0. Stats
As arms your only priority is maximizing as much mastery and then vers as you possible can while keeping atleast 15% haste. You want somewhere between 15-18% haste, any less and it feels very shit to play and any more than that you will be rage starved by spamming Slam. You can achieve 15% haste by either:
a) Changing shoulders to Mastery>Haste and putting some haste gems
b) Putting a lot of haste gems
c) Getting 1-2 haste middle traits on relics
In the below screenshots I am using option c, 2 haste middle traits on relics (If you get mastery middle traits on all keep them you can just use a or b to reach 15% haste)
1. Gear Sets Single Target Cleave (Can also be used as Pure ST)
PURE SINGLE TARGET
AOE
Single Target Cleave set and Pure ST set perform very similarly on complete single target fights however the single target cleave set outperforms the pure st set on bosses with burst phases as terminus together with burst is insanely big damage, in my testing it’s around 80- 110mil single target burst in 5-6 seconds. You can also swap out the shoulder and cloak and use the setpieces from ABT if you want in all the sets, in my testing it performs almost the exact same, slightly higher burst window without the ABT shoulder and cloak but the 4set bonus evens it out after the burst window so it’s around the same overall just depends on preference. Helm legendary will only be swapped out for defensive sets and should be replaced with Mastery>Vers helmAs arms your only priority is maximizing as much mastery and then vers as you possible can while keeping atleast 15% haste. You want somewhere between 15-18% haste, any less and it feels very shit to play and any more than that you will be rage starved by spamming Slam. You can achieve 15% haste by either:
a) Changing shoulders to Mastery>Haste and putting some haste gems
b) Putting a lot of haste gems
c) Getting 1-2 haste middle traits on relics
In the below screenshots I am using option c, 2 haste middle traits on relics (If you get mastery middle traits on all keep them you can just use a or b to reach 15% haste)
1. Gear Sets Single Target Cleave (Can also be used as Pure ST)
PURE SINGLE TARGET
AOE
For AOE the best trinket combo to use is Terminus (Antoran high command) + Shivermaw’s Jawbone (Violet Hold) as they do not share cooldown, you can use terminus at the start of the pull then charge in pop shivermaw to get a burst of versatility and then enter your burst rotation. The replacement for Terminus is Umbral Moonglaives.
Defensive Sets & Misc sets
For defensive sets it really depends on the boss you’re doing and the difficulty
For Lady Hatecoil in Eye of Azshara – swap Terminus for Arcanocrystal and Ayala’s legendary ring for Prydaz legendary neck. The replacement for the ring should be a Mastery>Vers ring.
For 2nd boss of Court of Stars and last boss of Cathedral of Eternal Night – swap ring legendary for wrist legendary (Mannoroth) and if it’s tyrannical or very high key use Prydaz instead of helmet legendary also. On extremely high keys you might even need to use Dinner Bell Stamina trinket instead of Terminus / Arcanocrystal if you don’t get good buffs on CoS or no healer on CoEN.
For General Xakal in Arcway – swap ring legendary for Prydaz, maybe even swap Terminus for Arcanocrystal / stamina trinket.
On Skovald in Halls of Valor – swap ring legendary for either Aggaramar’s Stride or shoulder legendary (If you use Aggramar’s and you get 2 in a row you will either have to outrun or use gate as leap cooldown is longer than the cd of skovald leap).
2. Relics So depending on which way you decided to reach 15% haste on your build you
would either use the same relics as the ones in the screenshots or choose to use Mastery middle traits, from my testing I believe going 3xExploit the Weakness and 3x Precise Strikes is better overall as it boosts your single target a lot as without procs and crits on Mortal Strike your single target is pretty bad. You can choose to do 3x Exploit 2x Precise and 1x Ravager or 3x Exploit and 3x Ravager however your single target dps will suffer a lot and even without ravager traits AOE is insanely good on Arms.
3. Talents
Defensive Sets & Misc sets
For defensive sets it really depends on the boss you’re doing and the difficulty
For Lady Hatecoil in Eye of Azshara – swap Terminus for Arcanocrystal and Ayala’s legendary ring for Prydaz legendary neck. The replacement for the ring should be a Mastery>Vers ring.
