Warrior - DPS (need any help/advice)

I'm trying to prepare for MoP, and I don't really want to tank my way to 90 (killing level 85 mobs at the moment is slow enough), but I've never DPSed as a warrior before. Which dps spec is better/easier to learn? Rotation? Spec? Any advice would be appreciated.

i cant say how easy fury is as i havent been fury since early T11
but arms is fairly easy to pick up

and now that you have one less ability to worry about it should be even easier
CS - MS - OP - slam rinse and repeat
that is the basic rotation, and should be good enough for leveling

Nikachelle wrote:I'm trying to prepare for MoP, and I don't really want to tank my way to 90 (killing level 85 mobs at the moment is slow enough), but I've never DPSed as a warrior before. Which dps spec is better/easier to learn? Rotation? Spec? Any advice would be appreciated.

Should probably put this in the beta forum, I know how to dps on live but I've no idea what's changed in beta. Fury is a mind-numbingly simple spec to play on live (but also can't pull the numbers arms can most of the time), arms is a lot more interesting and has more potential depth, though to be moderately competent isn't hard.

Basic live single target fury is: Bloodthirst every other gcd, colossus smash > raging blow > slam proc in free gcds, HS on high rage (preferably when colossus smash is up).
Basic live single target arms is: Get rend up early, mortal strike on cd, colossus smash > overpower > slam in free gcds, don't clip colossus smash. There's further subtleties and optimal timings on dps cds, and you can change stances to spend most of your time in berserker, only going battle for overpower (and rend) if you want to get advanced, but it's not something worth spending time on as it'll be changing in a couple of weeks.

due to the changes, i didnt go into that much detail, but after the patch hits, you dont have to worry about rend anymore
or stance dancing other then for AoE and Single target phase switches

the basics of both specs are easy to grasp, i would say go arms cause you only need 1 weapon

Rhiannon wrote:

Nikachelle wrote:I'm trying to prepare for MoP, and I don't really want to tank my way to 90 (killing level 85 mobs at the moment is slow enough), but I've never DPSed as a warrior before. Which dps spec is better/easier to learn? Rotation? Spec? Any advice would be appreciated.

Should probably put this in the beta forum, I know how to dps on live but I've no idea what's changed in beta. Fury is a mind-numbingly simple spec to play on live (but also can't pull the numbers arms can most of the time), arms is a lot more interesting and has more potential depth, though to be moderately competent isn't hard.

Basic live single target fury is: Bloodthirst every other gcd, colossus smash > raging blow > slam proc in free gcds, HS on high rage (preferably when colossus smash is up).
Basic live single target arms is: Get rend up early, mortal strike on cd, colossus smash > overpower > slam in free gcds, don't clip colossus smash. There's further subtleties and optimal timings on dps cds, and you can change stances to spend most of your time in berserker, only going battle for overpower (and rend) if you want to get advanced, but it's not something worth spending time on as it'll be changing in a couple of weeks.

I've gone Arms, but ignored the stance dancing for now (although I couldn't figure out where to put the points that I ended up dumping in rage retention during changing stances just because I needed to move down the tree) mostly because I knew nothing about warrior dps so all of the new buttons to press are a bit confusing atm.

I've set up Power Auras for Colossus Smash to only be used when the debuff isn't active on the target and to only use Overpower when Taste for Blood is active. Using slam if heroic strike is on CD (and everything else) and have more than 70 rage. Not sure what Bloodthirst or Raging Blow is though - probably spells I neglected to put anywhere.

The one thing that's got me a bit panicky is all the cooldowns and when to use them. Seems there's a ton that I've having problems remembering where they are on my bars, but that's more motor memory than anything else.

I've avoided putting this in beta because it'll be easier for me to absorb the changes if I already knew what to do before. So I'd rather learn what the old/current way is, then I feel I'll be in a better place to understand the changes in MoP.

