PvP Arms Warrior Guide

PvP Arms Warrior

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Pre-BiS & Best In Slot (BiS)

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Welcome to the Arms Warrior PvP guide for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King! This guide will teach you how to properly play an Arms Warrior in PvP scenarios, whether those might be battlegrounds, arenas, or the open world. The Arms Warrior is a master of combat that emphasizes close-quarter encounters. Using his mastery over all types of arms, he charges directly into the enemy frontlines, wreaking havoc among all who dare cross his path.

With rigorously trained discipline, the Arms Warriors throw themselves and their weapons right into the midst of the battle. They may even unleash a deadly storm of blades that will weaken an enemy so much that it will lead them to the path of Execution.

Arena Team Setups

You will want to try the following combinations in the Arena:

2 vs 2 Teams:

• Arms Warrior/Holy Paladin (By far the best comp for this expansion)
• Arms Warrior/Restoration Druid
• Arms Warrior/Restoration Shaman
• Arms Warrior/Discipline Priest
• Arms Warrior/Unholy Death Knight
• Arms Warrior/Retribution Paladin

3 vs 3 Teams:

• Arms Warrior/Holy Paladin/Unholy Death Knight
• Arms Warrior/Marksmanship Hunter/Holy Paladin
• Arms Warrior/Balance Druid/Discipline Priest
• Arms Warrior/Retribution Paladin/Restoration Druid
• Arms Warrior/Frost Death Knight/Retribution Paladin

Best Races

Since the expansion we are reviewing is Wrath of the Lich King, the most notable choices for the Arms Warrior are Human for the Alliance, and Orc for the Horde. However, we will cover all of the available races in detail below.

Horde

• Orc: Orcs are one of the choices available if you are playing a Warrior, and are often considered to be the best race available for PvP on the Horde. They provide several interesting racial effects for PvP: the first one is Hardiness, an effect that reduces the duration of stun effects by 15%, which can make a difference between winning and losing in a situation when your trinket is on cooldown.
  
  The second interesting racial is Blood Fury, an effect that acts as an attack power increase for 15 seconds, scaling with level. The total attack power gained at level 80 would be 322.
  
  Lastly, we have the Axe Specialization, a racial effect that makes Orcs shine when it comes to PvP – mostly because the best weapon in the expansion is Shadowmourne.

• Undead: Another choice for the Warrior class, the Undead bring some interesting PvP effects into the fold. The first one of these is the Will of the Forsaken, a racial which acts as a trinket – removing charm, sleep, and fear effects. You can think of it as a second trinket in your pocket.
  
  The second racial that we will talk about is an all-time Undead trademark, Cannibalize. It allows you to feast upon the corpses of your fallen enemies, not only to regenerate your health points, but also to instill terror upon those watching this unspeakable act.
  
  The Undead also benefit from Shadow Resistance, an effect that reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 2%.
  
  If you feel like being a silent predator, Underwater Breathing will allow you to hide inside large bodies of water for a very long time, waiting for any unsuspecting prey that you have set your eyes upon.

• Tauren: Tauren provide another suitable choice for the Warrior class, bringing in a more defensive-oriented trait selection. The first racial effect that we will mention here is the Endurance, offering the player a 5% increase to their base health, making them sturdier.
  
  The second racial we will mention which has high applicability for PvP is War Stomp. This ability offers us a stun that lasts 2 seconds and can be applied on up to 5 targets, with 0.5 seconds cast time. It can be used to create a “crowd-control lock,” or to simply stop a high-priority spell from being cast.
  
  Other than these two racials, Taurens also offer Nature Resistance, which reduces your chance to be hit by Nature spells by 2%, and Cultivation, which increases your starting skill points for herbalism by 15.

• Troll: The last available choice for the Warrior class, Trolls offer some good effects for PvP content. The first of those is Berserking, increasing our attack speed by 20% for 10 seconds.
  
  The second notable effect is Regeneration, which increases health regeneration by 10%, while also allowing us to regenerate 10% of our health during combat. This racial is pretty powerful, since we also benefit from different regeneration effects, such as Enraged Regeneration or Blood Craze, and the Second Wind.
  
  Da Voodoo Shuffle is another useful racial for PvP, as it reduces the duration of all movement-impairing effects by 15%.

Alliance

• Human: One of the available races for the Warrior class, which is often considered to be the best race for PvP on the Alliance. Humans provide several powerful effects: the strongest racial effect they offer is Every Man for Himself, effectively acting as a trinket – it allows Humans to use double DPS trinkets, boosting their damage by a considerable amount.
  
  The second racial effect we will talk about is Perception, which greatly increases the chance to detect stealthed targets, giving us an advantage in fights against Rogues and Druids.
  
  Other notable effects are Mace Specialization and Sword Specialization, which increase our expertise with these weapons.

• Dwarf: Dwarves are another suitable choice for the Warrior class – these sturdy members of the Alliance bring in defense-oriented racials for the players. The first notable one is Stoneform: this active skill offers us a 10% increase in armor and removes all poison, bleed, and disease effects, lasting for 8 seconds.
  
  Their second defensive racial is Frost Resistance. This effect reduces the chance to be hit by Frost spells by 2%.
  
  Another interesting Dwarf racial that can potentially be useful in the early parts of the expansion is the Mace Specialization, which increases our expertise with Maces by 5.

• Night Elf: Night Elves are an ancient race of proud warriors, coming with several interesting racial effects. The first unique one is Shadowmeld, which offers the player an instant-cast static invisibility, effectively making them slip away into the shadows. This helps the Night Elf ambush their enemies, or to make the enemy player lose the Night Elf as a target.
  
