Introduction
My name is Dan, otherwise better known as Danwarr. I have raided primarily as a Warrior since mid Mists of Pandaria with both DPS specs. In this guide, I will give you a breakdown of how Arms Warrior is looking, going into Shadowlands.
What has changed
9.1.5 Arms Warrior Changes
Several abilities have been “soft capped.”
- Bladestorm now deals full damage to 8 targets and reduced damage beyond that
- Dreadnaught now deals full damage to 5 targets and reduced damage beyond that
- Cleave now deals full damage to 5 targets and reduced damage beyond that. Additionally, Cleave now applies Deep Wounds to ALL enemies hit
- Whirlwind now deals full damage to 5 targets and reduced damage beyond that
Additionally, the Merciless Bonegrinder conduit has been buffed by 100% (now giving 180% extra Whirlwind damage for 9 seconds after Bladestorm ends).
9.1 Changes
Arms has had a few of its abilities buffed coming into the Chains of Domination patch.
- Mortal Strike buffed by 10%
- Overpower buffed by 10%
- Deep Wounds damage buffed by 20% (NOTE this is the bleed damage ONLY that has been buffed. The damage increase from the Mastery remains the same with its scaling)
- Execute buffed by 10% (NOTE this does not include Condemn)
General Shadowlands Changes
Many abilities have been moved off of specific specs and added to the whole Warrior toolkit. These include: Spell Reflection, Shield Block, Shield Slam, Ignore Pain and Intervene.
Additionally, Shattering Throw has made a comeback with a slightly altered functionality from its previous version.
Arms Warrior Mastery, Deep Wounds, has been changed to a damage increase on the target instead of a hard-hitting DoT. This is the biggest change that Arms Warrior has received.
Other changes include:
- Die By the Sword cooldown changed from 3 minutes to 2 minutes
- Ravager talent cooldown lowered to 45 seconds and now moves towards its target
- Dreadnaught talent now includes the Seismic Wave Azerite trait effect on top of its original functionality
- Deadly Calm talent changed to reduce Rage cost of the next 4 abilities by 100% and increase base Rage by 30
- Collateral Damage talent functionality changed to increase Whirlwind damage when Sweeping Strikes ends
- Sweeping Strikes duration changed from 12 seconds to 15 seconds
- Impending Victory healing increased from 20% to 30%
- Cleave now also consumes Overpower stacks to increase its damage
- Warbreaker now applies Deep Wounds to all targets hit, uncapped