WotLK Classic Arms Warrior Guide

Arms Warrior has received some great changes in Wrath of the Lich King, giving the spec its own, unique playstyle that makes it stand out. Arms Warrior excels in multi-target scenarios, being one of the highest sustained cleave damage dealers out there.

If you would like to see where Arms Warrior falls in the overall rankings among DPS specs for both PvE and PvP in WotLK Classic, we have created pages dedicated to explaining what classes and specializations are the best of the best through multiple factors. However, ultimately, you should not let these lists dissuade you from playing what you enjoy.

Strengths

• Brings multiple debuffs with Trauma and Blood Frenzy.
• High damage against 3-4 targets with consistent cleave.
• Not reliant on resources; can sustain combat infinitely.

Weaknesses

• Does not scale well; becomes redundant in later tiers.
• Brings no utility to the raid, only damage.
• High incentive to use either Axes or Polearms, reducing the amount of available weapons.

Here you can see the benefits of the different races for Arms Warrior in WotLK. Some racials are much stronger than others, helping you deal more damage. However, you should not let this decide what race you choose; play what you want to play.

Draenei is one of the strongest races in PvE content for Alliance, as Heroic Presence is a great stat boost to your entire party. It still remains a party-wide buff, not raid-wide, meaning the group you are in still matters. This buff helps you with your Hit Rating needs greatly, as well as the rest of the players in your party, making Draenei an extremely powerful choice.

While Human was previously the go-to choice for Arms Warrior, this is not the case in WotLK. While both Sword Specialization and Mace Specialization are great, you will want to use either an Axe or Polearm to utilize the improved Poleaxe Specialization. Humans are also arguably the strongest race in the game for PvP. Having both Will to Survive, essentially a free PvP trinket, and Perception; Human is a solid choice if you will be doing PvP on your Warrior.

Orc is by far the strongest race for an Arms Warrior. With the improved Poleaxe Specialization, you will want to use either an Axe or Polearm, which pairs up perfectly with Orc's Axe Specialization.

Orcs also get Blood Fury, a racial ability acting similar to an on-use Attack Power trinket. While the amount of Attack Power granted by this racial is not much, it is better than what most other races have to offer.

Troll is a mediocre choice for Arms Warrior. Berserking is the Troll racial, granting a large amount of Haste, which is your lowest stat priority. That being said, it is still a fairly powerful option as it is still a damage increase. You also get Beast Slaying, further increasing your damage against any Beast you encounter.

Engineering on paper is not a great profession, but it provides a high amount of utility and added damage that make it arguably the strongest profession in Wrath of the Lich King.

Charged Titanium Specs is a great pre-raid helm option, giving you another easy piece of gear to craft early on. Nitro Boosts is a powerful boot enchant choice, allowing you to cover a large amount of ground quickly. This can greatly increase your uptime on certain bosses that have high movement mechanics. You can also get Flexweave Underlay, your best cloak enchant that also doubles as a slowfall when activated.

Another unique Engineering enchant is Hyperspeed Accelerators, a glove enchant. This gives you another damage cooldown, greatly increasing your Haste every minute. While Haste Rating is not the best for Arms, this is still a great cooldown that you can take advantage of during your procs.

Engineering explosives continue on through WotLK with both Global Thermal Sapper Charge and Saronite Bomb giving you extra damage, especially during large AoE pulls.

Overall Engineering remains a powerful option for everyone as it brings a huge amount of utility and extra damage. If your raid requires you to have Engineering do not feel bad about losing out on a few passive stats as the utility you gain far outweighs them.

Jewelcrafting is an extremely powerful profession in Wrath of the Lich King, being used by almost all classes and specializations. For an Arms Warrior, it provides you with Bold Dragon's Eye and Fractured Dragon's Eye. Fractured Dragon's Eye is a vital part of reaching the Armor Penetration cap in early gear, while Fractured Dragon's Eye is a huge stat increase otherwise.

While Blacksmithing is generally not worth taking over either Jewelcrafting or Engineering, it does have a specific use that is worth mentioning. Blacksmithing provides 2 additional sockets with both Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves. These 2 additional sockets will typically be used to help reach the Armor Penetration cap easier in early raid gear. Even with this option, it is still not recommended to take Blacksmithing over the better professions.

Using macros and addons makes your life significantly easier when playing Wrath Classic, and they can improve your experience a lot, depending on how skilled you are at customizing them.

If you are interested in learning more about addons and macros suited to Arms Warrior, check out our guides below: