Arms Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.0.5

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.

• Skullsplitter
• Fervor of Battle
• Rend
• Sudden Death
• Warbreaker
• Avatar
• Deadly Calm
• Ravager

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.
12. Cast Whirlwind.
13. Cast Slam.

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 deals 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 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 Mortal Strike as needed to maintain Deep Wounds.
9. Cast Overpower as a free filler.
10. Cast Execute as often as possible to fill GCDs.

Mortal Strike is only used to maintain Deep Wounds, although since Colossus Smash and Bladestorm also apply it, you will not have to use it on cooldown. Overpower continues to be used regardless, to take advantage of the zero Rage cost.

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 Bladestorm during the Colossus Smash debuff.
9. Cast Deadly Calm.
10. Cast Cleave to maintain Deep Wounds.
11. Cast Execute.
12. Cast Overpower.
13. Cast Mortal Strike.
14. Cast Slam during Sweeping Strikes.
15. 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 Bladestorm during the Colossus Smash debuff.
8. Cast Deadly Calm.
9. Cast Cleave for damage and to maintain Deep Wounds.
10. Cast Execute during Sweeping Strikes.
11. Cast Whirlwind during Colossus Smash.
12. Cast Overpower.
13. 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:

• When using Signet of Tormented Kings, ensure your cooldowns Avatar and Bladestorm are desynced enough to not waste potential procs.
• When using Judgment of the Arbiter with a partner also wearing the effect, the AoE projectile will bounce between Judgment wearing players. This means proper positioning is key to ensure that the wave of damage actually hits the targets you are in combat with.

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.

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.