Lykfar's PvE Arms Warrior Guide
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:29 am
Hello everyone! I am one of the few players playing Arms warrior in PvE. My current GearScore is 6.9K and I am still BiS (with Oathbinder donor ring). For reference I am ArP capped, running usually with 7% hit (huamn counting on draenei, two sets of toskk gemmed differently), 8 expertise + 1/2 Weapon Mastery, 5.78k AP and 53.50% crit unbuffed, almost always being in top 5, top 10, of dps in boss encounter and also on target's damage taken. In fully BiS raid run you won't be sually be in top 3, often not even in top 5, depending on luck and the boss enounter itself, but you still be very high, be it sg target or multi target ( talking icc 25hc, Rs 25hc) encounter. For example of precise numbers I can have between 17k and 20k on Rotface HC (overal for whole fight, sg target rotation plus sweeping strikes), being the top 5 in DpS and Damage dealt. I am usually also top dps in total but who cares about that, it counts trash pulls too, right?
Why do I play Arms? It is rather simple. I do not like the Fury spec, I find it boring and honestly I am not good at it. How can one be good in something that bores him, right? I am not good in introduction talks so I will skip right to the point.
1. Answering some questions
The most frequent question was answered already above.
Is Arms fun? Hell yes it is.
Is Arms hard? I believe it is. In what way?
A: You need to deal with ignorant prejudice.
B: You need to watch your bleed.
C: You need to watch your abillity procs. You need to use them fast and often accordingly to the situation.
D: You need to watch your ragepool and use your rage wisely. It is extremely easy to get rage-starved. You always have to keep some rage ready, how much is usually based on what abilities you can expect to get open/proc and on the fight or phase of the fight itself.
E: You should keep track of your trinket procs and use some of your abilities (mostly bladestorm) when trinkets are in effect.
F: Learning when to use Bladestorm is a key. If used in no special situation it is very often dps loss, on higher gear only a small dps gain. Be patient and learn when to use it and Bladestorm becomes one of the best weapon in your arsenal. Same goes for Sweeping Strikes.
G: Threat gains are going out by the roof with proper Arms play. Jumps of threat can be very sudden and unexpectedly high which results in getting aggro. On high gear you need a pretty good tank and raid composition otherwise you will have to sacrifice usage of some abilities like Heroic Strike (HS) and each HS missing is big dps loss.
H: This is proc based spec. There is no comforming rotation to hold onto.
I: You will feel missing Icy Talons A LOT.
You will also notice missing fury's or feral's crit buffs.
J: Arms has less elligible gear, especially weapons, to get than fury, thus it might take longer to gear up.
K: Shadowmourne for endgame is a must. I would also recommend starting arms while already having 25 primos ready for Shadow's Edge. Amazing wepon for start and it will stay with you for a long time.
L: Oh wait. We are already at L? I think we should stop.
Lets go for other questions...
How is it with Arms DPS versus Fury?
Actually if you master Arms your dps will be pretty much comparable with Fury. At lot of gear levels even higher. And at BiS gear? On BiS gear skilled Arms will pull slightly lower DPS than skilled fury warr. Only top skill fury warriors can really run away in dps from Arms but such warriors are actually rare and the difference is still managable (think 500 - 1 000 DPS gap, rarely 2K on certain fights and with fury getting hysteria)
Is arms handy (giggle) in raid? Why?
Arms is Very handy. Incite spec Arms has amazing versatility and performs really great both on single target and multi target. You will notice its worth especialyl in fights where are adds to get down, like RS 25hc, Saurfang's beasts, LK valkyrs.
Arms also brings not one, but two handy raid buffs! One given by combat rogue and one brought by feral druid, that is 4% increased physical damage taken by the target and 30% added bleed damage.
Wait what!? What is Incite spec?
Incite spec is one of the two Arms PvE subspecs, the other one being "Imp Execute". This guide will deal mostly with Incite spec as it is the one I use and which outperforms Execute one in most situations.
Any other basic question? I don't think so. Nothing comes to mind.
Well if my list of reasons why Arms is harder did not discourage you, lets get to the real thing now.
2. Talent build
There are two talent builds in Arms. One called "Improved Execute", other being "Incite".
2a Improved Execute
https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#Lhrcbf ... xIo0b:soqM
This build focuses on Execute. It is easier spec of the two. Said by some to be better than Incite spec on BiS gear for single target. I am not going to try to dismantle this opinion sicne they are vry comparable. I will just say that Incite has also amazing damage on single target and is more versatile, working great on multi target too as i already stated. When I tried Execute spec myself on my dps went lower.
Better spec for Arms PvE beginners, definitely. You want to get 4t10 asap for this. You can switch Heroic Strike glyph for Execute glyph, especially with 4t10 and heavily STR focused gear.
2b Incite spec
https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#Lhrcbf ... hxZbI:soqM
Glyphs here are not negotiable.
I recommend adding minor glyph of Thunder Clap, nice dps boost on trash and very useful in RS25hc
Fury part - dps gain, no explanation needed.
Prot part - 1st tier only to get to 2nd tier.
Imp Bloodrage comes in handy. You will use BR a lot.
Incite - spec name giver. 15% added chance on HS and Cleave crit. With glyph it means more crit = more damage and less rage consumed.
Less rage consumed = more HS.
Time to say important thing that stems from this: for Incite spec which is focused on Overpower and Heroic Strike you need 4 things: ability to control rage (HS costs rage to use and it replaces your normal white attack which gives you rage), good weapon (HS is based on weapon damage), good crit chance (more crits means cheaper HS which means more HS; full ICC gear level), ability to decide quickly if you can use HS or not at given time.
Arms part. I will comment on talents worth commenting. Other should be self-explained or understandable from rotation.
Tactical Mastery - helps with rage while stance-dancing. You will stance-dance. For whirlwind on multiple targets. For intercept and intervene, for recklessness.
Taste for Blood, Imp Overpower
TfB makes your rend ticks to open OP which is otherwise open only by your attacks being dodged. Imp OP basically guarantees instant crit strike which costs only 5 rage. OP is part of our "rotation". Also OP gets its GCD reduced to 1s.
Poleaxe spec. - 5% for crit chance, 5% for crit damage. Perfect for Incite. Best spec ever. Switch to mace spec if using mace. Swords are not so good.
Trauma - 30% stronger bleeds on target. Amazing. Feral cat has to use mangle for this which is dps loss for the cat. Fury warrs can now start using rend in their rotation as dps gain.
Weapon Mastery 1/2 - nothing better to put the leftover talent into. Not enough talents to put there two. Basically lowers your expertise cap for dodge from 26 to 22.
Sweeping Strikes, Mortal Strike
SS (horrible abbrev) - good for multi target, opens MS.
MS - fully talented and glyphed your strongest hitting ability.
Improved Slam - makes Slam cast time 0.5s; Slam is used in your rotation, it can become focus of your rotation depending on your playstyle and rage management.
Blood Frenzy - hastens your melee swings. Brings combat rogue's debuff to the raid (4% increase in physical damage taken by the target).
