Arms Warrior

Is Arms worth levelling?

Viable, but slower — and be clear about why. The published level-20 Arms build spends all eleven points in the Fury tree, because there is nothing in Arms worth reaching yet. Arms' actual engine is Rend into Bloodthrill into Overpower, which is tier 5 and therefore level 30 at the earliest, and Mortal Strike is level 40.

Warrior as a class is rated a poor leveller by both published guides — "you need both gear and patience… pulling multiple enemies is likely to kill you if you are alone."

Your talent points

Level 20 — 0/11/0, entirely in Fury. This is not a typo, and it is what both published Arms builds do.

1. Cruelty, 5 points
2. Unbridled Wrath, 5 points — 2 rage per proc with a two-hander, which is the whole point
3. Piercing Howl, 1 point

The real-Arms alternative at 20, if you would rather commit early: Improved Heroic Strike 3, Improved Rend 3, Improved Charge 2, Improved Overpower 2, then 1 point into Deep Wounds. Improved Rend is forced here — it is Deep Wounds' prerequisite.

Level 30 — 21/0/0, reaching Sweeping Strikes: Improved Heroic Strike 3, Improved Rend 3, Improved Charge 2, Improved Tactical Mastery 2, Improved Overpower 2, Deep Wounds 3, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 3, Impale 2, Sweeping Strikes 1.

Rotation

1. Battle Shout always up; Bloodrage on cooldown, ideally between pulls
2. Charge to open — out of combat only, so ranged-pull a group instead
3. Demoralizing Shout on non-casters
4. Victory Rush inside its 20-second window
5. Overpower on a dodge
6. Rend early, only on something that lives out the bleed
7. Sunder Armor once or twice; stop below 50% health
8. Slam — only immediately after a white hit, until you have Improved Slam

Multi-target: don't. Kill one fast, Cleave once or twice as rage allows, and treat Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout as damage reduction rather than damage. With a healer, pull two for the extra rage from damage taken.

Arms is the only Warrior spec whose published priority includes Slam. Steps 1 to 7 are word-for-word identical to Fury's.

Stat priority

Weapon damage, then Hit, critical strike, Strength, Agility, Stamina. Slow and heavy: rage is normalized to weapon speed, and Slam and Mortal Strike both take their base from the weapon.

What defines Arms

A 51-point squeeze worth knowing early: Mortal Strike needs 31 points in Arms and Death Wish needs 21 in Fury. That is 52. They are mutually exclusive.

What Forever changed for Arms

• Improved Slam moved from Fury into Arms, cut from 5 ranks to 2, and rewritten — it now takes 1.5 seconds per rank off Slam's cooldown, and Slam no longer interrupts your swing. Several guides still say otherwise; they are stale.
• All four weapon-specialisation talents were deleted and replaced by one Weaponmaster. The Classic mace stun proc is gone, replaced by armour penetration.
• Two entirely new talents: Bloodthrill, and Spearing Strike — 40% weapon damage, +80% against Giants, Dragonkin and mounted targets, and it dismounts them.
• Anger Management now generates 1 rage every 3 seconds in combat, on top of its old decay reduction. Impale no longer requires Deep Wounds. Improved Rend was nerfed and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization cut from 5 ranks to 3.

At level 60

Unknown. Nobody has tested whether the Rend, Bloodthrill and Improved Slam package beats a Fury or hybrid split, and gear cannot be planned for — Forever reworked dungeon loot and item stats wholesale, so Classic equipment lists do not transfer.