In our detailed WoW The War Within Arms Warrior Guide, we will touch the very essence of the Arms Warrior class, and share a bunch of useful tips to ensure the best experience for your adventures. WoW Arms Warrior in World of Warcraft is a perfect spec to try the role of a hero of your favorite race, cleaving through enemies on a battlefield with a two-handed weapon. Don’t forget to read The War Within Mythic+ Guide to be ready for the new season!
Arms Warrior Overview
Arms Warrior is a damage dealer spec that sets itself apart from others by relying on precise strikes using single-target abilities, and extra damage from Mortal Strike and Overpower, reducing resistance and causing enemies to bleed with Rend or Mastery: Deep Wounds. As we mentioned earlier, Arms Warrior is good for newbies in the game, as the gameplay is quite straightforward.
The primary resource spent by Arms Warrior is Rage. With a total of 100 points, Rage charges are accumulated in combat from auto-attacks or Arms Warrior signature abilities like Whirlwind, Charge, or Slam, the latter is considered your initial Rage spender.
Arms Warrior Strengths and Weaknesses
Sometimes the choice of the spec depends on the pros and cons, that the spec has. For some people, weaknesses of the spec are just minor inconveniences, while for others they become huge obstacles.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| ✅ Relative flexibility, allows you to enjoy solo- or multi-target content to your taste. | ⛔️ Lack of passive resource generation requires a constant focus on overseeing your cooldowns. |
| ✅ A high mobility class with multiple options to rapidly move towards an ally or an enemy via Charge, Intervene, and Heroic Leap. | ⛔️ Strictly melee fighter, lack of range abilities. |
| ✅ Multiple choices of defensive abilities for you and your party like Defensive Stance. | ⛔️ No options for builds suitable for solo and multi-target situations at once, you’ll have to choose a priority. |
| ✅ Focus on rapid execution of low HP enemies. | — |
Arms Warrior Season 3 Changes
Season 3 delivers a small set of buffs to Arms, improving both overall damage and Demolish usability. While the new tier set will further impact talent and rotation choices, these baseline changes give the spec a slight edge in multitarget and quality of life.
Damage Buffs:
- All abilities: +5% damage.
- Bladestorm: +15% damage.
- Demolish: Channel no longer breaks unless the target moves over 50 yards away.
📌 Note: Still requires melee range for single-target hits; final AoE hits within 5 yards.
Arms Warrior Season 2 Changes
Arms Warrior in Season 2 has received a bunch of talent changes, including updates to the Hero Talent tree. With the release of the new Liberation of Undermine raid, Arms Warriors can also obtain a new tier set Underpin Strongarm’s Muscle that aims to bring them back into the TWW meta.
Arms Specialization Ability Changes
Arms Warriors did not receive any changes to their specialization abilities in Patch 11.1, but they did get numerous talent changes, which we’ll examine below.
Arms Warrior Talent Changes
In Patch 11.1 Arms Warrior received numerous talent changes, which may help bring them back into the M+ meta.
- Bloodborne — increases Bleed effect damage by 5/10% (was 7.5/15%).
- Cleave — Damage increased by 15%.
- Endurance Training — has been removed.
- Mortal Strike — damage increased by 15%.
- Overpower — now increases the damage of your next Mortal Strike or Cleave by 15% per stack, up to 2 (was 30%).
- Two-Handed Weapon Specialization — is now a 2-point talent that grants 3% damage and 2% reduction of damage from area-of-effect attacks while wielding a 2-hand weapon per point.
Arms Warrior Hero Talents Changes
Arms Warrior received some minor Hero Talent changes in Patch 11.1. Here are the key ones:
Colossus:
- Colossal Might — is no longer applied by Execute.
- Demolish — animation to not correctly play sometimes is now fixed.
Slayer:
- Reap the Storm — Cleave will only trigger Reap the Storm if 3 or more targets are hit.
Arms Warrior Changes In The War Within
The War Within expansion brought a bucket of changes and moderate reworks to WoW Arms Warrior talent trees. Among them are the famous Haro Talents Trees. We cover all the essential aspects of changes in this section of our guide, stay tuned.
