Arms Warrior PvP Guide for Cataclysm Classic

Arms Warrior is a high damage melee class, dishing out massive damage while having moderately high utility. With multiple gap closers, interrupts, a few crowd-controls, and healing reduction, Arms Warrior remains a powerhouse in any PvP environment.

Strengths

• Not limited by resources such as Mana; can fight forever.
• Has high burst damage windows constantly, allowing you to catch enemies off-guard.
• High control with multiple interrupts, stuns, and blanket silences.
• Good mobility, hard to kite.

Weaknesses

• Very one-sided gameplay, does not bring much besides damage dealing.
• Very gear dependent; requires multiple end-game items from PvP and PvE to perform.
• Reliant on constant support from others to avoid being trivialized.

• Glyph of Mortal Strike — Mortal Strike is your main ability, making this a mandatory glyph.
• Glyph of Overpower — Overpower is one of your main abilities, making this a mandatory glyph.
• Glyph of Bladestorm — Reduces the cooldown of Bladestorm, allowing you to burst more frequently.

• Glyph of Colossus Smash — Causes Colossus Smash to apply a stack of Sunder Armor, great for increasing your damage.
• Glyph of Long Charge — Allows you to Charge targets from further away.
• Glyph of Rapid Charge — Allows you to Charge more frequently.

• Glyph of Berserker Rage — Makes Berserker Rage generate 5 Rage when used. Useful during downtime or open globals when you aren't worried about being feared.
• Glyph of Demoralizing Shout — Increases the duration and radius of Demoralizing Shout, helping you shout out nearby enemies in stealth.
• Glyph of Battle — Use this if you are responsible for upkeeping Battle Shout.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this section. In PvP you will need to react and adapt to different situations, meaning you will not always follow the recommended rotation below. Aim to do whatever allows you to stick on your target the most while dealing as much damage as possible.

1. Rend — Apply to your target.
2. Mortal Strike — On cooldown.
3. Colossus Smash — Use on cooldown. Make sure to burst with any available cooldowns during the 6 second debuff window.
4. Overpower — Use with Taste for Blood procs.
5. Thunder Clap — Use to spread Rend to additional nearby enemies, or when fighting a physical damage dealer to slow their attack speed.
6. Heroic Strike — When you have Battle Trance procs or are high Rage.
7. Execute — When the target is below 20% health.
8. Heroic Throw — Use on casters with to silence them for 3 seconds thanks to the Gag Order talent.
9. Demoralizing Shout — Use to try and get nearby stealthed enemies in combat, or when fighting physical damage enemies to reduce their damage dealt.

Arms Warriors has a number of personal cooldowns, mostly focused on increasing your own DPS.

• Deadly Calm — 2-minute cooldown. Useful at the start of a fight or when you are out of Rage.
• Recklessness — 5-minute cooldown. Use when you want to burst the hardest with all other cooldowns such as trinkets.
• Bladestorm — 1.5-minute cooldown. Great for bursting targets, especially if they are grouped.
• Rallying Cry — 3-minute cooldown. Use this to keep yourself or an ally alive through heavy burst damage.
• Inner Rage — 30-second cooldown. Use when you have high Rage that you can't spend otherwise.
• Shattering Throw — 5-minute cooldown. Save this to remove immunities such as Ice Block
• Enraged Regeneration — 3-minute cooldown. If you are every very low health use this to stay alive.

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 as well as nearby targets and generates some Rage.
• Intervene — Rush to an allies location, causing the next melee or ranged attack made against them to be redirected to you instead. Great for peeling or escaping.
• Heroic Leap — Leap to targeted location, damaging all nearby enemies. Great for closing a gap between you and an enemy or escaping.
• 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. Counts as an Enrage effect for abilities such as Enraged Regeneration.
• Pummel — Interrupts the target, preventing them from casting for 4 seconds. Use this as much as possible on casters.
• 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.
• Shield Wall — Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 12 seconds. Requires you to equip a shield first to activate and the buff will be removed if you un-equip the shield.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Arms Warrior in Cataclysm PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Blacksmithing — Gives you two additional sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves, giving you even more Resilience.
2. Jewelcrafting — Gives you three powerful gems, Mystic Chimera's Eye, giving you a large Resilience boost.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for an Arms Warrior in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Arms Warrior's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.