Arms Warrior

Overview

Talents and builds

Level 60 build

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Raid build

The raid build moves 6 points from Deflection (1) and Iron Will (5) to Improved Slam (2), Blood Craze (2) and Improved Bloodrage (2).

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Key talents

• Improved Rend3/3Up to 35% more Bleed damage from Rend at max rank; take it early since it costs nothing to maintain once the bleed is applied
• Deep Wounds3/3Your own critical strikes add a second bleed dealing 60% of your weapon's average damage over 12 seconds, stacking with Rend's
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization3/3Up to 3% more damage with the two-handed weapon Arms is built around
• Impale2/2Up to 20% more critical strike damage on your abilities, multiplying whatever crit chance you already have
• Improved Overpower2/2Up to 50% more critical strike chance on Overpower, the free attack that becomes available after the target dodges you
• Sweeping Strikes1/1Mortal Strike1/1Sweeping Strikes is a one-point prerequisite for Mortal Strike at the bottom of the tree in this build's data, and it also cleaves your next 5 swings onto a second target, so it isn't a wasted point even outside its role as a stepping stone. Mortal Strike itself deals weapon damage plus 85 and reduces healing the target receives by 50% for 10 seconds

• Bloodthrill, taken to 5/5 — while Rend is ticking on the target, each Main Hand hit has a 20% chance (at max rank) to let you use Overpower for the next 6 seconds, outside its usual dodge-only window. Overpower already comes free on every dodge in this rotation; Bloodthrill is what makes it come up on plain hits too, and it was the single largest gain this build’s level-60 search found for any point in the Arms tree.
• Weaponmaster, taken to 5/5 — a weapon-dependent bonus; with the sword in this build’s gear set it gives successful melee attacks a 5% chance to trigger an extra attack, and the sim measured it as the next-largest Arms gain after Bloodthrill.

A build reaching Mortal Strike spends 36 points in Arms, with the rest as Cruelty and Unbridled Wrath in Fury (crit and extra Rage) and the five points of Iron Will in Protection, the defensive filler that replaced Toughness in the live tree. Exact splits vary by preference and aren’t fixed by anything confirmed for Forever. The extra Bloodthrill and Weaponmaster ranks come from points the previous build spent where the engine measures no damage at all: two of the five Deflection points and all five of Shield Specialization, a defensive talent with no effect on a damage rotation. Nothing the rotation casts was given up, and every talent the sim does not model (Deflection, Improved Tactical Mastery, Sweeping Strikes, Iron Will) is still taken. This build measures about +10.5% over the previous spend in our level-60 search run.

The raid build adds Improved Slam (2/2): Slam no longer stops your swing, its cast and global cooldown are half a second shorter, and its cooldown drops from 18 to 15 seconds, which puts Slam into the rotation between Mortal Strikes. The points come from Booming Voice and a point of Improved Execute, with Improved Charge for the rage of the opening Charge and two spare points in Blood Craze, a health-regeneration filler the simulator does not model: about +4% in our level-60 search run. Open the planner at /planner?class=warrior to build this out.

Rotation and priority

This site’s own Arms priority list opens by topping up Rage with Bloodrage whenever it drops below 80, since Rage is the resource limiting everything else in the rotation. Keep Battle Shout active for the group buff, and keep Rend applied to the target — its bleed is what Improved Rend and Deep Wounds both amplify. Mortal Strike is the priority hit whenever its six-second cooldown is up, since it’s the highest damage-per-Rage button in the kit. Overpower is a free follow-up whenever the target dodges you, so it’s cast on sight rather than held for later. Below 20% target health, Execute replaces the rest of the priority. Slam goes out on its cooldown whenever nothing above it is ready, once Improved Slam is talented. With a Windfury Totem in the group, spend any global that is still free on Hamstring: 10 rage for a small hit that also rolls the totem’s extra attack and your weapon procs, worth about 7% in the raid-ready run and a loss without the totem, so this site’s simulator only casts it when a totem reaches the warrior. There is no Heroic Strike rage dump any more: the search found that every point of Rage spent on it was Rage Mortal Strike, Overpower and Execute would have used better, and dropping it was worth about +1% in our level-60 search run. Recklessness is the one burst cooldown, and it is Berserker Stance only: when the target drops below 20%, spend your rage, swap to Berserker Stance (Tactical Mastery keeps only 10 rage through the swap) and press Recklessness, then Execute out the fight. Execute and Mortal Strike both work in Berserker Stance; Overpower and Rend do not, so neither is used after the swap.

Stat priority

1. 1Hit
2. 2Strength
3. 3Critical strike
4. 4Agility
5. 5Attack power
6. 6Melee haste

Best in slot

Enchants and consumables

Races

• Human (Recommended)
• Orc (Recommended)
• Dwarf
• Night Elf
• Undead
• Tauren
• Gnome
• Troll
• High Order Skyborne
• Windshaper Skyborne

Human is the Alliance pick: Sword Specialization. Orc is the Horde pick: Blood Fury.

Professions

Blacksmithing paired with Mining is the standard Classic-era convention for a plate melee DPS class: Blacksmithing crafts weapons and armor and adds extra sockets to gear, and Mining supplies the ore to use it without buying materials.

Leveling

Outlined: points added in this level range.

Fury is generally the stronger leveling choice for Warrior, since dual-wielding and Bloodthirst clear trash faster than Arms’s slower two-handed swing timer. Arms levels fine on its own, particularly once Mortal Strike is trained.