BT and RB are both fury only abilities
i wish i could remember where and when i read it, but i thought slam was a better option for rotation wise, and using HS was best when above 70 rage

when you are in execute phase, just use CS for the armor removal and MS for lambs to the slaughter, and spam execute

Slam's better than heroic strike yep (edit: bleh forgot about t13 2 part possibly making it better due to reduced rage cost, cba to look it up, also possibly if you have incite procced it might be better but as a general rule, stick with slam). You pretty much only use heroic strike during deadly calm or in a high rage environment (ie Ultraxion or post deadly calm). Also try to time heroic strikes with when colossus smash is up. You're more likely to screw yourself over trying to overuse hs than not.

As far as cooldowns it's somewhat subjective and situational. Generally on pull I use deadly calm followed by recklessness, so I have a full rage bar to dump on recklessness, though with sub 5 min kills now I'd save reck for execute phase. On a boss I'd again try to save a deadly calm for execute phase, irrelevant for aoe though. Bladestorm is pretty much a waste on single target, just save it for aoe. If you can charge on a pull do so for the extra crit on mortal strike. If you've 2 part t13 macro use inner rage whenever you heroic strike pretty much, I think I have them macroed together (requires a bit of discipline to not inner rage just before you want to deadly calm). Without t13 inner rage is pretty useless apart from in extremely high rage situations.

Oh, and if in execute range keep executioner at 5 stacks but follow the rest of your priority. Kinda irrelevant for levelling though! Don't forget retaliation for levelling if it still exists.

Bloodthirst should be automatically gained when specing fury. It's the "iconic" ability associated with it. Raging Blow is picked up through the tree.

I assume Avene is your warrior. I'd recommend staying Arms with a 32/9/0 spec and suggest the following changes.

You mentioned you don't change stances much, so the 2 points you have in tactical mastery are wasted. For the Fury tree put 3 points into Blood Craze, keep the 2 you have in Cruelty, lose the 2 in executioner, and put those 2 into Booming Voice. Finally put 1 point into Rude Interruption and 1 point in Piercing Howl. That's 9 points in the Fury tree leaving you 32 for the arms tree.

In the arms tree put full points in everything except Tactical Mastery, Drums of War, Improved Slam, and just 1 point into Sudden Death. That should be 32 points spent.

For Prime glyphs you'll want Overpower, Bladestorm, & Mortal Strike
For Major Glyphs you'll want Rapid Charge, Piercing Howl, & Colossus Smash
For minors use Battle, Command, & Victory Rush

This spec is only good for the next few weeks of course as everything changes in 5.0.4, but I'd suggest giving is a try for the next 2 weeks. Warriors are all about mobility. Anything that heals you is a good thing so take it. Anything that lets you move faster is a good thing too. Anything that slows mobs is simply awesome so use those abilities.

Try it for now, and if you like it ask me about a 5.0.4 build in 10 days or so. By then we should be close to builds that will be best for leveling with the new talents.

Is that for a leveling spec? That's really a sub-optimal use of talents and glyphs at the PvE game.

I've found Arms to be ridiculously simple, even when you don't make crazy macros to swap stances for ~5% more damage (zerker vs battle) on most of the specials. Fury has constant healing, but I love being able to charge in combat. That's about all.

well juggernaut is going baseline so any spec of warrior is going to be able to charge in combat in MoP

i tried out ret and fury last night. was arms for a long time, but got bored and went fury becuase it was considered less op.

it's nuts...on a level 85 dummy was doing around 28k on my ret pally...mostly lfr gear and not being very good either.

on my fury warrior, with like 12% hit and 7.5% expertise...i was around 35k dps and i still haven't figured out everything.

started using slamandawe...it's alright for getting the basic fury rotation down.

Fury feels good right now, loving to play single minded again. Less rotation downtime with wild strikes filling the void slam was filling for arms. Generally playing without the rng'ness of colossus proccs and tentacles is a relief. Execute seems a tad overpowered though!