• 
• Re: arms warrior rotation
  Wed Jun 16, 2010 4:45 am
  by redsoul15
  Forum:  Warrior

• 

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  Jessicamnm wrote:
  as far as arms go Heroic Strike IS NOT your friend, it just drains too much rage...

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  This is absolutely NOT true. You just have to learn how to manage HS/cleave in your rotation.
  
  First, understand the role of rend. It allows frequent use of overpower, which is more or less a free instant crit. The second thing that you need to understand is that arms dpsers don't work on a standard 'wash, rinse, repeat' style rotation since many of their attacks are situational. For instance, rend, OP, and excecute are in the rotation, but you only reapply rend when it's about to fall off, and you only use OP and excecute when they are available. In fact, the only special in your rotation that doesn't have a qualifier is MS.
  
  Arms warriors are capable of generating huge chunks of rage, especially with a high crit% and the endless rage talent. Any time you see your rage get to 70 or above, it is time to HS(if you are fighting a single target) or cleave(if fighting multiple targets). Since these attacks do not use the global cool down (instead, they replace your melee swing) you can actually 'queue' them up while continuing to MS, overpower, etc.. If you don't use them at all, your rage will constantly be at around 60-100. This is wasteful...if you have 85 rage and get a melee crit for say, 5k, that would normally end up giving you over 50 rage. Since you are capped at 100, you are effectively 'throwing away' 35+ rage.
  
  My personal rotation is charge, rend, victory rush(if available), MS, overpower(if available), excecute(if available). I pepper in cleave or HS as soon as my rage hits 70 or above. Once you have been engaged for a while, you will find that you are knocking at 70+ rage almost constantly, so you will be cleaving all the time. A cleave crit on a well geared arms warrior will create an instant 12-14k damage (18-20k if glyphed) and will make your dps ridiculous against raid trash. I also use sweeping strikes in any multiple target situation. If you glyph SS, you can even tap it right before you charge and you will hitting multiple targets as soon as you start attacking. If your tank has been engaging the mob group for a significant time, you can throw in a bladestorm. Don't use it too early though...if he doesn't have significant threat generated, you will pull aggro.
  
  I don't use slam at all. The cast bar and loss of mobility annoy me, but if you can time it out correctly and make it work for you, it can be effective.
  
  Against single targets (including most bosses) use HS instead. While not as jaw dropping damagewise as cleave, it will give a significant dps boost as it does more that your melee attack and doesn't interrupt your rotation at all.
  
  People will tell you I'm wrong, I'm sure...but with a 2800gs, I am doing about 5000-5500 dps in 5 man heroics. I ran ICC 25 for the first time on sunday night in a pug. We beat the first 4 bosses, and my overall dps was over 9k. I was easily the top melee dpser, and 4th overall. My Glyphs are SS, cleave, and MS.