One of the crucial changes is the addition of the Warbands. This feature allows to transfer tons of different kinds of resources between your alts. To start using it, you need to get Warband Bank, and our pro team can assist with fast and easy unlock. After you unlock it, you’ll be able to use it as a portable Bank for all of your characters.
Arms Warrior Hero Talents
Arms spec can choose between two Hero Talent Trees, offering different buffs to Arms Warrior WoW talents:
- Colossus: this tree has a very tight bond to the new channeled spell Demolish;
- Slayer: is a tree that offers both AoE and single-target damage capabilities.
Changes to The Existing Abilities And Talents
Arms Warrior’s Rage economy has been revamped, which means a reduction of Rage generated per swing and standardizing Rage costs to 20 for several abilities.
The Warrior Class Tree has been streamlined, and now the access to key abilities like Shockwave has become easier. But it was due to the removal of some talents. Notable class changes include automatic learning of Berserker Rage, reworked Second Wind, and redesigned Blademaster’s Torment.
The Arms Warrior Spec Tree has minor adjustments, such as Cleave replacing Whirlwind. Fervor of Battle and Collateral Damage now affect Cleave. Significant changes include the removal of Tide of Blood, improved stacking for Sudden Death, reduced Tactician procs, and redesigned Dance of Death to reward killing enemies during Bladestorm or Ravager.
Basics of Arms Warrior Gameplay
The gameplay on Arms Warrior WoW is entirely built around the proper generation and distribution of Rage with a burst cooldown. Arms Warrior combat necessarily contains periodic burst damage during Colossus Smash activation. Depending on the Arms Warrior build, this strategy relies heavily on effective resource management.
Rage is only replenished in combat, and does not accumulate passively. Learning the WoW Arms Warrior rotation will help you understand how to DPS as an Arms Warrior, spend and generate Rage wisely, and remain a useful member of your group.
Arms Warrior Rotation
The War Within Arms Warriors rotation is pretty simplistic, though Rage intensive, and focuses on interconnected must-have talents that enhance major cooldowns. Being successful in Arms Warrior combat is ensured by selecting abilities and talents that inflict and boost bleed, and maximize the effectiveness of Execute.
With the tips from our comprehensive guide your Arms Warrior will be able to deal tons of damage and in general reach maximum damage. The rotations utilize your spec and class talents.
Opening Rotation
Arms Warrior combat begins with the casting of Charge, a familiar talent that fills Arms with Rage and controls the target. This ability generates 20 Rage, which allows you to keep going in combat.
Rend is applied next, causing the target to bleed. However, right after Charge, you can use one of your main cooldowns to instantly deal massive damage.
The further Arms Warrior The War Within rotation will vary depending on your AoE and single-target talents. We advise using Overwhelming Rage – a strong talent that will come in handy to increase maximum Rage.
Arms Warrior Single Target Rotation
- Execute: Ends enemies below 20% HP, costs no Rage in case of Sudden Death proc, used on cooldown.
- Thunderous Roar: Inflicts bleed on surrounding enemies, works perfectly well with Test of Might or In For The Kill buff windows, and is good for additional Rage increase.
- Avatar: Increases damage dealt by 20% and removes any control from you, used simultaneously with the follow-up talent.
- Colossus Smash or Warbreaker (AoE): Increases damage dealt by 30%, used on cooldown.
- Mortal Strike: Damages and slows your enemies, applies Rend, costs 30 Rage, and is used on cooldown.
- Thunder Clap: To apply Rend if not already active, used on cooldown.
- Whirlwind with Storm of Swords (+175% damage): Rage dump ability with massive damage.
- Overpower: Instantly damages an enemy, causes Rage generation to increase as a percentage of your Attack Power.
- Slam: Applies Physical damage and spends excess Rage, basically a filler ability.
Execution Phase
Pretty similar to the main phase rotation, but starts when the target is below 35% health. Now Execute becomes the primary Rage spender.
Do not forget about Improved Execute — almost an imperative talent, which allows somehow irregular Rage refund. Also, Critical Thinking is another must-have talent, which provides moderate Execute damage increase and refunds Rage.
- Mortal Strike: Used if Rend is not active.
- Avatar: Used simultaneously with the follow-on talent.
- Colossus Smash: Used on cooldown.
