DPS Warrior F.A.Q.

[Warriorsarri]

Which has the highest potential single target damage, arms or fury?

During the Pre-patch Fury is ahead by a fair margin.

Currently at 110 both Arms and Fury are tuned really well against each other

For Mythic+ dungeons, which spec works the best?

Depends on the dungeon and what buffs the instance have. Fury has a higher burst AoE, and more damage against spread out mobs, but Arms has more sustained AoE. Boss damage is about equal between the two. (Haven't done much Mythic+, nor have I seen a lot of DPS warriors in them, so I'm not a 100% sure on this one, just the general answer)

Do Arms talents/builds change much between burst aoe, sustained aoe/cleave, and single target encounters?

Arms has three general builds. The Fervor of Battle build, the Focused Rage build and the Standard build. Currently the Focused Rage build is the best in all situations. You'll want t switch Sweeping Strikes on 2+ targets, but other than that the spec stays the same.

Do Fury talents/builds change much between burst aoe, sustained aoe/cleave, and single target encounters?

WIP

I know you've been doing lots of raid testing on beta, would you say most raid fights favor one of the specs more than the other?

With The Emerald Nightmare being the first raid, that's the one I'll focus on. I'll solely focus on how the figts are designed and how the specs are designed, and not look into how the tuning currently stands, as that can change at any point.

The fights which are neutral between the two specs are Nythendra and Elerethe Renferal with them being mostly single target.

Fury has an edge on Il'gynoth, Heart of Corruption due to a better spread out AoE and Execute phase.

Arms has an edge on Ursoc, Dragons of Nightmare and Cenarius due to better cleave.

Xavius is a hard one to judge, Arms will most likely be best for all but the last phase due to quite constant cleave, but in the last phase there's a lot of spread out AoE + a drawn out execute phase, in which you'll most likely have a big damage buff and Lust. I'd wager that Arms is most likely the best choice for progress, but I can be wrong.

Do the current iterations of t19 set bonuses change rotations, builds, or even favor one spec more than the other?

Set Bonuses doesn't come until The Nighthold, meaning it's going to be quite a while after Legion launches. We've yet to look into the set bonuses, nor has blizzard, as a few of them are quite broken at the moment.

I know this is very early and changes tuning is still happening, but do you see either spec being the king (across all classes) on certain types of encounters?

Fury, with Juggernaut, has an obvious edge on a very drawn out Execute phase, and Fury also has one of the single highest 1global burst AoE capabilities with Odyn's Fury. Arms has the same Burst AoE potential that Fury has currently on live, with the small downside that you'll need to spend 1 global before it to apply Warbreaker before you can Bladestorm. Both Fury and Arms thanks to these tools are among the highest Burst AoE specs in the game. We still have a decently high Execute potential, but it's nowhere near as potent as it has been in WoD.

For Arms, do we favor different legendary items for different types of encounters?

For Single target the biggest increase comes from the Mortal Strike Gloves, and the Execute Ring. For 3+ target AoE the Whirlwind belt wins out. The Heroic Leap legs has its uses on AoE, but in general is currently the weakest DPS increasing Legendary.

For Fury, do we favor different legendary items for different types of encounters?

Latest sims I've seen show the Enrage helm and BT Back being very close to each other on Single target, and that the WW belt wins on AoE. Same as with Arms, this will be looked into once we get closer to launch.

As far as Artifacts go, is one spec more dependant on it more than the other? I'm interested in knowing if we'll be able to get most of the important talents by the time Mythic raids unlock.

Arms needs a certain amount of points in its Artifact before it becomes playable at a acceptable level. You need to get to Shattered Defenses for your rotation to become somewhat reliable (9points), and you need to get to Corrupted Blood of Zakajz for you to get to 90%+ of its full potential (16points). If you want to reach 95% you need to get to Focus in Battle as well (20points). Fury functions better without any points spent in its artifact than Arms does, but it requires slightly more points for it to come close to its full potential, with it needing 23-25 points as you want all three of the Golden Dragons.

What's the stat priorities for Arms in Legion and during the Pre-patch?

Mastery > Vers > Haste > Crit

What's the Stat priorities for Fury in Legion and during the Pre-patch?

