Arms Warrior PvP Talents and Builds (Shadowlands / 9.2)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as an Arms Warrior and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Arms Warrior PvP Guide.
Changes to the Build in Patch 9.2
Despite the nerf to Death Sentence, it is still recommended to pick up
this PvP talent, as you can still use it to nearly the same effectiveness if you manage
your mobility cooldowns well.
Cosmic Gladiator's Echoing Resolve has brought forth a new meta of casters
being very hard to crowd control effectively. Because of this,
Double Time
and
Impending Victory have gained value and are viable choices into these
matchups.
Regular Talents for Arms Warriors
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.
Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
Sudden Death is the best choice in this tier, because
of the raw power
Execute and
Condemn have at the moment.
Skullsplitter and
War Machine both offer additional Rage,
but do not compete with the burst potential of
Sudden Death.
Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents
Storm Bolt gives warrior a much-needed on-demand ranged stun, which
is incredibly powerful both offensively and defensively.
Storm Bolt is a
big win condition for the Warrior's team offensively, and is ideal for stopping
enemy attempts to kill you or your teammates.
Double Time is a very niche talent, which should only be used vs
casters that are very difficult to catch up to in 2v2. A good example is
Frost Mage
where it can be more beneficial to play with extra
mobility, should you lack spells like
Blessing of Freedom on your team.
Impending Victory help to cover up Arms' lack of self healing, but
cannot compare to the power of having an on-demand stun. When used well,
Storm Bolt can prevent more damage than
Impending Victory can
heal back, and also has its offensive value.
The addition of Cosmic Gladiator's Echoing Resolve means you cannot always
make the best use of
Storm Bolt, and it can be better to drop it for one
of the other choices as you see fit.
Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents
Massacre amplifies your already-incredible finishing power by
letting you
Execute on a higher threshold. This is a very strong talent,
especially since
Execute can sometimes do more damage than 35% of a
player's health.
Rend is another good choice in this tier. This DoT deals a decent
amount of damage and amplifies your critical damage against affected targets.
This bonus critical damage is additive and not multiplicative, meaning if you have
200% critical damage, it will add up to 210% critical damage.
Rend does a strong amount of consistent damage, and will provide more throughput
than
Massacre will, at the cost of having a more difficult time closing
out games.
Fervor of Battle is not viable, as you generally do not want to spend
too much Rage on fillers in PvP, and this talent encourages that.
Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents
Defensive Stance took a beating in Patch 9.2, but is generally still the
best choice in this row. Despite the 20% reduction to damage dealt it applies to you in
PvP, this talent is still the best for its defensive applications. Mastering when to
be in what stance is the key to optimizing the momentum of Arms Warrior.
Bounding Stride can be good to pick up against targets that are difficult
to reach, or have mobility cooldowns you can match with the reduced cooldown. As an
Arms Warrior, your uptime on targets is vital and generally outweighs having to sustain
a bit more damage, if it means the difference between you doing drastically less damage or not.
Second Wind provides you no benefit at all, as you will be spending the
majority of the time taking damage
Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents
Warbreaker is the best choice in this tier, replacing
Colossus Smash to apply the same effect in an AoE around you. This is
incredibly strong in conjunction with
Bladestorm,
Spear of Bastion and
Ancient Aftershock for strong burst AoE.
Collateral Damage offers less burst AoE than
Warbreaker
Cleave is not viable because of the heavily reduced damage of your
Mastery: Deep Wounds bleed this season, and your other AoE cooldowns apply
the effects of your Mastery on their own.
Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents
Avatar is the strongest because of the root and snare break, as well
as the increased burst damage it provides. As the current meta favors burst and
strong one shots, this talent has more value than the sustained DPS of
In For The Kill
Deadly Calm favors
Condemn the most, but is not a
very consistent or powerful option.
Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents
Dreadnaught is a major increase to your damage output and filler rotation.