- Execute: Consumes Sudden Death proc, used on cooldown.
- Thunderous Roar: Used during Test of Might or In for the Kill buff windows.
- Overpower: Used below 40 Rage.
- Mortal Strike: Used with 2 stacks of passive Executioner’s Precision.
- Execute: Repeated.
Note: If your target is already below 35% HP prior to the Execute phase, skip Whirlwind, Thunder Clap, and Slam, and straight away use Execute.
Arms Warrior Multi Target Cleave and AoE Rotation
There are two approaches to Arms Warrior AoE rotation, which are based on using Fervor of Battle or Bladestorm in your Arms Warrior AoE Damage build. Other than that, the rotation will be fairly similar.
- Thunder Clap: Applies Rend to multiple targets.
- Sweeping Strikes: Empowers single-target damage abilities.
- Avatar: Used with Colossus Smash / Warbreaker: Smashes the ground and applies Deep Wounds.
- Colossus Smash: Used on the priority target / Avatar: Used with Warbreaker to trigger Blademaster’s Torment.
- Mortal Strike: Used during Sweeping Strikes.
- Thunderous Roar: Used during Colossus Smash (or Hurricane).
- Whirlwind: Used against 2 or more targets, damage reduces when beyond 5 targets / Bladestorm: Used during Colossus Smash.
- Follow the rotation with follow-on talents / Whirlwind: Used to get rid of extra Rage with Storm of Swords.
- Overpower: Used during Sweeping Strikes.
- Mortal Strike: Used on the priority target, maintains Deep Wounds.
- Execute: Used on target below 35% HP.
- Overpower: Used as a filler with moderate cooldown.
- Thunder Clap: Close-range cleave damage, used to dump excess Rage.
- Slam: Two-target cleave damage, used to spend excess Rage.
Specialization Skills
When you enter the game as an Arms Warrior, you get a set of basic Offensive and Defensive Abilities. Here’s a list of them:
Offensive Cooldowns
| Spell | Cooldown | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Whirlwind | — | The primary AoE ability causes a whirlwind of steel and strikes all nearby enemies with Physical damage. |
| Slam | — | A baseline ability that strikes an enemy with Physical damage, spends 20 Rage, and generates 10. |
| Shield Slam | 9 sec | Good average damage-dealing ability for early gameplay requires equipping a shield and most likely you will replace it. |
| Hamstring | — | Another early ability that slows down an enemy and deals Physical damage. |
Defensive and Utility Cooldowns
| Spell | Cooldown | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Die by the Sword | 2 min | Grants 100% parry chance 100% and reduces incoming damage. |
| Rallying Cry | 3 min | Grants all party/raid members 10% temporary and maximum health for 10 sec. |
| Charge | 20 sec | Provides mobility to your character, charges towards an enemy, and roots them for 1 sec. |
| Pummel | 15 sec | Interrupts spellcasting. |
| Battle Shout | 15 sec | Increases Attack Power of all party or raid members by 5%. |
| Taunt | 8 sec | Taunts the target to attack you. |
Arms Warrior Build
Fortunately, you do not have to decide on your own WoW Arms Warrior build and research the talent compatibility to start playing Arms Warrior. Just copy the loadout of your taste below, they already include the best Arms Warrior talents.
The loadouts are codes of WoW The War Within Arms Warrior talents, so you can copy and then paste them into the game to save them for later use.
Raid Single Target Build
CcEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgtZMjxMzMzmlllZGAAAAMYaYGsYMDMjxMzgZGGGDzwAAAAAAAgHYMbzMzAIAAAAAhgBARaid Multitarget Build
CcEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgtZmhxMmHYWsssMzMAAAAMYaGDsMMDMzyYmZwMDDMMDDAAAAAAAmxsNzMA2CAAAAQIwAMythic+ Priority Damage Build
CcEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgtZmhxMmZWsssMzMAAAAMYaYMsMjZgZWGzMDmZYMDMDDAAAAAAAmxsNGDwWMAAAAQIAAMythic+ Alternative AoE Build
CcEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYsNzMMmxMzitllZmBAAAgBTDjhlZMDMzyYmZwMDjZgZYAAAAAAAwMmlxYA2CAAAAQIAAArms Warrior Stats
Arms Warrior’s best stats may vary. Some experienced players recommend sticking to the following WoW Arms Warrior stat priority:
- Critical Strike;
- = Haste;
- > Mastery;
- = Versatility;
- > Strength.
