PvE Arms Warrior DPS Guide

PvE Arms Warrior Guide

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Gear & Best In Slot (BiS)

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Welcome to Warcraft Tavern’s guide for the Arms Warrior in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic. In this guide, we will cover everything from the best races to play to an optimal rotation and everything in between.

Best Races

Alliance

Humans: If you chose a Human Warrior, you would benefit greatly from Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization, effectively increasing your Expertise by 5 while wielding a mace or sword (one-handed or two-handed) During the first few phases, this racial is invaluable but as we reach closer to Phase 5, we’ll start noticing Expertise becoming more common on items causing this racial to become less advantageous.

Dwarves: If you chose a Dwarf Warrior, your main benefit would be Stoneform, which increases your armor by 10% while causing you to become immune to poison, disease, and bleed effects for a short time.

Night Elves: If you chose a Night Elf Warrior, you’ll benefit from two racials: Shadowmeld and Quickness. While Shadowmeld can only be activated while out of combat, it still grants you a lower chance of having a mob aggro you if you happen to go AFK for a bit or if you’re in PvP, it can be a great addition for you. Quickness increases your base chance to dodge by 1%. While not necessarily as beneficial for DPS as it would be for tanks, it’s still worth mentioning in case you ever get aggro for a higher survival rate.

Gnomes: If you chose a Gnome Warrior, you will benefit from Escape Artist. Having the ability to clear yourself of movement-impairing effects as a Warrior is incredibly beneficial in both PvE and PvE content.

Draenei: If you chose a Draenei Warrior, your two biggest benefits are Heroic Presence, which grants you a 1% increase to your hit rating (Melee and Ranged) and Gift of the Naaru, which is a free heal that you can use on either yourself or a friendly target.

Horde

Orcs: If you chose an Orc Warrior, you’ll see a few different benefits. First, we’ll see Axe Specialization, which, just like the Humans’ racials, increases your Expertise while using one-handed or two-handed axes. The second racial that benefits Warriors is Blood Fury, increasing your attack power while reducing healing effects on you by 50%. This shouldn’t be used if you’re climbing the threat meter too quickly since you likely won’t survive getting aggro with the 50% reduction. The third racial that Warriors can benefit from is Hardiness, increasing your chance to resist stun effects by 15%.

Undead: In terms of pure PvE content, the Undead race doesn’t offer much in terms of beneficial racials for Arms Warriors with the exception of being able to restore your health by consuming nearby corpses with Cannibalize. Undead Warriors DO have Will of the Forsaken, but it benefits you a lot more in PvP content than it does in PvE.

Taurens: If you chose a Tauren Warrior, you would benefit from two racial abilities: War Stomp and Endurance. Warstomp allows you to stun up to 4 mobs in a small radius around you that can be a lifesaver for your tank in some dire situations. Endurance provides you with a 5% increase to your total health which doesn’t have a cap, so the more health you have, the more health Endurance will provide.

Trolls: If you chose a Troll Warrior, the main racial you will benefit from is Berserking, which increases your attack speed by 10-30%, depending on your missing health at the time. In other words, the less health you have at the time, the more speed the racial provides. However, as a DPS, it’s unlikely that you will be reaching the 30% increased attack speed since your tank will hopefully be maintaining aggro. The second racial that is somewhat beneficial for you would be Beast Slaying, increasing your damage caused to beasts by 5%.

Best Professions

Alchemy: Apart from being able to create your own consumables, which can save you plenty of gold once you start raiding and running heroics regularly, Alchemists can also craft Assassin’s Alchemist Stone in Phase 5.

Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing allows you to craft various high-level pieces of equipment such as Mooncleaver, Lionheart Champion, Bulwark of Kings (which is your Phase 1 BiS chest piece) and others throughout each phase.

Enchanting: Enchanting DOES provide opportunity for players to make some extra gold by disenchanting drops they find/win and selling the reagents on the Auction House. However, the main benefit of Enchanting would be considered the unique ability to enchant your rings with 1 of 4 possibilities. The two that would appeal to Warriors would be Enchant Ring – Stats and Enchant Ring – Striking.

Engineering: Beginning in Phase 2, Engineers can craft powerful helmet items. As an Arms Warrior, we would be looking at Furious Gizmatic Goggles. Engineers can also provide utility to their groups by crafting things like Field Repair Bot 110G. In Phase 5, Engineers have the opportunity to upgrade Furious Gizmatic Goggles to Mayhem Projection Goggles, which are in the top three helmets for Phase 5.

Jewelcrafting: Jewelcrafters are able to craft unique gems like Crimson Sun that only they can use. However, these gems are unique and you can only have one equipped at any one time. They’re also able to create trinkets like Figurine – Felsteel Boar in Phase 1.

Leatherworking: Similar to Classic WoW, you may find Warriors wearing various types of gear including Leather, Mail and Plate. Because of this, Leatherworking may be beneficial for crafting items such as Fel Leather Leggings. The other major benefit that players see from Leatherworking is through Drums of Battle.

Tailoring: The only benefit that Tailoring has for Warriors would be the ability to craft your own bags.

Gathering Professions: Apart from a method of making gold, or supplying yourself with required materials, there is no benefit to going with Mining, Skinning or Herbalism until a later expansion.