Arms warrior with one hand weapon and shield

[Canisar 0]

Dear fellow warriors

I have been tanking for some time and I enjoy it. As Draenor nears its own end, my  guild prepares for Legion, they thought about moving me to another position. This is of course greatly upsetting, as I have been practicing new rotations endlessly since 7.x. I am not here to tire you with that. Rather I want to ask whether it is true that arms warrior can use a one hand weapon and shield - and assuming that they can, will it be effective? See, my guild argues that I can merely go DPS with the same setup as tank, just as an arms warrior. I am very doubtful about this and its effectiveness, but be it as it may, I am not an expert, and therefore I consult you.

[Sajakain 104]

While I haven't personally tried equipping a 1H and shield as Arms.... the answer is simply no. Arms warrior uses a 2H weapon and you'll find that, even if you can physically equip a 1H and shield as Arms, your abilities won't work because they specifically require a 2H weapon.

[Sajakain 104]

Furthermore, in Legion... when you switch specs, your weapon will automatically switch to the Artifact weapon associated with it. For instance, if you obtain all your artifact weapons and you are Prot. . . when you switch to Arms it'll automatically equip Strom'kar. You won't be able to use any artifact in a spec it's not intended to be used for.

[Canisar 0]

Interesting. So a one hand sword switch to two hand if it is an artifact :)

[biggerthanpete 1]

Also, with the state of the current game, only playing 1 of your 3 specs really limits your flexibility and ability to contribute to your raid group. I mained a dps warrior in WoD, but I filled in as a tank 3 or 4 times when our tank couldn't make it. Good warriors can play all 3 specs competently even if they main dps or tank in raids. Even good dps warriors will not stick with a static spec or talent build. They will switch talents and specs based on the encounter. I would encourage you to grab the correct gear setup, read the fury/arms dps guides, and practice on the target dummies. 

It sounds like you prefer tanking, but I would try not to get bogged down in that. DPS, while very different from tanking, can be pretty engaging. I'd say give it a try before you get too upset. Also, you never know what the future might bring. If you are carrying your weight as DPS and then one of the tanks quits, you might be right back into tanking.

[Canisar 0]

I hear you Pete. My problem is a mouse injury that refuses to let my wrist go. I was afraid that I had to gear up two specs up, which I know, I cannot do that fast because of the injury. But as said above, perhaps the artifact can remedy that :).

[Sajakain 104]

35 minutes ago, Canisar said:

Interesting. So a one hand sword switch to two hand if it is an artifact :)

Only if you have obtained the artifact for that spec will it automatically switch. It's not going to magically change just because you change specs.

Your Artifact weapons are as follows:

Arms: Strom'kar, the Warbreaker

Fury: Warswords of the Valarjar

Protection: Scale of the Earth-Warder

So, if you obtain all three artifacts (which, as a side note, would award you with Arsenal of Power), you can change specs at will and the appropriate artifact will automatically be equipped if you have obtained it. You will be able to obtain the other two artifacts once you hit 102.

What I meant in the original reply was that, if you are specced Arms, you will not be able to equip either Warswords (Fury) or Earth-Warder (Protection).

 

[Canisar 0]

Okay. Thank you for your comments. It gives me an idea of the efforts, I need to make. As Pete says, perhaps I should try to do some arms :) 

[palles 4]

Maybe they meant armorwise? Fury/Prot have a pretty similiar profile and you can get away with having the same gear for both without much trouble. I'm not sure what arms stat weights are though.