Table of Contents:
I. Introduction to the Arms Warrior Specialization
Ia. Why Choose the Arms Warrior Specialization?
II. Proper Stat Prioritization and Character Building
IIa. Optimal Gear Enchantments
IIb. Ideal Gemming
IIc. Professions and Benefits
IId. Race and its Relevance to Arms PvE
III. Talents and Glyphs
IIIa. Talents and their Relation to Arms PvE
IIIb. Viable and Suggested Arms Specializations
IIIc. Viable and Suggested Arms Glyphing
IV. Priority Rotations
IVa. Correlation of Warrior Abilities to the Arms Rotation
IVb. Single Target Rotation (100%-21%)
IVc. Execution Rotation (20%-0%)
IVd. Multi-Target AoE Rotation
IVe. Cooldowns and their Relation to Rotation
IVf. Importance of Arms Warrior Utility
V. Introduction to Arms Warrior Keybindings and Macros
Va. Importance of Keybindings and Macros
Vb. Suggested Keybindings
Vc. Arms Macros Synonymous to Dps
Vd. Arms Macros Synonymous to Utility and Survivability
VI. Constructing Your User Interface
VIa. Importance of a Clean and Organized User Interface
VIb. How to Install Addons
VIc. Recommended Addons Pertaining to Arms PvE Dps
VId. Recommended Addons Pertaining to Organization
VII. Personal Recommendations
I. Introduction to the Arms Warrior Specialization
*This guide will be updated as new information arises related exclusively to Arms Warrior PvE.*
Ia. Why Choose the Arms Warrior Specialization?
Considered one of the most iconic classes in not just World of Warcraft, but virtually any RPG game, you have the behemoth that is the warrior; more specifically, what typically comes to mind is a knight-like character yielding 1-2 weapons and a shield that physically ravages the battlefield and can stand toe-to-toe with any foe that comes its way. With the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Arms Warriors are now much more of a viable PvE Dps spec then it has been in years. In contrast to the Fury Warrior who has more of a preset rotation, the Arms Warrior's rotation is a priority based system that constantly fluctuates based upon inconsistant procs and abilities that pop up randomly throughout the rotation: making the Arms Warrior's method of Dps not only sporadic, but highly engaging as well. Arms warriors are not just a pure damage dealer, but also superb suppliers of raid utility. The Arms warrior is able to: buffer the raid with various shouts that can enhance their allies or hamper their opponents, increase the raid's physical damage by a small margin, significantly increase all bleed damage dealt to their target(s), sustain armor reduction abilities throughout an encounter, and finally can lock down an opponent better than many classes in the game. With all these factors considered, there is nothing stopping this bladed juggarnaut from ravaging anything in its wake and assisting those allies who rely on it the most.
II. Proper Stat Prioritization and Character Construction
*Below I shall list each stat that has a direct correlation towards the Arms Warrior's effectiveness, this includes the hit/expertise cap with racials factored in and overall stat prioritization.*
Hit Cap: Hit Cap at level 85 for the Arms Warrior is currently 8%, which is equivilant to exactly 961 hit rating.
This would imply that exactly 1% hit at level 85 is equivilant to roughly 120.125 hit rating.
The Draenei racial Heroic Presence boosts the individual Draenei's hit rating by 1%, which makes the Draenei hit cap 7%. This would imply that rather than 961 hit rating, the Draenei Arms Warrior hit cap is equivilant to roughly 840.875--rounded up to 841 hit rating.
Expertise Cap: Expertise cap at level 85 is still 26 rating, which equals around 792 expertise rating required for cap. This would imply that exactly 1% expertise at level 85 is equivilant to roughly 30.462 expertise rating.
*The Human/Dwarf Racial, with each races' respective weapon equipped to activate the specialization, is 3 expertise rating. This would imply that rather than 792 expertise rating, the Human/Dwarf Arms Warrior expertise cap is equivilant to roughly 700.626--rounded up to 701 expertise rating.*
*The Orc Racial, with a two-handed axe equipped to activate the specialization, is 5 expertise rating. This would imply that rather than 792 expertise rating, the Orc Arms Warrior expertise cap is equivilant to roughly 639.702--rounded up to 640 expertise rating.*
Strength: In comparison to the other stats, there is not much to discuss pertaining to strength. It is the warrior's primary stat, wearing plate gear increases strength by an additional 5%, and finally it is on virtually every piece of gear warrior's desire. Anywhere that you can grab strength, you want to, pertaining towards the actual stats on the gear.
With gems however, you must factor in hit/expertise cap. Generally speaking, most sockets you will encounter will have a bonus of strength, red sockets will of course want pure strength gems. The only viable Dps option for blue gems is strength/hit, which if you're hit capped, is generally worthless. Unless the bonus on that armor piece is so amazing that you must resocket a few gems to balance your hit cap as close as you can towards the exact 8% (since any additional hit rating on your gear beyond the cap is wasted), you'll at later stages possibly override the socket for pure strength gems. Finally yellow sockets, you always stick with the rule that if the socket bonus is worthwhile, gem for it (gems would be strength+crit/mastery).
Critical Rating: What can be said about crit. It is definatly one of our priority stats, simply because virtually every 'attack' we use can crit. We not only have the Deep Wounds talent adding an additional DoT on our target(s) but also Impale following that talent to further increase our primary abilities critical strike damage bonus by an additional 20%. Not to mention the several talents in addition to those previous two that further buff our critical rating. Taste for Blood increases the critical chance of Overpower by 60% (effectively making the softcap for critical rating as a warrior 40%), Wrecking Crew that increases our damage by 10% after recieving a Mortal Strike critical hit, Juggernaut that increases both Slam's/Mortal Strike's critical chance by 25% after a charge, Cruelty buffing Mortal Strikes Critical Hit Chance by an another 10%, and finally Incite that increases Heroic Strikes critical chance by 15% and if it manages to get a critical strike--its will have another guaranteed second critical strike! Needless to say, Arms Warriors are extremely reliant on crits for overall damage since every other talent contributes to buffering that stat further. After obtaining hit/expertise cap crit is your next priority, however do not allow crit to greatly outscale your next priority stat: mastery, since mastery is roughly equivilant in damage increase as crit.
Mastery Rating: Although critical strike rating is an important attribute, mastery does not fall far behind in the essence that it always needs to be close, if not equal, to critical rating. With each single point gained towards mastery, you gain an additional 2% chance to activate Strikes of Opportunity (SoO) which triggers a second instantaneous melee strike dealing 100% normal white damage. Nice bonus of this additional swing is that it can also crit! That means with additional white hits being dealt, there then can by a higher proc rate of Sudden Death thus a higher up time of Colossus Smash (meaning a significant Dps increase). For these two reasons alone it is essential that both critical and mastery rating remain as close together in standing as possible.
Haste Rating: In contrast to Fury Warriors, Arms Warriors do not scale well (if nearly at all) based on haste and is more or less an empty stat. Our white damage count is such a small overall percentage of our damage that haste does nearly nothing in terms of weapon hit damage. Without divulging into math calculations that most readers will find irrelevant, I will simply state that the amount of haste that would be required to be any noticible Dps increase is so unrealistically high that it would then in fact be a Dps loss due to the amount other higher priority stats would have to suffer at its expense. In addition, our filler move Slam does not scale noticably with haste and our rage generation as Arms is inferior due to the amount of tools we possess to control/manage/conserve our rage that haste does nearly nothing for increasing rage generation (especially when you factor in rage normalization that occured during this expansion). In lamest terms, anything with haste on it you do not want for it is a Dps waste/loss. If it is however an armor piece is a significant upgrade and you take it, reforge the haste away to critical or mastery rating...whichever is more needed at the time.
