Arms Warrior DPS Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.2.5

In addition to a brand new seasonal affix, Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 4 features a whole new rotation of dungeons pulled from past expansions! Instead of the previous Shadowlands dungeons, players will face off against Mythic+ versions of Tazavesh, the Veiled Market, Operation: Mechagon, Return to Karazhan, Iron Docks, and Grimrail Depot. This opens up brand new experiences, encounters, strategies, and loot featured from previous expansions.

Mythic+ Dungeons, especially high ones, are arguably the highest level of competitive PvE content that WoW has to offer aside from Mythic raiding.

Arms is a multi-target powerhouse in Shadowlands, with a multitude of tools to handle various situations, including two target with Sweeping Strikes, three or more targets with Cleave, and burst AoE using Warbreaker alongside Bladestorm. Where the specialization falters is in its defensive toolkit and lack of group utility options. While Defensive Stance is one of the better defensive abilities, the reduced damage makes it more difficult to use effectively than other specializations defensive tools.

Because the majority of Mythic+ revolves around dealing with multiple targets, Arms follows the basic multi-target priority laid out in the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page. The key difference is in predicting the layout of the dungeon, and knowing when to save cooldowns versus when to use them. Smartly saving your cooldowns when a target is about to die, and instead using it on a fresh pack which will survive the duration of your burst damage is far more efficient and will help your group finish on time.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 1 page below.

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+, and although there is one primary dungeon build, a couple talents can shift slightly depending on your Covenant choice or preferences.

Level	Choices
15	✗ War Machine	✓ Sudden Death	✗ Skullsplitter
25	✓ Double Time	✗ Impending Victory	✓ Storm Bolt
30	✓ Massacre	✗ Fervor of Battle	✓ Rend
35	✗ Second Wind	? Bounding Stride	✓ Defensive Stance
40	✗ Collateral Damage	✓ Warbreaker	✗ Cleave
45	✗ In For The Kill	✓ Avatar	✗ Deadly Calm
50	✗ Anger Management	✓ Dreadnaught	✗ Ravager

Arms Warriors have a lot of talent choice when it comes to Mythic+, with the flexibility to bring extra defensives, utility, and tailor their damage to the expected situation.

• Level 15: Sudden Death is a passive and easy option, though Skullsplitter gives Rage when you need it, helping fill gaps in your rotation.
• Level 25: Double Time is a staple for both mobility and rage generation leading to more damage, although Storm Bolt should be taken when stuns are needed to lock down difficult targets.
• Level 30: Massacre and Rend are effectively equal, both adding slightly different flavors of single-target damage without much impact on multi-target.
• Level 35: Defensive Stance is an amazing on-demand defensive, especially when pushing into higher keystone levels. In places where it is not necessary to survive, Bounding Stride is also very useful for general mobility and getting out of tight situations.
• Level 40: Warbreaker syncs perfectly with Bladestorm for high burst potential.
• Level 45: Avatar likewise lends itself toward burst damage, and performs even better when combined with legendary powers for greater damage potential.
• Level 50: Dreadnaught create AoE shockwaves which add a consistent amount of extra damage over the course of a dungeon. During Sweeping Strikes, two shockwaves will form which both hit every available target.

For the most part, your rotation will remain the same as normal in Mythic+ dungeons. Because of the nature of dungeons, however, with mobs dying constantly and there sometimes being downtime in between packs, we recommend taking the following extra considerations.

Note that the information below specifically pertains to Mythic+. If you require more general information, you should go to the main Rotation page below.

The Arms Warrior AoE rotation is fairly simple, revolving around stacking cooldowns for big burst, and following up with either Whirlwind during Merciless Bonegrinder or Sweeping Strikes and Execute to finish off any remaining targets.

1. Open with Charge whenever possible
2. Warbreaker to apply and maintain Mastery: Deep Wounds
3. Spear of Bastion / Ancient Aftershock
4. Avatar during the previous covenant ability GCD.
5. Bladestorm
6. Sweeping Strikes if enemies will live throughout its duration.
7. Overpower
8. Whirlwind at more than 4 targets while Sweeping Strikes is not active.
9. Mortal Strike and Execute as a filler.

Battle Shout increases attack power by 5%, which applies to all melee specs and Warrior abilities, even those which do not deal purely Physical damage.

