Arms Warrior DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

The single target Arms build is largely unchanged in Season 4, thoughCrushing Force is now less important than in the past. Itcontinues to perform well after acquiring the new tier set, without anyfurther required changes.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the bestbuild directly into your game!

Because Sweeping Strikes is a baseline ability, Arms typical raidmultitarget build is very similar to its single target one, simply switchingto Improved Sweeping Strikes to extend the duration of its cleaveeffect. Although Bladestorm may be situationally taken for heavy AoE,it is not frequently used in raids due to how detracting from the single targetcapabilities of Execute.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the bestbuild directly into your game!

Mythic+ dungeons largely revolve around burst multi-target damageand continually killing enemies as you move from pack to pack. This generalistbuild uses Bladestorm to facilitate burst AoE, while falling back on Sweeping Strikes and heavy bleed damage from Blood and Thunderin between cooldowns. While more AoE focused builds using Blademaster's Torment are also an option, most Arms Warriors prefer toretain their single target capabilities Warlord's Torment.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the bestbuild directly into your game!

An alternative Mythic+ build focuses on Fervor of Battle and Collateral Damage for increased sustained multi-target damage, althoughit is more Rage intensive and loses some of its single-target damage as aresult.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the bestbuild directly into your game!

For further details and explanations of various talents, please visit ourSpells pagevia the button below.

Battle Stance is Arms' default damage-dealing stance.

Defensive Stance is an alternate stance, which serves as anon-demand defensive cooldown.

Berserker Rage breaks a variety of incapacitating effects,making it strong but highly circ*mstantial.

Impending Victory is a very powerful on-demand heal, whichshould always be taken.

War Machine increases Rage generation and provides a minorburst of movement speed.

Intervene can provide extra mobility, but the defensive valueis inconsequential outside of PvP, and more will more often get you killed whentargeting tanks, though it can occasionally be combined with Die by the Swordto mitigate that.

Rallying Cry is a very important group defensive tool used inmost organized raid content.

Berserker Shout removes fear from the entire party, thoughvery rarely necessary.

Piercing Howl is a strong AoE snare, though limited by itscooldown and in an expensive spot on the talent tree.

Fast Footwork is a small but nice passive movement speedincrease.

Spell Reflection is an extremely useful mini-defensivecooldown, which can occasionally deal damage back to an enemy and even ignoresome debuff applications entirely!

Leeching Strikes is a minor but nice passive leechincrease.

Second Wind provides passive healing, which is usually brokenby incoming damage, but occasionally ignores it, making the heal verysituational, but very powerful in the right circ*mstances.

Frothing Berserker provides a small irregular Rage refund, notgreat enough to influence the rotation, but helpful over time.

Heroic Leap is a fantastic burst mobility tool.

Intimidating Shout is most often used as a pseudo-interrupt,as it tends to scatter enemy groups.

Thunder Clap is useless on its own but has follow-on talentsthat increase its efficacy.

Furious Blows is a very useful passive auto-attack speedincrease.

Wrecking Throw is a niche talent but can provide a very goodamount of damage for one talent point when enemies have absorptionshields.

Shattering Throw is extremely niche outside of PvP, due to ageneral lack of when breakable immunities in PvE content.

Crushing Force provides a large damage increase for Slam.

Pain and Gain provides a small amount of passive self-healing,though it adds up over the course of a long encounter.

Cacophonous Roar is a PvP-focused talent which has little tono practical effect in PvE.

Menace improves Intimidating Shout by not forcing targets torun away, but it is rarely worth the talent point.

Storm Bolt is a ranged single target stun on a short cooldown,which is a must-have in almost all dungeon content.

Overwhelming Rage increases maximum Rage, which in turnreduces resource waste from overcapping.

Sidearm is a minor passive damage increase.

Concussive Blows is an extremely niche single-target damageincrease, only hypothetically useful if constantly interrupting a singletarget on cooldown.

Reinforced Plates provides a rather insignificant defensiveboost, which gains value due to its follow-on talent.

Bounding Stride allows Heroic Leap to be used much morefrequently.

Blood and Thunder is a must-have talent in multi-target content,allowing Thunder Clap to serve as an AoE version of Rend.

Crackling Thunder is simply worse than Piercing Howl.

Barbaric Training provides a moderate damage increase for bothSlam and Whirlwind, while the Rage increase actually makes them more efficientspenders.

Honed Reflexes reduces the cooldown of Overpower, whichis not overly useful due to already frequent cooldown resets.

Bitter Immunity is an on-demand heal which also removescertain debuffs. Situationally useful, but very useful when it is.

Double Time is a must-have increase in mobility, which leadsto an even more important talent.

Titanic Throw is useless for DPS specializations.

Seismic Reverberation causes Whirlwind to deal damage fourtimes per cast, instead of the normal three, when hitting multipletargets.

Armored to the Teeth provides a moderate damage increase,and the main reason to take Reinforced Plates.

Wild Strikes is a surprisingly powerful auto-attack damage andRage generation increase, though its internal cooldown keeps it from achievinga 100% uptime.

