Arms Warrior DPS Spell List and Glossary — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

This page describes the basic spells and passives all Arms Warriors have at Level 70. It goes over the main aspects of the specialization to help understand the remainder of the guide. It can also be useful as a quick reference.

If you are leveling an Arms Warrior, you likely will not have access to all of the abilities and passives listed here. However, our leveling guide can help specify when you will unlock access to everything.

Warriors use a unique resource called Rage, which works very similar to Hunter Focus and Rogue Energy, except Rage does not regenerate on its own. It always starts at zero and is built up during combat through auto attacks and certain abilty casts, with important damaging abilities consuming the resource. Outside of combat, Rage slowly depreciates back down to zero.

Warrior Rage has a default maximum capacity of 100, although this can be modified by unique talents. While the resource is only generated in combat, there are certain abilities such as Charge which will help jumpstart that flow of incoming Rage, while other talents and abilities can increase your Rage generation further.

As a general rule, you should want to both avoid Rage starving or overcapping the resource, so that you do not find yourself in situations where you are either unable to cast important abilities on cooldown, or waste resource generation due to maximum capacity.

For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Seasoned Soldier	-	Passively increases Rage generation and the value of Critical Strike.
Mastery: Master of Arms	-	A passive damage increase.
Battle Shout	BS	Very important group buff which will increase the attack power of all players and should always be applied.
Berserker Rage	BzR	Removes incapacitate and fear effects.
Charge	-	An important Rage generating and mobility ability used to close distances with and engage moving targets.
Victory Rush	VR	A very useful healing ability, which triggers when an enemy is defeated. Instrumental for self-sustain in solo content.
Whirlwind	WW	The main multi-target attack, which can be enhanced with various talents to allow other attacks to hit multiple targets as well.
Execute	Exe	A powerful Rage spending attack meant to increase damage towards the end of an encounter.
Slam	-	A basic damage-dealing attack, which serves as Arms' main spender.
Hamstring	-	A basic single-target snare.
Heroic Throw	-	A ranged pull with little to no practical damage impact.
Taunt	-	Forces the target to attack you! Seldom used by DPS specializations.
Shield Slam	-	A basic attack which will only be used during the initial leveling process before choosing a specialization.
Shield Block	-	A basic defensive ability which will only be used during the initial leveling process before choosing a specialization.
Sweeping Strikes	-	Enables two target cleave.

As part of the Midnight update, every specialization has received numerous new passive effects and active abilities throughout the new Class and Specialization talent trees.

