PvP Arms Warrior Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

First, we will talk about the trademark of our class – the three different stances available to the Warrior class. Each stance has access to different abilities that are usable only in that specific stance, however, some abilities can be used in any stance.

• The main stance available to us is the Battle Stance. It increases the armor penetration of all our attacks by 10%.
• The second is the Defensive Stance. It reduces the incoming damage by 10%, but also reduces our damage caused by 5%.
• The third is the Berserker Stance. It increases our critical hit chance by 3%, but also increases all of the damage received by 5%.

The proper use of these stances will make the difference between a successful Warrior and a failed one.

Offensive Cooldowns

• Rend ( ) is an ability that places a bleed on the target, and this damage is increased by 35% if the target is above 75% health. The ability requires you to be in a Battle Stance or Defensive Stance. Another thing to keep in mind – with the Taste for Blood talent we will gain access to Overpower with each Rend tick, once every 6 seconds.
• Hamstring ( ) reduces the target’s movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds. It can only be used in a Battle Stance or Berserker Stance.
• Mortal Strike reduces the target’s received healing by 50% while also dealing physical damage.
• Overpower is an ability that deals high amounts of physical damage, but can only be used after the target dodges. This ability can be enhanced by the Glyph of Overpower, which adds a 100% chance to be activated when the target parries one of your attacks. Keep in mind that you get Expertise with some of your gear, which reduces the chance to be dodged/parried.
• Charge () is one of your basic initiating abilities: it can be used as a gap closer or a simple fight opener. It instantly provides 15 rage while also stunning the target for 1.5 seconds. This ability can only be used in a Battle Stance.
• Execute does what the name implies – it is one of your stronger abilities that attempts to finish off an enemy. Its damage is increased with each additional point of rage available, up to 30 points.
• Heroic Throw is an ability that can be used for ranged harassment. This ability can be used during charge, so you can make a macro out of it.
• Sweeping Strikes is an ability that allows your next 5 melee attacks to hit an additional target. 
  • There has been a debate for a very long time regarding whether Sweeping Strikes does indeed proc with Bladestorm or not. The results are inconclusive – basically, the ability seems to sometimes proc with Bladestorm, and sometimes it does not. Use this combination at your own discretion.
• Bloodrage is an ability that generates 20 rage at the cost of 16% of your base health, it also generates 10 additional rage over 10 seconds. This ability can be enhanced by the Glyph of Bloodrage, effectively removing the health cost.
• Demoralizing Shout reduces the attack power of all the targets in a 10-yard radius for 30 seconds.
• Intimidating Shout is an ability that fears up to 5 enemies in an 8-yard radius. They will remain feared for 8 seconds.
• Intercept () closes the gap between you and your enemy, providing a 3-second stun. It can only be used in a Berserker Stance.
• Recklessness () is an ability that can be used to burst the target. It empowers your next three special attacks, increasing the chance of critical strike with them by 100%. However, it also increases all the damage you receive by 20%. This ability requires Berserker Stance.
• Piercing Howl is an ability that can be spammed, dazing all the targets in a 10-yard radius, resulting in a 50% movement speed reduction.
• Pummel is an ability that interrupts spellcasting and further prevents any spell from that particular spell school from being cast for 4 seconds, effectively spell-locking the target.
• Slam deals physical damage to the target and requires a 1.5-second cast time.
  • Some Warriors make the mistake of using this ability in their rotation. We strongly advise you to not make the same mistake, since the lengthy cast time of this ability makes it entirely useless when compared to the instant cast time of all of your other abilities.
• Sunder Armor reduces the target’s armor by 4% and can be stacked up to 5 times, resulting in a 20% total armor reduction on the target.
• Shattering Throw can be used to destroy the target’s invulnerability effects. It works perfectly against the Mage’s Ice Block or the Paladin’s Divine Shield. This ability can instead reduce the target’s armor by 20%, if they do not have any invulnerability effects active at the moment.
• Thunderclap ( ) deals instant damage to all the enemies in your vicinity, reducing their attack speed by 10% for the next 30 seconds. The damage of this ability scales with the amount of attack power that you have. It can only be used in Battle Stance or Defensive Stance.
• Shield Slam deals damage to the target according to your shield block value, while also removing 1 magical effect from the target. (Yes, Warriors can dispel too!)
• Shield Bash ( ) is an ability that dazes the target and interrupts any spell being cast. It also prevents any further spellcasting from that specific school of magic for 6 seconds. This ability requires you to be in a Battle Stance or Defensive Stance.
• Revenge () deals instant damage to the target and can only be used after the Warrior blocks, dodges, or parries an attack. This ability requires you to be in a Defensive Stance.
• Lastly, our most powerful offensive ability, Bladestorm, is an ability that damages up to 4 nearby targets for the next 6 seconds. Its damage procs each second, effectively performing a whirlwind over the duration.
  While in Bladestorm, the Warrior can move, but cannot cast any other abilities. The Warrior also can’t be affected by any crowd control abilities for the duration. The only way they can be stopped while performing this ability is by getting disarmed or killed.

