wow Arms Warrior in the Shadowlands: Spec Highlights and Class Recommendations

[Starym 3,800]

 

Update: the Arms pre-patch guide is ready and you can check it out here:
Arms Warrior Shadowlands Guide

It's back to the Rage boys and girls as Archmitros takes a look at Arms in the Shadowlands. One of their best features is that they actually get to choose whichever Covenant they want, regardless of which activity they want to focus on, as all are viable and have different benefits across the board! Then there's the usual ability and talent changes, legendaries and more, so let's take a look.

Exciting Changes for Arms Warriors in Shadowlands

Arms Warriors have had a troubling time the last few expansions, frequently switching between reviled near the start of expansions only to become popular near the end, as many new systems help prop up their design, before reverting back to a base state with the start of a new expansion. Unfortunately, Shadowlands doesn't do much to change this, as it is very similar to the launch of Battle for Azeroth, before Azerite, Essences, and Corruptions took the specialization higher. For players who like that slower gameplay, this may be a good thing, but those expecting the same high point that Arms currently enjoys at the end of Battle for Azeroth may be in for disappointment. That said, Arms has received a handful of talent adjustments, several additional defensive and utility options, new legendary options, and some very compelling Covenant choices.
 

General Changes

Arms plays largely the same as it does in Battle for Azeroth, with the rotation revolving around building Rage through auto attacks and spending it on special abilities, before spamming Execute toward the end of the encounter, though slower due to the loss of Azerite, Essences, and Corruption bonuses. While there are only a few changes, the mastery change in particular stands out as a major improvement.

• Mastery: Deep Wounds now increases the target's damage taken instead of only increasing the amount of bleed damage dealt, but can no longer be applied with Execute, making Mortal Strike more prominent during that phase.
• Die by the Sword cooldown reduced from 3 to 2 minutes.
• Sweeping Strikes duration increased from 10 to 12 seconds and is now on a half second global cooldown.
• Rallying Cry temporary health increased from 15 to 20%.
   

Revamped Talents

Arms Warriors have received just a few talent changes, with only one being entirely redesigned, so the current paradigm isn't shaken up in any way.

• Impending Victory now heals for 30% health instead of 20%.
  • now also reduces the cooldown of Execute by 1.5 sec.
• Collateral Damage now enhances Whirlwind damage rather than refunding Rage.
• Cleave now replaces Sweeping Strikes and consumes Overpower to deal increased damage, but no longer requires three targets.
• Deadly Calm now reduces the rage cost of the next four abilities rather than all for 10 seconds, and passively increases the Rage cap to 130.
• Dreadnaught now causes a Seismic Wave of damage forward, similar to the Azerite trait, rather than increasing Overpower's damage bonus.
• Ravager cooldown reduced from 1 minute to 45 seconds, and slowly follows the closest target.

While none of these are particularly exciting changes, they're all fairly good ones. Only Cleave replacing Sweeping Strikes really stands out as a negative change, but Sweeping Strikes has always existed in a strange state when confronted with more than 2 targets and could use a redesign itself.
 

New Baseline Abilities

We also have new baseline abilities to consider, including several defensive and utility abilities being added to the class toolkit. Utility has long been considered the Warrior's weak point, and although some of these additions are rather niche, there are several new options to get excited about.

• Spell Reflection is an amazing addition, offering a very strong low cooldown, no cost defensive ability which is also off the GCD. This alone is a large survivability increase for the class.
• Ignore Pain  adds yet another defensive option, although it comes with a heavy opportunity cost in the form of Rage. While in most cases players will forgo using this in order to maintain their damage output, it still serves a strong purpose for experienced players who know which incoming damage needs extra mitigation, and which can be safely left to their healers to deal with.
• Intervene adds even more mobility to an already mobile class, offering a friendly gap closer. Although the defensive benefit is of questionable value, simply being able to get around the battlefield easier is a major boon.
• Shattering Throw  offers a wealth of new options in PvP, but also a few niche PvE uses as well. Although enemies with breakable immunities are fairly rare, absorption shields are not, and the increased damage bonus can make this an excellent (if situational) part of the toolkit.
• Shield Slam & Shield Block  similarly falter. Ostensibly added in order to allow DPS Warriors to tank, they really don't accomplish that role, adding very little defensive value in return for crippling DPS output due to requiring a shield. Realistically, there are very few cases where using Shield Block will allow you to survive anything you wouldn't survive without it, and Shield Slam just becomes a pointless filler. As it currently stands, they won't make their way out of the spell book outside of the occasional use in PvP.
   

Covenants

Unlike many classes, all four of the Covenants coming in Shadowlands are compelling in their own right, which actually makes choosing one rather difficult. For Arms Warriors, it isn't simply a matter of Single Target versus AoE, or Raiding v Mythic+ v PvP - all of the new abilities learned from the Covenants are useful in all situations, which means we'll likely see a good bit of variety from player to player.
 

Venthyr

Venthyr Covenant Ability - Condemn

• Condemn is very strong for Arms due to not having a cooldown on the ability, although it does suffer a bit in multitarget situations when not being cleaved with Sweeping Strikes. Still, it's damage value is high enough that the ability is prioritized at low target counts and it adds a lot of extra burst damage at the start of any encounter.

