Hi there, I noticed there is plenty of information on Warriors now and in Cataclysm for PvE, but noticed there are no guides on MMO on Arms Warrior PvP. Seeing as how Wrath is ending in less than a week, this guide will focus mainly on Cataclysm PvP, covering Wrath very briefly in the beginning. I welcome all criticism, including grammar mistakes. Thanks!
NOTE: This guide will be heavily updated through the release of Cataclysm and with each patch and Arena Season.
Table of contents
1. Wrath of the Lich King post 4.0
I. Specs and Glyphs
2. Cataclysm
I. Speccing
II. Glyphs
III. New abilities
IV. What do all these stats do?
V. Gear
VI. Gems
VII. Your job in Battlegrounds
VIII. Viable Warrior Comps
IX. Tips and Tricks
X. Class Specific Tricks
1. Wrath of the Lich King post 4.0
I. Specs and Glyphs
Spec is as follows: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LG0ffRbRuMkhb:McRfRM0kM
Slam doesn't do enough damage at the moment to make it worth the two points. Blitz is very situational and the extra rage isn't needed. You can take one point out of Blood Craze and put it in Tactical Mastery, but I wouldn't reccomend it, even one point is a bit overkill unless you really want to sacrifice that extra healing for the option to MS the moment you stance dance. In Cata this talent is not an option.
Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Mortal Strike: 10% more damage on your Mortal Strike. Mandatory
Glyph of Overpower: 10% more damage on your Overpower. Mandatory
Glyph of Bladestorm: 15 seconds (16%) shorter cooldown on your Bladestorm. Mandatory
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Intercept: 1 second longer duration on Intercept stun.
Glyph of Sweeping Strikes: 100% reduced rage cost on Sweeping Strikes. Mandatory
Glyph of Rapid Charge: Reduced cooldown on Charge by 7%.
Glyph of Shield Wall: Shield Wall now reduces damage taken by an additional 20%, but increases the cooldown by 2 minutes.
Choose between Rapid Charge and Shield Wall.
Minor
Glyph of Battle: Increases duration of Battle Shout by 2 minutes. Mandatory
Glyph of Command: Increases duration of Commanding Shout by 2 minutes. Mandatory
Glyph of Demoralizing Shout: Increases duration of Demoralizing shout by 15 seconds and increases the radius by 50%. Mandatory
2. Cataclysm
I. Specs and Glyphs
If you use Heroic Ashkandi your spec will be as follows: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LG0ffRrRurkhb0o:McRfRm0kM
Or: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LG0ffR...0oZb:McRfRm0kM if you would rather not use Slam.
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LGzffRbRurkhbzo:McRfRm0kM if you want Tactical Mastery and Rude Interruption over Incite.
-Blood Craze may not seem like much now, as it is only 3% of your health over 5 seconds, but it is a huge benefit to your healer and his/her mana to heal yourself for 3-4k several times in any fight, and gives you that extra lasting power while he/she is drinking or while you are soloing PvP.
-Blitz, while nice, is something we simply can't afford with the current amount of talent points.
-Tactical Mastery is like Blitz in the fact that it is nice, but we need more talent points.
II. Glyphs
Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Mortal Strike: 10% more damage on your Mortal Strike. Mandatory
Glyph of Overpower: 10% more damage on your Overpower. Mandatory
Glyph of Bladestorm: 15 seconds (16%) shorter cooldown on your Bladestorm. Mandatory
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Intercept: 1 second longer duration on Intercept stun.
Glyph of Sweeping Strikes: 100% reduced rage cost on Sweeping Strikes. Mandatory
Glyph of Piercing Howl: Increases radius of Piercing Howl by 50%.
Glyph of Long Charge: Increases the range on your Charge ability by 5 yards.
Glyph of Spell Reflect: Reduces the cooldown of Spell Reflect by 1 second.
These three glyphs depend on what you are playing with and against. If you are the only dps on a target, (non rated bgs, 2s, random pvp) go with Piercing Howl. If you are in bgs or are doing 3s with a heavy physical damage user, such as a Frost Death Knight or a Retribution Paladin, Glyph of Colossus Smash is worth it, but even in that situation you can still go with Piercing Howl.
If you are fighting a lot of Wizard Cleaves, run with Spell Reflect instead of Piercing howl / Colossus Smash.
Use Glyph of Long Charge if you are having trouble getting back into range of casters / Hunters.
