Arms Warrior DPS Stat Priority — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will find out the optimal stat priority for your Arms Warrior. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations. Our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Arms Warrior stat priority.
The Basics of Stats for Arms Warrior
Arms Warriors primarily value item level for Strength and Critical Strike, followed by Haste, Mastery, and Versatility. The value of Haste fluctuates greatly depending on how much of it you have, being worth relatively little with low Crit, and a great deal in the 20-30% range, becoming more important to stack as you gain more Rage to spend on abilities. Therefore, the stat priority for Arms Warrior is typically:
- Strength;
- Critical Strike;
- Haste;
- Mastery;
- Versatility.
These sample stat weights represent the general relationship of secondary stats compared to one point of strength, although as usual, individual results may vary. It is highly recommended that you regularly sim your own gear upgrades and/or generate personalized stat weights.

While you can use these weights to math out the value and compare individual items by hand, in-game addons such as Pawn will do so automatically.
Getting a Better Understanding
Statistics
Strength is your primary stat, found on plate armor, weapons and trinkets. It provides Attack Power, which contributes to the damage of all abilities and autoattacks.
Critical Strikes normally double the damage of attacks and abilities, as
well as increasing the Rage generated by autoattack swings by 30%. Thanks to
Impale and more specific talents such as
Sharpened Blades and
Cruel Strikes, the damage of crits is increased beyond the normal +100%
multiplier.
Haste compresses the rotation, reducing the time between the autoattack
swings, the global cooldown, and the cooldown of the rotational abilities
Mortal Strike,
Skullsplitter, and
Cleave, as well as the speed at which
Bladestorm,
Ravager,
Rend, and
Deep Wounds deal damage. It is worth a little more in Dragonflight
than it was in Shadowlands, thanks to the increased Rage economy enabling more
frequent spending and less empty GCDs, though it still typically falls behind
Critical Strike.
Mastery increases the damage taken debuff Deep Wounds, which is
applied and maintained by using
Mortal Strike,
Colossus Smash,
Bladestorm,
Warbreaker,
Cleave, and
Ravager. This typically had lower value in
multitarget, but has increased thanks to the ease of using
Cleave to
maintain the debuff.
Versatility provides a flat increase to damage dealt and reduces damage taken by half as much.
Breakpoints
Although there are various breakpoints which allow additional global
cooldowns during Colossus Smash, Haste remains a consistently
strong stat due to its influence on the cooldown and DoT tick rate of Arms'
abilities. The earliest breakpoint is around 20%, while the later breakpoint
is around 50% and out of reach with regular gearing.
Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
The gems, enchants, and consumables you will use are directly derived from your stat priority and you can find our advice on this topic in our dedicated page.
Racial Bonuses for Arms Warrior
Racial bonuses have, as a whole, very minimal impact for Arms; anything within 1% of one another is typically considered trivial, and a small enough margin that our recommendation is to simply play what you enjoy the most.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight 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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