Arms Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — 12.1

Arms biggest and most important gameplay concept is managing its primary resource, especially after being significantly reduced in Midnight. Nearly every ability Arms uses spends Rage, with the majority generated through auto-attack swings, resulting in two separate cadences that do not always sync up. Although in most cases this is not something you should need to think about, it is very important to recognize when high or dry streaks can occur, and attempt to avoid them, since skipping an extra cast of Slam is less important than missing a Mortal Strike.

Note that Skyfury grants extra auto-attack swings which also generate Rage, so always having a Shaman in the group is highly preferred, though less pronounced when playing Slayer.

Applicable to most classes, though particularly relevant to Arms Warriors, due to the reliance on auto-attacking for both Rage generation and damage. Any time spent off target is lost damage, with minimal means to recoup lost resources, unlike energy-based classes which will continue regenerating their resource up to its cap.

Due to the high mobility innate to the Warrior class, it is possible to play around boss mechanics and minimize downtime. If the boss is casting an area effect which requires players to run a certain distance away, a Warrior can instead continue attacking until the last few seconds, Heroic Leap away and immediately Charge back as soon as the danger has passed.

Although Arms can have free global cooldowns due to a lack of Rage, planning for and ensuring you fill as many abilities as possible during the Colossus Smash debuff is paramount to maximizing Arms Warrior damage. When outside of those burst windows, its better to let Rage accrue, and only spend it so long as it will not keep you from casting a follow on Mortal Strike.

A small optimization can be made by moving out of range of the target and using Charge to generate extra Rage during your rotation. Care should be taken to do this between auto-attack swings when Colossus Smash is not active. Heroic Leap can also be used to create enough room to Charge for bosses with large hitboxes, which is sometimes more specifically referred to as Heroic Charge.

Heroic Strike has a higher priority than normal Slam casts, most particularly because it is used during the Execute rotation. However, because Master of Warfare stacks have individual durations, there is no particular need or advantage to track it, making the buff easy to treat passively.

Master of Warfare differs in that it stacks like a normal buff, however it is consumed as soon as Colossus Smash is cast, also making it a fairly passive buff. While players will average 2-3 stacks per cycle, the buff stacks up to 5 to ensure that lucky procs do not go to waste.

The main cooldown for Arms Warriors provides a moderate burst window, not as large as many classes but very frequent due to the constant cooldown reduction of Anger Management. Almost always best to use strictly on cooldown, it can be circumstantially delayed for groups of adds or to align with other important damage phases, though care should be taken to recognize that its actual cooldown is a lot shorter than implied.

Now also reduced by Anger Management to help keep it aligned with Colossus Smash, Avatar has lost all of its follow-on talents and much of its power, becoming a fairly minor cooldown with no inherent gameplay benefits.

The signature Slayer ability is not the high-burst powerhouse it used to be, but continues to provide a reasonable amount of damage, with its single target value increased by Unhinged. One of the few abilities that does not spend rage, auto-attacks continue to hit during the channel, making it a pseudo-generator.

Keep in mind that the automatic Mortal Strikes caused by Unhinged can also trigger their own effects, such as Tactician or Reap the Storm.

Despite three stacks of Imminent Demise causing the button to glow, this is not an indicator of when Bladestorm should be used. It should almost always be used either on cooldown, or timed with groups of adds.

The Colossus counterpart to Bladestorm, Ravager actually serves an entirely different role, being a predominantly multitarget ability whose minor damage is offset by the large buff to Cleave. Keeping it aligned with Colossus Smash can be difficult since Ravager is no longer affected by any form of cooldown reduction, but the two should be used together as much as possible to take advantage of Crushing Combo.

The actual counterpart to Bladestorm, Demolish is used in almost the same way as both a single and multitarget cooldown. It has its own distinct form of cooldown reduction which does not always align with others, so keeping a careful eye on the various cooldown timers is paramount to maximizing its damage.

While not a major cooldown per se, Wrecking Throw deals a surprisingly high amount of damage, making it a competent ranged filler that also silences enemies while Javelineer is talented. However, its true power comes into play when facing targets with absorb shields, gaining a 500% damage multiplier to become the strongest single attack in the entire Warrior kit. In such situations, it should be used quickly, second only to Colossus Smash, in order to ensure it hits the target to quickly strip its shield.