In this section of the guide, we will go over each stat that an Arms Warrior requires and explain in-depth how they function along with any possible stat caps that you will have to consider. We will also detail how other stats influence Arms Warriors and what stats you will have to avoid! Arms Warriors have a similar stat priority to other Strength-based DPS specs, with one stat being exceptionally strong.
Stat Priority
- Strength
- Hit Rating
- Expertise
- Critical Strike Chance
- Mastery
- Haste
- Agility
Strength has been redesigned in Cataclysm as the main way for Arms Warriors to acquire Attack Power. It would be best to acquire as much Strength as possible to maximize your damage. Your gear will naturally offer you Strength, while you also have the option of stacking Strength Gems in your sockets to increase it further. Especially in the early parts of the expansion, stacking Strength Gems will allow you to maximize your damage output.
Hit Rating is the most important stat you can acquire after your core stat for most DPS classes, and Arms Warriors are no exception. Similarly to the rest of the stats, Hit Rating also received a stat upscale, with each Arms Warrior requiring a much higher amount to achieve the Soft Hit Cap when compared to WotLK Classic.
In Cataclysm, Arms Warriors require an 8% (referred to as the “soft cap”) increased hit chance to never miss with melee attacks. Each player now requires a 120 Hit Rating to gain a 1% Hit Chance. The 17% increased Hit Chance referred to as “Hard Cap” won’t be necessary for an Arms Warrior, as most of their abilities count as Melee Attacks. Furthermore, Draenei Arms Warriors can reach the 8% Soft Cap more easily thanks to the Heroic Presence racial passive
Expertise Rating is the second most important stat you can acquire after your core stat for most Melee DPS classes. Expertise Rating reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried, making it an indispensable stat. However, you can’t completely prevent your attacks from being parried unless you reach the hard Expertise Cap. As such. Melee DPS classes should always position themselves behind the boss, as attacks can’t be parried from behind!
Each expertise point reduces the chance of your attacks being dodged or parried by 0.25%. You will gain a 1% Expertise for every 30.038 Expertise Rating you acquire.
You will require 26 Expertise to reach the Soft Expertise Cap to reduce the chance of your attacks being parried or dodged against level 88 enemies. With 26 Expertise, a level 88 target has a 7.5% chance of parrying one of your attacks and a 0% chance of dodging one of your attacks, meaning that you reduce your overall chance for your attacks to be parried or dodged by 6.50%.
Critical Strike Chance is the most important stat for Arms Warriors after reaching the Hit Rating & Expertise Rating Soft Caps. Critical Strike Chance is involved in multiple mechanics for the Arms Warrior specialization, playing a vital role in its overall play style. Just like with the other stats, Critical Strike Chance received a stat upscale, meaning that you will require more Critical Strike Rating to increase your Critical Strike Chance. You gain a 1% increased chance to crit for every 179 Critical Strike Rating you acquire!
Critical Strike Chance is required in order to trigger the following talents: Deep Wounds, Wrecking Crew, and Incite. While Incite is not as impactful, stacking the stat will aid you in proccing Deep Wounds consistently on a target and benefiting from Wrecking Crew throughout the entirety of an encounter.
Mastery is a new stat introduced in Cataclysm, offering specific bonuses depending on the class/specialization that acquires it. Every single different specialization has a different benefit from acquiring Mastery! Arms Warrior receives the Strikes of Opportunity passive upon gaining access to Mastery, which is a passive effect that has a chance to trigger additional Melee Attacks that deal 100% normal damage. The chance for this effect to trigger depends on your Mastery Rating (Mastery Point), with each point increasing the chance by 2.2%. Without any Mastery Rating from your gear, the initial chance for Strikes of Opportunity to trigger is 17.6%.
While this may not seem like much, the effect triggers from any of your Melee Attacks, meaning that Mastery is almost as impactful as Critical Strike Chance. Besides the raw damage granted by the effect, this stat truly shines by empowering the Sudden Death talent, as the attacks from Strikes of Opportunity can trigger its effect.
Haste Rating is the weakest stat for Arms Warriors, offering only a few benefits. Haste Rating increases the overall speed of your attacks while also reducing the Global Cooldown of your abilities and their specific cast time. Since most of our abilities are instant cast, Haste Rating will only affect abilities such as Slam and Shattering Throw. Since we don’t have any talents that benefit from Haste Rating while also having access to Executioner which already provides us with increased Attack Speed during the Execution Phase of an encounter, Haste Rating should only be treated as the lowest priority stat.
Agility is a stat that Arms Warrior should attempt to avoid as much as possible. While in WotLK, Agility was used by Warriors to boost their Critical Strike Chance and Attack Power, in Cataclysm, the stat only grants Critical Strike Chance to a Warrior. Additionally, since Strength is so much more instrumental in the success of a Warrior, Agility items should only be taken as a last resort, in case you can’t find any other possible replacement for said Gear Slot.
Reforging
Reforging is introduced in Cataclysm as an additional way to adjust your equipment’s secondary stats. Through reforging, you can acquire a plethora of different stats in exchange for a portion of your current gear’s secondary stats. However, you may not replace any of the main stats on a piece of equipment such as Strength or Stamina.
Since Critical Strike Chance is the most important stat for an Arms Warrior besides Strength and the Hit &Expertise Caps, you will want to make sure that you reforge the majority of your gear to include the Critical Strike Chance stat. Depending on the gear piece you are currently reforging, you will want to reforge your stats based on their priority order.
As an example, if a gear piece has Haste Rating and Expertise Rating as secondary stats, you will prioritize reforging Haste Rating over Expertise Rating. In this specific scenario, you may choose to reforge Expertise Rating instead of Haste Rating only if your current Expertise Rating makes you cross the 26 Expertise Soft Cap threshold.
In the same sense, you will want to reforge the rest of your secondary stats based on the stat priority list. As an example, if a gear piece already has Mastery and Haste Rating as secondary stats, you will want to reforge a portion of the Haste Rating in exchange for more Critical Strike Chance.
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