Arms Warrior DPS Easy Mode — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.2.5

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Arms is a combination damage dealer that focuses on buffing their Mortal Strike, and debuffing the enemy with Colossus Smash and Deep Wounds. While the base rotation is not very complicated, talents can add numerous extra attacks and replace others with different versions, allowing players to customize their rotation to their situation or taste. The build showcased here is a simple yet effective play style, good for all types of game content, which is meant to help new players learn the fundamentals of Arms.

The talents listed below are selected predominantly for ease of use and to mitigate more complex decisions when it comes to resource management. While there are better performing combinations, they also have more room for error. The ones chosen are meant to simplify decision making and resource management while introducing players to Arms' single target, burst, and AoE potential. Despite being the "easy mode", it is still quite effective for questing, dungeons, and raid content.

• Level 15: Sudden Death
• Level 30: Double Time
• Level 45: Massacre
• Level 60: Bounding Stride
• Level 75: Warbreaker
• Level 90: In For The Kill
• Level 100: Anger Management.

There are many useful and competitive essences, depending on what type of content you are doing.

• In the Major essence slot, Memory of Lucid Dreams is the best single-target and all-round option, particularly when stacking the Test of Might trait.
• Guardian of Azeroth is a competitive single-target alternative at Rank 3.
• Focused Azerite Beam and Purifying Blast are both very competitive for frequent multi-target.
• As you unlock Minor essence slots, Lifeblood is very potent when stacked with other players using it at Rank 3.
• Focused Energy and Ancient Flame are competitive single-target effects.
• Purification Protocol is good for sustained multi-target situations.

Arms Warrior Azerite traits are fairly straightforward, dependent on the type of content prioritized.

• For single-target: stack Test of Might, filling with Crushing Assault, Striking the Anvil, and Overwhelming Power. This will build longer burst windows and help with Rage management.
• For multitarget: stack Gathering Storm and Lord of War to maximize burst potential.

The current Arms stat priority is as follows when using this build:

1. Haste;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Strength;
4. Mastery.
5. Versatility.

Haste compresses the rotation, increasing auto-attack speed and reducing the time between ability casts. Critical Strikes double all damage done, and increases Rage generation from auto-attacks, which helps reduce downtime within the rotation. Mastery increases Deep Wounds damage. Versatility is a static damage increase and reduces damage taken by half the amount.

The typical single target rotation using our suggested talents is outlined below. Whenever there is more than one target, use Sweeping Strikes to allow your other abilities to also hit a second target.

• Cast Warbreaker on cooldown or whenever it will hit multiple targets.
• Cast Bladestorm while the Colossus Smash debuff is up.
• Cast Sweeping Strikes whenever there is more than one target.
• Cast Execute if your target is below 35% health.
• Cast Mortal Strike on cooldown to maintain Deep Wounds.
• Cast Overpower to buff Mortal Strike.
• Cast Slam as a filler while the enemy is above 35% health.

While all builds focus on the same principle of resetting the cooldown of Overpower with Tactician procs, using it to buff Mortal Strike, and using that to inflict Deep Wounds, other talents add extra abilities, maintenance buffs, and replace other abilities within the rotation. These talents and their rotations are covered in more detail in the advanced sections of the guide.