*Stat Prioritization:* Strength>8% Hit>26 Expertise>Critical Rating>or=Mastery>Haste (Never use haste, reforge away unavoidable haste)
IIa. Optimal Gear Enchantments
Helm: Arcanum of the Wildhammer/Arcanum of the Dragonmaw (60 Strength and 35 Mastery Rating) Mats: Revered with Wildhammer/Dragonmaw
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone (50 Strength and 25 Critical Strike Rating) Mats: Exalted with Therazane
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike (65 Critical Strike Rating) Mats: 5 Maelstrom Crystal
Chest: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats (20 All Stats) Mats: 3 Heavenly Shard, 3 Maelstrom Crystal
Bracer: Enchant Bracer - Greater Critical Strike (65 Critical Strike Rating) Mats: 15 Hypnotic Dust, 3 Celestial Essence, 2 Heavenly Shard, 1 Maelstrom Crystal
Glove: Enchant Gloves - Mighty Strength (50 Strength) Mats: 4 Hypnotic Dust, 8 Celestial Essence, 2 Maelstrom Crystal
*If Engineer Only, also add -- Tazik Shocker (4320-5280 Nature Damage, 2 Minute Cooldown) Mats: 2 Volatile Earth, 2 Electrified Ether
Waist: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle (Extra Socket) Mats: 4 Volatile Earth, 4 Elementium Bar, 4 Pyrium Bar
*If Engineer Only, also add -- Nitro Boosts (Greatly Increase Your Run Speed for 5 Sec) Mats: 6 Volatile Blasting Trigger, 6 Handful of Cobalt Bolts
Leggings: Dragonscale Leg Armor (190 Attack Power and 55 Critical Strike Rating) Mats: 20 Blackened Dragonscale, 1 Pristine Hide
Boots: Enchant Boots - Lavawalker (35 Mastery Rating and Minor Speed Bonus) Mats: 10 Celestial Essence, 2 Heavenly Shard, 1 Maelstrom Crystal
OR Enchant Boots - Mastery (50 Mastery Rating) Mats: 10 Hypnotic Dust, 3 Celestial Essence
Rings: *If Enchanter Only, also add -- Enchant Ring - Strength (40 Strength) Mats: 1 Heavenly Shard
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Landslide (1000 Attack Power) Mats: 6 Hypnotic Dust, 5 Celestial Essence, 5 Heavenly Shard, 5 Maelstrom Crystal
IIb. Ideal Gemming
*As long as you are within the normal threshold (using common sense), there is no right or wrong way to socket provided that you are optimizing your stats based upon what you need. The following gems are the only gems you should consider using based upon what you need to obtain the stats you require (All gems should have strength; Then follow stat priorities: 8% Hit>26 Expertise>Critical Rating = Mastery Rating>>>>>Haste-Never Socket).
Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond, Requirements: At least two yellow gems (Meta: 54 Mastery Rating - Minor Run Speed Increase)
Or Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond, Requirements: More blue gems then red gems (Meta: 54 Critical Strike Rating - 3% Increased Critical Damage)
Bold Inferno Ruby (Red: 40 Strength)
Inscribed Ember Topaz (Orange: 20 Strength-20 Crit) or Skillful Ember Topaz (Orange: 20 Strength-20 Mastery)
Etched Demonseye(Purple: 20 Strength-20 Hit Rating)
IIc. Professions and Benefits
*Below I shall list each profession and the benifits that the professions provide to the individual player as it pertains to Arms PvE. Secondary Professions will not be listed due to the fact that, in my opinon, all Secondary Professions should be leveled up in time to allow you to be entirely self-sufficient in providing yourself with certain raid buffs/mats.*
Alchemy: Enables the passive ability Mixology which increases the effectiveness and duration of consumed elixers and flasks. Alchemists are also able to consume Flask of Enhancement, a flask that increases Strength, Agility or Intellect by 80 for one hour and is not consumed upon use.
Blacksmithing: Allows the use of Socket Gloves and Socket Bracer, enabling the use of two additional sockets (one on each item). Totals in +80 stat points.
Enchanting: Allows the use of Enchant Ring - Strength, enabling you to enchant each ring with a 40 strength enchant. Totals in +80 Strength points.
Engineering: In addition to being able to create 'bombs' that you can use on cooldown to enhance your damage, engineers are able to create Enchant Ring - Strength (secondary/stacking gloves enchant that shoots a nature spell dealing 4320-5280 base damage) and Nitro Boosts (secondary/stacking belt enchant which increases speed by 150% for 5 seconds).
Herbalism: Allows the use of max ranked Lifeblood at 525 skill, performing a slight HoT and increasing haste by 240 for 20 seconds.
Inscription: Inscriptionists are able to create Lionsmane Inscription, a shoulder enchant that increases strength by 130 and critical strike rating by 25.
Jewelcrafting: Allows the use of Three Bold Chimera's Eye gems in place of regular gems. Totals in +81 stat points.
Leatherworking: Leatherworkers are able to apply Draconic Embossment - Strength to their bracers, increasing their strength by 130.
Mining: Increases Stamina by 120 at 525 skill level (Toughness).
Skinning: Increases your Critical Strike Rating by 80 at 525 skill level (Master of Anatomy).
Tailoring: Tailors gain the ability to embroider their cloak with Swordguard Embroidery to occasionally increase melee attack power by 1000 for 15 seconds.
IId. Race and its Relevance to Arms PvE
*Before analyzing each race, I have to state that: do not choose a race solely based upon a theoretical Dps increase. If you do not enjoy the character model that you are forced to watch each time you sign into World of Warcraft, you will become dissatisfied with that character in due time. While yes all damage increases do matter in terms of progression, if it is at the expense of your enjoyment in a game then choosing said race is not worth the cost. In summary, play what you enjoy, disregard the rest.*
Alliance Races:
Human: Every Man for Himself provides the same effect as a PvP trinket by removing an imparing effect once every two minutes. There is a large amount of these effects in the PvE environment and by removing one hampering status sooner would technically result in a Dps increase (or survivability increase). Lastly, Sword/Mace Specialization increases your expertise rating by three if you have either two handed weapon equiped, thus reducing your necessary expertise cap from 26 rating to 23 rating. This reduction could save you a potential gem/enchant/armor piece with expertise gear that could then be applied to crit/mastery, which results in yet another theoretical Dps increase.
Dwarf: Mace Specialization accomplishes the same effect as human's specialization racial by reducing the expertise cap from 26 to 23 when wielding a two handed mace, which could allow you to allocate a stat towards crit/mastery instead of expertise. Finally you could factor in the situational benifits of Stoneform which could remove a critical bleed/poison, thus easing the fight for your group's healers.
Night Elf: There is the occasional benifit of nature damage reduction, but that is few and far between. The only benifits of the night elf race is Wisp Spirit and Shadowmeld which reduces recovery time after a wipe with enhanced speed at death and potentially saving you a repair bill, respectively.
Gnome: Beyond the situational benifit of increased arcane resistance, the only true benifit of gnomes for their racials is escape artist. With the amount of movement imparing effects in PvE encounters, having an ability that can remove this affliction and allow you to be back on your target sooner is more or less a theoretical Dps increase. *This is my personal preference of warrior race, almost exclusively due to aesthetics
.*Draenei: Yet another situational resistance for shadow school magic, but that is irrelevant in terms of Dps. You have a self-healing ability in Gift of the Naaru which can ease the time of healers in your group/raid in these mana conservative times; but the only true racial that affects Dps is heroic presence which reduces your hit cap from 8% to now 7%. Instead of allocating stats towards hit you can now add additional stats to crit/mastery which is always helpful.
Worgen: Worgen possess a direct bonus to crit chance (1%) which provides a direct Dps increase, although minimal. The worgen also has an additional 'gap-closer' in the form of Darkflight and resistances provided by Aberration; which makes worgen easily a top contender for Arms Dps based solely upon races.
Horde Races:
Orc: Axe Specialization effectively reduces the expertise cap from 26 rating to 21 rating, allowing you to sooner place sub-stats towards crit/mastery rating. In addition, Blood Fury provides a minor increase to attack power that very slightly boosts damage for a 15 second duration on a two minute cooldown timer.
Forsaken: All Forsaken abilities are entirely situational/theoretical in nature: a passive shadow resistance, Cannibalize a fallen raid member to ease time upon healers, and a means to remove the rare charm/sleep/fear effect from Will of the Forsaken.
Tauren: Tauren is another race that only has situational abilities in the form of warstop and endurance which can ease the time of healers as well as a situational nature resistance.
Troll: Berserking provides an increased attack speed by 20% for 10 seconds and Beast Slaying increases damage dealt to all beast ncps by 5% which yields a direct Dps increase. Also, with Da Voodoo Shuffle reducing the duration of movement imparing effects by 15%, you will be able to reduce the amount of time you are seperated from a boss with such an ability and theoretically raise your Dps.
Blood Elf: The Blood Elf racials provides you with yet another interrupt effect and also increases resistances to all magical sources of damage.
