Arms Warrior DPS Nerub-ar Palace Raid Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)
On this page, you will find tips, tricks, and strategies tailored to your Arms Warrior for each boss of the following raid: Nerub-ar Palace. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.5).
Introduction
Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Nerub-ar Palace. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Nerub-ar Palace guides.
This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Arms Warrior and how you can deal with each fight as best as possible.
All recommendations are progression-based tips and will not necessarily be the best for an overall DPS ranking.
Nerub'ar Palace Boss Guides for Arms Warrior
Nerub'ar Palace Raid Builds, Tips, and Tricks for Arms Warrior
Tips for Ulgrax the Devourer for Arms Warrior
Defensive Tips
- You may want to defensive if you are at low HP when Hungering Bellows happens.
Cooldown Usage
- If the adds die very quickly in your group, then saving cooldowns other than Bladestorm and Sweeping Strikes is preferred.
Mechanical Tips
- The add phase begins each time Ulgrax reaches zero energy, which ticks down at a rate of one per second, making it easy to determine how cooldowns will align.
- Avatar and Bladestorm will remove any Stalker's Netting on the ground, clearing extra space in melee.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
The raid multitarget Cleave build is recommended.
Tips for Bloodbound Horror for Arms Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Consider using a defensive if you are at low HP when Bloodcurdle happens or if you are about to go down via Gruesome Disgorge.
Cooldown Usage
- Sweeping Strikes is fantastic for add phases. Bladestorm can be used whenever multiple are grouped together, but it should generally be used on cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Adds spawn roughly every minute, starting ~10 seconds into the encounter. Players alternate groups, which means you will either be assigned to deal with adds on even or odd intervals, so save or use cooldowns accordingly.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Although Bloodbound Horror includes regular add phases, it does not feature large groups of clumped-up adds.
The single target Juggernaut build is recommended.
Tips for Sikran for Arms Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Defensive Stance is very strong here, as you are unable to deal damage while moving out for Phase Blades anyway.
Cooldown Usage
- As a single target boss, cooldowns should be used regularly, though it is usually a good idea to delay a second or two to see if you are about to be targeted with Phase Blades.
Mechanical Tips
- Heroic Leap, Charge, and Intervene can be used as emergency movement tools to counteract the pull, but be very careful about what path the movement will take.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
The single target Juggernaut build is recommended.
Tips for Rasha'nan for Arms Warrior
Note that Warcraft Logs is once again attributing add damage, making this more of a multitarget fight for ranking purposes. While single target damage is more conductive to actually defeating the boss, Arms can still delay Bladestorm for them at little to no cost.
Defensive Tips
- Use Spell Reflection regularly, especially as the boss is casting Erosive Spray goes out.
- Use Defensive Stance while following the boss across the platform.
- On Mythic difficulty, Infested Spawn often overlaps with Enveloping Webs. Bladestorm will prevent the stun, allowing you to remain centralized to hit adds, though you will still take damage from the attack, so be sure to first use Enraged Regeneration to reduce its damage.
Cooldown Usage
- Bladestorm should be timed with the periodic wave of adds at ~1 minute, 2:20, and 3:40 into the fight.
Mechanical Tips
- Spinneret's Strands can be easily broken with Charge/Leap/Intervene, though be careful to ensure other players are not hit by them - charging into the boss from a side angle is preferred.
- Heroic Leap should be used to quickly move across the platform when the boss phases. An Evoker using Time Spiral will allow Heroic Leap to be cast twice, easily catching up to the boss and being in position to interrupt Acidic Eruption at the last second.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Although the boss features periodic groups of adds, they tend to be burst down very quickly during Bladestorm, so a multitarget build is not necessary. Conversely, the boss begins at 60% health, causing it to spend a longer amount of time in the execute phase, so a single target build focusing on Juggernaut is preferred.
The single target Juggernaut build is recommended.
Tips for Broodtwister Ovi'nax for Arms Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Because Volatile Concoction deals increased damage the more HP you are missing, using Defensive Stance or Spell Reflection is highly recommended.
Cooldown Usage
- Adds tend to be burst instead of passively cleaved down, so Arms typically treats this as more of a single target fight, so use cooldowns as they become available, though Bladestorm can still be delayed for larger groups of adds when it lines up closely.
Mechanical Tips
- On Mythic difficulty, activating Avatar or Bladestorm will immediately clear Sticky Web, applying Web Eruption to allies within 10 yards, so watch timers carefully when using these cooldowns!
- With Relentless Pursuit talented, Warriors may easily negate this mechanic by leaping away from the raid and using Charge to remove the debuff themselves.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Broodtwister is a heavy multitarget encounter, with mixed groups of regularly spawning adds.
