Arms Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Offensive Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheet
    • 2.1. Open World, Levelling and Questing
    • 2.2. Dungeons and Raids
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
    • 1.1. Early Progression
    • 1.2. Patch 7.2 Post 35 Trait Path
  • 2. Artifact Ability
  • 3. Relic Choice
    • 3.1. AoE Specific:
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. Optimization between Light/Shadow Tier 2 and Relic Tier 3 Choices
  • 2. Tier 2 Priorities
    • 2.1. Best
    • 2.2. Good
    • 2.3. Weak
  • 3. Tier 3 Priorities
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single-Target Rotation
    • 1.1. Single Target
      • 1.1.1. Deadly Calm with Soul of the Battlelord
    • 1.2. Execute Usage
    • 1.3. Opening Rotation
    • 1.4. Cooldown Rotation
  • 2. Multiple-Target Rotation
    • 2.1. 4+ Target AoE
  • 3. Important Notes
    • 3.1. Tier 4 Talents
    • 3.2. Focused Rage
    • 3.3. Cooldowns
      • 3.3.1. Battle Cry
      • 3.3.2. Bladestorm/Ravager
      • 3.3.3. Colossus Smash and Warbreaker
  • 4. Mastering your Arms Warrior
    • 4.1. Rage Management
    • 4.2. Colossus Smash
    • 4.3. Movement and Mobility
    • 4.4. Advanced: Heroic Charge
    • 4.5. Defense
  • 5. Tier 19 Set Bonuses
    • 5.1. Tier 19 Trinket optimization
  • 6. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
    • 6.1. Tier 20 Trinket Optimization
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 1.2. Statistics
    • 1.3. Breakpoints
  • 2. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Warriors
      • 1.1.1. Bladestorm Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.1.2. Pummel Macro
      • 1.1.3. Heroic Leap Spam
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Arms Warriors
      • 1.2.1. Charge Macro
      • 1.2.2. Cooldown Stacking Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Warriors
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. TellMeWhen
      • 2.1.7. Raeli's Spell Announcer
      • 2.1.8. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.9. Omen Threat Meter
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Arms Warriors
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
    • 1.1. Trinkets
    • 1.2. Tier 19 & 20 Bonus Combinations
    • 1.3. Evaluating Upgrades with dynamic Item Levels
  • 2. Racial Bonuses
  • 3. Legendary Items
    • 3.1. 7.1.5 Legendaries
    • 3.2. 7.2 Legendaries
    • 3.3. 7.2.5 Legendaries
    • 3.4. Recommended Choices
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Arms Warrior core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing an Arms Warrior.

The other pages of our Arms Warrior guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Archimtiros, one of the best DPS Warriors in the world, who raids in Infinity. You can follow him on Twitter.

1. Single-Target Rotation

The core of Arms revolves around maximising your use of Colossus Smash and your use of powerful abilities within the debuff window, so whilst the rotation is quite skinny, there is room to push more damage with heads up play.

1.1. Single Target

This has changed significantly due to new talent options being available with 7.2.5, and notes regarding Focused Rage have been removed as it is no longer a viable build.

1. Cast Charge if you are out of range of your target.
2. Cast Rend if not active when taken.
3. Cast Colossus Smash if available and Shattered Defenses is not active.
4. Cast Warbreaker if Colossus Smash is absent from the target and Shattered Defenses is not active.
5. Cast Battle Cry with the Colossus Smash effect active on your target.
7. Cast Bladestorm with the Tier 20 4-piece bonus and Battle Cry is active.
8. Cast Execute with Ayala's Stone Heart procs.
9. Cast Mortal Strike if Shattered Defenses is active or with no stacks of Executioner's Precision.
10. Cast Rend to maintain the debuff (<2.4 seconds remaining) if taken.
11. Cast Overpower if taken.
12. Cast Whirlwind with Fervor of Battle taken.
13. Cast Mortal Strike
14. Cast Slam without Fervor of Battle taken.

