by Oscar Wellington

Created on: June 08, 2009

When it comes to DPS, warriors bring lots of it. In choosing between specializations, they can either focus on a single two-handed weapon (Arms) or dual-wielding two-handed weapons (Fury). Arms offers much higher burst damage, pleasing for players who like to see big numbers, while fury is a bit more sustained.

In the debate of arms v.s. fury for pure PVE raid DPS, there is a very important factor to consider: gear level. If the gear you're sporting is anything below Ulduar 10, arms will ultimately bring you more DPS. However, if your gear level is at Ulduar 10 or even Ulduar 25 level, fury offers a higher DPS (4-5k+) potential. This is due to the fact that fury's rotation of heroic strike, blood-thirst, white damage etc favors armor penetration much more than arms does. More importantly, most DPS plate gear in Ulduar is itemized for armor penetration, while raids such as Naxxramas focus more on hit, haste, critical strike rating etc.

In addition, fury builds focus around the talent Titan's Grip, which allows the dual-wielding of two-handed weapons at the cost of reducing physical damage by 10%. In spite of this seemingly awesome talent, the reduction to all physical damage is too much of a hindrance to DPS levels without Ulduar itemized two-handers. Thus, since the majority of players will be within the heroic dungeons - Naxxramas 10 range and very few will be within Ulduar 10-25 range, arms is definitely the safest and more economical choice.

Here is my suggested Arms build for PVE:

Arms:

3/3 Improved Heroic Strike, 2/2 Improved Rend, 2/2 Improved Charge, 3/3 Tactical Mastery, 2/2 Improved Overpower.

1/1 Anger Management, 2/2 Impale, 3/3 Deep Wounds, 3/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, 3/3 Taste for Blood.

5/5 Poleaxe Specialization, 1/1 Sweeping Strikes, 2/2 Weapon Mastery, 2/2 Trauma, 1/1 Mortal Strike, 2/2 Strength of Arms.

2/2 Improved Slam, 1/1 Juggernaut, 2/2 Unrelenting Assault. 3/3 Sudden Death, 1/1 Endless Range, 2/2 Blood Frenzy.

5/5 Wrecking Crew, 1/1 Bladestorm.

Fury:

3/3 Armored to the Teeth, 2/2 Booming Voice, 5/5 Cruelty, 5/5 Commanding Presence, 2/2 Improved Execute.

Alternatively, you can take 2 points out of improved execute, 1 point out of anger management, and put all three points into improved mortal strike. What about the other weapon specializations (Sword/Mace)? Well, sword is frowned upon because the extra weapon swing has an internal 6 second cooldown. Mace's armor penetration is good, but as arms doesn't really favor

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