This is in general your main talent on this row, and should be used nearly always.
Anger Management provides less consistent
damage than
Dreadnaught, and its only application is to be able to reduce
Warbreaker's cooldown below that of enemy
Disarm effects.
Alternatively, you can combine this talent with
Storm of Destruction and
Unhinged for high pressure
Bladestorm builds, but this does
not beat out
Dreadnaught competitively.
There is no reason to play Ravager, it is easy to avoid and you
give up the CC immunity of
Bladestorm.
PvP Talents for Arms Warriors
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain matchups than others.
Mandatory PvP Talents
Sharpen Blade is the only mandatory talent. This ability is essential
for landing killing blows and is a great way to quickly drain Mana from the
enemy healer.
Be sure to not use this ability when the enemy is at full health, but rather as a followup to a CC chain, or when you suspect the enemy healer is going to use bigger healing cooldowns or abilities.
Death Sentence is incredibly powerful for Venthyr Arms
Warriors, but remains really strong for non-Venthyr. The ability received a
massive buff coming into Shadowlands by allowing it to once again work with
Massacre and
Sudden Death. This ability allows you a
great deal of mobility, and allows you to hold on to
Charge and
Heroic Leap in many cases.
Despite the 6-second cooldown added to this ability in Patch 9.2, it is still an incredibly strong ability.
Situational PvP Talents
Storm of Destruction reduces the cooldown of your
Bladestorm to 1 minute, which is great to make it line up with
Spear of Bastion and makes the
Legendary effect
Unhinged even deadlier. Use this talent vs compositions where you do
not need to play overly defensive or want the shorter cooldown for root breaks.
Alternatively, you can switch out
Death Sentence for this talent against
melee cleaves that have no means of running away from you, such as Warrior +
Enhancement Shaman or Warrior + Retribution Paladin.
War Banner is incredibly powerful vs teams with a lot of crowd
control, like RMP (Rogue/Mage/Priest) or Jungle Cleave (Feral Druid/Hunter/Priest).
Timed correctly, this ability alone can completely ruin the enemy team's setup
and cooldowns. In Patch 9.2, this ability now also works on
Disarm, and
has made it so it is a lot more beneficial to use this ability offensively as well
to cover your major offensive cooldowns such as
Warbreaker.
Master and Commander received nerfs in the last season, and is at
present not worth considering in an arena environment as it offers less
defensive power than the other PvP talents. This PvP talent really shines in the
Rated Battleground bracket, and you should consider bringing it with you there.
Master and Commander also benefits from
Inspiring Presence.
Disarm has a short cooldown and can completely ruin the damage of
weapon-based classes like
Frost Death Knight or
Subtlety Rogue. This ability can
even be used offensively vs specializations that require weapons for their
defensives, such as stopping another Arms Warrior from using
Die by the Sword or a Death Knight from using
Death Strike
Duel is a powerful alternative vs enemies that cannot be CC'd with
Disarm. Good times to pick this talent are vs
Retribution Paladins,
Destruction Warlocks, and
Feral Druids.
Demolition was buffed in Patch 9.1 to do even further
damage to shields. Big shields have made a return this season through
Fleshcraft. This talent is recommended to pick up against Warlocks for
their
Dark Pact and Mistweaver Monks for their
Life Cocoon.
Changelog
- 09 Apr. 2022: Updated to reflect the changing meta.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Page reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 08 Nov. 2021: Page reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
- 13 Oct. 2021: Adjusted recommended talents.
- 02 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 16 May 2021: Updated Mandatory PvP Talents.
- 27 Dec. 2020: Rewritten by Karanze for Shadowlands Season 1
- 29 Nov. 2020: Removed outdated Traits and Essences.
- 26 Oct. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
This guide has been written by Karanze, an experienced Gladiator Warrior player who has been a Stormforged/trusted member in the popular Warrior class discord Skyhold. You can watch his stream on Twitch.
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