Fury Warrior DPS Guide — The War Within (11.1.7)

Unfortunately, there are no Warrior specific changes in Patch 11.1.7, though Recuperate has been added as an out of combat healing option.

Although not announced in the Patch 11.1.5 development notes, an undocumented buff dramatically increasing the damage of Wrecking Throw. Although it seldom has use in PvE content, this opens up a handful of new opportunities, while also coming in as a significant buff in PvP.

• Wrecking Throw damage has been increased by 600%.

With the introduction of a new Season and Raid tier, Fury Warriors recieved significant tuning across most of their core rotational abilities. Additionally, the Class Talent Tree has undergone a few changes to increase survivability and support better choices in the bottom section of the tree.

• Overwhelming Rage is now a single point talent, still increasing maximum Rage by a 30.
• Reinforced Plates is now a two point talent, and now increases stamina by 5% per point.
• Endurance Training has been removed.
• Dual Wield is now a two point talent, increasing damage by 3% and movement speed by 2% per point. It has also swapped positions with Cruel Strikes, now pathing into Dragon Roar.
• Thunderous Words increased bleed damage has been reduced from 30->25%.
• Titan's Torment has been redesigned, now reducing the Rage cost of Rampage and cooldown of Bloodthirst while Avatar is active.
• Reckless Abandon has been redesigned, now allowing Bloodbath and Crushing Blow to be useable as long as Recklessness is active. Bloodbath now leaves an extendable DoT and Crushing Blow deals increased critical strike damage.
• Bloodthirst, Raging Blow, Rampage, Execute, Whirlwind, Onslaught, and Odyn's Fury damage have all been increased by 15-50%.
• Imminent Demise now requires Sudden Death to be talented.
• Strength of the Mountain bonus Bloodthirst and Rampage reduced from 30->25%.
• Thunder Blast damage increased by 14%.

The changes in Patch 11.0.5 had two main objectives: reducing the instant AoE burst potential when damaging a high number of targets to reduce the dominance of Warriors compared to other classes in certain raid encounters, and buffing baseline abilities to increase the value of Anger Management compared to Reckless Abandon.

While Warrior AoE performance dropped on multitarget encounters, the AoE nerfs are less impactful in Mythic+ due to less common large pulls. The single target changes are largely neutral; seldom used Anger Management builds have become much more competitive, though Reckless Abandon ones continue to perform better in most content.

• Champion's Spear icon has been updated.
• Thunderous Roar now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets (was 8). This does not apply to the DoT damage.
• Odyn's Fury now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets (was 8). Note that this does apply to the DoT damage.
• Raging Blow damage increased by 25%. This does not affect Reckless Abandon’s Crushing Blow.
• Bloodthirst damage increased by 30%. This change does not affect Reckless Abandon’s Bloodbath.
• Crushing Force now increases Bloodthirst critical strike damage by 5/10% (was critical strike chance by 2/4%).
• Overwhelming Blades now stacks up to 10 times (was 12).

On October 25th, Fury Warriors were buffed significantly via hotfix, increasing average power by around 6% across the board.

• Execute damage increased by 5%.
• Bloodthirst damage increased by 20%.
• Bloodbath damage increased by 20%.
• Rampage damage increased by 10%.
• Lightning Strike damage increased by 30%.
• Reap the Storm damage increased by 25%.
• Slayer's Strike damage increased by 15%.

Fury Warrior cooldown uptime has been dramatically reduced in The War Within, and while the actual speed of gameplay is unaffected, its overall Rage generation and frequency of Rampage casts has gone down. Whether this is good or bad is largely a matter of opinion, as it creates more room for other buttons in the rotation.

The Warrior Class Tree has received a moderate rework, rearranging the pathing of several talents and removing some of the less desirable ones outright. Overall, the tree has become smaller and more streamlined, with focus on improving access to important crowd control and early leveling abilities, most notably relocating Shockwave to the middle of the tree. Below, you can see some of the most important changes that will affect your gameplay, decision-making, and power in The War Within.

• Defensive Stance is now automatically unlocked.
• Berserker Rage is now automatically learned at level 12.
• Titanic Throw, Sonic Boom, Blood and Thunder, and Furious Blows have been removed.
• Second Wind now restores health while below 35%.
• Honed Reflexes now reduces the cooldown of most defensive and utility cooldowns by 5%.
• Champion's Might now affects targets hit by Spear, instead of the player standing inside it.
• Thunderous Words has been buffed from 15 to 30%, but only increases the damage targets take from bleeds during its effect.
• Crushing Force now affects Bloodthirst instead of Slam.
• Endurance Training has gained a second point.

The Fury Warrior Spec Tree has undergone very minor change, retaining the same general pathing, though condensing and reworking a few of its talents. Several abilities have received tuning or minor adjustments, with the major highlights detailed below.

• Improved Enrage is now called Frenzied Enrage and now shares a choice node with a new talent: Powerful Enrage.
• Raging Armaments, Storm of Swords, and Annihilator have been removed.
• Frenzied Flurry has been baked into Single-Minded Fury, making that option a stronger and cheaper investment, though ultimately still weaker than using two-handed weapons.
• Bloodcraze now triggers from Raging Blow instead of Bloodthirst.
• Deft Experience now extends the current duration of Enrage by 0.5 seconds per point when Bloodthirst is used.
• Swift Strikes now increases Bloodthirst Rage generation in addition to Raging Blow.
• Tenderize no longer increases the duration of Enrage or triggers Unbridled Ferocity.
• Bladestorm is now a choice with Ravager.
• Hurricane has been replaced by Unhinged.
• Reckless Abandon now empowers one cast of Bloodthirst and Raging Blow instead of one or the other.
• Unbridled Ferocity no longer triggers from Onslaught and its chance to trigger has been reduced to 6%.