Arms Warrior PvE guide: two-handed raid DPS with Mortal Strike and Bloodthrill

Overview

Level 60 · Arms Warrior · DPS in dungeons and raids.

In Classic 1.12 raids, Arms was mostly a stepping stone: the serious melee damage came from dual-wield Fury, and Arms stayed in PvP. The WoW Forever tree gives the two-hander a real raid plan. Weaponmaster turns your weapon type into a passive (crit on axes and polearms, armor penetration on maces), Bloodthrill gives free Overpowers against targets bleeding from your Rend, and Impale plus Deep Wounds make every crit count twice. This guide treats Arms as a slower, harder-hitting alternative to Fury for players who find a great two-hander first. Nobody has tested it at 60 yet, so compare it against the Fury guide with your own weapons once the level cap allows it.

Your job in the group

You are melee damage and a debuff keeper. On bosses, your job is to hit hard without pulling threat off the tank, keep your own Rend ticking because Bloodthrill needs it, and bring Mortal Strike’s healing reduction to encounters with adds that heal. In five-player dungeons you are also the second tank in an emergency: a quick stance swap to Defensive Stance with a two-hander will not hold a boss, but it can peel a loose add off your healer long enough for the tank to grab it.

Why play it

• One weapon to chase. A single slow two-hander drives Mortal Strike, Overpower, Whirlwind and Deep Wounds, so one lucky drop upgrades everything at once.
• Weaponmaster rewards whatever you loot. Axes and polearms get crit, maces and staves ignore armor, and swords have their own bonus, so no two-hander is a dead end.
• Built-in Rage smoothing. Anger Management and Improved Tactical Mastery mean a stance dance to Berserker Stance for Whirlwind costs you little.
• Healing reduction on demand. Mortal Strike’s debuff is the tool raids want against enemies that heal themselves or each other.

Weak points

• No talent hit. This build cannot reach Precision in Fury, so all of your hit has to come from gear, and misses hurt a slow weapon more than a dual-wielder.
• Rend upkeep is real work. Bloodthrill only procs against your own Rend, so a boss that is immune to bleeds or a fight with constant target swaps takes away a big part of the build.
• Fewer Rage events. One slow weapon swings less often than two fast ones, so Unbridled Wrath and Flurry-style talents do less for you than for Fury.

Level 60 talent build

Arms 34 / Fury 17 / Protection 0, all 51 points. The talent tree above shows the finished build.

Arms (34)

• Improved Heroic Strike 3/3 — cheaper Heroic Strike, which is your Rage dump whenever you are close to capped.
• Improved Rend 3/3 — more bleed damage from the Rend you keep up anyway for Bloodthrill.
• Improved Tactical Mastery 5/5 — keeps up to 25 Rage through a stance swap, so going to Berserker Stance for Whirlwind and back is cheap.
• Improved Overpower 2/2 — makes Overpower, including Bloodthrill procs, crit far more often.
• Anger Management 1/1 — a slow trickle of Rage in combat, most noticeable in the first seconds of a pull.
• Deep Wounds 3/3 — every crit leaves a bleed, which Impale and Weaponmaster crit make frequent.
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 3/3 — flat two-hander damage on every swing and ability.
• Impale 2/2 — bigger crits on Mortal Strike, Overpower, Whirlwind and Execute.
• Weaponmaster 5/5 — the reason to pick your weapon type carefully: crit on axes and polearms, armor penetration on maces and staves.
• Sweeping Strikes 1/1 — cleave for trash packs and required for Mortal Strike.
• Bloodthrill 5/5 — free Overpower procs while your Rend is on the target; the build’s main Forever addition.
• Mortal Strike 1/1 — your hardest-hitting button and the healing-reduction debuff.

