In this article, we list your Arms Warrior (WoW MoP 5.3) core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing an Arms Warrior will face you with.

The other articles of our Arms Warrior guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Gondlemstyle, one of the best Arms Warriors in the world, who raids in Midwinter.

1. Single Target Rotation↑top

The Arms Warrior rotation is made up of cycles of 4 global cooldowns. Each cycle consists in one Mortal Strike followed by 3 abilities, based on the priority list below (note that we include Mortal Strike in the priority list, for completeness' sake). We cover the Execute rotation (when the boss is below 20% health) in a subsequent section.

Note that it is important to understand several key concepts of the rotation in order to be able to execute it comfortably. We advise you to read our section on key concepts.

1. Use Mortal Strike on cooldown.
2. Use Heroic Strike (remember that it is not on the global cooldown).
   • If the debuff applied by Colossus Smash is active and you have 105 or more rage (or 85+ rage if you are not using Glyph of Unending Rage).
3. Use Colossus Smash
   • Only use it if the Colossus Smash debuff is not active, or if it has less than 1.5 seconds remaining on the target.
4. Use Storm Bolt (if you have taken this talent), if the Colossus Smash debuff is up.
5. Use Overpower.
   • If Recklessness is active, then you should use Slam instead of Overpower. This is because, with the already-high critical strike chance of Overpower, the benefit of Recklessness is largely wasted.
6. Use Dragon Roar (if you have taken this talent, which we highly recommend for single target DPS). If Dragon Roar is on cooldown, use Impending Victory.
7. Use Slam if you have 40 or more rage.
8. Use Battle Shout or Commanding Shout (depending on which of the two you have chosen to provide for your raid) in order to generate rage when nothing else is available (only if you have less than 85 rage).

Berserker Rage plays a crucial part in your DPS performance. We treat this ability as a cooldown, so you will find it in the cooldown sections.

1.1. Execute Rotation

When the boss is below 20% health, the rotation (and the above-mentioned priority) changes considerably.

The main idea is that you should try to pool rage for when you can use Colossus Smash, and follow this up with as much Execute spam as you can. However, since it is not possible to predict when Colossus Smash will be available (unlike for Fury Warriors, where it has a fixed 20-second cooldown), you will have to keep your rage consumption at a minimum outside of Colossus Smash.

1.1.1. Before Colossus Smash

While Colossus Smash is not active, use the following priority for your rotation:

1. Use Mortal Strike on cooldown.
2. Use Execute if your rage is very high, in order to dump some.
3. Use Overpower (the first Overpower within 10 seconds of having used Execute is free of cost).
4. Use Dragon Roar.
5. Use Impending Victory.
6. Use Battle Shout or Commanding Shout.

As soon as Colossus Smash is available, you should use it.

1.1.2. During Colossus Smash

While Colossus Smash is active, you should spam Execute as much as you can. If you are out of rage to Execute, then you should use Dragon Roar and Storm Bolt (if you have taken these talents).

2. Multiple Target Rotation↑top

When facing two enemies, you should keep up Sweeping Strikes and execute a single target rotation. You should cast Mortal Strike alternatively on both targets, to maintain Deep Wounds on both of them.

When facing three enemies, you should maintain your single target rotation/priority, while making sure to use Thunder Clap often enough to keep Deep Wounds up on all enemies (thanks to Blood and Thunder). You should also keep up Sweeping Strikes.

When facing four or more enemies, you should spread Deep Wounds with Thunder Clap, keep up Sweeping Strikes, and use your normal rotation. Instead of dumping rage with Slam or Heroic Strike, you should simply use Whirlwind.

3. Cooldown Usage↑top

As an Arms Warrior, you have several DPS cooldowns. Additionally, you can obtain two more DPS cooldowns from your talents of choice.

• Berserker Rage should be used to help with your Enrage uptime. This is more subtle, and we tackle it in depth in a later section.
• Recklessness should be used as many times as possible throughout the encounter. It is ideal to stack it with other cooldowns.
• Skull Banner should be used as many times as possible throughout the fight, but keep in mind that the rest of your raid should benefit from this as well.
• Shattering Throw is essentially a raid cooldown, so keep in mind that the rest of your raid should benefit from it as well.

For more details on these cooldowns, as well as on the cooldowns granted to you by your talents, refer to our detailed cooldown usage section.

4. Stance↑top

Battle Stance grants you a lot of rage with each melee attack you make, but grants you no rage from damage taken.

Berserker Stance grants you half the rage that Battle Stance does, from your melee attacks, but also grants you rage from damage taken.

Other than this, there is no difference between the stances, and your abilities are not conditioned at all by your current stance. Therefore, use Berserker Stance when there is high raid damage, and Battle Stance otherwise.

5. Mastering Your Arms Warrior↑top

The guidelines given above will enable you to play your Arms Warrior with good results. If you want to push things further and master your character, then we advise you to continue reading.

5.1. Rage Generation

By default, your rage is generated from two sources:

• Dealing damage with auto attacks.
• Using special abilities that generate rage ( Charge, Mortal Strike, etc.).

Exceptionally, if you are in Berserker Stance, you also generate rage from damage taken.

Your rage is mostly used by abilities in your rotation, although some utility spells also cost rage.

5.2. Key Concepts

5.2.1. Deep Wounds

Deep Wounds is a passively applied bleed effect. Even though you will often see this mentioned in tooltips, you do not need to concern yourself with it. Simply assume that you will always have it active (if you are following our recommended rotation).

5.2.2. Enrage

Each time you critically strike with Mortal Strike and Colossus Smash, you become enraged, dealing 10% increased physical damage for 6 seconds. This will happen passively, so you do not need to concern yourself with it. Being enraged doubles the healing effect of Enraged Regeneration (if you have taken this talent) so it is advisable to have a way of monitoring this buff.

