Warrior PvE Specialization Guides

The Arms Specialization is the 2-handed weapon-wielding melee damage-dealer of the Warrior Class in World of Warcraft Classic Wrath of the Lich King. They have good single-target and multi-target damage, and some of the best 2-target Cleave damage in the game. They provide the Trauma and Blood Frenzy debuffs on targets that aids with other physical damage dealers and classes that apply bleeds.

At the beginning of the expansion, their performance is excellent, and they maintain moderate damage later on as well. But other classes' damage increases much more as there is access to better gear. In the later phases of WoW WotLK Classic, Fury becomes the go-to spec for DPS Warriors as more Armor Penetration and Crit Rating becomes available.

The Races that are preferred for Arms Warriors are Draenei for the Alliance and Orc for the Horde.

• Draenei provide an extra 1% hit rating with Heroic Presence. Humans do provide Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization but Arms prefers Axes, so the benefit provided here is little.
• Orc provides Axe Specialization and Blood Fury which both have a great positive impact on overall DPS.

Best Talent Build For Arms Warrior

The talent build for Arms Warriors that will be used for all of Wrath Classic is shown in the image below.

Variations

• In Tier 9, as more stats are found on better gear players will want to remove 1 point from Anger Management and 1 point from Weapon Mastery to place both into Improved Mortal Strike.

Best Arms Warrior Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Rending is a great boost to bleed damage and helps with managing the Bleed effect from Rend effect. Glyph of Heroic Strike helps with rage generation. And Glyph of Execution is a flat damage boost to Execute.

• Variation: For Cleave fights, replace Glyph of Heroic Strike with Glyph of Cleaving.
• Variation: For the Improved Mortal Strike Build, replace Glyph of Execution with Glyph of Mortal Strike.

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Thunder Clap increases range and can improve AoE damage. Glyph of Bloodrage provides a minor benefit to help mitigate damage.

The third Minor Glyph is often a choice between the following:

• Glyph of Command or Glyph of Battle depending on which buff is needed.
• Glyph of Charge for slightly improved Gap Closing capabilities.

Stat Priority For Arms Warrior

The biggest contributor to Arms Warrior damage is the DPS on the Main Hand Weapon. In general, when choosing between pieces of gear it's usually better to go for the item with a higher item level as it will have more stats overall. There are Hit Rating and Expertise caps that are also important to reach, and to a lesser extent Armor Penetration as well.

1. Hit Rating (up to 8% Cap*)
2. Strength
3. Armor Penetration/Critical Strike Rating
4. Expertise (up to 6.5% Cap*)
5. Agility
6. Haste Rating
7. Attack Power

1Strength provides 2Attack Power and 1 Agility provides 2 Armor. 62.5 Agility will increase the Critical Strike Chance by 1%. Critical Strike Rating is important to generate more rage and it benefits the Impale Talent and Critical Hits also apply Deep Wounds. Armor Penetration reduces the armor of a target to a maximum of 100%.

Arms Warrior Hit Rating Cap

The Hit Rating Cap that Arms Warriors need in order to never miss a skill is 8% (263 Hit Rating). against a Level 83 target. Draenei provide the passive buff Heroic Presence for all party members, reducing the hit rating requirement to 7% (230 Hit Rating).

Arms Warrior Expertise Rating Cap

The Expertise Rating Cap that Arms Warriors need in order to never have a skill be dodged or parried is 6.5% (214 Expertise Rating). This can be further reduced depending on the Human racial traits Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization as well as the Orc racial trait Axe Specialization.

The Talent Strength of Arms also provides expertise. Depending on your gear in later phases it is easy to obtain the cap and this talent can be changed for another one.

Skill Rotation For Arms Warrior

The main thing to prioritize while playing Arms Warrior is to maintain Rend, 5 stacks of Sunder Armor on the main target, and keep Battle Shout or Commanding Shout (whichever is needed more).

After those three factors are taken care of, prioritize the use of Overpower as soon as it is available and then Execute when it is made available by Sudden Death.

If the above are taken care of, follow this skill priority:

1. Bloodrage
2. Heroic Throw
3. Recklessness
4. Heroic Strike (to dump excess rage)
5. Mortal Strike
6. Execute
7. Bladestorm
8. Slam

For Cleave scenarios with 2-3 targets continue to maintain Rend on all targets followed by using Sweeping Strikes and replacing Heroic Strike for Cleave.

For Multi-Target scenarios with more than 3 targets maintain Rend on the main target us Thunder Clap followed by Bladestorm, Sweeping Strikes, and Cleave. Then follow the main skill priority.

Consumables For Raids

• Flask:
  1. Flask of Endless Rage
  2. Alternatives: Elixir of Mighty Strength, Elixir of Protection

• Food Buff:
  1. Dragonfin Filet
  2. Alternatives: Snapper Extreme, Worg Tartare, Rhinolicious Wormsteak

• Potions:
  1. Alternate use of Indestructible Potion followed by Potion of Speed. They share a 1-minute cooldown, but Indestructible Potion provides a 2-minute buff. Armored to the Teeth provides effectively 97 AP.

• Scrolls:
  1. Scroll of Strength VII

Best In Slot Gear, Gems, and Enchants

The best in slot, or BiS, gear for both Arms and Fury Warriors are essentially the same, except that Arms has less options for weapons. We've compiled the best gear including which gems to socket and which enchants to apply for each slot all in one list.