Arms Warrior PvE Guide--Cataclysm

[rawdog]

dont wanna sound like a dick or anything, but this isnt really even a 'guide' it is just copy pasta, I may be jaded cuz I've played a warr at high lvl since lvl 60, but there is nothing remotely interesting in here, I find more useful info in any regular EJ thread.

anyways, A for effort looks like you put a lot of time into it.

More focus on actual game play would majorly improve this. getting right into the nitty gritty of a proper rotation.

seriously, 4 mobs ... rend and Tclap ?! what arms warr spec blood and thunder?! dont go mis informing people new to the class with rubbish like this.

[Sweetail]

I'd like to see some real data on whether we should be capping expertise. We still gain rage on dodges so the only thing we lose would be the odd application of CS and then we'd proc OP. In lich it was a definite dps loss to stack expertise past the low teens at the expense of crit and, at that point, armor pen. Does CS make capping it necessary now? Or should we just take whatever we get on gear and still reforge/gem for crit or mastery?

[Loto Bordeaux]

@Eater_of_birds
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the guide As I said in the statement, it's good and fine to min/max your character even down to the race...but first and foremost it is a game meant to be played for leisure/fun. I felt I had to include that minor statement to hopefully persuade newer players to not be pressured into races (even classes) just because it is not what's 'ideal.'

@rawdog
All criticism is appreciated, however bear in mind that this guide is first and foremost directed towards those who have not <played a warrior since level 60> and those (for all we know) might even be new to World of Warcraft all together. I would imagine that most of this information would be a dreadful/monotinous read for you as this is the basics (varying from Blizzard text to paraphrasing) as well as my opinon to how to begin optimizing your warrior. As for the talent "Blood and Thunder," myself and others have found Blood and Thunder to warrent useage in encounters when ncps are high in quantity. As this is a situational talent, there will be (and are) encounters where this two point investment is a Dps increase; however there will be encounters with little to no adds, thus this talent would be a waste. I list "+4" merely to illustrate the idea that in these [occasional] situations, this would be a talent to pick up if the boss encounter you are progressing on meets this condition.

[Awakar]

Really like this guide. As a new Arms Warrior who at the moment has been too lazy to look up a lot of the info in this guide (the rotation isn't hard to figure out, but some of the other stuff like stats breakdowns are) this helped a lot.

[Sindrax]

The expertise cap is actually 781 expertise rating, and 691 with racial.

[Deleted]

I haven't actually read it entirely, but it is very easy to read and find information in this guide so big thumbs up.

Numbers being off is one thing as that is easily edited, but it's a really good writeup and the presentation is excellent.

[evilcast]

Very sweet guide, I have been looking 4 a decent PVE guide 4 ages

[Brakthir]

Nice guide. Too bad Arms isn't competitive on dps on anything other than add fights.

[Charagon]

Here are a few macros you can put in the guide.


#showtooltip Charge
/startattack
/cast [stance:1] Charge(Battle Stance)
/cast [stance:2] Intervene
/cast [stance:3] Intercept
/cast Hamstring

This is more a PvP macro, but it's good in some PvE situations. Since these abilities are off the Global Cooldown, this is an easy way to free up a button. If you're close enough for Hamstring, you won't be able to Charge. If you're far enough away to Charge, you won't be able to Hamstring. The two abilities won't interfere with each other at all.




#showtooltip Cleave
/startattack
/cast Cleave
/cast Sweeping Strikes

Sweeping Strikes, also off the GCD can be tied into pretty much any button you want. I tie it into Cleave because odds are if I'm Cleaving something, I'll want to use Sweeping Strikes anyway.




#showtooltip Overpower
/equipslot 16 "Your 2-H Weapon"
/startattack
/cast Inner Rage
/cast Overpower

I like macroing in an equip button into abilities just to make sure I'm always using the right weapon when the time is right. If you needed to Shield Wall or Spell Reflect quick, this automatically puts the right weapon back in your hands when it's time to Overpower.
Start attack is there to make sure your always auto-attacking.
Inner Rage is great to macro into Overpower. When the time is right, it increases the damage done by 15% for all of 2 extra rage. Pretty sweet deal.



#showtooltip Enraged Regeneration
/cast Berserker Rage
/cast Enraged Regeneration

With the stupidly low up-time on Wrecking Crew, this is an easy one-button health regen when you need to give your healers a break.



#showtooltip Rend
/equipslot 16 "Your Two-Handed Weapon"
/startattack
/cast [nostance:1] Battle Stance; Rend

Like the Overpower macro, this one makes sure that when you press Rend, your 2H is equipped and you're auto-attacking. It also has the added benefit of switching you back into Battle Stance if you find yourself in Zerk or Defensive Stance.



#showtooltip Shattering Throw
/cast [nostance:1] Battle Stance; Shattering Throw

This one is pretty self-explanatory.