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is a must have passive damageincrease.

Cruel Strikes is a moderate Execute damage increase, whichsynergizes well with other talents in the spec tree.

Endurance Training is a small survivability boost, althoughthe crowd control reduction is rather unimportant in PvE content.

Avatar is an extremely important cooldown, which also alignsnicely with others.

Thunderous Roar is a powerful AoE attack and bleed.

Champion's Spear is another powerful AoE attack, with alingering DoT, which also tethers enemies in place, making it even more usefulin a variety of situations.

Shockwave provides an AoE stun, very useful in small-groupsituations.

Warlord's Torment causes major cooldowns to triggerRecklessness, greatly flooding Arms with Rage.

Blademaster's Torment triggers a full damage Bladestorm, whichalso activates secondary talented bonuses.

Uproar greatly reduces the cooldown of Thunderous Roar,though in a way that misaligns it with other cooldowns.

Thunderous Words increases bleed damage at all times, not onlywhen Thunderous Roar is activated, making it much stronger than itappears.

Piercing Verdict is a moderate AoE direct damage increase thatis not normally worth taking, especially as the extra Rage is often overcappedand wasted.

Champion's Might is a very powerful increase to Champion's Spearwhen layered with other cooldowns.

Rumbling Earth is a very strong talent which makes Shockwavemuch more frequently useable.

Sonic Boom is a mostly unimportant bonus due to Shockwave'slow initial damage.

Mortal Strike is Arms' primary attack, forming the basis ofits rotation and with several talents enhancing its capabilities.

Overpower is a free filler, helping to maintain the rotationbetween spenders.

Die by the Sword is Arms' main defensive cooldown, with the addedbenefit of parrying frontal melee attacks. Keep in mind that not all attackscan be parried, however, so it is not a true immunity.

Martial Prowess causes Overpower to buff Mortal Strike and Cleave.While technically optional, it should be taken in virtually all builds.

Improved Execute is another technically optional but imperativetalent to take, allowing Arm's Execute to be used much more frequently.

Improved Overpower increases the damage of Overpower by a minoramount. Although Overpower is used quite frequently, the low value makes it arather weak choice.

Bloodsurge has a moderate chance to generate Rage whenever Rend,Deep Wounds, or Thunderous Roar, deals damage. While only contributing a minoramount of overall Rage generation in single target, it ramps up considerablywhen facing multiple targets.

Fueled by Violence provides a low amount of sustained healing,which ramps up when multiple targets are afflicted with the bleed, courtesy ofCleave.

Storm Wall causes every parry to heal, making it a very usefuladdition to Die by the Sword, particularly when taking threat from a tank.Interestingly, the talent triggers on any parry, even when Die by the Sword isnot currently active.

Ignore Pain no longer contributes to Anger Management or Testof Might, making it a purely defensive ability in exchange for Rage.

Sudden Death allows Execute to be cast anytime ittriggers, adding a little bit of proc-gameplay, as well as offering a strongspike of damage.

Fervor of Battle causes Whirlwind to automatically cast a freeSlam whenever Whirlwind hits two targets. This makes it a much stronger fillerbut more difficult to take advantage of, as it does not replace Slam outright.It does have great synergy with Collateral Damage, however, as Whirlwind doesnot normally stack it.

Tactician creates more proc-based gameplay and allows Overpower tobe used much more frequently, helping maintain the rotation, as well as buffMortal Strike or Cleave more frequently.

Skullsplitter is an additional attack which generates a moderateamount of Rage. While not overly useful on its own, the follow-up talent isextremely powerful.

Tide of Blood causes all remaining ticks of Rend of Deep Wounds todeal their damage immediately, typically resulting in upwards of a dozen ticks ofrapidly dealing damage. Not only bursty, it fits very well into theColossus Smash window, increasing its damage further. Combined with otherbleed-enhancing talents, this forms one of the main elements of Arms' single-targetdamage potential.

Rend is a familiar talent which inflicts a large bleed. While itno longer increases critical strike damage, there are several bleed-enhancingtalents across the tree that make it very potent in a variety of situations.When Blood and Thunder is also talented, Thunder Clap alsoapplies the bleed, allowing it to be used in multi-target situationsinstead.

Bloodborne is a straightforward but very potent damage increase,which provides build synergy with several other talents throughout both trees.

Improved Slam synergizes well with Crushing Force to greatlyincrease the damage of Slam.

Dreadnaught is a returning talent, which provides roughly 33% moredamage to Overpower, though the extra charge is also very useful for helpingavoid wasting Tactician procs.

Colossus Smash is Arms main offensive cooldown. While notincredibly strong, it has a fairly high uptime thanks to Anger Management, whileother talents increase its effectiveness further.

In For The Kill triggers a moderate Haste buff whenever ColossusSmash is used. While not as strong as its shared talent, Test of Might, theHaste bonus is more useful in combination with Bladestorm.

Test of Might triggers a strength buff after Colossus Smash ends,while not quite as strong as Colossus Smash itself, it effectively extends thebuff window, helping maintain sustained damage output.