Minor
Glyph of Battle: Increases duration of Battle Shout by 2 minutes. Mandatory
Glyph of Command: Increases duration of Commanding Shout by 2 minutes. Mandatory
Glyph of Demoralizing Shout: Increases duration of Demoralizing shout by 15 seconds and increases the radius by 50%. Mandatory
III. New Abilities
Level 81- Colossus Smash: Smashes a target for 150% weapon damage plus 120 and weakens their defenses, allowing your attacks to entirely bypass their armor for 6 sec. 20 Rage. 20 Second Cooldown. Sudden Death resets the cooldown.
This hits almost as hard as Mortal Strike, and gives you 100% armor penetration for 6 seconds. Should be used non-stop.
Level 83- Inner Rage: Usable when you have over 75 Rage to increase all damage you deal by 15% but increase the rage cost of all abilities by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. Off the GCD.
Use when you have excess rage. During Bloodlust / Heroism, and during Unholy Frenzy if a Death Knight pops it on you, you will generate enough rage to use this without question. This ability is a fantastic one if used just before Bladestorm.
Level 85- Heroic Leap:
Leap through the air towards a targeted location, slamming down with destructive force to deal 50% of your attack power as damage on all enemies within 8 yards. 8-40 yard range. 1 minute cooldown.
Another gap closer. It was very buggy on the beta and could sometimes be used to scale cliffs, sometimes not, but never walls or up to bridges and arches. It has a longer range than Charge and Intercept, meaning it should be used when you are being kited at the full 40 yard range. Keep in mind this does not stun like Charge and Intercept, so they may not be there when you land.
IV: Stats
Strength- your offensive primary stat. Gives 2 attack power per point and raising Parry, 1 strength is .3 parry rating. This stat is increased by 5% if you are wearing all Plate gear.
Stamina- your defensive primary stat. Gives 10 health per point.
Critical Strike rating- Increases your chance to score a critical strike, which does double (100% additional) damage as well as apply Deep Wounds. Deals 120% additional damage with Mortal Strike, Overower, and Slam because of the Impale talent.
Haste- Increases your attack speed without modifying your rage generated with each attack, unlike Attack Speed, which will increase your Attack Speed while lowering rage generated. Ex. if you are generating 5000 rage over one minute with 0 haste, with 10% haste you will generate 5500 rage over 1 minute, but with 10% Attack Speed you will generate 5000 rage still, you will just attack an extra 10% times.
Hit- Increases your chance to hit. You have a 5% chance to miss a target of equal level (all PvP targets at level cap). Cap this at 5% right away.
Expertise- Lowers the chance for your target to Dodge you and Parry you. This used to be undesirable for PvP, but is becoming a significant damage and rage boost versus melee classes (and Hunters), especially Agility using classes (Rogues, Feral Druids, Hunters, and Enhancement Shamans).
Mastery- Unique for each class and specialization. For Arms it is like the old Sword Specialization, it gives you a chance to gain an extra white attack that deals 115% weapon damage on any attack. Mastery rating increases the chance for this to occur. You will need 45.9 rating for 1 Mastery. Each point of Mastery is an extra 2%. Base chance to proc is 16%. This does NOT generate extra rage.
There is much debate over which stat is the best. Hit is the best until you have 5%, after that it is completely useless, it does not affect the Night Elf miss racial. Haste seems to be the way to go at the moment, but Mastery is a close second because of it's extra burst potential.
V. Gear
You will be wearing mostly PvP gear for PvP with a few exceptions
Weapon - Reclaimed Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood (heroic) (http://www.wowhead.com/item=65003) - This weapon will hitcap you for PvP by itself. While it is true that you will have a 5% chance to miss while sword and board, you will make up for it with this weapons amazing damage range due to its ilvl and high swing time.
Use the 2200 weapon once you can afford it if you cannot obtain Ashkandi.
Trinket:
-Your 100% mandatory trinket will be the resilience PvP trinket: Vicious Gladiator's Medallion of Tenacity (http://www.wowhead.com/item=60800) - Alliance (http://www.wowhead.com/item=60807) - Horde
-There are many choices for your secondary trinket, including a wide range of Battlemaster trinkets. But there is one that stands out from the rest.
Fury of Angerforge (http://www.wowhead.com/item=59461). A well known trinket due to it's transformation, akin to Deathbringer's Will. A lesser known fact is that think trinket will turn you into a Drakonid. Probably to be hotfixed at some point during the first arena season, this trinket not only boosts your Strength by almost 2000, has a large amount of crit that is reforgable, but because of it's transformation, you are considered a dragonkin, not humanoid, meaning you cannot be Polymorphed or Mind Controlled. Keep in mind you are vulnerable to Hibernate while in this form.
