Arms Warrior DPS Easy Mode — 12.1

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The single-target Slayer raid build also provides a surprising amount of multi-target capability through Sweeping Strikes and Bladestorm, allowing it to cover most raid encounters with smaller amounts of adds.

Without the need for stuns, virtually all desirable talents are already taken, so there is not much need for swaps outside of specific circumstance:

• Wrecking Throw can be taken in place of Fearless or Piercing Howl any time there are shielded targets.
• Stance Mastery has amazing defensive potential as long as Defensive Stance is actively used, though its offensive benefit is lackluster at best.
• If facing two targets with any degree of frequency, swap Just Warming Up for Broad Strokes and Cleave for Powerful Momentum.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The Mythic+ Slayer build brings exceptional multi-target damage with Overpower and Reap the Storm, while giving up very little single target.

While the specialization tree is fairly static, the class tree has a lot of room for customization:

• Wrecking Throw can be taken in place of Field Dressing any time there are shielded targets. Taking Javelineer instead of Stance Mastery may also be worthwhile, trading some defensive benefit for a ranged interrupt.
• Stance Mastery has amazing defensive potential as long as Defensive Stance is actively used, though its offensive benefit is lackluster at best.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The simplified rotation outlined below encompasses both single and multiple target situations using our suggested talents. While the Arms playstyle is relatively straightforward, remember that Slam is only used to consume Heroic Strike procs once Execute becomes available.

• Cast Sweeping Strikes whenever there is more than one target.
• Cast Cleave or Rend to apply or refresh the Rend debuff when less than 4 seconds are remaining.
• Cast Avatar on cooldown whenever enemies will live long enough to benefit from the full duration.
• Cast Colossus Smash on cooldown, aligned with other cooldowns as much as possible.
• Cast Bladestorm during Colossus Smash.
• Cast Cleave on cooldown against multiple targets.
• Cast Heroic Strike whenever available.
• Cast Execute whenever it is available.
• Cast Mortal Strike on cooldown.
• Cast Overpower on cooldown.
• Cast Execute or Slam when nothing else is available.

All builds focus on the same principle of spending Rage to trigger Tactician, while taking advantage of the various procs within the Arms rotation. Remember that the majority of Rage is generated through auto-attacks, so ensuring high uptime on the target is crucial to maintaining the rotation, but care should be taken to ensure you do not overspend.

The Arms Warrior apex talent, Master of Warfare, is an active proc which increases the value of Slam and applies a damage enhancing buff. While it largely takes the place of regular casts of Slam, it will also be periodically weaved into the single target Execute phase, though the ability will always be used automatically in multi-target through Fervor of Battle.

• The first point is a proc which causes Heroic Strike to replace Slam, giving it a much higher priority and triggering a small armor penetration buff. While this buff stacks, each has its own duration, resulting in the buff constantly stacking and decaying, making it easy to treat passively and ignore.
• The second and third points further enhances the Master of Warfare buff, though has no rotational impact, since all of those abilities continue to be used in the same manner.
• The final point causes Heroic Strike to apply a separate buff, increasing the magnitude of Colossus Smash, which can be quite strong, given such a high uptime on the ability.

The new Midnight Season 2 tier set bonuses greatly enhance Slam and Heroic Strike, while also passively increasing other rotational abilities. Slam gets automatically cast by Fervor of Battle when facing multiple targets and the stacking builds itself up while waiting Slam or Heroic Strike to be used, so the set plays pretty passively in most cases.

• Warrior Arms 12.1 Class Set 2pc - Mortal Strike and Execute damage increased by 10% and when you Slam a target, Slam also deals (100% of Attack Power) damage to enemies within 8 yds of it. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
• Warrior Arms 12.1 Class Set 4pc - Overpower damage increased by 15%. Mortal Strike and Overpower increase the damage of your next Slam by 20%, stacking up to 5 times.

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 no longer has a Rage cost, but now has a slightly longer cooldown and is on the GCD. It layers very well with other defensive cooldowns before incoming damage.
• Impending Victory is 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.

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! For more information on what's presented on this page, check out our main Stat Priority page.

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.

Combat Assistant, added in Patch 11.1.7, is comprised of two options meant to help players with combat rotations and gameplay.

The first is Assisted Highlight, which recommends the next rotational ability that players should use, in order to help them learn how to better play their specialization. While not a perfectly min-maxed rotation, it is perfectly serviceable, losing an average of around 5% compared to more complicated manual ones. However, it does not attempt to recommend offensive cooldowns, defensives, utility abilities, or other off-GCD abilities such as Charge, so players must be mindful to use these on their own.

The second option is the Single-Button Assistant, which is a new button placed on the action bar which automatically cycles through each ability in the rotation when pressed. Using the same rotation as the Assisted Highlight, it is serviceable, though an additional 25% penalty is placed on the global cooldown to keep this from being an easily competitive option. This results in a roughly ~20-25% loss in performance. Therefore, it is only recommended for brand new players, players in trivial content, or those who are otherwise unable to keep up with regular gameplay.

In both cases, using cooldowns such as Avatar and Sweeping Strikes can be as easy as macroing them to the Single-Button Assistant or a common ability like Colossus Smash, though players may also opt to continue using them manually, as described in the rotation section.