My name is Amorepacific, and I am currently the rank 1 OCE and world rank 21 Arms warrior for 25 H TOGC, achieved in a non-hardcore but competent 50/50 GDKP who parses low purples and high blues, while being undergeared having 3/4 245 tier, 245 gloves, 245 bracers and 245 Deaths Choice. I play this spec as an alt; my main is also a high performing Frost DK (IGN Sulwhasoo) with 98.9 perf avg in a non-hardcore but competent guild group parsing similar to my Arms’ GDKP.
Despite my good logs and skill level across two different specs, I am struggling to find even a semi-hardcore guild willing to take me on as a main raider due to (very warranted) spec bias. I thoroughly enjoy playing Arms and it is quite sad to see my favourite spec being gated by even non-hardcore players, most of whom I out-DPS even on single target while being similarly geared.
As we all know, Arms is a very poorly performing spec in PVE and in my analysis of my damage breakdown and what an optimal raid comp requires more from in terms of buffs and utility that isn’t covered by any other spec - I have proposed some buffs in preparation for next ICC PTR. The buffs I propose will only give Arms enough power to bump it from 3rd worst spec in the game to be low B-tier on single target on par with Spriest & MM Hunter.
- Execute
One of Arms’ core spec identites in Retail is all about Execute. Once the boss hits 20%, you jump to top or near top DPS. However in WOTLK, Execute hits like a wet noodle. In my world rank 32 Beasts kill, my Execute’s average hit was 7.8k at 46.7% crit, while my MS average hit was 9.1k at 60% crit. When crit chance is standardized, theres virtually no difference between pressing MS and Execute which makes no sense when Arms should be all about spiking DPS during execute phase. Considering this, I propose a change to Glyph of Execute- instead of its current effect, making Execute have a 100% crit chance while in Battle Stance with an additional effect of costing only 15 rage on targets below 20%, on non-player characters. This way, Fury won’t get an unnecessary buff from this change whilst not affecting Arms’ PVP performance while playing into the spec identity of strong Execute phase DPS. This will also increase the skill expression of Arms, making the prompt use Sudden Death procs all the more important.
- Inconsistent Rage generation
My warrior guildies will never try Arms because of one reason- inconsistent rage generation. While Fury’s rage is quite easily managed especially when auto attacks are desynced, Arms is either an overflow of rage or being rage starved. I find myself hoping to sneak in a Slam & Heroic strike queue at 70 rage yet potentially crit and rage cap by 30-40, or being at 10 rage, praying for a crit that doesnt come and you have an empty GCD which you fill in with charge after auto attack reset + skill cast or Heroic Throw. A great QOL fix for this issue is adding an effect to the Arms talent Endless Rage - Your maximum rage is increased to 130. Again, this prevents Fury from getting this buff as it’s softlocked by going extremely deep in the Arms tree and not affecting PVP performance. Although not a significant DPS buff in of itself, this will synergise well with the aforementioned Execute buff, specifically more usage of consecutive Sudden Death procs as well as making Arms more enjoyable to play allowing for more grace in rage management. With 100 max rage, its always a gamble when youre between 40-60 rage whether or not you should queue HS and whether you use Slam or MS gambling on whether you have enough rage to use a potential Sudden Death following a non-crit auto.
- Overpower & Taste for Blood
A core mechanic of the Arms rotation is keeping Rend up and using your Taste for Blood procs. Currently, it allows you to use Overpower every 6 seconds. A nice little buff to reward the successful application of this rotational mechanic is to buff it to where you can use Overpower every 4 seconds and has 2 charges while Rend is up. This will not only increase single target DPS by roughly 3-6% but also further increase the skill expression of Arms as now, you need to analyse whether you should store one charge in reserve in order to save a GCD for a sudden death, to dump some excess rage with MS and HS queue for a GCD before using Overpower, or to use up the last charge when you are rage starved and need a useful GCD to press.
- Raid utility
Currently, the only utility Arms brings to the raid is extra Bleed damage, which is covered by the extremely powerful Feral spec, 4% physical damage covered by the A tier Combat Rogue and Healing debuff, covered by the strong high A-tier Hunter. They aren’t the most popular specs to play, however the vast majority of raid groups brings one of them each, leaving Arms with no unique raid utility which is the saving grace of other low healing throughput/low DPS specs like Resto druid and Ret pally. I have thought long and hard about what utility Arms can bring to the raid which is not only useful, but doesn’t needlessly buff other extremely strong specs or make the raids any easier than they already are. I’ve considered a unique Armor penetration debuff on Overpower on non-player targets that adds on top of stacked sunders & Expose armor, but that just makes Fury stronger. Ive considered non-DPS utility like buffing MS healing debuff while in battle stance to 75% to ensure it has a place on niche fights like Freya and Anub but that will just make the fights easier. The goal for me is to find a solution that encourages the inclusion of one Arms in a 25 man that doesn’t take away from any other spec, doesn’t passively nerf the raid difficulty and doesn’t unintentionally buff already S tier specs.
I think I have found a perfect missing hole in the myriad of raid utility available- Pets. Currently there is no raid wide buff that uniquely affects pets only. A simple buff to pet damage will also needlessly buff Affliction locks and they certainly do not need more DPS buffs. However, a HUGE quality of life for all pet specs is pet immunity. This doesn’t increase the top end of pet specs, but allows for better consistency of DPS. It also passively buffs mana regen for Priests on certain fights, where sending out Shadowfiend on fights like Mim HM and Beasts is a risky proposition. Therefore, I believe a perfect niche for groups, especially more hardcore parse and speedrun guilds to include one Arms in their rosters is to add an additional effect to the Wrecking Crew talent While Enraged, pets within a 50 yard radius of you are immune to all damage. Wrecking Crew is another deep Arms talent that includes Enrage which again, softlocks Fury from taking it.
After considering all these buffs. I predict Arms will be a low B tier spec on a 4-6 minute single target encounter, on par with Arcane mage, MM hunter and Shadow priest. I am passionate about my favorite spec in Wrath and would absolutely love if this awesome, engaging and fun spec with a middle-of-the-road skill expression and difficulty could be represented more in high levels of raiding.
Thank you to all who took the time to read this and please add more suggestions or criticisms to my ideas to make Arms a viable, but not a strong/meta spec.
Amorepacific, 5551 Arms Warrior
Sulwhasoo, 5573 Frost DK
Tonymoly, 5519 Holy Priest