18% haste > 30% crit > Mastery > Vers > Haste > Crit

How does the Rotation/Priority List for Arms look?

Due to the fact that Arms has two viable talent setups I'll give you a list for both.

If you're going with the standard build, then this is how you prioritize your spells above 20%:
Rend (If down/less than global remaining)
Colossus Smash (If CS is not up on the target)
Warbreaker (If CS is not up on the target)
Overpower (if talented)
Mortal Strike (If Shattered Defenses is up)
Colossus Smash (If Shattered Defenses is not up)
Warbreaker (If Shattered Defenses is not up)
Mortal Strike
Slam (If Colossus Smash is up and 50+ rage)
Whirlwind (If Colossus Smash is up and 50+ rage, and FoB taken)
Heroic Charge
Slam (If less than 20 rage from capping)
Whirlwind (If less than 20 rage from capping, and FoB taken).

Sub 20% the rotation for the standard build looks like this:
Rend (If down/less than global remaining)
Colossus Smash (If CS is not up on the target)
Warbreaker (If CS is not up on the target)
Overpower (if talented)
Execute (If Colossus smash is up and Shattered Defenses is up/less than 20 rage from capping)
Mortal Strike (If In for the Kill is talented and Shattered Defenses is not up)
Colossus Smash (If Shattered defenses is down)
Warbreaker (if Shattered Defenses is down)
Mortal Strike
Rend (If less than 5.4secs remaining)
Execute (If Colossus Smash is up, or 20 rage from capping)
Heroic Charge

Note that Overpower and Dauntless are quite close, so different fights may favor one over the other, in general OP sims higher with a Slam build, while Dauntless sims higher with a FoB build. Avatar and Rend are also quite close, with Avatar generally having an edge right now. Added the Rend lines in case it becomes viable at some point, or if you prefer to play with it.

If you're going with the Focused Rage build, you'll want to prioritize your spells like this:
Rend (If talented and less than global remaining/down)
Colossus Smash (If CS is not up on the target)
Warbreaker (If CS is not up on the target)
Overpower (if talented)
Mortal Strike
Execute (If Execute ring Procs)
Colossus Smash (If Shattered defenses down)
Warbreaker (If Shattered Defenses down)
Focused Rage (If less than 3 stacks / Talent Deadly Calm taken and Battle Cry is up)
Hamstring (If talent Deadly Calm taken and Battle Cry is up)
Slam (Deadly calm taken and Battle Cry is up)
Heroic Charge
Rend (If talented and 5.4 or less remaining)
Whirlwind/Slam (If Focused Rage has 3 stacks / 20 rage from capping)

Sub 20% the Focused Rage rotation looks like this:
Rend (If talented and less than global remaining/down)
Colossus Smash (If CS is not up on the target)
Warbreaker (If CS is not up on the target)
Overpower (if talented)
Mortal Strike
Execute (If Ring procs / Talent Deadly Calm taken and Battle Cry is up)
Colossus Smash (If Shattered defenses down)
Warbreaker (If Shattered Defenses down)
Execute (if Colossus Smash is up and 60+rage)
Focused Rage (If less than 3 stacks / Talent Deadly Calm taken and Battle Cry is up)
Hamstring (If talent Deadly Calm taken and Battle Cry is up)
Heroic Charge
Rend (If talented and 5.4 or less remaining)

What's "Heroic Charge"?

Heroic Charge means that you run away from the target / Heroic Leap from the target, and charge back in. By doing this you can generate more rage than you'd otherwise be able to thanks to the fact that Charge gives a hefty amount. Optimal way to do this is to track your Swing Timer and your GCD, and run out in such a way that neither of the two gets pushed back. With enough practice you'll be able to do so without spending any focus on it, it comes naturally.

Why do we use Hamstring?

Hamstring does close to no damage by itself, but the fact that it does any damage at all is the key aspect as to why we're using it. If we have Deadly Calm talented all our spells are free while Battle Cry is up. This means that using Hamstring is just free damage. On top of that, each time you use Hamstring you "spend" 10 rage towards procing Tactician, meaning you get four 8.25% chances per Deadly Calm rotation to proc it, for free.

"Fury takes 30% more damage, we'll never be brought to raids!!"

