Arms Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Single-Target Rotation for Arms Warrior

The Arms rotation is a conditional priority list, which can change depending on talent choice. Use the checkboxes below to make the appropriate customizations.

• Skullsplitter
• Rend
• Fervor of Battle
• Warbreaker
• Cleave
• Avatar
• Deadly Calm
• Ravager
• Dreadnaught
• Crushing Assault

Note that this rotation focuses on the period above 20% health, or 35% health with Massacre talented; when your target reaches this threshold, Execute becomes available and the priority changes, as noted in the following section.

1. Cast Rend if less than 4 seconds remains, outside of Colossus Smash.
2. Cast Skullsplitter when less than 60 Rage, when Bladestorm is not about to be used.
3. Cast Avatar prior to Colossus Smash.
4. Cast Ravager immediately prior to Colossus Smash.
5. Cast Warbreaker.
6. Cast Colossus Smash.
7. Cast Deadly Calm.
8. Cast Execute with Sudden Death proc.
9. Cast Overpower to buff Mortal Strike.
10. Cast Mortal Strike to maintain Deep Wounds.
11. Cast Bladestorm during Colossus Smash or Test of Might (see below).
12. Cast Whirlwind.
13. Cast Slam.

When the azerite trait Test of Might is enabled, delay using Slam or Whirlwind unless over 60 Rage in order to pool Rage for Colossus Smash. During Colossus Smash and the following Test of Might buff, use those abilities normally. Bladestorm can also be used during the Test of Might buff instead of Colossus Smash in order to spend more rage.

Keeping Mortal Strike on cooldown to maintain Deep Wounds is the most important part of the rotation. There will always be three global cooldowns between each cast, making it impossible to ever overcap Overpower buff stacks.

1.1. Execute Usage

Execute deals very high damage, maintains Deep Wounds, and refunds 30% of the rage spent if the target does not die, allowing it to be cast more frequently than other abilites. It will become the main Rage spender once available.

1. Cast Skullsplitter when less than 60 Rage.
2. Cast Avatar prior to Colossus Smash.
3. Cast Ravager immediately prior to Colossus Smash.
4. Cast Warbreaker.
5. Cast Colossus Smash.
6. Cast Bladestorm when under 30 Rage.
7. Cast Deadly Calm.
8. Cast Slam with Crushing Assault proc.
9. Cast Mortal Strike with 2 stacks of Overpower and Dreadnaught talented.
10. Cast Overpower.
11. Cast Execute

Mortal Strike is not used unless two of the three listed conditions are met, otherwise it is less Rage efficient than Execute. Overpower continues to be used regardless, to take advantage of the zero Rage cost.

1.2. Opening Rotation for Arms Warrior

Arms opener is functionally identical to the standard rotation, using Charge to initiate combat in order to start with more Rage, and proceeding with the standard priority detailed above.

When talenting Skullsplitter, delay its use in the opener until after Bladestorm, unless also delaying Bladestorm for any reason, such as an upcoming wave of multiple targets, or using Test of Might.

2. Multiple-Target Rotation for Arms Warrior

The Arms rotation is a conditional priority list, which can change depending on talent choice. Use the checkboxes below to make the appropriate customizations.

• Skullsplitter
• Rend
• Fervor of Battle
• Warbreaker
• Cleave
• Avatar
• Deadly Calm
• Ravager
• Dreadnaught
• Crushing Assault

Whenever there are more than 2 targets, keep Sweeping Strikes on cooldown, using it to spread Colossus Smash and Rend debuffs onto a second target whenever possible. Prioritize Bladestorm over Sweeping Strikes, and do not use Sweeping Strikes if you are about to use Bladestorm.

2.1. 2-3 Targets

1. Cast Sweeping Strikes if you are not about to use Bladestorm.
2. Cast Rend if less than 4 seconds remains, outside of Colossus Smash.
3. Cast Skullsplitter when less than 60 Rage, when Bladestorm is not about to be used.
4. Cast Avatar prior to Colossus Smash.
5. Cast Ravager immediately prior to Colossus Smash.
6. Cast Warbreaker.
7. Cast Colossus Smash.
8. Cast Bladestorm during the Colossus Smash debuff.
9. Cast Deadly Calm.
10. Cast Cleave to maintain Deep Wounds.
11. Cast Mortal Strike with 2 stacks of Overpower and Dreadnaught talented.
12. Cast Execute.
13. Cast Overpower.
14. Cast Mortal Strike.
15. Cast Slam during Sweeping Strikes.
16. Cast Whirlwind.

