III. Simple Questions / Simple AnswersO.M.G. Glyphs!?:Recommended glyph set up is:
Mortal Strike,
Rending,
Execution.
Bladestorm on Single Targets?:The only thing that makes
Bladestorm better DPS is that it whirlwinds every second. Essentially, this is a "yellow" attack every second. Without bladestorm, you attack every 1.5s (GCD). In short:
Bladestorm gets 6 yellow hits in 6s.
Non-Bladestorm gets 4 yellow hits in 6s.
The only time Bladestorm is a DPS loss is when you have the rage to queue Heroic Strike with 2 of every 5, or more, attacks -- thus negating the extra 2 yellow attacks BS gets. In short, Bladestorm is for more than one target, or when you only have 25 rage, and Sudden Death and Overpower are on cooldown.
Haste!?:Some situations, (such as XT hard mode) where you have heroism, speed pots, and/or engineering haste, your rotation get's very different. In situation's like this, personal CD rotation is very critical. For example, if you must use heroism and a speed pot at the same time, avoid using the speed potion while under the effects of other haste effects (such as Hyperspeed Accelerators). Best way to do this is to wait for the effects of your previous haste to fade before drinking the speed potion.
In addition, using your Slam ability becomes much more detrimental. .5s delay on a 1.30 swing speed is a pretty big delay. So, you'll want to queue Heroic Strike for your rage dump (sometimes it'll need to be queued every second) and use Slam much more sparingly than before.
Shattering Throw:In the event you must Sunder Armor and Shattering throw (Yogg Brain room comes to mind), it is imperative that you do this in the right order. You'll want to apply rend, apply 5 stacks of Sunder Armor, Overpower, then Shattering Throw. Reason: ArP has a DPS increase that goes up in a curve. The more ArP, the better the return. Since it takes you ~7s to apply 5 stacks of Sunder Armor, and Shattering Throw only lasts 10 seconds, your "peak" time is only to 3 seconds. Whereas, by sundering first, your "peak" time is a full 10 seconds.
Professions:The profession you pick is entirely up to you. For a pure passive bonus - JC / Blacksmithing is still the best combination out there. However: Alchemy, Engineering, Leatherworking, and Enchanting are all pretty competitive as well.
Engineering has the most raid utility; as well as added AoE (bombs), added mobility (nitros), and an additional cool down (Hyperspeed), all of which Arms lacks.
Alchemy has mixology, which -- quite frankly is amazing. It's a huge money saver, and comes out to about +80 attack power when flasked.
Leatherworking has their fur linings which are extremely versatile and cheap (ranging from 114 attack power to magic resistances).
Enchanting has ring enchants.
I would recommend Engineering/Alchemy as an arms warrior. With our DPS ending at the tip of our axe, and our lack of cooldowns, Engineering is an excellent way to counter our shortcomings. Alchemy is just a huge money saver. However, like I said, it comes down to your personal preferences and play styles.
Stat Caps:Expertise:With no
Weapon Mastery (WM) and no
Strength of Arms (SoA), you need 214 expertise rating to remove the 6.5% dodge rate.
With no WM and 2/2 SoA, you need 181 expertise rating
With 2/2 WM and no SoA, you need 148 expertise rating
With 2/2 WM and 2/2 SoA, you need 115 expertise rating
Subtract 41 expertise rating if you're an Orc with axes or a Dwarf with maces.
Subtract 24 expertise rating if you're a Human with sword or maces.
Hit Rating:263 removing 8% miss rate.
Armor Penetration (ArP): (Note that this section is still being discussed. This is Landsouls interpretation of the information, which can be found on
Elitist Jerks.
Unmodified cap =1232 rating
Arms Cap = 1099 rating
Arms + Mace Spec Cap = 907 rating
Crit Rating (Soft):Soft cap for crit is 50% (the point where Overpower is at 100% critical strike chance)
Stat Priorities:Stat priorities are based off of something called Strength Equivalency Points (SEP). Basically, this system assumes that Strength is "the" stat for warriors, and all other stats are compared to Strength. So, in essence, it helps determine which piece of gear is better, in relation to another.
SEP Breakdown:
Strength = 1pt
Attack Power = .45 pt
Agility = .75 pt
Crit rating = .90 pt
Haste = .40 pt
ArP = .85 pt
Assuming this breakdown if you had two items with the following stats:
Item A (150 pts)
+90 Strength (+90pts)
+45 Critical Strike Rating (+40)
+50 Haste Rating (+20)
Item B (127 pts)
+150 Attack Power (68)
+56 Agility (42)
+30 Critical Strike Rating (27)
Item A > Item B for a warrior. However, SEP (especially in regards to Armor Penetration) is a fluid model, and sometimes (especially ArP) stat comparisons will change based on your spec, and/or gear needs.
The most noted change occurs when you reach 40% passive ArP. At that point, it becomes advantageous to gem ArP over Strength, because the SEP of ArP becomes greater than 1.
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