Cataclysm Classic Arms Warrior Spell Summary

Arms Warrior has a wide arsenal of spells available to them; knowing your important spells and when they are best suited to be used is a key part of performing well in any environment. The sections below aim to show you your most important spells by each category and give you a brief example of what each spell does.

Warrior have three different stances, each having unique functions that are needed in certain situations. Some spells can only be used in specific stances as well, making it important for you to understand the general purpose each stance has.

• Battle Stance — Increases all damage dealt by 5% and reduces damage taken by 5%. Allows you to use abilities that require you to be in Battle Stance, such as Overpower.
• Defensive Stance — Decreases all damage taken by 10% and increases threat generation by 500%. This is the main stance that Protection Warrior uses.
• Berserker Stance — Increases all damage dealt by 10% and allows you to use abilities that require you to be in Berserker Stance like Whirlwind.

As an Arms Warrior you will need to utilize both Battle Stance and Berserker Stance to use all of your spells and gain as much up-time of the 10% damage increase from Berserker Stance.

As an Arms Warrior, you will be focusing on dealing damage. These are all of your main damaging spells that you will be using in various different situations.

• Colossus Smash — The newest spell all Warriors get in Cataclysm. Smashes the target for high damage and allows you to bypass all of the targets armor for 6 seconds. The armor bypass only works for the Warrior and not the rest of the group; this 100% armor bypass is completely ignores all of the targets armor, providing a higher damage increase than having 100% Armor Penetration back in Wrath of the Lich King. With the Sudden Death talent, your Colossus Smash has a 6% chance to have its' cooldown reset whenever you successfully land a melee attack.
• Mortal Strike — Instantly deals moderate damage to target and reduces their healing received by 25%. This is the main iconic ability of the Arms specialization. With the Lambs to the Slaughter talent your Mortal Strike will refresh your Rend on the target and grant you a stack of Slaughter, increasing the damage dealt with Execute, Mortal Strike, Overpower and Slam by 10% per stack, up to 3 stacks total.
• Rend — Causes an enemy to bleed for damage over time. With the Lambs to the Slaughter talent your Mortal Strike will refresh your Rend on the target automatically, no longer requiring you to keep re-applying it. Your Rend will proc Taste for Blood every 6 seconds, allowing you to use Overpower without meeting the normal requirements.
• Overpower — Deals damage to the target after your attack is dodged. Taste for Blood allows use of this skill every 6 seconds as long as you have Rend applied to the target. Overpower has no cooldown, only the standard 1.5 second global cooldown, meaning it is possible to use Overpower back-to-back with multiple Taste for Blood procs or if your target dodges an attack.
• Slam — 1.5 second cast time, requiring you to stand in place when using it. With the Improved Slam talent, the cast time will be reduced to 0.5 seconds and its' damage will be increased by 20%. While casting this, your melee attacks will be briefly paused and then resume after the cast finishes.
• Heroic Strike — This spell is changed in Cataclysm. It no longer replaces your next auto-attack, but instead instantly deals damage and now has a 3 second cooldown. Still acts as a Rage dump whenever you are getting close to the Rage cap. The Incite talent increases the Crit Chance of Heroic Strike by 15%, and when Heroic Strike Crits it guarantees the next one to also be a Crit.
• Execute — Requires the target to below 20% health before you can use this. Costs 10 Rage and converts up to an additional 20 Rage into more damage, up to a maximum cost of 30 Rage. With the Sudden Death talent you will keep 10 Rage when using Execute while at 30 Rage or less.
• Cleave — Just like Heroic Strike, this spell is also changed. It no longer replaces your next auto-attack, but will instantly attack, dealing damage to your target and a nearby enemy. With the Glyph of Cleaving, this will hit 3 targets instead of 2. You should only use Cleave when attacking multiple targets at the same time.
• Thunder Clap — Deals damage to all nearby enemies and reduces their attack speed by 20%. This is your main AoE ability when facing more than 3 or more enemies. With the Blood and Thunder talent, your Rend will be spread to all targets hit by Thunder Clap.
• Whirlwind — In Cataclysm this ability hits all nearby enemies, no longer capped at 4 targets. The cooldown of Whirlwind will be reduced by 6 seconds if it successfully hits at least 4 enemies. You will use this as a secondary AoE when Thunder Clap is on cooldown.
• Heroic Throw — Deals decent damage. Use this if your target is out of melee range.
• Victory Rush — This can only be used after you get the killing blow on an enemy that is a similar level to you. You can not get this proc by killing low level enemies, such as critters. It is rare to be able to use this ability as it requires you to get the killing blow to activate it, but be sure to use it if you can. Will also heal you for 20% of your maximum health, increased by the Field Dressing talent, if you took it.

Arms Warriors has a number of personal cooldowns, mostly focused on increasing your own DPS. Cataclysm adds Rallying Cry, a raid-wide defensive cooldown.