Goblin: Goblin racials are interesting in the fact that you have two on-use shared cooldown racials that on one hand can act as yet another gap closer and on the other hand be used as an on call minor damage boost in the form of hand rockets. With the racial of Better Living Through Chemistry, health potions have a 25% increased affect on you. Lastly, just in case you forgot something in your bank that you need immediate access to but there are no engineers around, you can summon your own personal hobgoblin bank to your side for one minute on a 30 minute cooldown.
III. Talents and Glyphs
IIIa. Talents and their Relation to Arms PvE
Arms Tier 1
War Academy. 3 Ranks. Increases the damage of Heroic Strike, Cleave, Victory Rush and Slam by 5/10/15%
This talent is the first talent in the Arms Warrior Talent Tree to be maxed out as it increases a few moves used frequently/situationally in your rotation(s).
Field Dressing. 2 Ranks. Increases all healing recieved by 3/6%, and the effectiveness of your self-healing abilities by an additional 10/20%.
It is debatable whether or not Blitz or Field Dressing should be taken as the second talent filled along with War Academy. Generally it comes down to a talent that assists your healers and thus improving their mana efficiency slightly, vs a situational multi-target stun/interupt and more importantly generating an additional 10 rage on each charge which happens usually several times in each encounter with the amount of boss damage mechanics and adds running around.
Blitz. 2 Ranks. Your charge generates 5/10 additional rage and an additional 1/2 nearby target(s).
It is debatable whether or not Blitz or Field Dressing should be taken as the second talent filled along with War Academy. Generally it comes down to a talent that assists your healers and thus improving their mana efficiency slightly, vs a situational multi-target stun/interupt and more importantly generating an additional 10 rage on each charge which happens usually several times in each encounter with the amount of boss damage mechanics and adds running around.
Arms Tier 2
Tactical Mastery. 2 Ranks. You retain up to an additional 25/50 rage when you change stances.
Although Stance-Dancing now has more uses to an extent then it has had in years, generally it is rather seldom when it is actually benifical to your rotation to do so outside the Execute Phase 20%-0% (even at the Execute Phase it is debatable whether or not it is worth it).
Second Wind. 2 Ranks. Whenever you are struck by a stun or immobilize effect you generate 10/20 rage and 2/5% of your total health over 10 seconds.
Although stuns and immobilize effects are common in the PvE environment, this talent is far too situational and costly for the slight benifit it offers.
Deep Wounds. 3 Ranks. Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 16/32/48% of your melee weapon's average damage over 6 seconds.
The Arms Warrior's only additional DoT along with Rend, this is a pure increase in Dps and is required not only for damage but also necessary to gain access to Impale (Tier 3, Arms Talent Tree).
Drums of War. 2 Ranks. Reduces the rage cost of your Shield Bash, Pummel, and any shouts which cost rage by 50/100%.
This is an optional talent that I would highly recommend using or at least looking into. Not only does this talent allow you to have free use of: Shield Bash, Pummel, Battle Shout, Demoralizing Shout, etc; but when used in conjunction with Booming Voice (Tier 2, Fury Talent Tree), your overall rotation is significantly smoothed out with the guaranteed on-call rage generation.
Arms Tier 3
Taste for Blood. 3 Ranks. Increases your Overpower critical chance by 20/40/60%. In addition, whenever your Rend ability causes damage, you have a 33/66/100% chance of allowing the use of Overpower for 9 seconds. This effect will not occur more than once every 5 seconds.
This is the ability that allows you to use Overpower as a priority move in your regular rotation. Overpower should always follow a Mortal Strike for reasons explained later on in Section IV, not to mention this is the talent that causes the Arms Warrior (soft)cap for Critical Strike to be 40% (40% base crit plus 60% crit chance to Overpower equals Critical Strike Capped).
Sweeping Strikes. 1 Rank. Instant Cast. 30 Rage. 1 Minute Cooldown. Your melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. Lasts 10 seconds.
Being another one of the Arms Warrior's pivital abilities due to being able to strike two enemies simutaniously with all attacks, this ability is a must have. On a side note, I would not recommend using Sweeping Strikes in conjunction with Bladestorm unless bursting down your two targets as quickly as possible (as in more important than using Bladestorm as a powerful single target rotation filler/ability) or if you are clearing trash and your cooldowns will both be active before you engage one of the main boss fights.
Impale. 2 Ranks. Increases the critical strike damage bonus of Mortal Strike, Slam and Overpower by 10/20%.
This talent is required as it enhances the critical damage bonus of three of the key abilities in your rotation, the talent being maxed out and manditory goes without saying.
Improved Hamstring. 2 Ranks. When reapplying Hamstring, you immobilize the target for 5 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60/30 seconds.
No viable use in PvE, except in highly situational conditions...but still not worth the investment.
Arms Tier 4
Improved Slam. 2 Ranks. Decreases the swing time of Slam by 0.5/1 second and increases its damage by 10/20%.
With Slam a majority of the time being your filler move in your rotation, reducing it's cooldown and boosting its damage is a must. There are those that argue that Slam is not worthwhile or inferior to Heroic Strike but this is simply not the case. Both have their own specific uses and merits in the Arms Warrior Priority Rotation and I will further elaborate on this scenario later in the guide under Section IV.
Deadly Calm. 1 Rank. Instant Cast. 0 Rage. 2 Minute Cooldown. For the next 10 seconds, none of your abilities cost rage, but you continue to generate rage. Cannot be used during Inner Rage.
This talent lets you perform your rotation for 10 seconds without having to be concerned about rage management, and you also end its duration with a full rage bar! An amazing cooldown that should be used relatively early in your encounters (which I will discuss later on in Section IV). A bit of advice however, before using this ability, burn off all excess rage in the form of Heroic Strike to reduce your rage to as close to 0 as possible, as any rage you have at the moment you activate Deadly Calm will be wasted.
Blood Frenzy. 2 Ranks. Your bleeds cause targets to take an extra 2/4% physical damage and 15/30% bleed damage. In addition, your autoattacks have a 5/10% chance to generate 20 additional rage.
The warrior raid utility talent, more or less. This talent allows you to supply your group/raid with +4% physical damage and +30% bleed damage, in addition to further improving your rage management with the 10% proc chance on generating 20 additional rage. Amazing talent and 100% manditory.
Arms Tier 5
Lambs to the Slaughter: 3 Ranks. After dealing a Mortal Strike, your next Execute, Overpower or Mortal Strike will cause 10/20/30% more damage.
Another talent that buffs the powerful ability that is Mortal Strike. Each time Mortal Strike is used you further buff your next Execute/Overpower/MS by 30%. During the 100%-21% phase, Overpower should always follow Mortal Strike in these terms; and once the 20%-0% phase hits, Overpower takes a back seat in the priority in place of Execute who now benefits the most from LttS's benefits. Yes, this is a manditory talent.
Juggernaut: 1 Rank. Your Charge ability is now useable while in combat, but the cooldown on Charge is increased by 5 seconds. Following a Charge, your next Slam or Mortal Strike has an additional 25% chance to critically hit if used within 10 seconds.
A self-explanitory talent but of course, very powerful and useful. Additional mobility during encounters and of course potential increased burst makes this talent mandatory.
Sudden Death: 2 Ranks. Your melee hits have a 3/6% chance of resetting the cooldown of your Colossus Smash, and you keep 5/10 rage after using Execute.
With Colossus Smash being one of your top priority moves and the ability to save 10 rage each time you use an Execute during the final 20% of a boss' life, this talent is mandatory. However, I must warn that if you do get lucky and your Colossus Smash resets before your first Colossus Smash has faded from the target, do not overwrite it. Worst case scenario one white hit does not take into account the Colossus Smash debuff, and white damage is a smaller percentage of your overall damage. Wait until the instant that Colossus Smash drops from the ncp then reapply to insure maximum up-time on this debuff. The longer it is up, the more abilities you can use that will gain the benifit of Colossus Smash (Overpower, Mortal Strike, Slam, etc).
Arms Tier 6
Wrecking Crew: 2 Ranks. Your Mortal Strike critical hits have a 50/100% chance to enrage you, increasing all damage caused by 5/10% for 12 seconds.
Yet another move that buffs your already powerful Mortal Strike, this talent is mandatory.
Throwdown: 1 Rank. Instant Cast. 15 Rage. 45 Second Cooldown. Knocks the target to the ground and stuns it for 5 seconds.
Only costing one talent point, this is a situational use ability that has the potential to save the day. Many ncps and adds are able to be interrupted and at times stunned and adding yet another ability for the Arms Warrior to control the ncp definatly has its uses. Choosing to spec into this talent is optional but generally recommended if your spec is incorperating balanced/AoE talents.
