Arms Rotation and Timing Help

So lets start with a disclaimer, this is my preferred arms rotation others may have a different view on what to do but this is what works for me. I will break this down into an easy to understand format as opposed to the single string format that is commonly used.

Open: Charge > Rend > Colossus Smash > Bladestorm

Main: Colossus Smash > Mortal Strike > Overpower (if available) > Bladestorm (if needed save for AOE parts of fights) > (Heroic Strike > Slam)*

*Only if MS is on CD and no Overpower available

20%: Colossus Smash > Mortal Strike > Overpower > Execute > Heroic Strike

More After The Jump!

DKP and Loot

So last week we had another [Firebound Gorget] drop. So once again I waited for any tanks to bid DKP for it and none did so I put in a min bid for it and won it once again. The same Fury warrior that had a problem the first time I won it spoke up again and some tanks ended up wanting it, just not for DKP so this time I kept it. Which brings me to my point in a DKP system your DKP should be used however you see fit for you I needed a neck that didn't have haste on it so I could reforge and use some new pieces of gear that I had recently acquired from the Avengers of Hyjal.

Also I want to reiterate the point I have been making with my stat argument, Strength is not the end-all-be-all it used to be I played TG Fury from when it was introduced in BC and though Wrath so I know that Str next ArP was the only two stats you needed to worry about. I also realize that Str is still highly values for Fury but its not the same value as for Arms so that loss of 17 Str for me is not the same for them.

Arms Stats

Already in 4.2 I have been the center of some loot discussion, based the fact that so much of the Str based loot could be good for a Tank or a DPS. First I am going to go over how I was prioritizing stats before using any (simcraft tools).

My first goal was to get Hit cap at 8% and expertise cap at 26 rating through reforging. After that I would gem for Str and enchant for Str (when it was available), then Crit (if it was available), and finally Mastery if the other two were not available. I would then reforge all other stats to either Crit or Mastery. Oh and for the Boot enchant Mastery+run speed is the only way to go (if you didn't know this, the quicker you get to the boss the more DPS you do).

This brings me to why I have already taken some flack for some loot choices. Our guild had the [Firebound Gorget] drop and because it was or first night of raiding (our first trash pull in fact) no one had the appropriate DKP to bid for it so it went to rolls, and of course I won it.

More After The Jump!

4.2 Arms Spec

Here is my current spec for PvE Arms (31/7/3).

As you can see from above I placed my 2 point required ot move into tier 3 of the arms tree in Blitz instead of what some people like to do and put them into Second Wind, after that the Arms tree is pretty much cookie cutter and their isnt much room for play unless you want to drop Bladestorm (which I use to much to drop as part of my rotation).

In the Fury tree some people like to take 2/3 or 3/3 in Bloodcraze but a prefer 2/2 in Execute (yes haste is bad but its a DPS increase over a heal), now that being said I have toyed with the idea of going to 2/2 in Blood and Thunder, especially after facing Beth'tilac which is an insane AOE fight, so adding it just for Firelands trash and that fight may be worth trying out (I'll let you guys know how it works out).

In the Prot tree for now I have 3 points in Incite which is nice a nice talent to have especially since Heroic Strike should be apart of you rotation. And as I said in the Fury section I may experiment with points in Blood and Thunder.

4.1 Retrospective

At the beginning of 4.1 I had no second thoughts about going Fury, however the middle parts of 4.1 I debated going back to Fury which at 1 point I was top Fury warrior in my guild during BC, however the class had changed so much and Arms wasn't tediously boring anymore. However before getting equal gear as the Fury warriors in my guild it was hard being rage starved and seeing a 2-3k DPS difference between me and the Fury warriors.

And then the gear came and I refined my "rotation" and my DPS was on par with Fury warriors during my average raid night focus. And on good nights I was top warrior and sometimes 1,2, or 3 in DPS.

4.1 also saw my first ever profession change which was a big Gold decision I was dropping my slightly profitable mining (more used to subsidize my Warriors Blacksmithing and my Paladins Engineering), for a fun and slightly useful Engineering. My warrior was my only maxed Miner so my level 15 Rogue has some work to do in order to help my Warrior with mats.

Overall 4.1 was a little difficult to itemize for with the amount of Haste and Expertise that was on Warrior T11. I manged to forge off enough expertise to not waste any and was always within +/- .20 of the hit cap, however it was hard to replace items and with BiS drops and not screw everything up so it was a balancing act of enchant, gems, and reforging.

The hard thing about being in guild that has only Fury warriors in it is that when a piece of gear drops that isn't good for them but is for me they start to vocalize their disagreeing opinion to the guild officers which in turn leads to me explaining why I roll or bid DKP on items that no other Warrior wants, and that DKs or Paladins and in a recent case Tanks value more then Fury.

In a later post I will go into stats and weights of those for Arms and Fury and maybe even throw in a little DK and Ret stat weights in there.