Reforge either Haste or Mastery, whichever you prefer and think is better. Haste makes Inner Rage more accessible, but makes Deadly Calm slightly less valuable because you will rage cap before the 10 seconds pass with too much haste. Mastery is RNG which is generally bad for PvP, but if it is working in your favor, it can win you a lot of games. A Mastery proc during a Recklessness (it will crit but not consume a charge) +Slam Heroic Strike Mortal Strike Overpower will be devastating.
VI. Gems
This is an easy one. Gem everything as Strength.
Your meta gem should be the Destructive Shadowspirit Diamond (http://www.wowhead.com/item=52298) which is 54 Critical Strike rating and a 1% chance to Spell Reflect. Requires 2 red gems. While RNG is generally a bad thing in PvP, that 1% chance to Spell Reflect is so game breaking, it easily beats the 3% increased Critical Strike damage bonus on its only competitor, the Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond (http://www.wowhead.com/item=52291). The Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond has a requirement of more blue gems than red gems, which makes this meta gem useless.
VII. Your job in Battlegrounds:
-You are the one to eliminate opposition with a healer or two at your back. Confuse your enemies with your superior mobility, stuns, and fears. Lead your group to the enemy flag and capture it.
-Never fight alone
-No matter how often it has been said to you, in the name of defense, fighting on the road means you aren't fighting on your flag, meaning they cannot capture it. Fight a good 50-100 yards away from the flag to prevent them from ninja capping. Only do this however if you have a caster between you and the flag, in case a Rogue or a Druid tries to ninja cap.
-Recklessness Bladestorm puts out massive pressure in a group of 10. You are bound to critically injure or kill at least one of them.
[B]VIII. Viable Arms Warrior 3s comps: NOTE: 100% subject to change as everyone hits 85. This is in no particular order except the pairing of similar comps (class / spec wise)
-Warrior, Warlock, Resto Druid
-Warrior, Warlock, Holy Paladin
-Warrior, Warlock, Resto Shaman
-Warrior, Mage, Resto Shaman
-Warrior, Mage, Holy Paladin
-Warrior, Feral Druid, Resto Shaman
-Warrior, Feral Druid, Holy Paladin
-Warrior, Enhancement Shaman, Resto Druid
-Warrior, Enhancement Shaman, Holy Paladin
-Warrior, Hunter, Holy Paladin
-Warrior, Hunter, Resto Shaman
-Warrior, Frost or Unholy Death Knight, Resto Shaman
-Warrior, Frost or Unholy Death Knight, Holy Paladin
-Warrior, Retribution Paladin, Resto Shaman
-As you can see, Warriors go very well with Resto Shamans now. I haven't been able to run a very successful comp with a Disc Priest because they are abysmally bad in arenas right now, even though the synergy between Warrior peels and with them having Leap of Faith. I expect a few viable comps to arise once Disc Priests aren't garbage.
IX. Tips and tricks
-Don't keyboard turn
-Don't click your spells (including stances)
-Don't Backpeddal
-Keep Rend up at all times. With the way DoTs work now, you can refresh your Rend early without clipping it and cheating you out of an Overpower proc. Apply during the Charge stun vs any melee then Hamstring, other way around for casters.
-Do not charge if you want to start combat and the enemy is right next to you, you are better off shouting and just running to them, this saves you charge for an extra gap closer or an extra interrupt on a target you can just sit on.
-Try to Throwdown during Charge or Intercept stun (they do not share DR) to make sure it lands vs a melee, or at least make sure you are behind them.
-Use your defensive cooldowns liberally, you have a lot of them.
-Try to not be obvious with your Spell Reflection to avoid it getting knocked off by something useless, such as Curse of Elements. In other words, don't wander around with a shield on 100% of the time Spell Reflecting on cooldown unless it is 100% required to survive.
-Have a 2h and a sword and board macro ready.
-Charge and Intercept aren't just gap closers, they are a stun too. A Rogue that has Evasion up is almost unhittable, and you cannot get out of melee range of him due to Crippling being 20% more slow than Hamstring, but if you Intervene your partner and then Intercept the rogue, you have a good four seconds of killing him + a Throwdown if it is up and worth using.
-Intercepting a healer with his partner next to him, Imp Hamstring his partner, and Throwdown the healer if still in melee range, this gives you almost 10 seconds on the DPS without the healer being involved, the incoming Intimidating Shout will most likely force a trinket.