Arms Tier 7
Bladestorm: 1 Rank. Instant Cast. 25 Rage. 1 Minute Cooldown. You become a whirling storm of destructive force, instantly striking all nearby targets for 150% weapon damage and continuing to perform a whirlwind attack every 1 second for 6 seconds. While under the effects of Bladestorm, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed or disarmed, but you cannot perform any other abilities.
The Arms Warrior signature ability and powerful cooldown. Now that the Bladestorm effect has been hotfixed to 150% damage, this talent is entirely manditory as it is a pivital cooldown to be used during your rotation.
Fury Tier 1
Blood Craze: After taking any damage, you have a 10% chance to generate 1/2/3% of your total health over 6 seconds.
No viable use in PvE.
Battle Trance: 3 Ranks. Your Bloodthirst, Mortal Strike and Shield Slam hits have a 5/10/15% chance to make your next special attack that costs more than 5 rage consume no rage.
Yet another ability that further improves the Mortal Strike attack that then activates the Battle Trace at a 15% proc rate. I will further elaborate on what to do when the Battle Trance buff triggers in Section IV of the guide.
Cruelty: 2 Ranks. Increases the critical strike chance of Bloodthirst, Mortal Strike and Shield Slam by 5/10%
Another manditory talent that requires little explanation, increases the critical strike chance of your Mortal Strike ability.
Fury Tier 2
Executioner: 2 Ranks. Your Execute hits have a 50/100% to improve your melee attack speed by 5% for 9 seconds. This effect stacks up to 5 times.
Generally for Tier 2 talents, the choice of what to spec into comes down to Executioner or Booming Voice. Although increased Attack Speed/Haste is very unappealing for Arms Warriors, this is due to the fact that it would take such a significant amount of haste to make that stat viable that it not only is unreachable, but would be a significant Dps loss at the expense of Critical Strike Rating and Mastery Rating. This talent however is an exception to the rule. For the investment of two talent points you gain a stacking buff that increases melee attack speed by 25% for 9 seconds after the use of 5 Executes (and of course refreshes with each Execute used at maxed stacks). For such a small investment yielding that large of a speed increase, Executioner is a highly viable talent to use. Choosing which to spec into falls specifically into preference only, but do max out one or the other regardless.
Booming Voice: 2 Ranks. Reduces the cooldown of your Battle Shout and Commanding Shout by 15/30 seconds and causes those abilities to generate 5/10 additional rage.
Generally for Tier 2 talents, the choice of what to spec into comes down to Executioner or Booming Voice. The fact to consider is that Execute is only useable at the last 20% of the boss encounter where as the additional rage generation benefit of Battle/Commanding Shout is useable throughout the encounter and significantly smoothes out your rotation. Choosing which to spec into falls specifically into preference only, but do max out one or the other regardless.
Rude Interruption: 2 Ranks. Successfully interrupting a spell cast with Shield Bash or Pummel by 5% for 15/30 seconds.
Although a situational talent, bear in mind that now that Pummel is now useable in Battle Stance, an Arms Warrior is amazing for interupting caster adds that could plague the raid. Only one point spent in this talent is recommended at most however, since the odds are if the ncp is a spellcaster, it will cast more than one spell every 15 seconds meaning that your duration will constantly be refreshed.
Piercing Howl: 1 Rank. Instant Cast. 10 Rage. No Cooldown. Causes all enemies within 10 yards to be dazed, reducing movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds.
Although an AoE slow might seem inticing for only one point, these are points you cannot afford to spend on such a situational talent.
Protection Tier 1
Incite: 3 Ranks. Increases the critical strike chance of your Heroic Strike ability by 5/10/15%, and gives Heroic Strike criticals a 33/66/100% chance to cause the next Heroic Strike to also be a critical strike. These guaranteed criticals cannot re-trigger the Incite effect.
This is easily one of the most debatable talents for the Arms Warrior. Although Heroic Strike is the lowest priority move in your rotation, it still gets enough use that this talent can be of value. Even with this talent however it does not hold priority over Slam, and that is a very frequent misconception among Arms Warriors (further elaboration in Section IV of the guide). Second aspect of this talent however has to be the most interesting, due to the Incite buff triggering it slightly alters your rotation each time it procs. Although this talent is a technical single target Dps increase, I recommend skipping this talent if you choose to build a balanced/AoE oriented Arms Spec. However if both of your Specializations with be PvE oriented, I would suggest using the two builds I have listed in the next sub-section (IIIb. Sub-Section).
Toughness: 3 Ranks. Increases the armor value from items by 3/7/10%.
No viable use in PvE.
Blood and Thunder: 2 Ranks. When you Thunder Clap a target affected by your Rend, you have a 50/100% chance to affect every target with Rend.
This is one of my personal favorite talents and I highly recommend using this talent in your spec, if not at least test/consider it. Although in a pure Single Target Specialization it has no place, for a balanced/AoE oriented spec this talent becomes amazing. My general rule which I will discuss further about in Section IV is as followed: 1 Target = Normal Dps Rotation, 2 Targets = Normal Rotation with Sweeping Strikes and occasionally Bladestorm, 3 Targets = Sweeping Strikes, Bladestorm, and Cleave with the occasional Blood and Thunder chain, +4 Targets = Bladestorm, Cleave and refresh Blood and Thunder chain each time it dissipates. This talent is an excellent addition and a significant Dps increase in an environment where trash and many adds are prevailent.
IIIb. Viable and Suggested Arms Specializations
*These are the two builds I currently use. Ninety percent of the time I use the Multiple Target PvE Arms Specialization considering the amount of adds in instances/raids and boss encounters, however if I know for certain there will be no adds exceeding the amount of two, then I will use the Single Target PvE Arms Specialization.*
*In both specs, both the Prime and Minor Glyphs are identical; however, you can replace Glyph of Bladestorm with Glyph of Slam in the Single Target Specialization however I generally would not recommend it due to Bladestorm recently being hotfixed to 150% weapon damage from originally 100% weapon damage...thus making the ability truely viable in the rotation once again. In the Major Glyphs however, there is one distinct difference: the AoE Specialization contains Glyph of Cleaving where as the Single Target Specialization contains Glyph of Long Charge. Since the Single Target Specialization is designed as its name implies, Glyph of Cleaving becomes invalid since it would raise the targets damaged from two to three, you would then be better off using the AoE Specialization if Glyph of Cleaving was necessary. Glyph of Long Charge is chosen for the reason that if an occasional add appears in the raid or you are forced to run away from the boss due to a raid AoE mechanic, you will be able to quickly switch back to the boss or the add and back at a moment's notice. The only other viable option I would consider is Glyph of Heroic Throw (Your Heroic Throw now applies a stack of Sunder Armor), for those occasions where you are forced to drop your stacks of Sunder Armor previously placed on the boss...and of course to immediatly apply a Sunder Armor to the boss at the beginning of the encounter before you Charge. My personal preference is Glyph of Long Charge however due to the increased mobility and for the simple fact that the sooner you can engage your target, the more damage you will deal overall throughout the encounter.*
(Primary Specialization) Optimal Multiple Target PvE Arms Specialization: http://wowtal.com/#k=B3i-0Cdk.a8t.warrior.odc-o
(Secondary Specialization) Optimal Single Target PvE Arms Specialization: http://wowtal.com/#k=sYxjoKfw.a8t.warrior.oIP93
IIIc. Viable and Suggested Arms Glyphing
Prime Glyphs:
Mortal Strike: Increases the damage of Mortal Strike by 10%.
The glyph is very self-explanatory; Mortal Strike is one of the defining moves of the Arms talent tree and one of your highest priority moves, so naturally increasing the damage dealt by this move is a good thing.
Overpower: Increases the damage of Overpower by 10%.
Glyph of Overpower increases yet another one of your main priority moves by 10%. With Overpower being already one of your highest priority moves, high critical ratio, and 30% increased damage after each Lambs to the Slaughter proc, using this glyph is also manditory along with Mortal Strike.
Bladestorm: Reduces the cooldown on Bladestorm by 15 seconds.
Now that Bladestorm has been hotfixed to its correct 150% additional damage count, Glyph of Bladestorm takes the manditory slot as your third glyph in the AoE Specialization. For Single Target Specialization however, Glyph of Bladestorm is roughly equivilant to Glyph of Slam at the earliest of stages in Arms gear. As you progress into later raid content however, the additional damage backing Bladestorm lets it rapidly outweigh the benefits of 5% additional crit from Slam. Then when you also factor in the frequent adds that plague most content, Glyph of Bladestorm is without question the ideal third glyph for your Arms Spec.
