Wotlk Fury Warrior Guide

[Bokchoy]

A very common misconception about heroic strike that some warriors make is that heroic strike does a lot of damage. They say this because they see the numbers on their screen and in their combat log that says heroic strike did a lot of damage. While this is ok that they see this, the important thing to note is what you don’t see. And what you don’t see is a main hand auto attack. Most of heroic strikes damage which you see on your screen and in your combat log is actually damage that would have happened anyway.

if you did not que up a heroic strike because you would have had a normal auto attack from your main hand, so you would have done the same amount of damage, just 495 damage less.

please note that using heroic strike will prevent your mainhand swing from being a glancing blow, as well as making it affected by Impale. This means that over a longer time scale the DPS increase of using heroic strike will be more than just because of the addition of 495 damage. However this still does not make heroic strike an amazing DPS ability, you should be using Heroic strike as a rage dump and not an ability that can boost your DPS by a large amount.

It's also worth noting:
Heroic Strike is not subject to the 19% Dual-Wield Hit % penalty, while white damage is. Most Fury Warriors hover at around 81-85% Hit Rate on their white damage, if geared properly. Compare to 100% Hit Rate with Heroic Strike.

This is probably the #1 benefit of using Heroic Strike. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned.

So, in summary...

The cumulative benefits of Heroic Strike (as opposed to normal hit):
-495 damage bonus
-Is not subject to Dual Wield Hit % penalty (19% Hit)
-Is not subject to Glancing Blow (30% Damage Reduction, 24% of the time)
-25% chance to proc Instant Slam
-Benefits from Impale (20% more bonus damage from Crit)
-Benefits from 2Pc Tier 8 or 4Pc Tier 9 bonuses.

The costs of Heroic Strike (as opposed to normal hit):
-Costs 12 Rage (2 when it Crits)
-You lose the rage generated from the MH white damage.

In the long run, I'm estimating that each swing of Heroic Strike does about 40% more damage than each normal swing.

The fact still remains that it should be only used as a rage dump, and should be considered lowest priority when it comes to rage usage. At the same time, Heroic Strike will still make up a huge % of your overall damage.

While you never want to be in a position where you can't use Whirlwind and Bloodthirst due to rage starvation, you'll still otherwise want to use Heroic Strike as often as possible to maximize damage output.

PS. WTB Section on Execute and what to do when the mob is at 20% or lower.
I'm not 100% sure on this, but I've been prioritizing Execute over Instant Slam procs (but under Whirlwind and Bloodthirst).
I also avoid Heroic Strike unless my Rage is overflowing.

[Salion]

On berserker rage:
eating a GCD is still relevant in ToC because unless you are using berserker rage during your free GCD you are going to screw up the rotation which will result in a DPS loss.

For people who do occasionally accidentally heroic strike too much (which is probably most people; no one's perfect), you'll have to wait for a white swing to generate rage for the next ww/bt, so I figure that you might as well take that time to use berserker rage and assure you'll have the rage within 1.5s. Also, I do tend to use berserker rage during my free GCDs if I'm not doing a slam/sunder/shout. Is having it for these two situations more important than having points in other talents? I guess that would depend on how skilled you are at monitoring your rage, the encounter and group makeup, and whether you're in northrend greens and really, really need any rage you can get.


As far as 3/3 tactical mastery is concerned: not only does it guarantee you enough rage to cast Shattered Throw as soon as you switch to Battle Stance, but if you have 25 rage left as you switch back to Berserker stance, you're assured the capability to immediately do a whirlwind (although you could of course pop Bloodrage for either switch if it's up). Honestly, it's probably not too important to have the 3/3, but in my mind it's better than Iron Will, since 6% of a small amount of time stunned is such a short amount of time that I can't differentiate it from latency, and the talent reportedly doesn't have an affect on certain stuns in raids. Plus, I'm a human, so I have a get-out-of-stun-free card anyways.

[GronkerLonker]

What do you think of the following macro:
/cast [nostance:1] Battle Stance; Berserker Stance
/cast [stance:1] Shattering Throw

Would that work? Stances do not affect the global cooldown right? So could that macro Battle Stance and ST at the same time and switch back to Berserker Stance at a second click?

[Thegreatme]

PS. WTB Section on Execute and what to do when the mob is at 20% or lower.

Done. Kinda basic right now, will add more when I think of additional information to mention

[Quietsch]

The cumulative benefits of Heroic Strike (as opposed to normal hit):
-495 damage bonus
-Is not subject to Dual Wield Hit % penalty (19% Hit)
-Is not subject to Glancing Blow (30% Damage Reduction, 24% of the time)
-25% chance to proc Instant Slam
-Benefits from Impale (20% more bonus damage from Crit)
-Benefits from 2Pc Tier 8 or 4Pc Tier 9 bonuses.

The costs of Heroic Strike (as opposed to normal hit):
-Costs 12 Rage (2 when it Crits)
-You lose the rage generated from the MH white damage.