Fury's fine. If you're not being brought it's due to you being bad, the fight not favoring warriors, or your raids leadership not understanding that we have a few ways to compensate for having an increase in damage taken.


If you have any further questions, I'll see if I can expand on this.

[Bromgar]

Nicely done.This has answered couple of my questions/doubts.Thanks Sarri :3

[volgon]

Great FAQ! Just for clarity's sake: should be Warbreaker instead of Warbringer in the Arms rotation section.

Have one question about the FR priority, when you say: Mortal Strike (If Focused Rage is not up / Focused Rage is up and Shattered Defenses is up / Focused Rage has 3 stacks and 20 rage from capping), does that essentially just mean MS on cooldown? I can think of a few situations that don't exactly fit those criteria, perhaps like:

1. MS available
2. No Shattered Defenses
3. 1-2 stacks of FR

Do you wait the additional 1.5 to 3 seconds to max stack FR or fire off a 1-2 stack MS to get it on cooldown?

[Warriorsarri]

Great FAQ! Just for clarity's sake: should be Warbreaker instead of Warbringer in the Arms rotation section.

Have one question about the FR priority, when you say: Mortal Strike (If Focused Rage is not up / Focused Rage is up and Shattered Defenses is up / Focused Rage has 3 stacks and 20 rage from capping), does that essentially just mean MS on cooldown? I can think of a few situations that don't exactly fit those criteria, perhaps like:

1. MS available
2. No Shattered Defenses
3. 1-2 stacks of FR

Do you wait the additional 1.5 to 3 seconds to max stack FR or fire off a 1-2 stack MS to get it on cooldown?

If none of the options are ticked off, you try and use a CS first instead, or try and get another stack of FR. MS is a real good button and you want to use it as often as possible, but sometimes it's worth to delay it a global or two in case you can buff it even more.

[Deleted]

Great work! I have some questions

- What's the path for the Fury Artifact?
- Fury rotation?
- What spec are u going to play on Legion release and why?
- How's the DPS compared to the rest of the classes, maybe u can show some logs?
- Are u having problems finding a party as a DPS Warrior? (heard some people complaining about this, no one wants a warrior and idk why)
- Acceptable threshold of latency to play warrior when aiming for hardcore raiding? seems like the class has a lot of APM, I'm playing with 80ms will this be a problem?

Thank you.

[volgon]

If none of the options are ticked off, you try and use a CS first instead, or try and get another stack of FR. MS is a real good button and you want to use it as often as possible, but sometimes it's worth to delay it a global or two in case you can buff it even more.

Makes sense, thanks for the answer!

[Rhokz]

really really n1 thread.

thx sarri.

[satimy]

What cleave does arms have? Doesnt arms have better burst aoe with the artifact aoe csmash and bladestorm?

[volgon]

What cleave does arms have? Doesnt arms have better burst aoe with the artifact aoe csmash and bladestorm?

A lot of Arms' cleave capabilities come from talents: Sweeping Strikes and Titanic Might are strong picks in a 2 target cleave situation. Its also got Trauma which is the go to talent for the Fervor of Battle build.

Both Arms and Fury have really strong burst AoE, though it depends on how much burst damage you need. Odyn's Fury is some of the highest 1 GCD burst in the game and with only a 45 second cooldown, not only will it be up often but you can line it up with all of Fury's damage boosting cooldowns. Arms' Warbreaker combos are extremely potent as well; Warbreaker + Ravager + Battle Cry all line up perfectly at 1 minute, or you can keep Bladestorm instead and run Opportunity Strikes to proc tons of extra attacks due to Bladestorm ticking once a second.

The way it looks to me, they are both strong at burst damage, but the burst damage is delivered differently. If you need maximum 1 GCD burst damage, Fury is going to win out, but Arms will be better if you have 5-6 seconds to wail on adds while Bladestorm/Ravager channel (like Kormrok hands or Iskar adds).

[kimicate]

Nice Job Sarri!

[roflwaffle]

ok so having fervor of battle does make whirlwind replace slam in single target, was wondering if it did or not lol

[Deleted]

You mention compensation for the increased damage taken, can you expand on this? All I see is 15% extra HP which does nothing to heal the damage we've taken. As for bloodthirst healing, I don't really consider it to be very powerful, other classes have minor healing like it anyway.

