Arms Warrior Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

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: Raids and dungeons, Player versus player, Leveling
Top talent: Bladestorm
Popular builds: 3
Version: WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Arms in Wrath is the busiest warrior: Taste for Blood makes Overpower usable after Rend ticks, Sudden Death lets you Execute at any health, Juggernaut lets you Charge in combat and boosts your next Mortal Strike, Wrecking Crew raises damage after crits, and Bladestorm spins through everything around you.

The rotation is a priority: keep Rend up, Overpower when Taste for Blood lights it, Mortal Strike when ready, Execute on Sudden Death procs and Slam to fill. Arms scales very well with armour penetration, which makes it a top raid spec late in the expansion.

In arenas Arms is the warrior spec: Mortal Strike's healing cut, Bladestorm, Intercept and Shattering Throw.

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 Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

1Rend kept up on the target: it feeds Taste for Blood.
2Overpower whenever Taste for Blood or a dodge makes it usable.
3Mortal Strike whenever it is ready.
4Execute when Sudden Death procs, and below 20% health.
5Slam to fill; Heroic Strike or Cleave to spend extra Rage.
6Bladestorm on packs or for burst.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Excellent scaling with armour penetration.
Bladestorm: big burst, immune to crowd control while it spins.
Strong in arenas and while leveling.

Weaknesses

Rage-starved in low gear.
A busy priority full of procs.
You can't use other abilities during Bladestorm.

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
Hitto 263 rating (8%)
2
Armour penetrationthe best stat once you have a lot of it
3
Strength
4
Expertiseto 26
5
Critical strike
6
Haste

What to look for

A two-hander with the highest damage you can get: Mortal Strike and Slam scale with it.
Hit to 263 rating and expertise toward 26, then Strength, or armour penetration once your gear has plenty of it.
Red gems: Strength early, armour penetration later.

Items worth chasing

ShadowmourneThe legendary two-handed axe.
Deathbringer's WillA trinket that procs Strength, Agility or haste.
Mjolnir RunestoneA trinket that procs armour penetration.
Darkmoon Card: GreatnessA trinket that procs your best stat.

Builds

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

Arms
Fury
Protection

Arms Raider
DamagePvE
5588
55/8/8
Raid damage with 55 points in Arms, down to Bladestorm, and 8 in Fury and 8 in Protection.
- Juggernaut 1/1
- Sudden Death 3/3
- Endless Rage 1/1
- Wrecking Crew 5/5
- Bladestorm 1/1
Glyphs: Glyph of Rending (major), Glyph of Mortal Strike (major), Glyph of Execution (major), Glyph of Thunder Clap (minor), Glyph of Command (minor), Glyph of Shattering Throw (minor)
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting
Arms Gladiator
DamagePvP
5714
57/14/0
Arena and battleground damage with 57 points in Arms, down to Bladestorm, and 14 in Fury.
- Juggernaut 1/1
- Sudden Death 3/3
- Endless Rage 1/1
- Wrecking Crew 5/5
- Bladestorm 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Arms Leveling
DamageLeveling
5219
52/19/0
Leveling with 52 points in Arms, down to Bladestorm, and 19 in Fury.
- Juggernaut 1/1
- Sudden Death 3/3
- Endless Rage 1/1
- Wrecking Crew 5/5
- Bladestorm 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Bladestorm · top talent, up to 1
Instantly Whirlwind up to 4 nearby targets and for the next 6 sec you will perform a whirlwind attack every 1 sec. While under the effects of Bladestorm, you can move but cannot perform any other abilities but you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.
Mortal Strike · tier 7, 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.
Strength of Arms · tier 7, up to 2
Increases your total Strength and Stamina by 4% and your Expertise by 4.
Juggernaut · tier 8, up to 1
Your Charge ability is now usable while in combat, but the cooldown on Charge is increased by 5 sec. Following a Charge, your next Slam or Mortal Strike has an additional 25% chance to critically hit if used within 10 sec.
Improved Mortal Strike · tier 8, up to 3
Increases the damage caused by your Mortal Strike ability by 10% and reduces the cooldown by 1 sec.
Unrelenting Assault · tier 8, up to 2
Reduces the cooldown of your Overpower and Revenge abilities by 4 secs and increases the damage done by both abilities by 20%. In addition, if you strike a player with Overpower while they are casting, their magical damage and healing will be reduced by 50% for 6 sec.
Sudden Death · tier 9, up to 3
Your melee hits have a 9% chance of allowing the use of Execute regardless of the target's health state. In addition, you keep at least 10 rage after using Execute.
Endless Rage · tier 9, up to 1
You generate 25% more rage from damage dealt.
Blood Frenzy · tier 9, up to 2
Increases your melee attack speed by 10%. In addition your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities also increase all physical damage caused to that target by 4%.
Wrecking Crew · tier 10, up to 5
Your melee critical hits Enrage you, increasing all damage caused by 10% for 12 sec. This effect does not stack with Enrage.

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.