Glancing blows do 75% damage, so it's 25%.
BS is 20% procc chance.

In the long run, I'm estimating that each swing of Heroic Strike does about 40% more damage than each normal swing.

Depends very much of wpndmg, ap and crit, it could be more, it could be less.

The fact still remains that it should be only used as a rage dump, and should be considered lowest priority when it comes to rage usage. At the same time, Heroic Strike will still make up a huge % of your overall damage.

No and yes. Heroic Strike in every combat log looks very much better, than it really is. All in all, it's around the same level, als whirlwind or bloodthirst

[Arold]

This is a pretty minor thing that I wouldn't even post, except I want to make sure I'm not wrong about it.

The other big advantage to using Heroic Strike is, since it's a yellow attack, it doesn't suffer the dual-wield hit penalty and therefore won't miss. If you're hovering right around the soft hit cap, we're talking about 16% fewer misses on your main hand here.

Also, Heroic Strike will get the 20% crit damage bonus from the Impale talent, which is a big part of why HS gets better with high crit rate. The rage bonus from critting white attacks goes hand in hand with HS in an unholy circle of anger, until your HSing dang every swing, cutting down everything in your PATH, RIVERS OF BLOOD WILL FLOW IN YOUR WAKE, AND ALL WHO STAND BEFORE YOU WILL DIE.

[Quietsch]

Maybe, you could just read the post before you, or the post 5 posts before you, or one of the other 3 or 4, that mention the same things.
In short: you're right.

[mangtemi]

Great movie and well laid guide. now i have to experiment why i don't get 7-9k crit.

[Bokchoy]

Done. Kinda basic right now, will add more when I think of additional information to mention

With Glyph of Execution, it should do more DPR and DPS than Instant Slam.

[Quietsch]

More DPS yes, more DPR no.

[Thegreatme]

Things I plan on doing for this guide over the weekend:
1) get more relevant info/data in the execute section
2) Make a section on ArP. this is going to take me a bit to get right because it will be moderately difficult to make it explicitly clear and as unbiased as possible to everyone.
3) start moving some of the math that was done in the rotation comparison thread and eventually use it to help explain what was found.
4) anything else that i forgot

[Warhooves]

I am low on my expertise, what would you recommend about this. I know gear will prob take care if it but, anything in the meantime that would help? Also, some data sharing on recommendations for setting up macros or key bindings would help. I have played for sometime now but I know I can do much more than I do and I admit I am still a clicker and that is , I'm guessing is the main issue.

The World of Warcraft Armory

[Cruelhitz]

I heard of a rotation that uses bloodthirst first, then whirlwind, slam, ect. and this is the spec i was told to make this one ----> My Spec be sure to look at the fury spec, not the prot. one (duh). anyways im just confused because what i was told was different. I was also told not to worry about useing charge at all.

[Quietsch]

Even if the spec is only for leveling, it's suboptimal. 5/5 flurry is missing. (and some other things, i wouldn't do, for example take UW, but missing commanding presence.)
BT first is in every case, where aoe damage isn't reduced, not as good as the "normal" WW first rotation.

[Sparrta]

I am low on my expertise, what would you recommend about this. I know gear will prob take care if it but, anything in the meantime that would help? Also, some data sharing on recommendations for setting up macros or key bindings would help. I have played for sometime now but I know I can do much more than I do and I admit I am still a clicker and that is , I'm guessing is the main issue.

The World of Warcraft Armory

First off you should gem for expertise until the cap or 25 expertise. Second, you need to start using key bindings. Find key bindings which are feel right for you and practice practice on the dummies. Its gonna feel weird at first but trust me, in acouple of months your gonna have every single one of your abilities key binded.

Here is a guide form tankpot which should help:

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/...binds-you.html

[Jaspar]

Question:

If I'm the only warrior in the party/raid group, should I try to stack Sunder Armor on a boss when I have a free GCD?

[Thegreatme]

Question:

If I'm the only warrior in the party/raid group, should I try to stack Sunder Armor on a boss when I have a free GCD?

Ideally yes.

It will result in a small DPS loss but the overall raid DPS increase is worth it.

[Thanagisz]

I'm a fury warrior that is having a hard time breaking 4k dps The World of Warcraft Armory I follow the rotation but i see other warriors doing like 5 and 6k dps and i dont understand why could anyoen give me any advice?

[Cruelhitz]

I'm a fury warrior that is having a hard time breaking 4k dps The World of Warcraft Armory I follow the rotation but i see other warriors doing like 5 and 6k dps and i dont understand why could anyoen give me any advice?

I think you need some more crit. strike rating. I've seen some fury warrior with like a 44%. Your at around 29%. give up haste and exchange it for crit. strike rating. Some1 please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Jarhead]

@Thegreatme: is it just me, or the armory, or do you not have a bracer enchant?