Defensive Cooldowns

• Shield Block () is an ability that increases your chance to block, as well as your block value by 100% for the next 10 seconds. You can use Shield Slam in conjunction with Shield Block to maximize your damage, considering that Shield Slam is directly affected by the Block Value. This ability requires you to be in a Defensive Stance.
• Spell Reflection is an ability that reflects the next incoming spell back to its caster. It lasts 5 seconds. It is one of your strongest abilities against high-damage casters; use it wisely.
• Retaliation () is an ability that instantly counterattacks every melee attack that strikes you for the next 12 seconds, up to a maximum of 20 attacks. You have to keep in mind that this ability does not work for attacks made against you from behind. This ability requires you to be in Battle Stance.
• Shield Wall () is one of your most powerful defensive abilities – it reduces all incoming damage by 60% for the next 12 seconds. This ability requires you to be in a Defensive Stance.
• Berserker Rage removes sap, fear, and incapacitating effects from the warrior while also providing immunity against them. It also provides increased rage during the duration and lasts 10 seconds.
• Disarm () removes the target’s main-hand and ranged weapons for 10 seconds. It requires Defensive Stance to be used.
• Enraged Regeneration () is one of the most powerful defensive abilities in your possession – it allows you to regenerate 30% of your health over 10 seconds. This ability requires an enrage effect to be triggered, so it is best used at the end of either Berserker Rage or Bloodrage in order to retain most of the previous enrage effect.
• Intervene is an ability that can be used to protect your allies or to strategically retreat. By casting this ability you will charge to your ally and absorb the next incoming hit that they receive, whether it might be a melee or ranged attack.

General Strategy and Priority Spells

The Arms Warrior has one of the hardest gameplays in the game besides the Feral Druid and the Unholy Death Knight, and without proper knowledge of the abilities and macros, the Arms Specialization will never succeed at doing their job.

Arena or Battleground

Your job as an Arms Warrior depends entirely on the situation that you find yourself in. If you are in an arena, your job is to chase down the weaker target and ensure that it dies a gruesome death, or to peel for your healer in case the fight turns ugly.

If you find yourself in a battleground, your job may vary. You can either be the flag carrier and ensure that your team completes its objectives, chase down the backline of casters and make sure that their healers are under stress, or join the frontline along with the other melee fighters to wreak chaos.

However, choosing to simply mount up and Charge, followed up by a Bladestorm into the main enemy line is not always the smartest choice. You can use your kit to isolate valuable targets (such as healers or high damage dealers), gang up on an assassin trying to desecrate your backline, or simply slow down the enemy’s advance.

Warriors can easily find themselves shredded in a matter of seconds if they choose to stick to one stance or charge in without much thought.

Managing Stances

The Arms Specialization requires fast juggling between all of its stances depending on the situation. This being said, you will always want to start in Battle Stance.

Why Battle Stance, you may ask? Well,simply put, it allows you access to your most basic engage tool, Charge. Not only does this stance allow you to initiate, but it also allows you to cast other abilities, such as Rend, Retaliation, and Overpower.

Depending on the situation, you may find yourself overpowered and, if so, you will want to swiftly change to the Defensive Stance and pop up some of your defensive cooldowns to fight back the onslaught. 

Berserker Stance can be quite tricky – with it you will have an increased chance to deal critical strikes, but you also receive increased damage. Berserker Stance also allows you access to one of your strongest cooldowns, Recklessness. Yet, while this ability may empower you greatly, it can also result in a quick demise. So, Berserker Stance is best used when there is no immediate threat to you.

You can use Recklessness in conjunction with your trinket procs and Bladestorm to decimate a target, or you can use it in conjunction with Execute to make the most out of it. Just beware that you will receive a great deal of damage if your enemy happens to react with their offensive abilities in order to burst you down, instead of their defensive abilities.

Elusive Enemies

In case you encounter an elusive enemy, there are several ways you can deal with them. Due to our Juggernaut talent, we can use Charge even in combat. This will greatly aid you when facing foes that abuse LoS. Remember that you must instantly apply a slow or a daze to the target, since the cooldown of Charge is pretty high.

Another possible tool is Intercept: this can be used in the same manner as Charge, but it provides a longer stun. Keep in mind that the cooldown for this ability is 30 seconds, so you can’t use it often. This ability also requires a stance change, so the best way to use it is through a macro.