5.2.3. Colossus Smash

Colossus Smash should be used, primarily, for the debuff which it applies, and not for its damage. In the 6 seconds after using Colossus Smash, all of your abilities deal significantly more damage.

You should also keep in mind that your Sudden Death passive ability provides you with a 10% chance to reset the cooldown on your Colossus Smash each time you perform an auto attack or have a proc from your Mastery (which basically grants you additional auto attacks). Because this effect does not have an internal cooldown, you should use Colossus Smash as soon as possible, when it becomes available, to avoid wasting Sudden Death procs.

Finally, you should always wait for the 6-second debuff to wear off before using Colossus Smash again (assuming its cooldown was reset shortly after using it), so that the debuffs applied by your subsequent Colossus Smashes do not overlap.

Therefore, you should use Colossus Smash following these guidelines:

• Use as many abilities as possible in the time that the debuff is active.
• Do not use Colossus Smash while the debuff from the previous Colossus Smash has more than 1.5 seconds remaining.
• Use Colossus Smash as soon as it is available (provided that the debuff from the previous one has worn off). You can delay it for a few seconds so that abilities like Mortal Strike come off cooldown or until you have a lot of rage.

5.2.4. Overpower

Your Overpower ability is normally only usable after one of your attacks is dodged. Thanks to the Taste for Blood passive ability, Arms Warriors can gain additional Overpowers. Each time Mortal Strike deals damage, you gain two Overpowers (you can have up to a maximum of 5 Overpower uses stacked up in this way).

Using Overpower reduces the cooldown of Mortal Strike by 0.5 seconds.

Finally, each time you use Execute, the next Overpower cast within 10 seconds costs no rage.

5.2.5. Sunder Armor

If no one else in your raid is providing the Sunder Armor debuff, then you should do so yourself. All you need to do is apply it at the start of the fight, after which Colossus Smash should always refresh it (thanks to Glyph of Colossus Smash). If there is a Feral or Guardian Druid, or a Protection Warrior, then the uptime of the debuff is practically guaranteed.

5.3. Detailed Cooldown Usage

5.3.1. Recklessness

There is no great subtlety to using Recklessness. Simply make sure to use it as many times as possible during the encounter, and try to stack it with as many other cooldowns as possible (especially with Skull Banner and Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp).

5.3.2. War Banners

Skull Banner is by far the most important of your banners. While we advise to always use it together with Recklessness (and Avatar, should you chose that talent), you must keep in mind that it is an extremely powerful raid buff. As such, if there is a time when your raid would benefit more from using the cooldown, than you would by stacking it with your other cooldowns, you should put the raid's best interests first.

Demoralizing Banner is also a raid cooldown of sorts, although it is a fairly weak one. You should coordinate with your raid leader, or at least with your tanks, in order to figure out the best time to use it.

Mocking Banner is mostly useless in PvE raids, but it could have some merit against adds.

5.3.3. Berserker Rage

Berserker Rage is a very powerful DPS cooldown, especially so when you consider that it only has a 30-second cooldown. Berserker Rage must be considered together with Enrage.

Their effects do not stack, so using Berserker Rage while Enrage is active is a waste. As such, you should keep in mind that Enrage will proc off Mortal Strike and Colossus Smash critical strikes, and adjust your Berserker Rage usage accordingly:

• Always make sure that you are enraged while under the effects of Colossus Smash (6-second debuff). If the Colossus Smash itself did not proc an enrage, then you will be presented with the following two posibilities:
  • The Mortal Strike which you used before Colossus Smash did not proc Enrage, in which case you should use Berserker Rage immediately after Colossus Smash.
  • The Mortal Strike which you used before Colossus Smash procced an Enrage, in which case you should use Berserker Rage as soon as this Enrage expires.
• Try to maximise the optime of your enrage state. The safest way of making sure that your enrages do not stack is to always wait until after a Mortal Strike- Colossus Smash sequence, and if neither resulted in an Enrage proc, using Berserker Rage.

5.3.4. Shattering Throw

Shattering Throw is a raid cooldown above all else. As such, you should always prioritise your raid's best interests when determining the time to use this ability. We advise that you consult with your raid leader, as well as with other Warriors.

5.3.5. Tier 4 Talents

Shockwave and Dragon Roar are both valuable when used against a single target, despite the fact that they are designed with multiple targets in mind. As such, no matter what you choose, you should incorporate it into your rotation by using it on cooldown.

Bladestorm is a slight DPS loss against a single target. As such, though, it should only be taken and used when you can benefit from one of its other effects.

Consider the multiple target properties of these abilities, and if there is a situation that is suited for them, try to save them for that time. For example, if a pack of adds is just about to spawn, it is fine to delay your ability slightly so as to make better use of it (or to make use of it at all, in the case of Bladestorm).

5.3.6. Tier 6 Talents

Avatar should be stacked with Recklessness and Skull Banner at all times. Additionally, you should try to make sure that you use Berserker Rage while Avatar is active.

Bloodbath should be used on cooldown.

Storm Bolt should be used on cooldown. Due to its short cooldown, it will essentially become part of your rotation.

6. Changelog↑top

• 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: nothing to change.
• 07 May 2013: Added mention that Dragon Roar should be used outside of Colossus Smash when the boss is below 20% health.
• 04 May 2013: Revamped the single target and multiple target rotation.
• 04 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
  • Removed mentions of Deadly Calm, following its removal from the game.
  • Adjusted rotation section to account for various changes made to Arms Warrior mechanics: updated the way Taste for Blood and Sudden Death work, as well as other minor adjustments.