If Fervor of Battle is talented, replace Slam with Whirlwind at all times. If Rend is talented refresh the debuff whenever it has less than 2.4 seconds remaining, aiming to keep it applied as much as possible above 20%. During the Execute period, this changes however which is addressed below.

The core is to make sure to keep applying Colossus Smash when resets happen, and then consume the Shattered Defenses effect with a subsequent Mortal Strike. Outside of this, filling with either Whirlwind or Slam to trigger Tactician forms the core.

1.1.1. Deadly Calm with Soul of the Battlelord

Using the new legendary ring Soul of the Battlelord is only really recommended without the Tier 20 4-piece bonus in any situation, as Bladestorm does not cost any Rage, and is used to fill up the Battle Cry window. If you do use this legendary, In For The Kill still remains the best other talent, but you can take Focused Rage to replicate the pre-7.2.5 playstyle.

1.2. Execute Usage

Execute deals extremely high damage and refunds part of the Rage spent if your target does not die, allowing you to cast it much more frequently during the Execute phase. You should be casting Execute twice to stack the Executioner's Precision debuff to two, and then consuming those with Mortal Strike with Shattered Defenses active if possible. With Rend taken, it is not maintained during the Execute phase, and is replaced by funneling Rage into Execute casts themselves.

1. Cast Colossus Smash if Shattered Defenses is not active.
2. Cast Mortal Strike at 2 stacks of Executioner's Precision, and with Shattered Defenses active.
3. Cast Execute.
4. Cast Overpower if taken.

1.3. Opening Rotation

1. Use your Potion just before the pull.
2. Cast Charge.
3. Apply Rend if talented.
4. Cast Avatar if taken alongside Battle Cry with Colossus Smash.
5. Continue with single-target rotation.

1.4. Cooldown Rotation

1. Cast Rend if not active or less than 5 seconds remaining, if taken.
2. Cast Colossus Smash or Warbreaker before Battle Cry.
3. Cast Battle Cry.
4. Cast Bladestorm with the Tier 20 4-piece bonus.
5. Cast Colossus Smash if Shattered Defenses is not active.
6. Follow normal rotation.

The note at the top regarding Rend is to refresh it if you are about to use Battle Cry, and allow it to gain the full effect over the duration.

2. Multiple-Target Rotation

At 2-3 targets, the rotation remains the same, but switching talents to Sweeping Strikes is highly recommended. You also replace Slam with Whirlwind at all times, even without Fervor of Battle.

Against multiple targets, Arms favours using Cleave to empower Whirlwind in place of Single Target filler skills.

2.1. 4+ Target AoE

1. Cast Warbreaker.
2. Cast Bladestorm with Warbreaker active.
3. Cast Cleave.
4. Cast Whirlwind.

Try to stack all available cooldowns with Bladestorm as frequently as possible alongside the Warbreaker effect for high bursts of damage.

3. Important Notes

3.1. Tier 4 Talents

Tier 4 provides two different options when it comes to different encounter types and how you want to approach them, and picking the appropriate talent for the situation can augment your ability to react to them.

Bounding Stride provides a powerful increase to the distance you can cover with Heroic Leap uses, whilst also increasing its availability by reducing its cooldown by 15 seconds, allowing for more flexibility. Given that Heroic Leap has no restrictions, unlike Charge that requires a target, this is a great choice on high mobility encounters.

Whilst Defensive Stance does hit damage output due to it requiring Global Cooldowns to activate alongside a flat reduction to damage dealt, having a very short 10-second cooldown allows for extremely high flexibility when dealing with frequent dangerous mechanics.

3.2. Focused Rage

Although this is the most powerful talent when taking a built to complement it, it is significantly harder to capitalise on and should only be considered if you feel comfortable with the spec already. Using this wisely is important as it requires you to identify situations in which you can safely siphon off additional Rage into it, to empower future Mortal Strikes. The downside is if you over-use this, you will be unable to actively fill Global Cooldowns with Slam casts, and miss out on potential Tactician resets and damage. During your Battle Cry windows however, you are free to use this repeatedly due to the zero cost gained through Deadly Calm.

