1.0 - Introduction
2.0 - Talents
3.0 - PvP
4.0 - Gear
This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the class. For a more in-depth and highly detailed resource on this class, check out this guide here.
Check out this page for the Warrior Class Guide or here for the Warrior Leveling Guide, and finally this page for additional world of warcraft leveling tips & tricks.
I find arms warriors to incredibly enjoyable simply as a breath of fresh air from playing dedicated fury for more than two years, it's always nice to switch around attack rotations and see something different for once.
Additionally the improvements an MS warrior can bring via Blood Frenzy and slam DPS recently caught my attention and led to the creation of a build based around this ability usage.
The intended effect is to surpass two-handed fury/dual-wield fury DPS wise by providing the entire raids melee with a 4% increase including our own personal damage output.
All in all it's fairly meh at first but dramatically improves as you hit the higher raiding zones, however if you're interested in testing it out in Karazhan, Gruul, etc. check out the bottom gear list.
2.0 - Talents
53/8/0 Arms Build
Mortal Strike is an odd spec for raiding, one once considered rather pathetic in comparison to fury warriors and thus left behind for the PvP fanatics. Things have changed, and with that Arms warriors have once again become viable for endgame raids due to a number of factors.
The increase in damage becomes apparent the further you go into raiding, the raid-wide damage improvement from Blood Frenzy shifting it entirely in the Arms warriors favor, more so given the generally limited slots DPS warriors are allowed if any.
However, this build is far more attention and skill intensive, requiring you to maximize every hit in-order to achieve the true DPS potential of the build. A single miss is far more devastating with Arms due to the slow hit rate as opposed to fury where this can generally be ignored.
Additionally, being slow on the draw for slam or Mortal strike can terribly gimp your DPS, this will likely happen more than a few times when first raiding as MS, but you’ll either eventually get the hang of it or switch to fury.
The Weapon specialization can be within either Sword or Axe, I prefer sword personally but the differences are miniscule and you should switch depending on what weapons are immediately available to you.
Not all points in this build are infallible, but it’s pretty close to the best you’re going to get.
Note: Mods can enlisted to aid in your timing, such as Quartz Combat Bar
2.1 - Attack Rotation
The Quartz attack bar can be used to maximise your DPS via triggering the next attack seemingly before the current begins, however in reality this is done via latency allowing you to queue an ability immediately as the current action is dealt.
Unfotunately triggering this too early cancels the current attack thus gimping your DPS rotation temporarily, leading to far more damage lost for Arms than faster attack based builds.
Additionally, the maximum speed possible before it no-longer aids you is 2.5 attack speed, anything beyond this point has no effect in the rotation and is thus a waste.
The attack rotation will be as follows:
Auto Attack - Slam - Mortal Strike
Auto Attack - Slam - Whirlwind
Auto Attack - Slam - Mortal Strike
Auto Attack - Slam - Demoralizing Shout/Battle Shout Refresh
Should you find yourself lacking enough rage to finish each rotation try working in a bloodrage to allow the mortal strike/whirlwind to be used the next rotation period. Slam however should take absolute priority and thus come first even if this consumes the remaining rage.
2.2 - Leveling Arms Build
42/18/1 Arms Warrior Leveling Build
10 – 14 Cruelty
15 – 17 Improved Heroic Strike
18 – 19 Deflection (2/5)
20 – 21 Improved Charge
22 – 24 Deflection (5/5)
25 - Anger Management
26 - 28 Deep Wounds
29 - Improved Overpower (1/2)
30 - 31 Impale
32 - 34 Two-Handed Specialization (3/5)
35 - 39 Poleaxe Specialization
40 - Death Wish
41 - 42 Two-Handed Specialization (5/5)
43 - Improved Overpower (2/2)
44 - Improved Intercept (1/2)
45 - Mortal Strike
46 - 47 Second Wind
48 - 49 Blood Frenzy
50 - 54 Improved Mortal Strike
55 - Endless Rage
56 - 70 Branch out into whatever your end-game build of choice is, likely picking up various talents in Fury as well as more arms points.
3.0 - Arms PvP Build
35/23/3 Hybrid Arms Arena Build
4.0 - Skills and Stats
This section is dedicated to covering the numerous different stats you may wish to stack, hit rating, STR, crit, weapon expertise, etc.
Hit Rating – 15.8 rating = 1% Increase
Critical Rating – 22.1 rating = 1% Increase
Weapon Expertise – 1 point = .25% lower chance for enemy to dodge/parry
Haste – 15.7 = 1%
Armor Penetration – This improves the more you get, stack as much as possible
Statistic wise you'll want to first aim for a decent +hit rating, all the +hit talents in the warrior talent tree's are unavaliable and thus leaves you entirely at the mercy of what equipment you currently possess to improve this stat.
The hit cap is 142/9%, and since missing attacks as an arms warrior is so effective at ruining our DPS you'll want to reach this regardless what must be sacrificed, working the rest of your gear in after reaching this limit.
Armor penetration is a massive boost to damage and you can never go wrong with getting more, each 100 improves damage by almost .80% on a fully debuffed boss and a slightly lesser 0.70 or so with only sunder armor.