The raid multitarget Cleave build is recommended.
Tips for Nexus-Princess Ky'veza for Arms Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Defensive Stance is very strong here, as you are unable to deal damage while moving out for Assassination anyway.
Cooldown Usage
- This is a pure single-target encounter, so use cooldowns regularly, though it may be a good idea to delay their activation slightly if Assassination is about to be cast.
Mechanical Tips
- Warriors have no particular tricks on this encounter, aside from common capabilities like using Charge and Heroic Leap to get in and out of range quickly.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
The single target Juggernaut build is recommended.
Tips for The Silken Court for Arms Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Spell Reflection should be used regularly, as almost everything deals magic damage.
Cooldown Usage
- Sweeping Strikes should be used regularly, though Bladestorm can be timed for groups of smaller adds whenever possible.
- Holding cooldowns on the pull for adds will cause them to not be available when the boss is taking extra damage due to being entangled, so players will have to choose whether to prioritize boss or add damage.
Mechanical Tips
- Call of the Swarm adds fixate the closest target, so use that to your advantage to lure them into melee range of the boss.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
The Silken Court is a two-target encounter, with occasional groups of smaller adds. Colossus is preferred, due to its higher uptime on Sweeping Strikes fueling more casts of Demolish.
The two-target Improved Sweeping Strikes raid build is recommended.
Tips for Queen Ansurek for Arms Warrior
Defensive Tips
- Spell Reflection should be used regularly, as almost everything deals nature damage. In particular, it should be timed to reduce the damage of Liquefy or Silken Tombs in Phase 1, and Abyssal Infusion in Phase 3.
Cooldown Usage
- Although there are several sets of extra targets throughout the encounter, Arms will treat it primarily as a single target one. Bladestorm may still be delayed for sets of Silken Tombs in Phase 1, Caustic Skitter spawns in Phase 2, and Gloom Hatchlings in Phase 3, with Cleave thrown in as needed.
Mechanical Tips
- During the intermission, movement abilities will only negate the pull-in if they are used after the pull, which does not leave very much time or room for reaction. A much safer strategy is to use Heroic Leap or Intervene early in order to create enough distance to survive. Bladestorm can also be used from melee range to stop from being moved entirely.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
The raid multitarget Cleave build is recommended.
General Defensive Usage Notes
Arms Warrior has several defensive spells that you should plan to use and rotate throughout mechanics. You should opt to use the smaller cooldown spells often as needed with incoming mechanics and save bigger cooldowns like Die by the Sword for large spikes of incoming damage.
- Spell Reflection
- Defensive Stance
- Impending Victory
- Die by the Sword
General Cooldown Usage
Arms Warrior has a few cooldowns to think about using optimally on the fights in Nerub-ar Palace:
- Avatar — a long damage-enhancing cooldown, it can be enhanced further through special Torment talents.
- Colossus Smash — the main damage enhancing cooldown, it has a low cooldown thanks to Anger Management and also increases Haste through In For The Kill.
- Sweeping Strikes — should be used regularly, ideally preemptively, whenever a second target exists.
- Bladestorm — a moderately powerful multitarget cooldown, but also serves as a single target cooldown due to Unhinged triggering multiple extra Mortal Strikes.
- Thunderous Roar — serves as both a single and multitarget cooldown, enhancing the damage of bleeds while active.
- Skullsplitter — is more of a minor rotational cooldown that should be used every time it is available. It can be cleaved onto a second target with Sweeping Strikes, though take care to ensure both targets are in front of you, or its debuff may not be applied.
In addition to the general rotation, you want to keep in mind that your goal is to use your cooldowns as often as possible during an encounter. With that in mind, your secondary goal is to use them at the correct time.
I highly suggest using some Addon or WeakAura to track the estimated time to die of your target/boss target. Method Raid Tools has this as an option if you are already using this addon. By tracking time to die, if you know that you can only fit one more cycle of your cooldowns in before the boss dies, you can choose to hold these cooldowns to better line up with Bloodlust, your Potion, or even your other cooldowns, trying to look for opportunities to stack all of them.
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated various tips and talent recommendations for The Silken Court.
- 03 Oct. 2024: More tips and new talent recommendations for The Silken Court.
- 23 Sep. 2024: Queen Ansurek tips and suggestions.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Page created.
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This guide has been written by Archimtiros, Warrior class theorycrafter and SimulationCraft developer who has been writing class guides for more than a decade. You can follow him on Twitter or see more of his day to day work in Skyhold, the Warrior Discord.
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