Arms Warrior PvP Rotation and Playstyle — Midnight Season 1

The opener refers to your team's opening CC chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer or your kill target uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble.

There is no reason to hold onto your cooldowns at the start of the match; apply your team's CC chain and burst to gain momentum.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Refrain from using Charge if possible.
2. Use Hamstring on the enemy to slow them.
3. Use Storm Bolt on your kill target.
   • If Shockwave is talented, use Storm Bolt on their healer and Shockwave for the kill target.
4. Use Avatar.
5. Use Warbreaker for burst.
6. If talented use Champion's Spear.
7. Use Heroic Strike if it procs.
   • Consume the proc with Fervor of Battle through Whirlwind whenever you can.
8. Use Mortal Strike to apply Mortal Wounds.
9. Use Execute if you get a Sudden Death proc.
10. Use Bladestorm.
11. Use Slam when above 50 Rage and if you have no Tactician proc.
12. Use Overpower to deal damage.
13. Use Rend if talented.

This list serves as your sustained damage rotation priority.

1. Maintain Hamstring on your kill target at all times.
2. Maintain Mortal Wounds on your kill target at all times.
3. If talented, maintain Rend.
4. Use Avatar and Warbreaker for when you wish to burst.
5. Use Heroic Strike when it procs.
6. Consume the proc with Fervor of Battle through Whirlwind whenever you can.
7. Use Mortal Strike when it is off of cooldown.
8. Use Execute when the enemy drops below the threshold or if you get a Sudden Death proc.
   • Hold onto your Sudden Death proc if you are about to burst with Warbreaker.
9. Use Slam when above 50 Rage and if you have no Tactician proc.
10. Use Overpower to deal damage and empower your next Mortal Strike.
11. Use Slam as a rage dump.

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control, and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. Use Storm Bolt on your kill target.
   • If Shockwave is talented, use Storm Bolt on their healer and Shockwave for the kill target.
2. Use Avatar.
3. Use Warbreaker.
4. Use Heroic Strike if you have a proc.
5. Consume the proc with Fervor of Battle through Whirlwind whenever you can.
6. Use Mortal Strike on cooldown.
7. Use Execute if your kill targets drop below the threshold or if Sudden Death procs.
8. Use Bladestorm.
9. Use Slam when above 50 Rage and if you have no Tactician proc.
10. Use Overpower.

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control, and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. Use Avatar.
2. Use Warbreaker.
3. Use Storm Bolt on your kill target.
   • If Shockwave is talented, use Storm Bolt on their healer and Shockwave for the kill target.
4. Use Demolish
5. Use Heroic Strike if you have a proc.
   • Consume the proc with Fervor of Battle through Whirlwind whenever you can.
6. Use Mortal Strike on cooldown.
7. Use Execute if your kill targets drop below the threshold or if Sudden Death procs.
8. Use Bladestorm.
9. Use Slam when above 50 Rage and if you have no Tactician proc.
10. Use Overpower.

Die by the Sword is your main defensive cooldown. This is a very powerful defensive against melee teams and offers a decent damage reduction against casters as well.

PvP is all about trading cooldowns, and you should primarily aim to use this as a response to either the enemy team landing a CC-chain on your healer/team, or big offensive cooldowns like Avenging Wrath. In doing so, you will be preventing the most damage possible, and you will allow your team to catch up to rescue you.

Defensive Stance is a great talent, despite the nerfs to this ability, which can be the difference between life and death. The general rule of thumb for this ability is to try only to have it active while sustaining more damage than you can deal or when you anticipate a setup from the enemy team. Avoid sitting in it for excessive amounts of time, as the penalty is greater on you than the enemy team.

It is important to master the ability to preemptively put yourself in Defensive Stance before you get hit by dangerous abilities like Kidney Shot.

Heroic Leap has great pursuit potential but can be equally powerful when trying to survive. Breaking the line of sight of enemies will nullify most of their damage, and is a great way to prevent being killed by unstoppable cooldowns like Combustion.

Rallying Cry is a great defensive for you and your team, especially when in conjunction with Master and Commander and Inspiring Presence. Beware, as the health gained is lost at the end of the duration and can surprise kill you or your teammates.

Impending Victory is your only on-demand heal and should be taken advantage of when you can.

Bladestorm and Avatar are great burst cooldowns, but they are just as valuable for their anti-CC components. Against Mage, Restoration Shaman, Druid, and other similar classes with roots, it may be better to use these abilities to break out of these roots instead of for burst damage.

We advise learning the cooldowns of enemy roots so you get an idea of when you can use your abilities for burst, and when you should use it to cleanse yourself.

Similarly, Bladestorm makes you immune to all CC and can be very effective at ruining the enemy's attempt to kill you with abilities, such as Kidney Shot, if timed correctly. You have about a 0.25 sec grace period, where using Bladestorm after being hit with CC will still activate it and break you out of the CC.

Intimidating Shout is a very powerful ability that can make or break your game. This ability is as strong offensively as it is defensively. For this reason, this ability can be the hardest to determine how to use best.

Good ways to use it offensively is to use it as a follow-up CC, to an already applied CC on the enemy healer, or to start a CC chain. The enemy team will try to stop your team from applying other forms of CC like Polymorph or Hex. If you can land an Intimidating Shout onto all of the enemy team, your team will be in a prime position to burst and apply CC without having to worry about being stopped.

This way, you can turn the tides of a fight by, for an example, using it on a Windwalker Monk with Storm, Earth, and Fire during Fists of Fury, to nullify his/her offensive burst and letting you Storm Bolt your kill target to counter pressure with your team.

Intervene is one of the best tools Arms Warrior has for the team. It allows you to quickly reposition to your chosen teammate and then redirect all melee and ranged attacks onto you. Keep in mind that this ability does not do anything against spells.

Use it frequently and in response to enemy attempts to kill your teammate. Do not be afraid to combine it with Die by the Sword if you suspect the redirected damage is strong enough to kill you.