It’s also an optimal stats priority choice with a strong emphasis and reliance on additional damage from critical strike increase and sped-up rotation.
- Haste: Speeds up rotation, reducing cooldowns of abilities like Mortal Strike and Cleave, and accelerates damage output of abilities like Bladestorm and Rend.
- Critical Strike: Typically double damage and boost Rage generation. Enhanced by talents like Impale , Sharpened Blades , and Cruel Strikes.
- Versatility: Increases damage dealt and halves damage taken. Consistent boost to offense and defense.
- Mastery: Boosts Mastery: Deep Wounds damage, applied by abilities like Mortal Strike and Cleave. Increasingly valuable in multitarget situations.
- Strength: Primary plate armor, weapons, and trinkets stat. Provides Attack Power, enhancing the damage of all character abilities and auto attacks.
Arms Warrior Leveling
Arms Warrior leveling is not much different from any other character in terms of intensity. However, the Warrior has its advantages — he is able to one-shot enemies almost from the very start of the game, and he is also perfectly viable.
An alternative to farming murlocs and boars in the open world that we can offer in our leveling guide — random dungeons and world quests. Use helpful addons that will automatically pick the necessary quests and give you directions. And if even this method makes you yawn with boredom, use Power Leveling from our Overgear team to speed up the process.
Arms Warrior Leveling Tips for The War Within
To make your leveling smooth and fast, we have prepared a list of basic spells and abilities that will ease the process of farming XP.
- Avatar and Warbreaker are suitable for bigger pools or tough targets;
- Bladestorm for multi-target situations;
- Storm of Swords to spend Rage and damage multiple enemies;
- Sweeping Strikes for multi-target situations;
- Execute on targets below 20% health (with suitable talents – below 35%);
- Mortal Strike as the primary attack;
- Slam as a filler.
Now, when you know the leveling rotation, you are almost fully prepared. What else can be done? You can obtain some consumables and healing potions, available to your level. Then, use Heirloom Armor as your starter gear, as it will make the process much faster. And you can use some good addons to track your progress, sell items, etc. Read about the best options in our TWW Addons Guide.
How to Gear Up Arms Warrior
Here you will learn how to obtain eligible items of equipment and which items will become The War Within Arms Warrior BiS gear.
The main sources of gear during leveling are Storyline Quests and Local Quests. The requirements for this type of gear are low: always choose the max level items. At this stage, don’t pay much attention to stats, focus on increasing the level of equipment. In fact, you can find most of the BiS gear in Raids. Therefore, Heroic Raid service is exactly what you need to secure the raid completion and receive the best boss loot.
Best Gear for Arms Warrior
Compiling a versatile set of overall WoW Arms Warrior BiS gear with the best stats for the spec, let’s be honest, will not be the easiest task. You’ll need to combine Mythic+ dungeon battles, raid content, crafting, and turning into set items from Catalyst. However, this character build will improve your functions in battle and help maximize your Arms Warrior’s utility.
| Slot | Name | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | Forgeweaver Araz | |
| Neck | Nexus-King Salhadaar | |
| Shoulders | Manaforge Omega | |
| Cloak | Patch 11.2 Questline | |
| Chest | Fractillus | |
| Bracers | Crafted | |
| Gloves | Soulbinder Naazindhri | |
| Belt | Crafted | |
| Legs | Loom’ithar | |
| Boots | Manaforge Omega | |
| Ring | Dimensius | |
| Ring | Tazavesh (So’leah’s Gambit) | |
| Trinket | Loom’ithar | |
| Trinket | Dimensius | |
| Mainhand | Nexus-King Salhadaar |
Best Arms Warrior Trinkets
Best trinkets are hard to get, easy to miss and impossible to forget, as their impact on the gameplay is really impressive. The best trinkets for an Arms Warrior in the current season of WoW TWW are the following:
- Screams of a Forgotten Sky;
- Astral Antenna;
- Eradicating Arcanocore;
- Ara-Kara Sacbrood;
- Ticking Sack of Terror;
- So’leah’s Secret Technique;
- Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker;
- Cursed Stone Idol.
