Arms Warrior DPS Stat Priority — Shadowlands 9.2
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 — Shadowlands 9.2.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our TBC 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:
- 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.
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.
Critical Strikes double the damage of attacks and abilities, as well as increasing the Rage generated by autoattack swings by 30%.
Mastery increases the damage taken debuff Deep Wounds, which is
applied and maintained by using
Mortal Strike,
Colossus Smash,
Bladestorm,
Warbreaker,
Cleave, and
Ravager.
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
- 21 Feb. 2022: Page reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 30 Jan. 2021: Updated and reworded priorities to be more clear about the relationship between Crit and Haste.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated stat priorities and descriptions.
- 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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