Arms Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Season 1

This is a simplified version of the Rotation that leaves out some minor min-maxing gameplay.

• Cast Rend to apply or refresh the debuff when less than 4 seconds are remaining
• Cast Avatar on cooldown whenever enemies will live long enough to benefit from the full duration
• Cast Colossus Smash on cooldown, aligned with other cooldowns as much as possible
• Cast Demolish or Bladestorm during Colossus Smash
• Cast Mortal Strike on cooldown
• Cast Cleave against multiple targets
• Cast Execute whenever Sudden Death procs
• Cast Overpower for free whenever available
• Cast Execute or Slam when nothing else is available

This rotation focuses on the period above 35% health before Execute takes over the rotation.

Recommended	Other Options
Slayer	Colossus
Bladestorm	Ravager

1. Rend to apply or refresh Rend with four seconds remaining
2. Ravager just before Colossus Smash
3. Avatar just before or with Colossus Smash
4. Colossus Smash
5. Heroic Strike
6. Demolish during Colossus Smash
7. Bladestorm during Colossus Smash
8. Storm Bolt during Bladestorm
9. Mortal Strike
10. Execute with Sudden Death proc
11. Heroic Strike
12. Overpower
13. Rend to apply or refresh Rend with four seconds remaining
14. Wrecking Throw
15. Slam to fill the rotation

In simple terms, the Arms Warrior rotation revolves around keeping Mortal Strike on cooldown, while using various talented cooldowns, Overpower, and Slam regularly to fill the rotation. While straightforward, the difficulty lies in keeping track of various cooldowns, not all of which will naturally align.

• Slayer makes more frequent use of Execute, lowering the cooldown of Bladestorm in turn.
• Colossus instead focuses on Mortal Strike to reduce the cooldown on Demolish.

Execute deals very high damage and refunds a portion of the Rage spent if the target does not die, helping maintain its higher Rage cost. Outside of Sudden Death procs, it will become the primary Rage spender once the target drops below 20% health, or 35% with Massacre talented, though this does not mean that it is always the highest priority ability.

Recommended	Other Options
Slayer	Colossus
Bladestorm	Ravager

1. Ravager
2. Avatar just before or with Colossus Smash
3. Colossus Smash
4. Execute with Sudden Death
5. Heroic Strike
6. Demolish during Colossus Smash and 10 stacks of Colossal Might
7. Overpower with two charges available or less than 40 Rage
8. Mortal Strike
9. Bladestorm during Colossus Smash
10. Storm Bolt during Bladestorm
11. Mortal Strike with two stacks of Executioner's Precision
12. Overpower with less than 90 Rage
13. Execute
14. Overpower
15. Execute with Deep Wounds talented
16. Slam

Similar to the single target rotation, Slayer will focus more on Execute, only using Mortal Strike when it is buffed by other abilities. Colossus will instead Mortal Strike almost on cooldown, with Execute filling the role of lower priority rage spender instead.

When facing only two targets, a standard single target build will typically be used along with Sweeping Strikes to cleave attacks onto the second target. When facing three or more targets, Cleave becomes the main focus of the rotation.

Recommended	Other
Colossus	Slayer
Bladestorm	Ravager

1. Rend to apply the debuff
2. Sweeping Strikes if Broad Strokes is not talented or Colossus Smash is already on cooldown and no charges remain
3. Ravager
4. Avatar
5. Colossus Smash
6. Demolish during Colossus Smash and more than 5 stacks of Colossal Might
7. Cleave
8. Execute with Sudden Death
9. Bladestorm
10. Overpower with Opportunist active
11. Mortal Strike
12. Rend when the debuff has less than 4 seconds remaining
13. Overpower
14. Rend to reapply the debuff early
15. Execute
16. Execute with Sudden Death
17. Slam to fill the rotation
18. Slam to fill the rotation

The Single-Button Assistant system offers an easy introduction into the spec and its many buttons, but it comes at a cost. Due to the increase of the Global Cooldown you will naturally do lower DPS already. The One-Button rotation is also missing out on some of the finer nuances of the rotation in order to make it more accessible for players who have just started their journey into the game, so even when using the Assisted highlight feature, you will be trailing a little behind those who have already mastered the ins and outs of the spec.

