3.1 Arms Spec Ideas

[Bloodwraith]

Well this is just me brainstorming:

I feel piercing howl is a must. Last stand doesn't = it. So that means at least 11 in fury. Add another 3 for blood craze. That would make it x/14/x.

I don't think going into prot after that would be as useful as just putting more into arms.

so 57/14/0.

Something like this maybe: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

I won't be playing my war much anyway

Got my DK to 80 yesterday.

[ebs2002]

I wouldn't want to give up Imp HS. Shaving off a second on that CD makes it that much easier to get the burst off, or to stack the effect on a second target, and the increased damage can't be ignored.

Something like Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft (note that I removed the Imp Slam, due to people saying you're not really having time for it). I put 3 points into Imp Hamstring, but I think I may prefer just glyphing for it and putting it in Imp Str of Arms for more burst damage (and the remaining point into Deflection for survivability, or one in Imp Hamstring).

[Razmo]

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

This is a spec I could see work. The flurry is great for Arms. Maybe I should get the tactical Mastery talent cuz I took the imp intercept and I don't want to toss away rage. What do you guys think?

[Kavtor]

You're loosing sudden death, and trading wrecking crew enrage for Flurry. Wrecking crew effects your specials as well as your white damage, and your white damage is going to go down quite a bit with out titans grip. Enrage just isn't that good anymore (30% chance for 10% damage)
And you're loosing Bladestorm, and while it's single target damage isn't great, if you can hit two targets with sweeping strikes it's pretty dirty. And even with out that, it's a preemptive CC break on a 1.5m CD.

Picking up death wish is nice, but a warrior's still a pretty attractive target to train, so they'll target swap to you when you pop it anyway. And I don't think it stacks with enrage.

60/11/0 is the way to go. Imp slam if you'll be PVEing with the build. Anger management and 3/3 hamstring if you won't be. Or blood craze if you're stuck playing a lot of double DPS teams that burst you.

[Razmo]

Yes but the ppl were fixing alternative specs. So this is why I went to take flurry etc. But I do agree with your comments. In pvp go deep in the arms or fury tree cuz it's the only way to go atm.

[Clifford]

Think I will go with this

Some points:
- Might switch between Iron Will and Tactical Mastery depending on how often I switch stances.
- Taking the glyph for hamstring versus the talents. The stun is a bonus as I don't find myself spamming it. Furthermore, I read somewhere that the glyph doesn't suffer from DR.
- Improved Execute is great considering how often SD procs.
- Commanding Presence points are great. Could switch to Bloodcraze but my healer doesn't seem to notice a big difference.

So - will wait and see how it all works out in 3.1 - can't wait

[Tamsteinhuf]

I'm not sure about imp. Slam <-> imp. MS as I imagine quite a devastating burst having juggernaut Slam-Crit, MS, OP plus Execute and Bladestorm. Also I'ld like to have improved Charge but don't want to give up tatical mastery. Another talent that I can't really rate is weapon mastery. I'ld love to see more dodges with having 1 sec cooldown on overpower so I don't consider that as a bonus but sparing it makes me so much more vulnerable to disarm.
Pity that they nerfed Sword Specc so hard but I still think about it as beeing as effecitve as poleaxe. OP is nearly crit-capped anyway and juggernaut gives the burst when it is required. A lucky sword specc crit could add an important boost.
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Ghostcrawler said that glyph and imp. hamstring do stack so I will keep both, gonna be nice with bladestorm

[Clifford]

I'm not sure about imp. Slam <-> imp. MS as I imagine quite a devastating burst having juggernaut Slam-Crit, MS, OP plus Execute and Bladestorm. Also I'ld like to have improved Charge but don't want to give up tatical mastery. Another talent that I can't really rate is weapon mastery. I'ld love to see more dodges with having 1 sec cooldown on overpower so I don't consider that as a bonus but sparing it makes me so much more vulnerable to disarm.
Pity that they nerfed Sword Specc so hard but I still think about it as beeing as effecitve as poleaxe. OP is nearly crit-capped anyway and juggernaut gives the burst when it is required. A lucky sword specc crit could add an important boost.
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Ghostcrawler said that glyph and imp. hamstring do stack so I will keep both, gonna be nice with bladestorm

The Hamstring Glyph and Talents are meant to stack (don't know if they do though). However there is enough RNG in my gameplay already to hope that it procs any more than it already does. They extra two points are worth more to me elsewhere (Improved Execute in this case).

I have never managed to get Improved Slam into a match often enough to make it really worthwhile. Perhaps it would work if I was on a 50ms latency connection but at 240ms it feels too clunky.

I am surprised that you haven't selected Trauma. Considering how often we Rend and bleed our opponents I would have thought this talent to be mandatory.

Lastly I would also think that 2/2 Improved Charge is a given in 3.1 with Juggernaut.