Slam: Increases the critical strike chance of Slam by 5%.
Considering Slam is your most viable filler move between Overpower/Mortal Strike useage and DoT mantainence (Rend/CS), 5% additional critical chance on this move is very appealing and the ability is used frequently enough to be a viable and noticable Dps increase. However now that Bladestorm has been hotfixed to 150% and retakes its position in rotation between Overpower cooldowns (with enough time left on Rend/CS), the glyph very quickly becomes inferior to Glyph of Bladestorm by the time you are geared enough for raid content.
Major Glyphs:
Cleaving: Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1.
This Major glyph really requires no explaination. If you are using the balanced/AoE Specialization or something similar, this is a glyph you will want to have without question. If your spec is designed exclusively for Single Target Dps however, this glyph is best replaced by Glyph of Long Charge or Glyph of Heroic Throw.
Colossus Smash: Your Colossus Smash refreshes the duration of Sunder Armor stacks on the target.
Whether or not you are the Sunder-Supplier of your raid, this is overall an excellent glyph to have. Factoring in Colossus Smash is consistantly your second priority move on all rotations, an additional useful effect added to your main ability naturally is an excellent addition. Plus, if you are the Sunder-Supplier of your raid, not having to use Sunder Armor each time the stacks need to be refreshed is naturally a Dps increase.
Sweeping Strikes: Reduces the rage cost of your Sweeping Strikes ability by 100%.
This is the only Major Glyph that I can say is 100% required regardless of your warrior spec. Having to use no rage what so ever to activate one of your primary cooldowns is an obvious Dps increase when your rage can be better spent elsewhere. Also, what warrior wouldn't love to see two Overpowers strike simutaniously?
Long Charge: Increases the range of your Charge ability by 5 yards.
Glyph of Long Charge adds yet another 5 yards to your primary gap closer. Of course this means that you are now able to engage the boss/add/ncp sooner then you could otherwise, but also it further increases your mobility from add to the boss and back (thus also increasing your Dps, the sooner you can engage each target the sooner you can begin your rotation).
Heroic Throw: Your Heroic Throw now applies a stack of Sunder Armor.
This glyph definatly has enough worth to be mentioned as a viable option for set up. Heroic Throw is a recommended ability to use before engaging the encounter plus as an ability to use when you have to move out of melee range of the boss during certain raid mechanics. Not only does this glyph allow you to immediatly apply a stack of Sunder Armor at the beginning of the encounter, but if by chance you have to remain away from the boss for a long enough duration where your stacks of Sunder Armor would drop off...this is the perfect glyph to use for the use of refreshing such stacks and saving you the GCD's that would have been spent otherwise! Also, this glyph has an obvious benefit if you are by chance the only warrior in the raid or are the warrior designated as the Sunder-Supplier...the more GCD's oriented towards pure Dps the better, right?
Minor Glyphs:
Berserker Rage: Berserker Rage generates 5 rage when used.
Glyph of Berkser Rage simply adds an additional minor on call rage increase just to assist in further smoothing out your rotation. I recommend picking up this glyph.
Battle: Increases the duration by 2 minutes and area of effect by 50% of your Battle Shout.
Not only is this our main buffer move, but when combined with such talents such as Drums of War and Booming Voice, Battle Shout is also a valuable asset in providing assisted rage management during your rotation. In most encounters, you will need to refresh this ability and might need the on call rage boost to help as well, this glyph comes highly recommended as a second Minor glyph.
Demoralizing Shout: Increases the duration by 15 seconds and area of effect by 50% of your Demoralizing Shout.
Demoralizing Shout is a valuable asset to any raid with the amount of damage reduction it applies to any ncp your tank(s) faces. If there is already not someone providing this debuff for your raid, take this glyph and provide it yourself. Raid performance/efficiency matters much more than a few extra weapon swings, especially considering this ability can easily be worked into the Arms' rotation in place of Slam/Sunder.
Enduring Victory: Increases the window of opportunity in which you can use Victory Rush by 5 seconds.
This glyph is only worth picking up for two reasons: A) it can potentially easy the time healers have capping your health off between each ncp and B) If there is already a group/raid member supplying the Demoralizing Shout debuff, this is the next best option.
Command: Increases the duration by 2 minutes and area of effect by 50% of your Battle Shout.
Commanding Shout is one of those abilities that is nice to have but not nearly as pivital as say Battle Shout. Take this glyph if someone else is already supplying battle shout but beyond that, there is no use for this glyph.
IV. Priority Rotations
*There are three rotations that the Arms Warrior must adhere to while dealing optimum damage throughout any PvE encounter, being: Single-Target, Execution and AoE. There is no true set in stone method of dealing damage, since the Arms rotation is entirely a priority system. The damage dealing system is further complicated by several procs that occur at both set and random moments, making the Arms rotation both a high skill cap class and highly engaging, nonmonotinous class specialization.*
IVa. Correlation of Warrior Abilities to the Arms Warrior Rotation
*Before getting into the actual Arms rotation, lets first take a look at all the abilities that make the Arms Warrior what it is today. This section will purely show each ability used frequently enough in your rotation to earn a mention. This does not include true-cooldown abilities, those shall be shown/discussed in Sub-Section IVe of the guide.*
Mortal Strike: A vicious strike that deals 150% weapon damage plus 423 and wounds the target, reducing the effectiveness of any healing received by 10% for 10 sec.
Colossus Smash: Smashes a target for 150% weapon damage plus 120 and weakens their defenses, allowing your attacks to entirely bypass their armor for 6 sec.
Overpower: Instantly overpower the enemy, causing 125% weapon damage. Only useable after the target dodges. The Overpower cannot be blocked, dodged or parried.
Execute: Attempt to finish off a wounded foe, causing (10 + AP * 0.437 * 100 / 100) physical damage and consumes up to 20 additional rage to deal up to ($ap * 0.874 * 100 / 100 - 1) additional damage. Only usable on enemies that have less than 20% health
Rend: Wounds the target causing them to bleed for 525 damage plus an additional (0.25 * 6 * ((MWB + mwb) / 2 + AP / 14 * MWS)) (based on weapon damage) over 15 sec.
Slam: Slams the opponent, causing 125% weapon damage plus (430 * 125 / 100).
Heroic Strike: An attack that instantly deals (8 + $ap * 75 / 100) physical damage. A good attack for moments of excess rage
Heroic Throw: Throws your weapon at the enemy causing 12 damage (based on attack power). This ability causes high threat.
Sunder Armor: Sunders the target's armor, reducing it by 4% per Sunder Armor and causes a high amount of threat. Threat increased by attack power. Can be applied up to 3 times. Lasts 30 sec.
Battle Shout: The warrior shouts, increasing Strength and Agility of all raid and party members within 30 yards by 549 and gaining 20 rage. Lasts 2 min
Demoralizing Shout: Reduces the physical damage caused by all enemies within 10 yards by 10% for 30 sec.
Pummel: Pummel the target, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec.
IVb. Single Target Rotation (100%-21%)
Until the target reaches 20% health, this is by far the most involved and sporadic moment of your rotation. The abilities listed in the above Sub-Section IVa will all potentially be used in an encounter. Below you will find the priority system listed for your Arms Warrior rotation.
1) Rend: A 15 second bleed that deals damage one every 3 seconds. Outside of Deep Wounds this is the Arms Warrior's only DoT, it is also the most important move in your rotation. This is for the simple reason that this DoT triggers Taste for Blood which then allows Overpower to be worked into your rotation. Since this DoT lasts 15 seconds, and the GCD is 1.5 seconds, that would imply that this DoT lasts the equivilant of 10 total GCDs. Between the nineth and tenth GCD (right as it is about to fall off or the moment it does), reapply Rend.
2) Colossus Smash: It should come to no suprise that Colossus Smash takes the forefront of the Arms Warrior rotation. Colossus Smash does not take priority over Rend for two simple reasons: Rend does not scale with 100% armor penetration and in the time it takes for Rend to proc a Taste for Blood proc is equal to that of one GCD...thus allowing you to fit this ability in before Taste for Blood comes up and you progress with your rotation. Outside Rend, Colossus Smash improves the damage of all your abilities, meaning it should be sustained as frequently as possible. Sudden Death eases this job significantly by providing a 6% chance to reset to cooldown of Colossus Smash (and with CS being a 20 second cooldown, this is significant). *As one important note, if you by chance get very lucky and Sudden Death procs before your currently applied Colossus Smash falls off, treat this with the same rule as Rend: reapply Colossus Smash at the instant it falls off, do not clip the duration otherwise you have reduced its overall duration and lowered your Dps.
