The Arms Warrior Idiot Guide (video).

As some of you ladies and gents may be aware, I'm a tank (look at my gear - iz obvious). However, I admit to always enjoying playing Arms and a couple of guildies of mine who've levelled up wanted a bit of a steer on how to play Arms because I'd always spoken of my love for it.

This is the result:

http://www.youtube.com/innercloisterAD#p/a/u/0/2tnH1WZ0ijg

Now, given that I'm not exactly great regardless of spec and that I don't get to play Arms so much, I was hoping more experienced peeps could give me a bit of feedback and steering on what they like, what they loathe and what I've made a mess of.Comments on content are welcome, as are comments on the video style. Personally, I dislike the format of many of these video guides, so I've tried to be as fast paced and logical as possible, while being relatively light-hearted at the same time.

Naturally, my own opinions shine through on the more mechanistic sections, so feel free to rip that up if I'm way off base, too.Also, I've appended some thoughts from feedback already received from the WoW Europe warrior forums - this, too, is up for review from players. :)

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1) I left out Recklessness as it wasn't specifically an Arms cooldown, yet did concentrate on other things that weren't necessarily Arms specific either; an inconsistency I wouldn't repeat if I did it again. I was determined to keep the video under 10 minutes as well, but intelligent cooldown management is one of the major contributors to strong DPS so I should definitely have included it.

2) If I did it again, I'd probably make an entire section relating to Bladestorm. I hastily covered it from the pure damage perspective, but not from the utility angle where it shines. This is an oversight I'd fix, probably by showcasing all of the circumstances where it can be really useful.

3) Rage management would have to be another section entirely, too. As mentioned, Deadly Calm and Bladestorm are ways of pooling rage, while Recklessness is a good way to spend it. I actually like the idea (related to point two) of creating sections that deal exhaustively with all the things you COULD do, just so new players see the options.

4) I'd be unlikely to cover the ramifications of being in 'zerker stance continuously, because I'd then probably have to cover things like macros and AddOns to assist with it (tracking Taste for Blood being the main culprit). As of 4.2, I haven't tested if the GCD change to Overpower has had a significant effect, but I can't imagine it has. Because stance-dancing is off the GCD anyway, I don't see why the altered cooldown would make any difference.

5) Some of the aesthetics could be better - the music choice and pacing of it, in certain areas, could see some fine tuning. Some of the video sections are also put together in ways I don't like so much, and the voicovers could be better edited. Again, wanting to stay under 10 minutes, certain sections were rushed to the point of degrading their value.

6) I didn't introduce myself anywhere... >.<

My browser at work has made an absolute mess of that post; I'll fix it when I get home. -.-

Edit: I have now fixed the formatting, feel free to delete this post.

making notes as i watch, because i like the video...

B&T is nice, but encounter specific - not mandatory. incite is better single target dps.

glyph of bladestorm? never for PVE

major glyphs:
i see almost every arms guide say glyph of cleaving is mandatory, but think about how often you actually cleave as arms... it's not much. on many fights, it's zero. as always, glyphs are encounter specific, but i'm currently using HT/CS/long charge for most T12 stuffs.

expertise cap: yes, it's something to shoot for, but i found gearing up that it wasn't worth sacrificing crit to cap expertise early on. there are many reasons why it's ok as arms to be under the expertise cap (but not the hit cap). with some T12, it becomes much easier to cap expertise.

single target rotation:
you should probably mention the importance of stacking lambs to 3 ASAP. also, for the rotation, you left out some very key bits of information. #1: don't CS if the buff is already up. #2: you must never miss a TfB proc. OP is only below CS/MS in priority if there's < 5 seconds since TfB proc'd.

HS: you mentioned using HS under DC, but you should also use it anytime you're over 70 rage or so.

