Arms Warrior: Midnight Expansion Preview

Welcome to our Midnight expansion guide for Arms Warrior. Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about the Arms Warrior spec in the forthcoming Midnight expansion, including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regular changes expected as updates hit Midnight Alpha. This is not meant to be a launch guide for Arms Warrior, but instead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Alpha, and what you can expect from its playstyle and feel at launch.

While many talents have been added or removed, the core abilities and capabilities have remained fairly well intact, even improving in Midnight. Because new Apex and Hero talents have yet to be revealed, it is not yet entirely known how individual gameplay and rotations for Colossus and Slayer will look, though with no change to their core abilities, it is likely to remain somewhat similar to that of The War Within.

The biggest removal for Warrior is the loss of several talented abilities, though this is also something of a gain, as there is no longer as much setup required to begin an effective rotation.

On the other hand, the biggest gain for Warriors is a huge leap forward in utility, as Piercing Howl and Battlefield Commander now provide two Wind Rush-like speed increases and Champion's Spear has been redesigned as a mass grip! Additionally, Interpose now offers increased mobility with a minor defensive component, and Pummel has a lower cooldown than ever before.

All of this combined is a huge improvement to Warrior capabilities outside of raw damage and defense, and answers a long-time request for more helpful group utility.

As indicated by the development notes, Avatar and Thunderous Roar have been removed, and Champion's Spear has been reworked from an offensive cooldown into a utility one. All of the associated talents for each have also been removed.

Major additions in their place include Battlefield Commander moving over from PvP talents, Last Stand as an emergency heal passively triggered when close to death, and Anger Management moving in from the specialization tree.

• Barbaric Training now increases Slam, Whirlwind, and Thunder Clap damage by 10% (was 20%) and critical strike damage increased by 5% (was 10%).
• Champion's Spear can be re-activated to leap to its location.
• Crushing Force is now a 1-point talent.
• Honed Reflexes now reduces cooldowns by 10% (was 5%). Successfully interrupting an enemy increases the damage you deal to them by 5% for 10 seconds.
• Intimidating Shout now causes the target to cower in fear and all others to flee at 70% reduced movement speed. Target cap removed from all versions.
• Piercing Howl now also spurs all allies within 12 yards, increasing their movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds.
• Rallying Cry now increases health by an additional 50% while not in a raid group.
• Shattering Throw and Wrecking Throw range reduced to 25 yards (was 30 yards).
• Thunder Clap will now automatically apply Rend to 5 targets if talented into Rend.
• The talent tree layout has been updated and many talents have changed positions.

The following talents have been removed:

• Avatar (moved to Arms talent tree)
• Blademaster's Torment
• Blood and Thunder
• Cacophonous Roar
• Champion's Might
• Concussive Blows
• Immovable Object
• Menace
• Piercing Challenge
• Seismic Reverberation
• Sidearm
• Thunderous Roar
• Thunderous Words
• Unstoppable Force
• Uproar
• Warlord's Torment

The following talents have been added to the class tree:

• New Talent: Anger Management — Every 20 Rage you spend reduces the remaining cooldown on Colossus Smash and Avatar by 1 second.
• New Talent: Fearless — Cooldown of Berserker Rage is reduced by 50% and Berserker Rage removes all movement speed-impairing effects. Choice node with Berserker Shout.
• New Talent: Field Dressing — Healing received increased by 3% and all self-healing increased by an additional 10%.
• New Talent: Interpose — Run at high speed toward a target location near your allies, taking 30% of all damage dealt to allies within 3 yards for 8 seconds or until you take at least 20% of your max health in damage from this effect.
• New Talent: Javelineer — Storm Bolt, Shattering Throw, Wrecking Throw, and Champion's Spear apply Hamstring to all affected targets, reducing their movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds. Heroic Throw silences non-Player targets for 3 sec. This effect can only occur once every 15 sec.
• New Talent: Last Stand — When your health is brought below 20%, you marshal your inner strength to increase your maximum health by 30% for 15 seconds and instantly heal yourself for that amount. This effect may only occur every 4 minutes.
• New Talent: Rend — Lash out with your weapon, striking all targets within 8 yards for Physical damage and wounding them for an additional Bleed damage over 15 seconds.
• New Talent: Resonant Voice — The duration of your shouts is increased by 20%.
• New Talent: Retaliation — When you take any damage from an enemy within melee range, you have a chance to strike that enemy for Physical damage.
• New Talent: Battlefield Commander — Your Shout abilities have additional effects.
• Battle Shout: Grants you an additional 3% attack power.
• Rallying Cry: Grants an additional 2% health and 3 seconds duration.
• Piercing Howl: Radius increased by 100%.
• Berserker Shout: Radius increased by 8 yards.
• Intimidating Shout: Cooldown reduced by 15 seconds.

