Kedge, but just about all the other Classic raid content has mobs that fear (Naggy/Vox/Draco) and that MR will come in handy. Discs make you relevant in Kunark as evasive war is the de facto VS tank and all the outdoor dragons fear once again making your innate MR bonus more valuable. The clicky agro isn't what it used to be, but that's nothing a raid can't deal with.