Bladestorm - a marker spell of Arms. Seemingly a spell for multi target. From perspective of other players a dps gain on sg target. Both views are right, both are wrong. Bladestorm is perfectly usable for single target but it can be both dps gain and dps loss (unless having Shadowmourne, then it is always at least small dps gain). It depends on when you use it. Considering multi targets it is an atomic bomb without comparison. Especially when combined with Sweeping Strikes and Retalliation (since you most likely will pull some aggro).
3. Rotation
Simpy put there is no rotation per se. But start of the fight have one:
Berserker stance > Reclessness > Battle Stance > Charge > Rend > MS > Execute/Slam + HS > OP > Bladestorm if trinket procs (except vrykul haste dbw).
Recklessness is used at start because it demands berserk stance to activate. Midfight the dps gain would be much smaller due to stance-dancing rage dump. This will give you heavy threat gain, beware. Do not use sunder armor til you use up all recklessness stacks, no matter how much other warriors are yapping about it.
Why charge? Rage gain, Juggernaut buff.
Why Rend 1st and no MS since we have Juggernaut buff (increased crit chance for MS and Slam after Charge)? There is enough time to use it after Rend. Using Rend 1st makes your OP ready sooner at the start (after MS and Slam/Execute).
3a Priorities
Refresh Rend exactly as it wears out not sooner, not later, no matter what other spells you have available. Try to hit it at 0s of previous Rend. Huge dps gains/losses as it not only does damage but also opens OP in given intervals.
Use MS at cd, hardest hitting ability. Top prio after and dodge-proced OP.
Use OP when available from TfB. It is available for some time til it gets rewritten by next TfB proc so if you have time on that proc and have Execute open from Sudden Death proc, use Execute. TfB proc gets rewritten circa at 3-4s left of previous TfB proc, not at the end if previous. So if you have 4-5s left of TfB proc, use OP. Prioritise Execute if you have double proc from 4t10 and enoguh time on TfB buff.
The thing is TfB buff has duration of 10s but it refreshes every 6s.
Use Slam when no aformentioned proc is available and MS is on cd.
Use HS if above 50 rage and expecting OP to open and no MS coming from cd.
Always use dodge-proced OP immediately. It has no timer on the proc, nor is the proc visible in form of any buff (only by OP being open to use) and proc disappears on next succesfully landing attack!
IF yo uahve both TfB buff and available OP activated by Dodge, the first usage of OP will consume the TfB, not the dodge proc. YOu have to react etremely fast in this case.
Lets establish some kind of priority: Dodge OP → Rend → TfB OP < 5s (and MS on cd) → MS → Double Sudden Death proc → TfB OP > 5s → single Sudden Death proc → Slam (nothing else open)
Use HS according rage situation and DO NOT macro it to other attacks like fury does.
Complicated? Not yet! Lets complicate it more!
Rage is a key factor here.
OP costs 5, Exe 15-30, MS 30, Slam 15, HS 12 or 2 when crit + gain from white normal attack
Under 30 rage - use Slam and OP but keep rage if Rend is going to run out.
30 rage - use 2x Slam
40-50 rage - MS + OP, or OP and Slam
You can use HS if bloodrage is available
50-60rage. -OP + HS/ HS + Slam if OP not available and MS still long on cd. You can even use HS + MS/Exe in certain situations. If both Exe and MS is open or expected to be open use MS and Exe without HS.
Over 65. Use your normal rotation plus HS unless you have Execute open to use and MS going out of CD.
Execute phase (20%)
Same except forget HS and Slam. Refresh rend at 21% → Dodge OP → Double Sudden Death proc → MS > TfB OP > Exe
HS can be used with OP or rend refresh (boss still above circa 5% HP) or when Bloodrage is available. On end gear level Bladestorm is still gain above normal execute phase rotation unless you have or just had double Execute proc (SM, trinket procs, no stable raid wide damage for stronger executes or additional HSs).
Long and short:
Arms, especially Incite takes a lot of time to master. You need to learn to analyse the situation and react to it within a second. And you have to learn to feel/guess what proc to expect, especially when to expect OP proc to open. Learn when to risk HS and when to wait and to think about the fight stage. If there is raid wide damage giving you more rage or not etc. You have to be able to foretell.
4. We are not done yet.
Bladestorm
Usually DPS loss unless having Shadowmourne.
Without Shadowmourne - leave for special occasions - wait for trinket procs, use Shattering Throw and pop Bladestorm.
Using DBW? Did you get iron dwarf or Taunka? Use it. Did you get vrykul? Do not use it!!
Talking about Shattering Throw - amazing boost for the raid and yourself when use at the start of Heroism
Marrowgar
Use when he starts casting Bone Spikes. You will kill spikes fast. You keep damaging spikes even when spiked yourself.
LDW
Ffs keep it on cd or you will kill everyone. Use on 1st set of ads and then accordingly to the situation during the encounter.
Saurfang
Pop it with sweeping strikes and Retaliation on Blood Beasts (just before they spawn).
Rotface
Dps gain when ooze in vicinity.
PP
Amazing for oozes. Green will not blow you away (careful with that!).
Also if targetted by green ooze pop it just before it gets to you (mainly in 25hc transition) and it will wait until Bladestorm is finished. Only then it will throw everyone away.
BPC
Fake dps gain on twins, can hit low kinetic bomb too, you won't get thrown away at Empowered Vortex (dangerous)
BQL
Immunity to her fear.
Sindy
25m ice tombs breaker. Fail safe for p2 multiple ice tombs.
LK
Valkyrs, damaging LK while being pulled to Frostmourne if popped right before the pull.
If popped right before taken by valkyr you keep dpsing the valkyrs around you even when taken until Bladestorm ends.
Execute vs Slam and HS
Execute scales very differently compared to other spells in our rotation. It scales purely with AP. With every new piece of gear test its damage compared to Slam and HS and prioritise it accordingly. At times it can get very very week and at other times it can come near to MS. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on dummies.
For execute to be strong you need at least 25 rage. Slam and HS together cost 15 + 2/12 (depends if HS crits) with comparable or better damage to Execute but Slam also delays your swing timer. On high crit chance, you can sometimes choose if you will focus more on Execute or on Slam + HS (especially if not having 4t10 or heavily str focused gear). In some situations I decide to delay execute usage, rarely even letting the single Sudden Death proc fade out.
Overpower
So you know that OP opens from TfB procs and from dodges. Incite spec is special in that it does not require nor is it really advisable to be expertise capped. Most of the guides tell you not to go for expertise rating at all but I find that a dps loss. Dodged MS which could crit is DPS loss, dodged normal attack is rage loss aka dps loss. Almost disaster actually. But having some very occasional attack dodged, thus opening OP which is cheap and assured crit is dps gain. Thus if yo uare beginning with Arms try to keep your expertise at 12-16 on character sheet (+4 for dodge from talent which is not shown on char table) for occasional dodge. Dodge enables instant OP use. Though this proc goes away with next attack that hits the target. That means that dodge-proced OP must be prioritised over everything and fast. Lag is your biggest enemy.