If you would like to know more about which of these talents to select for your own Arms Warrior, please see the builds and talents section of our guide.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Battle Stance	-	Increases Critical Strike chance.
Defensive Stance	-	Reduces damage taken at the cost of dealing less.
Impending Victory	IV	Replaces Victory Rush with a more reliable version that costs Rage.
War Machine	-	Provides increased Rage generation and a minor burst of movement speed.
Intervene	-	Charge an ally, though be wary of targeting tanks.
Interpose	-	Charge an ally, without taking melee swings in the process.
Rallying Cry	Rally	A very important group defensive tool used in most organized raid content.
Berserker Shout	-	Removes fear from the entire party, though very rarely necessary.
Fearless	-	Enhances Berserker Rage to remove movement impairing effects, but not roots.
Piercing Howl	-	A strong AoE snare, which now also increases allied movement speed.
Fast Footwork	-	Passive speed increase.
Spell Reflection	-	Very useful for reducing damage taken, dealing some back to an enemy, and occasionally ignoring debuff applications entirely!
Leeching Strikes	-	Passive leech increase.
Second Wind	-	Provides passive healing, which is usually broken by incoming damage, but occasionally ignores it, making the heal situationally overpowered.
Frothing Berserker	-	Provides a small irregular Rage refund, though not enough to greatly influence the rotation.
Heroic Leap	Leap	Burst mobility tool.
Intimidating Shout	-	More often used as a pseudo-interrupt, it tends to scatter enemy groups.
Thunder Clap	TC	No longer used by Arms, outside of some PvP situations.
Wrecking Throw	-	Rarely useful when enemies have absorption shields.
Shattering Throw	-	Even more rarely useful when enemies have breakable immunities.
Crushing Force	-	A passive damage increase for Mortal Strike.
Pain and Gain	-	A small amount of passive self-healing, which can add up over the course of a long encounter.
Storm Bolt	-	A ranged single-target stun on a short cooldown.
Overwhelming Rage	-	Increasing maximum Rage increases performance by reducing resource waste due to overcapping.
Reinforced Plates	-	A notable defensive boost, which synergizes with another talent converting armor into strength.
Bounding Stride	-	Allows Heroic Leap to be used more frequently.
Crackling Thunder	-	Not particularly useful to Arms.
Barbaric Training	-	A moderate damage increase for Slam, Whirlwind, and Cleave.
Honed Reflexes	-	Reduces the cooldown of several defensive and utility abilities.
Double Time	-	A must-have increase in mobility, which leads to an even more important talent.
Armored to the Teeth	-	A surprisingly strong damage increase and additional avenue of Warrior gear scaling.
Wild Strikes	-	A very powerful auto-attack damage and Rage generation increase, though its internal cooldown keeps it from triggering too often.
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization	-	A must have passive damage increase that now also slightly increases survivability.
Cruel Strikes	-	A small Execute damage increase, which synergizes well with other talents.
Champion's Spear	Spear	A moderate AoE attack, with a lingering DoT, which tethers enemies in place and can be reactivated to leap to them.
Shockwave	SW	An AoE stun, very useful in small group situations.
Rumbling Earth	-	A very strong talent which makes Shockwave much more frequently useable.
Rend	-	Inherited from the spec tree, it now hits targets in an area instead of just one.
Field Dressing	-	Increases incoming heals both from the player and allies.
Javelineer	-	The damage increase is not overly important, but allows Wrecking Throw to silence from range.
Resonant Voice	-	Increases the duration of shouts by an insignificant amount.
Battlefield Commander	BCmdr	A minor bonus to shouts. Mainly used for the attack power increase, it only applies to the player, not their allies.
Stance Mastery	-	A very powerful defensive bonus and very weak offensive one, further devalued by encouraging players to spend more time in Defensive Stance.
Anger Management	AM	Inherited from the spec tree, reduces the cooldown of Colossus Smash and Avatar.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Mortal Strike	MS	Arms main attack, which forms the basis of its rotation.
Overpower	OP	A free filler, which helps manage the Rage economy.
Martial Prowess	-	Rotationally buffs Mortal Strike.
Die by the Sword	DbtS	Arms' major defensive cooldown very useful for its automatic parry.
Improved Execute	-	A must-have talent in order to Execute efficiently.
Improved Overpower	-	A passive damage increase for its namesake.
Improved Sweeping Strikes	-	Not as good as Broad Strokes, and redundant when used together.
Powerful Momentum	-	A strong damage increase during Sweeping Strikes.
Strength of Arms	-	Yet another passive damage increase.
Bloodsurge	-	Helps passively generate Rage, scaling up in multitarget situations.
Fueled by Violence	-	A minor heal, but can contribute a great deal over the course of a long encounter.
Ignore Pain	IP	A minor defensive cooldown that can be layered with others to reduce incoming damage.
Sudden Death	SD	A powerful proc allowing Execute to be used outside its normal phase.
Fervor of Battle	FoB	Increases the direct damage of Whirlwind and Cleave, while also allowing them to contribute to Collateral Damage.
Tactician	-	A must-have talent, which resets the cooldown on Overpower.
Colossus Smash	CS	Arms major offensive cooldown, which now hits in an area by default.
Impale	-	A moderate damage increase, which also increases the value of Critical Strike.
Massacre	-	Allows Execute to be used much more frequently.
Cleave	-	A must-have talent in sustained multi-target content, replacing Whirlwind as the main attack.
Bloodborne	-	A passive bleed damage increase.
