Arms Warrior Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over the changes in Patches 9.2, specifically how the changes impact the playstyle, Legendaries, Covenants and other topics. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Arms Warrior in 9.2, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Warrior class on our dedicated pages below. For an additional list of content in Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch Overview page.

Currently there are no base spec changes for Arms Warriors in Patch 9.2. However, with the addition of Tier sets and the ability to equip two Legendaries, there are several new considerations and rotation updates.

There are no talent changes for Arms Warriors, and the new tier set bonuses do not affect talent choice.

Within the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid that will be coming in Patch 9.2, every class will once again earn pieces of a gear set that is uniquely class-themed with its own two- and four-piece bonuses for each specialization. For Arms Warrior, these set bonuses currently are:

• Arms Warrior 2-Piece — Colossus Smash lasts 3 sec longer and increases your damage dealt to affected enemies by an additional 5%.
• Arms Warrior 4-Piece — Tactician has a 50% increased chance to proc against enemies with Colossus Smash and causes your next Overpower to grant 2% Strength, up to 8% for 15 sec.

The Arms Warrior 2-Piece bonus is very straightforward and synergizes very well with the high uptime granted by Enduring Blow. Although the legendary procs do not have their duration extended by the tier bonus, they do benefit from the 5% increased damage taken.

The Arms Warrior 4-Piece bonus is somewhat awkwardly worded and has two distinct parts. Firstly, the increased chance to proc Tactician only works while the Colossus Smash debuff is active on any target hit by the ability, so a 30-Rage Whirlwind which hits just one debuffed enemy will have a 63% chance to trigger Tactician rather than its normal 42% chance. The second part of the four-piece bonus causes all Overpowers to stack the Strength buff, regardless if Colossus Smash is active or not — this makes it very easy to maintain over the course of an encounter, so long as there is not significant downtime or intermission phases, and should have close to 100% uptime over the course of most encounters.

While neither of these bonuses have significant talent or rotational impacts, aside from simply being able to press Overpower more often, they both help speed up the rotation by reducing downtime and provide a reliable damage increase that is free of gimmicks. In fact, it is fairly difficult to not gain full value out of the tier sets, and that infallibility is an important part of consistently dealing good damage.

As it currently stands, Night Fae appears to be the strongest Arms Warrior Covenant, only slightly ahead of Kyrian in single-target and effectively equal in multitarget. Each has their own pros and cons, however, as the ability to equip their Covenant Legendary alongside Enduring Blow introduces some rotational considerations. Nature's Fury causes Ancient Aftershock to last even longer, which can be difficult to get full value out of in many encounters, while Elysian Might is much burstier but requires the player to stay in a small area that can be problematic on encounters with high movement or dangerous ground effects. Both are good options, and invariably some fights will favor one slightly over the other, so at this point the difference between them is largely academic.

Necrolord is an interesting choice as it is weaker for the Warrior, but grants damage bonuses to allies, bringing its total group contribution up to competitive levels. While Arms Warriors may not often make this trade, the Covenant is much stronger for Fury.

Venthyr continues to lag behind other Covenants, being very slightly ahead of Necrolord in terms of personal performance, but without any group benefit. The Covenant Legendary, Sinful Surge, synergizes greatly to increase the uptime of Colossus Smash, which synergizes well with both tier set bonuses, but has diminishing returns with Enduring Blow, pushing the Covenant to suffer overlap or use a weaker Legendary.

Recall that in Patch 9.1, every class received a Legendary Power that was unique to each Covenant. For Warriors, these Powers were:

• Kyrian — Elysian Might — Increases the duration of Spear of Bastion and also increases your Critical Strike damage while remaining within its area.
• Necrolord — Glory — Causes Conqueror's Banner to affect 1 additional ally and increases the buff's duration on you depending on the Rage spent.
• Night Fae — Nature's Fury — Increases the duration and damage dealt of Ancient Aftershock.
• Venthyr — Sinful Surge — Condemn extends the duration of Colossus Smash by 1.5 seconds.

With Patch 9.2 players will unlock the ability to use 2 Legendary Powers — one Covenant-specific and one generic.

While some classes have several potential double Legendary combinations, Arms Warriors will continue to use Enduring Blow for single-target content, regardless of their Covenant. In multitarget content such as Mythic+ dungeons, Signet of Tormented Kings will instead be used to gain additional cooldowns.