Arms Warrior Midnight Playstyle and Rotation Guide

General Rotation

1. Apply/maintain Rend
2. Avatar
3. Colossus Smash
4. Heroic Strike (Apex talent proc)
5. Execute (with Sudden Death proc)
6. Mortal Strike
7. Overpower
8. Slam

Execute Rotation (Executioner’s Precision)

This is with Executioner's Precision talented.

1. Heroic Strike (Apex talent proc)
2. Mortal Strike (with 2 stacks of Executioner's Precision)
3. Execute (if under 2 stacks of Executioner's Precision OR over 70 Rage)
4. Overpower (if under 70 Rage)

Opener

1. Charge
2. Rend
3. Avatar + Colossus Smash
4. Mortal Strike
5. Bladestorm (if Slayer) OR Demolish (if Colossus)

General Playstyle

Arms can suffer from Rage starvation quite easily no matter what but it can get frustratingly slow if handled poorly. For Slayer, it is mostly an issue in the Execute phase but Colossus can suffer at any stage of a fight if a dry streak of procs from Battlelord and Sudden Death occurs. Charge Weaving can help counter this somewhat though it can be a pain for newer or less experienced players to pull off with good timing.

Charge Weaving is the act of running away from your target until you hit minimum Charge distance and charging back to gain an extra 20 Rage. While this is a useful tool, doing this at the wrong time can be a detriment as you don’t want to delay your auto attacks, which are the main Rage generation tool.

Arms is a fairly slow paced spec compared to Fury which can be appealing to some players. While slower, it remains GCD locked so long as you have Rage or free procs (Sudden Death, Overpower) to use.

Cooldowns

Thanks to Anger Management, Arms Warrior cooldowns are quite free to use. The main thing to consider is making sure you will get full use of the cooldown in that moment. Otherwise, you’re free to send on cooldown. This is a much bigger consideration with Avatar compared to Colossus Smash.

Defensives

Spell Reflection is a great defensive tool. 25 second cooldown and 20% damage reduction for 5 seconds gives this a significant uptime if used on cooldown, though using on cooldown is rarely necessary. Additionally, Spell Reflection can reflect/deflect some abilities, completely immuning the damage and potentially dealing damage back to the caster. It is rare that this is relevant in raid but can be invaluable in M+.

Die By The Sword should be held for dangerous periods of high incoming damage. Almost every fight will have at least one of these moments so try to identify it before beginning progress or a high key. Die By The Sword can also be used to “Taunt Parry” a raid/dungeon boss to provide some relief for your tank. I would never suggest specifically holding Die By The Sword for these moments unless it is pre-assigned by your team.

Additionally, you can Intervene your tank with Die By The Sword running to achieve the same effect without having to taunt the target. This can be a little more risky as there are sometimes boss abilities that can’t be parried that Intervene will force you to take.

Impending Victory is also still a very strong defensive. While it does cost 10 rage it is a 30% HP self heal on a mere 25 second cooldown. Abuse this often, especially in periods of high ticking damage.

Defensive Stance often goes underutilised a lot of the time. While initially off-putting due to the damage you deal being reduced, a well timed Defensive Stance on a single high damage hit will only have you in the stance for the 3 second cooldown it gives you. At the end of the day, your damage will be much lower if you are dead.

Interpose is a new talent on a choice node with Intervene. This allows you to charge to a location with allies in it. You will then take 30% of any damage taken by those allies you charged for the next 8 seconds or up to a cap. Interpose has a fairly short cooldown but it doesn’t transfer a huge amount of damage either. Remember that you are taking a portion of the damage your allies take, so keep an eye on your health just in case.