• Rallying Cry — New to Cataclysm, grants all nearby group members 20% increased temporary maximum health for 10 seconds. This can be useful to help the raid survive high damage boss mechanics.
• Inner Rage — Another new ability added in Cataclysm. Reduces the cooldown of both Heroic Strike and Cleave from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. This has very limited uses as Arms as you will likely be unable to afford the Rage costs of using multiple Heroic Strikes or Cleaves back-to-back.
• Deadly Calm — A new talent in the Arms tree. Removes the Rage costs of all your abilities while still allowing you to generate Rage. This can not be used at the same time as either Inner Rage or Recklessness.
• Heroic Leap — The last new skill you gain during Cataclysm. An additional movement ability, jumps to a target location and deals damage to all enemies near the landing location. Heroic Leap is not on the global cooldown, allowing you to weave it into your rotation for additional damage.
• Recklessness — 5-minute cooldown. Increases the Crit Chance of your special attacks by 50% for 12 seconds. While Recklessness is active, you take 20% increased damage from all sources. Try to line this up with other cooldowns, such as Bladestorm or trinket procs.
• Bladestorm — 1.5-minute cooldown. This is the last talent point in the Arms tree. Bladestorm casts an improved Whirlwind every 1 second for 6 seconds on all nearby enemies. This is a massive AoE DPS cooldown and will quickly decimate packs of clumped up enemies. Be sure that your Rend will not fall off the enemies before using Bladestorm by using Thunder Clap first to spread it with Blood and Thunder.
• Sweeping Strikes — 1-minute cooldown. This will cause all of your damage dealt to also hit 1 nearby enemy. You will want to use this whenever there is more than 1 target in your melee-range.
• Shattering Throw — 5-minute cooldown. Reduces targets armor by 20%. This should be used as a raid DPS cooldown and coordinated with other cooldowns, such as Bloodlust.
• Enraged Regeneration — 3-minute cooldown. This will consume an Enrage effect to restore 30% of your max health over 10 seconds. This can save your life during high damage spikes.

In addition to your main spells and cooldowns, you also have many utility spells that can be game-changing when used in the proper scenario. Make sure you understand each of the spells listed below to fully take advantage of your entire spellbook.

• Charge — Quickly rush to an enemy, stunning them and generating some Rage. With the Juggernaut talent, you can use this ability in combat and it will increase the Crit Chance of your next Mortal Strike or Slam by 25%.
• Intervene — Rush to an allies location, causing the next melee or ranged attack made against them to be redirected to you instead. Also reduces their threat by 10%. You may need to use this from time to time for mobility or to escape a lethal area.
• Berserker Rage — 30-second cooldown. Removes and makes you immune to fear and incapacitating effects. Also causes you to generate extra Rage when taking damage. Useful if fighting an enemy that fears, or to generate extra Rage when taking raid damage. Counts as an Enrage effect for abilities such as Enraged Regeneration.
• Pummel — Interrupts the target, preventing them from casting for 4 seconds. This is an important spell that you should be making use of whenever possible, especially on trash pulls. This spell is not on the global cooldown, letting you cast it freely. In Cataclysm, you can use Pummel in any stance.
• Disarm — Removes your target's melee and ranged weapons for 10 seconds, greatly reducing the damage they deal, and may prevent them from using certain abilities. Mainly useful on certain trash mobs that use abilities similar to Whirlwind.
• Shield Wall — Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 12 seconds. Can be useful if you are about to take high damage, but generally should not be needed. Requires you to equip a shield first to activate and the buff will be removed if you un-equip the shield.

Buffs and debuffs are an important part of any party or raid group as they greatly increase your groups ability to tank, heal and deal damage as a whole. Make sure you keep your buffs and debuffs up at all times to ensure the highest chance of success in whatever content you are in.

• Battle Shout — Increases Strength and Agility of all nearby raid and party members. The duration of this buff can be increased by 2 minutes if using Glyph of Battle. Generates Rage when used, meaning you will want to use this as much as possible. Only 1 Shout buff can be active at a time.
• Commanding Shout — Increases the Stamina of all nearby raid and party members. The duration of this buff can be increased by 2 minutes if using Glyph of Command. Generates Rage when used, meaning you will want to use this as much as possible. Only 1 Shout buff can be active at a time.

• Blood Frenzy — Causes targets of your bleed debuffs to take an additional 4% increased Physical damage from all sources. In addition, they will also take 30% increased bleed damage from all sources. This will always be active as Rend is a key part of your damage rotation.
• Sunder Armor — Reduces the targets' Armor by 4% per application, stacking up to 3 times.
• Demoralizing Shout — Reduces the physical damage dealt of all nearby enemies by 10%.
• Thunder Clap — Reduces the attack speed of all nearby enemies by 20%.

• Spell Reflection — Reflects a spell back towards the caster. Typically has very little use outside of PvP as you should not be the target of enemies in PvE content.
• Hamstring — Slows targets movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds. Useful to slow a mob down if they are running away or if you need to get away from them.
• Intimidating Shout — Fears up to 6 nearby enemies for a short duration. Can be useful if you are in danger or surrounded by enemies, but will typically only be used in PvP as using it in PvE situations can cause trash mobs to run in bad directions and pull additional packs of enemies.