You'll likely find it difficult to achieve reasonable levels of critical rating what with the emphasis on gaining +hit, however it's also not recommended to sacrifice any strength gem slots for improved critical and instead to wait on the gear.
4.1 - Weaponry
Weapon wise you'll definitely want to choose from either sword or axe, this is due to the weapon specializations dictating that maces are essentially only for PvP and lose all effectiveness in PvE comparative to axes 5% crtiical or swords extra attacks.
4.2 - Gems
Gemming armor is a fairly simple process, for pure DPS you’ll find that you need only pick and choose from a small selections of gems depending on the items set bonuses and whether you truly need them.
As for set bonuses, they’ll likely only be worthwhile should they increase one of your specific damage stats such as STR or +crit rating, otherwise it’s often better to skip them entirely.
Red Gem: 8 STR – This also serves as your general socket gem of choice when skipping set bonuses entirely.
Yellow: 4 STR/ 4 +crit
Blue 4 STR/ 6 Stam
And finally as far as meta-slot gems go, only the relentless earthstorm diamond will prove worthwhile, anything else isn’t worth the sacrificed slots to achieve and you’d be better off with +8 str gem(s) instead.
4.3 - Gear Guide
This is strictly pre-karazhan to get you started on your way, past that I expect you'll begin instinctively finding the proper synergy of stats to maximise your damage.
Note: Many pieces of armor as well as potentially weaponry can be substituted by Gladiator/Honor gear.
Helm:
Overlord's Helm of the Second Sight - Quest Reward
Savage Plate Helm - Reputation Reward(Thrallmar Honored)
Hope Bearer Helm - Drop(Auchenai Crypts)
Ragesteel Helm - Crafted
Neck:
Choker of vile Intent - Vendor(25 Badges of Justice)
Necklace of Trophies - World Drop BoE
Natasha's Choker- Quest Reward
Back:
Dory's Embrace - Vendor(60 Badges of Justice)
Vengeance Wrap - Crafted(Tailoring)
Cloak of the Inciter - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)
Auchenai Death Shroud - Drop(Heroic Auchenai Crypts)
Blood Knight War Cloak - Vendor(25 Badges of Justice)
Shoulders:
Shoulderplates of Everlasting Pain - Drop(Heroic Magisters Terrace)
Doomplate Shoulderguards - Drop(Heroic Underbog)
Savage Plate Shoulders - Reputation Reward(Lower City Honored)
Chest:
Chestplate of A'dal - Quest Reward
Ragesteel Breastplate - Crafted
Doomplate Chestguard - Drop(Arcatraz)
Durotan's Battle Harness - Drop(Normal Hillsbrad Foothills)
Wrist:
Eternium Rage-shackles - Vendor(35 Badges of Justice)
Black Felsteel Bracers - Crafted
Bracers of Slaughter - Drop(Normal Magister's Terrace)
Bands of Syth - Drop(Sethekk Halls)
Nexus-Bracers of Vigor - Drop(Mana Tombs)
Hands:
Furious Deathgrips - Vendor(60 Badges of Justice)
Gauntlets of the Skullsplitter - World Drop BoE
Doomplate Gauntlets - Drop(Heroic Blood Furnace)
Ragesteel Gloves - Crafted
Belt:
Chain of Unleashed Rage - Vendor(60 Badges of Justice)
Deathforge Girdle - Drop(Talon King Ikiss)
Rubium War Girdle - Drop(Arcatraz)
Girdle of Siege - BoE World Drop
Legs:
Legguard's of the Shattered Hand - BoE World Drop
Vanquisher's Legplates - Drop(Heroic Mechanar)
Doomplate Legguards - Drop(Heroic Auchenai Crypts)
Savage Plate Legguards - Reputation Reward(Keepers of Time Honored)
Boots:
Sha'tari Wrought Greaves - Quest Reward
Obsidian Clodstompers - Drop(Botanica)
Bloodsworn Warboots - Drop(Heroic Blood Furnace)
Rings:
Angelista's Revenge - Vendor(60 Badges of Justice)
Overseer's Signet - Quest Reward
Kaylann's Signet - Quest Reward
Band of Anguish - Quest Reward
Trinkets:
Hourglass of the Unraveller - Drop(Black Morass)
Abacus of Violent Odds - Drop(Mechanar)
Bladefists's Breadth - Quest Reward
Core of Ar'kelos - Quest Reward
Weapons:
Lionheart Blade/Lionheart Champion/Lionheart Executioner - Crafted
Lunar Crescent/Mooncleaver/Bloodmoom - Crafted
Quantum Blade - Drop(Heroic Black Morass)
Legionfoe - Reputation Reward(Shattered Sun Offensive Revered)
Axe of Shattered Dreams - Drop(Magister's Terrace)
Apexis Cleaver - World Drop BoE
Ranged Weapon: Felsteel Whisper Knives - Crafted
Wrathfire Hand-Cannon - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)
Veteran's Musket/Marksman's Bow - Reputation Reward(Honor Hold/Thrallmar) |