-Slam will trigger a GCD, but because it has a cast time, you can have Slam, Heroic Strike, and Mortal Strike hit at nearly the same time. During Inner Rage + Colossus Smash this will deal a devastating amount of damage.
X. Class specific tricks: This one is a doozy
Unless stated otherwise, Use abilities in the order of Rend > MS > Colossus Smash > Overpower > Slam. Heroic Strike when you have a lot of rage.
Shadow Priest:
-Bladestorm during a Vampiric Touch or a Mind Blast, they will almost always finish their cast. If you really don't want to risk it, Bladestorm as soon as they use a global on SW: P and right after your first tick of damage, have a cancel Bladestorm into Spell Reflect macro, you will almost always reflect the Horror, wasting Bladestorm but it would have been gone anyway from the Psychic Horror disarm.
-Reflecting a Shadow Word: Death will result in them taking almost double the damage because they take the damage that would have hit you, and they didn't kill their target, so they eat that damage too. When you are below 20% you will turn the tables with a very large SW: D hitting them.
All Priests:
-Sweeping Strikes while a Shadow Fiend is out will kill the Fiend in a few strikes.
Frost Mage:
-Spell Reflect the moment you are frozen to the ground, they will either Deep Freeze themselves, forcing them to Blink if they are in melee range, or if you have high latency and did it too late, you will be sitting in Deep Freeze with Spell Reflect up, causing them to shatter combo themselves.
-Sweeping Strikes an Imp Hamstrung Mage out of LoS of his Water Elemental will force the Elemental close, resulting in a kill on it. The Mage may have it stay or click to move it somewhere to avoid this.
Fire Mage:
-Once he is out of range, until your Charge or Intercept or Heroic Leap come off cooldown, he is pumping scorches into you. Watch his buffs carefully, once he gets a Pyroblast Proc, attempt to spell reflect it.
-Once he is approaching 0% health, get ready to Shattering Throw, he will Ice Block the cauterize if he hasn't Ice Blocked yet. Knock it off ASAP and imp Hamstring him, putting him in a very bad spot. If he Blinks, Intercept or Charge into Throwdown and finish him off.
Arcane Mage:
-One of the more simple Mage fights. Reflect every Arcane Blast, and interrupt any you cant Reflect.
-Interrupting Arcane Blast means the only defensive abilities he has is Frost Nova and Ice Block.
All Mages:
-Interrupting Polymorph means he cannot Blink. Use Throwdown on successful Poly or other arcane spell interrupt.
Destruction Warlocks:
-If you have immolate on you but no daze or Conflagrate DoT on you, and he is Chaos Bolting, he will probably follow it up with Conflag, so if you Spell Reflect, you will reflect both the Chaos Bolt and the Conflag.
Affliction Warlocks:
-Spell Reflect on Haunt will reduce damage from his DoTs by 20%, the Haunt ending will still heal him if he Life Taps during the Haunt duration on him.
-Bladestorm his Fear if you don't have Berserker Rage up and you can't interrupt it. Trinket Death Coil if you don't Spell Reflect it, or save it for Howl of Terror.
Demonology Warlocks:
-Disarm his pet's Bladestorm
All Warlocks:
-Most Warlocks will be low after an Intercept Throwdown combo. If they trinket either, Spell Reflect, a Death Coil will usually follow.
-Target his pet to fear, his pet will get the incapacitation, while the Warlock will get the fear that takes 20% of his health to break.
-You can Berserker Rage his Fears to break them, but not Death Coil.
-Sweeping Strikes to get his pet low, then quickly finish it off before he or his healer has a chance to heal it.
Subtly Rogues:
-Shield Wall the Shadow Dance.
All Rogues:
-Intercept into Throwdown his evasion. Intervene someone or charge something to get range on him to intercept.
-Keep Bleeds up.
-Keep on top of him. If he Vanishes, you can still see him if he was right in front of you.
-You can berserker rage Sap to break it.
-Bladestorm during Throwdown, this will force trinket and a disarm if he has them both up.
Feral Druids:
-Cry
-Try to interrupt his combo point generation as much as possible before he gets full bleeds up and goes Bear Form.
-Bladestorm during Throwdown.
Balance Druids:
-Interrupt Starsurge, this interrupts all schools of magic for him.
-Spell Reflect Starsurge if you cannot interrupt, it does a lot of damage and will not generate Solar or Lunar energy for him.
-Spell Reflect and interrupt Starfire to prevent a Solar Eclipse, if he cannot get his Eclipse he will oom long before your healer.