Venthyr Secondary Ability - Door of Shadows

• Door of Shadows is less useful to a class which already has so much mobility, but it does have situational uses which can allow a Warrior to travel safely across areas which would be much more dangerous when using Heroic Leap. Ultimately, picking a covenant is more about damage than utility, so Venthyr is still an extremely strong pick due to Condemn, but the secondary ability does leave a bit to be desired.
   

Kryan

Kyrian Covenant Ability - Spear of Bastion

• The Spear is a wonderfully versatile ability which deals a good amount of damage, generates a high amount of rage, and hits multiple targets, making it very well suited as both a Single Target or AoE burst button. The tethering effect is a nice touch for certain situations, though the real reason to pick it is simply due to how reliable it is thanks to the low cooldown making it regularly available.

Kyrian Secondary Ability - Summon Steward   / Phial of Serenity

• The Steward itself serves as a mini-Jeeves, but the real prize is the Phial, which acts as a third healing consumable alongside Health Stones and Health Potions. Even better is its ability to remove many debuffs, which can downright trivialize some otherwise very dangerous mechanics. While Covenants are mainly picked for their damage potential, this is quite possibly the best secondary ability, both for DPS and tank players.
   

Night Fae

Night Fae Covenant Ability - Ancient Aftershock

• Ancient Aftershock is Spear of Bastion's big brother - it hits harder, and has the potential to generate more rage against multiple targets, though on a longer cooldown. The knock down is arguably better than tethering, though also trickier to make use of due to the static placement. Overall, it's a bit trickier to use, but if you're using the ability strictly on cooldown against multiple targets, it's slightly better than Spear, whereas Spear's lower cooldown and better single target Rage generation make it a bit more versatile.

Night Fae Secondary Ability - Soulshape

• Discount Ghost Wolf is an interesting ability because like Door of Shadows, Warriors don't really need more mobility, but it's also quicker and easier to use which makes it a bit more practical. The major drawback here is that you cannot attack while shaped, which means you won't want to use it unless you're not able to hit the target anyway, which in many cases means you probably don't really need the extra speed either. Certainly there are situations where it can be useful, and the short range blink has some uses, but when you already have Charge, Intercept, and Heroic Leap, it's hard to make a major case for this particular ability.
   

Necrolord

Necrolord Covenant Ability - Conqueror's Banner

• Conqueror's Banner received a redesign which made it much better - now increasing Critical Strike chance and damage, rather than attack speed. This not only makes it better for Warriors, but also for the allies benefiting from it, since everyone likes extra crit chance, whereas only a few specializations cared about auto-attacking faster. The better change though is that there's no longer a "build up" period, in which the banner is active but not actually buffing anyone; instead it now immediately gets planted on the ground as soon as the ability is used, making it much more suited for opening burst and easier to time than before. While not the best ability, it is now much easier and satisfying to use, not to mention more flexible.

Necrolord Secondary Ability - Fleshcraft

• Fleshcraft is a bit two-sided. On the one hand, it has a stronger defensive value than the Kyrian Phial and can be used multiple times per encounter, though on the other hand it also takes time to channel the ability, which typically means less damage on target. Savvy players will quickly learn where to shield in order to gain maximum benefit - just before large instances of damage or while they're unable to attack the boss - rather than simply using it on cooldown.
   

Legendary Effects

Legendaries are also returning in Shadowlands, and Arms Warriors have several options to choose from which enhance the game play in compelling ways.

• Enduring Blow and Battlelord are both returning bonuses from Warlords of Draenor which veteran players should be very familiar with. They directly enhance the game play by adding more procs to what is otherwise a somewhat stale rotation, although the proc rates feel a little low to really be engaging.
• Exploiter and Unhinged are also interesting choices. While Mortal Strike is already used sub-20% due to Execute no longer applying Deep Wounds , Expoiter makes it even more prominent during that phase by amping the damage. On the other hand, Unhinged doesn't change much except to amplify Bladestorm damage.
•  Seismic Reverberation is memorable from Legion, though Whirlwind isn't the end all, be all of multitarget damage, as Cleave and burst abilities make up a much greater percentage of damage done.
• Signet of Tormented Kings  actually works very well with Arms, which can proc it off of either Bladestorm, Avatar, or Ravager, and unlike Fury none of them will get in the way of one another.
• Misshapen Mirror is quite simply amazing, to the point where it's already led to nerfs and will probably see a few more. Being able to reflect spells is already strong due to how many mechanics and damage spikes can be avoided, but extending that to the entire party is downright broken. Even with the changes that have been made so far, mass spell reflection is an amazingly powerful group tool which will likely see a lot of use in Mythic+.
   

Conclusion

Overall, Arms has a very solid toolkit capable of approaching nearly every situation in the game - single target, two target cleave, sustained three to five target, and burst AoE, along with a respectable defensive toolkit and utility options. Where it falters is the relatively bland and uninspired gameplay; not only is it a slower than normal rotation with excessive downtime, but it lacks the exciting moment to moment gameplay to keep it engaging.

 

Other Spec Highlights:

• Frost Death Knight
• Unholy Death Knight
• Vengeance Demon Hunter
• Balance Druid
• Restoration Druid
• Beast Mastery Hunter
• Marksmanship Hunter
• Arcane Mage
• Frost Mage
• Assassination Rogue
• Outlaw Rogue
• Elemental Shaman
• Enhancement Shaman
• Holy Paladin
• Shadow Priest
• Affliction Warlock
• Protection Warrior