TBC Classic Arms Warrior Guide

Warriors are melee fighters, heavily trained in the art of combat. They rely on their strength and incredible toughness to guide them through the thick of battle. Warriors are less flexible than other classes, but are tougher and capable of dealing devastating damage to their enemies much more quickly.

Arms Warriors specialize in the use of Two-Handed weapons, dealing slow but deadly blows to their enemies. Bringing a variety of buffs and debuffs to a group, Arms Warriors are often desired in raiding content. With the buffed Improved Slam talent, Arms Warrior becomes an extremely viable raiding spec.

Strengths

• Very high cleave damage potential
• Does not have a limited resource such as Mana
• Increases Physical damage dealt by entire raid

Weaknesses

• Extremely gear-dependent
• Weak in early content
• Has a more complex rotation

Arms is primarily the PvP spec for Warrior in TBC, similar to how it was in "Vanilla WoW". Arms is also needed for PvE content, as it brings the unique debuff Blood Frenzy. The majority of raids will only bring a single Arms Warrior for this debuff as it deals less damage than Fury, making it a limited spot, but still one that most raids will require.

Rage is a Warrior's main resource, which is gained by damage dealt and damage taken, causing Warriors to overflow on resources when using high end gear. As a DPS, the majority of your Rage will come from damage dealt, which is why Critical Strike Rating is so highly desirable as a Warrior. With low gear it is possible to go on a "Rage-starvation", where your attacks either don't crit or miss, and you lack the Rage to use abilities for several global cooldowns in a row. Rage is one the main reasons why DPS Warriors scale so well throughout the expansion as they continually improve their gear.

Blacksmithing is highly recommended for Arms Warriors, as the crafted weapons will last you until the later phases of Burning Crusade. Any Warrior looking to put out the highest damage possible will want to get this profession.

Engineering is the recommended second profession. It offers no benefit to your main spec, but does however offer you many other benefits. Aside from the many different gadgets and gizmos offered, such as Rocket Boots Xtreme, you will be able to make Stamina trinkets for tanking. Goblin Rocket Launcher and Gnomish Poultryizer are both amazing tanking trinkets, lasting through most of the content. Having the utility to tank dungeons, heroics and Karazhan will greatly improve how frequently you get into groups.

Leatherworking is a decent option if you have no one else in the party able to use Drums of Battle. You can craft some gear early on as an extra bonus, but this is replaced quickly.

Enchanting gives you +8 all stats through Enchant Ring - Stats, giving you a bit of health, Attack Power, and Critical Strike Rating.

Jewelcrafting offers Crimson Sun and Stone of Blades, giving you a bit more stats than standard gems.

If you would like to learn more about how your profession of choice can be used to supplement your goldmaking, along with a variety of other means to bolster your income, see our full goldmaking guide linked below: