Revision as of 2008-10-28 11:29:14 Older version (diff) | current version (diff) | Newer version (diff)
This article contains a complete list and analysis of the Warrior Arms tree.
(Requires 15 points in arms)
(Requires 10 points in arms)
- Improved Overpower (2) - Increases the critical strike chance of your overpower ability by 25%/50%.
- Anger Management (1) - Generates 1 Rage per 3 seconds.
- Impale (2) - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your abilities in Battle, Defensive and Berserker stancy by 10/20%.
- Deep Wounds (3 - Requires 2 point in Impale) - Your critical strikes cause your opponents to bleed, dealing 16/32/48% of your melee weapon's average damage over 6 seconds.
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
- Tooltip: Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Ability References: None
Description: A solid, simple, dependable talent. Nothing spectacular, but nothing to laugh at either - a flat damage increase to _all damage sources_ from your two-hand weapons. Pick it up, max it out, and move on.
Poleaxe Specialization
- Tooltip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes and Polearms by 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Ability References: None
Description: Poleaxe Specialization is... well, very good. Very, very good. Out of the three weapon specializations it's the best PvE general use specialization, especially while levelling where your crit rate is likely to be lower. It's also more versatile, applying both to Axes and Polearms, which gives you more weapon upgrade choices without having to respec. Not as strong as Sword Specialization can be in PvP, but extremely good in other situations. If you're levelling, I'd recommend picking up this talent (assuming you have the weapons to support it, of course.
Death Wish
- Tooltip: When activates, increases your physical damage by 20% and makes you immune to Fear effects, but increases all damage taken by 5%. Lasts 30 sec.
- Ability References: None
Description: Even if this ability _wasn't_ a prereq for Mortal Strike, you'd want to pick it up. Death Wish gives an extremely high boost to damage, makes you immune to nasty Fear effects, and lasts a whopping 30 seconds. There's really nothing not to like about this other than the (relatively minor) increase to incoming damage.
Mace Specialization
- Tooltip: Gives your melee attacks a chance to stun your target for 3 seconds and generate 6 Rage when using a Mace.
- Ability References: None
Description: A great PvP tool, but a very mediocre PvE tool. Each rank increases the chance to proc, and at max rank it will trigger fairly often. The stun proc in PvP is beyond phenominal - but in PvE, where mobs may be immune to it, it performs less well. Still a great grinding talent if somewhat limited (there aren't all that many suitable maces availible when levelling), and as I mentioned that stun destroys people in PvP.
Sword Specialization
- Tooltip: Gives you a 1/2/3/4/% chance to get an extra attack on the same target after dealing damage with your Sword.
- Ability References: None
Description: Sword Specialization happens to be my favorite weapon specialization, as the extra hit gives you insane burst damage (both hits can crit, even if that's unlikely). Moreover, it can proc off any weapon-damage special attack, and you haven't lived until you've seen a 1400 damage Hamstring. There are some problems with it (it resets the Swing timer), but in my opinion the ability to trigger off special atttacks and generate Rage places it above Poleaxe Specialization - assuming your crit rate is high enough to support it. You don't want to be Sword Spec with only a 15% crit rate - in that case, you'd probably be better off with Poleaxe spec. Once you boost that number somewhat, though, Sword Spec should pull ahead.
Improved Intercept
- Tooltip: Reduces the cooldown of your Intercept ability by 5/10 sec.
- Ability References: Intercept
Description: A truly superb talent for PvP, and moderately useful in PvE as well. Intercept is your primary means of closing with an enemy, and getting to use it 50% more is extremely useful. If you PvP, get this talent. If you do a lot of PvE where you need to get back into range consistently consider this talent, but it's not going to be as overpowering as it is in PvP.
Improved Hamstring
- Tooltip: Gives your Hamstring a 5/10/15% chance to Immobilize the target for 5 seconds.
