Some Help With Arms?

[shesta]

Hey all,

Posting this about my arms warrior. I think he's pretty much underperforming badly on raids and I can't seem to figure out why. :/

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...rtel&cn=Sharps

Can you guys see anything up with the spec/gear/gemming etc? (aside the neck not being gemmed yet :P)

As for rotation, the one being used is as stated on TankSpot, EJ, this forum, etc etc. Not sure it could be improved on much. But really, 5k DPS on a boss like Halion 25 doesn't seem right at all. Also, this character has been played as prot from 1-80, for nearly 5 years, and only went arms recently. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Andlát]

Ok, first thing I noticed is you're WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY over the expertise "cap" for arms and fury. Being under the cap is actually better in some ways so you can use Overpower more often. Also, your arp is low. Very low for arms. Only 46% (with the buff from BS). May want to gem for it. You don't have the 2 t10 so you're loosing out on the 16% AP buff.

Spec: Why don't you have improved Slam? I don't think you're to the point where HS would be better than using slam as your filler. Do you raid with a ret pally with imp. might? If so, get rid of booming voice and commanding presence and pick up imp. slam and and Unbridled wrath. Get rid of weapons mastery, you almost WANT the boss to dodge your attacks. Personally i put that into anger management.

The spec i use for arms PvE is this: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#Lhrcdf...iohtxZb:smqM0z (The weapon spec you choose is, of course, dependent on what weapon you have. I took mace because Cryptmaker is the best i have right now.)

With that spec I've found that I'm never rage starved so there's not real need for imp execute. If people don't like it, to bad it works for me.

And unless RS has a buff like ICC, you're damage will be 25% lower (i.e. regular) when you're outside of ICC.

Also can you tell me what the priority list you use is?

If you have any questions just post here and I'll try to help.

[shesta]

Thanks for the tips. Will look into that a bit more. Gear is just coming together so that's kinda why so far over the expertise cap...as a former mainspec tank, the gear picked up was just whatever was unwanted.

Priority list used is Overpower (if proc is about to run out) > MS > Overpower > Execute > Slam while keeping Rend up all the time (not clipping). Don't really seem to get that many procs though which is kind of annoying.

How much should ArP be gemmed compared to Str? Not quite sure about how that works.

[Zamph]

Stop gemming Str and gem Arp.

[Andlát]

Well right now you have NES so that's around 48.5% arp. So aim to 40% ArP (i'd go natural ArP or until it says your ArP is at 50% [it's under hit] so when you finally lose your t9.5, you'll still be able to hit the cap.) Once you hit that number, start gemming strength.

As for your Priority you're doing it right (that is OP AS SOON AS YOU CAN >Execute >MS >Slam while keeping rend up.) but you're losing alot of DPS because you don't have imp slam. since you're using slam with out the talent, you slam is on a 1.5second cast speed. With the talent you'll be at a very speedy .5 cast time, which means you'll spend less time casting so you can get to your more powerful abilities (also means you can cast it more when you're waiting for procs.)

What i like to do is as soon as you Charge in, use rend since it'll bring up all of you bleeding effect related abilities (like blood frenzy) and then your first MS will crit much harder (that is if it does)

One question i have though, why are you not Fury with the level of gear you have?



EDIT: One thing i noticed is your Expertise enchant on your bracers. Drop that and get +50 AP

EDIT2: Another big thing that's giving you A TON of expertise is your second trink. If you can, try getting Banner of Victory (Or Whispering Fanged Skull if you can) along with NES and then eventually DBW/DV/STS

[shesta]

Well basically I have no good second weapon for fury. Is it really that much better? And thanks again for the advice. Will be sorting some of this.

[Andlát]

Well it can be. What i do sometimes is flip-flop between specs. Fights that have alot of Moving around i like to be fury because it's attacks are all instant. On stand still fights i like to be arms (Saurfang is a big one there). On those fights i usually Out-dps the other, just as geared, fury warrior.

What would be your second weapon if you were arms?

[Hanoumatoi]

Written to the Arms Warrior.

First: Your spec is wrong, you should be Incite specced (55/8/8), rather than improved Execute specced. If you have to be your current spec for your raid, feel free to ignore this one.

Second: You are way under the Armor Pen cap.