3) Mortal Strike: Little explanation is necessary for this ability. Not only is it one of the strongest abilities, but it procs: Lambs to the Slaughter, Wrecking Crew and Battle Trance! This ability essentially 'sets-up' your following/reciprocating abilities to deal more damage and is to be used off cooldown.
4) Overpower: Although Overpower is technically our hardest hitting move outside Execute, it takes a lower priority than Mortal Strike due to the fact that 9/10 times you will want this ability to be the beneficiary of Lambs to the Slaughter. Bear in mind that as long as this ability is used within the six second time frame that the ability is active, you will not lose Dps. With that said, if you feel you can get Lambs to the Slaughter, Colossus Smash or Rend active in that time frame: do so.
5) Slam: If Rend is applied, Colossus Smash is applied or on cooldown, both Mortal Strike/Overpower are on cooldown, and raid utility abilities such as Battle Shout/Demoralizing Shout/Sunder Armor do not need to be applied, Slam is to be used as your filler ability without question. Contrary to popular belief, Heroic Strike is not more efficient in terms of damage or rage than Slam, each ability is designed with its own unique contribution to the Arms Warrior rotation. The frequent argument stated against Slam is that, "The swing timer is lengthened thus lowering rage generation and hampering my use of cds/higher priority abilities...so Slam must be inferior to HS as a filler right?" This is however incorrect, primarily due to the fact that even when you factor in the paused white-swing timer and loss in rage, Slam's Dps-to-Dpr (Damage per Rage) ratio is insignificant compared to the investment necessary to use even one non-proc/cd Heroic Strike. Which this brings me to the only exception to the rule: if Battle Trance/Deadly Calm were used and Heroic Strike caused a crit which in turn activated Incite, then you use Heroic Strike once over Slam to consume that proc.
6) Heroic Strike: Heroic Strike, with the exception of what's previously stated in "5) Slam," takes the last spot in your priority rotation. The rage cost to use Heroic Strike as a frequent filler move is far too costly at this point to be used as a viable filler move over the efficient Slam. Beyond Deadly Calm and Battle Trance/Incite Procs, this ability is only to be used if you are over 70-80 rage just as a dump. However, once you have reached the execution phase of the boss encounter, Heroic Strike begins to see slightly more potential use.
IVc. Execution Rotation (20%-0%)
The Execution Rotation requires the smallest amount of explanation. Execution is the Arms Warrior finisher, the ability is highly rage efficient for the amount of damage it deals, and benifits from a wide array of procs and abilities (Wrecking Crew, Colossal Smash, Lambs to the Slaughter and finally Battle Trance). The best part of the execution phase is that Execute deals enough damage that it would be a Dps loss to use Rend/OP...and those are the only abilities that require the Arms Warrior to be in Battle Stance. Yes, this does mean you can sit in Berserker Stance and go all out in terms of damage
! When factoring in the buffs/procs that makes Execute hit extremely hard, your priority rotation converts into this:Colossal Smash>Mortal Strike>Execute>Heroic Strike.
Execute benefits from both Colossal Smash and Mortal Strike (due to Wrecking Crew and Lambs to the Slaughter), assure that you have both these abilities active before Executing. Only use Heroic Strike if by some miracle you have excess rage during the execution phase or if Deadly Calm has arose off cooldown and you have endless rage.
IVd. Multi-Target AoE Rotation
This rotation is based more upon gaging your opponents more so than an actual priority rotation. My general rule of thumb is as followed:
Two Ncps: Proceed to use Sweeping Strikes and go about your normal rotation, generally I will save Bladestorm unless these mobs are essential to burn down as quickly as possible (but only if it outweighs benifit of using Bladestorm in a single target rotation). If the ncp's are not down before Sweeping Strikes, single target finish them off while using Cleave over Heroic Strike to burn off excess rage.
Three Ncps: Sweeping Strikes in conjunction with Bladestorm is now generally worth it in this situation. Cleave takes the position of Heroic Strike now in your rotation. If specialized into Blood and Thunder, only use this ability if at least 4/5 ticks will be triggered on at least two out of three ncps.
Four Plus Ncps: Immediatly Rend and use Thunderclap if specialized into Blood and Thunder. Then Sweeping Strikes/Bladestorm to burn the adds as quickly as possible. After using Thunderclap it is viable to switch into Berserker Stance to use Whirlwinds and Cleaves to burn these ncps. Generally when there is four or more ncps in a single pull they are AoE mobs, however if this is not the case, then after your SS/BS chain and Blood and Thunder is active, go about your regular rotation of the highest priority ncp and follow suit until they are vanquished.
IVe. Cooldowns and their Relation to Rotation
*Now that you have seen the three Arms Warrior Rotations, I will now list all Arms Warrior cooldowns and describe their relation into the rotations.*
Bladestorm: You become a whirling storm of destructive force, instantly striking all nearby targets for 150% weapon damage and continuing to perform a whirlwind attack every 1 sec for 6 sec. While under the effects of Bladestorm, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed or disarmed, but you cannot perform any other abilities.
First and foremost factor that makes Bladestorm an active part of all Arms Warrior's rotations, is the efficiency of Bladestorm. For just the minor cost of 25 rage, you get seven 150% weapon damage attacks over the course of six seconds--which then breaks down to striking the opponent seven times within a four GCD time frame. There are three key points that should be active, which will then let you know when to use Bladestorm.
A) While Bladestorming you continue to generate rage, so it is best advised to have a low rage count before using Bladestorm since all rage left will be wasted if by chance you cap out during its duration,
B) Use Bladestorm between the cooldown of Taste for Blood Procs. Taste for Blood has a six second cooldown but Overpower has a 5 second cooldown. This implies that if you use bladestorm immediatly after Overpower by the time your Bladestorm ends, you will be ready to strike with another Overpower (of course use Mortal Strike before that Overpower to maximize damage, but at this point that's obvious).
C) Make sure that Rend still has a decent amount of time before using Bladestorm, to assure that you will have a Taste for Blood proc waiting for you at the end of the Bladestorm duration. Also, if possible have Colossus Smash and Wrecking Crew active before using Bladestorm to maximize its crushing damage.
Deadly Calm: For the next 10 seconds, none of your abilities cost rage, but you continue to generate rage. Cannot be used during Inner Rage.
This ability allows you to perform your rotation freely without the constraint of rage management. Assure that you are near empty rage when using this ability, if not, use Heroic Strike on cooldown to lower your rage. Most importantly, do not use this ability at the beginning of the encounter! Charge in, begin the first stage of your rotation, and by the time you reach your second Taste for Blood proc, begin stripping your rage to then use this amazing ability (this assures you have a steady rotation going and potentially your enchants/procs are beginning, then you use Deadly Calm and shred into the opponent with boosted damage and unlimited rage).
Inner Rage: Usable when you have over 75 Rage to increase all damage you deal by 15% but increase the rage cost of all abilities by 50%. Lasts 15 sec.
This ability is generally not worth using beyond the highly situational time where you have excess rage exceeding 75 and Heroic Strikes and Slams are not stripping enough off (which at the current gear level, even T11 raid level, is not likely to happen frequently). However as gear improves and perhaps into the next tier we will see more use out of this...interesting ability.
Sweeping Strikes: Your melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. Lasts 10 sec.
Simply enough, use this ability when there is two or three ncps for a damage boost. I do not recommend using both Sweeping Strikes with Bladestorm unless(!) the additional burst is important enough to outweigh the benifit of using Bladestorm in a single target rotation (which only is the case when facing three ncps with dangerous abilities and high health) or if this is meaningless trash ncp's and you know that both Sweeping Strikes and Bladestorm will be active again for the boss encounter (have fun with the big numbers!
).Recklessness: Your next 3 special ability attacks have an additional 100% to critically hit but all damage taken is increased by 20%. Lasts 12 sec.
This ability only has use within the execute phase of the Arms Warrior rotation. It is debated that you can disregard Rend/Overpower in the execute phase of a boss, meaning that you might as well be in berserker stance to increase your damage further. If that is the case, then you have access to this cooldown, which is best used at the optimized point of your rotation (after Colossus Smash is used, MS>Execute>Heroic Strike Priority Rotation) for some nice burst damage.