Fury (17)

• Booming Voice 2/5 — a longer Battle Shout, so you refresh it less often during a boss.
• Cruelty 5/5 — melee crit, which feeds Deep Wounds and Impale.
• Unbridled Wrath 5/5 — extra Rage from your auto attacks.
• Boundless Rage 3/3 — a bigger Rage bar to pool Rage for Execute range.
• Improved Execute 2/2 — cheaper Execute for the end of every boss fight.

Flexible points: Improved Execute and Booming Voice are the soft points. If a fight has many adds, Improved Cleave in the Fury tree is a reasonable swap for Boundless Rage.

Rotation and priority

1. Open with Battle Shout and Rend. Let the tank build threat first; Rend is low threat and starts Bloodthrill’s proc window.
2. Mortal Strike on cooldown. It is your top priority whenever you have the Rage.
3. Overpower whenever it lights up, from a dodge or a Bloodthrill proc. Improved Overpower makes it one of your most reliable crits.
4. Whirlwind when you can afford a stance swap to Berserker Stance, then return to Battle Stance so you keep Overpower available. Improved Tactical Mastery keeps the swap cheap.
5. Refresh Rend before it falls off; a boss without Rend gives you no Bloodthrill procs.
6. Heroic Strike only with spare Rage, as a queue on your next swing when nothing else is ready.
7. Execute phase: stop Rend and Heroic Strike and spend all Rage on Execute.

Cooldowns

• Sweeping Strikes on trash packs of two or more, before a Whirlwind.
• Recklessness for burn phases on long fights; the Glory 5-piece bonus shortens its cooldown.
• Bloodrage early in a fight for Rage, when the healer can spare the health.

Resources

Rage comes from dealing and taking damage. With one slow weapon you swing less often than a dual-wielder, so plan your Rage around Mortal Strike’s cooldown: spend on Mortal Strike and Overpower first, keep enough for the next Mortal Strike, and only then dump into Heroic Strike. Boundless Rage lets you bank a larger bar for the Execute phase, and Improved Tactical Mastery means you never lose all of it to a stance swap.

Stat priority

Weapon quality comes first: a high top-end two-hander of the type Weaponmaster favors beats small stat upgrades elsewhere. After that, get hit from gear up to the hit cap the Classic guides use for bosses, because this build has no talent hit. Then Strength and Attack Power, then critical strike and Agility, which feed Deep Wounds and Impale. Stamina matters only as much as a fight’s raid damage demands.

Gear and set bonuses

Battlegear of Glory is the Arms and Fury Tier 1 set in the beta datamine (the spell names call it the Arms/Fury Tier 1 bonuses). Its bonuses: 2 pieces give 1% attack and casting speed, 3 pieces take 30 sec off Intimidating Shout, 4 pieces give +36 Attack Power against Humanoids, and 5 pieces take 30 sec off Recklessness. The 4-piece bonus only helps against humanoid bosses and adds, so treat it as a situational bonus. The reworked dungeon set Battlegear of Valor now pays out at 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 pieces: all resistances, Strength, a proc that can remove a Disarm, a proc that heals you and gives Rage, and health regeneration. The datamine does not say where either set drops.

Consumables and professions

• Strength and crit: Elixir of the Mongoose, Juju Power and Winterfall Firewater were the Classic staples; check that they exist in Forever before you farm for them.
• Rage: Mighty Rage Potion on long fights where Rage is short.
• Weapon: a sharpening stone on your two-hander (Elemental or Dense in Classic).
• Food: Smoked Desert Dumplings for Strength, or whatever Strength food Forever’s cooking offers.
• Professions: Engineering for grenades and utility, or Mining and Blacksmithing for your own weapons and sharpening stones.

Sources

Rotation, stat and matchup advice adapts these Classic 1.12 guides to the WoW Forever talent trees; talents, set bonuses and new abilities come from this site’s WoW Forever data.

• Icy Veins: Classic Warrior DPS Guide
• Icy Veins: Classic Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns and Abilities
• Icy Veins: Classic Warrior DPS Stat Priority
• Icy Veins: Classic Warrior DPS Enchants and Consumables