Arms Warrior DPS Spell Summary — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as an Arms Warrior in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic DPS Warrior spells.
Spell Summary of Arms Warrior
If you are new to Arms, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. In this section, we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for, and how they interact with each other. If you have prior experience with Arms or are already comfortable with the spec in Shadowlands, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.
Unlocking Abilities
Note that this page simply lists all the different abilities, assuming you are at max level. If you are leveling, check out our dedicated Warrior Leveling page, which has detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.
Main Resource for Arms Warrior
Warriors use a unique resource called Rage, which works very similar to Hunter Focus and Rogue Energy, except Rage does not regenerate on its own. It always starts at zero and is built up during combat through auto attacks and certain abilty casts, with important damaging abilities consuming the resource. Outside of combat, Rage slowly depreciatates back down to zero.
Warrior Rage has a default maximum capacity of 100,
although this can be modified by unique talents. While the resource is only
generated in combat, there are certain abilities such as Charge
which will help jumpstart that flow of incoming Rage, while other talents and
abilities can increase your Rage generation further.
As a general rule, you should want to both avoid Rage starving or overcapping the resource, so that you do not find yourself in situations where you are either unable to cast important abilities on cooldown, or waste resource generation due to maximum capacity.
Rage is the Warrior resource, generated through autoattacks and a select
few abilities. It is used to fuel nearly all of your special attacks, including
Mortal Strike and
Execute, so managing it
effectively is vital to maintaining a stable rotation.
For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.
Basic Abilities of an Arms Warrior
These are the innate skills that are available regardless of talents, which form the foundation of the specialization's gameplay.
Mortal Strike is the center-point of Arms gameplay, inflicting
high damage, the
Deep Wounds debuff, and synergizing with
Overpower.
Overpower's main purpose is in buffing
Mortal Strike and
Cleave,
but it also serves an important purpose in filling global cooldowns with a free
attack, delaying Rage expenditure and giving time for auto-attacks to generate
more. The cooldown is reset by
Tactician, adding a dynamic flow to
the rotation.
Execute serves as the most powerful Rage spender, normally only
usable on targets under 20% health. It is the main ability used once the enemy
enters a weakened state, with the Rage refund mechanic helping maintain the high
Rage cost until the target is defeated.
Slam is your main filler, typically used only when nothing else
is available, giving it an important role in Rage management. Recognizing when to
use it and when to save that Rage for more important abilities is a crucial
part of playing Arms effectively.
Whirlwind primarily fills the multi-target role, dealing low
damage, but to all nearby targets instead of only one or two, although with
Fervor of Battle talented, it also replaces
Slam as the main
filler. Like Slam, knowing when and when not to use this is paramount to
managing Rage and maintaining a smooth rotation.
Shield Slam is a filler ability which requires wearing a Shield.
While it has no Rage cost, it makes a rather poor filler and should best be
avoided in the vast majority of cases.
Important Procs for an Arms Warrior
Tactician grants a 1.40% chance per Rage spent to reset the
cooldown of
Overpower. This can trigger from any Rage spending
ability, allowing you to both fill more global cooldowns with a free attack and
buff
Mortal Strike more often.
Offensive Cooldowns of an Arms Warrior
Bladestorm deals massive damage and inflicts
Deep Wounds on single and against multiple targets. Paired with
Colossus Smash it can be a devastating ability, which is both free
and allows you to continue autoattacking, banking Rage for follow-up attacks.
Colossus Smash is a high damage offensive cooldown which causes
the target to take increased damage, creating a burst window that serves as the
linchpin of Arms' damage. Anticipating its cooldown and saving Rage can greatly
improve your ability to fill global cooldowns and overall output during the
debuff.
Sweeping Strikes is a secondary cooldown which enables two target
damage. Most importantly, it also causes your attacks to inflict any debuffs
on both targets, making it easier to maintain bleeds and create burst windows.
Defensive Cooldowns of an Arms Warrior
Die by the Sword is the primary defensive ability, reducing damage
taken and parrying all frontal melee abilities for a short time. Although it
does not make you immune to all damage, it can be a very powerful tool when
taking aggro and tanking powerful enemies.
Ignore Pain absorbs damage taken, albeit with a notable Rage cost
which prohibits using it too frequently. Still, it serves an important
purpose in high damage situations, as when used correctly in combination with
other defensive abilities, it can allow the Warrior to survive great bursts
of incoming damage.