[Kamonji]

What would you use for a fury build by chance? I mostly am a prot warrior by trade, but been curious about trying fury again as an off spec maybe, though I'm just too giddy that Arms isn't too terribly left off like it was in WoD. Oh and would Cleave be a single target dps increase with a FfB build? Same priority you gave but with Cleave before Whirlwind and still with enough rage and to help not cap.

[babyback]

What would you use for a fury build by chance? I mostly am a prot warrior by trade, but been curious about trying fury again as an off spec maybe, though I'm just too giddy that Arms isn't too terribly left off like it was in WoD. Oh and would Cleave be a single target dps increase with a FfB build? Same priority you gave but with Cleave before Whirlwind and still with enough rage and to help not cap.

This is very basic, mostly because I'm tired.

The whole fury spec is based on you being enraged as much as possible.

Opener
1: Charge
2: Tier 7 talent
3: Battle Cry
4: Bloodthrist to trigger enrage

Single target rotation
1: Rampage to trigger enrage or rage capped
2: Bloodthirs to trigger enrage.
2: WW on wrecking ball proc
3: Raging blow as soon as it's off cool down if you have Inner rage as talent.
4: Furios Slash as filler if nothing else is available

Note that you shouldn't use rampage as soon as it's available. Only use it when not enraged or to dump rage when capped.

When it comes to the execute phase you do more damage using execute when enraged. When in the execute phase keep rotation to build rage and to trigger enrage. Unload on execute when enraged. If you have massacre talented use Rampage as soon as it procs.

[Lebanese Dude]

How is Arms DPS in PvE in comparison to other classes?

I'm struggling to choose between Warrior and Mage. I'm looking for the tie breakers.

[Millie]

How is Arms DPS in PvE in comparison to other classes?

I'm struggling to choose between Warrior and Mage. I'm looking for the tie breakers.

If you're on the subject of DPS and your choices are "X Class vs Mage" you can rest assured that Mage will always be the answer. The baby class will never have to be weaned off its bottle.

[Sinnthetic]

When Sarri says Arms out performs Fury with a full artifact weapon, does he mean like literally all filled out? (34 points) Or just the major gold dragon traits?

EDIT: Sarri answered on stream, 34/34 but a possible bug might have been up with Arms sims, so he will figure out more after testing!

[Haram]

Hey, thanks a lot for this FAQ.

I have a pretty hard time grasping priority rotations so hopefully my question can be easily answered.

"Execute (If Colossus smash is up and Shattered Defenses is up/less than 20 rage from capping)
Mortal Strike (If In for the Kill is talented and Shattered Defenses is not up)
Colossus Smash (If Shattered defenses is down)
Warbreaker (if Shattered Defenses is down)
Mortal Strike
Execute (If Colossus Smash is up, or 20 rage from capping)
Heroic Charge"

I'm slightly confused by the priority system in Execute phase. So Execute is prioritized over MS if both Colossus Smash & Shattered Defense is up OR We are less than 20 cap from rage? So If CS and SD were not up, but I was 10 rage from capping, I would still use Execute over MS?

So in other words, just to clarify, we always prioritize Execute over MS (even with In for the Kill) if Shattered Defense and CS are up. If SD is not up, but CS is, then we prioritize MS unless we are less than 20 rage from cap? Or do we prioritize MS regardless?

[Warriorsarri]

If SD is up, use it on Execute.
If CS is up, but SD is not up, go MS > Execute
If you're very close to capping rage, use an Execute, so that you don't waste any rage.

[Flytanx]

Obviously this is subjective, but I'm simply wondering what your best *guess* is to put all the marbles in for early Legion. I plan to farm enough artifact power to get the minimum for both specs, but for gearing up via heroic dungeons and early raiding, would you recommend starting with Arms or Fury. I get that Arms in a vacuum outperforms Fury with FR, but realistically, is that vacuum actually attainable?

I currently dislike the FR/Arms in general but being in a semi-competitive guild (top 50 US) I'll have to bite the bullet and go Arms if that's what it requires. I just want to get a basis on what the best "bet" is to not suck as bad as the top classes. There are two warriors in my guild atm, would you recommend each of us going one to cover our losses or is there a more effective way to choose?