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.

• Honed Reflexes now reduces cooldowns by 10% (was 5%).
• Piercing Howl now also spurs all allies within 12 yards, increasing their movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds.
• Menace no longer causes Intimidating Shout to knock back enemies.
• Barbaric Training now increases damage dealt by 20% and critical damage by 10% for Slam, Whirlwind, and Thunder Clap for Arms and Fury, and Revenge for Protection.
• Champion's Spear now pulls affected targets toward the spear until they are within 8 yards of it. The first time an enemy runs away from the spear while chained, they will be pulled towards the spear again.
• Intimidating Shout now causes all in range to cower in fear. Menace causes all enemies other than your target to flee. Target cap removed from all versions.
• Shattering Throw and Wrecking Throw range reduced to 25 yards (was 30 yards).
• Thunder Clap damage increased by 100%.
• Crushing Force is now a 1-point talent.
• The talent tree layout has been updated and many talents have changed positions.

The following talents have been removed:

• Avatar(moved to Fury and Protection talent trees)
• Berserker's Torment
• Blademaster's Torment
• Champion's Might
• Immovable Object
• Piercing Challenge
• Seismic Reverberation
• Thunderous Roar
• Thunderous Words
• Titan's Torment
• Unstoppable Force
• Uproar
• Warlord's Torment

The following talents have been added to the class tree:

• New Arms and Fury 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 Arms and Fury 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: Anger Management – Every 20 Rage you spend reduces the remaining cooldown on Colossus Smash, Recklessness, or Avatar by 1 second.
• 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: Resonant Voice – The duration of your shouts is increased by 20%.
• New Talent: Blood and Thunder – Thunder Clap affects 5 nearby targets with Rend, causing them to Bleed over 15 seconds.
• New Talent: Deft Strikes – Mastery increased by 1%/2% and auto-attack damage increased by 50%/100%.
• 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 5% Leech and 30% movement speed to allies.
• 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.

• Mastery: Master of Arms has been redesigned – While wielding a two-handed weapon, you deal Mastery% additional damage.
• 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.
• Improved Sweeping Strikes has been redesigned – Sweeping Strikes affects 6 additional damaging single-target abilities.
• Blunt Instruments has been redesigned – Colossus Smash’s damage bonus is increased by 20%, but its duration is reduced by 20%.
• 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.
• Fueled by Violence now heals for Bleed damage from Rend and Deep Wounds.
• Fervor of Battle now requires 3 targets to trigger Slam and Slam’s damage is increased by 50%.
• Tactician now has a 2% chance per Rage spent to reset the cooldown of Overpower (was 1%).
• Colossus Smash now affects all enemies within 10 yards and functions as Warbreaker did.
• 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.
• Executioner's Precision now buffs the Warrior’s next Mortal Strike, rather than applying a debuff to the target.
• 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.
• Critical Thinking now increases Execute critical strike chance by 5% and refunds 10% of Rage spent on Execute per point.
• Bladestorm now extends the duration of Colossus Smash on targets the first time it deals damage to them.
• Ignore Pain cooldown reduced to 6 seconds and absorb amount increased by 100%.
• 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)
• In For The Kill
• Juggernaut
• Martial Prowess
• Ravager
• Rend (moved to the class talent tree)
• Skullsplitter
• Storm Wall
• Test of Might
• Warbreaker has been removed and its effects added to Colossus Smash.

The following talents have been added:

• Apex Talents will be available for testing in a future build.
• New Talent: Initiative – Charge causes your auto-attacks to generate 50% more Rage for 5 seconds.
• New Talent: Brute Force – If Slam does not trigger Tactician, the critical strike chance of your next Slam is increased by 100%.
• New Talent: Efficiency – Rage spent on Slam counts as double for Tactician.
• New Talent: Just Warming Up – Colossus Smash generates 15 Rage.
• New Talent: Broad Strokes – Colossus Smash grants 6 charges of Sweeping Strikes.
• New Talent: Powerful Momentum – Damage dealt to nearby targets by Sweeping Strikes is increased by 25%.
• New Talent: Press the Advantage – Colossus Smash causes your next 3 Mortal Strikes to be guaranteed to trigger Tactician.
• New Talent: Crushing Combo – Colossus Smash reduces the cooldown of Cleave by 33% for 6 seconds.
• New Talent: Master Tactician – When Overpower has its cooldown reset by Tactician, your abilities deal 10% additional damage for 4 seconds.
• New Talent: Deep Wounds – Execute inflicts Deep Wounds on the target, causing high damage over 6 seconds.
• New Talent: Soften Them Up – Slam increases the damage of your next Mortal Strike by 10%, stacking up to 3 times.
• New Talent: Mortal Wounds – You inflict Deep Wounds on targets that you critically strike with Mortal Strike or Cleave.
• New Talent: Fatality – Mortal Strike has a high chance to apply a Fatal Mark to your target, stacking up to 5 times. Your next Execute on a target with a Fatal Mark causes the Fatal Mark to deal additional Physical damage per stack.

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.

New tier set bonuses have not yet been revealed for Warriors.