Third: You have way too much expertise, to the point where you're actually over the Dodge cap even.

Fourth: If there's enough Draenei to go around, you are 1% over hit cap.

Fifth: You have no Tier 10.

Sixth: You have no Chest Enchant, and an Expertise enchant on the bracers.

Seventh: Oh crap I almost didn't even notice this: IMPROVED SLAM IS MANDATORY.

Summary: Your gear is awful at the moment, and you don't have an absolutely mandatory talent.

Retalenting to the Incite spec is preferable. It's my first post, so I can't link to it, but go to wowhead and put "talent#LhrhbfIt0obRdGuiohxZbI" after the /.
Barring that, due to need for Commanding Presence, drop Weapon Mastery for Improved Slam.

Regearing: Get rid of both of your trinkets. Get the Banner of Victory from normal Trial of the Champion. Then get the 245 hit trinket. Yes, you're over hit, but you have hit in both your shoulder and chest, which should be t10, without hit.
Your t10 4 pieces are Helm, Shoulders, Chest, and Gloves. You don't want the pants, because they have Expertise, and you don't want any Expertise. Get the Crafted boots, which are only barely worse than the Blood-Soaked Saronite Stompers, and don't have Expertise. Replace the Skeleton Lord's Circle with the ICC rep ring for now, since it doesn't have Expertise (it's also a decent place to get hit from). Get the Agi/ArP/Crit Frost Emblem Cloak. Get the Vengeful Noose for Frost Emblems. Get your 4 pieces of tier 10. Get the Legplates of Painful Death crafted.

You should prioritize the trinkets and 2 piece t10 first, via getting the chest and shoulders, since this will let you sub in the ICC rep ring (AGILITY) and the hit trinket for your current trinkets. Your Victor's Call, ALWAYS ALWAYS TERRIBLE, is actually completely useless for you, since the passive Expertise gives you literally no benefit, because you're so far past the Dodge Cap. Even if you were under the Dodge Cap, any other trinket would be better.
Any new pieces you get should be gemmed for Armor Penetration. Also you should regem any older pieces that you'll be keeping (Shadow's Edge, Bracers, ring, etc). Once you get rid of the NES you should regem all your pieces to pure Armor Pen.

On Expertise: First thing to note is that as an Arms Warrior, you have a 1s CD on Overpower, which hits really really hard (since with proper gear it will always crit in PvE). This means that you don't need to get any expertise, just adjust your rotation, to prioritize OP over everything, instead of waiting until you're only replacing a Slam or it's about to reproc (which is currently what you should be doing).

It would be nice to know what Rotation is being used, but even outside of ICC, with 264s you should be able to pull 10k easily. I was doing 10k in the first wing of ICC on release (as Arms).

---------- Post added 2010-07-20 at 08:28 AM ----------

Thanks for the tips. Will look into that a bit more. Gear is just coming together so that's kinda why so far over the expertise cap...as a former mainspec tank, the gear picked up was just whatever was unwanted.

Priority list used is Overpower (if proc is about to run out) > MS > Overpower > Execute > Slam while keeping Rend up all the time (not clipping). Don't really seem to get that many procs though which is kind of annoying.

How much should ArP be gemmed compared to Str? Not quite sure about how that works.

With your current gear, the second Overpower should be lower down than the Execute, because OP can proc Sudden Death.
At t10 levels, you should be able to cap Armor Pen, or get very very close, so it should be gemmed until that point (which is 90% on your character sheet).

[shesta]

Thanks for the tips. I was under the impression that the gear level on the character was too low for Incite spec at present. Is that not the case?

[Hanoumatoi]

I was Incite specced entering ICC, and it was considered better at that time. Note that all you gain from Fury is Improved Execute, where in Prot you gain Rage, as well as 15% crit on your Heroic Strikes. The extra rage will let you HS a bit more, which has good synergy (and you already have the Imp HS from t1 Arms).

[zerf]

Incite spec is the way to go. Look it up on EJ

[bangerz168]

Get rid of weapons mastery, you almost WANT the boss to dodge your attacks.

YEAH! lets stand in front of the boss and let him dodge/parry our MS,rend,HS,SLAM so we can OP! HIGH FIVE!

[shesta]

Okay, so I'm going with Incite spec. What are the differences in rotation for it? Any advice would be great.