Last updated on Jun 19, 2024 at 23:20by Archimtiros59 comments
Welcome to our comprehensive guide on the Arms Warrior changes in World of Warcraft's latest expansion, "The War Within."This page is designed to help you navigate the new changes, optimize your gameplay, and get the most out of your Arms Warrior in PvE environments.
In this guide, you'll find detailed breakdowns of the new Hero Talent Trees for Arms Warrior. We'll explore the most significant updates,and offer insights into how these changes will impact your overall playstyle.Whether you're a veteran Arms Warrior or new to the class, our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to excel in "The War Within."
1.
Arms Warrior: The War Within Expansion Preview
Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Arms Warrior.Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about theArms Warrior spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion,including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the stateof the spec going into the expansion.
This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regularchanges expected as updates hit the War Within Beta. This is not meant to bea launch guide for Arms Warrior, but instead serves as aresource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, andwhat you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.
2.
The War Within Changes for Arms Warrior's
2.1.
Arms Warrior Core Changes
Arms Warrior Rage economy has been significantly altered in The War Within,reducing the amount generated per swing and reducing the Rage cost of Slam,Whirlwind, Rend, Thunder Clap, and Ignore Pain to a consistent 20 Rage. As aresult, Rage is generated and spent in smaller chunks, leading to smootherpacing and less time bouncing between a full or empty resource bar.
The Warrior Class Tree has received a moderate rework, rearranging thepathing of several talents and removing some of the less desirable onesoutright. Overall, the tree has become smaller and more streamlined, withfocus on improving access to important crowd control and early levelingabilities, most notably relocating Shockwave to the middle of the tree. Below,you can see some of the most important changes that will affect your gameplay,decision-making, and power in The War Within.
Defensive Stance is now automatically unlocked for all Warriorspecializations (previously Arms and Protection only).- Berserker Rage is no longer a talent and now automatically learnedat level 12.
- Titanic Throw, Sonic Boom, and Furious Blows havebeen removed. Furious Blows is one less required damage talent, while theother two were never used.
- Second Wind now restores 1-2% health per second while below 35%health, in addition to its previous effects. This gives it a guaranteedbenefit in high damage/low life situations, without changing the previousfunctionality.
- Honed Reflexes now reduces the cooldown of most defensive andutility cooldowns by 5%. However minor, this removes another damage talent,while offering an interesting if equally minor defensive benefit.
- Blood and Thunder no longer increases the damage or rage cost ofThunder Clap, and is no longer available to Fury.
- Crackling Thunder now increases damage of Thunder Clap by 10%.
- Frothing Berserker now refunds 20% Rage for Arms, down from 20%.
- Barbaric Training no longer increases the Rage cost of abilities.Alongside several other adjustments, this is intended to smooth out the rateat which Arms generates and spends its Rage.
- Champion's Spear now generates 10 rage, down from 20.
- Shockwave and Thunderous Roar no longer generate Rage.
- Thunderous Words has been buffed from 15 to 30%, but only increasesthe damage targets take from bleeds during its effect, rather than passivelyincreasing it all the time. This makes Thunderous Roar more active andcondenses some of its damage into burstier cooldowns.
- Crushing Force now affects Mortal Strike instead of Slam.
- Endurance Training has gained a second point, allowing players toincrease their stamina even further. While nice, the new pathing makes thetalent very hard to take.
- Warlord's Torment no longer affects Colossus Smash, and the bonusRage generated during Recklessness is reduced to +25% from +100%. More so thanany other change, this dramatically slows down Arms' Rage generation, thoughthe overall speed of its gameplay is unchanged.
- Blademaster's Torment has been redesigned to now trigger SweepingStrikes whenever Avatar is used, and reduce the cooldown of Cleave by 1.5seconds for the duration of Avatar. This gives the talent value no matter whatcombination of other talents are used, and when combined with ImprovedSweeping Strikes has the potential for up to 84 seconds of continuous SweepingStrikes throughout Avatar's 90-second cooldown.
2.2.
Arms Warrior Changes
The Arms Warrior Spec Tree has undergone very minorchange, retaining the same general pathing, though condensing and reworking afew of its talents.
- Cleave now replaces Whirlwind, reducing the number of keybinds inmultitarget content. Reaping Swings has been removed, with Cleave'sdefault cooldown reduced to 4.5 seconds instead.
- Fervor of Battle and Collateral Damage now apply to Cleave,as do Seismic Reverberation and Barbaric Training in the classtree. With Cleave replacing Whirlwind in the rotation, this retains all of thesame functionality between the two abilities.
