Arms Warrior Gearing Guide

Tier Sets

10.2 brings new tier set bonuses. For Arms Warrior these are:

• 2 set - Rend damage increased by 30% and your Rend ticks can proc Sudden Death.
• 4 set - Consuming Sudden Death casts a Thunder Clap that deals 100% extra damage and leaves a bleed on your target dealing 50% of Execute’s damage over 5 seconds.

This set is another example of attempting to put AoE and single target benefits into the set but it has worked far better this time than in 10.1. Thunder Clap becomes quite a decent source of damage with the increased proc rate of Sudden Death and the free casts that come as a result.

Meanwhile, the single target value of the set is also decent since more Sudden Death procs mean more Executioner’s Precision stacks throughout a fight which is great for Mortal Strike damage. The bleed damage coming from Sudden Death Executes doesn’t seem to do an overly significant amount of damage but it’s certainly a nice bonus all the same.

This bleed damage acts similarly to Fire Mage's Ignite. Back to back procs and uses will add the previous bleeds damage to the new bleed so there’s no need to delay using these procs.

Legendary Weapon

Fyr'alath the Dreamrender is the legendary weapon that can be acquired from Fyrakk. The quest starting item has a chance to drop on ANY difficulty, with higher chances to drop from higher difficulties.

In a statement from Blizzard, higher difficulties include the drop chances from difficulties below, as long as you haven’t already done them.

This weapon is by far our best obtainable weapon this patch due to its decent passive effect and high item level. The on-use is awkward as you are rooted for 3 seconds during its channel, so care needs to be taken to use this at a safe time so as not to be killed.

The on-use is best saved until you have CD downtime (no Avatar or CS active). Note that you do not generate Rage during this time, so plan your globals immediately after the channel accordingly.

Arms Warrior Best in Slot Gear

You should still prioritise the gear you use by running a sim for your character, but the lists below will give you a good idea of what items are considered good for Arms Warrior, and help you target the right content for each piece of loot.

Overall Best Gear for Arms Warrior

Best Gear from the Raid for Arms Warrior

Best Gear from Mythic+ for Arms Warrior

Embellishments

Embellishments are special properties that can be added to most crafted gear adding a little bit of extra power to your item. Some of these are strong, and some are not. The high-value Embellishments are:

• Allied Wristguards of Companionship - With the nerf to Shadowflame patch, a new set of embellishments is required. These wrists have a permanent uptime on the Versatility they give in almost every raid situation.
• Allied Chestguard of Generosity - When taking into account the additional benefit on allies, this embellishment is very solid even with the nerf to the proc rate.
• Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch - Even with the nerf, Shadowflame remains a decently strong options as an embellishment. Double Shadowflame Patch is technically the strongest option, but the difference between this and 1x Shadowflame + Allied Wristguards is so minor it makes more sense to opt for the Versatility wrists due to basically 100% uptime in all situations.
• Frostfire Legguards of Preparation - FOR M+. Regularly a decent pickup for AoE content, it won’t shine quite as heavily in 10.2 compared to previous tiers but could still prove to be quite useful.

Depending on your luck with weapons and speed of legendary acquisition, it might not be worth investing the sparks to craft a weapon early. I would advise holding off until you have crafted your 2 new embellishment pieces first before considering a weapon.

Trinkets

10.2 is bringing a lot of new and interesting options for trinkets as a melee DPS. There are a few standouts that could prove to be useful. These are:

• Cataclysmic Signet Brand - Obtained from Smolderon in Amirdrassil.
• Augury of the Primal Flame - Obtained from Fyrakk in Amirdrassil.
• Accelerating Sandglass - Obtained from the M+ dungeon Dawn of the Infinite, Galakrond’s Fall.

There are other interesting trinkets that could see play following some trinket tuning such as the Coiled Serpent Idol, Rezan's Gleaming Eye and Might of the Ocean. However, I do believe these are weaker options than the ones listed above.

Gear Upgrading

The crest system has been altered slightly but still remains quite powerful. It is normally worth using crests early and often, especially if you feel that it will take a while to replace a certain piece of gear.

As a general rule of thumb, you should look to upgrade high-value items first. These items include:

• Weapon
• High value armor pieces (chest, legs, head)
• Trinkets