3.3. Cooldowns

Arms comes with two baseline cooldowns with variable uses in Battle Cry, for general use, and Bladestorm, for AoE situations. It also has a number of talents that either provide additional tools such as Avatar or augments to existing abilities like Deadly Calm, and stacking as many effects that scale with each other is key to pushing as much out of Arms as you can.

3.3.1. Battle Cry

Battle Cry is a short 5-second duration ability that grants a 100% increase to critical strike chance on a 1-minute cooldown. Due to its short duration coupled with its frequent availability, using it as often as possible with high damage periods is crucial to pushing high damage in short windows. This also synergises very well with Colossus Smash in single-target situations, or with Bladestorm due to them both being short duration, high impact effects. Your last uses of your cooldowns stacked up with Battle Cry should be saved for the Execute phase, as it contributes a great deal to the overall Arms output. Also note if using Avatar, you should always delay Avatar for the next Battle Cry, and not vice versa.

3.3.2. Bladestorm/Ravager

Making the most out of Bladestorm in AoE situations is a huge benefit to the versatility of the Arms toolkit. Stacking other cooldowns such as Battle Cry can create a huge surge of damage very quickly, just be aware that you cannot cast anything else during the channel. If burst AoE is required more frequently than Bladestorm would allow, consider taking Ravager instead to maximise your use, and place it just before enemies spawn, use all cooldowns currently available, and cast Whirlwind during its duration.

3.3.3. Colossus Smash and Warbreaker

Try to line up cooldowns with your Colossus Smash as frequently as possible, due to the significant damage boost during the debuff. Warbreaker is used as a filler to maintain the effect during downtime. Try to always line up with Bladestorm uses for maximum effect. Also note that, due to being a debuff on targets hit, you cannot pre-cast it before enemies spawn, and instead must actually hit targets as they reach you before Bladestorming.

4. Mastering your Arms Warrior

The notes above provide an outline for general Arms play, below are some more in depth mechanical breakdowns of concepts vital to Master if you want to squeeze out the best performance possible.

4.1. Rage Management

Arms generates Rage purely from auto-attack swings and Charge casts, and all abilities cost Rage to use, other than Colossus Smash which is free, alongside auto-attack Critical Strikes generating additional Rage. Having enough Rage to keep Mortal Strike on cooldown is important, and over-committing Rage to Slam can sometimes be punishing due to Tactician resets. Holding too much Rage however can punish you by limiting the amount of Colossus Smash resets generated, so a balance must be maintained where you are not empty but still making use of your Global Cooldowns.

4.2. Colossus Smash

The crux of the Arms specialization is Colossus Smash, with both the Tactician effect and Mastery: Colossal Might. Whilst maximising the impact of the debuff is useful, the damage that the initial strike deals on top of being free means that playing around it is not important. Instead keep it on cooldown for a free, high damage hit as frequently as available to allow room for extra resets will give the most benefit to your output. Do make sure however to expend your Shattered Defenses buff before re-casting it.

4.3. Movement and Mobility

Warriors have a great deal 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 intelligent use of these is crucial, as downtime is extremely detrimental to the Arms rotation, as losing auto-attack swings has a severe impact on Rage available, and limits opportunities to reset Colossus Smash. Consider talents such as Double Time and Bounding Stride if an encounter requires higher than usual movement.

4.4. Advanced: Heroic Charge

A small optimisation you can do is use Heroic Leap in conjunction with Charge to get back to your target for a surge of free Rage. This can also be done by simply running out of range, but is much less efficient. This should however be limited to use only during Colossus Smash downtime with no short term damage buffs active, and when under 50 Rage just before an important burn phase.