Continuing the efforts to prune extra cooldowns, Skullsplitter and Ravager have been removed entirely, while Warbreaker has been merged into Colossus Smash. Several other passive follow-on talents have also been removed, including Unhinged, Juggernaut, Test of Might, In for the Kill, and Martial Prowess. Notably, Arms Mastery has been decoupled from Deep Wounds, which is now a more active effect triggered by Execute.

Major additions in their place include a few new talents improving upon Slam, as well as several talents enhancing Sweeping Strikes, which now operates on a charge-based system to avoid loss during downtime.

• Battlelord no longer generates Rage.
• Bloodletting now increases the duration of Rend and Deep Wounds Bleeds by 33%, and Mortal Strike applies Rend if the target is below 35% and the Warrior knows Rend or has Blood and Thunder.
• Collateral Damage has been redesigned — When an ability used during Sweeping Strikes damages a second target, your next Cleave or Whirlwind deals 25% increased damage, stacking up to 3 times.
• Colossus Smash now affects all enemies within 10 yards and functions as Warbreaker did.
• Critical Thinking now increases Execute critical strike chance by 5% and refunds 10% of Rage spent on Execute per point.
• Executioner's Precision now buffs the Warrior's next Mortal Strike, rather than applying a debuff to the target.
• Fatality now stacks up to five times and can be triggered at any point in the encounter.
• Fervor of Battle now requires 3 targets to trigger Slam and Slam's damage is increased by 50%.
• Fueled by Violence now heals for Bleed damage from Rend and Deep Wounds.
• Ignore Pain cooldown increased to 20 seconds, though no longer has a rage cost and the amount ignored per use increased by 100%.
• Improved Sweeping Strikes has been redesigned — Sweeping Strikes affects 6 additional damaging single-target abilities.
• Martial Prowess is now also triggered by Slam.
• Mastery: Master of Arms has been redesigned — While wielding a two-handed weapon, you deal Mastery% additional damage.
• Ravager now increases Cleave and Whirlwind deal 50% increased damage while active, and is automatically thrown at the target.
• Sharpened Blades is now a 2-point talent. Each point grants 5% additional critical strike damage to Mortal Strike, Cleave, and Execute.
• Strength of Arms is now a 2-point talent. Each point grants 5% damage, critical strike chance, and critical strike damage to Overpower and Slam.
• Sweeping Strikes has been redesigned — Your next 12 damaging single-target abilities within 30 seconds hit 1 additional target within 8 yards for 75% damage. 30 second cooldown.
• Tactician has been redesigned — You have a 30% chance to gain a charge of Overpower when you use an attack that has a Rage cost. This effect applies even if that ability's Rage cost has been reduced to zero.
• The talent tree layout has been updated and many talents have changed positions.

The following talents have been removed:

• Anger Management (moved to the class talent tree)
• Blunt Instruments
• Exhilarating Blows
• Finishing Blows
• In For The Kill
• Juggernaut
• Martial Prowess
• Merciless Bonegrinder
• Rend (moved to the class talent tree)
• Skullsplitter
• Spiteful Serenity
• Storm Wall
• Test of Might
• Unhinged
• Warbreaker has been removed and its effects added to Colossus Smash.