That being said, the DPS difference compared to the most complex and detailed rotational gameplay is not as big as you might think. You can expect to do only around ~15-20% less DPS than you would do with perfect rotational gameplay, as long as you correctly use your cooldowns, which the one-button will generally use on cooldown rather than save for more favorable situations.

So, if you want to get your bearings before moving on to the Beginner DPS Rotation, using the Assisted Highlight or even the Single-Button Assistant is a great starting point if you have just taken your first steps into World of Warcraft.

Arms biggest and most important gameplay concept is managing its primary resource, especially after being significantly reduced in Midnight. Nearly every ability Arms uses spends Rage, with the majority generated through auto-attack swings, resulting in two separate cadences that do not always sync up. Although in most cases this is not something you should need to think about, it is very important to recognize when high or dry streaks can occur, and attempt to avoid them, since skipping an extra cast of Slam is less important than missing a Mortal Strike.

Note that Skyfury grants extra auto-attack swings which also generate Rage, so always having a Shaman in the group is highly preferred!

Applicable to most classes, though particularly relevant to Arms Warriors, due to the reliance on auto-attacking for both Rage generation and damage. Any time spent off target is lost damage, with minimal means to recoup lost resources, unlike energy-based classes which will continue regenerating their resource up to its cap.

Due to the high mobility innate to the Warrior class, it is possible to play around boss mechanics and minimize downtime. If the boss is casting an area effect which requires players to run a certain distance away, a Warrior can instead continue attacking until the last few seconds, Heroic Leap away and immediately Charge back as soon as the danger has passed.

Although Arms can have free global cooldowns due to a lack of Rage, planning for and ensuring you fill as many abilities as possible during the Colossus Smash debuff is paramount to maximizing Arms Warrior damage. When outside of those burst windows, its better to let Rage accrue, and only spend it so long as it will not keep you from casting a follow on Mortal Strike.

A small optimization can be made by moving out of range of the target and using Charge to generate extra Rage during your rotation. Care should be taken to do this between auto-attack swings when Colossus Smash is not active. Heroic Leap can also be used to create enough room to Charge for bosses with large hitboxes, which is sometimes more specifically referred to as Heroic Charge.

Heroic Strike has a higher priority than normal Slam casts, most particularly because it is used during the Execute rotation. However, because Master of Warfare stacks have individual durations, there is no particular need or advantage to track it, making the buff easy to treat passively.

Master of Warfare differs in that it stacks like a normal buff, however it is consumed as soon as Colossus Smash is cast, also making it a fairly passive buff. While players will average 2-3 stacks per cycle, the buff stacks up to 5 to ensure that lucky procs do not go to waste.

The main cooldown for Arms Warriors provides a moderate burst window, not as large as many classes but very frequent due to the constant cooldown reduction of Anger Management. Almost always best to use strictly on cooldown, it can be circumstantially delayed for groups of adds or to align with other important damage phases, though care should be taken to recognize that its actual cooldown is a lot shorter than implied.

Now also reduced by Anger Management to help keep it aligned with Colossus Smash, Avatar has lost all of its follow-on talents and much of its power, becoming a fairly minor cooldown with no inherent gameplay benefits.

The signature Slayer ability is not the high-burst powerhouse it used to be, but continues to provide a reasonable amount of damage, with its single target value increased by Unhinged. One of the few abilities that does not spend rage, auto-attacks continue to hit during the channel, making it a pseudo-generator.

Keep in mind that the automatic Mortal Strikes caused by Unhinged can also trigger their own effects, such as Tactician or Reap the Storm.

Despite three stacks of Imminent Demise causing the button to glow, this is not an indicator of when Bladestorm should be used. It should almost always be used either on cooldown, or timed with groups of adds.

The Colossus counterpart to Bladestorm, Ravager actually serves an entirely different role, being a predominantly multitarget ability whose minor damage is offset by the large buff to Cleave. Keeping it aligned with Colossus Smash can be difficult since Ravager is no longer affected by any form of cooldown reduction, but the two should be used together as much as possible to take advantage of Crushing Combo.

The actual counterpart to Bladestorm, Demolish is used in almost the same way as both a single and multitarget cooldown. It has its own distinct form of cooldown reduction which does not always align with others, so keeping a careful eye on the various cooldown timers is paramount to maximizing its damage.