Spell Reflection is a very powerful defensive ability which either
reduces spell damage taken, or reflects a spell outright, effectively
immuning the effect and dealing damage back to the target. Due to having no
cost and a low cooldown, it is incredibly effective and should be used as
frequently as possible.
Rallying Cry is a raid-wide cooldown which increases current and
maximum health for a short time, very useful for mitigating incoming raid-wide
damage, although it can also be used as a personal cooldown when the need
arises.
Shield Block blocks incoming attacks at the expense of requiring a
Shield, which significantly reduces offensive output. Because only direct
Physical attacks can be blocked, however, it is rarely worth using outside of
some PvP situations.
Mobility Abilities of Arms Warrior
Charge is a combat initiator and mobility tool, which generates
Rage to help enable the rotation and roots the target to prevent escape.
Use it to start combat, stay on target, and close gaps whenever necessary.
Intervene fills a similar role as Charge, except targeting allies,
and intercepting attacks against them rather than generating Rage.
Heroic Leap is a targeted movement ability which sends the Warrior
through the air, landing in the selected space. A very useful ability for
getting into or out of trouble, it does not require a target, making it much
more flexible than Charge or Intervene. Keep in mind, however, that it is not a
teleport or blink spell, which means you can still take damage from passing
through enemy spell effects.
Additional Utility Spells of Arms Warrior
Hamstring is the primary snare, reducing the targets movement
speed. Because it has a Rage cost, it does come at the cost of damage,
although the benefits of keeping a target within reach typically outweigh the
drawbacks.
Piercing Howl is the AoE version of Hamstring, trading out the
Rage cost in favor of a cooldown.
Shattering Throw is mainly used to break immunities in PvP, but
has some niche PvE applications as well, particularly due to the bonus damage
against absorption shields, which are fairly common. The cast time does pause
the rotation though, so care should be taken to use it at the right time.
Taunt forces the target to focus their attacks on you. While that
is not something you normally want happening as a DPS player, it can be
beneficial in a variety of situations, even if it is just used to pull
enemies in from range.
Challenging Shout is an AoE taunt on a longer cooldown. While it
is not something which will be used regularly, it can be used to save dungeon
groups from wipes, especially when combined with
Die by the Sword to
parry incoming attacks.
Talented DPS Abilities of Arms Warrior
Skullsplitter is one of the few Rage generating abilities, making it
very useful for gaining resources on-demand when you actually need them.
Impending Victory replaces
Victory Rush with a more reliable
heal that does not require killing a target first. As Arms has very few
self-healing abilities, it can be very useful in high damage situations,
although it does compete with the very strong talent
Double Time.
Storm Bolt is a ranged stun, very useful for PvP or Mythic+,
although it does not see a whole lot of use outside of those situations.
Rend is a maintenance DoT which also increases the targets
critical strike damage taken. Useful in high crit builds or for adding damage
pressure in PvP, but the Rage cost makes it prohibitive to keep up on more
than a couple targets at a time.
Warbreaker replaces
Colossus Smash with an AoE version,
which also inflicts
Deep Wounds. The go-to talent for burst AoE, as
it stacks very nicely with
Bladestorm.
Cleave is the opposite of Warbreaker, adding a multi-target filler
which essentially takes the place of
Mortal Strike in maintaining
Deep Wounds and benefitting from
Overpower. It is the most
reliable way of maintaining the mastery debuff against multiple targets,
making it the best choice in those situations.
Avatar adds another cooldown to the rotation, which also
generates some extra Rage when used. Good for layering burst AoE or removing
roots and snares in PvP.
Deadly Calm is another cooldown which allows the Warrior to use
four Rage spending abilities for free, while also passively increasing the
maximum amount of Rage to 130.
Ravager replaces
Bladestorm with a ground targeted
version. While typically less useful than Bladestorm itself, it deals damage
while also allowing you to use other abilities at the same time, which can be
useful in burst situations.
For more information on the best combination of talents and how to use them, please read our talent page.
Changelog
- 23 Nov. 2020: Added Shield Slam, Shield Block, Taunt, and Challenging Shout.
- 19 Oct. 2020: Added Rallying Cry.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Warrior Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Archimtiros, Warrior class theorycrafter and SimulationCraft developer who has been writing class guides for more than a decade. You can follow him on Twitter or see more of his day to day work in Skyhold, the Warrior Discord.
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