AOE: good rotation IF you don't mind pulling agro, and you absolutely will pull agro from any tank if you BS that early. in raids, i'd stick with rend/TC until adds are about 1/2 dead. after your first TC, you can activate SS, then DC+cleave spam while you wait to BS. even then, i always pop retaliation before BS, just in case.

execute phase: i actually find execute is always the top priority attack, UNLESS:
1) lambs close to expiring: use MS
2) rage < 30: use OP
i also always try and make sure i'll have cooldowns available for 20%. it's a huge boost.

stats, i go with: hit cap > crit > expertise > mastery >>> haste.

i really like the video, the pace, the tone, etc. and you have a good narrating voice.
most of the info is good, and will definitely get new arms warriors on the right track. an explanation of optional talents will help people a ton, along with reasons why you may or may not take them. the things i disagreed with, or felt were missing i listed above.

gj :)

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but think about how often you actually cleave as arms... it's not much

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so what do you use for trash pulls then? cuz cleave spam+bladestorm is pretty much what i do

i only have 1 point so far in blood and thunder so i dont think rend and thunderclap would be any good.actually,maybe i should of read your entire post before i made that post cuz i just read the aoe rotation.but ya,i only have 1 point currently in blood and thunder but i dont know,im not 100 percent sure im going arms anyway in pve i originally planned on going fury smf but when i tried it once i didnt really like it

i was gonna wait til i got Colossus smash and try fury again.i might end up goin fury in a bg though just for the lols cuz i know back in the gearbreaker days fury looked pretty fun in pvp.maybe id like it better then arms

Find the skull, kill that, find the cross, Sweeping strikes, kill that

If anyone ever needs the definition of how to provide constructive criticism, Marklar, I'll refer them to your post. I hugely appreciate the time you've taken (as I appreciate your efforts, Pimp and Tenge) to post such high-quality feedback and it's definitely food for thought if I choose to redo this project... As I most probably will. What I reckon I'll do is concentrate on more specific topics in a series of short videos instead of one long one, that way covering things that needed more coverage a lot more explicitly.

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Originally Posted by Tengenstein

Find the skull, kill that, find the cross, Sweeping strikes, kill that

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so rend+thunderclap,bladestorm(with sweeping strikes)and then if the trash is still up just do my normal rotation on them?

If i Bladestorm in the first 10 seconds i get aggro, so no. Generally I find the thing the tank wants dead first single target it down before i start any sort of aoe/cleaving. If we're taliking somethink like Jin'alai's adds or Malorias's adds then yeah,Blood and thunder into a sweaapinstrikes>recklessness>zerker stance Blade storm.

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Originally Posted by Tengenstein

If i Bladestorm in the first 10 seconds i get aggro, so no. Generally I find the thing the tank wants dead first single target it down before i start any sort of aoe/cleaving. If we're taliking somethink like Jin'alai's adds or Malorias's adds then yeah,Blood and thunder into a sweaapinstrikes>recklessness>zerker stance Blade storm.

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ya,i stopped using charge and just walk up to the mobs now i dont normally get aggro unless my tank sucks or if i do i can get healed enough so where it doesnt matter

although,i dont bladestorm in berserker stance but i dont know.i tried stance dancing as arms(even using macros it was kinda meh,but i know stance dancing was the one thing i always hated about arms in pvp before they changed the stance requirements on stuff) and didnt really like it and i heard you didnt need to so i decided to just not do it

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Originally Posted by Zellviren

If anyone ever needs the definition of how to provide constructive criticism, Marklar, I'll refer them to your post. I hugely appreciate the time you've taken (as I appreciate your efforts, Pimp and Tenge) to post such high-quality feedback and it's definitely food for thought if I choose to redo this project... As I most probably will. What I reckon I'll do is concentrate on more specific topics in a series of short videos instead of one long one, that way covering things that needed more coverage a lot more explicitly.

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i don't think you need to redo it, but some supplementary videos would be good. optional talents could be a video on their own: there are quite a few choices as an arms warrior, and depending on what content you're doing, different choices work. i think blizzard did a pretty good job in this case of giving us choices, rather than 1 spec that is > all.

and thanks for the compliment :) forums can often turn so negative, and i try really hard not to add to that. it's a real person at the other end of the keyboard, after all...