PvE Arms Warrior DPS Talents, Builds & Glyphs

wotlk pve arms warrior dps talents, builds & glyphs
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PvE Arms Warrior DPS

Talents & Builds

Talents, Builds & Glyphs

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There is generally one talent build that Arms Warriors will use throughout the whole expansion, the “standard build” listed below. However, this guide also features 3 slightly modified versions of the standard build, which provide different situational benefits.

Talent Builds

Click a build to expand it and see details!

The standard build is a well-rounded build that focuses on the early stages of the expansion taking points into Improved Slam, Poleaxe Specialization, Deep Wounds, Sudden Death, and Wrecking Crew.

This build is especially strong until the last phase of the expansion, when the Tier 10 item set bonuses start focusing more on Execute instead of Slam.

standard build 1
Click here to see this build in the talent Calculator

This is a variation of the standard build that focuses on the use of “Swords”. This variant of the build works exactly as the Standard Build, however, it will help you generate additional normal melee attacks by choosing to spend points in Sword Specialization.

standard build sword
Click here to see this build in the Talent Calculator

This variation of the Standard build works exactly the same as the Standard Build itself, however, it focuses on using talents to hit the Armor Penetration cap via the use of a mace combined with Mace Specialization.

mace specialization
Click here to see this build in the Talent Calculator

This is a variation of the standard build that emphasizes the use of Execute as one of your main tools, completely forgoing Slam. You will also want to utilize this build in conjunction with an Axe for optimal damage output.

execute build
Click here to see this build in the Talent Calculator

Notable Talents

  • Improved Rend is an absolute mandatory talent as we will always want to upkeep Rend on a target. This talent improves the bleed damage of Rend by 20%!
  • Improved Overpower is a talent that further emphasizes the requirement of Critical Strike Chance for an Arms Warrior, enhancing one of our most powerful abilities with a 50% improved crit chance.
  • Improved Charge offers you 10 additional rage upon activation of Charge, allowing you to effectively perform your rotation better — a must-have talent.
  • Impale is a talent that further emphasizes the nature of the Arms Warrior specialization, improving our critical strike damage bonus.
  • Deep Wounds is one of the most powerful talents in the Arms specialization tree, allowing you to deal 48% of each critical strike as a DoT bleed on your target.
  • Taste for Blood is one of the fun gimmicks of the Arms Warrior, it grants you access to a proc that allows you to cast Overpower without meeting its requirement. A mandatory talent that makes or breaks your entire rotation!
  • Poleaxe Specialization improves your overall critical strike chance with axes and polearms by 5%, a must-have talent for the strongest weapon in the entire game, Shadowmourne!
  • Sword Specialization grants you a 10% chance to proc an additional melee swing on your target, however, this effect can not proc more than once every 6 seconds.
  • Mace Specialization is a very strong talent, especially when you are close to attaining your Armor Penetration cap but you are not there yet. It offers you a 15% increased Armor Penetration when using a Mace!
  • Improved Mortal Strike increases the overall damage of Mortal Strike by 10% while also reducing its cooldown by up to 1 second. An extremely strong talent that allows you to efficiently spam Mortal Strike.
  • Trauma is one of the talents that go hand in hand with the idea of an Arms Warrior, empowering all your Bleed damage as well as the Bleed damage of your allies.
  • Endless Rage is a talent reserved only for the most ruthless warriors, which display the most rigorous abilities through hard training. This talent allows you to generate 25% more rage from your offensive abilities, making Arms Warriors a truly unstoppable offensive force.
  • Juggernaut is a talent that extremely improves the mobility of an Arms Warrior. It allows you to cast Charge in combat, no longer restricting you to the use of Intercept and Intervene!
  • Sudden Death is a must-have talent that allows you to use the most powerful ability in your arsenal without being limited by the 20% health threshold! Whenever Sudden Death becomes available, there should not be anything else than Execute on your mind!
  • Wrecking Crew is a talent that grants you a chance to gain 10% increased damage for 12 seconds whenever you land a critical strike. Unfortunately, we can not stack this talent together with Enrage.
  • Improved Slam decreases the swing time of Slam by 1 second! Improved Slam is an optional talent due to the fact that Slam can not be used consistently throughout the entirety of the expansion.
  • Improved Execute is a talent that reduces the rage cost of Execute by 5. While this talent grants us better rage management, it does not severely impact our gameplay until the very end of the expansion when Execute gains a much more pivotal role.
  • Commanding Presence is a simple talent that increases the overall potency of Commanding Shout and Battle Shout. This talent can be chosen as an alternative to Improved Cleave.
  • Improved Cleave increases the bonus damage of Cleave by 120%. If we look at the sheer buff this talent offers to our main AoE spell, we would be fools not to select it, especially if we know that we will be encountering some AoE-heavy fights. However, this talent would be entirely useless in raids that have Single-Target predominant fights.
  • Piercing Howl grants us the ability to daze our foes, empowering Heroic Strike while also reducing their movement speed by 50%! This ability is treated as both a utility ability and a damage-enhancing ability, especially due to the fact that it is not affected by GCD. However, its use is entirely optional, and at times, it can hinder the rotation of a less experienced player.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