-If he resorts to Moonfire spam, Imp Hamstring, charge stun, intercept stun, Throwdown him as much as possible, if he stops for any time at all, he will lose his three stack.
-Shield Wall Starfall, Line of Sight him during Thorns. Throwdown him right before Thorns comes back off CD.
Resto Druids:
-Wait for Hots to nearly roll off then Throwdown Intercept Bladestorm him.
All Druids:
-Catch them in Caster form with stuns whenever you can. They all have their vulnerable states versus a Warrior
-Enraged Regeneration during Knockdown. Druids can use Soothe to dispel it.
All Hunters:
-Target their pet before you fear. The pet will get the incapacitation and the Hunter will need to take 20% of his life to break the fear.
-Overpower his Deterence, it will still go through.
-Sweeping Strikes to get his pet low, then quickly finish it off before he or his healer has a chance to heal it.
-You can Spell Reflect Freezing Trap. He will not be afflicted by it, but neither will you.
Elemental Shamans:
-Don't put your back to a cliff.
-Reflect Lava Burst, interrupt nature spells.
-Bladestorm off his roots.
Enhancement Shamans:
-Disarm will not prevent spells and Lava Lash, the majority of their damage.
-Wolves die in Bladestorm or Sweeping Strikes.
-Target their pet before you fear. The pet will get the incapacitation and the Hunter will need to take 20% of his life to break the fear. Try to kill Tremor Totem before you fear.
-Stun once wolves are dead.
Resto Shamans:
-Just stun them a lot and don't let them get any Healing Waves or Greater Healing Waves off.
-Force Earth Shield. Colossus Smash Throwdown Bladestorm will usually force ES.
-They will OOM fast.
All Shamans:
-Root their Ghost Wolf with Imp Hamstring.
-Reflecting Hex destroys their CC for 30 seconds.
-Never interrupt Lava Burst unless Spell reflect is on cooldown or you are defiantly going to die to it.
Retribution Paladins:
-Berserker Rage their Repentance.
-Shield Wall their Avenging Wrath. A Spell Reflect might get a HoJ.
-They can't Freedom out of stuns anymore, so use them liberally
Prot Paladins:
-Cry more than with Ferals
-Spell Reflect during Avenging Wrath to try and get a HoJ
-Don't Colossus Smash until you can Inner Rage and Throwdown, land everything during Throwdown, and go for an Intercept Bladestorm
-If there is another target, ignore this target, he won't do very much damage without Vengeance stacking, he will just be annoying with stuns, have your partner CC him if he can.
Holy Paladins:
-Beat down until ~60%
-Colossus Smash into Throwdown into Bladestorm will usually force Bubble.
All Paladins:
-Try to predict when a Paladin will bubble. He will be low health and most likely in a silence or a stun when he has to bubble. If you time it just right, he won't go a full second in bubble if you Shattering Throw at just the right time.
All Death Knights:
-When they get low health and don't have Icebound Fortitude, Throwdown when he summons his pet if he isn't Unholy. Sweeping Strikes and kill his pet in the stun to avoid him using Death Pact. It doesn't have much health and doesn't get resilience if he isn't Unholy.
-Don't charge or Intercept during Icebound Fortitude if he starts to Kite you with Chains of Ice (it is 60% now, so it takes time for him to get out of range). Just Heroic Leap in front of him so you don't waste the stun.
Fury Warriors:
-Take advantage of your far superior Mobility. Charge, Intercept, and Intervene all around him if you are getting low and need to get topped off by your healer.
-Stun him during Death Wish / Recklessness.
-Bladestorm his Intercept stun.
-Retaliation During Bladestorm will result in a quick death of the Fury Warrior.
Prot Warriors:
-Don't Colossus Smash until you can Inner Rage and Throwdown, land everything during Throwdown, and go for an Intercept Bladestorm.
-If there is another target, ignore this target, he won't do very much damage without Vengeance stacking, he will just be annoying with stuns, have your partner CC him if he can.
Arms Warriors:
-Sword and Board most of the fight.
-During Stuns go 2h.
-Do not disarm his first Bladestorm. Insead Retaliation and Bladestorm him back, he will eat 2 Bladestorms.
-If you Disarm in the beginning of the fight, Disarm will be ready again by the second Bladestorm. Disarm the one where you don't have Retaliation ready.
-Throwdown Bladestorm after your first Retaliation Bladestorm.
I look forward to hearing comments if anything is wrong or needs updating. Thanks!