General WotLK/3.0 Arms.

Cayleb · #1 09-30-2008, 07:55 AM

This is old news to anyone who's been paying attention I imagine, but I just saw this on the upcoming changes for us.

"- Slam – We’re working to change this ability to suspend the swing timer when you are using the ability. In other words, if you’re .5 sec away from swinging your weapon when you start using Slam you’ll be .5 sec from swinging your weapon after Slam goes off. "

Admittedly, I was a little concerned with PvE arms with the chances to windfury. I was a little nervous of the static haste buff(in addition to the change with Blood Frenzy proving 6% haste) making it near impossible to avoid clipping autoattacks, is this change going to re-up our viability for arm DPS?

I've still got some concerns on how bleed-heavy arms is made(primarily with how ineffectual we'll be against undead/bleed immune mobs) and what the new Overpower talents are going to do to us with stance dancing, but with TM being moved to the Arms tree again, at least that'll be more forgiving.

Rishkkin · #2 09-30-2008, 08:30 AM

the slam change is nice, makes it more forgiving if you slam too soon or too late.
Given the rage though you could keep spamming slam over and over.

They clearly stated that they want us to stance dance, however it's ben shown so far that it is still best to stay in zerker and keep our former rotations DPS is less spikey and waayyy less dependent on the RNG

They nerfed taste for blood by adding charges (1 in fact and it doesn't stack each time it procs) to it, which previously allowed us to do 3 OP in a row (given perfect latency and reaction time) so the talent lost a lot of appeal

**Tonypablos** · #3 09-30-2008, 08:40 AM

Actually the best DPS rotation right now is an Arms splam slam build where you just spam slam over and over and over with rage dependant. It's at this time the highest possible dps for a DPS warrior.

I'm sincerely not sure how I feel about that. =/

I always liked arms for it being a lot more of a rotation than anything.

Rishkkin · #4 09-30-2008, 11:14 AM

tried Sudden death spam during lunch time (dual wielding swords as I don't have access to nice 1h axes).

So far I really liked it, you have to leep in mind that Mortal strike and overpowers won't be your main sources of damage, execute will.

It requires a new school of thought, but it' feasible.

Rishkkin · #5 10-02-2008, 01:17 PM

Last build added the 10 rage refund after an execute, thing is it's after EVERY execute, even those while under 20 %.

I really hope it stays as it is, although I'm quite sure they will nerf it.

Can we say execute spam ?

**Daavos** · #6 10-02-2008, 02:08 PM

Currently on live 2hand sword (then axe, then mace) is the best bet for pve/arms. Which is of the three is better in 3.0?

Specifically is Axe leaps and bounds better then sword?

Mace 3.0 is better then Mace live, but is Mace spec 3.0 better, worst or the same as Sword spec 3.0.

I'm human so I'm curious if it's better to keep the racial bonus.

Rishkkin · #7 10-03-2008, 06:40 AM

Axe >>>>>> Mace >>> Sword

Edit : ok I should elaborate

Axe : each of your crit will hit harder, yes this is impacted by resilience, but I'm strictly speaking about PvE

Mace : 15 % armor redux isn't enough, at 25 % it would start te be worth it.

Sword : 6 seconds cooldown killed it (at least using a 2 hander) since the % stayed at 5% if they had upped it to something like 15 % and kept the CD then it might be worth it.

Tywin · #8 10-03-2008, 08:41 AM

Source: Rishkkin
Last build added the 10 rage refund after an execute, thing is it's after EVERY execute, even those while under 20 %.

I really hope it stays as it is, although I'm quite sure they will nerf it.

Can we say execute spam ?

Latest Blue confirms it's a bug. Still nice though after they fix it as we can get back to back executes.

Rishkkin · #9 10-03-2008, 11:13 AM

yeah, I read that this morning

Oh well was fun while it lasted.

Although I'm still curious if switching to 2 1H Axes at that point will be better than keeping the 2h out.

quicker attacks, quicker rage gen, higher crit chances

Rishkkin · #10 10-03-2008, 11:14 AM

I also read this morning that Sweeping Strikes + Sudden Death + Execute means that the DMG is transferred on the second mob regardless of its health state too.

Sepulture · #11 10-07-2008, 11:28 AM

Repeatedly hitting slam is most assuredly not the way to maximize your dps. I've been testing on the PTR this morning, and that lands my DPS at under 1,600 against a L70 target with BS up. I've gotten close to 2,000 by opening with Bladestorm, keeping WW and MS on cooldown ASAP, executing when MS and WW are on CD, and using Slam and HS to "stall" if my rage is too high. Is there a better rotation to use for 53/8 than this for PvE dps?

**Kazeyonoma** · #12 10-07-2008, 11:34 AM

I don't think you should be changing stances is the thing, if you're going into zerker to WW, you're losing out on Overpower, which is gonna be a big damage dealer for Arms dps now, and without the changing of stances, you'll find you have a lot more rage than necessary and thus slamming is good. Likewise you should also hit execute whenever sudden death pops as that is what the 5k dps monster on the wow forums has stated he did.

Sepulture · #13 10-07-2008, 11:42 AM

I just tried staying in battle for overpower and not WWing. My dps plummeted to 1400 vs 1650ish for staying in zerker (it averaged down from 2000). I'm curious what others have noticed from testing on the PTR.

Urhan · #14 10-07-2008, 06:11 PM

Source: Sepulture
I just tried staying in battle for overpower and not WWing. My dps plummeted to 1400 vs 1650ish for staying in zerker (it averaged down from 2000). I'm curious what others have noticed from testing on the PTR.

Is that with Imp OP, Taste for Blood, and Unrelenting Assault all maxed? I'm getting about 100-150 dps more staying in battle (vs. zerker) if I have all of those (although some of that's attributable to the extra OP crits keeping deep wounds rolling - please, please let that be working as intended.) Depending on the RNG for OP and execute opportunities does make it unpleasantly luck-dependent, though, I've run into some long droughts that seriously depressed my dps.

Sepulture · #15 10-07-2008, 06:25 PM

It was but I was not rending to proc OP. In hindsight, I should really test it with rend in the rotation...

**Kazeyonoma** · #16 10-07-2008, 06:27 PM

get the rend glyph too, the less you have to refresh it the better.

Urhan · #17 10-08-2008, 04:52 AM

Deep Wounds is continuing to roll after last night's patch. Keep your fingers crossed...

Rishkkin · #18 10-08-2008, 01:14 PM

nice !

I wonder if having dual wielding axes can make Deep wound roll to a point where it surpasses 2h ticks.

Quicker attacks means less chances that the debuff falls off

Sepulture · #19 10-08-2008, 02:09 PM

Holy crap did I get different results today when I tested!

Halcyon - View topic - Arms 2200 dps on PTR- no consumables, partial buffs

2,213 sustained dps using battlestance OP/Execute spam with rend. This was with an enh shaman and no other buffs, including consumables or glyphs. Highest deep wounds tick was 1,760, and this was with Cat's edge, not an axe!

With axe spec, the right glyphs, full consumables and raid buffs, I can easily see 2,700+ dps sustained without heroisms. This is pretty sick.

**Kazeyonoma** · #20 10-08-2008, 02:22 PM

Do you think it's from a new build on the PTR? or were you just not using an optimal priority list before. I'm leaning towards Battle Stance for Arms DPS, Zerker for Fury, and of course Defensive for Prot. I think Battle Stance wasn't getting enough love in TBC =]