Arms (WoW Talent Tree)  

[1][2]Improved Heroic Strike[3][4] [5]PvE Rating: OOOO PvP Rating: OO [6][7]Location: Tier 1[8] [9]Arms[10] [11]Tooltip: Reduces the Rage cost of Heroic Strike by 1/2/3 points.[12] [13]Ability References: Heroic Strike[14] Description: An interesting talent that is... sadly featured in the wrong tree, as the Arms tree specializes in two-hand weapons and Heroic Strike is a talent for use while dual wielding or using a sword and board. Moving on, though...it's a good talent if you find yourself hitting Heroic Strike a lot, which means in practice it's good if you're a tank with some extra points to spend (9-rage Heroic Strikes are pretty crazy, if you combo this with Focused Rage) or a Dual Wielder who uses Heroic Strike often. In general, avoid this talent like the plague - it's tempting early on, when Heroic Strike is your primary damage tool, but it will likely become nearly worthless later on. Even Fury these days rarely has enough rage to dump into Heroic Strike spam...

[15][16]Deflection[17][18] [19]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOO [20][21]Location: Tier 1[22] [23]Tooltip: Increases your Parry chance by 1/2/3/4/5%.[24] [25]Ability References: None[26] Description: A solid talent, and by far the best general-purpose talent choice out of the first tier in Arms. Deflection is just... good. It will drop your incoming physical damage (great for soloing and tanking, for obvious reasons) and unlike Imp. Heroic Strike or Imp. Rend it's far, far less situational. If you're going into Arms, this is almost certainly the talent to pick up.

[27][28]Improved Rend[29][30] [31]PvE Rating: O PvP Rating: O [32][33]Location: Tier 1[34] [35]Tooltip: Increases the bleed done by your Rend ability by 25/50/75%.[36] [37]Ability References: Rend[38] Description: Crap. Complete and utter crap. No, I don't care if you're using Rend to keep up Blood Frenzy - this is three talent points that will increase your Rend damage from a whopping 15 DPS to perhaps 25 DPS. Rend is, and will always be, a terrible ability once you're out of your early levels. It's got some fine uses, but the increase you recieve from investing in this talent is so miniscule as to be laughable. Use Rend for all its purposes - preventing resetalthing, bandaging, or keeping up Blood Frenzy - but don't expect to deal damage with it once you're past level 30 or so.

[39][40]Improved Charge[41][42] [43]PvE Rating: OOOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [44][45]Location: Tier 2[46] [47]Tooltip: Increases the amount of Rage generated by your Charge ability by 3/6.[48] [49]Ability References: Charge[50] Description: Improved Charge is a rather handy talent by any definition. Very nearly a must-have for PvP and soloing, it allows you to open up with a Mortal Strike/Sweeping Strikes after you get your first attack in (21 rage from Imp. Charge, 9 rage from your first swing). Of limited use for raiding and PvE grouping, but still handy there when you can charge in and Sweeping Strikes to get the mobs attention (read as: easy instances).

[51][52]Iron Will[53][54] [55]PvE Rating: OO PvP Rating: OOOOO [56][57]Location: Tier 2[58] [59]Tooltip: Increases your chance to resist stun and charm effects by 3%.[60] [61]Ability References: None[62] Description: A very strong PvP ability that is nearly worthless in PvE. Typicially PvE stun effects are either not a big deal, something that's actually welcome (hello, Second Wind!) or have negative consequences for resisting them (bosses scripts can sometimes stun the whole group - resisting this can have strange effects). A fantastic PvP ability, where the chance to resist stuns is a huge asset.

[63][64]Improved Thunderclap[65][66] [67]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOO [68][69]Location: Tier 2[70] [71]Tooltip: Reduces the Rage cost of your Thunderclap ability by 1/2/4 points and increases the damage by 40/70/100% and the slowing effect by an additional 4/7/10%. [72] [73]Ability References: Thunderclap[74] Description: Ever wanted your own Thunderfury? Imp. Thunderclap is a fantastic PvE ability, reducing your incoming physical damage by quite a bit and being one of the few decent AoE threat abilities that Warriors get, even if it does have to be used from Battle Stance. Imp. Thunderclap is somewhat less useful in PvP, although even there it's situationally very nice (slowing the attacks of a Rogue or another Warrior - or a Paladin or Enhancement Shaman - is very, very good). Also a fantastic asset for grinding, increasing the number of mobs you can kill before having to bandage/eat.