Not enough expertise means two things: you have to stand behind your target at all cost, you have to recheck your rend, if it is applied. If it is not and you will not realise it within 3s and reapply it, it is disaster for your dps. You must be extremely attentative.
Crit and Strength outweights the expertise if you have a good gear and raid composition to survive one dodged white attack here and there. The better your gear and your skill gets the lower expertise you might want to try. I have ended up running with 8 expertise plus 4 expertise for dodge from 1/2 Weapon Mastery (so basically 12) achieved by 2/2 Blood Frenzy and one expertise Dragon's Eye and it works best for me.
Execute
Your Execute costs minimum of 15 rage and each additional rage point up to 30 is consumed, increasing its damage. Execute is weak unless it is used with 22 rage and above. You can also use execute if you have only 15 rage and no other spell available. However with good weapon Slam is often stronger than the 15 rage Execute, although it has 0.5s cast and for that cast time pauses your normal attack timer. The bonus rage is not worth the bonus damage so actually use Execute whenever possible, often the less rage you have available the better, however always think about ending MS cd and be mindful about HS.
Multiple target rotation
2 targets: sweeping strikes and normal rotation. You can add some scarse Cleave if you have enough rage. Rend both targets if they have enough HP to survive a while.
3 and more
Charge > Rend 1 target > (MS > OP) Sweeping Strikes > Retaliation > Bladestorm. That is usual start. During more stable phase, after this start:
Keep rend up on some target, use OP on proc, cleave when on high rage. Rotate Thunderclap in battle stance and stance-dance to berserker stance for Whirlwind. Try to use both on cd. Use Bloodrage for better rage management, use Sweeping Strikes on cd. Do not que Cleave or HS if you are going to stance-dance soon.
5. Stats
8% hit (263 hit rating) or 7% with draenei > Armor Penetration > Strength/Crit rating > Expertise
Gemming ArP
Gem ArP only if you get to over 1100, that is near enough arp cap for it to gain clear edge over Str. Your arp cap is 1260 (90%) as battle stance provides 10% arp not visible on character sheet. If you use mace, your arp cap is 1050. With t9 bonus it is even 84 ArP less.
Strength and crit
Strength is not as giant boost to our dps as for fury. But it is still generally the best stat. Gem Str when hit capped and arp capped. Critical Strike rating is very important for Incite spec. Do not feel ashamed gemming some yellow crit gems, or ametrines with 10str and 10 crit to reach a healthy crit rating. That is over 40% when in early stages and 45% or 50% on later stages, depending on whether you use mace or axe. If you are low on crit you can afford, and it is actually advised to do so, to grab some agility gear (ring, cape, even some other parts).
50% crit is your minimum for raids, when you starting with ICC 40% or 42% is doable. There is no real crit cap.
Expertise
As mentioned, some players advise not to use expertise at all. I am kinda opposed to it, especially considering if you are new to Arms. Because on one hand even OP does not have to crit on low gear and on the other hand on good gear losing too many MS can be a waste, especially since they also have a pretty nice chance to crit now and are stronger than OP. Also on lower expertise levels it ican happenyou would't be fast enough to use every dodge-proced OP before it runs out (really really short availability).
Gem expertise or get gear with expertise to your liking. I liked 15 -17 expertise on ICC 10m N and 25m N and when tested 17 expertise did more dps than when I was gemmed to 19 or 20 expertise. The better gear I got and more I played (also when I got a better net connection) the lower I went with the expertise, but everyone should find their own level. However I advise you not to be shy with trying lower expertise levels, it might sound strange in theory but I have many raid runs to back it up. The key lies in guaranteed crit and 1s gcd after the OP imho. I am not going to lie that yo uan have shitty luck and get bad dodges and end up with nto so great DPS but it does not happen that often and without low expertise you won't have a chance to keep pace with fury and other top DPS classes on endgame levels most of the time.
Haste
Haste is pretty much useless for Arms whatsoever. But adding 1 or 2 haste gems and/or cloak enchant is not complete waste. Especially if you are BiS. The haste can result in better synchronicity of your normal attacks and Slam, thus allowing you to use more Slams even if possible rage starve might happen as you will usually get pretty fast rage recovery., thus also not complete waste even for starting Arms warriors as you can Slam away headlessly a bit more, before you get to know your Arms warrior better and learn to control the mechanics more. Shadowmourne with basic 3.70 attack speed would take too much haste to align with Slam in such manner, on biS level you throw in one gem and cloak enchant just because the haste gets better with gear. Do not gem haste if you are not capped with other stats and not using 3.60 weapon or if you are not fully BiS.
Herkuml is still somewhat fine trinket until you get WFS, DBW, STS.
6. Gear
ICC starting gear
I will just put here some gear I remember using efficiently when starting ICC
At start keep two pieces of t9 for arp boost and get other two parts of t10. Nice combo of bonuses.
T10: head, shoulders, chest, hands
Legs and feet: ICC BS recipes, Legplates of Aetheric Strife
Hands instead t10: Scourge Stranglers
Shoulders instead of t10: Scalpel-Sharpening Shoulderguards
Cloak: Recovered Scarlet Onslaught (eof agi), Might of the Ocean Serpent
Neck: wodin, Rimetooth Pendant
Waist: Flesh-Shaper's Gurney Strap
Ranged: Njorndar Bone Bow, Gluth's Fetching Knife, Stakethrower
Rings: Ashen band, Rotface's Rupturing Ring
Trinkets: WFS, Herkuml, Needle-encrusted Scorpion
Weapon: Ramaladni's Blade of Culling, Shadow's Edge
LK 10hc: Warmace of Menethil, Windrunner's Heartseeker
In all and all icc 10hc is often the better source of gear than 25m N due to gear pieces combining armor penetration and Hit which Arms warrior can have problems to get enough of. Having hit on gear means more free sockets for arp gems (Fractured Cardinal Ruby). Plus hell in 10m is less competition.
BiS list(s)
Bis list is taken from Mesorchoo. I did check possible other setups and the one provided on Mesorchoo THE best setup you can get. This BiS list provides the setup that covers the needed critical chance, does have enough Armor Peneration, pretty amazing Hit rating. One could think there could be better BiS lists setup but the reality is such that lot of ICC gear has Haste on it, which is not desirable. Also there are some pieces of gear with maybe more Armor Penetration but the thing is that as Arms Warrior you hit the ArP cap pretty easily from gear itself. Some other pieces of gear with stronger ArP would easily put you above the ArP cap.