#showtooltip Slam
/equipslot 16 "Your Two-Handed Weapon"
/startattack
/cast Inner Rage
/cast Slam

Like Overpower, Slam is a good ability to tie Inner Rage into.





#showtooltip Mortal Strike
/equipslot 16 "Your Two-Handed Weapon"
/cancelaura Inner Rage
/startattack
/cast Mortal Strike

Unlike Slam and Overpower, Mortal Strike is a bit too costly for Inner Rage. Besides, we really aren't using MS for its damage. We're using it for Lambs to the Slaughter and Wrecking Crew. This macro makes sure we aren't spending unnecessary rage on an already costly ability.

[Leetgarg]

Excellent!! I was wondering what to do during my execute phase. From now on I'll be slipping into zerker, CS MS and spamming the hell out of execute :-D with wreck up as well :-D

On a side note... I would disagree with expertise in any form is good for arms. Even with the potential to have CS dodged it will still Proc OP and with the Proc being a Proc u never know when it will Proc. I would argue that at this point in the game stat priority would be

Hit (to 8%) > Str > mastery > crit. Haste is completely useless which I agree with you on, but maybe slam scaling with haste will change that. I would love to see the SEP values of mastery. If anyone has the numbers already, please share with the group!

Also, on our SoO does that extra white hit on Proc generate more rage? Because from what I've been seeing I get alot of rage when I use my trinket that brings my mastery to 50%. I'm also wondering if anyone has the numbers on that.

Cheers!

[Sajakain]

Hit Cap: Hit Cap at level 85 for the Arms Warrior is currently 8%, which is equivilant to exactly 961 hit rating. This would imply that exactly 1% hit at level 85 is equivilant to roughly 120.125 hit rating.

Just a point of curiosity here, and perhaps it's already been mentioned, but I believe your hit cap to be slightly wrong. Eight percent hit, does in fact, cap your special attacks from missing on a raid boss but it does not cap your normal attacks. The reason I question this is due to the implementation of Rage Normalization (RN). Albeit that there are a handful of abilities in the arms tree to grant additional rage -- missing out on rage simply because your normal attack missed doesn't seem too beneficial to any warrior; arms or otherwise.

Now I may have missed a patch change, or may be simply ignorant to the Arms tree and the stats accordingly due to the fact it's been some patches ago since I've played Arms... but I know for Fury if you're not hard hit capped you're not getting the necessary rage required to get your numbers where they need to be due to RN.

Any thoughts or corrections to this line of thinking? Perhaps I'm wrong and missing something (which wouldn't be the first time).

[Charagon]

Just a point of curiosity here, and perhaps it's already been mentioned, but I believe your hit cap to be slightly wrong. Eight percent hit, does in fact, cap your special attacks from missing on a raid boss but it does not cap your normal attacks. The reason I question this is due to the implementation of Rage Normalization (RN). Albeit that there are a handful of abilities in the arms tree to grant additional rage -- missing out on rage simply because your normal attack missed doesn't seem too beneficial to any warrior; arms or otherwise.

Now I may have missed a patch change, or may be simply ignorant to the Arms tree and the stats accordingly due to the fact it's been some patches ago since I've played Arms... but I know for Fury if you're not hard hit capped you're not getting the necessary rage required to get your numbers where they need to be due to RN.

Any thoughts or corrections to this line of thinking? Perhaps I'm wrong and missing something (which wouldn't be the first time).

Arms doesn't duel-wield.

[Sajakain]

Arms doesn't duel-wield.

Simple enough. As mentioned I have not played arms for quite some time and have not researched the stat weights for it accordingly. After checking things out and looking them over you're simplistic answer proves best. Thanks.

[Deleted]

hi, very nice guide thanks for it.
Any chance you gonna make one for fury pve aswell?

[Deleted]

Nice guide. Too bad Arms isn't competitive on dps on anything other than add fights.

Registered just to say this: I'm ranked 2nd in the world in Warr DPS as Arms on Cho'gall 25man with Fury included last time I checked, so I beg to differ.

EDIT: Looking at it again, there are loads of people above me now, but Inner Sanctum's Arms warr still tops DPS on it

[Optimoos]

Quick note to say that you've mentioned sunder armor stacks to 5, which it does not any more - it only stacks to 3.

[Brakthir]

Add fights.

[Evirx]

Why would any one be arms PVE its terrible compared to fury even SMF beats it.

[Troyzilla]

Add fights.

Your Chimaeron parse is 15491, you are fury.

My Chimaeron parse is 15684, I'm arms.

Man that's weird.

[Brakthir]

Man, it's totally not that I'm next highest on threat right after tanks when they die in the last phase, nor is it that I put on a shield, hit shieldwall and leap away to buy raid extra dps time or anything. And that I die when he as like, 10-15% health left.

Nope. Not that at all. At all. AT ALL.