Dreadnaught	DN	Adds a significant amount of damage to Overpower, which also hits in an AoE and duplicates during Sweeping Strikes.
Collateral Damage	CD	Synergizes well with Fervor of Battle to repeatedly buff Cleave, no matter what ability is cast.
Critical Thinking	-	Causes Execute to refund even more Rage, helping sustain the rotation.
Bloodletting	-	Makes sustaining Rend and Deep Wounds much easier while also serving as a damage increase for bleeds.
Battlelord	-	Creates an engaging proc loop with Tactician, though unfortunately limited by Rage issues.
Bladestorm	BS	Arms major offensive multi-target cooldown, used predominantly by Slayer.
Ravager	Rav	An alternative to Bladestorm, which deals damage passively while buffing Cleave, used by Colossus.
Sharpened Blades	-	A passive Mortal Strike, Cleave, and Execute damage increase.
Executioner's Precision	EP	Adds Mortal Strike back into the Execute rotation.
Fatality	-	No longer hits only once per combat, it is now routinely applied and consumed throughout combat.
Avatar	Ava	Inherited from the class tree, though it no longer breaks roots or has any follow-on talents.
Mass Execution	-	A passive multitarget damage increase.
Overpowering Finish	-	A passive damage increase for Overpower.
Brute Force	-	Unfortunately of limited value, due to Slam being superceded by Execute.
Efficiency	-	Unfortunately of limited value, due to Slam being superceded by Execute.
Just Warming Up	-	Low value, yet still impactful due to the underwhelming Rage economy.
Broad Strokes	-	Allows effectively 100% uptime on Sweeping Strikes, so long as the two abilities are not used together.
Tactical Edge	-	Of moderate value, since Tactician already has a base chance to proc.
Crushing Combo	-	Allows regularly spamming Cleave, synergizing well with other effects.
Deep Wounds	-	A new vehicle for the previous mastery, stacking the bleed with each cast of Execute.
Mortal Wounds	-	Another avenue of applying and stacking Deep Wounds.
Master Tactician	-	More Tacitican procs.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Demolish	Demo	Very powerful three-hit combo, slowing movement speed by 99%. Defensive and mobility abilities do not interrupt the attack.
Dominance of the Colossus	-	Grants cooldown reduction and applies a debuff that increases all damage dealt, including that of the Demolish that applies it.
Boneshaker	-	More of a PvP talent than a PvE one, as larger slows are easy to come by.
Earthquaker	-	Very useful for its reduced cooldown, while the knock-up allows disruption in spite of diminishing returns.
One Against Many	-	Very powerful multi-target damage bonus, greatly contributing to the value of Cleave.
Steadfast as the Peaks	-	Variable, though passive damage increase, better used against single-targets.
No Stranger to Pain	-	Increases the value of Ignore Pain, though the ability itself is rather small.
Veteran Vitality	-	Small automatic emergency heal, though it combines well with other effects.
Martial Expert	-	One of several critical strike damage boosts.
Colossal Might	-	Effectively doubles the damage of Demolish.
Tide of Battle	-	Variable Overpower damage increase.
Practiced Strikes	-	General damage increase.
Precise Might	-	Further emphasizes using Mortal Strike regularly and getting critical strikes.
Mountain of Muscle and Scars	-	General damage/defense, and almost unnoticeable size increase.
Decimator	-	Allows applying Deep Wounds in an area.
Cut to the Bone	-	Regularly provides a moderate bleed damage increase, as crits as common enough to maintain the effect with high uptime.
Celeritous Conclusion	-	Grants Haste after Demolish, synergizing with Dominance of the Colossus.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Slayer's Dominance	-	Random but frequent single-target damage proc that grants a small Executioner buff, synergizing with the rest of the kit.
Unrelenting Onslaught	-	Typically desyncs Bladestorm from other major cooldowns, though the increased frequency is worth the tradeoff.
Relentless Pursuit	-	Very useful for keeping up with moving targets, especially when charging on the pull.
Vicious Agility	-	Less regularly useful outside of specific encounter timing, though slightly better for open world content.
Culling Cyclone	-	Increases the single-target value of Bladestorm, but does not further increase damage by hitting multiple targets.
Brutal Finish	-	Better against multiple targets due to the damage bonus applying to each target hit.
Fierce Followthrough	-	Only triggers off crits against the primary target, though the resulting damage bonus affects every target.
Opportunist	-	High value due to the frequency of Tactician procs.
Imminent Demise	-	Makes Bladestorm much more powerful, and synergizes well with Unhinged.
Overwhelming Blades	-	Universal damage increase with a very high uptime.
Death Drive	-	Very minor and largely random, which means it will not always be effective healing.
Show No Mercy	-	Another damage increase tied to Executioner and Sudden Death procs.
Reap the Storm	-	Powerful multitarget proc that also helps apply and maintain Overwhelming Blades.
Slayer's Malice	-	Passive Overpower and Execute damage increase.
Violent Euphoria	-	Low value, yet still impactful due to the underwhelming Rage economy.
Deadly Focus	-	Extends the new Executioner buff, allowing for much more stack overlap.
Unhinged	-	Causes Bladestorm and Ravager to automatically cast Mortal Strike several times, greatly increasing the single target effectiveness.

Since nearly every single major ability for Arms Warrior interacts with each other, it can be difficult to figure out how they are meant to be prioritized. But now that you know what they do, our rotation page will help you balance your rotation, cooldowns, and Rage bar effectively!

For more information on the best combination of talents and how to use them, please read our talent page.