Unless solely focused on burst AoE with Bladestorm, Cleave is the priority attack in order to maintain Deep Wounds on multiple targets.

2.2. 4+ Targets

1. Cast Sweeping Strikes if you are not about to use Bladestorm.
2. Cast Skullsplitter when less than 60 Rage, when Bladestorm is not about to be used.
3. Cast Avatar prior to Colossus Smash.
4. Cast Ravager immediately prior to Colossus Smash.
5. Cast Warbreaker.
6. Cast Colossus Smash.
7. Cast Bladestorm during the Colossus Smash debuff.
8. Cast Deadly Calm.
9. Cast Cleave to maintain Deep Wounds.
10. Cast Execute during Sweeping Strikes.
11. Cast Mortal Strike during Sweeping Strikes.
12. Cast Whirlwind during Colossus Smash.
13. Cast Overpower.
14. Cast Whirlwind.

For maximum burst AoE, stack Avatar with Warbreaker, and cast Bladestorm on as many targets as possible. Do not use Sweeping Strikes if you are about to use Bladestorm.

3. Mastering your Arms Warrior

3.1. Aligning Cooldowns

Because Avatar lasts twice as long as Colossus Smash, it can safely be used up to 10 seconds ahead of time and the cooldowns will still overlap.

3.1.1. Managing Deep Wounds

Primarily maintained by Mortal Strike, Execute, and Cleave, keeping Deep Wounds on the target or targets is paramount to maximizing damage, making up roughly 15-20% of the specs damage on single-target, and up to 50% on multi-target. Because the debuff lasts 6 seconds, this should happen naturally over the course of the rotation, but when facing multiple targets, take care to keep the debuff on as many targets as possible for maximum benefit.

3.1.2. When to use Skullsplitter

Skullsplitter is an on demand Rage generator, which should be used as close to on cooldown as possible, whenever Rage is below 60 to keep from capping. However, it should not be used without spending Rage before Bladestorm, or else autoattacks run a very high risk of wasted Rage.

4. Azerite Traits

Most Azerite traits are passive bonuses that do not need to be managed. However, a few can be optimized to improve performance slightly:

• When using Test of Might, delay using Slam or Whirlwind unless over 60 Rage in order to pool Rage for Colossus Smash. During Colossus Smash and the following Test of Might buff, use those abilities normally. Overpower should still be used normally, in order to not waste Tactician procs, and Bladestorm can also be used during the Test of Might buff instead of Colossus Smash in single target encounters, or when multiple targets will survive the full duration (more than 15 seconds).
• When using Seismic Wave the projectile will hit all enemies in a line, making it very effective on multi-target. If Overpower hits a second target during Sweeping Strikes, a second wave will also be formed.
• When using Striking the Anvil, it is possible for Tactician to proc on the global cooldown before Mortal Strike comes off cooldown naturally. In that situation, you have a choice between using Overpower immediately which will waste the cooldown reduction, or prioritizing Mortal Strike which runs the risk of overwriting the Tactician proc. In most situations, it is better to follow the normal priority and continue to use Overpower ahead of Mortal Strike.

4.1. Tier 1 Talents Rage Generation

On average, one target needs to die every 8 seconds for War Machine to keep up with Skullsplitter in sustained combat. For this reason, it tends not to be practical in most raid encounters, and is better reserved for fast-paced dungeons and open world content.

4.2. Rage Management

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 or Execute every 6 seconds is paramount, in order 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.

4.3. Heroic Charge

A small optimisation 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.

4.4. Movement and Mobility

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

4.5. Defensive Abilities

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. The talent Defensive Stance can be used for more mitigation when expecting more frequent spike 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.

4.6. Group Buffs

Arms also brings Battle Shout, increasing all party and raid members Attack Power by 10%, which should be applied before combat begins.

5. Changelog