- Rage Management -
From WOWWIKI
Rage is the Warrior's version of the caster's Mana bar or the Rogue's Energy bar, but works differently in several ways. Rage is required for the execution of many of the Warrior Abilities, although standard attacks don't depend on it at all. By default the rage bar is empty, and builds only by being hit, by dealing damage, or by using certain Warrior Abilities. When out of combat, Rage degenerates or depletes at a constant rate. A Druid in Bear Form also uses Rage to perform certain abilities.
The size of the rage pool and the degeneration rate are both constant - they do not increase or decrease with levels, and are not related to any statistics. However, there are a few talents which make certain abilities cost less rage to use. And there are a few talents which affect your rage in other ways. Improved Charge (Arms) makes Charge generate 3 (6) extra rage (1 [2] points). Unbridled Wrath (Fury) gives a chance of an extra rage point per hit you deal based on your attack speed, and Anger Management (Arms) which generates 1 rage every 3 seconds.
As of patch 2.0.1, Before The Storm, the Warrior skill Stance Mastery will allow the Warrior to retain up to 10 of his rage points when changing stances. Any additional rage is lost, unless the Warrior has allocated talent points to Tactical Mastery (Protection), which allows conservation of a further 5/10/15 Rage, (1/2/3 points). Stance Mastery must be trained or else the Tactical Mastery talent has no effect. The combination of these allows for a Warrior to retain a maximum of 25 Rage when switching stances.
Rage Generation
Rage can be generated by the following methods:
1)Being Hit
Being hit by a physical attack generates rage based on damage taken.
Attacks that are blocked/parried/dodged also generate rage.
See Formulas:Rage generation for the formula for the amount of rage gained from damage taken.
2)Dealing Melee Damage to Enemies
Dealing damage to enemies by regular melee attacks generates rage based on damage dealt.
Special attacks against an enemy do not generate rage.
Attacks which damage a shield (such as Power Word: Shield) but not the opponent themselves do not generate rage.
See Formulas:Rage generation for the formula for the amount of rage gained from damage dealt.
3)Using Rage Potions
Rage Potion yields 20-40 rage.
Greater Rage Potion yields 30-60 rage.
Mighty Rage Potion yields 45-75 rage and increases Strength by 60 for 20 sec
Rage Talents and Abilities
Unbridled Wrath allows additional rage generation per hit. With 5 talent points invested, it yields a 40% chance to add an additional point of rage on normal attacks only (correction - this % is adjusted for weapon speed, and is no longer a flat %. I can't find solid data on the exact formula, but it seems likely the 40% is normalised around a 2.2s swing speed).
Bloodrage generates 10 rage on use and another 1 rage per second for 10 seconds, to a total of 20 rage. It also removes a flat 7% of your health. The amount of rage generated on use can be increased by 3/6 with investment of 1/2 points in Improved Bloodrage.
Anger Management generates 1 rage per 3 seconds. Before the patch 2.0 the tooltip claimed it reduced rage decay out of combat by 30%, but it was always generating rage in combat since day one (most likely due to a bug that was nontrivial to fix) and the tooltip was just clarified to reflect the real use of the talent.
Berserker Rage increases the rage generated by being hit for a short duration (10 seconds). Can also generate 10 rage on use with investment in Improved Berserker Rage.
Using Equipment to Generate Rage
The Fire Hardened Hauberk (Alliance) or Brutal Hauberk (Horde) can give you 30 rage once per hour
The Spinal Reaper (Allakhazam link) from Ragnaros can generate 20 rage on a killing blow if the mob would give experience. This effect is limited to once every 10 seconds.
Using Buffs to Generate Rage
Rage Decay
Rage does not decay while in combat
While not in combat, rage is lost at a rate of 3 rage every 3 seconds.