The following talents have been added:

• New Apex Talents: Master of Warfare: Overpower has a chance to upgrade Slam into Heroic Strike - costs 30 rage, deals ~2x normal Slam damage (more than MS), and generates a stack of Master of Warfare, causing all attacks to penetrate 3% of armor for 30 seconds.
• New Apex Talents: Master of Warfare: Each stack of Master of Warfare increases MS/Cleave damage and crit damage by 5/10%.
• New Apex Talents: Master of Warfare: Heroic Strike reduces the cooldown of Colossus Smash by 5 seconds.
• New Talent: Avatar: Transform into a colossus, increasing all damage you deal by 20% and reducing damage you take from area of effect attacks by 5% for 20 sec.
• New Talent: Broad Strokes: Colossus Smash grants you Sweeping Strikes.
• New Talent: Brute Force: Slam has a 10% increased chance to trigger Tactician.
• New Talent: Crushing Combo: Colossus Smash reduces the cooldown of Cleave by 33% for 6 seconds.
• New Talent: Deep Wounds: Execute inflicts Deep Wounds on the target, causing high damage over 6 seconds.
• New Talent: Efficiency: Slam's Rage cost is reduced by 25%.
• New Talent: Initiative: Charge causes your auto-attacks to generate 50% more Rage for 5 seconds.
• New Talent: Just Warming Up: Colossus Smash generates 15 Rage.
• New Talent: Master Tactician: Tactician has a 10% increased chance to trigger.
• New Talent: Mortal Wounds: You inflict Deep Wounds on targets that you critically strike with Mortal Strike or Cleave.
• New Talent: Overpowering Finish: Overpower deals 25% increased damage to targets below 35% health.
• New Talent: Powerful Momentum: Damage dealt to nearby targets by Sweeping Strikes is increased by 25%.
• New Talent: Tactical Edge: Colossus Smash causes your next 3 Mortal Strikes to have a 100% increased chance to trigger Tactician.

Colossus Hero Talent Changes

• New Talent: Celeritous Conclusion: Demolish's final strike grants10% Haste for 10 seconds and increases the critical strike chance of your next Mortal Strike/Shield Slam by 100%.
• New Talent: Cut to the Bone: Mortal Strike critical strikes increase your Rend and Deep Wounds damage by 50% for 8 seconds.
• New Talent: Decimator: Demolish's final strike applies Deep Wounds to all targets at 100% effectiveness.

Slayer Hero Talent Changes

• Overwhelming Blades reduced to five stacks (down from ten).
• Slayer's Dominance now has a consistent 15% chance to trigger Slayer's Strike and grants overlapping stacks of Executioner, increasing all Execute damage.
• Slayer's Malice also increases Execute and Overpower damage by 20%.
• Unrelenting Onslaught now reduces the cooldown of Bladestorm per stack of Executioner.
• New Talent: Deadly Focus: Executioner's duration is increased by 6 sec.
• New Talent: Unhinged: Every 2 strikes of Bladestorm, you automatically cast a Mortal Strike at your target or random nearby enemy, dealing 100% of normal damage.
• New Talent: Violent Euphoria: Bladestorm puts you into a battle trance, granting you 15% Haste for 8 sec after you stop Bladestorming.

Aside from the changes to Arms Warrior's core features, Midnight also introduces three new Hero Talents for each tree, new tier sets, and a stat squish reducing general numbers across the board. Instead of having millions of health and damage, players will be back to thousands instead.

New Hero talents have not yet been revealed for Colossus or Slayer.

The Arms Warrior tier set for the first season of Midnight is predictably simple, giving players an opportunity to adjust to the baseline class, spec, and hero talent changes instead.

• 2-set bonus: Mortal Strike and Cleave damage increased by 5%. Colossus Smash increases damage taken by an additional 5%.
• 4-set bonus: Damaging a target affected by Colossus Smash with Mortal Strike or Cleave that hits 3 or more targets extends Colossus Smash's effect on them by 1 second.