Blunt Instruments is a single and two-target enhancement toColossus Smash, which combines well with Test of Might and/or SweepingStrikes.

Warbreaker turns Colossus Smash into an AoE effect, which isdownright indispensable in multi-target content.

Impale takes the effect previously tied to Rend and makes iteffectively baseline, as the talent is required in order to proceed down theright side branch of the tree. Note that it only increases the extra criticalstrike damage of attacks, making it closer to a 5% damage increase rather than10%.

Exhilarating Blows allows more Mortal Strike use, though theCleave reset is largely redundant due to Reaping Swings.

Massacre makes Execute available sooner. As Execute makes upa big part of Arms damage, this is a must-have talent in single target andcan even be nice to have in multi-target as well.

Improved Sweeping Strikes gains considerable value with the T30 setbonus, which reinforces the use of multi-target Mortal Strike instead ofCleave.

Strength of Arms is an important single target talent, particularlyduring the Execute phase.

Collateral Damage doubles down on the two-target capabilities ofSweeping Strikes, though, only stacks off of single-target abilities, whichare cleaved. This has strong synergy with Fervor of Battle, though, allowingWhirlwind to be used to hit multiple enemies and build stacks at the sametime.

Storm of Swords turns Whirlwind into a much more powerfulattack on a moderate cooldown. While the high rage cost appears prohibitive,it works best as a Rage dump in conjunction with Cleave, which is both a cheap andfrequently used multi-target attack.

Cleave creates the basis for Arms' Mythic+ build, a cheap lowcooldown, multi-target attack, which also maintains Deep Wounds. While notparticularly strong, the extra bleed damage and very low cooldown give thebuild great sustained damage.

Reaping Swings reduces Cleave's cooldown from four GCDs to two,allowing it to be used after every other ability. Typically alternated withOverpower, Thunder Clap, or Whirlwind allows a very effective and veryfun multi-target rotation.

Deft Experience provides a minor Mastery bonus, but its much moreimportant effect is greatly increasing the proc rate of Tactician, allowingmuch more frequent use of Overpower.

Bloodletting is a very strong talent which makes managingbleeds easier.

Battlelord is a really fun ability that, unfortunately, is not verystrong. With Mortal Strike refreshing the cooldown of Overpower via Tacticianand Overpower refreshing the cooldown of Mortal Strike via Battlelord. thisbecomes a really fun gameplay loop which has a hard time spending enough Rageto keep from overcapping, resulting in the talent being a little weak.

Fatality is a new pseudo-execute talent inspired by DribblingInkpod from the Battle for Azeroth expansion. Throughout normal combat, enemytargets will build up stacks of Fatal Mark, which are then consumed to createa large burst of damage. This burst can only happen once per target, but ifthe encounter is long enough; it can stack to very high levels. Note that itsdamage is not affected by Colossus Smash or Avatar but is affected by primarystat increases such as Hurricane or Test of Might.

Valor in Victory provides a minor Versatility bonus while alsoreducing the cooldown of Die by the Sword, a very useful effect, particularlyif facing threat issues in multi-target content.

Bladestorm is one of Arms' signature abilities, a bursty AoEattack which inflicts Deep Wounds and deals respectable damage, especially asit should always be buffed by Warbreaker and often by Avatar as well.

Dance of Death is forgiving in that it does not require Bladestormactually get the killing blow, though it can still be somewhat hard to use.While increasing the duration of Bladestorm by 50% is numerically powerful, itis not perfectly suited to all situations, but can be situationally powerful.Note that extra Bladestorms triggered by Blademaster's Torment cantrigger the effect, but will not benefit from or consume it, making it a goodway to kickstart the effect before casting Bladestorm manually.

Unhinged adds a good deal of single-target damage to Bladestorm,although Hurricane is typically better in situations where you are talentingthe AoE attack in the first place.

Hurricane is a very potent buff, which stacks quickly andrefreshes its duration with each stack. This allows it to cover the length ofWarbreaker and most of Avatar, as well as synergize quite powerfully withMerciless Bonegrinder.

Merciless Bonegrinder provides a large damage bonus to Whirlwindand Cleave after Bladestorm ends, adding follow-on sustain to the burstcooldown.

Critical Thinking provides a minor Critical Strike buff, but itsmuch more important effect is refunding a portion of the Rage spent when usingExecute. Combined with Improved Execute, this results in 40 Rage Executesrefunding up to 12 Rage after every cast, making it much easier to maintainwithout Rage starving.

Sharpened Blades provides a nice damage buff to Mortal Strike,Cleave, and Execute, also synergizing well with Cruel Strikes.

Executioner's Precision is a returning effect, which helps encouragethe use of Mortal Strike during the Execute phase. Unfortunately, it is alittle weak and could be skipped in favor of other talents.

Juggernaut was a Fury artifact trait during the Legion expansion,but now synergizes with Arms' gameplay much better due to the lack of acooldown on Execute. This helps cement Arms as a major Execute spec, althoughit is subject to falling off due to downtime from encounter mechanics, so careshould be taken in order to maximize its potential.