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Arms Warrior Guide — Class Guides · WoW Forever

Two-handed weapon damage built around Mortal Strike, which also reduces the healing its target receives. The usual leveling and player-versus-player tree.

A plate-wearing melee fighter who builds Rage by dealing and taking damage and spends it on attacks, shouts and stances. Warriors tank with a shield in Defensive Stance or deal melee damage with two-handed or dual-wielded weapons. More about the warrior

Class
Warrior
Roles
Damage
Used for
Player versus player, Leveling
Top talent
Mortal Strike
Popular builds
2
Version
WoW Forever

How to play

Arms in WoW Forever is the two-handed tree built around Weaponmaster, whose bonus depends on your weapon type, and Mortal Strike, which still cuts the target's healing. Bloodthrill gives your main-hand swings a chance to enable Overpower while Rend is on the target, Spearing Strike punishes giants, dragonkin and mounted players, and Improved Tactical Mastery keeps more Rage when you change stance.

Keep Rend up so Bloodthrill can fire, Mortal Strike when ready, Overpower whenever it lights up, and Slam or Whirlwind with spare Rage. Below 20% health, Execute takes over.

Arms is the standard tree for leveling and for player-versus-player fights; Sweeping Strikes and Improved Slam make it fast against pairs of enemies.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Forever.

Rotation and priorities

  1. 1Open with Charge; Rend on the target.
  2. 2Mortal Strike whenever it is ready.
  3. 3Overpower whenever Bloodthrill or a dodge makes it usable.
  4. 4Slam or Whirlwind with spare Rage; Sweeping Strikes against two enemies.
  5. 5Execute below 20% health; Victory Rush after a kill.
  6. 6Hamstring targets that try to run.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Mortal Strike still decides player-versus-player fights.
  • Weaponmaster rewards whichever weapon you find.
  • Fast, sturdy leveling with Victory Rush and Sweeping Strikes.

Weaknesses

  • Bloodthrill needs Rend kept up.
  • Less raid damage than Fury.
  • No escapes.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

  1. 1

    Weapon damageslow two-handers

  2. 2

    Hitto the cap against bosses

  3. 3

    Critical strikemore Rage per crit in Forever

  4. 4

    Strength2 attack power each

  5. 5

    Agility

  6. 6

    Stamina

What to look for

  • The slowest, hardest-hitting two-hander you can find.
  • Pick the weapon type for Weaponmaster: axes and polearms add crit, maces and staves ignore armour, swords add extra attacks.
  • Crusader on the weapon.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

  • Arms
  • Fury
  • Protection

  • Bloodthrill Duelist

    DamagePvP
    31/20/0

    Arms for PvP: Mortal Strike cuts healing, Improved Hamstring can root, Bloodthrill turns Rend into extra Overpowers and Piercing Howl slows groups.

    • Anger Management 1/1
    • Bloodthrill 5/5
    • Sweeping Strikes 1/1
    • Improved Hamstring 3/3
    • Mortal Strike 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycrafting

  • Weaponmaster Wanderer

    DamageLeveling
    31/20/0

    Arms leveling: Weaponmaster rewards your two-hander, Improved Slam and Sweeping Strikes speed up kills, and Anger Management and Lingering Rage cut the wait for Rage.

    • Anger Management 1/1
    • Sweeping Strikes 1/1
    • Weaponmaster 5/5
    • Improved Slam 2/2
    • Mortal Strike 1/1

    Open in the talent calculatorTheorycrafting

Key talents

  • Mortal Strike · top talent, up to 1

    A vicious strike that deals weapon damage plus 85 and wounds the target, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 10 sec.

  • Anger Management · tier 3, up to 1

    Generates 1 Rage every 3 sec while in combat, and reduces Rage loss while out of combat by 30%.

  • Deep Wounds · tier 3, up to 3

    Your critical strikes cause your opponent to Bleed, dealing 60% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 sec.

  • Two-Handed Weapon Specialization · tier 4, up to 3

    Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 3%.

  • Impale · tier 4, up to 2

    Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your abilities by 20%.

  • Bloodthrill · tier 5, up to 5

    Grants your Main Hand melee attacks against enemies afflicted by your Rend a 20% chance to allow an activation of Overpower.

  • Sweeping Strikes · tier 5, up to 1

    Your next 5 melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent.

  • Weaponmaster · tier 5, up to 5

    Gives your melee weapon attacks a benefit depending on the weapon. Axe/Polearm: Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Mace/Staff: Your attacks ignore 15% of your target's armor. Sword: Your successful melee attacks have a 5% chance to trigger an extra attack on the target.

  • Improved Slam · tier 6, up to 2

    Reduces the global cooldown and cast time of your Slam ability by 0.50 sec. In addition, Slam no longer interrupts or delays your melee swing and Slam's cooldown is reduced by 3.0 sec.

  • Improved Hamstring · tier 6, up to 3

    Gives your Hamstring ability a 15% chance to immobilize the target for 5 sec.

Arms abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.

What WoW Forever changed

New talents in this tree

  • Improved Tactical MasteryTactical Mastery lets you retain up to an additional 15 Rage when you change stances.
  • Spearing StrikeA brutal attack that deals 40% weapon damage. Deals an additional 80% weapon damage against Giants, Dragonkin, and mounted targets. Mounted targets are dismounted.
  • BloodthrillGrants your Main Hand melee attacks against enemies afflicted by your Rend a 20% chance to allow an activation of Overpower.
  • WeaponmasterGives your melee weapon attacks a benefit depending on the weapon. Axe/Polearm: Increases your critical strike chance by 5%. Mace/Staff: Your attacks ignore 15% of your target's armor. Sword: Your successful melee attacks have a 5% chance to trigger an extra attack on the target.

Classic Era talents the class no longer has

  • Tactical Mastery
  • Axe Specialization
  • Mace Specialization
  • Sword Specialization
  • Polearm Specialization

Spells

New: Victory Rush, Spearing Strike. Changed: Thunder Clap, Tactical Mastery, Retaliation.

Related

Other warrior specs: Fury, Protection