Retaliation: Instantly counterattack any enemy that strikes you in melee for 12 sec. Melee attacks made from behind cannot be counterattacked. A maximum of 20 attacks will cause retaliation.
In the off-chance that you are 'tanking' an ncp and you want to deal some extra damage, use this attack...even if you'll die in a matter of GCD's
.Berserker Rage: Enter a berserker rage, removing and granting immunity to Fear, Sap and Incapacitate effects and generating extra rage when taking damage. Lasts 10 sec.
Three uses: A) The boss has a fear/sap/incapacitate ability and you can become immune to it to continue Dps'ing or assisting the raid, B) You are short on rage and need to rapidly generate more (most common use), C) You need to use Enraged Regeneration and Blood Rage is on cooldown.
Shattering Throw:Throws your weapon at the enemy causing (12 + AP * .50) damage (based on attack power), reducing the armor on the target by 20% for 10 sec or removing any invulnerabilities.
Another very situational/rarely-used cooldown. Generally this is to only be used if you or the target is moving out of range and you want to get a little extra damage on before it is out of range, this is to be used only if Heroic Throw has only be used however (since Heroic Throw is much more powerful).
Enraged Regeneration: You regenerate 30% of your total health over 10 sec. Can only be used while Enraged.
If you are low on health or there is about to be a massive amount of raid damage coming in, use blood/berserker rage and activate this cooldown to assist your group's/raid's healers. As I have said throughout the guide, try to be as self-sufficient as possible, it only helps the group and yourself in the end!
Shield Wall: Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 12 sec.
A generally self-explanatory ability. If you are having to move a distance away from all targets that you have to Dps there always exists the option of using shield wall to reduce the incoming damage, however very rarely will this ability ever be used unless Enraged Regeneration or other survivability cooldowns have already been used up.
Heroic Leap: Leap through the air towards a targeted location, slamming down with destuctive force to deal (1 + 0.5 * AP) damage on all enemies within 8 yards.
There are only two uses of this ability: A) The means to deal light AoE damage to a nearby large group (but charge is always the better option unless it is on cooldown) and B) An ability to rapidly escape a mechanic that might otherwise cause you harm (if used for this purpose however, assure you will not be able to engage this boss before charge is off cooldown, otherwise that is a technical Dps loss...longer it will take to re-engage the boss).
IVf. Importance of Arms Warrior Utility
*This is only meant to act as a quick notice directed to new Arms Warriors wishing to master their class. Remember, although doing as much damage as possible is important to progression, easing the life of your fellow raid members should be your main priority. Assure that all buffs/debuffs that you are capable of performing are active in the raid: five stacks of Sunder Armor, Battle/Commanding/Demoralizing Shout, interupt ncps abilities via Pummel/Throwdown/Shield Bash, be specced into Blood Frenzy (sounds redundant but you would be suprised...). Finally, keep in mind that even if you have perfected the Arms Warrior Specialization, that one person does not make a group/raid. Do not become the overbearing egotist and finally, do not forget that without your raid members: we as individuals are nothing. Assure that you are using all of your capabilities to maximize your class, not just trying to show off 'high numbers.'*
V. Introduction to Arms Warrior Keybindings and Macros
Va. Importance of Keybindings and Macros
*If you already keybind your abilities, it is not necessary to view this sub-section; if you have yet to keybind all of your abilities, please read on.*
Although this may sound biased to some, and common sense to others, I cannot stress enough the importance of keybinding and macro'ing all of your abilities. By choosing to click instead of keybinding, more often than not, you are sacrificing mobility and accuracy in exchange for remaining in your "comfort zone." Using your mouse for selecting your abilities has two noticable flaws as previously stated. Performing your rotation with mouse clicks generally is much slower than that of keybinding. When you factor in the server's and your personal FPS and latency, you could lose valuable milliseconds between the use of each ability. "Milliseconds?...Sounds inconsequential," however over the course of a long fight, this adds up to a significant loss in DPS and more importantly: costs valuable time for the raid and could very well affect the progression on that boss encounter. Second point is the loss in mobility. Most cases, this comes down to personal preference. I, myself, move/turn with my mouse and only use two keys to straif and one key for moving forward (for outside raids when I do not want to hold down my two mouse buttons). However, choosing to click with your mouse now means you can't turn or move with the mouse (obvious); in this scenario, that implies more than likely you keyturn as well as click. This now comes down to fact, not opinon: keyturning is highly inefficient in comparison to mouse turning simply because it takes more time. Your reaction time is inevitably slower and with deadly boss mechanics added into the mix, your are only further increasing the probability that you will die to one of these avoidable abilities. In summary, if you choose to not take the time to keybind all of your abilities and adjust Blizzard's standard/starting build to your own preference, more or less, you are showing a complete disinterest in optimizing your playstyle and reaching your maximum potential. If is the case, then researching a guide on how to improve your character is pointless, is it not?
Vb. Suggested Keybindings
Keybinding comes down to 100% personal preference. There is no right or wrong way to keybind your abilities, just as long as all of them are bound and ready for use whenever the situation presents itself. I will list below how I have set up my bindings, to give you the general idea behind the Arms PvE build.
For the bindings that are not listed: E=Move Forward, S=Straif Left, F=Straif Right, Q=Change Target, Shift-Q= Target Focus, Alt-Q=Set Focus.
For abbreviations next to the bindings: S-__ is Shift-Ability C-__ is Control-Ability A-__ is Alt-Ability MWU/MWD=Mouse Wheel Up/Mouse Wheel Down MB4/MB5=Mouse Button 4/Mouse Button 5 (two side buttons on my mouse) Open=Unused Keybinding (At times, I place temporary "/target ____" macros in those open spots for fast switches on boss encounters).
Bar One: Changes between Stances
W--Battle: Rend Berserker: Open Defensive: Rend
R--Battle: CS Berserker: CS Defensive: Revenge
T--Battle: OP Berserker: Open Defensive: Disarm
G--Battle: MS Berserker: MS Defensive: MS
V--Battle: Slam Berserker: Slam Defensive: Slam
C--Battle: HS Berserker: HS Defensive: HS
SW--Battle: Sunder Berserker: Sunder Defensive: Sunder
SR--Battle: Execute Berserker: Execute Defensive: Taunt
ST--Battle: Pummel Berserker: Pummel Defensive: Shield Block
SG--Battle: Cleave Berserker: Cleave Defensive: Cleave
SV--Battle: Hamstring Berserker: Hamstring Defensive: Challenging Shout
SC--Battle: TC Berserker: WW Defensive: TC
Bar Two:
MB4-- Trinket 1
MB5-- Escape Artist
SMB4-- Trinket 2
SMB5-- Spell Reflection
CMB4-- Demoralizing Shout
CMB5-- Intimidating Shout
AMB4-- Sweeping Strikes
AMB5-- Open
Z-- Throwdown
SZ-- Equip 2-Hander
CZ-- Open
AZ-- Equip Shield and 1-Hander
Bar Three:
MWU-- Focus Charge
MWD-- Charge
SMWU-- Focus Intercept
SMWD-- Intercept
CMWU-- Focus Intervene
CMWD-- Intervene
AMWU-- Commanding Shout
AMWD-- Battle Shout
F1-- Flying Mount
F2-- Ground Mount
F3-- Hearthstone
F4-- Pet
Bar Four:
1-- Recklessness
2-- Heroic Throw
3-- Shield Wall
4-- Shield Bash
5-- Open
6-- Retaliation
S1-- Health Potion
S2-- Health Stone
S3-- Bandage Self
S4-- Victory Rush
S5-- Enraged Regeneration
S6-- Piercing Howl
Bar Five:
X-- Deadly Calm
SX-- Open
CX-- Open
AX-- Nitro Boosts
A-- Bladestorm
SA-- Inner Rage
CA-- Shattering Throw
AA-- Heroic Leap
CAPS-- Berserker Rage
D-- Battle Stance
SD-- Berserker Stance
CD-- Defensive Stance
Vc. Arms Warrior Macros Synonymous to Dps
*Personal Preference is to not add modifiers, if you wish to do so, add: "/equip [modifier:***] ___" (replace *** with shift, ctrl, or alt, replace ___ with name of weapon/ability).
