Arms Warrior DPS Stat Priority — The War Within (11.2.7)

Both Colossus and Slayer Arms Warriors primarily value item level for Strength, followed by Critical Strike and Haste first, then Mastery or Versatility. The value of these stats will fluctuate, dropping as more is obtained, so it is not uncommon to gear into a lot of Critical Strike and Haste, then gem or enchant for more Mastery or Versatility. By the time you have reached moderate gear levels, the stat priority for an Arms Warrior should be:

1. Strength;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Haste;
4. Mastery.
5. Versatility;

At the highest level of gear, these stats will shift due to diminishing returns on the most stacked stats, generally resulting in all four having very similar weights, though there is a point where you simply cannot get more of one stat without giving up a large portion of another. This is why traditional stat weights compared to one point of strength are a difficult tool to utilize, and it is recommended that players regularly sim their own gear upgrades instead.

Strength is your primary stat, found on plate armor, weapons, and trinkets. It provides Attack Power, which contributes to the damage of all abilities and auto-attacks.

Critical Strikes normally double the damage of attacks and abilities, as well as increasing the Rage generated by auto-attack swings by 10%. Thanks to Impale and various other talents though, the damage of crits can be increased beyond the normal +100% multiplier.

Haste compresses the rotation, reducing the time between the auto-attack swings, the global cooldown, and the cooldown of the rotational abilities Mortal Strike, Skullsplitter, and Cleave, as well as the speed at which Bladestorm, Ravager, Rend, and Deep Wounds deal damage.

FAQIs there a Haste cap for Arms Warriors?

Technically no, as even above 100%, Haste still continues to reduce the cooldown of rotational abilities and increase the frequency of auto-attacks.
However, there are several breakpoints at which its value will change. This is difficult to calculate, due to the inconsistent nature of buffs like In For The Kill. Thankfully, Haste remains a strong stat for Arms, due to fitting more global cooldowns inside of its various damage buffs and greater returns on Anger Management.

Mastery increases the damage taken debuff Deep Wounds, which is applied and maintained by using Mortal Strike, Colossus Smash, Bladestorm, Warbreaker, Cleave, and Ravager. This typically had lower value in multi-target, but has increased thanks to the ease of using Cleave to maintain the debuff.

Versatility provides a flat increase to damage dealt and reduces damage taken by half as much. Direct damage trinkets, cantrip items, and other outside sources of damage tend value versatility more, due to typically not scaling with attack power.

FAQHow Do Diminishing Returns Work?

Intended to smooth out the value of secondary stats and reduce the propensity for stacking a single one, the amount of secondary stats required to convert to 1% is reduced at various points. This is calculated by rating, rather than raw percentage. So it does not include class buffs like In For The Kill or Bloodlust, though it will affect trinkets and other effects which add a flat number.
In practice, this is not something most players need to keep track of, as the best secondaries tend to remain valuable even beyond the point of diminishing. It simply reduces the gap between them to ensure that a wider variety of gear is useful.

The gems, enchants, and consumables you will use are directly derived from your stat priority, and you can find our advice on this topic on our dedicated page.

Racial bonuses tend to have a minimal impact on Arms performance. Anything within 1% is typically considered trivial and a small enough margin that our recommendation is to simply play what you enjoy the most.