EDIT: MEsorchoo list is gone so I will provide the list myself (without links cba tbh, sorry)
Head: T10HC
Neck: Penumbra Pendant HC → Lana'thel'S Chain of Flagellation HC (depends on your expertise style)
Shoulders: T10HC
Cape: Vereesa's Dexterity
Chest: T10HC
Wrist: Toskk's Maximized Wristguards HC
Hands: T10HC
Waist: Coldwraith Links HC
Legs: Leggings of Northern Lights HC
Boots: Apocalypse Advance HC
Ring1: Ashen Agi rep ring/Signet of Twilight HC (only longer fights)
Ring2: Arthas Menethil's Oathbinder (donor) → Frostbrood Sapphire Ring HC
Trinket1: Deathbringer's Will HC
Trinket2: Sharpened Twilight Scale
Other weaker trinkets of notes: Banner of Victory, Needle Encrusted Scorpion, Whispering Fanged Skull
Other than Vereesa's Dexterity logical option would be Recored Scarlet Onslaught Cape https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50470. I myself preffered for some time at lower level of gear Might of the Ocean Serpent https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50467 for high ArP gain and some nice Expertise.
My Sub-BiS Slam-focused build
When I did not have Leggings of Northern Lights, since some Raid Leaders did not accept my claim for them as BiS gear I developed pretty much comparable BiS list with one, lets say, flaw. Also, Protector's HC marks can be hard to come by. The basic of the BiS list is the same as one above. But instead of Sanctified T10 hands I used Scourge Stranglers https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=51904 . The fact this is yet another Agility piece is mostly covered by me using Ocean Serpent cloak at taht time. T10 hands give so needed hit rating. This Hit rating is covered by Gangrenous Leggins https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50697 .
You probably can see the flaw. I have only 3 pieces of T10. It is not ideal. Shadowmourn Slams are on par with Executes, especially when using lot of Agility gear and that is even when Execute is used with 25 rage and above. Double Execute proc chance is small and although it would be a potential DPS gain it would also be a potential rage eater. It is only preference of my playstyle and availability of the gear that made me go for 3pT10, the proper 4pT10 is better. BTW at least hands also have one socket more than the T10. I do not mention this 3pT10 list to make you go for it. But I would like to say that you do not need to have a headache over the fact you are mising 4th piece of T10, at least while progressing ICC.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When I was using this 3pt10 the Slam was not delaying swing timer and now it does so it might not fare as well as it used to back then.
WEAPONS
As I said, preferably start with Shadow's Edge https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=49888
If you do not have Shadow's Edge, try to get Ramaladni.
You want to look at raw damage of the weapon (SEdge's 872-1309) and its speed. Choose weapons with higher raw damage and slow attack speed.
After Shadow's Edge maces comes to play. As there are not any really good Axes or Polearms for Arms Warr in ICC.
Warmace of Menethil HC https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=51946
Cryptmaker HC https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50603 This mace will most probably block your 3pt10 Gangrenous Leggins from your setup as they would put you over Hit Cap. You will either have to switch Legs or Boots for that time.
Oathbinder HC https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50735 (normal if you are getting over ArP cap with mace build just from the gear itself).
Shadowmourne https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=49623 . Your ultimate goal as Arms Warrior.
Those are all the weapons available to you. Do note the HC versions are in play here. Normal versions would not be better than the previous weapon (in majority of situations). Maces have one big issue. They lower your ArP cap to 1050. As you start grabbing RS 25n and ICC 25hc gear you will get easily over ArP cap from the gear itself which is a problem. That will make you to grab some haste pieces or just to say OOF and keep yourself over ArP cap. That is why you NEED to keep yourself with Poleaxe spec. Problem is there is no viable Polearm or Axe better than Cryptmaker HC mace other than Oathbinder HC and Shadowmourne. And in practice you can wave Oathbinder pretty much goodbye as Hunters and Ferals will have preference for this weapon. In all and all Shadowmourne is a must. Shadowmourne is not only BiS weapon but it is basically the only weapon that can keep Arms spec alive on endgame gear levels. This part of Arms might bring you some worries over time, it did brought a lot of them to me. Also do not expect anyone to help you with shards as Arms Warrior if you do not prove yourself as an efficient and experienced raider who can also pull a pretty good DpS with this subspec.
Enchants
Head: Arcanum of Torment (50AP, 20 crit)
Chest: Powerful Stats
Cloak: Major Agility; also possible to use Greater Speed if you follow my Haste advice
Wrist: Bracers- Greater Assault (50AP)
Hands: Crusher (44AP); Precision (20 hit); Engineer Haste
Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle (+1 Prismatic socket)
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor (75AP, 22 crit)
Feet: Cat's Swiftness (6 agi, 8% movement speed); Tuskarr's Vitality (15 stam, 8% movement)
2H Weapon: Berserking
Gems
META: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (21 crit, 3% crit damage; req. 2 blue gems) or the one with 21 agi instead, depends on your gemming
Blue: Nightmare Tear; Bold Cardinal Ruby
if needed also Vivid Eye of Zul (green; 10 hit, 15 stamina); Sovreign Dreadstone (10 Str, 15 stam); Puissant Dreadstone (10 Arp, 15 stam)
Red: Fractured Cardinal Ruby; Bold Cardinal Ruby; Inscribed Ametrine (if low on crit)
Yellow: Inscribed Ametrine(10 crit 10str); Rigid King's Amber (20 hit)
Professions
I do not usually advise on Professions, however I find Jewelcrafting perfect for faster ArP cap from Dragon's Eyes, more Strength, or hitting precise Expertise number you would like to have easily. As second Proffession I chose Blacksmithing as due to 2 additional sockets (1 on wrist, 1 on hands) since it makes it possible for my Human Warrior reach 1260 ArP cap in PvP gear. In PvE it allows you to choose 2 additional gems you need, be it Strength, ArP, Expertise or whatnot.
Engineering
Useful thing: Rocket Boosts and Haste on gloves
Frag bombs? You have enough procs to watch already. And when you do not have any proc open you can always just use Slam.
Hand rockets? On rare occassions you are away from the target and without charge/intercept available, you should have Heroic Throw or even Shattering Throw available, thus not really needed.
Haste on hands? Handy to pop when trinket pops and Bladestorm is on cd. Great combo with Orc's AP racial and also great for Execute spec since Slam will no longer block the full effect of haste.
If I should choose any other profession instead of blacksmithing, I guess it would be Engineering or tailoring for cloak AP enchant.
Bonus: Consumables
Flask of Endless Rage;
Indestructible Potio; Potion of Speed (so much haste it is actually worth it; Execute phase especially)
Food: 40 crit (Spicy Blue Nettlefish), 40 Str (Dragonfin Fillet), 40 ArP (Hearty Rhino).
I find 40crit food bigger boost for my dps on any gear setup than 40 Str, but Str is ofc also good. It mgiht be due to me having donor ring with 100 Agi and 100 STR and non-donor has only Agi. Only in ICC the str food is on par or better than crit food, probably due to 30% damage buff.
ArP food when needed to hit ArP cap.
You can bring expertise food for RS 25hc as your expertise is extremely low and with two cutters you can find yourself in positions you can get parry kinda easily. More expertise = less parry = more damage + less parry-haste of Halion.