- Tide of Blood has been removed and its effects baked into Skullsplitter.
- Storm of Swords now grants Whirlwind a 30% chance to make your nextWhirlwind cost 100% less Rage. Intended to help smooth out the Rage economy,this talent is largely unneeded.
- Improved Overpower now grants a second charge of Overpower,instead of coming from Dreadnaught.
- Strength of Arms has been split into two talents, and now shares achoice node with Dreadnaught. This gives players a clear choice between asingle target or multitarget damage boost.
- Finishing Blows now generates Rage when Overpower is used againstlow health targets, previously found within Strength of Arms. Althoughseemingly weak on its own, separating this effect allows the new version ofStrength of Arms to better compete against Dreadnaught.
- Tactician has been reduced to 1% per Rage spent, while Deft Experience has been reduced to an additional 0.5% per point. Atotal of 2% per point of Rage, this reduces the overall number of Tacticianprocs, creating a little more room in the rotation for other abilities.
- In For The Kill now lasts the duration of Colossus Smash instead ofa strict 10 seconds. This creates additional synergy with Spiteful Serenityand Blunt Instruments, and greatly increases its value compared to Test ofMight.
- Valor in Victory now increases Versatility by 2%, instead of 1%.
- Battlelord no longer increases Overpower damage. This makes thetalent less universal, creating more room to take other talents in multitargetcontent.
- Ravager is now a choice alongside Bladestorm, giving players theoption between AoE abilities. Bladestorm no longer generates Rage,but its damage has been buffed by ~70%, making it much more directlyimpactful.
- Hurricane has been removed, thereby reducing the number oflayered damage buffs.
- Unhinged now prioritizes the primary target and triggers everyother time Bladestorm or Ravager deals damage, allowing it to scale witheffects that increase the number of hits.
- Dance of Death has been completely redesigned with separate effectsfor Bladestorm and Ravager. When an enemy dies during Bladestorm, it increasesdamage dealt by 5% for the remainder of its duration plus 2 seconds, stackingup to three times. When an enemy dies during Ravager, it instead extends theduration by 2 seconds, also stacking up to three times. A somewhat complicatedchange, the intent is to reward players when an enemy dies during their largeAoE cooldown; used creatively, it can allow funneling damage from a short-lived group of adds into a stronger priority/boss target.
- Critical Thinking has been increased to 10% of Execute Ragerefunded per point, though Arms' Rage economy during Execute is still a bitlow.
2.3.
Systems Changes
Aside from the changes to Arms Warrior's core features,The War Within also introduces Hero Talent Trees, new tier sets, and the naturalreduction in secondary stats when entering a new expansion.
Arms Warrior's get to choose between the Colossusand Slayer Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk moredeeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and somethoughts on what looks strong and weak ahead of launch.
3.
Arms Warrior Hero Talents in The War Within
ColossusSlayer
2.4.
Colossus Hero Talents for Arms Warrior's in The War Within
The Colossus Hero Tree revolves almost entirely around a newability called 
Demolish, which is a short but powerful channeledattack similar to 
Fyr'alath the Dreamrender in Dragonflight.
Gameplay-wise, Demolish creates new complexity for Arms Warriors. LikeFyr'alath before it, Demolish is a channeled ability that roots the player, sothey cannot move but also cannot be crowd-controlled out of the effect. Unlikethe legendary axe, however, Demolish is a shorter 2 second (hasted) channel,has a much shorter cooldown, and all defensive/mobility abilities can be usedduring its effect. This means a skillful Arms Warrior can Spell Reflect anincoming spell or use Heroic Leap to quickly reposition out of a deadly effectwithout interrupting their major cooldown.
Power-wise, Demolish is strong in both single and multitarget content, butalso provides several ancillary effects. The damage of all critical strikesare amplified, players are given a choice between increasing the power of AoEabilities or Bleeds, and 
Dominance of the Colossus leaves a lingeringdebuff on enemies that increases their damage taken and reduces the damagethey deal to you for 10 seconds after being hit by Demolish.
Defensively, 
No Stranger to Pain is very strong for players who makegood use of Ignore Pain, while 
Veteran Vitality provides a passiveoption for players who are not interested in the extra keybind. Additionally,
Mountain of Muscle and Scars provides a flat 2.5% damage reduction.
