Cataclysm Classic Arms Warrior Rotation and Cooldowns
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Arms Warrior in both single-target and multi-target PvE situations in Cataclysm Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS.
Arms Warrior Stances
Warriors have three different stances, each having unique functions that are needed in certain situations. Some spells can only be used in specific stances as well, making it important for you to understand the general purpose each stance has.
Battle Stance — Increases all damage dealt by 5% and reduces damage taken by 5%. Allows you to use abilities that require you to be in
Battle Stance, such as
Overpower.
Defensive Stance — Decreases all damage taken by 10% and increases threat generation by 500%. This is the main stance that
Protection Warrior uses.
Berserker Stance — Increases all damage dealt by 10% and allows you to use abilities that require you to be in
Berserker Stance like
Whirlwind.
Arms Warrior Rotations
If you have not already, we recommend reading the
Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each
spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of
the topics discussed on this page. Arms is one of the strongest
DPS specs in the game while having a very active, fun rotation.
Single-Target Rotation
As an Arms Warrior you
will need to utilize both
Battle Stance and
Berserker Stance
to use all of your spells and gain as much up-time of the 10% damage
increase from
Berserker Stance. With
Tactical Mastery you
will retain 75 Rage with each stance change;
be sure to quickly spend any Rage over 75
before swapping stances. Since
Lambs to the Slaughter automatically
refreshes your
Rend, the only ability you need to use in
Battle Stance is
Overpower.
The main reason that this works is that Taste for Blood will
proc every 6 seconds, giving you a bit of free time between
Overpower
uses. Your goal is to use
Overpower right before swapping to
Berserker Stance, stay in
Berserker Stance for about 8 or 9
seconds, swap back to
Battle Stance and use
Overpower twice,
rinse and repeat. When done properly, this provides about a 3% DPS
increase.
Rend — Apply to target. This will automatically refresh when you use
Mortal Strike on the target.
Mortal Strike — On cooldown.
Colossus Smash — Use on cooldown. Make sure to burst with any available cooldowns during the 6 second debuff window.
Overpower — Use with
Taste for Blood procs.
Heroic Leap — Use on cooldown, ideally during
Colossus Smash DPS windows. Is not on the global cooldown, so can be used in combination with any other ability, such as
Charge.
Heroic Strike — When you have
Battle Trance procs or are high Rage.
Execute — When the target is below 20% health.
Slam — As a filler when you have high Rage.
Commanding Shout — Use this for Rage as needed.
AoE Rotation
Your AoE rotation will change depending on how many enemies you are facing.
Against Two Targets
When attacking two enemies, you will follow the single-target rotation, using
Sweeping Strikes on cooldown and replacing
Heroic Strike with
Cleave instead.
Against Three Targets
Rend — Use on the highest health target.
Thunder Clap — On cooldown. Great when paired with
Blood and Thunder.
Bladestorm — Use
Recklessness first if available.
Sweeping Strikes — On cooldown.
Mortal Strike — On cooldown.
Colossus Smash — Use on cooldown.
Overpower — Use with
Taste for Blood procs.
Cleave — Any extra Rage.
Against Four or More Targets
Rend — Use on the highest health target.
Thunder Clap — On cooldown. Great when paired with
Blood and Thunder.
Bladestorm — Use
Recklessness first if available.
Sweeping Strikes — On cooldown.
Mortal Strike — On cooldown.
Whirlwind — On cooldown
Overpower — Use with
Taste for Blood procs.
Cleave — Any extra Rage.
Cooldowns
Arms Warriors has a number
of personal cooldowns, mostly focused on increasing your own DPS. Cataclysm adds
Rallying Cry, a raid-wide defensive cooldown.
Sweeping Strikes — 1-minute cooldown. Use on cooldown when you can hit two targets at a time.
Deadly Calm — 2-minute cooldown. Use in combination with other cooldowns during
Colossus Smash burst windows.
Recklessness — 5-minute cooldown. Use with major cooldowns such as
Bloodlust.
Bladestorm — 1.5-minute cooldown. Use when AoEing groups of enemies.
Rallying Cry — 3-minute cooldown. Coordinate this with your raid to help the group survive raid mechanics.
Inner Rage — 30-second cooldown. Use when you have high Rage that you can't spend otherwise. Unlikely you will be able to get much value from this cooldown.
Shattering Throw — 5-minute cooldown. Use this with raid cooldowns such as
Bloodlust.
Enraged Regeneration — 3-minute cooldown. If you are every very low health use this to stay alive.
Changelog
- 17 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 30 Jul. 2024: Page reviewed for phase two.
- 15 May 2024: Added page.
More Cataclysm Warrior Guides
More Cataclysm Spec Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
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