For 2nd boss of Court of Stars and last boss of Cathedral of Eternal Night – swap ring legendary for wrist legendary (Mannoroth) and if it’s tyrannical or very high key use Prydaz instead of helmet legendary also. On extremely high keys you might even need to use Dinner Bell Stamina trinket instead of Terminus / Arcanocrystal if you don’t get good buffs on CoS or no healer on CoEN.
For General Xakal in Arcway – swap ring legendary for Prydaz, maybe even swap Terminus for Arcanocrystal / stamina trinket.
On Skovald in Halls of Valor – swap ring legendary for either Aggaramar’s Stride or shoulder legendary (If you use Aggramar’s and you get 2 in a row you will either have to outrun or use gate as leap cooldown is longer than the cd of skovald leap).
2. Relics So depending on which way you decided to reach 15% haste on your build you
would either use the same relics as the ones in the screenshots or choose to use Mastery middle traits, from my testing I believe going 3xExploit the Weakness and 3x Precise Strikes is better overall as it boosts your single target a lot as without procs and crits on Mortal Strike your single target is pretty bad. You can choose to do 3x Exploit 2x Precise and 1x Ravager or 3x Exploit and 3x Ravager however your single target dps will suffer a lot and even without ravager traits AOE is insanely good on Arms.
3. Talents
These are your best talents for Mythic+ dungeons. For raid you can use Dauntless – 1 st row, Trauma – 3 rd row, Opportunity Strikes – 7 th row for single target fights.
4. Rotation
Your rotation is pretty simple, your hardest hitter is Mortal Strike and you need to prioritize on how to make it hit the hardest. You have a passive called Tactician that resets the cooldown of it and Colossus Smash, that is why you go 3x Exploit the Weakness relics which increases the chance of that proc happening and 3x Precise Strikes makes it so Colossus Smash increases the crit chance of Mortal Strike by a lot.
You always want to use Mortal Strike after Colossus Smash, you only use mortal strike by itself when colossus is higher than 3 seconds cooldown.
Single target with burst: Terminus - Charge – Ravager – Macro(Avatar + Battlecry) – Artifact – Mortal Strike – Colossus Smash* - Mortal Strike/Slam….. use Slam as filler, your Battlecry and Ravager will come back in 1 minute, when that happens repeat the rotation
from Ravager onwards. Save Avatar and Terminus for when Battlecry and Ravager are back again.
Your artifact applies the Colossus Smash debuff to all enemies so when you are bursting and press artifact only in this case you press mortal strike before colossus smash, in any other case always use colossus smash before mortal strike.
* - You might get an Execute proc as soon as you charge and pop burst, in this case always use the execute proc because it will be boosted from the colossus debuff from artifact ability, then continue with colossus – mortal strike (Execute increases damage of the next mortal strike).
Single target without burst: Colossus Smash – Mortal Strike – Slam
Single target on execute: Execute – Execute – Colossus Smash – Mortal Strike and repeat.
Single target on execute with burst: Moonglaives/Terminus – Ravager – Macro(Avatar + Battlecry) – Artifact – Execute – Execute – Colossus – Mortal – repeat execute rotation.
AOE (More than 3 targets): Terminus - Charge - Shivermaw – Ravager – Macro(Avatar + Bcry) – Artifact – Cleave (Use whenever off cd) – Whirlwind (Spam)
Make sure you are in range of your target and he is in front of you or you will not be generating any rage while bursting and you will not be able to whirlwind. If you run out of rage use colossus smash.
AOE (3 or less targets): Use the single target rotation however make sure to spread Colossus Smash to all the enemies as they will all be taking more damage from the cleave from Mortal Strike and Execute. When there is an enemy in execute range always get 2 stacks of execute on it then swap to another enemy that is higher HP and use Colossus Mortal then swap back and continue.
Closing Words
This guide may not be perfect and stuff might change with more testing, if you don’t understand any part of the guide and or have any questions or suggestions my discord is – infernaldt
The spec performs the best when the party composition has a DH for the 5 second stun, Boomkin (Beam + Sustained Damage), Lock and either Protection Paladin tank (Helps you live) or Blood DK (makes ur AOE damage scyrocket with grip)