As low-expertise arms you can easily kill tank in Shadow phase by activating parry-haste often i you are not watchign your position closely. All needed is to find yourself in a bit wrong position ( front half of the boss' side) due to cutters or boss rotating. As used as I am to keep in the back I can trigger up to 6 parries during p2 when other melees can trigger two or three (exluding rogues tbf).
This is the end of my PvE Arms Warrior Guide. I hope you liked it! It is my first Class Guide so I hope it is not too confusing. If you have any questions or something to point out, something I missed or so, please feel free to comment.
Last and final EDIT: 8th February, 2022
Why do I play Arms? It is rather simple. I do not like the Fury spec, I find it boring and honestly I am not good at it. How can one be good in something that bores him, right? I am not good in introduction talks so I will skip right to the point.
1. Answering some questions
The most frequent question was answered already above.
Is Arms fun? Hell yes it is.
Is Arms hard? I believe it is. In what way?
A: You need to deal with ignorant prejudice.
B: You need to watch your bleed.
C: You need to watch your abillity procs. You need to use them fast and often accordingly to the situation.
D: You need to watch your ragepool and use your rage wisely. It is extremely easy to get rage-starved. You always have to keep some rage ready, how much is usually based on what abilities you can expect to get open/proc and on the fight or phase of the fight itself.
E: You should keep track of your trinket procs and use some of your abilities (mostly bladestorm) when trinkets are in effect.
F: Learning when to use Bladestorm is a key. If used in no special situation it is very often dps loss, on higher gear only a small dps gain. Be patient and learn when to use it and Bladestorm becomes one of the best weapon in your arsenal. Same goes for Sweeping Strikes.
G: Threat gains are going out by the roof with proper Arms play. Jumps of threat can be very sudden and unexpectedly high which results in getting aggro. On high gear you need a pretty good tank and raid composition otherwise you will have to sacrifice usage of some abilities like Heroic Strike (HS) and each HS missing is big dps loss.
H: This is proc based spec. There is no comforming rotation to hold onto.
I: You will feel missing Icy Talons A LOT.
You will also notice missing fury's or feral's crit buffs.
J: Arms has less elligible gear, especially weapons, to get than fury, thus it might take longer to gear up.
K: Shadowmourne for endgame is a must. I would also recommend starting arms while already having 25 primos ready for Shadow's Edge. Amazing wepon for start and it will stay with you for a long time.
L: Oh wait. We are already at L? I think we should stop.
Lets go for other questions...
How is it with Arms DPS versus Fury?
Actually if you master Arms your dps will be pretty much comparable with Fury. At lot of gear levels even higher. And at BiS gear? On BiS gear skilled Arms will pull slightly lower DPS than skilled fury warr. Only top skill fury warriors can really run away in dps from Arms but such warriors are actually rare and the difference is still managable (think 500 - 1 000 DPS gap, rarely 2K on certain fights and with fury getting hysteria)
Is arms handy (giggle) in raid? Why?
Arms is Very handy. Incite spec Arms has amazing versatility and performs really great both on single target and multi target. You will notice its worth especialyl in fights where are adds to get down, like RS 25hc, Saurfang's beasts, LK valkyrs.
Arms also brings not one, but two handy raid buffs! One given by combat rogue and one brought by feral druid, that is 4% increased physical damage taken by the target and 30% added bleed damage.
Wait what!? What is Incite spec?
Incite spec is one of the two Arms PvE subspecs, the other one being "Imp Execute". This guide will deal mostly with Incite spec as it is the one I use and which outperforms Execute one in most situations.
Any other basic question? I don't think so. Nothing comes to mind.
Well if my list of reasons why Arms is harder did not discourage you, lets get to the real thing now.
2. Talent build
There are two talent builds in Arms. One called "Improved Execute", other being "Incite".
2a Improved Execute
https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#Lhrcbf ... xIo0b:soqM
This build focuses on Execute. It is easier spec of the two. Said by some to be better than Incite spec on BiS gear for single target. I am not going to try to dismantle this opinion sicne they are vry comparable. I will just say that Incite has also amazing damage on single target and is more versatile, working great on multi target too as i already stated. When I tried Execute spec myself on my dps went lower.
Better spec for Arms PvE beginners, definitely. You want to get 4t10 asap for this. You can switch Heroic Strike glyph for Execute glyph, especially with 4t10 and heavily STR focused gear.
2b Incite spec
https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#Lhrcbf ... hxZbI:soqM
Glyphs here are not negotiable.
I recommend adding minor glyph of Thunder Clap, nice dps boost on trash and very useful in RS25hc
Fury part - dps gain, no explanation needed.
Prot part - 1st tier only to get to 2nd tier.
Imp Bloodrage comes in handy. You will use BR a lot.
Incite - spec name giver. 15% added chance on HS and Cleave crit. With glyph it means more crit = more damage and less rage consumed.
Less rage consumed = more HS.
Time to say important thing that stems from this: for Incite spec which is focused on Overpower and Heroic Strike you need 4 things: ability to control rage (HS costs rage to use and it replaces your normal white attack which gives you rage), good weapon (HS is based on weapon damage), good crit chance (more crits means cheaper HS which means more HS; full ICC gear level), ability to decide quickly if you can use HS or not at given time.
Arms part. I will comment on talents worth commenting. Other should be self-explained or understandable from rotation.
Tactical Mastery - helps with rage while stance-dancing. You will stance-dance. For whirlwind on multiple targets. For intercept and intervene, for recklessness.
Taste for Blood, Imp Overpower
TfB makes your rend ticks to open OP which is otherwise open only by your attacks being dodged. Imp OP basically guarantees instant crit strike which costs only 5 rage. OP is part of our "rotation". Also OP gets its GCD reduced to 1s.
Poleaxe spec. - 5% for crit chance, 5% for crit damage. Perfect for Incite. Best spec ever. Switch to mace spec if using mace. Swords are not so good.
Trauma - 30% stronger bleeds on target. Amazing. Feral cat has to use mangle for this which is dps loss for the cat. Fury warrs can now start using rend in their rotation as dps gain.
Weapon Mastery 1/2 - nothing better to put the leftover talent into. Not enough talents to put there two. Basically lowers your expertise cap for dodge from 26 to 22.
Sweeping Strikes, Mortal Strike
SS (horrible abbrev) - good for multi target, opens MS.
MS - fully talented and glyphed your strongest hitting ability.
Improved Slam - makes Slam cast time 0.5s; Slam is used in your rotation, it can become focus of your rotation depending on your playstyle and rage management.
Blood Frenzy - hastens your melee swings. Brings combat rogue's debuff to the raid (4% increase in physical damage taken by the target).
Bladestorm - a marker spell of Arms. Seemingly a spell for multi target. From perspective of other players a dps gain on sg target. Both views are right, both are wrong. Bladestorm is perfectly usable for single target but it can be both dps gain and dps loss (unless having Shadowmourne, then it is always at least small dps gain). It depends on when you use it. Considering multi targets it is an atomic bomb without comparison. Especially when combined with Sweeping Strikes and Retalliation (since you most likely will pull some aggro).