4.5. Defense

Arm's primary tool for survivability comes in the form of Die by the Sword, reducing all damage taken by 30% and increasing Parry chance by 100% for 8 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. Whilst this has a very high cooldown, it can be very impactful if used correctly. If you feel your survivability does not cover your needs however in encounters, consider taking Defensive Stance if the damage dealt penalty is not a concern.

Warriors also have access to Commanding Shout, granting all party and raid members 15% increased maximum health for 10 seconds, on a 3 minute cooldown. This is a great additional tool for not only your defense but your group as well, and should be used appropriately to co-ordinate additional survivability against key mechanics.

5. Tier 19 Set Bonuses

Arms Tier 19 set bonuses are very powerful, the 2-piece set bonus is quite marginal due to the relatively low amount of Critical Strike available to Arms, but the 4-piece has a solid impact increasing the Battle Cry window which can be powerful.

• 2-piece: Mortal Strike and Execute Critical Strikes have a 10% chance to reset the cooldown of Colossus Smash.
• 4-piece: Increases the duration of your Battle Cry effect by 1 second.

The 2-piece again is inconsequential and will not increase your output significantly. The 4-piece has been reduced by 1 second with Patch 7.2.5, and due to the new Tier 20 4-piece bonus being easier to obtain and having more versatility, is not desirable to maintain in Tomb of Sargeras.

5.1. Tier 19 Trinket optimization

Following Patch 7.2.5 Draught of Souls has been nerfed significantly for Arms, and is no longer worth playing around since it is advised to not equip it.

Convergence of Fates can have some fringe uses on encounters that require additional Battle Cry uses.

6. Tier 20 Set Bonuses

Arms Tier 20 set bonuses both are focused around boosting Bladestorm and bringing it into the single-target rotation, and powerful in tandem. You should aim to acquire the 4-piece early due to its uses in filling up the Arms rotation and being effective in AoE.

• 2-piece: Colossus Smash reduces the cooldown of Bladestorm by 3 seconds (2 for Ravager)
• 4-piece: Bladestorm causes you to automatically cast Mortal Strike 3 times (2 for Ravager) over its duration to nearby enemies.

The 2-piece bonus heavily leans toward Bladestorm over Ravager, as the cooldown reduction has no benefit for Ravager, due to it desyncing it from Battle Cry.

The 4-piece rounds out the bonuses with an effect that opens up using Bladestorm during your Battle Cry in single-target, dealing additional burst damage over its course and is useful.

6.1. Tier 20 Trinket Optimization

Unstable Arcanocrystal and any Mastery stat stick are ideally the most desirable options to aim for if you have access to high item level versions. However, Tomb provides some unusual options that can still be considered.

Specter of Betrayal theoretically provides the highest raw damage, but it has such a significant requirement with predictive enemy positioning that it is simply not worth the effect in many cases. This also clashes a lot with the cooldown reduction from either Anger Management or Convergence of Fates.

7. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 28 Aug. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
• 18 Jun. 2017: Updated to reflect the importance of Rend in some situations, now that Fervor of Battle is less dominant.
• 16 Jun. 2017: Updated notes for T20 4-piece bonus following nerf.
• 14 Jun. 2017: Updated with significant changes for 7.2.5, including rotational alterations and notes on Tier 20.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 29 Jan. 2017: Updated for Draught of Souls being on the GCD.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Removed standard rotation and changed to Focused Rage as the standard. Added Tier and Trinket sections for Nighthold.
• 16 Nov. 2016: Improved wording in many places.
• 30 Sep. 2016: Rotation and Execute usage update.
• 24 Sep. 2016: Colossus Smash update, following hotfixes.
• 02 Sep. 2016: Added a clarification to the single-target rotation regarding Warbreaker. It should be cast if Colossus Smash is absent from the target.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 21 Jul. 2016: Updated mentions of Fervor of Battle to reflect the fact that it is now the recommended Level 45 talent.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Fixed Tier 18 Set Bonuses section.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.