Arms Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.1.5

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, though the default is optimized for Night Fae.

Covenant	Talents
Night Fae	Skullsplitter
Necrolord	Fervor of Battle
Kyrian	Rend
Venthyr	Sudden Death
	Warbreaker
	Avatar
	Deadly Calm
	Dreadnaught
	Ravager

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 Conqueror's Banner when allies are in position to be buffed.
2. Cast Rend if less than 4 seconds remains on the debuff, outside of Colossus Smash.
3. Cast Avatar up to 8 seconds prior to Colossus Smash.
4. Cast Ravager immediately prior to Colossus Smash.
5. Cast Warbreaker.
6. Cast Colossus Smash.
7. Cast Overpower while you have two charges off the ability off cooldown.
8. Cast Mortal Strike with two stacks of the Overpower buff, with the Battlelord buff, or with the Enduring Blow Legendary equipped.
9. Cast Ancient Aftershock during the Colossus Smash debuff.
10. Cast Spear of Bastion during the Colossus Smash debuff.
11. Cast Execute with Sudden Death proc.
12. Cast Skullsplitter when less than 60 Rage, and Bladestorm is not about to be used.
13. Cast Bladestorm below 30 Rage.
14. Cast Deadly Calm off the GCD.
15. Cast Overpower for free damage and to buff Mortal Strike.
16. Cast Mortal Strike on cooldown for damage and to maintain Deep Wounds.
17. Cast Condemn while the target is above 80% health.
18. Cast Whirlwind as a filler.
19. Cast Slam as a filler.

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

Execute and Condemn deal very high damage and refunds 30% of the Rage spent if the target does not die, helping to maintain the high Rage cost. It will become the main Rage spender once the target drops below 20% health, or 35% with Massacre talented.

1. Cast Deadly Calm.
2. Cast Conqueror's Banner when allies are in position to be buffed.
3. Cast Avatar up to 8 seconds prior to Colossus Smash.
4. Cast Ravager immediately prior to Colossus Smash.
5. Cast Rend if less than 4 seconds remains, outside of Colossus Smash.
6. Cast Warbreaker.
7. Cast Colossus Smash.
8. Cast Overpower while you have two charges off the ability off cooldown.
9. Cast Mortal Strike with two stacks of the Overpower buff, with the Battlelord buff, or with the Enduring Blow Legendary equipped.
10. Cast Ancient Aftershock during the Colossus Smash debuff.
11. Cast Spear of Bastion during the Colossus Smash debuff.
12. Cast Skullsplitter when less than 55 Rage.
13. Cast Bladestorm when under 50 Rage.
14. Cast Overpower as a free filler.
15. Cast Condemn as the primary Rage spender.
16. Cast Execute as the primary Rage spender.

Mortal Strike now has a more prominent place in the rotation aside from maintaining Deep Wounds, particularly alongside the Enduring Blow or Battlelord legendaries. Overpower continues to be used regardless, to take advantage of the zero Rage cost.

The 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 due Bladestorm generating plenty of Rage.

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

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.

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 Ancient Aftershock during the Colossus Smash debuff.
9. Cast Spear of Bastion during the Colossus Smash debuff.
10. Cast Bladestorm during the Colossus Smash debuff.
11. Cast Deadly Calm.
12. Cast Cleave to maintain Deep Wounds.
13. Cast Execute.
14. Cast Overpower.
15. Cast Mortal Strike.
16. Cast Slam during Sweeping Strikes.
17. Cast Whirlwind.

Unless solely focused on burst AoE with Bladestorm, Cleave is the priority attack in order to maintain Deep Wounds on multiple 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 Ancient Aftershock during the Colossus Smash debuff.
8. Cast Spear of Bastion during the Colossus Smash debuff.
9. Cast Bladestorm during the Colossus Smash debuff.
10. Cast Deadly Calm.
11. Cast Cleave for damage and to maintain Deep Wounds.
12. Cast Execute during Sweeping Strikes.
13. Cast Whirlwind during Colossus Smash.
14. Cast Overpower.
15. 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.

Arms only has two baseline and one talented cooldowns, which take little effort to align, but the more imprortant part is ensuring that Avatar ad Bladestorm are used effectively when also making use of Signet of Tormented Kings, as the random proc can come out at inopportune times, such as proccing Bladestorm before getting in range of the enemy.

Maintained by Mortal Strike, Colossus Smash, Bladestorm, Ravager, 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 12 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.

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.

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

• Enduring Blow and Battlelord both emphasize the use of Mortal Strike.
• Glory emphasizes the use of Conqueror's Banner for allies instead of yourself, making it paramount to ensure that it is aligned with their cooldowns moreso than your own. The closest allies are always buffed, but you do not need to remain nearby once the buff has been applied.
• Signet of Tormented Kings can change your approach significantly, forcing you to ensure that the Colossus Smash debuff is applied before casting Avatar rather than after it, and potentially getting in the way of using Ancient Aftershock or Spear of Bastion.

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.

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.

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.

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 the rotation. The talents Double Time and Bounding Stride are particularly useful in any encounter which 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. 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.

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, although 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 have a tremendous effect on your performance, helping you track important buffs, debuffs, and cooldowns. Since this is a broad topic, we made a page dedicated to it.