3. Rotation
Simpy put there is no rotation per se. But start of the fight have one:
Berserker stance > Reclessness > Battle Stance > Charge > Rend > MS > Execute/Slam + HS > OP > Bladestorm if trinket procs (except vrykul haste dbw).
Recklessness is used at start because it demands berserk stance to activate. Midfight the dps gain would be much smaller due to stance-dancing rage dump. This will give you heavy threat gain, beware. Do not use sunder armor til you use up all recklessness stacks, no matter how much other warriors are yapping about it.
Why charge? Rage gain, Juggernaut buff.
Why Rend 1st and no MS since we have Juggernaut buff (increased crit chance for MS and Slam after Charge)? There is enough time to use it after Rend. Using Rend 1st makes your OP ready sooner at the start (after MS and Slam/Execute).
3a Priorities
Refresh Rend exactly as it wears out not sooner, not later, no matter what other spells you have available. Try to hit it at 0s of previous Rend. Huge dps gains/losses as it not only does damage but also opens OP in given intervals.
Use MS at cd, hardest hitting ability. Top prio after and dodge-proced OP.
Use OP when available from TfB. It is available for some time til it gets rewritten by next TfB proc so if you have time on that proc and have Execute open from Sudden Death proc, use Execute. TfB proc gets rewritten circa at 3-4s left of previous TfB proc, not at the end if previous. So if you have 4-5s left of TfB proc, use OP. Prioritise Execute if you have double proc from 4t10 and enoguh time on TfB buff.
The thing is TfB buff has duration of 10s but it refreshes every 6s.
Use Slam when no aformentioned proc is available and MS is on cd.
Use HS if above 50 rage and expecting OP to open and no MS coming from cd.
Always use dodge-proced OP immediately. It has no timer on the proc, nor is the proc visible in form of any buff (only by OP being open to use) and proc disappears on next succesfully landing attack!
IF yo uahve both TfB buff and available OP activated by Dodge, the first usage of OP will consume the TfB, not the dodge proc. YOu have to react etremely fast in this case.
Lets establish some kind of priority: Dodge OP → Rend → TfB OP < 5s (and MS on cd) → MS → Double Sudden Death proc → TfB OP > 5s → single Sudden Death proc → Slam (nothing else open)
Use HS according rage situation and DO NOT macro it to other attacks like fury does.
Complicated? Not yet! Lets complicate it more!
Rage is a key factor here.
OP costs 5, Exe 15-30, MS 30, Slam 15, HS 12 or 2 when crit + gain from white normal attack
Under 30 rage - use Slam and OP but keep rage if Rend is going to run out.
30 rage - use 2x Slam
40-50 rage - MS + OP, or OP and Slam
You can use HS if bloodrage is available
50-60rage. -OP + HS/ HS + Slam if OP not available and MS still long on cd. You can even use HS + MS/Exe in certain situations. If both Exe and MS is open or expected to be open use MS and Exe without HS.
Over 65. Use your normal rotation plus HS unless you have Execute open to use and MS going out of CD.
Execute phase (20%)
Same except forget HS and Slam. Refresh rend at 21% → Dodge OP → Double Sudden Death proc → MS > TfB OP > Exe
HS can be used with OP or rend refresh (boss still above circa 5% HP) or when Bloodrage is available. On end gear level Bladestorm is still gain above normal execute phase rotation unless you have or just had double Execute proc (SM, trinket procs, no stable raid wide damage for stronger executes or additional HSs).
Long and short:
Arms, especially Incite takes a lot of time to master. You need to learn to analyse the situation and react to it within a second. And you have to learn to feel/guess what proc to expect, especially when to expect OP proc to open. Learn when to risk HS and when to wait and to think about the fight stage. If there is raid wide damage giving you more rage or not etc. You have to be able to foretell.
4. We are not done yet.
Bladestorm
Usually DPS loss unless having Shadowmourne.
Without Shadowmourne - leave for special occasions - wait for trinket procs, use Shattering Throw and pop Bladestorm.
Using DBW? Did you get iron dwarf or Taunka? Use it. Did you get vrykul? Do not use it!!
Talking about Shattering Throw - amazing boost for the raid and yourself when use at the start of Heroism
Marrowgar
Use when he starts casting Bone Spikes. You will kill spikes fast. You keep damaging spikes even when spiked yourself.
LDW
Ffs keep it on cd or you will kill everyone. Use on 1st set of ads and then accordingly to the situation during the encounter.
Saurfang
Pop it with sweeping strikes and Retaliation on Blood Beasts (just before they spawn).
Rotface
Dps gain when ooze in vicinity.
PP
Amazing for oozes. Green will not blow you away (careful with that!).
Also if targetted by green ooze pop it just before it gets to you (mainly in 25hc transition) and it will wait until Bladestorm is finished. Only then it will throw everyone away.
BPC
Fake dps gain on twins, can hit low kinetic bomb too, you won't get thrown away at Empowered Vortex (dangerous)
BQL
Immunity to her fear.
Sindy
25m ice tombs breaker. Fail safe for p2 multiple ice tombs.
LK
Valkyrs, damaging LK while being pulled to Frostmourne if popped right before the pull.
If popped right before taken by valkyr you keep dpsing the valkyrs around you even when taken until Bladestorm ends.
Execute vs Slam and HS
Execute scales very differently compared to other spells in our rotation. It scales purely with AP. With every new piece of gear test its damage compared to Slam and HS and prioritise it accordingly. At times it can get very very week and at other times it can come near to MS. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on dummies.
For execute to be strong you need at least 25 rage. Slam and HS together cost 15 + 2/12 (depends if HS crits) with comparable or better damage to Execute but Slam also delays your swing timer. On high crit chance, you can sometimes choose if you will focus more on Execute or on Slam + HS (especially if not having 4t10 or heavily str focused gear). In some situations I decide to delay execute usage, rarely even letting the single Sudden Death proc fade out.
Overpower
So you know that OP opens from TfB procs and from dodges. Incite spec is special in that it does not require nor is it really advisable to be expertise capped. Most of the guides tell you not to go for expertise rating at all but I find that a dps loss. Dodged MS which could crit is DPS loss, dodged normal attack is rage loss aka dps loss. Almost disaster actually. But having some very occasional attack dodged, thus opening OP which is cheap and assured crit is dps gain. Thus if yo uare beginning with Arms try to keep your expertise at 12-16 on character sheet (+4 for dodge from talent which is not shown on char table) for occasional dodge. Dodge enables instant OP use. Though this proc goes away with next attack that hits the target. That means that dodge-proced OP must be prioritised over everything and fast. Lag is your biggest enemy.
Not enough expertise means two things: you have to stand behind your target at all cost, you have to recheck your rend, if it is applied. If it is not and you will not realise it within 3s and reapply it, it is disaster for your dps. You must be extremely attentative.