  Elusiveness is a racial effect that works in conjunction with Shadowmeld, reducing the player’s chance to be detected while stealthed or Shadowmelded.
  
  The third racial effect worthy of note is Quickness, which reduces the chance to be hit by ranged and melee attacks by 2%. Nature Resistance has an effect similar to that of Quickness, reducing the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 2%.
  
  The last unique racial effect available to Night Elves is Wisp Spirit. This effect turns you into a wisp upon death, increasing your movement speed by 75%. This racial has little significance in battlegrounds or arenas, but it can be very helpful in open-world PvP scenarios.
  

Gnome: Another choice for the Warrior class, Gnomes provide some good racials for PvP. The first racial effect we will talk about is the most impactful for PvP – the Escape Artist. This active effect removes any immobilization or movement speed reduction effects, available on a 60-second cooldown.

Their second notable racial effect is Arcane Resistance, which reduces the chance to be hit by Arcane spells by 2%.

Lastly, one other beneficial effect for PvP is Engineering Specialization, allowing an easy option for the player to raise their Engineering skill.

• Draenei: The last choice available for the Warrior class on the Alliance, the Draenei provide several interesting and powerful racial effects. The first one is Heroic Presence, which provides an aura that increases the chance to hit with spells and melee attacks by 1%, for both you and your party members in a 30-yard radius. This effect allows players to min-max their stats better.
  
  The second powerful racial effect we will talk about, Gift of the Naaru, provides an instant-cast healing-over-time ability. It can be placed either on you or your allies, and it scales with your attack power.
  
  Another interesting racial effect offered by the Draenei is the Shadow Resistance, which reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 2%.
  
  Lastly, the Draenei benefit from Gemcutting, giving the player an easy option for increasing their Jewelcrafting skill, which can be a good idea for getting the special armor penetration gems.

Best Professions

• Engineering (recommended for its gadgets) has always been the number one profession when it comes to player-versus-player content. Since the early days of WoW, it has provided players with several gadgets that have given them an edge over their opponents, some of those being the Nitro Boosts, Saronite Bomb, Mind Amplification Dish,  Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and the Frag Belt.

• Jewelcrafting (recommended for raw stat power and its stat boost) is one of the professions which can lend you plenty of gold, while also contributing to the min-maxing aspect of the game. A Jewelcrafter can create special gems such as the Mystic Dragon’s Eye, which boost your resilience by a considerable value.

• Blacksmithing (recommended for raw stat power) grants you the ability to forge equipment from ingots and other materials. This profession can be quite profitable since you can craft a lot of bind-on-equip gear pieces and either use them as entry-level PvP items, or sell them. Aside from the gold that you can gain from this profession, Blacksmithing allows you to utilize two extra sockets for your equipment: one for the gloves and one for the bracers.

• Alchemy offers a variety of useful potions and flasks. While you are generally unable to use any potions in arenas, you can still use one specific flask dedicated to alchemists: the Flask of the North. It offers either spell power, attack power, or raw strength and is the only usable flask in an arena.
  Alchemy also offers potions like Free Action Potion, which can be used as an improvised trinket in dire situations.

• Mining will generate you a good source of income, while also generating enough raw materials to level up professions like Engineering or Jewelcrafting. Most people underestimate the profitability of mining, but rest assured that it will go a long way.
  Not only will it provide you with a sustainable source of gold, but it will also grant you a special passive that will enhance your PvP potency – Toughness, which will increase your stamina by 60 at max rank.

• Herbalism will generate you a very good source of income, especially when paired with Alchemy. It also offers one, potentially life-saving ability for PvP scenarios – Lifeblood, which offers a heal-over-time effect that can save you in clutch situations.

• Skinning is mainly used as a gathering profession, but it also offers you a nice boost to your critical strike rating in the form of Master of Anatomy.

• Enchanting offers you the ability to enchant your equipment and your ally’s equipment with various magical effects that can give you an edge. This profession also allows you to disenchant equipment to break it down into rare magical essences required not only for the practitioners of this craft, but for other professions as well.
  Picking up Enchanting gives you access to special enchantments for your rings. For example, melee classes can benefit from Enchant Ring – Assault, increasing their Attack Power by 40 on each ring.
  This profession is best paired with Tailoring due to the Disenchanting ability, allowing you to craft equipment that can be broken down into magical essences. You can use Blacksmithing or Leatherworking for disenchanting, but Tailoring presents the best option since you can gather the materials needed for crafting gear without requiring any other profession to do so. 

• Tailoring offers you the ability to craft equipment from cloth pieces and other magical items which are found all around the world. This profession is usually paired with Enchanting, since you can disenchant the gear you create and turn it into useful magical essences.

• Leatherworking is a profession that allows you to craft gear pieces from leather you have been gathering from animals all around the world. Leatherworkers have the Fur Lining ability, which allows them to place a special enchantment on the bracers. This enchantment has different bonuses, one of the most beneficial being the Fur Lining – Attack Power, which will increase your attack power by 130.

• Inscription allows you to create various glyphs, trinkets, and special parchments which can then be used by Enchanters. This profession also unlocks a special enchantment for your shoulders, which can offer a variety of effects, such as increased attack power – the Master’s Inscription of the Axe.  

• First Aid comes with the benefit of crafting bandages from various cloth items you can find throughout the world. You will find these useful in a few different situations – they can often prove to be lifesavers.

• Cooking is a profession that allows you to create delightful dishes to satisfy the needs of others. With Cooking you can create powerful food items that can buff you and your allies. However, keep in mind that you cannot use those buffs in arenas.