Arms Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within Pre-Patch

Welcome to our Rotation page for Arms Warriors. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our Easy Mode page, which outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.

The Arms rotation is a conditional priority list, which can change depending on talent choice. Use the checkboxes below to make the appropriate customizations and make sure that Battle Stance is always toggled on!

Recommended	Other Options
Avatar	Warbreaker
Thunderous Roar	Champion's Spear
Skullsplitter	Thunder Clap
Ravager	Bladestorm
Season 4 Tier Set

This rotation focuses on the period above 35% health before Execute takes over the rotation, as noted in the following section.

1. Cast Thunder Clap to apply Rend or if less than 3 seconds remain on the debuff.
2. Cast Rend to apply Rend or if less than 3 seconds remain on the debuff.
3. Cast Thunderous Roar on cooldown.
4. Cast Ravager.
5. Cast Avatar simultaneously with Colossus Smash or Warbreaker.
6. Cast Warbreaker.
7. Cast Colossus Smash.
8. Cast Champion's Spear during Colossus Smash.
9. Cast Mortal Strike on cooldown.
10. Cast Skullsplitter on cooldown, which should align with Thunderous Roar.
11. Cast Execute to consume Sudden Death procs.
12. Cast Bladestorm.
13. Cast Overpower on cooldown.
14. Cast Slam to fill the rotation.

In simple terms, the Arms Warrior rotation revolves around keeping Mortal Strike on cooldown, while using various talented cooldowns, Overpower, and Slam regularly to fill the rotation. While simple, the difficulty lies in keeping track of various cooldowns, not all of which always naturally align.

When using the legendary axe, note that Fyr'alath the Dream Render does not benefit from class buffs such as Avatar or Colossus Smash, so it is best not to use it during major cooldowns. Using it either immediately on the pull after Charge, or delayed until after the opening Avatar buff has worn off. In either case, the most important consideration is simply using the legendary whenever the three-second channel will not put you in danger of enemy mechanics.

Execute deals very high damage and refunds a portion of the Rage spent if the target does not die, helping maintain its higher Rage cost. Outside of sporadic procs, it will become the primary Rage spender once the target drops below 20% health, or 35%, with Massacre talented.

1. Cast Thunderous Roar during Test of Might or In for the Kill buff windows.
2. Champion's Spear during Colossus Smash.
3. Cast Skullsplitter on cooldown, which should align with Thunderous Roar.
4. Cast Avatar simultaneously with Colossus Smash or Warbreaker.
5. Cast Warbreaker.
6. Cast Colossus Smash.
7. Cast Mortal Strike at 2 stacks of Executioner's Precision.
8. Cast Overpower when two charges are available or with less than 60 Rage.
9. Cast Execute.
10. Cast Bladestorm as a filler.

While Execute appears to have a low priority, it becomes the main rotational spender, replacing Slam entirely. Due to our talents, Mortal Strike is still used regularly, automatically maintaining Deep Wounds and Rend while dealing strong damage through Executioner's Precision. In practice, this results in frequently alternating between Execute and Overpower, followed by powerfully buffed Mortal Strikes.

The Arms opener is functionally identical to the standard rotation, using Charge to initiate combat to start with more Rage, applying Rend, and then opening with cooldowns and Colossus Smash, as outlined in the single target rotation above.

There are two multi-target Arms rotations, a two-target setup similar to the single target rotation and another using Cleave to focus on sustained damage against a high number of targets. Use the checkboxes below to make the appropriate customizations.

Talents	Talents
Bladestorm	Ravager
Thunderous Roar	Champion's Spear
Warbreaker	Skullsplitter
Fervor of Battle
Cleave

The two-target rotation is functionally identical to single target, with the addition of using Sweeping Strikes on cooldown to cleave attacks onto a secondary target. Because it also applies Colossus Smash to a second target, Warbreaker is not needed unless there are more targets.

The most common multi-target talent build is a hybridized setup, which trades some of the single target build execute abilities for additional multi-target attacks, such as Warbreaker, Cleave, and Bladestorm. Although these are the most powerful talents in multi-target situations, there is still a strong argument to be made for using more single target-oriented talents to maintain priority damage instead.

1. Cast Thunder Clap to apply Rend or if less than 4 seconds remain on the debuff.
2. Cast Thunderous Roar on cooldown.
3. Cast Sweeping Strikes
4. Cast Avatar aligned with Colossus Smash/Warbreaker.
5. Cast Ravager.
6. Cast Warbreaker.
7. Cast Colossus Smash, preferably during Sweeping Strikes.
8. Cast Champion's Spear.
9. Cast Cleave.
10. Cast Skullsplitter on cooldown, which should align with Thunderous Roar.
11. Cast Bladestorm.
12. Cast Whirlwind during Merciless Bonegrinder.
13. Cast Overpower during Sweeping Strikes.
14. Cast Execute to consume Sudden Death procs.
15. Cast Mortal Strike.
16. Cast Overpower.
17. Cast Execute for priority damage.
18. Cast Whirlwind for more AoE damage.
19. Cast Thunder Clap if nothing else is available.

