Arms Warrior DPS Easy Mode — The War Within Pre-Patch

Arms Warriors have several defensive abilities that can be used individually or layered for stronger damage mitigation. Although lacking any true immunity or cheat death, this can make them very capable of surviving predictable incoming damage.

• Die by the Sword is the main defensive cooldown, reducing damage and parrying most front-facing melee attacks. It can also be used to great effect in combination with a well-timed Taunt or Intervene to take pressure off of other players.
• Spell Reflection is a very powerful tool that not only reduces incoming magic damage, but can deflect or even reflect spells entirely. While not all spells will be reflected to deal damage to the attacker, simply deflecting their application can significantly reduce damage, if not trivialize many dangerous abilities outright.
• Defensive Stance is one of the most reliable cooldowns in the game, featuring an extremely short 3-second cooldown, though mitigated by the associated reduction in damage. While this makes it somewhat unpopular, smart use of the ability can dramatically increase survivability.
• Ignore Pain has a relatively short cooldown, though it is similar to Defensive Stance in that it reduces damage through its Rage cost, making it best used against predictable incoming damage rather than used on cooldown.
• Impending Victory a powerful on-demand heal on a short cooldown that resets when an enemy is killed. This makes it regularly available and an important reactionary tool that should be used regularly.
• Second Wind, Pain and Gain, and Fueled by Violence are extra healing effects that trigger passively and do not need to be micromanaged. Second Wind stands out for its unique time-based activation and while this makes it unsuitable in most ongoing combat, it can occasionally continue to work even when taking environmental damage, situationally making it very strong.
• Bitter Immunity provides an on-demand heal and removal of certain afflictions, though its long cooldown makes it lackluster in most group content where a healer will typically cover those needs.

The general stat priority for a Arms Warrior is seen below. This is very much a rough guideline and is designed for players who do not wish to sim their character. If you are simming your character, please disregard this stat priority completely and follow your sim!

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

Critical Strikes more than double all damage dealt and increase Rage generation from auto-attacks, which reduces downtime in the rotation. Mastery increases damage taken by enemies, while Haste compresses the rotation, increasing auto-attack speed and reducing the time between ability casts. Finally, Versatility is a static damage increase, which also reduces damage taken by half the amount.

While the stat priority for classes is normally the same for both the Easy Mode page and our full guide, subtle differences may still occur. If you want to see a full explanation of the stat priority, as well as the absolute top choices for the priority, head to our full stats page below.