Charge is a core warrior ability learned at level three. It is considered the opening skill. Charge rapidly moves the warrior towards a target, stuns it, and generates rage. It cannot be used during combat and has to be used as an opener. This is useful in duels against casters and ranged classes, as the distance is covered almost instantly.
The stun is 1 second and serves to hold the target in place while the warrior covers the distance. It also breaks spellcasting.
Charge is a great way of opening a fight, if using it will not attract unwanted adds.
The "in combat" status functions differently in PvP combat. The warrior only has to not attack or be attacked for six seconds to be considered out of combat. An 'attack' consists of any hostile spell; even a counterspell will put the warrior in combat, though it does little more than annoy. Good warriors will learn to recognize the moments in PvP that allow them to leave combat for long enough to Charge. Using this technique can be useful in various situations: a fleeing opponent will sometimes fail to keep you in combat, which allows you to catch up with Charge. Also, running away in the middle of a fight might get the warrior out of combat, and the reward is a bit of rage and a stun - not to mention the surprise effect.
While Charge is extremely fast, the stun only keeps the target in place long enough for the warrior to get in melee range. It's useful to interrupt spells when running into a battle that's already taking place, but if for keeping a running player or mob in range, [Hamstring] or some other movement-restricting skill must be used immediately after the Charge.
A good tactic for rage generation is also to use Berserker Rage either just before or just after a charge. This can help some in normal five-man instances or when 'tanking down' to a lower level instance. Note that in raids it is unnecessary to do this, as the warrior will probably be taking enough damage to keep their rage full.
If the warrior is moving slower than normal (for example, due to being Dazed) and/or the target is moving faster than normal (on a mount), the Charge may tend to over or undershoot the target.
As of Patch 2.1, all of a Warrior's charge-like moves suppress any non-immobilizing snares while in use.
Charge is typically very smart about avoiding obstacles and climbing cliffs as long as the front of the enemy is open and it is possible by normal means. It often fails to find a path if a small object is right in front of or to the side of the target.
It is possible to Charge right by a enemy and not get aggro as long the warrior is outside of aggro range at the beginning and end of the charge.
It is possible to charge mid-air if timed right; this can save the warrior time if they're being knocked over a cliff or other hazardous environments.
0600Patch 6.0.2 (14-October-2014): Charge no longer generates Rage when charging against a non-player target multiple times in a row. Charge will still always generate Rage when used against other players.
0400Patch 4.3.0 (29-Nov-2011): Charge (and related abilities) should now correctly path to a target even if the target moves during the Charge. This change should decrease the likelihood of the warrior Charging to a different location than the target.
0400Patch 4.2.0 (2011-06-28): It is no longer possible in some encounters to use Charge when closer than its minimum range.
0400Patch 4.1.0 (26-Apr-2011): Charge and Intercept no longer have diminishing returns on their stun effects
0400Patch 4.0.6 (8-Feb-2011): Charge now shares diminishing returns with stun effects.; Charge’s stun continues to not trigger diminishing returns for Protection warriors who have the Warbringer talent.; Dying while using a Charge ability will no longer leave the player’s corpse suspended in the air.
0300/0400Patch 4.0.1 (12-Oct-2010): Charge is available at level 3 and costs 57.
0300Patch 3.1.0 (14-Apr-2009): Duration of stun effect now lasts 1.5 sec. This effect no longer has diminishing returns.
0200Patch 2.3.0 (13-Nov-2007): Charge will work more often when targets are up against unpathable areas like walls and poles.
0200Patch 2.1.0 (22-May-2007): This ability will now properly cause the warrior to go into combat with its target. Charge now suppresses all Slowing effects while charging the target.
0100Patch 1.9.1 (10-Jan-2006): Should no longer desync characters from the server when charging from land to water.
0100Patch 1.8.0 (10-Oct-2005): Camera angles when using Charge should be improved.
0100Patch 1.3.0 (07-Mar-2005): Charge has been improved so it will work through doorways and won't path you through an entire dungeon.