[Tamsteinhuf]

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warr...3&version=9767

Tactical Mastery is required, I want at least one point in improved charge for starting bursts after using juggernaut. Weapon Specs, second wind, bloodfrenzy, iron will... There isn't single talent that I'ld want to sacrifice although 30% bleed on deep wounds plus rend sounds great. I just can't figure out where I could spare these points.
I got that 50ms ping and Slam can make a small burst beeing huge, right now I think this to be more effective.
I didn't do much pvp since TBC release and within the ratings I had in arena yet most games were decided by short burst periods so I don't know how well this works on higher rankings.

[Boneshaker]

Have you tested this build yet? What shot rotation and macros are you using with it? Im trying to figure out if I should spec fury or arms now that 3.1 has hit. Very frustrated...

[Clifford]

I haven't managed to run ranked arenas yet (did a lot of 2v2 skirmishes last week though) with 60/11 and it is good but I do have some concerns. Disclaimer: This rest of this note isn't aimed at 2000+ warriors but rather at those of us still struggling to perform respectably in arenas.

On the positive, 60/11 with a resto druid was fantastic. The druid was able to provide enough cc and hots to allow me to control fights. My win ratio with a resto druid was probably 3:1 but lower with other healers. Note: this is a personal experience and probably due to my own playstyle.

I will be running ranked 2v2 with a disc priest (both of us are pve "re-rollers" and are still learning ... slowly). We struggled in S5 (started very late) due to a lack of cc on our behalf and too much cc in our opposition. In addition my partner would often oom before I could get a kill (btw I was arms spec as I was using it as a learning opportunity for S6).

But I am considering a change, which I briefly tried last week and liked, before respeccing back to 60/11.

The idea behind the spec is to complement the disc priest. Basically, turning him into an offensive player, whilst I will bring utility (ms etc), peels and dps. Here goes ... 48/0/23...

Pros

• Turtling is more powerful with high Revenge damage and stuns.
• Group spell-reflect should work well.
• Silence ability will help my partner when facing other priests or mages.
• Improved disarm will provide some additional utility.
• Enough up-time on Enraged Regeneration through Wrecking Crew 1/5
• The majority of my time in Wow has been as a prot warrior and I play this spec more naturally.

Cons

• No piercing howl so pillar-hump peeling will be tough. I will have to concussion blow or disengage and charge stun.
• No Bladestorm - there goes the best burst that I had. However I think I could learn to live without it.
• Lower dps - role is utility-based so as long as my e-peen survives I should be fine.
• Lower crit, so might have to gem for for it to remain respectable.

Options

• Move points from Weapon Mastery to Improved Hamstring (dependent on hit rating in gear).
• Move Iron Will and Tactical Mastery points around as required.
• Swap Last Stand glyph with Rapid Charge.
• I guess the option exists to try 0/48/23 but I would loose a lot of utility for for the increased dps + Piercing Howl.

What is clear to me though is that my spec will have to be fine-tuned to complement my partner; my playstule; the arena I play in (2v2); and the comps that I struggle with.

note: I have fine-tuned this based on a similar AJ discussion.

[Grulgor]

Well, after dual specs arrived, I decided to make a return to pvp, been farming BG's, starting arena as soon as I find a healer. I've had a lot of experience as an arms warrior in pvp pre-wrath, but things have changed quite a bit since then, and the additions to arms in the last patch pretty much highlight to me where we should be focussing glyph choices too.

Here is the spec I've rolled with, I think it is possibly the most optimal that I've come up with:

Arms (57 points)

3/5 Deflection
2/2 Improved Rend
2/2 Improved Charge-you will need that rage-MS is expensive and with all the charge glyphs/jugger, its a nice source of rage.
3/3 Iron Will-Im an orc, so this is even better, helps against stun locks so you can get that bladestorm/fear in
2/2 Improved Overpower
2/2 Impale
3/3 Deep Wounds
3/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
3/3 Taste for Blood-guaranteed overpower procs
5/5 Poleaxe Specialization
1/1 Sweeping Strikes
3/3 Improved Hamstring-therefore don't bother with the glyph imo.
2/2 Trauma
2/2 Second Wind-save's your ass more times than you would think
1/1 Mortal Strike
2/2 Strength of Arms
1/1 Juggernaut-critical talent
3/3 Improved Mortal Strike-mentioned below
2/2 Unrelenting Assault
3/3 Sudden Death-does exactly what is says on the tin.
1/1 Endless Rage
2/2 Blood Frenzy
5/5 Wrecking Crew
1/1 Bladestorm-I mostly use this when the enemy is on 1/3 hp straight after a piercing howl. Its also well used to get out of a CC when your trinket is on cd.