[75][76]Improved Overpower[77][78] [79]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [80][81]Location: Tier 3[82] [83]Tooltip: Increases the critical strike chance of your overpower ability by 25%/50%. [84] [85]Ability References: Overpower[86] Description: They should just rename this ability "Roguebane", although it's actually also "Hunterbane" and "Whoevershoulddodgemebane". Improved Overpower is an amazing talent for two points - letting you deliver extremely high damage in PvP against those annoying Rogues and Hunters, as well as randomly high damage against other targets. You'll also find that while grinding, mobs Dodge you all the time - and Improved Overpower lets you maintain good damage against them. Pick this ability up.

[87][88]Anger Management[89][90] [91]PvE Rating: OOOO PvP Rating: OOOO [92][93]Location: Tier 3[94] [95]Tooltip: Generates 1 Rage per 3 seconds. [96] [97]Ability References: None[98] Description: A solid talent by any measure, but nothing spectacular. It generates one rage every three seconds, which has the effect of giving you 20 Rage per minute in combat and reducing your out-of-combat Rage decay to 2 rage per tick rather than 3 rage per tick. While not as useful as 'Rage on demand', the increase to your overall Rage production makes this a very solid choice for the single Talent point cost.

[99][100]Deep Wounds[101][102] [103]PvE Rating: OOOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [104][105]Location: Tier 3[106] [107]Tooltip: Your critical strikes cause your opponents to bleed, dealing 20/40/60% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds. [108]Ability References: None[109] Description: A very, very nice talent. Against mobs that are not bleed-immune this generates very solid DPS, at least with a two-hander. If you're Dual Wielding, the benefits of Deep Wounds do decrease - you're getting a smaller amount of damage due to the lower damage range, but more importantly if you get a critical strike it 'resets' the timer - and it takes three seconds for the first tick to activate on Deep Wounds, so during a crit flurry you're not actually dealing any damage with this talent. However, with a two-hander it deals fantastic damage (and also combines with Blood Frenzy, allowing you to keep the 4% physical damage increase on the mob without having to Rend your target). The one weakness is that if you do crit a target, it becomes "CC Immune" until the Deep Wounds wears off - which can be a liability in PvE situations, but it's really not the end of the world. It does also reduce the viability of the "Warrior Gouge" Intimidating Shout tactic - but again, not the end of the world. A good talent that's worth the investment, not least because it leads into Impale.

[110][111]Two-Handed Weapon Specialization[112][113] [114]PvE Rating: OOOO PvP Rating: OOOO [115][116]Location: Tier 4[117] [118]Tooltip: Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%. [119] [120]Ability References: None[121] 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.

[122][123]Impale[124][125] [126]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [127][128]Location: Tier 4[129] [130]Tooltip: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your abilities in Battle, Defensive and Berserker stancy by 10/20%. [131] [132]Ability References: None[133] Description: A fantastic talent. It increases all yellow-damage critical strikes by 10% (200% damage->220% damage is a 10% increase in damage dealt). Key for PvP burst damage and a significant increase in damage dealt for PvE. Very, very much worthwhile.

[134][135]Poleaxe Specialization[136][137] [138]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOO [139][140]Location: Tier 5[141] [142]Tooltip: Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes and Polearms by 1/2/3/4/5%. [143] [144]Ability References: None[145] 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 reccomend picking up this talent (assuming you have the weapons to support it, of course0.

