DPS as a Warrior (Part 3)

After a long bout with throat infections and flu, from which I still have not recovered, and some desktop problems, this is finally here. Enjoy.

Warriors have been around a very long time, so naturally it follows that Arms warriors have been around just as long. PvP veterans of old learned to fear and revere Arms warriors for their deadly Mortal Strike. In those days, Arms was THE warrior PvP tree, and PvE Arms was non-existent. Come Wrath, and especially patches 2.4 and 3.1, Arms was no longer a PvP only tree. Now, there isn't any one talent that really defines the tree, except maybe for Bladestorm, and even that is a point of contention among many warriors.

The tree has seen many changes, notably, the changes to Poleaxe Specialization, where it previously gave +5% crit, it now also gives +5% crit damage, the introduction of Taste for Blood, making Rend and Overpower now primary skills in the Arms arsenal; whereas previously Arms warriors had no defining stance for DPS, they now almost always use Battle Stance. There was also Sudden Death and Unrelenting Assault (UA is an interesting and unorthodox tanking talent too, more on that next time), Wrecking Crew, and Juggernaut, which provides much-needed mobility.

Previously, Juggernaut provided a +100% chance to crit, but patches 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 reduced that chance to 25%, and increased the cooldown on Charge by 5 seconds, respectively. Needless to say, this must have been an attempt to balance for PvP. Still, it is a great PvE talent, and that is what we are interested in.

The Arms DPS cycle is somewhat more complex than its Fury counterpart. In a nutshell, you simply Charge a mob, Rend, followed by Mortal Strike, while using Execute/Overpower procs when they become available, refreshing Rend when there is less than 6 seconds left, squeezing Slams in whenever possible, and using Bladestorm, combined with Sweeping Strikes if there are additional mobs around. It therefore naturally follows that you will be specced for Improved Slam and have the Glyph of Rending to go along with it.

It must be said that Slam, however strange it may seem, is essentially a large part of Arms DPS and cannot be ignored. Since Arms warriors generally have no rage issue without environmental raid damage, Slam is an effective way of burning excess rage. With the 2T7 bonus, which increases Slam damage by 10%, a 2/2 Improved Slam + a queued Heroic Strike after will provide some nice damage along with burning excess rage. What I've noticed people saying is to use Slam instead of Heroic Strike. I respectfully disagree... I use both! Its true that Slam>Heroic Strike for rage dump, but if you can somehow manage to get both to come off together, which I've been able to pull off on multiple occasions, that would increase DPS and burn more rage (for situations with extremely high raid damage).

Of course, there is also a question of prioritizing procs. This is where the fun starts. The Arms DPS cycle is so hectic that you'll probably never ever have a free global cooldown. So then, what happens when Execute lights up, Overpower lights up, Rend has less than 6 seconds remaining, and Mortal Strike is off cooldown at the same time? First things first, don't panic! Always prioritize it such that Execute is the highest on your list, since Sudden Death can proc off itself, then followed by Mortal Strike/Overpower in no particular order, then refreshing Rend, and finally Bladestorm. Bladestorm is last, because while it may be a nice DPS boost on paper, you are unable to do anything for that 6 seconds, save white attacks and moving around, which also means you will be unable to press Execute and Overpower... the list goes on.

All weapon specializations in the Arms tree were not created equal. Sword spec may look nice, but is very lacklustre. Mace spec provides more oomph, but the work done by Landsoul and many others over at Elitistjerks have shown that the ArP is insufficient to justify speccing into this, so we are only left with... Poleaxe specialization. 5% crit chance is big, but 5% extra crit damage is enormous, or so the experts say. I'm just going to trust their math on this one, and say that Poleaxe spec is THE 2H spec.

A standard Arms spec would look something like this. Note that the points in the first two tiers of the Arms tree are mostly fillers, as are the points in the second tier of the Fury tree. Also, it is VERY IMPORTANT to note that Trauma is provided by Feral druids in the form of Mangle, and Blood Frenzy is provided by Combat rogues in the form of Savage Combat. If you have those two in your raid, feel free to stick the talent points elsewhere; Anger Management would be a good choice. If you are intending to go it solo, or have neither of these in your raid (unlikely), I recommend you take the 2 points out of Improved Execute and stick them into the necessary abilities.

With regards to gear, there are two schools of thought: Armour Penetration and Strength. While the kind folks at Elitistjerks have already concluded that gemming (and looking for) Strength on gear is generally superior to ArP, it might have changed since this was written. 8% hit is the absolute maximum you should have, 7% with a Draenei in your party. Mix and match your gear with Weapon Mastery so that you'll sit at 6.5% expertise, which is the dodge soft cap.

Glyph-wise, never leave home without Glyph of Rending, Glyph of Mortal Strike, and Glyph of Execution. For minor glyphs, you can use the same as those for Fury, which are here.

Next: Conclusion!