Pummel is crucial in Mythic+ as interrupting dangerous spell casts is of the utmost importance.

Rallying Cry applies to the entire party, making it a strong defensive tool during periods of group-wide damage, or a personal cooldown as needed.

Spell Reflection is exceptional in Mythic+, either for reducing the damage of powerful debuffs, or reflecting high damage and debilitating effects. Although the ability can be used quite often due to its low cooldown, properly identifying which abilities should be reflected is key, as it can completely nullify dangerous effects and render some enemies completely harmless.

Storm Bolt is another useful tool in stopping enemy attacks and spellcasts, although it comes at the cost of Double Time, which is a very strong mobility option. Intimidating Shout can also be used as a faux stun, but much less reliably.

Due to Unity replacing individual Covenant Legendaries, the best choice of Legendary for Mythic+ dungeons is Signet of Tormented Kings in most cases, although Enduring Blow remains popular in dungeons with low target count pulls or for boss damage in high level Tyrannical keys.

The best Covenant for Arms Warriors in Mythic+ is Kyrian followed by Night Fae.

• Kyrian combined with Elysian Might and the Mikanikos soulbind allows Warbreaker and Spear of Bastion to be used every 45 seconds, supported further by Avatar and Bladestorm every 90 seconds, a much greater AoE frequency than other builds. Care must be taken to remain inside the Spear area of effect to gain full damage, however, which may be tricky when there are enemy ground effects to deal with. Kyrian will typically use Mikanikos with Crash the Ramparts, Piercing Verdict, and Mortal Combo or Merciless Bonegrinder conduits.
• Night Fae is second to Kyrian only in that Ancient Aftershock remains capped at 5 targets, losing a significant amount of damage in higher target situations. It can still be quite effective, due to the extra knockdown controlling enemies and the high burst damage every 1.5 minutes. Night Fae will typically use Korayn with Crash the Ramparts, Destructive Reverberations, and Mortal Combo or Merciless Bonegrinder conduits.
• Necrolord has some potential for buffing other, higher damage, allies in Mythic+ content, but comes at a significant personal damage loss for the Warrior. Necrolord will typically use Emeni with Crash the Ramparts, Veteran's Repute, and Mortal Combo or Merciless Bonegrinder conduits.
• Venthyr has very limited Mythic+ potential due to Condemn not hitting multiple targets or providing any significant single target damage increase. Venthyr will typically use Nadjia with Crash the Ramparts, Mortal Combo, and Merciless Bonegrinder conduits.

When choosing your trinkets, there are two avenues of approach. The first is maximizing burst in conjuction with your cooldowns, while the second is maximizing single target in order to perform better on bosses. We recommend simulating yourself on Raidbots using the Patchwerk option for raids and single-target, and DungeonSlice (Mythic+/AoE Fights) Fight Styles. Usually, we recommend using trinkets that proc stats, rather than single-target damage dealers.

You can also get a quick overview of good Mythic+ Trinkets on our Gearing page, specifically the Simulation chart for multi-target scenarios.

Most Mythic+ affixes require no special setup or gameplay considerations for Arms Warriors, although there are a few interactions to be aware of.

• Explosive affix orbs are very easy to kill with as little as a single auto attack, though they cannot be hit by AoE abilities such as Whirlwind or Bladestorm unless they are your primary target.
• Spiteful affix adds can be dangerous if you are not aware of their spawning, but are easily controlled by using Storm Bolt or Intimidating Shout, allowing ample time to get away from or kill them.
• While Legion Timewalking begins is active, select dungeons from that expansion can be run using the Mythic+ difficulty system. They use a different set of affixes from regular keys, including the new Infernal affix, in which special Legion Commander mini-bosses are present throughout the dungeon. While none of them are particularly difficult, their placement before each dungeon boss requires more precise cooldown timing. Luckily, this is not a major concern for Warriors, who have relatively short cooldowns to begin with.
• The seasonal Shrouded affix adds an NPC to the start of each dungeon, offering players the choice between four bounties associated with a different secondary stat. Starting at one stack, these bounties add a small amount of that stat, increasing as players defeat Dreadlords hidden throughout the dungeon, resulting in steady power progression over the course of the key. Arms Warriors will generally prioritize the Bounty: Critical Strike buff, but Bounty: Mastery is also a good choice for players who already have very high Crit.