Fury (14 points)

3/3 Armored to the Teeth
2/2 Booming Voice-reveals stealthers
5/5 Cruelty
1/1 Piercing Howl-2nd key talent in this build
3/3 Blood Craze-goes hand in hand with second wind

Protection (0 points)

I have been able to test this spec with a mix of Savage/Hateful/Deadly + a few pvp slot fillers and Death's Bite.

Suggestions

Improved Execute is not needed with Sudden Death leaving you with 10 rage minimum, spend it in improved Mortal Strike for 10% damage combined with the Glyph of Mortal Strike for quite a heavy hitting MS after a Juggernaut Charge.

Get Glyph of Rapid Charge and Glyph of Charge to take full advantage of the Juggernaut ability.

Use an automated gear changer with stance changes-shield wall, shield slam, shield block and spell reflect REALLY helps with ret paladins who attempt to burst you down early. Pop these, knock of their buffs with slams, fit in a disarm then switch back to battle and burn them down. I personally only use this for ret pallys, other classes are easier to take down with just Bladestorm+Trink to get you out of their tricks.

Taste for blood means that you can rend somebody, and overpower somebody else. If you're going for a healer, yet somebodys getting in your way, rend them and you will have an overpower ready upon contact of your true target (which is easy to get to with charging glyphs and jugger)

A lot of people like tactical mastery-I don't rate it that much, I rarely have to use bloodrage and can save it for the stance change for when I want a spell reflect. I also read somewhere blizz has done something with rage loss upon stance changes, or at least plans to...

That's all I have to say, the rest is up to practice. Good luck with season six and whatever you do get your CC break trinket (there are more options out there other than just the medallion now).

Once I find my partner I shall post up how this spec goes in arena, in BG's it has served me very well.

[Moontracker]

As a warrior player myself, with the new 3.1.0 patch, the new build i tend to use is this one (51/5/15). It seems like with this new patch, the arms spec as improved quite a lot especially with the possibility to charge while in combat and the improved "unrelenting assault". I found that this build as an awesome versatility. This build as almost all the power of a full arms and fury spec. You need good macros on the other hand to be able to switch stance and weapons from a stance to the other.

I usually start my fights with the charge macro:

/use battle stance
/equip 2H weapon
/use charge
/use hamstring

This gives me a good way to boost my rage and do some damage with the option of hamstring that i dont necessarly lunch all the time. I usually use rend with all improvements with talents. Then i quickly switch to defensive stance versus most melee opponents, especially vs pallys. The main idea is spamming revenge (unrelenting assault+improved revenge). I use this multiclic macro to quickly go into defensive mode:

/use defensive stance
/equip 1H weapon
/equip shield
/use blood rage
/use blood fury(racial)
/use shield block
/use trinket?
/use trinket?
/use shield wall

I dont use this macro to its full extend right away. I dont want to use shield block and shield wall all at once because of reduced effectiveness. I fight my way through in defensive stance until i see they want to run away. Then i can use the same charge macro i used before or i can use this intercept macro:

/use berserker stance
/equip 2H weapon
/use blood rage
/use harmstring

Then i focus on execute after doing a Bladefury in conjonction with wrecklessness.

Since i swap a lot my stances, i use stance mastery. My 5 fury points are used for cruelty and my protection points go into inproved revenge, improved block, last stand and parry. I use my last stand in conjonction with retaliation as a panic button. This is the macro i use:

/use last stand
/use battle stance
/equip 2H weapon
/use retaliation
/use potion?

I tend to use glyph of revenge, glyph of heroic strike, glyph of rapid charge. The other glyphs could be glyph of rend, glyph of hamstring or else depending on the choices you make down the arms talent tree.


This is what my way of playing is. Feel free to comment.

*My macros might have key typping mistakes in it since i wrote them on the go.

[Yarock]

Unfortunately I don't believe piercing howl is a talent that you can pvp without given the dominance of rogue/priest teams right now. Your hamstrings will be dodged - if you can't keep them slowed you're going to lose (if you can keep them slowed you're still going to lose if they're engineers heh).

I personally use 57/14/0 ms/execute/hamstring glyphs with 1 point in improved hamstring. I'm not really sure how they stack though - they give completely different debuffs when they proc (but I do notice one or the other procing quite often).

[blackhand]

I believe they aren't additive (?) so it's something like 23ish percent and not 25 but either way I use both. I run with Rapid charge, MS and hamstring for 2s. I currently play with a resto shaman so having a bit more control over my peals is nice. I'll drop it for 3s (for Execute) if I can get that team going. I feel rapid charge is way to valuable in a 2s setting since we are generally doing the chasing and/or switching and getting more juggernauts is always great. I run with the 60/11 build and I think it's pretty good, I'm ready to jump to the 57/13 after my shaman gears up and we are still having a huge rogue problem. I should be logged in my PvP gear and spec so feel free to look my warrior up.