Fury Warrior DPS Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

The changes in Patch 11.0.5 have two main objectives: reducing the instant AoE burst potential when damaging a high number of targets to reduce the dominance of Warriors compared to other classes in certain raid encounters, and buffing baseline abilities to increase the value of Anger Management compared to Reckless Abandon.

While Warrior AoE performance will noticeably drop on the Rasha'nan, Broodtwister Ovi'nax, and Queen Ansurek encounters, the AoE nerfs are less impactful in Mythic+ due to less common large pulls. The single target changes are largely neutral; seldom used Anger Management builds have become much more competitive, though Reckless Abandon ones continue to perform better in most content.

• Champion's Spear icon has been updated.
• Thunderous Roar now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets (was 8). This does not apply to the DoT damage.
• Odyn's Fury now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets (was 8). Note that this does apply to the DoT damage.
• Raging Blow damage increased by 25%. This does not affect Reckless Abandon’s Crushing Blow.
• Bloodthirst damage increased by 30%. This change does not affect Reckless Abandon’s Bloodbath.
• Crushing Force now increases Bloodthirst critical strike damage by 5/10% (was critical strike chance by 2/4%).
• Overwhelming Blades now stacks up to 10 times (was 12).

Fury Warrior cooldown uptime has been dramatically reduced in The War Within, and while the actual speed of gameplay is unaffected, its overall Rage generation and frequency of Rampage casts has gone down. Whether this is good or bad is largely a matter of opinion, as it creates more room for other buttons in the rotation.

The Warrior Class Tree has received a moderate rework, rearranging the pathing of several talents and removing some of the less desirable ones outright. Overall, the tree has become smaller and more streamlined, with focus on improving access to important crowd control and early leveling abilities, most notably relocating Shockwave to the middle of the tree. Below, you can see some of the most important changes that will affect your gameplay, decision-making, and power in The War Within.

• Defensive Stance is now automatically unlocked.
• Berserker Rage is now automatically learned at level 12.
• Titanic Throw, Sonic Boom, Blood and Thunder, and Furious Blows have been removed.
• Second Wind now restores health while below 35%.
• Honed Reflexes now reduces the cooldown of most defensive and utility cooldowns by 5%.
• Champion's Might now affects targets hit by Spear, instead of the player standing inside it.
• Thunderous Words has been buffed from 15 to 30%, but only increases the damage targets take from bleeds during its effect.
• Crushing Force now affects Bloodthirst instead of Slam.
• Endurance Training has gained a second point.

The Fury Warrior Spec Tree has undergone very minor change, retaining the same general pathing, though condensing and reworking a few of its talents. Several abilities have received tuning or minor adjustments, with the major highlights detailed below.

• Improved Enrage is now called Frenzied Enrage and now shares a choice node with a new talent: Powerful Enrage.
• Raging Armaments, Storm of Swords, and Annihilator have been removed.
• Frenzied Flurry has been baked into Single-Minded Fury, making that option a stronger and cheaper investment, though ultimately still weaker than using two-handed weapons.
• Bloodcraze now triggers from Raging Blow instead of Bloodthirst.
• Deft Experience now extends the current duration of Enrage by 0.5 seconds per point when Bloodthirst is used.
• Swift Strikes now increases Bloodthirst Rage generation in addition to Raging Blow.
• Tenderize no longer increases the duration of Enrage or triggers Unbridled Ferocity.
• Bladestorm is now a choice with Ravager.
• Hurricane has been replaced by Unhinged.
• Reckless Abandon now empowers one cast of Bloodthirst and Raging Blow instead of one or the other.
• Unbridled Ferocity no longer triggers from Onslaught and its chance to trigger has been reduced to 6%.

Hero talents are a new system coming in The War Within, giving each specialization the choice between two sub-specs which further diversify their playstyle and capabilities, unlocking at level 71.