There are different types of content where you can obtain your BiS trinket, but dingeons are the primary, as they offer a wide range of trinkets (unlike raids with only a few options). If you want some particular trinket, ask for Dungeon Trinkets service, and our pro players will farm the needed piece for you.
Tier Set Bonuses for Arms Warrior
WoW TWW Season 3 brings Arms Warriors a new tier set: Chains of the Living Weapon.
Arms Warrior Colossus Tier Set Bonuses:
| 2-piece | Demolish damage increased by 20% and critical strike damage of your abilities is increased by up to 20% on targets affected by your Demolish for 10 sec based on the number of stacks of Colossal Might consumed. |
|---|---|
| 4-piece | Demolish increases the critical strike chance of your next 1 Mortal Strike by 100%. Mortal Strike critical strikes increase your Rend and Deep Wounds damage by 80% for 8 sec. |
Arms Warrior Slayer Tier Set Bonuses:
| 2-piece | Execute damage increased by 10% and Executes from Sudden Death have a 10% chance per stack of Overwhelmed on the target to trigger a Slayer’s Strike at 100% effectiveness. |
|---|---|
| 4-piece | Overpower damage increased by 10% and Overpower has a 2% chance per stack of Overwhelmed on the target to trigger Reap the Storm at 150% effectiveness. |
Arms Warrior Season 2 Tier Set Bonuses
Arms Warrior can obtain a new Underpin Strongarm’s Muscle tier set with the release of the new Liberation of Undermine raid. With the changes introduced in Patch 11.1, this set may help Warriors become more valuable in PvE content.
| 2-piece | Your abilities have a chance to begin a Winning Streak!, increasing the damage of your Mortal Strike and Cleave by 2%, stacking up to 10 times. Overpower has a 15% chance to end your Winning Streak! |
|---|---|
| 4-piece | When your Winning Streak! ends Overpower deals 20% additional damage and recharges 75% faster for 2 sec per stack of Winning Streak! you had. |
Arms Warrior Season 1 Tier Set Bonuses
Warsculptor’s Masterwork is the Arms Warrior Tier Set for Season 1 in the War Within. This set looks really cool and is worth gathering if not for the tier set bonuses (which are good), then for WoW Arms Warrior transmog collection.
| 2-piece | Mortal Strike and Cleave increase the damage of your next Overpower by 10%. |
|---|---|
| 4-piece | When Overpower has its cooldown reset by Tactician, your next Mortal Strike or Cleave has its damage increased by 10% and critical strike chance increased by 10%, stacking up to 2 times. |
Do you think it’s hard to gather a full set? Well, it really is. Sometimes it takes weeks and months just to have a chance to loot the tier-set item. Or you have to wait for a Catalyst charge in order to craft only one item? Our team offers you a Heroic Battle Pass, so you can forget about long hours spent in numerous raids, our professional will do it for you.
Best Crafted Gear for Arms Warrior
- Any Low Lvl Gear.
Best Consumables for Arms Warrior
Consumables in the end-game phase are a necessity. In our guide, we will show and explain all the essential The War Within Arms Warrior consumables to ensure that you are fully equipped and ready to fight.
| Type | Best Consumable | Alternate |
|---|---|---|
| Flask | ||
| Combat Potion | — | |
| Health Potion | — | |
| Weapon Buff | ||
| Augment Rune | — | |
| Food | ||
| Diamond | ||
| Other Gems | ||
Best Arms Warrior Enchants
Arms Warrior End-Game
Arms Warrior TWW end-game content is generally rich in fun activities to suit your tastes. You can focus on storylines to complete quests that reveal the secrets of The War Within, run local and world quests for valuable Great Vault rewards, and complete Mythic+ dungeons and raids to get upgraded items.
Furthermore, the Warrior is one of the classes that can pass the Mage Tower challenge from the Legion addon. This is a truly demanding trial, which still requires a lot of preparation and often more than a dozen attempts to pass.
Want to accept these challenges but don’t want to take the risk? Get in touch with our team and we’ll help you with the Mage Tower Challenge.