Arms multi-target rotation is extremely dynamic, changing frequently based on the number of targets, what specific buffs are available, and whether Sweeping Strikes is active. In Season 4, Cleave also helps maintain the powerful tier set bonus in addition to Deep Wounds, almost completely passively, thanks to hitting multiple targets.

Arms cooldowns align fairly naturally, thanks to Anger Management. Still, it is important to ensure that Colossus Smash and Deep Wounds are active on as many targets as possible before going into the cooldown cycle.

Avatar is a potent cooldown in its own right but becomes extraordinarily more powerful in combination with the follow-on Tormented talents. These function similarly to Signet of Tormented Kings, but with a guaranteed effect rather than a random one, allowing you to choose what cooldown is triggered. Warlord's Torment is extremely powerful in single and some multi-target situations, as it allows fairly high uptime on Recklessness despite not normally having access to the ability. Blademaster's Torment is more tailored for extended multi-target, allowing an extra use of Bladestorm, alongside all of its talented benefits, though the talent is currently not in favor.

Bladestorm is Arms' main multi-target cooldown, which should always be buffed by Colossus Smash and Avatar whenever possible. Dealing very high direct multi-target damage, it also triggers Unhinged, generating significant single target value over its duration, as well as the follow-on Merciless Bonegrinder buff.

Ravager is a new alternative to Bladestorm, dealing damage passively and generating Rage in exchange for reduced direct damage. In practice, this is very valuable against single target enemies, serving as a vehicle for extra Mortal Strikes via Unhinged without impeding the normal rotation.

Skullsplitter is an interesting ability that causes Rend and Deep Wounds to instantly tick out on the target, dealing several instances of damage in rapid succession. This high burst of damage can be extraordinarily powerful when combined with Colossus Smash, Thunderous Words, and other bleed-enhancing talents, though it does result in refreshing Rend more often.

Maintained by Mortal Strike, Colossus Smash, Bladestorm, and Cleave, keeping Deep Wounds on the target or targets is paramount to maximizing damage, as it can significantly increase the damage taken from your abilities. Because the debuff lasts a minimum of 12 seconds, this should happen naturally throughout the rotation, but when facing multiple targets, take care to keep the debuff on as many targets as possible for maximum benefit.

Arms generates Rage purely from auto-attack swings and Charge casts, and nearly all abilities cost Rage to use. Ensuring you always have enough Rage to use Mortal Strike on cooldown is paramount, both for damage and to keep Deep Wounds on the target. Choosing not to spend Rage on a filler ability and letting a global cooldown go unfilled is better than letting the debuff drop off.

The overall Rage economy has been significantly reduced in The War Within, but so too has the amount of Rage spent by most abilities, resulting in generating and spending in much smaller amounts. This makes it harder to rage starve, but also harder to dump Rage quickly, though that is not necessarily a bad thing, as it creates more room to use Ignore Pain without infringing on the normal rotation.

A small optimization can be made by moving out of range of the target and using Charge to generate extra Rage during your rotation. Care should be taken to do this between autoattack swings when Colossus Smash is not active. Heroic Leap can also be used to create enough room to Charge for bosses with large hitboxes, which is sometimes specifically referred to as Heroic Charge.

Warriors have several active tools through Charge and Heroic Leap that allow for instant movement across large distances. Finding ways to maximize your uptime on a target through the intelligent use of these is crucial, as downtime is extremely detrimental to the flow of the rotation. The talents Double Time and Bounding Stride are particularly useful in any encounter that demands heavy movement.

Arms' primary survivability tool is Die by the Sword, which is exceptionally useful for immuning direct physical damage and can even be used to tank raid bosses for a short time. Defensive Stance and Ignore Pain can be used for more mitigation when expecting more frequent spike damage, though be mindful that both come at a small cost of damage output. Finally, Spell Reflection is an extremely useful tool for mitigating or outright immuning many sources of magical damage.

Warriors also have access to Rallying Cry, one of the few defensive group cooldowns in the game. It is typically used to help the group survive key encounter mechanics rather than as a personal cooldown. Keep in mind that it is on the global cooldown, so be ready to use it when needed.

Arms also brings Battle Shout, increasing all party and raid members' Attack Power by 5%, which should be applied before combat begins. 5% Attack Power translates to roughly 5% damage for melee classes and Hunters. However, the actual impact is slightly reduced due to the prevalence of non-scaling sources of damage, such as trinkets and potions.

For information about Mythic+ as an Arms Warrior and the rotation you need to use in this game mode, please refer to our Mythic+ page.

WeakAuras can tremendously affect your performance, helping you track important buffs, debuffs, and cooldowns. Since this is a broad topic, we dedicated a page to it.