This glyph increases the duration of Rend by 6 seconds. Considering how essential Rend is for an Arms Warrior, this glyph is absolutely mandatory, not only helping you with Rend upkeep but also helping you proc Taste for Blood an additional time.

Increases the damage of Mortal Strike by 10%. This is especially powerful when spending 3 points on Improved Mortal Strike. This glyph will be particularly strong during the early phases of the expansion when fights have lower durations and Execute is not as valuable.

This glyph increases the overall damage of Execute, proving to be quite powerful in the later phases of the expansion. You will especially benefit from this glyph due to the Sudden Death talent, which showcases its strength in fights with long durations.

This glyph is extremely powerful towards the end of the expansion when you are approaching high Critical Strike Chance. Provided that you have enough Critical Strike Chance, this glyph will help you consistently spam your abilities!

This glyph is strong in fights that have a large numbers of adds, as it allows you to use Bladestorm every 51 seconds.

This glyph is especially powerful in AoE situations, allowing you to effectively hit 3 targets at the same time! Note that this glyph is more suited for dungeons than raids.

Minor Glyphs

This glyph entirely removes the health cost of Bloodrage, resulting in more efficient rage generation! A must-have!

Glyph of Charge increases the range of Charge by 5 yards. While this might not seem like much of a bonus, it represents a significant increase in mobility when combined with the ability to cast Charge in combat via Juggernaut.

The last minor glyph is entirely up to you, Glyph of Command proves to be the best choice when thinking about how rarely you will meet a Destruction Warlock to provide Blood Pact for your raid.

 

About the Author

Nevermore

Hey there folks, I am Nevermore and have been deeply passionate about WoW for more than a decade. Whether we talk about the hidden mysteries of Azeroth or the otherworldly Outland, my journey brought me here to share the things that I have experienced with you all.
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Riecheck
Riecheck
2 years ago

Wish there was more why/when/how breakdown for talents and such instead of flavor text

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Wrynthall
Wrynthall
2 years ago

This severely needs some updating. You’re not supposed to spec that far into the mortal strike with the phase 1 tier set bonus since slam will do more damage. Also, no one parsing in the top 200 arms warriors is using these builds.

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Grozak
Grozak
2 years ago

Given talents tree are not accurate, standard Arms build is 55/8/8. Incite and improved thunder clap is a must from prot tree. Anyone who serious about playing arms, look for the Incite build. And another tip; Avoid using Sword at all cost. Mace is meh. Axe or Polearm is best choice early on. Mace is only decent after you reach to around 900 ARP, then you can get benefit from it’s passive ARP. As for professions, haste is not good for arms, so there is little benefit from getting engineering. JW is good and you can get either blacksmith or alchemy if you are planing to stay as arms through entire expansion. But at some point you might want to switching to fury, becouse it’s becomes better and better. If you want to switching to fury eventually, grab engineering.

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Scotie
Scotie
1 year ago

how up to date is this guide?

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