Best Race for Arms Warriors
Part of the secret to Arms Warrior’s popularity is that any race can play as a Warrior, either on the Horde or Alliance side. In our Arms Warrior DPS guide, we provide information based on the statistics of racial popularity and DPS tests. Below you’ll find some possible options of the best race for Arms Warrior WoW The War Within either for Alliance or Horde players.
Alliance
- The Human racial ability Will to Survive will be a great addition to Arms Warrior talents, removing all stun effects and allowing you to continue fighting, while The Human Spirit will boost your WoW Arms Warrior stats.
- In fourth place at the top for DPS is Night Elves. Also a good choice with a lot of auxiliary racial abilities that can hide you in the shadows, slightly increase Haste and critical strike, as well as increase movement speed on death.
Horde
- The Orc racial ability Hardiness works well with Arms Warrior abilities. It reduces stun effects by 20%, and Blood Fury will significantly boost your Warrior attacks.
- The Trolls’ racial ability Regeneration increases survivability in combat, Da Voodoo Shuffle reduces the duration of all movement-impairing effects, so it’s a great choice too. In addition, Beast Slaying ability will help you level up faster by increasing the experience you get for killing beasts.
If you want to try some new race, than now is the right time. The War Within brings a brand new race — The Earthen — which you can get with the help of our team and start playing Arms Warrior as a mighty stone dwarf. The race is available both for the Alliance and the Horde.
The Best Arms Warrior Profession
Сhoosing a profession for an Arms Warrior in WoW is based on a simple question: do you want to benefit from it yourself or be useful to others? Depending on your answer, check the list of the current most profitable professions or use our guide for tips.
Some of the best Arms Warrior professions would be Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting.
- Blacksmithing is useful because you wear plate armor and crafting your own armor would save you a coin or two. And there’s always a chance to profit from crafting orders.
- Jewelcrafting will not only be useful for cheaper gem crafting but also for earning through the sale of crafted reagents.
If you want to speed up the process of leveling up your profession skills, you have one option, which kills two murlocks with one stone: Council of Dornogal Renown. It allows not only to receive all reputational bonuses, but also profession knowledge items, and it is convenient and fast with the help of our team.
Improving as Arms Warrior
There’s always a place to improve as an Arms Warrior. It can be achieved by following some general tips and consistent gaming practice. But here are several points to start with:
- Start with learning how to maintain Minimal Downtime. You need to understand how to use your abilities in order to generate and spend Rage efficiently. Keep an eye on your cooldowns and Rage levels. Sometimes it’s better to skip a filler ability and use your main spender as soon as its cooldown is up. Otherwise, you will miss out on a ton of damage.
- Do not allow Overcapping Rage situations. Make sure to find a balance between Rage Generator and Spender spells, so there are no delays or unexpected bursts of Rage.
- Always use Simulators, Addons, and Macros. Addons and Simming can help to improve performance, while The War Within Arms Warrior macros can become a convenient addition to your gameplay.
Arms Warrior Macros
One more way to improve your skills and WoW gameplay is using macros. This is a convenient instrument, that allows to cast spells faster and back-to-back, which means the downtime will no longer be a problem.
Arms Warrior Macros
- Champion’s Spear and Avatar
#showtooltip
/cast [@player] Champion’s Spear
/cast Avatar - Pummel Macro
#showtooltip Pummel
/cast [@focus, harm, exists][@target] Pummel
Automatic Heroic Leap
#showtooltip Heroic Leap
/cast [@cursor] Heroic Leap - Heroic Leap Spam
#showtooltip Heroic Leap
/cast !Heroic Leap - Charge and Victory Rush
#showtooltip
/cast Charge
/cast Victory Rush - Specific Macros for Arms Warriors
#showtooltip Colossus Smash
/use Colossus Smash
/use Blood Fury
/use Berserking
/use 13
/use 14
The War Within Arms Warrior is a decent choice for both a beginner and an experienced player. In this WoW Arms Warrior guide, we attempted to describe in detail the nuances of playing this character and the necessary information on how to improve. More practice, persistence, and a few dozen high-level M+ keys will make your Arms Warrior a real hero of Azeroth.






