- Ability References: Hamstring
Description: Improved Hamstring is beyond mediocre in PvE (it does allow you to get off a free Intercept if you can back out of range, but a) Why bother, and b) How often do you spam-hamstring on PvE solo mobs?) but a decent, if unreliable, PvP tool. It is very useful for locking down a flag runner in Warsong Gulch and preventing a Mage from running your ass around, but you simply cannot rely on it working enough to count upon it. A nice bonus, but the randomness of it irks me when I try to use it tacticially.
Improved Disciplines
- Tooltip: Reduces the cooldown on your Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall abilities by 4/7/10 minutes and increases their duration by 2/4/6 sec.
- Ability References: Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall
Description: An interesting talent that has some utility in both PvE (longer Reckless Execute bombs on bosses, and more often - plus Shield Wall, of course) that isn't all that useful in PvP. Being able to Recklessness often in PvP is handy, of course, but the abilities _still_ cannot be used in Arena matches - making this pretty eh for the new PvP system.
Blood Frenzy
- Tooltip: Your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities also increase all physical damage caused to that target by 2/4%.
- Ability References: Rend
Description: A fantaastic, _fantastic_ PvE ability but one that isn't nearly as strong in PvP. This makes grinding considerably easier in PvE, gives you a solid raid/group debuff to apply (note that it's physical damage - therefore increasing Hunter, Rogue, Warrior, Enhancement Shaman and Paladin damage) and it's... just good. Not as good in PvP where it's less reliable and battles tend to revolve less around debuffing the mob (although it does make them more vulnerable to assist training with physical damage, of course).
Mortal Strike
- Tooltip: A vicious strike that deals weapon damage plus 85/110/135/160/185/210 and wounds the target, reducing the effectivness of any healing by 50% for 10 sec.
- Ability References: None
Description: A truly fantastic ability, and the true heart of the Arms tree. Mortal Strike is an instant, weapon-damage attack (therefore favoring the big, slow weapons)... but it also applies a truly amazing debuff, cutting all healing on that target by half. This ability is fantastic in PvP and PvE for damage dealing, and it's what makes the entire tree 'work'. This opens up your PvP target to assist training and helps immensely with self-healing bosses and adds, as well as just being... good.
Second Wind
- Tooltip: Whenever you are struck by a Stun or Immobilize effect you will generate 10/20 rage and 5/10% of your total health over 10 seconds.
- Ability References: None
Description: Second Wind is nuts in PvP. Absolutely, 100% crazy. It gives Warriors a way to generate some Rage when the Mage has Frost Nova'd you, or that Rogue jumps you with a Cheap Shot. More importantly, it also generates health - in general, mass PvP Second Wind will be ticking all the time, generating 2% of your health and 4 rage every two seconds when maxed out. This talent, more than anything else, makes Warriors viable damage dealers in PvP - it just gives you the ability to last longer and deal more attacks, even when being crowd controlled or beat upon.
Improved Mortal Strike
- Tooltip: Reduces the cooldown of your Mortal Strike ability by .2/.4/.6/.8/1 sec and increases the damage it causes by 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Ability References: Mortal Strike
Description: Improved Mortal Strike is an interesting ability - but it seems to be primarily a PvE abiliy, rather than a PvP ability. Reducing the cooldown of Mortal Strike to 5 seconds is handy, as is the damage increase, but neither of these factors are incredibly significant. What is most useful is that it allows you to keep up the Mortal Strike debuff far more easily, even if dodged or parried (once the first lands, you have two chances to land one to refresh the effect - otherwise, it will wear off for two seconds if you miss your 'follow-up' Mortal Strike).
Endless Rage
- Tooltip: You generate 25% more rage from damage dealt.
- Ability References: None
Description: Endless Rage is almost a necessity due to the new damage formulas. That doesn't stop me from despising it with every portion of my being. Endless Rage - more or less- undoes portions of the Rage nerf we recieved with the 2.0 patch. The idiocy of making this a 41-point talent is... ugh. Moving on... Endless Rage is well worth picking up for the cost if you're this deep into Arms. It does its job, and it does it well - giving you enough Rage to function properly in most situations where you're not taking much incoming damage (solo grinding, Group/Raid PvE DPS).
This page last modified 2008-10-28 11:29:14.