Crit and Strength outweights the expertise if you have a good gear and raid composition to survive one dodged white attack here and there. The better your gear and your skill gets the lower expertise you might want to try. I have ended up running with 8 expertise plus 4 expertise for dodge from 1/2 Weapon Mastery (so basically 12) achieved by 2/2 Blood Frenzy and one expertise Dragon's Eye and it works best for me.
Execute
Your Execute costs minimum of 15 rage and each additional rage point up to 30 is consumed, increasing its damage. Execute is weak unless it is used with 22 rage and above. You can also use execute if you have only 15 rage and no other spell available. However with good weapon Slam is often stronger than the 15 rage Execute, although it has 0.5s cast and for that cast time pauses your normal attack timer. The bonus rage is not worth the bonus damage so actually use Execute whenever possible, often the less rage you have available the better, however always think about ending MS cd and be mindful about HS.
Multiple target rotation
2 targets: sweeping strikes and normal rotation. You can add some scarse Cleave if you have enough rage. Rend both targets if they have enough HP to survive a while.
3 and more
Charge > Rend 1 target > (MS > OP) Sweeping Strikes > Retaliation > Bladestorm. That is usual start. During more stable phase, after this start:
Keep rend up on some target, use OP on proc, cleave when on high rage. Rotate Thunderclap in battle stance and stance-dance to berserker stance for Whirlwind. Try to use both on cd. Use Bloodrage for better rage management, use Sweeping Strikes on cd. Do not que Cleave or HS if you are going to stance-dance soon.
5. Stats
8% hit (263 hit rating) or 7% with draenei > Armor Penetration > Strength/Crit rating > Expertise
Gemming ArP
Gem ArP only if you get to over 1100, that is near enough arp cap for it to gain clear edge over Str. Your arp cap is 1260 (90%) as battle stance provides 10% arp not visible on character sheet. If you use mace, your arp cap is 1050. With t9 bonus it is even 84 ArP less.
Strength and crit
Strength is not as giant boost to our dps as for fury. But it is still generally the best stat. Gem Str when hit capped and arp capped. Critical Strike rating is very important for Incite spec. Do not feel ashamed gemming some yellow crit gems, or ametrines with 10str and 10 crit to reach a healthy crit rating. That is over 40% when in early stages and 45% or 50% on later stages, depending on whether you use mace or axe. If you are low on crit you can afford, and it is actually advised to do so, to grab some agility gear (ring, cape, even some other parts).
50% crit is your minimum for raids, when you starting with ICC 40% or 42% is doable. There is no real crit cap.
Expertise
As mentioned, some players advise not to use expertise at all. I am kinda opposed to it, especially considering if you are new to Arms. Because on one hand even OP does not have to crit on low gear and on the other hand on good gear losing too many MS can be a waste, especially since they also have a pretty nice chance to crit now and are stronger than OP. Also on lower expertise levels it ican happenyou would't be fast enough to use every dodge-proced OP before it runs out (really really short availability).
Gem expertise or get gear with expertise to your liking. I liked 15 -17 expertise on ICC 10m N and 25m N and when tested 17 expertise did more dps than when I was gemmed to 19 or 20 expertise. The better gear I got and more I played (also when I got a better net connection) the lower I went with the expertise, but everyone should find their own level. However I advise you not to be shy with trying lower expertise levels, it might sound strange in theory but I have many raid runs to back it up. The key lies in guaranteed crit and 1s gcd after the OP imho. I am not going to lie that yo uan have shitty luck and get bad dodges and end up with nto so great DPS but it does not happen that often and without low expertise you won't have a chance to keep pace with fury and other top DPS classes on endgame levels most of the time.
Haste
Haste is pretty much useless for Arms whatsoever. But adding 1 or 2 haste gems and/or cloak enchant is not complete waste. Especially if you are BiS. The haste can result in better synchronicity of your normal attacks and Slam, thus allowing you to use more Slams even if possible rage starve might happen as you will usually get pretty fast rage recovery., thus also not complete waste even for starting Arms warriors as you can Slam away headlessly a bit more, before you get to know your Arms warrior better and learn to control the mechanics more. Shadowmourne with basic 3.70 attack speed would take too much haste to align with Slam in such manner, on biS level you throw in one gem and cloak enchant just because the haste gets better with gear. Do not gem haste if you are not capped with other stats and not using 3.60 weapon or if you are not fully BiS.
Herkuml is still somewhat fine trinket until you get WFS, DBW, STS.
6. Gear
ICC starting gear
I will just put here some gear I remember using efficiently when starting ICC
At start keep two pieces of t9 for arp boost and get other two parts of t10. Nice combo of bonuses.
T10: head, shoulders, chest, hands
Legs and feet: ICC BS recipes, Legplates of Aetheric Strife
Hands instead t10: Scourge Stranglers
Shoulders instead of t10: Scalpel-Sharpening Shoulderguards
Cloak: Recovered Scarlet Onslaught (eof agi), Might of the Ocean Serpent
Neck: wodin, Rimetooth Pendant
Waist: Flesh-Shaper's Gurney Strap
Ranged: Njorndar Bone Bow, Gluth's Fetching Knife, Stakethrower
Rings: Ashen band, Rotface's Rupturing Ring
Trinkets: WFS, Herkuml, Needle-encrusted Scorpion
Weapon: Ramaladni's Blade of Culling, Shadow's Edge
LK 10hc: Warmace of Menethil, Windrunner's Heartseeker
In all and all icc 10hc is often the better source of gear than 25m N due to gear pieces combining armor penetration and Hit which Arms warrior can have problems to get enough of. Having hit on gear means more free sockets for arp gems (Fractured Cardinal Ruby). Plus hell in 10m is less competition.
BiS list(s)
Bis list is taken from Mesorchoo. I did check possible other setups and the one provided on Mesorchoo THE best setup you can get. This BiS list provides the setup that covers the needed critical chance, does have enough Armor Peneration, pretty amazing Hit rating. One could think there could be better BiS lists setup but the reality is such that lot of ICC gear has Haste on it, which is not desirable. Also there are some pieces of gear with maybe more Armor Penetration but the thing is that as Arms Warrior you hit the ArP cap pretty easily from gear itself. Some other pieces of gear with stronger ArP would easily put you above the ArP cap.
EDIT: MEsorchoo list is gone so I will provide the list myself (without links cba tbh, sorry)
Head: T10HC
Neck: Penumbra Pendant HC → Lana'thel'S Chain of Flagellation HC (depends on your expertise style)
Shoulders: T10HC
Cape: Vereesa's Dexterity
Chest: T10HC
Wrist: Toskk's Maximized Wristguards HC
Hands: T10HC
Waist: Coldwraith Links HC
Legs: Leggings of Northern Lights HC
Boots: Apocalypse Advance HC
Ring1: Ashen Agi rep ring/Signet of Twilight HC (only longer fights)
Ring2: Arthas Menethil's Oathbinder (donor) → Frostbrood Sapphire Ring HC
Trinket1: Deathbringer's Will HC
Trinket2: Sharpened Twilight Scale
Other weaker trinkets of notes: Banner of Victory, Needle Encrusted Scorpion, Whispering Fanged Skull
Other than Vereesa's Dexterity logical option would be Recored Scarlet Onslaught Cape https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50470. I myself preffered for some time at lower level of gear Might of the Ocean Serpent https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50467 for high ArP gain and some nice Expertise.