[146][147]Sweeping Strikes[148][149] [150]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOO [151][152]Location: Tier 5[153] [154]Tooltip: Your next 5 melee attacks strike an additional nearby opponent. [155] [156]Ability References: None[157] Description: Even if this ability _wasn't_ a prereq for Mortal Strike, you'd want to pick it up. This is a fantastic PvE tool - it gives you 'free cleaves' on every attack, and if you Whirlwind it will double every Whirlwind hit - letting you get some crazy damage in on multiple targets for the Rage cost. It's fantastic in PvP if also extremely hard to use effectively. Unless you have multiple targets standing on top of each other, it's usually not worth using - but if you can use it and pull it off (and believe me, it happens) it will annihilate multiple opponents in short order.

[158][159]Mace Specialization[160][161] [162]PvE Rating: OOOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [163][164]Location: Tier 5[165] [166]Tooltip: Gives your melee attacks a chance to stun your target for 3 seconds and generate 6 Rage when using a Mace. [167] [168]Ability References: None[169] 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.

[170][171]Sword Specialization[172][173] [174]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [175][176]Location: Tier 5[177] [178]Tooltip: Gives you a 1/2/3/4/% chance to get an extra attack on the same target after dealing damage with your Sword. [179] [180]Ability References: None[181] 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.

[182][183]Weapon Mastery[184][185] [186]PvE Rating: OOO PvP Rating: OOO [187][188]Location: Tier 6[189] [190]Tooltip: Increases skill with all weapons by 2/4 and increases your chance to resist Disarm effects by an additional 50%/makes you immune to Disarm Effects. [191] [192]Ability References: None[193] Description: A truly mediocre talent, especially due to the massive nerfing that +Weapon Skill recieved in the 2.0 patch - making it, by and large, not relevant by removing the Glancing Blow reduction. The main portion of this talent is the immunty to Disarm - effectively allowing you to put an enchant on your PvP weapon and not worry about being disarmed, so the other way to think of this talent is "two points to get +35 STR (Savagery)". It does prevent you from having to worry about Disarm when tanking, but the ability is buggy and some mobs can still disarm you (last few trash pulls in Arcatraz, for example). It's pretty... eh.

[194][195]Improved Hamstring[196][197] [198]PvE Rating: OO PvP Rating: OOOO [199][200]Location: Tier 6[201] [202]Tooltip: Gives your Hamstring a 5/10/15% chance to Immobilize the target for 5 seconds. [203] [204]Ability References: Hamstring[205] 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.

[206][207]Improved Discipline[208][209] [210]PvE Rating: OOO PvP Rating: OOO [211][212]Location: Tier 6[213] [214]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. [215] [216]Ability References: Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall[217] 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.

[218][219]Blood Frenzy[220][221] [222]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOO [223][224]Location: Tier 7[225] [226]Tooltip: Your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities also increase all physical damage caused to that target by 2/4%. [227] [228]Ability References: Rend[229] 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).

[230][231]Mortal Strike[232][233] [234]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [235][236]Location: Tier 7[237] [238]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. [239] [240]Ability References: None[241] 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.

[242][243]Second Wind[244][245] [246]PvE Rating: OOO PvP Rating: OOOOO [247][248]Location: Tier 7[249] [250]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. [251] [252]Ability References: None[253] 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.

[254][255]Improved Mortal Strike[256][257] [258]PvE Rating: OOOOO PvP Rating: OOOO [259][260]Location: Tier 8[261] [262]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%. [263] [264]Ability References: Mortal Strike[265] 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).

[266][267]Endless Rage[268][269] [270]PvE Rating: OOOO PvP Rating: OOOO [271][272]Location: Tier 9[273] [274]Tooltip: You generate 25% more rage from damage dealt. [275] [276]Ability References: None[277] 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).

[278][279]Fury Talents[280][281] [282]Booming Voice[283] [284]PvE Rating: O PvP Rating: O[285] [286]Location: Tier 1[287] [288]Tooltip: Increases the area of effect and duration of your Battle Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Commanding Shout by 10/20/30/40/50%.[289] [290]Ability References: Battle Shout, Commanding Shout, Demoralizing Shout.[291] Description: Think "filler talent". Booming Voice has some minor uses (reducing rage cost for reapplying Battle/Commanding Shout as well as Demoralizing Shout), but out of the first two tiers of Fury it's by far the worst talent (although, with the noteable exception of Cruelty, none of them is all that spectacular.