*For focus abilities, use the following set-up:
*Example: #showtooltip Intercept
/cast Berserker Stance
/cast [target=focus] Intercept
*Personal Preference is to manually change stances for the majority of abilities, however to automatically change stances then use an ability:
*Example: #showtooltip Recklessness
/cast Berserker Stance
/cast Recklessness
Toggle Inner Rage On/Off (Do Not Spam!)
#showtooltip Inner Rage
/cancelaura Inner Rage
/cast Inner Rage
Toggle Bladestorm On/Off (Do Not Spam!)
#showtooltip Bladestorm
/cancelaura Bladestorm
/cast Bladestorm
Vd. Arms Warrior Macros Synonymous to Utility and Survivability
*For those of you who do not wish to alter the Blizzard Unit Frames, but would like to rearrange their position, I highly recommend the use of these macros:
1) Move Party Frame: /run local p=PartyMemberFrame1; p:SetMovable(true) p:SetUserPlaced(true) p:HookScript("OnMouseDown",function() p:StartMoving()end) p:HookScript("OnMouseUp",function() p:StopMovingOrSizing ()end)
2) Move Player Frame: /run local f=PlayerFrame; f:SetUserPlaced(true) f:SetMovable(true) f:EnableMouse(true) f:RegisterForDrag("LeftButton") f:SetScript("OnDragStart",f.StartMoving) f:SetScript("OnDragStop",f.StopMovingOrSizing)
3) Adjust Target Frame Based Upon Screen-Coordinates: /run TargetFrame:ClearAllPoints() TargetFrame:SetPoint("LEFT",0,0,"RIGHT",0,0)
4) Adjust Focus Frame Based Upon Screen-Coordinates: /run FocusFrame:ClearAllPoints() FocusFrame:SetPoint("LEFT",0,0,"RIGHT",0,0)
Heroic Leap (prevents the toggling of the heroic leap ability if pressed in excess)
#showtooltip Heroic Leap
/cast !Heroic Leap
Spell Reflect
#showtooktip Spell Reflect
/stopattack
/equipslot 16 _____ _____ = Name of One-Hand Weapon
/equipslot 17 _____ _____ = Name of Shield
/cast Spell Reflect
Shield Bash
#showtooktip Shield Bash
/stopattack
/equipslot 16 _____ _____ = Name of One-Hand Weapon
/equipslot 17 _____ _____ = Name of Shield
/cast Shield Bash
Shield Wall
#showtooltip Shield Wall
/stopattack
/equipslot 16 _____ _____ = Name of One-Hand Weapon
/equipslot 17 _____ _____ = Name of Shield
/cast Defensive Stance
/cast Shield Wall
VI. Constructing Your User Interface
VIa. Importance of a Clean and Organized User Interface
Although Blizzard has designed an adequate user interface for the majority of the World of Warcraft gaming community, most choose to personalize their user interface to suit their own individual playstyle. With addons ranging from those to alert you to boss mechanics or poor aggro management, to those that alter the display of your action bars and character panes, and even addons that will track/alert you to refreshed cooldown durations; it would be insane to not take advantage of using addons to smooth out your gameplay experience and add a little aesthetic appeal to boot. *On a side note, I do recommend that while addons do assist in optimizing your character and beautifying your user interface, I would refrain from going overboard on addons. What is the use of playing a game if the screen is blocked out by an endless array of numbers, charts, and warnings?
"VIb. How to Install Addons
1) Close out World of Warcraft, then visit a safe website such as wow.curse.com or wowinterface.com and brouse their selection for the addon that suits your personal needs.
2) Ahead of time, open up your World of Warcraft Addons folder (Start>My Computer>Program Files>World of Warcraft>Interface>Addons). Do not alter anything within this folder that was initially placed within at installation.
3) Select the addon that you wish to have, then select download and choose manual installation.
4) Once the pane appears on your screen, select open then highlight all folders within the temporary pane and drag all folders into your World of Warcraft Addon folder. Repeat steps three and four with all other addons.
5) After manually downloading all desired addons, log back into World of Warcraft and visit your character screen. At the bottom left hand corner there will be a button labled addons. Click this and assure that your new addons are selected. If it marks your addon as "Out of Date," do not fret, a majority of the time that addon will still continue to work but occasionally a new World of Warcraft patch will 'break' the addon and a new version of that addon will have to be downloaded.
6) Based upon the addon(s) that you chose, some configuration may be required in order to set the addon up. Nine out of ten times, the addon you selected will have a tutorial explaining how to configure each addon either from the site you downloaded it from or from Youtube. Most addons/tutorials are pretty self-explanitory, so you should have little problems when personalizing your World of Warcraft experience.
VIc. Recommended Addons Pertaining to Arms Dps
1) Omen Threat Meter: Dps is of no use to the group/raid if they cannot manage their aggro or are killed by the boss, and Omen Threat Meter helps prevent just that.
2) Recount: With both the chart and graph additions, as well as the comprehensive breakdown of your Dps ranging from tracking the number of crits hit by an ability to the percentage of damage done by each move, this addon is a must have for any Dps looking to improve their performance. *On a side note, this addon means you will (hopefully..) not develop into one of those players that asks another raid member what their Dps is after each encounter...sometimes including trash...
.*3) Deadly Boss Mods: The addon tracks all boss abilities in each encounter and provides you with a warning when there is some mechanic(s) you need to avoid or act upon, essential addon for PvE.
4) Grid: In my opinon, every raider should have Grid. This addon provides the clearest organization to your raid frame and is the quintiessential addon to let you see what is happening throughout the raid group without taking up much space on your user interface.
5) Satrina Buff Frames: This addon both compacts your raid buffs/debuffs and allows you to create duration trackers for DoTs (Rend).
6) Powerauras: With the amount of procs Arms Warriors have during their rotation, it helps to have an addon that alerts you to when each proc arises...and power auras accomplishes just that and more.
7) ForteExcorist: Although first designed for warlocks, ForteExcorist provides yet another alternative method of tracking DoTs and cooldowns if the previous addons do not suit your needs.
8) OmniCC: If you choose to keep your action bars displayed, OmniCC might be a useful addition to tracking cooldowns; the addon places a cooldown timer over each ability and flashes when the duration is complete.
9) Range Display: Not sure if you are in range for that necessary gap closer, melee attack, or shattering/heroic throw? Range Display places a small range indicator on your screen (that you can adjust in size and position) to let you know the range of yards that you are from your target/focus.
VId. Recommended Addons Pertaining to Organization
1) Pitbull/Shadow Unit Frames: These two addons (select one only) enables you to customize all panes located on your user interface (character/target/target's target/focus/party/etc). Both addons have their own unique look but identical capabilities.
2) Bartender/Dominos: Both addons not only alter the appearence/location of your action bars, but you can also have more than the standard 6 action bars if necessary.
3) Prat: If you are dissatisfied with the standard chat box, Prat makes an excellent alternative to organize your discussions.
4) Atlas: Atlas functions just as its name implies, this addon allows you to view any instance zone and loot dropped within that zone provided it has been discovered on the server beforehand, as well as view a majority of the weapons/armor dropped in the game.
5) SexyMap/Chinchilla: Both of these addons alter the layout of your map, each with their own unique designs. Both addons are effective and which to use is up to personal preference.
6) Titan Panel: Provides an alternative method to track your gold/experience(and rate of gaining experience)/time/bag space/etc by compacting all the information into a bar that streches the length of your screen along the top or bottom.
7) KgPanels: For those of you who would like to add a solid colored background behind each addon just to enhance the organization and fill in any unwanted gaps/spaces, KgPanels is the addon for you.
8) MikScrollingBattleText: This addon caters to those who like to see every damage number as it happens and the battle text will scroll at varying rates around your character.
VII. Personal Recommendations
*Below I will list a few guides and websites both related to Arms Warriors, PvE, and World of Warcraft in general that I highly recommend checking out.
Of course mmo-champion goes without saying, since you are already on this site
.*http://www.wowhead.com/ (Excellent Source for researching world of warcraft items/quests)
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/ (The World of Warcraft website...obvious I know)
http://elitistjerks.com/f81/ (Dedicated to number-crunching and theorycrafting)
http://wow.curse.com/ (The best, and safest, means of downloading addons)
http://tankspot.com/ (Excellent Source for learning of the latest boss encounters)
*For those that are just beginning to gear their fresh arms warrior for raids, the pre-raid item/enchant list written by Pearson on mmo-champion is a post I would highly recommend looking into. Virtually all viable items are listed that any Arms Warrior would love to have before jumping into raid content.*