My Sub-BiS Slam-focused build
When I did not have Leggings of Northern Lights, since some Raid Leaders did not accept my claim for them as BiS gear I developed pretty much comparable BiS list with one, lets say, flaw. Also, Protector's HC marks can be hard to come by. The basic of the BiS list is the same as one above. But instead of Sanctified T10 hands I used Scourge Stranglers https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=51904 . The fact this is yet another Agility piece is mostly covered by me using Ocean Serpent cloak at taht time. T10 hands give so needed hit rating. This Hit rating is covered by Gangrenous Leggins https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50697 .
You probably can see the flaw. I have only 3 pieces of T10. It is not ideal. Shadowmourn Slams are on par with Executes, especially when using lot of Agility gear and that is even when Execute is used with 25 rage and above. Double Execute proc chance is small and although it would be a potential DPS gain it would also be a potential rage eater. It is only preference of my playstyle and availability of the gear that made me go for 3pT10, the proper 4pT10 is better. BTW at least hands also have one socket more than the T10. I do not mention this 3pT10 list to make you go for it. But I would like to say that you do not need to have a headache over the fact you are mising 4th piece of T10, at least while progressing ICC.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When I was using this 3pt10 the Slam was not delaying swing timer and now it does so it might not fare as well as it used to back then.
WEAPONS
As I said, preferably start with Shadow's Edge https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=49888
If you do not have Shadow's Edge, try to get Ramaladni.
You want to look at raw damage of the weapon (SEdge's 872-1309) and its speed. Choose weapons with higher raw damage and slow attack speed.
After Shadow's Edge maces comes to play. As there are not any really good Axes or Polearms for Arms Warr in ICC.
Warmace of Menethil HC https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=51946
Cryptmaker HC https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50603 This mace will most probably block your 3pt10 Gangrenous Leggins from your setup as they would put you over Hit Cap. You will either have to switch Legs or Boots for that time.
Oathbinder HC https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=50735 (normal if you are getting over ArP cap with mace build just from the gear itself).
Shadowmourne https://www.wow-mania.com/armory/?item=49623 . Your ultimate goal as Arms Warrior.
Those are all the weapons available to you. Do note the HC versions are in play here. Normal versions would not be better than the previous weapon (in majority of situations). Maces have one big issue. They lower your ArP cap to 1050. As you start grabbing RS 25n and ICC 25hc gear you will get easily over ArP cap from the gear itself which is a problem. That will make you to grab some haste pieces or just to say OOF and keep yourself over ArP cap. That is why you NEED to keep yourself with Poleaxe spec. Problem is there is no viable Polearm or Axe better than Cryptmaker HC mace other than Oathbinder HC and Shadowmourne. And in practice you can wave Oathbinder pretty much goodbye as Hunters and Ferals will have preference for this weapon. In all and all Shadowmourne is a must. Shadowmourne is not only BiS weapon but it is basically the only weapon that can keep Arms spec alive on endgame gear levels. This part of Arms might bring you some worries over time, it did brought a lot of them to me. Also do not expect anyone to help you with shards as Arms Warrior if you do not prove yourself as an efficient and experienced raider who can also pull a pretty good DpS with this subspec.
Enchants
Head: Arcanum of Torment (50AP, 20 crit)
Chest: Powerful Stats
Cloak: Major Agility; also possible to use Greater Speed if you follow my Haste advice
Wrist: Bracers- Greater Assault (50AP)
Hands: Crusher (44AP); Precision (20 hit); Engineer Haste
Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle (+1 Prismatic socket)
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor (75AP, 22 crit)
Feet: Cat's Swiftness (6 agi, 8% movement speed); Tuskarr's Vitality (15 stam, 8% movement)
2H Weapon: Berserking
Gems
META: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (21 crit, 3% crit damage; req. 2 blue gems) or the one with 21 agi instead, depends on your gemming
Blue: Nightmare Tear; Bold Cardinal Ruby
if needed also Vivid Eye of Zul (green; 10 hit, 15 stamina); Sovreign Dreadstone (10 Str, 15 stam); Puissant Dreadstone (10 Arp, 15 stam)
Red: Fractured Cardinal Ruby; Bold Cardinal Ruby; Inscribed Ametrine (if low on crit)
Yellow: Inscribed Ametrine(10 crit 10str); Rigid King's Amber (20 hit)
Professions
I do not usually advise on Professions, however I find Jewelcrafting perfect for faster ArP cap from Dragon's Eyes, more Strength, or hitting precise Expertise number you would like to have easily. As second Proffession I chose Blacksmithing as due to 2 additional sockets (1 on wrist, 1 on hands) since it makes it possible for my Human Warrior reach 1260 ArP cap in PvP gear. In PvE it allows you to choose 2 additional gems you need, be it Strength, ArP, Expertise or whatnot.
Engineering
Useful thing: Rocket Boosts and Haste on gloves
Frag bombs? You have enough procs to watch already. And when you do not have any proc open you can always just use Slam.
Hand rockets? On rare occassions you are away from the target and without charge/intercept available, you should have Heroic Throw or even Shattering Throw available, thus not really needed.
Haste on hands? Handy to pop when trinket pops and Bladestorm is on cd. Great combo with Orc's AP racial and also great for Execute spec since Slam will no longer block the full effect of haste.
If I should choose any other profession instead of blacksmithing, I guess it would be Engineering or tailoring for cloak AP enchant.
Bonus: Consumables
Flask of Endless Rage;
Indestructible Potio; Potion of Speed (so much haste it is actually worth it; Execute phase especially)
Food: 40 crit (Spicy Blue Nettlefish), 40 Str (Dragonfin Fillet), 40 ArP (Hearty Rhino).
I find 40crit food bigger boost for my dps on any gear setup than 40 Str, but Str is ofc also good. It mgiht be due to me having donor ring with 100 Agi and 100 STR and non-donor has only Agi. Only in ICC the str food is on par or better than crit food, probably due to 30% damage buff.
ArP food when needed to hit ArP cap.
You can bring expertise food for RS 25hc as your expertise is extremely low and with two cutters you can find yourself in positions you can get parry kinda easily. More expertise = less parry = more damage + less parry-haste of Halion.
As low-expertise arms you can easily kill tank in Shadow phase by activating parry-haste often i you are not watchign your position closely. All needed is to find yourself in a bit wrong position ( front half of the boss' side) due to cutters or boss rotating. As used as I am to keep in the back I can trigger up to 6 parries during p2 when other melees can trigger two or three (exluding rogues tbf).
This is the end of my PvE Arms Warrior Guide. I hope you liked it! It is my first Class Guide so I hope it is not too confusing. If you have any questions or something to point out, something I missed or so, please feel free to comment.
Last and final EDIT: 8th February, 2022
