The rotation of a Fury Warrior retained its simplistic nature, even with the addition of a few new effects in Cataclysm! The playstyle still revolves around Bloodthirst and Bloodsurge procs, with the addition of two new powerful spells, Colossus Smash and Raging Blow. Furthermore, they are also subjected to the same changes that the Warrior Class received, with Heroic Strike and Cleave now having a cooldown. The most prominent change for Fury Warriors, however, is the enhancing effect they receive to their Enrage effects, with Death Wish benefiting the most from the new Unshackled Fury effect.
In this section of the guide, we will go over the rotation and abilities of a Fury Warrior, in both Single-Target and AoE/Cleave encounters.
Single-Target Rotation
The Single-Target Rotation is expressed as a priority list, not a direct order of abilities!
- Cast Sunder Armor on the target if there are no other similar effects present
- Prioritize Death Wish and Recklessness for Burst Phases
- Use Inner Rage when you generate excessive Rage to dump it with Heroic Strike
- Cast Slam whenever Bloodsurge procs
- Cast Colossus Smash on cooldown
- Cast Raging Blow on cooldown while Enraged and while Colossus Smash is up on the target
- Cast Heroic Strike whenever Battle Trance procs or when you have a large amount of Rage
- Cast Bloodthirst (Main Damage Ability)
As mentioned previously, Fury Warriors retained their identity in Cataclysm, meaning that their playstyle is extremely similar! Bloodthirst is your main damaging ability which should be always used on cooldown. As its cooldown is very low, you should be able to use this ability in between any other GCD, meaning that if you cast Bloodthirst and then use Slam or Colossus Smash, Bloodthirst should be available for use once again.
Sunder Armor is a very important debuff that you should aim to stack on your target as soon as possible in case there is no other class that can provide a similar effect such as Expose Armor or Faerie Fire/Faerie Fire (Feral). Upkeeping this debuff will be vital for maximizing your damage output!
The most impactful changes in the rotation come from the addition of Raging Blow and Colossus Smash. Since Armor Penetration is no longer part of the game and Sunder Armor was nerfed, Colossus Smash is the new main way of bypassing an enemy’s armor. You will want to cast it on cooldown and ideally use 2 x Bloodthirst and 1 x Raging Blow during the debuff’s duration.
Raging Blow is a new ability that will deal devastating damage to your enemies based on both of your weapons, however, it requires you to be enraged to become available. Since this ability has a short cooldown, you will want to make use of abilities such as Berserker Rage in case Enrage doesn’t proc or if you’re not in your Burst Phase during Death Wish.
Death Wish remains largely the same, with the addition that Death Wish will now be improved by Mastery while Recklessness has been massively buffed to improve the Critical Strike Chance of all of your abilities during its duration, no longer being limited to 3 Special Attacks. While Intensify Rage does reduce the cooldown of both abilities, their overall cooldown can still be considered pretty high, meaning that you will have to use them on specific critical moments of an encounter where a high DPS is required. It’s very important to keep in mind that such specific thresholds are different from encounter to encounter based on the tactics they require.
Slam remains the same as it was back in WotLK, with the ability only being used on Bloodsurge procs! You should keep in mind that you should never hard cast Slam, even if you can do it while moving in Cataclysm.
Lastly, Heroic Strike has been changed, now having a cooldown. It retained its off-GCD properties, meaning that it can still be used together with another ability. However, its cost is quite high, potentially leading to a Rage Starved, meaning that its use should be optimized as much as possible. You should only aim to use it whenever Battle Trance procs or if you have above 90 Rage. Inner Rage will allow you to cast it even more often, however, it will severely dampen your performance if its use prevents you from consistently using Bloodthirst and Raging Blow.
AoE/Cleave Rotation
- Prioritize Inner Rage whenever you generate Excess Rage
- Maintain Single-Target Rotation for Cleave encounters with 2 or 3 targets and replace Heroic Strike with Cleave
- Cast Cleave on cooldown as long as you have enough Rage in both AoE/Cleave Encounters
- Cast Whirlwind on cooldown
The AoE and Cleave rotations are rather different depending on the number of foes you are currently facing. For any AoE encounter that classifies as a Cleave encounter (2 or 3 targets), you will mainly want to stick to your Single-Target rotation while swapping Heroic Strike for Cleave. In such Cleave encounters, you may also add Whirlwind into the mix as long as it doesn’t lead to a Rage Starved state.
For encounters that have at least 4 targets, classified as AoE Encounters, you will want to prioritize Whirlwind and Cleave as much as possible, using Bloodthirst only when you have excess Rage. Since Whirlwind received a massive buff if used on at least 4 targets, you will manage to cast it far more often than you were used to during WotLK.
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