In terms of utility benefits, Colossus provides two choices benefittingShockwave: 
Boneshaker increases its duration and causes the AoE stunto slow enemies for a brief time, while 
Earthquaker knocks them upand reduces its cooldown. Of these, the knockup is better for players worriedabout diminishing returns, though Boneshaker is the more performativeoption.
2.4.
Slayer Hero Talents for Arms Warrior in The War Within
The Slayer Hero Tree is split between Execute and Bladestorm, providingboth single and multitarget benefits through a series of synergistic debuffs.
Slayer's Dominance marks enemies, which in turn triggers
Imminent Demise, which allows players to consume those marks to reducethe cooldown of Bladestorm through 
Unrelenting Onslaught.
Gameplay-wise, players will benefit from far more frequent Sudden Death casts, creating additional value for talents like
Juggernaut and 
Executioner's Precision outside of the normalexecute range. This also leads to much more frequent use of Bladestorm, theresult of which is a fast-paced, proc-heavy storm of steel, though it may beless appealing to players who are overly sensitive about channeled abilities.
Power-wise, 
Reap the Storm and the increased frequency of Bladestormare both very powerful multitarget benefits, while Slayer gains most of itssingle target power from sustaining the 
Overwhelmed debuff and morefrequent use of Execute instead of weaker fillers like Slam. While Bladestormis much more powerful in The War Within than in Dragonflight, 
Unhingedis also a strong damage contributor, as the extra Mortal Strike casts can alsotrigger Reap the Storm.
Defensively, however, Slayer is a much weaker choice. Its sole defensivebenefit is 
Death Drive, which can add up to a moderate amount ofhealing over time, but is not always effective healing, making it a much lesspractical choice. This is probably a matter of PvP balance, as the increasedfrequency of Bladestorm is a very powerful bonus in that content, but is lessdefensively relevant in PvE.
In terms of utility, Unrelenting Onslaught grants the longrequested ability to interrupt and stun during Bladestorm, while the increasedamount of Bladestorm casts also provide their own crowd control immunity. TheSlayer's other benefit is in enhanced mobility: 
Relentless Pursuitprovides a huge quality of life improvement for keeping up with movingtargets, while 
Vicious Agility allows more frequent use of Heroic Leapand Charge in general.
3.
Arms Warrior Tier Set in The War Within
Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Arms Warrior in The WarWithin. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentarythat is italicized.
- Warrior Arms 11.0 Class Set 2pc — Mortal Strike and Cleave increase the damage of your next Overpower by 10%.This is a very simple, but effective bonus, as these are the three mostused abilities in both single and multitarget.
- Warrior Arms 11.0 Class Set 4pc — When Overpower has itscooldown reset by Tactician, your next Mortal Strike or Cleave has its damage increased by 10% and critical strike chanceincreased by 10%, stacking up to 2 times. Another simple andstraightforward benefit that will apply passively through normal gameplay.
Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected to have anygameplay impact, which makes them somewhat boring, but reliable.
3.1.
How Good is the Arms Warrior Tier Bonus in The War Within?
The 2pc bonus is numerically weak in multitarget, due to not currentlyaffecting the power of 
Dreadnaught, though that is a bug expected tobe addressed at some point before launch. It also suffers from being unable tostack, which means getting back-to-back casts of Mortal Strike through
Exhilarating Blows does not further increase the power of Overpower.
The 4pc bonus is much stronger, since Mortal Strike and Cleave already haveseveral damage modifiers which can be multiplied. While it may not beparticularly powerful, the functionality is perfectly sound.
Based on general dummy testing, the two bonuses together should be wortharound +7% in single target, which is generally weaker than set bonuses of thepast, though it is not yet clear what Blizzard's target point will be forThe War Within.
4.
Arms Warrior Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- Significantly more multitarget options by way of newfound Cleave interactions with Fervor of Battle, the potential for extended two-target through Blademaster's Torment, and more interesting choices like the reworked Dance of Death.
- Ravager introduces a new single target choice for content or encounters with less emphasis on Execute.
- Reduced rage economy retains the same gameplay, but with better pacing, instead of being resource capped or starved at all times.
- Several strong burst damage options for both hero specializations.
Weaknesses
- More emphasis on priority target or multitarget builds that focus on one at the expense of the other.
- Awkward class tree talent pathing requires taking Shockwave in single target content that it has no use in.
- Slayer has less build flexibility due to requiring Bladestorm in all of its builds, including single target.
- Slayer is still defensively weaker than Fury, although Colossus narrows the gap.
- Numbers TBD as several bugs prohibit many builds from proper testing.
5.
Changelog
- 19 Jun. 2024: Page created.
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