Introduction
My name is Dan, perhaps better known as Danwarr. I have been playing WoW since late Vanilla and Warrior specifically since Mists of Pandaria. I have raided with Method since Castle Nathria, always as DPS Warrior. This guide serves to help you learn how to play Arms Warrior during The War Within.
What has changed
11.0.5 Arms Warrior Changes
During a recent class tuning update, Arms Warrior had the following changes:
- Colossus: Mountain of Muscle and Scars now reduces damage taken by 5% (was 2.5%).
- Colossus: Dominance of the Colossus now causes enemies damaged by Demolish to deal up to 10% less damage to you (was 5%).
These changes are a defensive buff only, and don’t impact the gameplay outside of that.
Patch Release
Arms Warrior has received a few notable tuning changes with the release of 11.0.5. These include:
- Thunderous Roar deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets (previously 8)
- Warbreaker radius increased to 10 yards (previously 8 yards)
- Warbreaker deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets (previously uncapped)
- Slayer: Overwhelming Blades caps at 10 stacks (previously 12)
Additionally to the changes listed above, further tuning was implemented for Arms in hotfixes during the 11.0.5 patch including:
- Execute damage increased by 7%
- Mortal Strike damage increased by 15%
- Overpower damage increased by 15%
- Dreadnaught damage increased by 15%
- Cleave damage increased by 20%
- Colossus: Demolish single-target damage increased by 15% (the first 2 strikes of Demolish)
- Slayer: Reap the Storm damage increased by 25%
- Slayer: Slayer’s Strikes damage increased by 15%
The War Within Arms Warrior Changes
Coming out of Dragonflight there have been a lot of fundamental changes to Arms Warrior, most notably with the Rage economy. Slam, Rend, Thunder Clap and Whirlwind all now cost 20 Rage without any talents increasing this cost. This, along with the removal of the Furious Blows talent, serves to slow down the gameplay of Arms which had been quite rapid for several expansions.
There is a big shift in damage breakdown coming into the new expansion with a significantly higher focus on Mortal Strike alone instead of supplanting much of Arms damage between Deep Wounds, Rend and Overpower.
Execute phase is still important for Arms Warrior but Execute as an ability is slightly less powerful due to the Rage changes. Hero talents can help this a bit which will be covered later.
The talent trees have received a reshuffle which will be covered in a later section. Finally, all classes in The War Within have access to new Hero Talent trees which aim to change up the gameplay of a given spec a bit further. These Hero Talents for Arms Warrior are Slayer and Colossus. The intricacies of these trees will be covered later.